Title: Return Home
Pairing: Nick/Calleigh
Summary: Nick/Cal Sequel to "Vegas Baby!"
Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine so there really is no reason to sue.
A/N: Kelly, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did writing it ;)
Chapter 1
Calleigh closes the door to her condo then drops her bags on the floor. Taking her purse off her shoulder, she flings it on her couch as she makes her way to the patio door. It feels so good to slide the door open and let the fresh air in.
Home, she thinks. I'm back home.
It would be fine if she was happy to be back but really she's sad she had to leave. The trip wasn't nearly long enough. She takes a look around after a few good intakes of fresh air. She feels like taking a bath to relax and unwind from the traveling.
She's tired and glad there isn't anyone to disturb her because she wouldn't mind not seeing a soul for a few days after the madness of airplane traveling.
Apparently, as her eyes scan her home, nothing has changed. She'll check her emails later and decides the mail can wait as well. She'd rather stay in for a while, than go back down to fetch her mail.
She notices her answering machine flashing. Pressing the button she hears the robotic female voice say:
"You have four new messages."
Calleigh strolls over to the bags she discarded near the door and carries them into the bedroom while listening to the messages.
"Message one, six thirty four pm, Friday April second. Hi Calleigh, it's Alexx." Calleigh smiles at her friend's gentle voice. It's good to hear her. "I just wanted to make sure you had a safe trip back. Call me and tell me all about it. I want details." She's smiling, Calleigh can tell by her voice. "We sure missed ya, hon. Talk to you soon, bye now."
Calleigh makes a mental note to call Alexx while looking around her room. It's still a mess from when she made her bags.
Emptying her suitcases, she tries to remember how happy she was before she left but it seems desolate compared to the way she felt in Las Vegas.
"Message two, seven oh one pm, Friday April second. Welcome back, Calleigh. Hope you had a nice trip and enjoyed your vacation. I hate to lay this on you now but the lab seriously needs your ballistic expertise. We've got a hot one, Cal. I'd be grateful if you'd come in as soon as possible. Take care." Work, she thinks; back to reality, back to the life she had with no time for herself.
There's no third message; someone has hung up without leaving one..
She throws her clothes in the laundry hamper and decides she's going have a good night's sleep then she's going to go for a run tomorrow morning and she'll clock-in in the afternoon to help out at the Lab.
"Message four, eight sixteen pm, Friday April second, Hey babe," Calleigh crouches out of her closet and straightens immediately at the sound of his voice, bumping her head in the process. She holds back a curse and listens eagerly. "I know we said we wouldn't do this because it never works but I really wanted to call and see how you were doin'." So, how you holding up? D'you have a nice flight? Back to the warm weather, huh, sweetpea? Okay, well, call me if you want or not... it's up to you." There's a short silence. "I miss you." Then, a click and the line is cut off.
She's braced herself on the wall while listening to his words and now she slowly slides down to sit on the hardwood floor. Her heart refuses to do as her mind tells her. Get on with your life, forget him. You said goodbye because it would have been complicated otherwise. Still, her heart longed to see him again.
Nick.
She peers around again. Nothing visible has changed but her life has taken a huge turn, spinning out of control and now she feels lost, trapped even in a life that she no longer wishes to be hers. She regrets walking away without saying that she wanted to see him again.
It can't get any worse Calleigh thinks as she finally settles down with her sandwich in the layout room. God what a day The team arrives shortly. First, Eric and Tim. Then, twenty minutes through lunch break, Horatio strolls in; always reluctant to leave an ongoing case. Food is just to keep his body working, nothing else. Cases plague his mind until he solves them. If he could, he wouldn't even stop to eat.
Calleigh looks around. The boys are chatting about sports and Horatio is drizzling dressing on his salad. Her gaze returns to her half eaten sandwich, which she puts into the plastic wrap from which it originally came. She's lost the will to eat. She knows very well she'll pay for it later when her empty stomach talks back but she doesn't feel like eating. She doesn't feel like doing anything, doesn't feel like being here...
Another day has passed and her coworkers keep telling her how she looks tired and how much she's changed since her trip to Vegas.
Crawling into bed, she picks up her book from the nightstand. She tries reading but her mind considerably elsewhere; she has to read the same line over and over again to get her brain to focus. Frustrated, she sets it aside and hugs her pillow. She isn't just lonely and tired, she realizes; she's in love.
Nothing makes the emptiness she feels go away. She dives head first in ballistic analysis, hiding under a mountain of casework, works out more than usual, goes out dancing, all in an attempt to take her mind of of things.
She refuses to talk about how she feels to Alexx because she knows it doesn't make any sense for her to be still hung up on a man she saw almost two weeks ago. Ten days, six hours and thirdy seven minutes to be precise. God, she's counting. She really hates herself for it and is slowly starting to think that she's insane.
She's sitting alone in the layout room, cup of coffee in hand when Speed comes to sit by her.
"Hey Calleigh."
"Hey," her voice is uncharacteristically monotonous and her gaze is fixed and hazy.
"Still thinking about that dude from Vegas, huh."
She brings her cup to her lips, avoiding conversation.
"I don't understand why you're still hopped up on him. I mean he has probably long since forgotten you..."
"Thanks Tim." She sends him knifes with her eyes.
"No, I didn't mean it that way. I mean yeah, he probably has, but you shouldn't be so attached to people like that, it's not healthy."
"Are you saying I should date a different guy every week like you and Eric do 'cause I'm not like that."
"I know you're not but you have to move on..."
She looks at him squarely from the rim of her cup.
"Suit yourself." Speed walks out.
TBC...
