A/N: Just a heads up - I'm a sucker for happy endings and have been a Calleigh/Eric shipper since season one - if you want an unhappy ending this isn't the story for you. Sadly I can't promise the same for Jess but Don is just too pretty not to have some happiness.... With the exception of the first little bit most of this story will be written as a sequence of e-mails. I did this once before for a stargate story I wrote - hope the format doesn't annoy anyone too much (she says hoping anyone is going to read!)

Disclamer: If I owned it Don and Eric would be naked in showers a whole lot more!

Prologue

Miami

'So Calleigh, how are you doing today?' The therapist took a breath and looked at her most difficult patient. Any patient required to attend by MDPD was going to be reluctant but this woman took not wanting to talk to a whole new level.

'The same' Calleigh took a seat. They both knew she was only here because if she didn't come she wouldn't be allowed to work.

'Have they made any progress on Eric's case?' The therapist privately thought that it was unlikely that they ever would, but until her client admitted that they were never going to get anywhere.

'It's still open' and Calliegh was spending every free moment she had combing the area around where they had last seen Eric, not that she was going to admit to that. In the last six weeks she had barely slept, she ate only because everyone at the lab insisted on feeding her.

The rest of the session continued as it had started, with Calleigh giving only the briefest of answers and the therapist getting nowhere.

'Listen Calleigh, as you obviously don't want to talk to me, and you aren't talking to your friends why don't you try this?' The therapist handed over a card, a last resort. Calleigh looked down at it. 'It's an internet support group, for emergency services personnel who have lost people they worked with. Completely anonymous.'

New York

'How are you doing?' Stella approached Flack with two cups of coffee. She handed one to him and perched on his desk.

'Same old, same old' After a week of grieving Flack had put on his macho man act and now spent his time trying to pretend that he hadn't just lost his best friend and lover.

'How was the therapist?' Stella was one of the few people who would dare ask Flack a question like that, she knew that he respected her too much lose his temper with her. She was concerned that he was bottling everything up and everyone was letting him get away with it. All she could do was make sure that she was there when he finally broke down.

'Gave me something new' Something Flack would never have agreed to if it wasn't for knowing that it would stop Stella worrying about him for a while. 'An internet group of all things'

From: Cal09

Date: 07/07/09 23:42

Subject: Hi

Hi Yankee,

How are you doing? I hope you don't mind me e-mailing you. I lost my partner six weeks ago too. I saw your post on the group today. It's the only place anyone else seems to understand.

Calleigh

From: Yankee

Date: 08/07/09 22:02

Subject: Re:Hi

Hi Cal.

It's good to talk to you. I don't know what to say, how to start. E-mail isn't really my thing – my therapist told me about this group (don't you just love mandatory counselling?!!?!). Everyone wants me to talk about what happened. I can see my friends worrying about me. I just don't know how talking about Jess will help. She's gone and I know she isn't coming back. What do I do now?

Sorry, I'm getting maudlin and I don't even know you. What was your partners' name?

Don

From: Cal09

Date: 11/07/09 20.14

Subject: Re: Hi

Hi Don.

Sorry it's taken a couple of days. It's hard for me to talk about this, I don't know why I feel comfortable talking to a stranger like this but I sat down tonight and it seemed like the right time to write. He was called Eric. And the worst part is I don't know what happened to him. The file is still open. We found the car but no sign of Eric. Everyone thinks he is dead, I can see it in their eyes when they look at me. (My therapist certainly does – maybe we should compare notes?) They think I'm mad for not accepting it. Maybe I am.

You asked me what to do now? I guess the answer the shrinks would give is to grieve and move on. All I can do is work and hope to forget for a few minutes. Sometimes it works. It certainly feels like the rest of the world is forgetting Eric.

What happened to Jess? - Sorry, you don't have to answer that.

Calleigh

From: Yankee

Date: 13/07/09 02:38

Subject: Re: Hi

Cal,

I'm working the night shift but the boss won't give me any real cases and I haven't been assigned a new partner yet, guess no one wants to be around me – can't think why... Stella, Danny and the rest of the lab are the only people who try. On nights like this Jess and I used to go to this great little place for a slice. We'd never get to finish it, someone would always call in a Homicide and the rest of the shift would be gone. She used to joke that if cops would just stop eating pizza the homicide rate in New York would halve.

Anyway, instead of twiddling my thumbs, I figured I'd write you. I can only imagine what you are going through. I never thought I would ever be relieved that I held Jess in my arms as she died, but at least I got closure. If she was missing I'd be turning the city over looking for her. Are there any new leads in Eric's case?

And if you are going to tell me that I guess I should tell you. Jess got shot. We were on the phone talking about our dinner plans. She was with a convict, they were in a diner. The people he was going to testify against filled the place with bullets. I got to the diner before anyone else, I drove her to the hospital but it was too late. They told me she died in surgery but I knew she was gone when I let her go.

I can see Stella coming, more coffee...

I hope you are okay,

Don.

From: Cal09

Date: 14/07/09 23:42

Subject: Sunglasses

Hey Don,

I hope you don't mind but I lit a candle for Jess today. I'm not religious but Eric is. Going to his church helps me feel close to him. I don't know what the priest thinks of me. I come in and sit alone when it is empty, a white girl in a Cuban church. He never says anything, he just smiles and leaves me be.

There aren't any new leads in Eric's case. There haven't really been since the day we found the car. Last night was the first night I've had free that I didn't go out alone, searching. Alexx came round. She bought a bottle of wine and we talked about Eric, about the days he first joined the lab. I noticed you mentioned Stella and Danny from the lab. Are you a CSI as well? They sound like good people. Is it warm in New York – here in Miami we've just had the hottest day of the year? I was working a case of a body found in the glades, a husband shot by his wife. Being out in the glades is hard. I'm still looking for evidence about Eric everywhere.

I'm guessing a bit here but it sounds like Jess was more than just a work partner. It's okay if she was. Eric and I worked together for seven years before we got together. I made him wait such a long time. I wish I hadn't wasted so much time.

Calleigh

P.S. In Miami we joke that if our boss would leave his sunglasses at home for the day we could all take a vacation.

From: Yankee

Date: 15/07/09 04:06

Subject: Re:Sunglasses

If you work in Miami then I think I met your boss a couple of years ago, he came to NY for a case. Ginger? Kinda stood out in sunglasses inside the precinct. He's an old friend of Stella's? Harold? Henry? Hornblower? Something odd right?

I'm not a CSI, I've just spent a lot of time with them the last few years, working homicide. Danny is my best friend. He's a little busy at the moment, him and his wife Lindsey (she works at the lab too) have just had a baby girl, Lucy. I get to babysit this weekend. Being with Lucy is the best thing I do at the moment – she doesn't ask questions, she doesn't want to know how I'm feeling, she's just happy someone is there.

You were right about Jess. We were together just under a year when she got shot. At the time I thought it was hard dating someone I worked with. Now I wish I had just seen all the small stuff for what it was. Unimportant. I look back and think about all the fights we had over nothing, I wish I hadn't wasted so much time.

I can't believe it was only a week ago I posted on that web group. Stella said that she has seen a change in me this week – thanks (she doesn't look at me with the worried eyes so much.). You mentioned Eric when he first joined the lab - what was he like? I remember the first time I met Jess....

Better catch some sleep before Stella switches all my coffee for de-caff.

I hope you get some more leads soon,

Don