F&F Chapter 1

It had taken four long months but it had finally come through. Eric had the D.N.A results to see if he had a kid or not. The mother of the child, Toni Chambers, had fought against Eric's court order saying that no child should have to be humiliated like Eric was doing to her child. He sat down at the dining table in his apartment, just looking at the envelope. He wanted to know but then again he didn't. He drank the last gulp of his morning coffee and picked up the envelope off the table and stuffed it in his pocket. Maybe he could get Horatio to open it for him; he was the only one who knew about this predicament he was in. But he was dreading going into work because every time he saw Calleigh, his heart broke just that little bit more. When Ryan and Horatio told him, he felt broken. Why did she choose Horatio over him? He let out a big sigh and pulled out the envelope and looked at it again. Maybe he should open it himself, and then the waiting would be over. So, he plucked up all of the courage he had left in him and opened it.

In the parking lot at the lab, Horatio's hummer drove in. When it had parked, Calleigh climbed out of the passenger side, went and opened the trunk and pulled out her pink over night bag. As she shut it, Horatio was stood there looking at her with a smile on his face.

"Calleigh, thanks for last night. I feel ready to take on Stetler in the appeal meeting today."

Calleigh took his hand and looked into Horatio's ocean blues, "you'll be fine. You'll nail both Stetler and Jake."

For the last four months, Horatio had been trying to get Stetler's decision reversed to put Jake in jail.

"Please promise me one thing Calleigh?"

"Sure what's that?"

"If you see either Jake or Stetler, please don't start on them. When you laid into Jake last week, the D.A was all over me because they were accusing you of intimidating the suspect."

"For you I'll try," Calleigh smiled sweetly.

Horatio couldn't resist that smile; he pulled her closer and kissed her.
"Thank you."

Calleigh picked up her bag and put it over her shoulder, "I'll just go put this in my car and I'll be up."

Horatio watched Calleigh walk over to her car, which was parked opposite to his hummer, as Eric pulled in. He parked up and ran over to Horatio.

"Can we talk privately? I got the results through this morning."

"We can talk in my office," he turned to Calleigh, "I'll see you upstairs."

Calleigh looked at Eric then to Horatio, "okay, see you both in a bit."

Eric followed Horatio up to his office.

When they got out of the elevator, they were greeted by Stetler.

"Horatio, I hope you've remembered about the appeal hearing today."

"Rick, I'm looking forward to it."

Horatio led Eric to his office and shut the door behind them.
"Well?"

Eric handed the letter to Horatio who looked at it and smiled.

"Looks like you won't have to pay anything to Miss Chambers after all."

Eric grinned happily, "I know! It's a big weight off my mind."

"I'll bet. Eric, I hope you've learnt something from all of this."

"Yeah, I have. I'll be careful not to let it happen again. I think I'll steer clear of women for a while."

Horatio chuckled to himself, "there are some women out there who can be manipulative like Miss Chambers but you'll find the right one, one day."

Eric thought to himself that he thought he had found her but obviously it wasn't meant to be, "yeah, maybe, H."

"Well, I have a hearing to get to. Did you give your statement?"

"I have. I told them exactly what happened in ballistics with Calleigh after he was first arrested. Ryan's given his statement after last weeks spat. How do you think it will go?"

"Hopefully it will go our way."

"Good, Jake deserves everything that's coming to him."

"Let's just get this hearing over and done with first."

Eric nodded and then left the office. Horatio picked up a file from his desk and left for the hearing.

When Horatio got to the lobby, Stetler still was lingering around like a bad smell.
"I don't need babysitting Rick."

"I know, I just wanted to say that when the judge agrees with my decision, I hope you'll be the first to congratulate me."

Horatio grinned, "like wise, Rick, like wise."

The elevator arrived and Horatio got into it and the doors shut. Stetler stood waiting for the elevator to come back up. He was slightly a bit worried about the whole thing but didn't want to show it to Horatio.
When the elevator finally arrived back up, Stetler was almost run down by someone in a wheelchair.

"Oh, sorry mate didn't see you there," came a man's Australian accent.

Stetler just huffed and barged past a pregnant woman.

"Bloody ignorant…" came an annoyed woman's British accent.

"Honey, leave it."

The woman wasn't too happy.

They went over to the reception desk to speak to the receptionist.

"Hiya, does Horatio Caine and Calleigh Duquesne work here?" asked the woman.

"Yes they do, Lieutenant Caine has just left to go to a hearing but I think Calleigh is still in the building. Would you like me to get her for you?"

"Yes please," answered the woman.

The receptionist picked up the phone to call Calleigh, "Calleigh, there's a couple here to see you… okay, I'll let them know."

"She's on her way now. If you can both just sign the visitor log book and I'll get you a visitor pass each. Then if you just wait over in the waiting area then Calleigh will see you when she gets here."