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Replaceable.

Speed, Alexx, Tara-- they'd all been replaced so easily, as if without a second thought given to their replacements.

Speed got Ryan, the OCD guy who ended up getting shot in the eye with a nail and developing a gambling addiction. Alexx got Tara, the ME who stole the victims' drugs to satisfy her drug addiction. Tara got some jittery, stuttering, creepy-seeming ME who really made him uncomfortable.

Speed had been with them forever, or that's how it'd felt. Ever since he'd been there, he'd relied on the more experienced CSI to help him out. They were best friends, on the clock and off, and there was no disputing that. Speed had been like a son to Alexx (and, he assumed, Horatio) and a brother to Calleigh. Yet they had all replaced him, that easily, just because Ryan Wolfe knew how to clean a gun. Everyone but him let the new guy into their hearts with welcoming arms. Nobody else was going to put Ryan in his place. Eric tried, and he was chastised for it. For remembering his friend.

Alexx had been there longer than Speed had. Her replacement took longer -- they had bad luck with medical examiners after her, it seemed -- but they got one. And yeah, Tara was welcomed just as easily as Wolfe, if not easier. He'd put on a brave face then, pretended to like her right off the bat because he knew he needed to. That was different, too; it was easier to like her. It wasn't easy, still, but it was easier. Because Alexx wasn't dead. Alexx was a phone call away.

Too bad that Tara's in jail now, and they've got somebody new. He's only seen the new ME once, barely talked to him for more than a minute, but he'd already gotten some bad feelings about it. But still, nobody seemed to really dislike him. Nobody but Eric.

He'd watched all of them go. Maybe not come, but he had sure seen them go. Now they were left with Horatio, Tripp and Calleigh. That was it. Everybody else had been a replacement, all except maybe Natalia. And she hadn't come on the best of terms, either.

He was just another name on the list now. Another name on the list of those who had come, who had served, and who were being replaced. He'd seen the way that everybody else had gone, he'd seen the way that every replacement walked in those doors and how everyone had accepted them as though they'd been there forever. He had always been the only one who was hesitant, who made sure their old friend had been remembered, the one who made sure they weren't replaced without a fight. He had been the one who kept their memory alive in everyone's mind as long as he could before finally being made to let it go.

And now, he was the one being replaced. There wasn't another Eric Delko in the building to do the same thing for him. He knew what was going to happen. To say he was okay with it would be a lie, but he accepted it. He really didn't have a choice, though, did he? He had set a new record. He'd beaten Speed, Alexx, Tara, and all of the tech personnel that walked in and out of the building.

He was the only one they replaced before he was even gone.

That really said something, didn't it?

At least Speed got to go out with a bang. He felt bad even thinking it, but he knew it was true. Speed got to just go. Alexx got her good-byes; she got to see the whole team one more time before her replacement stepped in. She even got the satisfaction of knowing that she had been the hardest one to replace. Tara got all eyes on her. She had everyone watching her as she left, handcuffed and followed by a policeman. She got to have everyone looking at her one last time.

Eric Delko gets to be pushed out, slowly but surely, until all he is, is a memory left in their brains, never thought about. Eric Delko gets to fade away into obscurity. Eric Delko gets to be the one that everyone forgets about, until one day it registers in their brains and they all ask, "What ever happened to Eric? When'd he leave?" Eric Delko gets to be the one and only who is so, so, so very replaceable that he gets replaced before he even gets the chance to hand in his badge. He gets to be the one who gets replaced before they even know they need to replace him.

Eric Delko knows he's just another name on the list.

If they even remember to put him on there.