A/N: Set after ep.8x14, "In The Wind."
Another one I had on file--something for you to enjoy while I'm working to update my ongoing projects. Stay tuned over the next few weeks as those stories come to a close. Happy reading!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
This last year or so had brought many surprises to the Miami Dade Crime Lab. Alexx, then Tara and Eric had left, and several new faces arrived at the lab. Thinking that his staff could use some bonding time, Horatio decided to move their annual July picnic to February, hoping against hope that the weather cooperated.
Luckily, the day turned out a perfect, breezy, sunshine-filled eighty degrees. One by one, the team showed up at Crandon Beach. Being February, the usual crowds at Crandon were absent, and the group found a quiet picnic spot at one end of the beach near a small pier.
"Alexx, have you seen Calleigh or Eric?" Natalia walked up to the beautiful African-American woman. She may have technically left the team, but she was still part of the family and, therefore, warranted an automatic invitation.
"No, baby, I haven't," Alexx set the plate of tomatoes in her hand in the middle of the picnic table already over-flowing with food.
"I did talk to Calleigh earlier, and she said Eric was going to swing by and pick her up on his way," she said, adding with a wink, "And we all know how Eric is about punctuality."
Natalia laughed. "True. But that's totally out of his way."
Now it was Alexx's turn to laugh. "Honey, I stopped trying to figure those two out years ago."
"Also true," Natalia laughed even harder.
"Nat," Ryan approached the two women, trying to get their attention. "Alexx. Have you guys seen Horatio and Tripp?" Wolfe carried an arm full of potato chips and a cooler in one hand.
"Yeah, they're over by the grill," Nat replied. "What's in the cooler?"
"H called and asked me to pick up some more hamburger meat and a few other things. See you ladies later!" he gave them his most charming smile as he left to find his boss.
Scattered around the picnic area were a multitude of people from the Crime Lab and a few other departments: Valera, Jesse, Walter, Dave, Travers, Tom, and several other lab techs and support staff. Even Yelina was there, taking a walk down the beach somewhere.
"Fashionably late, I see," called Valera from one of the picnic tables as Eric and Calleigh strode around the bend in the path from the parking lot.
Calleigh nudged Eric playfully in the ribs. "Well, if somebody here could arrive on time…"
"Hey, I'm not the one who couldn't decide which sandals to wear!" Eric defended with a huge grin.
"Whatever, Eric," Maxine smirked. "Calleigh, what time did Eric get there?"
Calleigh thought for a minute. Valera didn't need to know that Eric was practically living at her house, and therefore never really left. He had been at the store picking up their picnic supplies, and he had been running fifteen minutes behind, so Calleigh thought she could answer without really lying.
"12:15."
Max laughed and said, "Way to go, Delko."
"Hey, don't take her side. She failed to mention we didn't leave her house until 12:30."
Maxine rolled her eyes and turned back to her previous conversation. Calleigh punched him in the ribs again right as Alexx walked up. "Okay, okay, you guys break it up," she said with a bright smile. "How you doin' Calleigh, baby?"
With a quick kiss to Alexx's cheek, Eric took the pie and grocery bags out of Calleigh's hands so she could embrace her longtime friend, and he left to deposit everything in their proper places.
"I did not!" Ryan exclaimed from one end of the long picnic table.
"Yes, yes, you did," Walter contradicted. "Jesse's right. You screamed like a little girl."
"You weren't even there, Walter!"
"No, but I saw the tape," Walter said with a sneaky grin.
Ryan's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "There's a tape?" he groaned.
"Oh, yeah, buddy," Jesse laughed.
Eric leaned back a bit and surveyed the people sitting around him. They were as close as any family he had, and he thanked God every day to still be connected with this awesome group.
Under the table, Calleigh surreptitiously patted him on the knee. She'd seen that content smile on his face, and her soft touch let Eric know she was just as glad he was there.
A few weeks ago, she wasn't sure where they stood. Their relationship gained an explosive start after her stint in the hospital a year ago. They both knew that things were going way too far, way too fast for them emotionally, but after so many years of built-up tension, they couldn't really stop things from unfolding that way.
They fell apart just as quickly as they began. Eric's biological father became more than just a pain in the ass; he became an outright liability, both to Eric's job and his relationship with Calleigh. After the catastrophe with Sharova, after Eric got out of the hospital, and after the IAB investigation, the strain became too much, and Eric left.
Calleigh didn't blame him. She knew he needed to regain an even keel in his life, that he needed to readjust his priorities—she just wanted to be one of them.
They tried desperately to remain 'just friends' after Eric's departure. They both thought that's what they needed. But every time Eric heard Calleigh's voice, every time she saw his beautiful smile, that plan was blown straight to hell.
The night Eric finished his first case with the state attorney's office, Calleigh decided to put an end to the guessing games. She wanted this man too much to not fight for him. They talked, and they finally realized they were on the same page all along. Eric hadn't left Calleigh's house since; if they thought their relationship started with an explosion, nothing prepared them for how it re -started. Eric was surprised the cosmos hadn't imploded yet.
He reached down and squeezed her fingers tightly with his, and they shared a look and a small smile. Eric turned his head to address his friends. "Sounds like I'm missing out."
Jesse, sitting on Eric's other side, clapped a hand on the man's shoulder. "Don't worry, we can always show you the tape," he chuckled.
Across from them, Ryan groaned once more. "I am never going to live that down, am I?"
"Well, Ryan," Calleigh interjected, "At least you have the comfort in knowing that nothing can ever beat your little escapade in the graveyard."
Eric, Calleigh and Natalia laughed hard at the look on Ryan's face. "You're not the one who saw a dead man sit up on a gurney in the morgue. You are not the one whose hands went numb from blowfish poison!!" he exclaimed vehemently.
The part of the table listening to their excited conversation shook with laughter. "Oh, man, Wolfe," Walter snickered, "I need to hear that story."
"No, you don't," Ryan said definitively.
"You're forgetting there's a tape of that one, too," Calleigh grinned mischievously in his direction. "Walter, I'm sure I can dig it up somewhere."
"Actually," Dave called from down the table with a grin of his own, "I think I found it a few weeks ago. It was labeled 'Eric, Ryan, and the Curse of the Coffin,' and, well, I was curious."
Ryan moaned and dropped his head to the table as another round of laughter erupted around him.
Calleigh was still laughing as she felt her phone buzz where it lay hidden at her back, attached to the waist of her jeans. She reached back and pulled it out, glancing at the screen to see who was calling.
"Eric, why is your mom calling me?" she asked. Curious ears perked up to hear the answer; the whole lab (and quite possibly half the rest of Miami) had a pool going to see when Calleigh Duquesne and Eric Delko would finally pull their heads out of the sand and realize they loved each other. So far, they had no real indication that they were anything other than best friends. Well, besides Horatio, and he wasn't saying anything.
Eric looked at Calleigh in confusion, "I don't know. Answer it."
Calleigh flipped the phone open and said, "Hello?"
Her face turned beet red as she listened to the voice on the other end of the line, then took the phone away from her ear to examine it more closely. She realized that the department-issue cell phone in her hand was not, in fact, her own.
Calleigh cleared her throat and handed the phone to Eric. "She's, uh, she's calling for you," she smiled sheepishly and held out her hand for her own phone.
Eric's face remained confused for a second until everything clicked. Just as sheepishly, he slipped an identical sleek, black phone from his pocket and flipped it open to look at it. Yep, definitely Calleigh's. They'd spent a lazy day in bed and had to rush to get ready for the picnic; in the mad dash for the door, Calleigh grabbed Eric's cell phone off the dresser, and he snatched hers from the kitchen counter.
He clapped the phone shut and placed it in Calleigh's outstretched hand. A dozen inquisitive pairs of eyes pretended to ignore the cell phone exchange, the blush on Calleigh's cheek, and the guilty grin on Eric's face.
"Sorry," he said as he took the open phone from Calleigh. "Hola, mami?" Eric spoke into his cell as he got up from the table and walked in the direction of the pier only meters away.
Calleigh cleared her throat again and turned to Natalia, ignoring the pointed glances and goofy grins around the table. "Nat, pass me the ketchup?
"Sure thing," Natalia said with a crooked smile. Busted.
Slowly, conversations resumed up and down the table. Half of Calleigh's attention, however, remained with Eric on the pier. She glanced away from Jesse and Walter every minute or so to look in his direction. She could tell by the tension in his stance that something was wrong.
A couple minutes ago he snapped his phone shut and promptly reopened it, dialing another number quickly and jamming the phone to his ear. Currently, he stood staring out at the ocean, speaking roughly into the phone and motioning madly with his hands.
Natalia, who was talking to Alexx across the table, followed Calleigh's eye to the man on the pier. When Alexx realized Natalia had stopped speaking, she also trained her eyes toward the shore. She briefly looked back to study Calleigh's concerned face, then returned her attention to the man fifty feet away.
All of the sudden, everyone was looking at Eric. He'd begun shouting, and almost as one, heads popped up and bodies turned to witness the commotion. As the pitch of Eric's voice rose and fell, they could hear bits of his angry conversation.
"No!" Eric yelled into the phone. "You had no business going there!"
A loud wave crashed to the beach, drowning out his next words. Calleigh watched as Eric began gesticulating wildly, spitting furious words at whoever was on the other end of the line. The waves continued to crash, muting Eric's voice, and everyone at the table slowly turned back around. Only Horatio had ever seen Eric that angry before, and, despite everyone's curiosity, his outburst was none of their business.
Only Calleigh's eyes remained glued to Eric's distant figure. Soon, however, he regained the attention of the crowded picnic table.
"You practically raped my mother, you refused to help her. Thirty-five years later I find out my father, the man who raised me, who I thought was my own blood, wasn't my father at all. You placed a hit on my head, nearly cost me my life, nearly cost me everything that I love. I asked you for one thing. ONE! And you couldn't do that."
Eric was fuming, and even if they wanted to, the group couldn't look away now. Half of them—the newcomers—were shocked at what Delko was yelling: something terrible had happened in his family, that much was clear. Maybe that explained the turmoil of the last year—the turmoil that the whole office seemed to know bits and pieces about, but of which they never spoke.
Calleigh's entire body tensed, knowing that he was talking to Sharova. Her eyes darted to where Horatio sat, and he met her frightened glance equally.
From the pier, they heard a loud, "Fuck you! Just…fuck!!" Eric slammed his phone shut and catapulted it toward the wooden planks at his feet, where it shattered into a million pieces. He was yelling for all he was worth.
Calleigh froze momentarily in place as she listened to Eric's visceral scream, the splintering metal and plastic. Slowly, she set down her beer bottle and gracefully rose from the table, making no sound save a muted cough at the back of her throat. She caught Jesse's inquiring eyes, but quickly looked away.
As Calleigh walked purposefully toward the pier, she heard Natalia say loudly behind her, "Anyway…" in a lame attempt to give them some semblance of privacy.
Eric stood leaning with his hands against the rail of the pier, facing the vast ocean but not really seeing it. Perhaps as a result of the blood pounding in his ears, or maybe because she walked so softly, Eric didn't notice Calleigh's presence until she lithely hopped up on the rail next to where he stood.
She said nothing, but oh-so-gently reached a hand down to cover his, drawing tiny circles on the inside of his wrist with her thumb. As she felt the stiffness in his body reside, she lightly tugged on his hand. Eric knew what she wanted, and he complied numbly, unable to look her in the eyes just yet. Instead, he moved to stand between her legs and dropped his head against her shoulder as she pulled him closer.
"What happened?" Calleigh asked as she rubbed a hand down his back.
She felt him sigh into her shoulder, and he didn't respond right away. "Sharova."
"I caught that part," Calleigh replied with a small grin. "Actually, we all did."
Eric groaned as he realized what a scene he had caused, that his co-workers and friends had witnessed his tirade. He pulled back from Calleigh to look at her face, his hands coming from her waist to rest on her thighs.
"I'm sorry," he said, then bit his lip. His head jerked infinitesimally toward the picnic area, worried that she was showing such affection when they were clearly being scrutinized.
Calleigh shook her head. "Don't be. And don't worry about them. Now, tell me what happened."
He heard Calleigh's sweet voice, felt her curled around him, and easily forgot the rest of the world. "Ugh. My mom called. She was hysterical; Sharova showed up at my parents' house this afternoon."
"What?" Calleigh asked in shock. "Why would he do that?"
"I don't know, Cal," Eric said angrily. "He said he just wanted to talk to my mom. But what could he possibly have to say to her?"
Calleigh ran her palms from their resting place on Eric's shoulders to his hands, and back up again. "Is your mom okay?" she asked, her brows furrowed with compassionate worry.
"Yeah, she's fine. It's just—God, Cal, that's the one thing I asked him to do. Leave my family alone."
Calleigh hesitated for a moment. "You should call him, Eric."
"What?" he looked at her in shock.
"Call him. Babe, you can't stay angry at him. Whether you like it or not, the man is your father."
Eric tried to back away from her, but she caught him with her knees and dragged him back. He shook his head forcefully. "Calleigh, that man is not my father. He contributed some chromosomes; that doesn't mean I owe him anything."
"Eric, I understand where you're coming from. I do," she said as he tried to pull away again. "But he's making an effort. Sharova made sure you stayed in this country."
"He also nearly got me killed. And—" Eric ducked his head and bit his tongue before he said too much.
"And, what?"
He paused, not knowing if Calleigh was ready to hear this yet. One look in her deep green eyes made Eric throw caution to the wind. "And, he almost cost me the most precious thing in my life."
Calleigh's face lit up with a bright smile, and she tugged Eric forward so she could hug him tightly. They stood that way for a long time, Calleigh's face buried in the crook of Eric's neck, her arms wrapped solidly around his shoulders. They could only hear the waves pounding into the shore, the gulls calling, and the sound of their own satisfied breathing.
Calleigh would do anything to ease the pain Eric felt right now. She would give anything to change what had happened, to make things right for him--for them. "You know how much I love you, don't you?" she asked, lips brushing softly against his neck, almost like she was making a declaration
Eric pulled back abruptly, looking her square in the eye to make sure he'd just heard her correctly. "Did I—did you just—?" he managed to sputter.
Calleigh's contented laughter filled the air around them. "Yeah," she said with an amused grin, one that almost dared to ask him, 'So what?'
Eric snapped. Before Calleigh knew what hit her, his lips were on hers, seeking entrance as his arms surrounded her like they'd never let go.
Calleigh responded without thinking, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. Quickly, the raging passion of their initial kiss turned to an embrace of long-simmering love and desire. Eric's tongue gently caressed Calleigh's, exploring the depths of her mouth; his lips moved slowly and sumptuously against hers, until the need for air became overwhelming and they broke apart.
Eric rested his forehead against hers, both of them panting from the lack of oxygen. "Do you know how long I've wanted to hear that?" he asked, pulling back a fraction of an inch to lock his fathomless chocolate eyes with Calleigh's captivating emerald ones.
"I have an idea," she replied coyly, placing a small kiss on his full lips.
Eric caught her playful drift and responded in kind. "Oh yeah?"
"Mhmm," Calleigh said with a small smirk, giving nothing away.
"How long, then?"
"Two years and 361 days."
Eric laughed wholeheartedly. "I didn't know you were keeping track," he said, growing serious as he mentally calculated back in time. That was the exact day he was shot, nearly three years ago.
Calleigh reached up to smooth the wrinkles that had formed on Eric's forehead, her lips following her fingers to place a gentle kiss there. "I only keep track of the good things," she smiled.
Eric skimmed his hands from Calleigh's waist down to her knees, pausing for a moment before he brought them back up to rest on the outside of her thighs. "You know, I wouldn't really consider me being shot a good thing."
Calleigh's eyes darted to Eric's lips for a split-second before she pegged him with a piercing gaze. She ran her thumb across his cheekbone. "Waking up was," she stated simply and sincerely.
Eric closed his eyes, taking in the full weight of Calleigh's words and letting his forehead drop to hers once more. Out of nowhere, a deep chuckle erupted from his chest, and his smile grew exponentially; Calleigh found herself flying through the air with a surprised squeal.
In one motion, Eric had grabbed her off the railing, forcing Calleigh to clamp her legs around his waist to keep from falling. He spun her around once, twice, three times before coming to a stop and letting her body slide down his.
Before she could chastise him for his behavior, Eric claimed her lips with his in a deep kiss. When he pulled back, he left only centimeters between them. "Stay here," he said with a hazardous grin.
"What?" Calleigh still wasn't sure what had just happened, she was so bowled over by the force of…well, Eric.
"Just stay there," Eric called playfully as he rushed from the pier. "Don't move, I'll be right back!"
Calleigh watched bemusedly as he practically ran toward the parking lot. As for Eric, he dashed to his car and threw open the door, searching frantically for what he wanted, finally locating it in the glove box. Satisfied, he hurtled out of the car, slammed the door shut, and returned quickly to the pier and the woman waiting for him there.
Calleigh laughed, spying the excited look on Eric's face. There was nothing in his hands to indicate why he felt the sudden urge to run to his car. Eric came to stand in front of her, placing his hands at her elbows; Calleigh's automatically went to his hips, a position dictated by the difference in their height but one that they cherished.
When Eric didn't say anything, Calleigh took the opportunity to tease him. "Don't you have something to say to me?" she asked innocently. She had, after all, just confessed her love to this man.
"Yeah, I do," Eric said, a giant grin plastered on his face. "You're wrong."
Calleigh scrunched her eyebrows. That wasn't what she was expecting. "I'm wrong about what?"
"Two years and 361 days. You're wrong," Eric laughed. Wanting her closer, he tugged her a bit so that their bodies met from toe to waist. Eric's eyes bored into hers. "Twelve years, six months, and sixteen days. Calleigh, that's how long I've loved you, in one way or another. Since the day I met you."
He finished, and Calleigh's eyes were brimming with tears, a stark contrast to the brilliant smile on her face. "I didn't realize you were keeping track," she quipped with a gleam in her eyes.
Eric threw his head back and laughed out loud. Bringing his elated gaze back to hers, he said, "Well, I only keep track of the good things." And then they were kissing—finally kissing—for the first time in full realization that they both wanted each other, for always.
"Anyway…"Natalia had said ten minutes ago. So much for that—the attempt failed miserably, and every last one of them abandoned the pretense that they weren't fully engrossed in the events currently transpiring on the pier.
Calleigh took her time to get to Eric. When she finally did make it to the end of the pier, she gently climbed up to sit on the rail, their elbows brushing. For what seemed like forever, neither one of them moved or spoke. Eric didn't even acknowledge her presence.
Then, slowly, he moved into her embrace. Natalia, Alexx, Maxine, and Yelina simultaneously breathed wistful sighs, earning them skeptical looks from the men at the table.
"What," Valera said, hands held up in question. "It's about damn time!"
"Shh," Natalia hushed her. "Watch!"
Although the movement was faint from such a distance, they could see that Eric and Calleigh were speaking now. Calleigh's hands ran the length of Eric's back in a calming gesture, the intimacy of which was not lost on the people now watching them.
He pulled away from her, explaining something. When she responded, Eric tried to back out of her embrace. Calleigh, however, met his actions with one of her own, placing her weight on her hands on the railing, and lifting up her hips to reach out for Eric with her knees, effectively stopping him in his tracks.
Just like Calleigh, sassy and inventive. Eric was upset, but she wasn't giving up that easily. She kept him within arms lengths as she spoke again. Eric started to say something, but bit his tongue and bowed his head. Calleigh forced it out of him, though.
Whatever he said caused an enormous smile to explode onto Calleigh's face, the power of it affecting even the group of CSIs, techs, and detectives sitting fifty feet away. She embraced Eric with all her might, burying her face at his neck.
Walter and Jesse shared a confused look. Simmons had only transferred from the night shift a few months ago, and Jesse had been gone for over a decade. Neither of them were aware of the long history between Calleigh Duquesne and Eric Delko, not that their chemistry was hard to miss.
"Exactly what—" Jesse started to ask, but was promptly shut down by Maxine and Natalia.
"I'm just—" he tried again.
"Shut it, Cardoza," Valera whispered furiously.
Jesse looked around at the faces surrounding him. Wouldn't somebody tell him what was going on? Fourteen people. There were fourteen people—fourteen professionals—sitting around him at this picnic table, and every last one of them was invading the personal space of the man and woman on the pier.
Dr. Loman was a new addition to the CSI family, as well, and a rather traditional one at that. He scooted down the bench in the void left by Eric and Calleigh and whispered to Jesse, "Exactly what are we doing?" He shook his head, saying louder, "And why are we whispering?"
His last comment was met with four more 'shhs' from Natalia, Valera, Travers, and Ryan, respectively. Tom, Walter and Jesse just looked at each other and shrugged, resigning themselves to watch.
They turned back just in time to see Eric swoop.
Valera tried unsuccessfully to mask a squeal. Someone at the table uttered a quiet, drawn out, "Oh my God."
Natalia heard Ryan say something like, "You owe me," but couldn't be sure because she didn't want to take her eyes off of the couple on the pier, and because Valera was practically bouncing next to her, obliterating her ability to concentrate.
Tripp, who had remained surprisingly silent this whole time, let out a gruff, "Good God, they took their sweet time about it!"
Eric and Calleigh were kissing as if today was their last day on earth, drinking each other in like they could never have enough.
A few scattered chuckles could be heard around the table, but mostly, everyone kept their eyes glued on the couple across the sand, afraid they would miss something.
They finally broke apart, chests heaving. Only an inch or two separated their bodies, and they exchanged soft words and caresses for a minute. Eric leaned in and rested his forehead against Calleigh's for a long while.
Without warning, he yanked her off the rail and into his arms. Thirty eyeballs followed their every move as Eric spun her around and around. The shriek and delighted giggle that burst from Calleigh's lips could be heard clearly over the distance.
Just as quickly as he had pulled her from her perch on the rail, Eric set Calleigh down again, claiming her lips fiercely with his.
"Stay here," they heard him say.
Calleigh said something that looked like a hazy, "What?"
Eric was racing away from Calleigh, across the sand toward the parking lot. "Just stay there," he called louder, "Don't move, I'll be right back!"
From their vantage point, the group had the luxury of being able to see both the pier and the car park. Eric trudged quickly through the sand, disappearing behind a bunch of bushes, before reappearing again on the other side, keys in hand.
He was almost frantic with excitement now, and he dove toward the car and started looking for something inside. Once he found it, he proudly emerged and rushed back toward the beach and the woman standing on the pier.
Eric reached Calleigh, and they exchanged a few more words. Again, he said something that evoked a Grand-Canyon-sized smile on Calleigh's face. And—again—they were kissing like this was their last.
Eric cupped her face delicately with each of his hands, but there was nothing delicate about his kiss. It was long, and deep, and it shook both Eric and Calleigh to the core.
Reluctantly, they pulled apart so that they could breathe. Eric's fingertips remained on Calleigh's face, ghosting touches as he brushed kisses along her brow, her cheekbone, her jaw. One of his hands tore from her soft skin—not that she noticed—and Eric reached lightning-quick into his pocket.
Alexx gasped as she realized what was happening. It was only half a millisecond, but she saw the glint in the sunlight, and she knew exactly what Eric was looking for in his car. Another half-millisecond later, and a collective gasp rocked the air around the picnic table.
Eric knelt on one knee.
Calleigh froze for a moment, shock written on her features, before she brought both hands up to cover her gaping mouth and took a step back.
Eric never faltered, not once. Even though they couldn't hear the words, they could read them: "Marry me, Calleigh."
Did he just say that? Calleigh couldn't believe her ears. Marry me, Calleigh.
In front of her, on one knee, knelt Eric Delko, love of her life, asking her to marry him. No damn rules, no strings attached, no nothing. Just a lifetime of loving and being loved by him.
"Yes," she breathed so lightly he barely heard her.
"Yes?" he asked, even though he knew she couldn't say no.
"Yes!" Calleigh said firmly, and she tackled Eric with a bear hug so hard that they both fell over backwards onto the wooden planks of the pier.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes," she said between laughs and kisses. Calleigh was laying on top of Eric now, his arms ensconced tightly around her waist, legs a tangled mess. Neither of them cared that they were quickly becoming covered in sand, or that they looked utterly ridiculous.
Eric shifted them so that they came to a sitting position, Calleigh straddling his lap. He wanted this to be right.
"Cal, you're sure. Because I'm not going back on this," Eric warned. "I want it all, I want it all with you. I want it until we're old and gray and have to be bottle-fed."
"Old and gray it is," Calleigh laughed, planting a gentle, affirming kiss on Eric's lips. "Eric, I love you. I want this. I want you. All of you."
Eric's smile made Calleigh's heart skip a beat. Never, ever would she tire of seeing this man's amazing smile. He reached down to her left hand, and both of their eyes watched as he slowly, reverently slid the diamond ring on her finger.
Fifty feet away, fifteen sets of eyes saw it too. Before Eric and Calleigh had a chance to join their lips, they heard a tremendous roar of laughter, squeals, cat-calls, and applause.
Their heads whipped around to see fifteen people watching them intently, picnic completely forgotten. Horatio stood at one end of the table, hands on hips, surveying his two close friends. He gave them a nod of congratulations; Eric and Calleigh didn't need Horatio's blessing, but they loved and respected him, and having it meant a great deal to both of them.
Yelina stood next to Horatio and several giddy lab technicians, smiling brightly. Down the line, Alexx had tears streaming down her face, and Calleigh wasn't sure her smile could grow any wider. Valera was actually standing on the bench of the picnic table.
Next to her, Natalia was begrudgingly paying Ryan Wolfe two hundred dollars, and although her pocketbook hurt, it was a bet she'd gladly lose any day. Walter stood towering over them, pumping his fist and shouting, "Get it, Delko!" Jesse just stood awe-struck beside him, wondering when the hell this team had actually lost its mind.
Really, he didn't care. Jesse knew Eric from his days as a detective. Calleigh—he'd worked with her for months, and already her Southern charm had woven its way around his heart. He wished them both the best. Looking around at his co-workers, his friends, Jesse realized he was so glad to be back in Miami.
When he looked back, Eric and Calleigh were making their way over to the picnic table, fingers intertwined and faces bright red in embarrassment.
"Looks like you need a new phone, Eric," Horatio teased as they walked up.
In the heat of the moment with Calleigh, he'd forgotten all about the phone call and effing Sharova. Calleigh had a way of doing that to him. "Yeah," Eric ducked his head. "Umm, sorry H. I was a little—"
"Oh, who cares about the phone!" Valera cried. "Calleigh, let me see it!"
With that, the group descended on the couple, offering congratulations, sharing hugs and kisses, and asking a million questions.
"Honestly, Delko. How long?" Ryan asked his friend.
Eric and Calleigh shared an all-consuming look, silently speaking volumes with their eyes. They never really had much control over the intense bond they shared. Over the years, it grew and matured and morphed into something completely overwhelming and earth-shaking and life-altering. Three weeks ago, the two weren't sure they even had a future together. Now, it was all they could see.
With matching grins, they both said, "Twelve years, six months, and sixteen days."
"But we're not really keeping track," Calleigh said with a wink, wrapping her arms around Eric and pressing a loving kiss to his lips, one of a lifetime of kisses to come.