A/N: Set in Season 6, post-Jake. Not beta'd. Just a fun little piece about what could have happened...
I have two weeks until my thesis defense, so I'm only posting stories I've already completed for now. As soon as life settles down, I will continue updating my unfinished stories. Thanks so much for all your positive feedback about my work! Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Eric held the crime scene tape up for Calleigh to walk under and nodded at the officer standing guard. When he turned back around, she was already zooming toward the warehouse in front of them.
"Calleigh, wait!"
"Eric, I have nothing to say to you."
"Wait!" Eric said more vehemently now, hooking a hand around Calleigh's arm to slow her down.
The lab received a call-out around the corner from headquarters just as shift ended. Since everyone but Calleigh and Eric had already gone home, they begrudgingly grabbed their kits and left for the crime scene.
"Please, Cal. Just listen." With a frustrated sigh, Calleigh came to a sudden stop and spun on her heel to face Eric. She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows as if to say 'get on with it.'
"Cal, I didn't—" he tried to say, but Calleigh cut him off when her impatience got the best of her.
"You had no right to do what you did."
"I was trying to protect you!"
"I don't need your protection, Eric!" Calleigh nearly yelled.
Eric gave up. He set his kit on the ground with a loud thud and threw his hands up in the air. "You know what?" he said with anger to match Calleigh's. "You don't get it. You'll never get it! I just—I quit. I quit."
They stood two feet from the door of the warehouse, fifty feet from their victim, and Eric had no intention of going inside with this woman. He had enough. So he whipped around and headed back toward the Hummer, leaving his kit behind on the ground.
"I don't get what? Eric, you can't just walk away!" Calleigh called after him with indignation.
Now a new feeling settled in Eric's stomach, and he rushed back to her with fire in his eyes. "Walk away? You think I'm walking away?" he was pacing in front of her now, motioning wildly. Eric shook his head, trying to form coherent sentences out of his angry internal tirade.
"Calleigh, I wasn't just trying to protect you, okay? I am well aware of your talent at kicking ass. Did you ever stop to think I was protecting myself?" He spied the look of confusion on her face, and that confirmed it to him. No, she didn't.
"I was being selfish, Cal! So what? For once, I decided to protect my own heart, because you don't seem too concerned about doing that."
Calleigh's eyes narrowed. Is that where this conversation was going? How dare he? "That has nothing to do with why you had me pulled off a triple homicide this morning!"
"It has everything to do with it! A suspect threatens to kill you, and I'm just supposed to pretend it's not a big deal. Yeah, I went into overprotective mode. But do you have any idea how I would feel if something happened to you?" Eric's chest heaved with the force of his emotion.
"So this is all about you, then?" Calleigh seethed. She shook her head and took a step toward the warehouse entrance. "I'm not doing this, Eric. We can't go there."
Eric grabbed her arm and stopped her from opening the door. "I'm already there!" He sighed and dropped his hand. "Calleigh, I am in love with you. I'm in love with you and I can't change that."
Calleigh's eyes went wide. She numbly stepped back, away from Eric. Tears began to build in her eyes and she turned her body so Eric couldn't see.
Tentatively, Eric came to stand behind her. He gently placed his palms on her arms and waited for her response. When Calleigh made no move to push him away, he said, "I'm just asking for a chance, Cal."
Calleigh refused to turn around. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "Can we please do this later?" Her walls were rapidly disintegrating, and she needed a safe place to have this discussion.
Eric dropped his hands and backed away. He covered the few steps to grab his kit before he answered her, dejectedly, and with barely concealed anger. "Sure, Cal. Whatever you want."
At that, Calleigh finally turned to face him, because Eric had it wrong. "I'm not saying no, Eric," she said softly.
All of Eric's anger dissipated in an instant, replaced by distant hope. "No?"
She shook her head and offered him a small smile. "No. I just don't want to do this here."
A blinding smile spread across Eric's features, and it nearly caused Calleigh to rethink her decision about the appropriateness of doing this here and now. Waiting didn't seem like an option anymore, not with Eric's blunt confession and contagious spirit.
"Tonight?" he asked, unmitigated hope displayed evidently on his face.
With a nod, and a playfully-exasperated smile, Calleigh said, "Tonight. You're so persistent!"
Eric laughed. "I've been in love with you for years, Cal, and you just told me I have a shot. So yeah, I'm a little impatient."
The words seemed to fall freely from his lips now, and Calleigh rather liked the way they sounded. She turned back to the door, and placing one hand on the handle, turned over her shoulder to peer at Eric (who was a lot closer than she thought he was).
"You have more than just a shot, Delko." With that statement and a brazenly-appreciative look at Eric's tall figure, Calleigh tossed her hair and yanked the door open, leaving a dumbfounded and desire-ridden Eric to follow behind her.
They made it two steps before they froze in their tracks, dropping their kits to the concrete floor in simultaneous crashes: directly in front of them was no crime scene at all, but fifty of their closest friends and colleagues, all wearing identical looks of shock on their faces. Hanging from the rafters above the group were two large banners: "Happy Birthday, Eric!" and "Congratulations, Calleigh!"
For what seemed the longest ten seconds of their lives, Calleigh and Eric stood gaping at the crowd before them. The crowd stood gaping back, until finally, lamely, a voice spoke up: "Surpriiise!" Natalia called miserably into the silent room.
Today was, in fact, Eric's thirty-fifth birthday. And three days ago, Calleigh had received a prestigious award from the State of Florida for her outstanding work as a criminalist. Both of them knew that the people at the lab were planning a joint celebration, but neither dreamed they might trick them into attending a surprise party at a fake call-out.
Calleigh groaned, and she tried unsuccessfully to hide her bright red face against Eric's shoulder, who had shuddered to a stop a fraction of a second later than she did and now stood slightly in front of her. His hand came up to scrub his face, resting finally over his mouth in disbelief; this could not be happening.
But it was, indeed, happening. Through her mortification, Calleigh watched as 'Oh my God' faces slowly turned into 'I told you so' and 'It's about damn time' faces. She didn't know if she was angrier that all of her closest friends and almost every one of her colleagues had just invaded one of the most pivotal, private moments of her life, or that none of them seemed to be too surprised it had happened.
"Mr. Delko, Ms. Duquesne," drawled a familiar voice. Eric surreptitiously reached behind him and intertwined his fingers with Calleigh's; she held on for dear life. They'd been screaming at each other only seconds before, acting completely unprofessional and discussing an entirely inappropriate topic. This could not be good. Everyone else in the room seemed to think the same thing, because the air had suddenly become thick with tension.
"I'm very disappointed in the both of you," Horatio deadpanned, causing both Eric and Calleigh's stomachs to drop. Their LT simply stood there and made them sweat for a moment, and dread filled the couple in anticipation of his next reprimand. Instead, he smiled that rare, beautiful Horatio Caine smile, and said with a laugh, "You two should have figured this out a long time ago."
The room erupted in roaring laughter, snorts, high-fives, and the voices of fifty people talking at once. Eric and Calleigh remained silent, rooted to the spot with jaws dropped wide open. "You're not…mad?" Eric asked hesitantly, still fearing the wrath of his boss.
He received the kindness of his brother-in-law. "Of course not, Eric," Horatio said smiling. "I'm very happy for you both. You deserve to be together."
Eric remained silent, still, thinking that wonders would never cease. H just chuckled, and as he turned to the group behind him, he called over his shoulder to Eric, "Just keep it out of the office!" With a wink to Calleigh, he disappeared into the crowd.
Seeing the expectant faces around the "crime scene," Eric made a move to follow in Horatio's direction. Calleigh's hand, wrapped tightly in his own, kept him from taking a step away from her. Questioning her action, Eric retreated, this time coming face to face with the woman he knew he'd spend the rest of his life loving.
"Calleigh?"
She met his deep brown eyes with her emerald ones, tugging him even closer with their interlocked fingers. When she stood only inches from his face, Calleigh sighed and remarked mischievously, "I guess we won't get to talk tonight, after all."
Eric caught the gleam in her eye, but he was unsure what game she was playing.
"As long as you're not still angry with me…" Eric trailed off contritely. He was well aware of the fact that he really had overstepped his bounds today, even if Horatio had agreed that Calleigh's safety was at risk.
Calleigh smiled sweetly, and Eric thought he might melt at the look in her penetrating green eyes. "I can never stay mad at you, Eric," she said softly, pulling him an inch closer. "I love you."
The last was but a whisper, but Eric heard it. Calleigh's smile widened as she witnessed pure joy spread across Eric's features, but it quickly turned into a harassed-looking frown when Eric jerked away from her and abruptly turned to the party-goers.
"Horatio!" Eric yelled, his cry echoing through the warehouse and drowning the sounds of the forty people still watching his every move. "H!" The room went quiet as Eric spied the man he was looking for, by the buffet along the far wall. Horatio raised his head and pegged Eric with a look that indicated he was listening.
"This isn't the office, right?"
Horatio perceived Eric's intentions immediately, and cracked an approving grin. "No, Mr. Delko. This is most definitely not the office."
Paying no heed to the confused visages of his numerous friends, Eric spun back on his heel to face Calleigh, giving her no time to think before he plunged.
After years of waiting, years of wondering how she tasted and smelled and felt in his arms, Eric was finally kissing Calleigh. Their lips tangled in a deep, sensual embrace that left both of them panting and wishing to God that they were alone right now. Not wanting to give everyone a floor show (because that's exactly where things were headed), Eric slowly, grudgingly tore his lips from Calleigh's. He placed one last kiss to her swollen lips and received a hazy smile in return.
"Say that again," Eric demanded.
Calleigh stood on tip-toe to place a quick kiss to the corner of Eric's mouth, but she did not back away. Lips brushing agonizingly over his skin, she whispered, "I love you, Eric."
He swept her into his arms once more for a tremendous kiss of love and promise, holding her to his chest and letting her feet dangle slightly above the floor. This time, when they separated, they took a step back from each other; their hands remained intertwined, and Calleigh swore to herself that she would never let this man go.
Hand in hand, Eric and Calleigh made their way to greet the now rather raucous crowd. Hugs, handshakes, kisses, pats on the back, "Happy Birthdays," "Congratulations," and endless questions of "What the hell took you so long?" ensued.
Later that evening, after partying heartily and celebrating the milestones in their lives with their friends, Calleigh took Eric home to do a little celebrating of her own…