Title: Mixed Emotions
Author: Speedfanatic05
Rating: FRT
Classification: Drama/ Romance/ slight angst
Content Warning: Mild language
Spoilers: none
Pairing : none
Disclaimer: Not mine, don't have a conniption
Challenge Fic #6
Challenge Word: #12, Broken
Summary: Every action has a reaction...
He saw her walking down the corridor, her head held up straight, but the usual perkiness gone from her gait. For almost three days, something had been wrong with Calleigh, but for the life of him, Tim couldn't figure out what it was. When he had left her , everything was as it should've been; they had spent some time together, and like usual , she saw him off. It wasn't until the next day that a different Calleigh emerged, one who didn't speak to him, or even look at him. It was as if he were an apparition that she chose not to see, like he didn't exist to her. He had decided to give her time to come to him with whatever was bothering her, but as the first day passed, then the second, and finally today, he realized , that this wasn't going to go away easily. Something was wrong, and he was determined to get down to the bottom of it.
Trotting to catch up with her, he called out to her, and for a moment, he noticed that she kept going. When he got closer to her, he reached out to her, she spinning on her heels, her long blond hair tied neatly in a long braid moving along with her. Her expression was devoid of any emotion, but it was within her eyes that the concern crept up inside of him. Never had he seen the dullness that now permeated through them.
"Calleigh, didn't you hear me call you?" Tim asked, frowning at this new persona she had taken.
"I- I'm sorry, Tim. I didn't hear you. What can I do for you?" Calleigh asked as normal as she could. Despite her attempts, Tim could see the despair that was treading near the edge.
" There's something going on with you, Calleigh. I don't know what it is, but it's got you."
"Don't be silly, Tim. I've just been tired is all. Have you seen my case load?" Calleigh asked, a strained smile coming to the surface. She had neither the strength nor the desire to hash this out in the middle of the lab.
"This has nothing to do with case loads, Cal. It's deeper than that."
She dropped her head, the memories of what she did with him running through her mind. With her sights trained on the floor beneath her, she struggled with telling him the truth, knowing that with every action there was an equal but opposite reaction. The problem was, she didn't know what Tim's reaction would be. She had told him very little of her past with Jake, and in truth , she now wished that it had stayed just that, the past.
Lifting her head, she connected with Tim's eyes, seeing his struggle to understand her, and then noticed the door open. Staring past Tim, she felt her breath hitch in her throat as she saw him enter the corridor, being accompanied by Frank , wearing of all things, a suit and tie. Calleigh glanced nervously to the right, spying the door to the break room, wanting desperately to walk through it, her thoughts running like mad through her brain. Before she could make an escape, Frank addressed them as he came closer, gesturing to his companion.
"Speedle, Calleigh, this is Jake Berkeley. He just transferred from the ATF into our department," Frank explained as Jake stepped forward.
Calleigh felt the bile rise up in her throat, threatening to come up as he threw her a faint smile. Forcing it down, she returned the smile and stuck her hand out, "Nice to meet you, Detective Berkeley."
"Nice to meet you, Calleigh," Jake returned, taking her hand and shaking it. Tim watched the exchange with a wary eye, noticing the tension that now surrounded them. "Speedle, was it?"
"Yeah," Tim responded as Jake let go of Calleigh's hand and offered it to Tim. Tim took it and gripped it tightly, " So, ATF? What, it got boring?"
Jake smirked as he let a slight chuckle out, glancing to Calleigh, " Needed a change of pace. Had some unfinished business to take care of."
Calleigh could feel her world shrinking as well as his eyes on her, making her nauseous. Now more than ever did she want to disappear. Shifting her weight, she half listened to them as they exchanged words, her heart beating ridiculously fast. Why in the world was he here?
"Calleigh," Frank called , bringing her out of her stupor. Calleigh snapped to attention, blinking her eyes rapidly as both Tim and Jake looked at her, both expressions on varying ends of concern. " Calleigh, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Calleigh returned, glancing at her watch. "I've got to go. Evidence awaits. Nice to meet you again, Detective."
Jake nodded his head and smirked as Calleigh turned around and started walking away, watching with an approving eye . Tim kept his eyes on her as well, his mind confounded at the present state of his girlfriend and wondering if there was any plausible explanation to her actions.
Frank came between the two men and gave Jake a pat on the arm, " We've got some more to do, Berkeley."
"Okay, Frank," Jake responded back. He turned to Tim and spoke gesturing to where Calleigh had been, "So, you and her?"
"Wh- what?" Tim asked, doing a double take, his eyebrow now arched at the random remark.
"Are you guys together?"
"As much as I don't think it's any of your business, yeah we are."
"Lucky. She's a keeper that's for sure," Jake said, his grin widening. He started after Frank, turning around, "See ya later, Speed."
Tim glared at him for a moment before turning and heading for his lab, the events that were unfurling , tossing about in his mind. Something was going on.
t
Standing on the patio, she sighed heavily as she watched the sun lose it's battle with the darkness, it now retreating into the western skyline. The day had been difficult for her, her attempts to stay away from both Tim and Jake had been somewhat successful. The hardest thing about it was working side by side with Tim, but providing no interaction with him unless it was deemed necessary. She was sure that her odd behavior was throughly confusing Tim, but her emotions were getting the best of her. How should she feel with having had slept with her former boyfriend? At the moment, she gave no thought to what would surely come afterwards, but merely feeding into the insatiable need that Jake had left with her. Now, in the purple hues of the early evening, she cursed herself for acting out of emotion instead of logic. Emotion was what had started everything.
"Damned emotions," she said to herself as the breeze kicked up, blowing her long blond hair behind her. Tears began to well in her eyes at the thoughts of what this would do to Tim, how hurt and broken he would be at the knowledge that she had shared her bed with another man just minutes after him.
Wiping her tears away, she gazed out into calmness of the Atlantic and stood up straight, a thought running through her. She knew what she had to do to make this all right.
t
Tim walked into the break room, his thoughts centered on Calleigh. All night he had tried to get up with her, calling her at first then , when she didn't answer, he rode by her house to see the lights off and her car gone. He was perplexed at this, unable to understand how she could just turn him off like that. After almost two years together, he would've thought that he had known her by now, but apparently, he hadn't. There was still many layers that he had to unfold to get to the real Calleigh.
Crossing the floor, he reached the refrigerator, noticing that her cup wasn't in it's rightful place in the dish drainer. Usually, she would beat them all here and would've had her first cup of coffee before going down into her beloved firearms lab to begin her work. The absence of that started his mind working. If he could recall correctly, Calleigh wasn't scheduled to be off until the weekend.
The door opened and he turned, half expecting to see her bright green eyes, instead being met with Eric's irritated brown ones. He watched as the Cuban walked to the coffee maker and slammed a folder down on the counter top, his anger very visible now. Tim snickered at the gesture as he reached for a water bottle and closed the refrigerator, turning to face his best friend, leaning on the counter top opposite of him, leveling the water with his lips.
"Bad night, Delko?" Tim asked, the bottle poised to his mouth.
"No... no," Eric responded, gesturing to the now discarded file, "I went down to firearms to get some results from Calleigh only to find Marks."
"Maybe he's filling in," Tim brushed off, realizing now that Calleigh could've called in.
"She's gone."
"What?" Tim asked dropping the bottle slightly, his eyes now focused on Eric. "What do you mean , gone?"
" I mean gone. Marks told me that she put in her resignation this morning and left."
"She resigned?" Tim asked once more, placing the bottle on the counter top. "What for?"
"I don't know, but what I do know is that I have to now wait for Marks to go through her files to get me the results. That could take forever."
Tim nodded, barely listening to him as he filled his hands with his cell, dialing her number furiously. He heard the first ring and sighed heavily, his heart beating insanely fast. What was happening?
" The number you have reached is disconnected..."
"What the..." Tim remarked as he looked to the cell. He then hung up and dialed another number, walking away from Eric. As he opened the break room door, he heard her voice mail message come up.
"This voice mail box is full..."
Hanging up the phone, he walked rapidly down the corridor, heading for Horatio's office. He needed answers and quickly.
t
Jake pulled into her driveway, noticing right off that something was different. Getting out of the car, he thought about what they had shared days ago, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. If that was any indication of what he was looking for, he was sure that she would be in his arms, for good, by the weekend. It was as if they had picked up right where they left off. He could already imagine her giving Speedle the boot, his grin deepening. Served him right to think he could slip in on another man's girl.
Chuckling to himself, he opened the storm door and knocked, the sound of his pounding reverberating off of the wood. Standing back, he peered into the house through a window to see if there was any signs of her, remembering that he hadn't seen her all day at work. Shrugging, he walked around the house, whistling to himself, thinking about all the things that he was going to do with her for the rest of his life. He had her now, and he intended for her to remain. Just as he reached the patio, he heard footsteps behind him and he turned to see him standing there, a glare like none other riding his face. Jake smirked at him and turned completely towards him as he approached, his demeanor turning almost homicidal.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Tim asked his gestures reflecting the true testament of where he was. Just earlier, he had learned that Calleigh had left, with no word of where she was going, or if she would return. Now, he stood face to face with what could have driven her away.
"Looking for someone," Jake responded glibly as he glanced behind him to the patio.
"She's not here. She left this morning, Jake."
"Left?" Jake asked , frowning.
"Yeah, as in gone, without a trace."
"Right,..."
"Don't believe me? Take a look," Tim stated, his anger starting to lace his words as he pointed to the patio door. Jake glanced at the door then back to him. " I read up on you, Jake. You were in the academy with her."
"Yeah, we were great together," Jake said absently as he turned his back on him and walked to the patio, putting his hands on the door, " Once you experience love like that, it's hard to walk away from it."
" But you had no bones about doing so to pursue your career, right? Tim asked sarcastically as Jake shrugged. Tim sighed heavily and looked around before addressing him again, "So, let me get this right, you decide after almost six years to reappear and claim what you thought was yours? Think your plan succeeded there, Berkeley?"
"Hey, we all make mistakes. But I intend on rectifying mine," Jake said as he looked into the home, finally seeing what Tim said to be true. Her furniture, her paintings, everything, was gone. Dropping his hands, he shook his head slightly before turning . "She's not here."
"Really," Tim said, the sarcastic tone sticking.
Jake glared at him then moved to walk away, being caught by Tim's grasp, " You might not want to do that."
"It's because of you, you asshole, that she's gone."
"I'll find her," Jake responded as he snatched his arm out of Tim's grasp. "And when I do, she is going to be mine."
Tim stood still as Jake walked away, watching as he crossed the road and got into the car, sitting there for a moment before peeling away from the curb. It was then and there that he decided that Calleigh's love was worth fighting for, and he wasn't going to let her go without one.