CHAPTER 1

Calleigh was lost again. She thought by now that she would know how to get home, but she kept forgetting to turn on the street that would lead her to her place. Every time she thought that she was heading in the right direction, she ended up being off by a few blocks. Being a CSI, she knew pretty well how to get around the city of Miami when it came to cases, but it was a little bit embarrassing that she couldn't even find her own way home. Ryan knew how to get there pretty well, but she had trouble remembering all of his shortcuts.

"Damn it, Ryan. Why did you have to take the day off?" Calleigh reached for her cellphone and dialed the number to her place to leave a message on the machine.

"Hello?" Ryan said as he picked up the phone.

"Ryan! You're home! I didn't think you were going to be there."

"I decided to paint the second bedroom today since I got home early." Ryan sat down on the new sofa in their living room. After ten months of dating and practically spending every weekend at each other's place, they decided to take the plunge and move in together. They were quickly able to find a place that they both felt comfortable to live with each other. The only problem was that it was an extra 20 minute drive for the both of them to work and the area had some very confusing roads, leading Calleigh to struggle with remembering which roads to take to and from her new home.

"Cal, no…you don't want to turn left onto Harper. You want to take Benson down three more blocks, and then turn left onto Woodbine."

"Why can't I just take the freeway?" Calleigh was getting frustrated.

"If you take the freeway, you'll go pass the apartment because there is no exit from the freeway near us. You'll have to go up 2 miles and backtrack. Taking the side roads gets you directly here from work."

"I'd rather backtrack than have to drive through this shit everyday."

"Trust me, Cal. Once you get the hang of it, you'll have no trouble in getting home."

Calleigh turned onto Woodbine and drove a few blocks. Suddenly, she recognized her street up on the right. "I made it. I'll see you in a couple minutes. Thanks, hon."

"No problem." Ryan hung up the phone and sighed. He looked around the room and smiled. This place wasn't his place. It was their place. Sure, it was going to take time to get used to not living alone, but Ryan didn't want to live alone anymore. It would upset him to be with Calleigh on the weekends and then return to being alone during the week. Sure, there were times when they were together on a work night, but the distance between their own apartments and their job schedules made it too difficult. He was fed up with the whole situation. He wanted to live with Calleigh. It would be wrong not to.

Ryan walked back into the second bedroom to close the paint cans and clean up. As he shut the lid on the second can, paint splattered from the rim and landed on his shirt. As he placed the paint cans onto the closet shelf, he heard the sound of someone unlocking the front door. He walked back into the living room to see Calleigh coming in through the door.

"Hey handsome. Did you miss me?" Calleigh shut the door behind her and approached Ryan. As she reached out to him, he stepped back.

"What's wrong?" Calleigh's voice was a mixture of confusion and hurt.

"Nothing's wrong." Ryan started taking off his shirt. "I just got fresh paint on this shirt. I don't need to get any on you." He laid the shirt over a stool. "That's better." He reached for Calleigh and gave her a deep kiss.

Calleigh wrinkled her nose. "Someone needs to take a shower."

"Sorry. I worked up a sweat doing things around the house. I was planning to take one a while ago, but I got distracted by a phone call from some crazy woman." Ryan let out a little smirk as Calleigh playfully smacked him on the arm.

Calleigh leaned up again to kiss Ryan. "You want me to join you in that shower?"

"I would like that." Ryan took her hand and they started down the hallway.

"I'm curious to see if the soap dispenser can support half of my body weight again." Calleigh said in a somewhat naughty voice.

"So am I."

-45 minutes later-

The two of them were going through boxes that still needed to be unpacked and put away. Ryan had already finished unpacking his belongings earlier in the day and was now helping Calleigh with hers.

"Can you put this box in the bathroom?" Calleigh handed Ryan a box of bathroom supplies.

"Would you like me to make some pasta for dinner?" Ryan asked as he headed towards the bathroom.

"Pasta would be great."

As Ryan left the living room, he accidentally knocked over a stack of Calleigh's boxes. As the top box hit the floor, a shoebox fell out. Suddenly, the box started emitting a buzzing sound. Ryan set down his box to clean up the spill and as he picked up the shoebox, it was slightly vibrating. "Calleigh, do you have a pager in here?" Ryan opened the shoebox as Calleigh approached him. To Ryan's shock it wasn't a pager, but a big gray vibrator.

"Oh! Um…" Calleigh's face quickly turned red as she took the box out of Ryan's hands and reached in to turn the vibrator off.

"I didn't know you had that." Ryan had a look of amusement on his face.

"I, uh got at a bachelorette party a few years ago. The bride thought it would be funny if all of the bridesmaids got one as a thank you gift. Honestly, I would have never bought one for myself."

"So…naturally you left it in the box and haven't seen it until now."

"I'm not saying that." Calleigh let a wicked smile form on her face.

"Oh really." Ryan crossed his arms and pretended to act serious.

Calleigh closed the box and bent down to place it back into the one it fell out of. "Hey, it got me through some dark nights alone. But I found a replacement that's almost as good."

"Almost as good?" Ryan's jaw slightly dropped at Calleigh's comment.

Calleigh looked up at him. "I'm joking, sweetie." She stood back up and kissed Ryan. "You're much better."

Suddenly, Calleigh's cellphone went off. Calleigh walked into the kitchen to answer it as Ryan finished picking up the spilled boxes. She recognized the number. "Horatio?"

"Calleigh? Is Ryan there with you?"

"Yes he is."

"I need the two of you to come in right now." Horatio shifted uneasily in his seat. "There's been a shooting at a crime scene that was being processed and there are some casualties."

"A shooting at a crime scene? You need us to come in and assist the night shift with the victims?"

"Calleigh…some of the victims are the night shift."

to be continued…