"Just humour the lady would you?" Delko chuckled, walking through the gleaming corridors of the lab. To the latino man's left his younger colleague attempted to pull a face to properly show how unhelpful he considered that statement to be. Ryan Wolfe's efforts however were thwarted by the lady in question, a petite blonde dragging the man determinately forward by the arm.
"Calleigh" Ryan attempted to reason with her, a task easier said than done as her arm was firmly looped through his own, dragging him along with a jerking progress that elicited strange changes between the syllables of his words. The brunette man attempted to keep up with the fast paced woman, sounding his words as clearly as he could so his voice sounded less like an unfortunately squeaky fourteen year old boy. "Its not that I'm not curious about the video I apparently need to see. I am really, but I have all this work I still had planned to do."
"No more work for you tonight Ryan Wolfe" she said in a cold tone that made his insides shiver. "It is your birthday. I don't care if you have work, I don't care if today was the day you planned to solve world hunger. You are watching a video in the break room with us and then we are taking you out for a meal to celebrate."
Ryan fell behind her again, allowing her to once again put effort into dragging him along beside her. The man was practically pouting, shoulders slumped and large hazel eyes looking dejectedly at the tile floor. Until a thought seemed to strike him and he was trotting again by her side.
"What about H? I told him I was going to clock some overtime to finish up the paperwork on the Stevenson case."
Calleigh turned to face him, though keeping a firm grip on his arm. Lips flicked into a easy smile, though there was a spark in her green eyes that made him uneasy.
"I've sorted all that" she waved her free arm abstractly as if to illustrate what all that exactly was. "You Ryan are free and clear to enjoy a night of celebration and excitement."
Ryan could only groan, "but I still need to finish that paperwork. If I don't get it done tonight I'll just have more work to do tomorrow."
"Don't worry about that" Calleigh said dismissively. "Eric will help you finish it next shift."
"I'll do what now?"
Ryan allowed himself a small smile, at least Eric had stopped laughing at him.
"Its his birthday Eric. Our little boy's all grown up." At this Calleigh turned to offer him a smile that might have been heartwarming and motherly if the brunette couldn't see so clearly the layer of sarcasm caked on top of it. Then she spun her neck around to send her cuban boyfriend a mock chilling glare. "So we are going to help him enjoy himself and help with the paperwork."
"And by 'we' you mean me?" Eric raised an eyebrow.
"Exactly" she turned again to face their destination, a contented smile etched on her pretty features.
"Well I don't want either of you working on my paperwork" Ryan spoke up. "You're both so disorganised you'll ruin my whole system."
"If it wasn't your birthday I'd hit you for that remark" Calleigh warned cheerily as they turned the last corner in the maze of lab working spaces. "But I suppose we could start on your next crime scene to give time for you to catch up."
"I don't want Eric to hog my next scene" Ryan pouted, adding in a grumble "I like working my scenes."
"That's the trouble Ryan" Calleigh smiled as they approached the break room, before she pulled him through the doorway. "You like working too much, you need to learn to like relaxing too."
Compared to the other rooms in the building the break room wasn't a very big place, someone obviously shared Ryan's view about work being more important than relaxing. A small row of counters took up most of the left hand side of the room, forming a pattern to surround the small fridge freezer that the lab shared. Next to it was a sensible looking table with a number of equally sensible looking wooden chairs scattered around it.
To the right was the living area. Which comprised of a rather beaten up looking dark leather sofa with some comfortable black matching leather chairs, all pointing towards a small television perched on the wall. Sunlight streamed through the blinds of the large window, obscured slightly by the figure perched on the wide window sill. Natalia grinned at him from where she perched. Jesse had commandeered a leather chair by her side and slid him a easy smile from his reclined position. Walter meanwhile was stood at the opposite end of the sofa than the other two, beside a second chair. His grin was practically maniacal and he was clutching a television controller in his hands in a way that reminded Ryan strangely of Golem from the movie lord of the rings.
The bruttnette man frowned, seriously considering making a break for the door. Or he would if Calleigh didn't still have such a firm grip on his arm. "Whats going on?"
"I told you Ryan" Calleigh answered smoothly, dragging him with some hesitant resistance over to the leather couch. "We're going to watch a video."
"What kind of video?" Ryan questioned, suspicions raised sky high at the evil look of impish pride on Walter's face. Calleigh tugged his arm to get him to sit. Undeterred by his stubborn vertical stance she sat herself, pulling all her small weight down on his arm until she was basically hanging from him. Had she tried this when Ryan first started and was almost as slight as her she might have been successful, but since then he had muscled up a lot. Despite her faluire she continued and with Delko's help pushing down firmly on the man's opposite shoulder Ryan was finally made to sit.
Though whether this was sympathy on Delko's part towards Calleigh, or towards Ryan after seeing the frustrated blonde eye the back of the brunette's knees suspiciously was debatable.
"What kind of video?" Ryan repeated, looking around for someone to answer him. All of the occupants of the room pointedly avoided his gaze.
"And now that we are all present and comfortable" Walter declared with a theatrical gesture, "Ryan this is your life."
"Oh God" Ryan groaned, closing his eyes and slumping backwards into the sofa cusions. "What did you guys do?"
Calleigh who still had an arm firmly looped about his, something that only added to his feeling of foreboding, nudged him in an excited way more commonly seen in small children. Ryan tensed, but resigned himself to peeking open his hazel eyes just a little to see how bad this was going to be.
On cue the television flickered to life. The picture quality was crisp enough to make everything out, but wasn't great. From the way the screen seemed to bump up and around erratically Ryan deduced that it must be a hand held camera, and not one of brilliant quality.
"Now junior, don't break it." It was a woman's voice and familar, but at the same time unfamilar. He knew someone who sounded very much like that Ryan realised, but the voice on the camera was too smooth, too youthful to be that person.
"I won't mom" a boy answered, then the camera tilted to show the child's face. Neatly cut brown hair topped off a round face, at the age of about seven still thinning of his baby fat. Dark brown eyes shone with mirth as he stuck out a quick pink tongue at the screen before turning the camera once more to the room.
"John?" Ryan muttered, apprehension almost all vanished as he leaned forward, hands on his knees. "Walter where did you get this?"
The tallest man smirked over at him from his place now seated in the black leather chair. "You have a very nice uncle, Ryan. I'm surprised you haven't introduced us sooner. When I talked about your birthday coming up, and how you were so mysterious I didn't know quite how to make it special, he was only too happy to let me look through some material and pictures to fill in some gaps. Nice batman pyjamas by the way. Anyhow, he got a real kick out of suggesting some videos to splice together to make you a bit better known around here. Didn't like the thought of you distancing yourself from your friends."
"I should of known" the brunette muttered, seemingly ignoring the rest of what Walter had said. He tugged lightly on his arm, just to make sure Calleigh still had a firm grip on it, which of course she had. "That old coot'll be the death of me."
"Oh, oh wait. Look who this is!" Walter whooped at the screen as the child moved with the camera towards a small toddler scribbling on a child's plastic table. All the while the older boy talked to the camera as if it were a nature documentary, and he were describing the dangerous and smelly beast they were approaching. Despite the less than eloquent introduction there was some disturbing cooing coming from Natalia, a supposedly complimentary exclamation of 'so cute' from Calleigh, and some chuckling from the men.
Ryan felt his face heat up and hurriedly made to stand up, which was stopped upbruptly in its tracks by Delko's hand on his shoulder and a suddenly stern face Calleigh pulling at his arm. The brutnette once more slumped into the sofa as the children begun to talk.
"Come on Ryan" the older child commanded from behind the camera. "Mom gave me dad's camera to borrow. We can play superheroes and then watch it on TV."
"'m busy. 'aybe later" the toddler replied in a way that sounded much too grown up for his small size. The tot swung his legs merrily from the tiny red plastic chair as he focused with unusual concentration for his young age on the A4 size sheet of paper in front of him. He looked about two years old, certainly no more than three and had giant hazel eyes in his baby face. Tiny fingers placed down the orange crayon on the table before selecting a brown and continuing with the same level of focus.
"Look" hissed Jesse, leaning towards where Calleigh sat on the sofa. "He's got Ryan's 'I'm processing evidence, don't bother me' face on."
Calleigh just giggled in return, shuddering against Ryan's side. "Now we know where it comes from."
The brunette with as much dignity as he could muster, folded his arms across his chest, trying not to pout too much. At his right he could hear Eric's muffled chuckles, which continued around the room for everyone but Walter who was openly laughing.
"Come on Ryan" the older child whined. "It'll be fun, I won't even make you be the bad guy this time."
In return the toddler dropped his crayon, looking insulted. "I'mma good guy" he declared, crossing his small arms over his chest and clearly pouting so that his long curling brown hair fell into his wide eyes.
Ryan saw what was coming and quickly tried to uncross his arms in time and school his face, but was too late. The room glanced around and saw his pouting position, so similar to the two year old on the television, and simply cracked up laughing. The brunette man's attempts to change his position only seemed to bring on more guffaws.
"Yeah, see you can be a good guy. We can go and save the world from nasty trecoius villains" the child bargained.
The toddler seemed bored, went back to staring at his drawing for a few moments before picking it up, showing it to the camera with a wide smile that made the room 'aww', all except Ryan. "Lookit"
"You've drawn some blobs" John sniffed with discontent, obviously as focused on wanting to play as the toddler Ryan was on wanting to present his drawing.
"Nooo" the toddler corrected with a look that clearly said 'how could you not understand it, its perfectly obvious'. "They's people, not blobs silly. Look, here's mommy, here's dada, here's John and here's Ryan."
Indeed four orange people were lined up on the paper, though they were very blob-like. There were two larger ones, one with a long of trail of brown squiggles down their head, and the other with few. Then two smaller ones, one a good couple of blob heads taller than the other, both with a fair amount of brown squiggles on their heads.
"Well, where's Julie then?" the older boy questioned, looking the drawing over before setting it back on the table.
The toddler only looked up at him, hazel eyes even wider in confusion.
John sighed, setting the camera down on the table so that the toddler Ryan and his older brother could be seen together on the screen. "Our sister you idiot."
Comprehension seemed to hit the small boy and he pointed a pink finger at the mommy blob. "Sister's in mommy's tummy."
The older brother sighed again, dramatically. "You're so slow. Julie was born months ago, she's not in mom's tummy anymore."
Toddler Ryan furrowed his tiny forehead, eyes clouded with extreme confusion. "Sister's in mommy's tummy?" he repeated again, more hesitant this time.
"No. Who on earth did you think was keeping us up all those nights crying, if you didn't think it was Julie?"
"Oh" the toddler said gauntly, turning back to the drawing and adding in a fifth orange blob, smaller this time. "That's a scary monster."
Poor John looked flumoxed, before he floundered, found the words he needed. "Why would you think she's a scary monster – she's a baby."
The hazel eyed boy dropped his crayon, so he could access his small fingers and tick off each point in turn. "It makes scary noises", he pointed to his first finger, "it makes nasty smells", he pointed to his third finger, "and it makes mommy and dada make cuckoo faces and funny noises" he pointed to his first finger again.
"That doesn't mean - " John started to argue his point, but was stopped when the toddler, clearly bored again interrupted him.
"I wanna play a game"
"Yes" the older child sighed, relieved. "Lets play superheroes finally!"
"Yay!" the toddler shouted and both children ran off.
They forgot the video camera.
Walter paused the video, the screen frozen on the small room with both children disappeared from sight. The laughter was just starting to die down when Eric laid a heavy hand on Ryan's shoulder. The brunette man didn't bother looking up, knowing that whatever his older colleague decided to say, it wouldn't be good.
"Ryan" Eric started in a voice much too serious, "do we need to have a talk about where baby's come from?"
"No!" Ryan said, face turning red again as everyone broke into new rolls of laughter. "Come on, I was two years old. What two year old knows anything."
"I think you knew lots" Natalia calmed down from her place on the window seat. "I particularly liked your point about the cuckoo faces, excellent evidence gathering skills there."
"Come on guys" Ryan attempted to reason with them, wondering if his face would ever be any other shade but scarlet again. "There are better things to do than watch my old family videos."
Walter turned around with a wide smile, only too happy to correct him. "The point of all this Ryan, is to learn a bit more about you."
Ryan blinked, stared. "How on earth are you supposed to learn anything about me watching videos of me goo goo gaaing over the place?"
"I think we've already learnt lots" Jesse put in from Calleigh's left. The black haired man leaned forward, rubbing his chin as he stared at the frozen screen as if in deep contemplation. "We've already learnt for instance that you have a older brother, a younger sister called Julie and that you prefer an orange crayon to draw people's skin."
Ignoring the looks from his friend's Ryan crossed his arms once more across his chest. Only Calleigh, still holding his arm and leaning into his left side was close enough to hear the muttering. "Well pink would have made them look like they were sun burnt."
The petite blonde laughed, for a few moments buring her head into her friend's shoulder to do so, before she gathered herself, looked him in the eyes. "Come on Ryan, give us permission to watch the next clip, learn more about you then we can go get that dinner I talked about."
Ryan narrowed his hazel eyes, but from a quirk of his lips she could see that he was relaxing into this, starting to enjoy himself. "With alcohol?"
"Of course."
"And ice cream?"
"Sure babe" Calleigh giggled, knowing Ryan's fondness for sweet foods. They had found out years ago that their favourite restaurant bar hybrid offered a special only included in their children's menu. Seven large scoops of whichever flavour ice cream with three different toppings. They even included sherbet flavours that changed the colour of your tongue, something not included in the bland smaller adult option. Ryan had been the first to try his luck after a hard day at work and ask whether they could have one of those. He'd thought it was his polite phrasing that had convinced the waitress, while the blonde woman knew it had more to do with his boyish good looks and wide pleading puppy dog eyes. Since then Calleigh, Ryan and sometimes Natalia depending on what diet she was on shared a bowl whenever one of them had a craving for ice cream. They had never been able to get Delko to join in though, he was of the sort that said real men didn't eat ice cream, with a open sneer at Wolfe.
"Any flavours you want."
Ryan collapsed back into the sofa with a easy grin, getting himself comfortable. "You heard the lady Walter, lets get this over with."
The screen blinked back into life, showing a small boy about the age of six or seven staring directly into the camera. It wasn't John, those wide eyes weren't just brown they were hazel, the green bright. Though the boy's hair was neat, combed and gelled back, it was longer than the almost crew cut John had worn. Were it allowed to fall free it would brush past his cheek bones, almost to his chin.
"My name is Ryan Wolfe" the small boy said, voice young but with the same determined confidence that their now older friend shared. Each word was pronounced carefully, his eyes slightly narrowed in the focus of the task. "And in this video I am going to show you around my house."
The room's cheers were cut off as an unknown figuire barrelled into the camera's view, trailing insults. In present time Ryan shifted on the sofa, swallowed, tried to remember what happened next in case it was anything bad.
"What are you doing playing with Dad's camera Ryan" the figure asked. He was too tall for them to see his head on the screen, but from the way the little Ryan's neck craned back the older boy was a good two or three heads taller than him. "I wanted a go!"
"Na ah John" the smaller child declared, folding his arms over his small chest. "Mommy said I could have a turn!"
The camera moved sideways, tilted up as it was lifted, but not before seeing the younger child barrel his way toward his older brother and subsequently get pushed back onto the floor.
"MOOOMMMMYYYY!"
"Sheesh" Natalia grumbled, tapping her ears to get the right sound levels back. "When did you stop being that high pitched?"
Calleigh didn't move her eyes from the screen as she answered absentmindedly. "You haven't heard him sing in the shower when he's drunk. He's still that high pitched."
The camera was placed back onto a table as the torso of a mother figure arrived to save the day. "What's going on?" She sounded so tired.
"Mommy!" Little Ryan stood up from the floor, rushed forward to hold her long skirt between small hands. "John's trying to take the camera away and its my turn."
"I wanted to play with it now" John stated, stamping a foot, looking tense and formidable beside the smaller boy.
"Ryan, just give it to John." The woman sounded so exhausted, and Calleigh was struck by the fact that even though her youngest son was so close, almost hugging her, she had yet to even touch him.
"Nooo, nooo mommy" the child Ryan was hugging her now, little arms firmly around skirt covered legs. He was crying too, sudden heavy sobs that made Calleigh grip her friend's arm tighter to her. "You said I could have a turn mommy, its not fair."
"Its alright folks" Walter hastened to tell the audience, noticing a couple of them shifting uncomfortably. He slid a smile across to Ryan who had removed his eyes from the screen but didn't look disturbed by what was happening, just a little embarrassed. "Our Ryan knows how to wrap a woman around his little finger."
"John" The woman said finally, dropping a hand onto the sobbing Ryan's head. "He's been nagging me about it all week, just let him have a quick turn."
"But mum!"
"Come on and leave Ryan to his little game, its your birthday coming up. Maybe you could ask for a camera all to your own?"
With that their mother disentangled her younger child's hands from her skirt and with a pat on his head, and Calleigh hoped a smile they couldn't see, she led the other child from the room.
The smaller boy sniffed for a few moments, then turned his back on the camera to wipe his face. When he turned back his eyes were red, but his smile was bright.
"My name is Ryan Wolfe and in this video I'm going to show you around my house."
With that the camera was lifted and the screen turned through a door on their left. It was a kitchen, a small one with a tall grey fridge and neat marble topped side boards. White tiles gleamed on the floor.
"If mommy lets me have a dog this is where I'm going to put the bowls" the camera showed a patch of bare white tile next to the shining fridge.
The camera turned, panning around, then stopping as it took in a small wooden dining room table with six wooden chairs placed neatly around it. Then a small voice much too young to grumble did so.
"Mommy never puts these back right."
The camera was placed on a smooth counter top to watch as the little boy walked around the table, tilting his head this way and that before moving one chair a bare centimetre towards the table. It had been slightly out of place the CSI's noticed, but barely so. Not enough that a small boy or any man not trained to look for such anomalies should be able to spot.
Job done, the camera was lifted again and they exited through another door nearer the fridge. It lead into a small hallway that contained three other doors, the front door straight ahead, a door through to the room they had started in to the right and a unknown door to the left near the base of a staircase. Without a word the camera was carried jerkily up the set of stairs before the child reached the top and finally seemed to remember his audience.
"That rooms mommy and dad's" he said, pointing to a plain closed door to the right. "We're not allowed in there."
"That ones John's room" the little Ryan whispered to the camera, pointing it to the next door to the left. This door had more decoration, a large red 'keep out' notice along with big blocky blue letters that spelled out the name of the owner of the room. The door was open slightly, so they could see that it was a large room with toys spilling out onto the floor. "I'm not allowed in his room cause he's mean and hits me, and its always nasty and messy and he never gets told off."
That rant out the way, the small boy moved the camera along to the next door to the left. This one had blocky pink letters spelling out the name 'Julie', along with a picture of a Disney princess and most confusingly a large padlock that linked the door to its frame with a chunky chain.
"This is Jule's room" the boy explained patiently to his audience. "Nobodies allowed in there except mommy and dad and Jules when she comes back from holiday."
All the room's occupants frowned at separate times, each sneaking a quick glance at Ryan as if wondering what to make of this. Only the brunette had taken his eyes off the screen again, only raising his gaze from his lap to watch again as the camera reached the final bedroom.
"This is my room" the boy said, turning the door and stepping inside, but not before they noticed that this door had no blocky letters or posters on it, and was completely blank. The little Ryan shut the plain door behind him, placing the camera onto the clean wooden floor with a discontented noise. The next three minutes were spent straightening out his blue bed covers and opening and reorganising a toy box placed at the bottom of the boy's bed.
The bedroom had a small beaten up table filling up the most of the right hand side, with a small stool. What looked like a child's school bag was placed neatly underneath the table and on the wooden surface three folders were neatly spaced along the back wall. Next to the desk was a wardrobe. On the other side of the room, past the bed was a large wooden bookshelf with some books already placed on the right hand side of it. It wasn't a very big room, much smaller than the open bedroom they had passed earlier, but what was most shocking was how clean it was. There didn't seemed to be toys or dirt on any surface, it was hard to believe this room belonged to a small boy.
Bending down, the boy picked up the camera again. "This is where I do my schoolwork" he said showing off the neat desk. "If I do really good then Mrs Gavin gives me smily faces. Mommy said if I get lots and lots she'll show Dad and he might put them on the fridge."
They thought back again to the bare gleaming grey fridge.
"This is my books" he pointed the camera at the bookcase and they noticed something strange. Less than a quarter of the wooden bookcase was used up, but even stranger than that the ones that were there lined up perfectly down the right hand side. Each of the six shelves ended with the help of a book stopper at exactly the same point. They had no doubt that if they were to line up a ruler down the bookcase the ends of the last book on each shelf would line up perfectly with each other.
"I have another book to put on it" the child said, frown clearly present in the voice. "But I can't put it up until I get more books to match it up. Mommy said I can have some more books for Christmas. I want some more science books like Mrs Gavin has at school with the really pretty pictures."
The little Ryan sat down on the wooden floor, taking the camera with him, obviously preparing himself for a serious discussion. "But Mommy said their too adult for me and I can have some more baby ones."
He stuck out his tongue, showing his disgust at this idea. "That's silly though, just cause I can't say all of the words." The child waved an arm about, raising his eyebrows at the screen. "I mean, I'm seven years old. Does she really expect me to be able to say 'micca-con-dar' perfectly?"
At this the room once again whooped into laughter, and some disturbing cooing coming from Natalia's side of the room. Calleigh turned to Ryan who was watching the screen with an even focus of someone trying to piece together half forgotten memories and whispered in his ear "mitochondria?" In return she got a small nod.
"Anyway" the small child continued, lifting himself and the camera from the floor. "I have to show you the song I've been practicing, then I've finished my video."
They went out of the plain bedroom door which was firmly shut behind them, then down the staircase and through the door to the left that they hadn't seen yet. It was a small room with most of it taken up by a large piano, a tall bookcase and some boxes of toys. The child tucked the camera into a empty shelf on the bookcase with a clear view of the piano.
The little Ryan was just putting the piano seat into exactly the right position and tucking the music sheets on the front of the piano together perfectly when his brother walked into the room. Immediately the little boy tensed, looking at the taller boy with wary eyes.
"I've almost finished my video John" he said slowly, the way one talks to a dangerous wild animal. "Then you can have a turn and make your own video."
"Who says I want to make a silly baby video" John said. He was perhaps ten or eleven now and still towered over his little brother.
Ryan just stood watching, his whole body coiled with tension in a way so unnatural on a seven year old. But when the older boy picked up a toy box, he seemed to snap somewhat. "It doesn't belong there, don't move it."
With a steady grin and slow deliberate movements, John lifted the box, tipped it up and emptied the toy soldiers onto the floor. Then he dropped the clear plastic box in a cocky movement and left the room with a smug smile.
The little Ryan breathed, then stopped, breathed then stopped. He closed his eyes for a moment, fists and small jaw clenched, seemed to forget how to breathe then remembered again clumsily. Then he opened his eyes, looked steadily at the camera as if remembering what he was supposed to be doing, then let out a breath.
He picked up the box, placed it upright on the floor and filled it carefully with its occupants, counting as he went. Somewhere around fifty he seemed satisfied and placed the box carefully where it had been, crouching down to peer closely and manipulate the position to the bare millimetre. Then he surveyed the room, checked, double checked, triple checked.
Before going back to the piano he approached the camera and whispered something under his breathe so full of anger and frustration that the audience were torn whether to be angry with him or smile at his childish phrasing. "Stupid doo-doo head".
Finally he was back to the point he had been so rudely interrupted. Despite having already sorted it, the little Ryan checked each angle of the chair three times each, and then did the same when checking the stacked music sheets. He growled lightly under his breath, counted the sheets in turn, stacked them, counted them again, stacked them again, then sat down ready to play.
He brushed his fingers over each note, once, twice, three times as if checking they were still there. Then poised with fingers ready to play, eyes glued on the sheet of music. Natalia heard the first mistake, the one that prompted the small boy to start again and make it perfect, but couldn't hear the second or the third or the fourth until the fifth version finally seemed good enough.
The boy turned around to face the camera again, face determined as he sat up straight on the chair, arranging hands on his lap. "I'm Ryan Wolfe and I hope you enjoyed being shown around my house."
The seven year old boy smiled brightly, then as if that were the final act and the curtain fallen he nodded to himself no longer looking at the camera. His usual focused stare replaced the discarded smile, and he stood up, walked over to the screen, reaching up before the television went blank.
In the break room the adult Ryan looked around him warily. Calleigh grip on his arm had loosened and he considered for a moment getting up and leaving, wondered what they would do. If he did though, they would probably assume that by showing the video they had upset him. They hadn't. Confusion explained better the thoughts running through his head than being upset or angry.
"You could have chosen a happier video" even as the words left his mouth the brunette wondered if they were untrue. Not to sound too depressing, but Ryan couldn't remember if there were any happier moments to show, at least none that he could remember being caught on camera.
Walter turned around still packing away the DVD in his bag, what he planned to do with it now Ryan couldn't guess. "Only part of the point of this was to watch you run around and reenact 'kids say the darndest things'. The other part was to learn more about you. Your uncle Ron said I had to add that last clip, that it was the best explanation of your true nature that could ever be caught on a short video."
"You had to finish the video"
"What?" Ryan turned to his right where Eric was seated beside him, the latino man rubbing his face, looking surprised that he had spoken.
"Its just after your brother tipped up that box you still had to finish the video, perfectly" Delko frowned, knowing that the two of them were on rocky ground. They had been for years and the cuban man knew that it was his own fault. "I've been wondering for a while about that day when you didn't wait for me, and went off to Horatio to present my evidence."
"I told you, I was following the evidence. I was following orders." The brunette forced himself to smile, to not get riled up so easily on his birthday. They'd both been trying harder with each other recently, but it was still so difficult to trust and relax when in each others company.
"I thought you were playing for points from H" Eric continued, having to fight not to just drop it and pick a less provoking topic. They couldn't be wary around each other forever. That was not the way to be friends. "But I've been thinking after knowing you for a while, and seeing the video. Maybe some of it was moving onto the next step to focus on finishing the case perfectly."
Ryan stood up, running a palm through his short brown hair. "You make quite the psychologist Delko."
"Well" Delko questioned standing up too to look down on the smaller man. "You going to tell me if I'm right?"
The room was looking at him, Jesse with a especially painful brand of sympathy on his face. Ryan looked at the floor, wondering what kind of birthday he had let himself in for this time.
"Its no big deal" Ryan started, remembering all those times he'd wanted to explain to Eric why he seemed pig headed at times. Why his mind wouldn't allow him to let things go. Why when he lost his control over the order he etched so carefully into his environment he could feel so angry and frustrated. To some extent he had told Calleigh, but never to explain behaviour he considered damaging. Explaining away behaviour like that felt like he was making an excuse, and he hated that. "Sometimes I get a little too focused on steps in a case – do this, then this, then this. I can forget about things and ignore things I don't mean to, like people. But its no excuse."
"Its an explanation" Delko smiled with a lazy lop sided smile, clapping him lightly on the shoulder. "And I can work with that."
"So, food now?" Calleigh asked, slipping an arm once again through his, but with less force this time. She turned around to face the others, "Coming guys?"
"Lets go eat" Walter said enthusiastically as they funneled through the door.
Natalia trotted towards where Ryan and Calleigh were walking along the corridor, debating happily the choice of crayon colours were they to draw the lab and the team.
"You were so cute as a child Ryan" she said, walking along in front of them so they could keep talking.
Ryan schooled his face into a mock look of being offended. "You mean I'm not cute now?"
"Face it Ryan" a voice came behind them from Eric, "You just turned thirty, you no longer qualify as cute."
The brunette man's resulting pout brought a smile to Natalia's face and dissolved Calleigh to giggles.
"And we have evidence to the contrary!" Natalia declared like a sports annoucher, "Ryan, as long as you have your pouts and your eyes, you will always be cute."
"You know, most men wouldn't be proud of that" Jesse stated as they piled into the elevator. It was a squeeze, particularly with Walter, but somehow or another they all fit in.
"Eh, you're just jelous he's got the puppy dog eyes to turn a pout into a Ryan – super pout and you don't" Calleigh defened her friend from her rather squashed spot between Ryan himself and Eric.
Ryan tilted his head questioningly, "A Ryan super pout?"
"What?" the southern woman asked innocently, "You didn't know we named it?"
"You named my pout?" Ryan asked, sounding half way between amused and worried.
"Sure, its cute" Jesse spoke from his position near the door, "But I don't really think it deserves its own name."
Ryan cleared his throat, suddenly uncomfortable with this conversation. "Seriously, guys can we stop discussing my facial expressions."
"Ok" Natalia agreed too smoothly to mean anything good, "So guys what else shall we talk about?"
"Ooooo" Calleigh hopped excitedly at Ryan's side as the elevator stopped and they piled out to the parking lot. "How about macca – con – der?"
Ryan raised a hand to rub at his face as the others laughed. He was still in mixed feelings about what had happened today. While he didn't like the idea that they had glimpsed into his childhood, including seeing some quite painful things, he couldn't imagine any other way he would be able to bring them up. He couldn't say that he didn't deserve this, it had been a long time coming in them trying to get some information out about his childhood and his life.
There would be a lot of explaining to do, particularly to Jesse and Walter. They still hadn't been told directly about his OCD and the video had made it very obvious. Then there was his sister, he hadn't told anyone what had happened to her. Ryan could see the questions brimming beneath the surface, but hopefully they would leave them alone at least for today. Today he didn't want to bring that up. He wanted to eat ice cream and drink alcohol, and he didn't mind fielding a question or two, but not about that. At least, not just yet.
"I'll drive" Eric said heading towards his vehicle. They had decided to group up so that only a couple of them had to remain sober enough to drive the rest back. Walter, Jesse and Natalia were in one car, with Eric, Ryan and Calleigh in the other.
"I call shot gun!" Ryan yelled out impulsively, before distangling himself from Calleigh's arm in order to claim his seat.
Calleigh stood there for a moment, shocked as he ran off to jump into the car. Eventually she headed towards the car, managing to muster up a response. "You Doodoo head!"