Everyone had seen it coming.The extra attention, the concerned glances that had turned into those of admiration, the awkward moments. To some it had always been there, but to those who had doubted or hoped otherwise there was now no denying it.
Ryan and Calleigh were working together in the evidence locker, slowly sifting through through the evidence from their latest case. Although working together was about a loose a description as you could give of two people working at the same time in the same room. Ryan stole a glance of his co-worker, although he needn't have done it discreetly, he could have been staring at her the whole afternoon and she wouldn't have noticed.
There stood in front of him was the one person who had let him in, the one person who he had grown to feel comfortable with, and comfortable wasn't a feeling that Ryan Wolfe experienced very often. But now all that he saw in front of him was the shell of that person he knew. There in body but no longer there with him in mind. And he missed her. He missed the unadulterated attention that she gave him, the feeling that he was the only other person in the world.
He watched her glance travel up from her work, tracing a path through the glass walls and across towards the DNA lab, finally landing on the tall cuban that her glances had been seeking all afternoon. Ryan had never really had trouble reading her, but right now he couldn't be sure what he saw in her eyes. He had seen it before, she had looked at him in the same way...
A sharp voice jerked Ryan out of his reverie, "Mr Wolfe, could I see you in my office"
"Uh...sure H, I'll be right there" Ryan stuttered, trying his best to disguise the nervous timbre in his voice. He knew what it was about and it wasn't good. His glance instinctively sought out Calleigh, reaching out for a sanctuary and support that he had come to rely on, a knee-jerk reaction that he was suddenly conscious that he would now have to curb.
But to his surprise she met his gaze, as if for the first time in a long time she was registering his presence in the room, a puzzled look dispelling across her soft features.
"What was that about?"
"Oh...I don't know, probably just something about the case" Ryan mumbled as he averted his eyes from her piercing gaze. He had never been able to lie to her but he hoped that this time she wouldn't notice.
Ryan hesitated for a moment, finding himself torn, as much as he wanted to stay with Calleigh he was worried that if he stayed too long he wouldn't be able to stop himself falling back into old habits, and he couldn't face her closing up on him again. Keeping his gaze glued to the ground he turned to go. He was almost through the door when he felt the soft warmth of her voice wrap around him.
"Hey Ryan, are you sure everything's okay?"
He froze. He couldn't do it. He couldn't turn around. He couldn't look into her eyes, because he couldn't bare to reach down into them expecting to find her again and she not be there. It broke his heart every time and he couldn't do it anymore. Without turning he gently assured her that everything was fine before dropping his head once more, preparing himself for the judgement that awaited him.