A one-shot between Calleigh and Eric after the finale. Based on the song "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" by The Script.
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: Miami, CBS does.
Where I First Saw You
It has been two weeks since Eric had gone missing. Eric knew H had every possible person working to try to find him. There were cars set up at his house, Calleigh's house, the lab, everywhere they could think of that he'd show up. Just, no one had thought of the one place he really was.
This is where Eric had been since he left the hospital. Eric had managed to go to a hospital before the team had all of the ones in Miami being watched. The bullet that Calleigh had shot had only grazed him, but he had gotten it taken care of at the ER. Horatio probably knew that Eric had been to the hospital, but was still having them watched.
Eric had been sitting at this bar for two weeks. He was at a pub and in the corner of his eye, Eric could see the exact place he first saw her. In that corner booth almost a decade ago, Eric Delko first met the woman that would become the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. This was the place he first met Calleigh Duquesne.
Eric came here because it was the only place he figured no one would find him, the last place they would look. And, so far he was right; two weeks and not a soul Eric knew had stepped through the door. The first day Eric came the bartender only asked one question,
"Lady
troubles?"
"Something like that." Eric replied as he took
another swig of his drink.
"Stay as long you like, son."
On multiple occasions Eric would simply stare at Calleigh's name on the contact list of his phone. Too many times to count, he had almost pressed the call button. He never did though, not yet. Eric knew that if he were to call Calleigh she would come bursting into the place with the entire team at he back. That isn't what he wanted; he wanted Calleigh. Only Calleigh was the person Eric wanted to come and find him.
So here Eric stayed, at the bar of the pub where he first saw the soon-to-be love of his life. Here he waited, for the courage to finally press 'Call' and to tell Calleigh where he was.
Calleigh was a wreck. Everyone in the lab could see it: the lines on her face, the frown that was the opposite of her usual smile, the redness of her eyes from all of the tears she had been crying. No said anything though, except Horatio, who would constantly tell Calleigh to go home, but he was always told, "Not until we find Eric."
A few days after the search for Eric began, Horatio forbid Calleigh for going to look for him herself, knowing all too well that if it were up to her, no one would ever stop for even a second.
To pass the time, Calleigh spent all of her time in her lab. She would clean all of her guns (which by now were spotless), she would practice her shots (which she would stop shortly after staring because of Eric's face in her mind), and stare at her phone. She would pray that the one time her phone would ring, Eric's name would be the one flashing on the caller id. After two weeks, he still hadn't called.
Ryan and Natalia would watch Calleigh in her lab, neither saying a word for neither knew what to say. To say he was alive and well was too much of a lie for anyone to bear. Then one day, as the pair watched their friend stare at her cell, they saw her eyes widen.
Calleigh was speechless when her phone began to vibrate and the name flashed on the caller id. Eric. He was calling; after two weeks he was calling. Calleigh picked up the phone and pressed it extremely hard to her ear,
"Eric?"
No answer. Natalia had come into the lab after realizing who it was and Ryan had gone to get H.
"Eric?!" Calleigh felt tears begin to come to her eyes, "Eric, please! Say something!"
Still no answer.
"Eric!" Calleigh sobbed into the phone.
Little did she know that her voice cracking broke his heart, "Calleigh…"
"Eric?"
"Cal…"
"Oh, thank god! Eric, where are you?" Calleigh sobbed again as Horatio entered the room with Ryan.
"Just you, Cal…I only want you…" Eric hoped Calleigh understood what he was saying.
"Okay, Eric I get it. Just tell me where you are!" Calleigh, of course, understood.
Eric paused.
"Where
the hell are you, Eric Delko?"
At any other time, Eric would
have cracked a joke about the use of his whole name. But this wasn't
any other time.
"Where we…first met." With that Eric hung up.
"Eric? Eric?" Calleigh tried but it was no use, he was gone again.
Calleigh noticed her tears and the others in the room. She wiped her face,
"He's alive."
Horatio
stepped forward, "Calleigh did he tell you where he was?"
Calleigh
nodded and shook her head at the same time, "Kind of. He didn't
say a place though."
Ryan and Natalia were both extremely confused by this.
"Then how could he have told you where he was if he didn't say a place?" Ryan asked.
"He said, 'Where we first met.'"
"Okay, that should be easy. You guys met here right, on one of your first days?"
"No, Natalia. We didn't meet here for the first time. I can't remember where it was." Calleigh felt like she was about to cry again, but put on a brave face in front of everyone, "I need to go think."
Calleigh left Ryan, Natalia, and Horatio in her lab as she went to the locker room. She sat on one of the benches between the rows of lockers and rested her head in her hands.
"Where are you, Eric?" She wondered aloud. Calleigh sat there for about ten minutes before remembering something.
One night about a month ago, Eric was at Calleigh's. The two were lying on the couch watching a movie, Calleigh was sprawled on Eric's chest and Eric's fingers were absentmindedly running through Calleigh's blonde hair. As the credits were rolling on the screen Eric kissed her forehead,
"I remember the day I first met you."
Calleigh looked up at him, "You do not. That was almost ten years ago."
Eric laughed, "I do to remember. It was the weekend before I officially started working at the lab, though I had already gotten the job."
"Hmmm, I don't remember."
"Obviously."
Calleigh playfully smacked Eric on the chest.
"Anyway," Eric continued his story, "Speed had asked me if I wanted to go out of dinner with the whole team. At the time, it was H, Yelina, Speed, and you. I agreed thinking I could meet my coworkers before I was pressured on the job."
Now it was Calleigh's turn to laugh, "You were never pressured."
Eric rolled his eyes, "That night everyone was at a pub and I first saw you."
Calleigh smiled and kissed Eric sweetly on the lips. She asked him where this pub was so that they could go back there someday…
Just then, Calleigh (back in the locker room) remembered the pub's name and where it was: Jonson's Pub on 37th.
Calleigh grabbed her keys and headed to the front of the building. When she reached her hummer Horatio had caught up to her,
"Calleigh, where are you going?"
"I know where Eric is and I'm going to go get him." Calleigh opened the door.
"Ma'am, someone should go with you."
"No." Calleigh snapped quickly, "Eric said he just wanted me to go, I'll bring him back here. I promise, Horatio."
Horatio let go of the door and watched Calleigh drive out of site.
Eric was still waiting at the bar. He was beginning to think that Calleigh didn't remember where they first met and that she would never come. He took another drink just as he heard a familiar voice say his name. He turned around to see Calleigh walking toward him,
"You remembered." He breathed taking Calleigh in his arms.
She nodded and wrapped her arms around her neck. Calleigh buried her head into his chest, as she kept repeating the phrase, "Thank God, thank God."
The couple held on to each other for a long time, only to be interrupted when the bartender asked for Eric to pay for the food and drinks he's had. Eric paid and Calleigh walked him out to the hummer.
"Why did you come here of all places? Why not a hospital, Eric?" Calleigh asked as the stood outside the pub.
Eric told Calleigh everything that had happened since the shooting. And, when he was finished Calleigh kissed him firmly on the mouth. Eric kissed her back. Calleigh then took Eric back to the lab where the team was waiting to question Eric. The whole time, Eric kept his arm around Calleigh's waist and every so often would place a kiss in her hair, or on her cheek or lips.
Ryan was the only to voice their opinion of the obvious relationship the two CSIs were in; "I knew it!" was all he said.
Here is the line that the title comes from, from the song mentioned at the beginning:
Goin back to the corner where I first saw you,
Gonna camp in my sleeping bag I'm not gonna move
Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it! Please review.
~Wishing4rain
