Calleigh was walking through the lab when she saw Eric walking straight for her.
"Hey." She said in her southern accent. It was the first time she'd seen him today, other than the few minutes this morning.
"Hey." He said in reply.
"What are you doing here? Where's your visitor pass?" she asked him
"I don't need one anymore." He said with a smile.
"What are you talking about?" she asked him confused.
"Well, I talked to Horatio and asked for my old job back. He said I could have it. Which means you're looking at CSI Delko." He said smiling.
"Oh my gosh! That's great! Congratulations." She gave him a hug.
"Yeah, I start work next week." He told her.
"Great, great." She said her smile fading.
"What's wrong Cal?" he said. He could tell something was bothering her now.
"It's nothing." She said
"Cal, I know something's wrong. You can tell me." He told her sympathetically.
"It's just…what about…what about us?" she said whispering because they were standing in the middle of the lab.
"What do you mean? We'll still do what we've been doing." He told her.
"What sneaking around!?" she said a little too loudly. "Eric all we do is sneak around. Frankly I'm tired of it." She said with a sigh. "I'm not going to stop seeing you. I never would. Besides, Rick knows were together, or were together. I'm not sure what Rick knows. You know as well as I do that you can't work with someone you have a relationship with, so what are we going to do?"
"Well…there's something else I didn't tell you Calleigh. I kind of told Horatio about us…" he said scared that she was going to shoot him.
"What? Why would you do that?" she said in an irritated tone.
"Well, I told him we were together and that even though I was coming back to work I didn't want us to end. So he went through the rule book and found something that said 'You may have a relationship with someone at work as long as the relationship didn't start at work.'" He told her.
"How does that help us when our relationship did start at work?" she asked him.
"Well, technically our relationship didn't start at work. Remember when you found out I was leaving, and then we broke up?" he asked her.
"Yeah…" she said in reply.
"And then we got back together about a week later cause we couldn't stand not seeing each other." He said.
"Yeah…" she said.
"Which means we didn't start our relationship at work, so we can both work on the day shift together." He added with a smile.
"Is that what Horatio told you?" she asked.
"Yeah." He said his smile getting bigger.
"Eric, this means we don't have to sneak around anymore." She said getting excited.
"Yeah, it does. We can be a really couple!" He said.
He picked her up and kissed her, then after a minute put her back down.
"Don't overdo it. We are still at work. Just cause we don't have to hide doesn't mean we can just go and start randomly kissing each other in the lab." She told him in a joking way.
Horatio stepped out of his office.
"May I see you two for a minute?" he said before going back into the room.
Calleigh and Eric looked at each other. They could see the slight bit of fear in each other's eyes.
They walked into Horatio's office.
"You wanted to see us Horatio?" Calleigh said in her sweet southern accent.
"Don't worry. You're not in trouble." Horatio said. He saw them both relax a little.
"Okay." Eric said. "So what's up?"
"I just wanted to give you a heads up that Rick is coming to check on the lab." He said is a small eye role. "I now know about…your relationship…so I wanted to let you know." He said.
"Thanks H we appreciate it." Eric said.
"It's no problem, by the way." Horatio said.
"Yeah?" Calleigh asked.
"How long have you guys been together?" He asked knowing it was none of his business, but as soon as Eric told him he couldn't stop wondering.
"Not including the week we were apart?" Calleigh said.
"About eight, nine months" Eric said.
"Wow. Really that long? How did you guys manage that? I mean, I place full of CSI's and we never figured it out. You must be really good at sneaking around. All of us had an idea, but no proof." Horatio said.
"Well, it wasn't easy." Eric said.
"Why don't you two take that rest of the day off." Horatio told them.
"Are you sure you don't need us?" Calleigh asked.
"No, were all just wrapping up the last bit of work we have to do." Horatio said.
"Thanks H, for everything" Eric said. Calleigh and Eric both smiled.
They turned around and walked into the middle of the lab when they stopped and saw Ryan, Natalia, Jesse, and Walter all standing in front of them.
"Is it true?!" Natalia blurted out, almost startling Calleigh and Eric.
"Is what true? I don't know what you're talking about." Calleigh lied.
They all saw right threw it.
"We…overheard…that you and Eric are together. Is it true?" Ryan said.
"Well…I guess you could say that. We have been dating, but only for about…oh…I don't know…about nine months." Calleigh said, a smile starting to appear on her face.
"I knew it! I told you Natalia." Ryan said.
"Well, that's not fare, we all knew." Natalia said.
"Wait what?! Calleigh and Delko? How come no one told me about this?" Walter said looking at Natalia and Ryan.
"Okay, you want that story?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah, it would be nice to know what's going on right now." Jesse said.
"Ok, for years Calleigh and Delko had had a thing for each other, we all knew and just wanted them to get it over with and finally get together, cause during those years they wouldn't admit it. Every time we brought it up they would just avoid the question." Ryan stated.
"That is so not true!" Calleigh and Eric said at the same time.
"It is so true!" Natalia said.
"Okay, well. Maybe some of it..."Eric said.
"No, all of it." Ryan said.
"Okay, okay. Whatever makes you happy. We're going to go home now. See you guys tomorrow." Eric said.
"Wait!" Walter said. "What do you mean 'we're going home'?"
"Yeah." Natalia, Ryan, and Jesse all said.
"Woops. Sorry Babe." Eric said looking at Calleigh.
"It's okay." She said in her southern accent.
"This is too weird for me. See you tomorrow Calleigh." Jesse said. He walked away and Walter followed.
"I'm really happy you two finally made it happen." Natalia said with a smile. She gently gave Ryan a little push, he smiled and then they both walked away.
"Okay, now let's really go home." Eric said to Calleigh.
"Okay."
They both walked out of the lab and into Calleigh's car, and then drove away.