Title: Everyone Else's Girl
Author: LiLAqUaMaRiE
Fandom: CSI: Miami
Pairings/Characters: Eric Delko, implications of Eric Delko/Natalia Boa Vista
Rating: T
Genre: Drama, angst
Spoilers: Slight mention of the "mole" incident in S4.
Word Count: 995
Challenge Fic: #5
Challenge Word: #016 – Resentment
Summary: He doesn't want to hate a person.
Disclaimer: I don't own "CSI: Miami" or anything related to it. So don't sue me please!!!! I'm already poor as it is. Don't need a lawsuit to put me out on the street. Also credit goes to "Last Beautiful Girl" by Matchbox 20.
Note: This is a fic for the MiamiFicTalk Community prompt challenge.
Note #2: I love Natalia/Eric pairing but I couldn't help but try out this twist between them so please don't hold it against me if you don't like it.

"Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die." – Malachy McCourt

Eric Delko exited the break room; he was on his way to get back to work when something caught his eye halfway back to his lab, which made him pause in his steps. He stared straight ahead to the object of his attention – Natalia Boa Vista. She was flirting with one of the lab technicians of the Miami-Dade CSI Police Department. She seemed to be oblivious to his presence near her as she had her attention focused on the man in front of her.

He stared at them for a while before he briefly closed his eyes. Even after their break-up, seeing her with another bothered him on some level deep within. It was an uncontrollable feeling. Though, at times like these, he couldn't help but feel as if he was the fool in town for feeling like a kicked puppy whenever she was with someone else's arms.

Eric shook his head as he leaned back against the wall behind him as he continued to watch them from afar. He noticed that the man was someone new from the person she was with the week before. He sighed to himself; there were plenty of times that he couldn't believe that he had once loved her. Unfortunately for him, he knows that there is still a part of him till now that is still in love with Natalia – that would always love her while the rest of him was against that emotion. However, he knows in his mind and soul that he would never mention it out loud. Natalia had hurt him too deeply for him to take her back – even if she were the last beautiful girl in the world, he wouldn't ever take her back. She had damaged his heart beyond repair ever since he found out she was only using him to gather needed information for the FBI. To her he was just a pawn in a big game who she could move as she pleased.

Once upon a time, Eric did believe that theyhad something to fight for; something worth calling special – theirs but it all fell apart when he found out the truth to her 'love'.

It's amazing how it was all over, how he had lost her way before he even had her to begin with. And it was truly over since the moment she decided to be with him for necessity, to use him, to get information – to just please her needs.

He knows that – he even accepted the fact a long time ago and now it had become something he wants. He doesn't want to be with her again – they may end up having to work together but beyond that – no more. Though he understood that the part of him that still loved her wouldn't forget about her. It wasn't an easy process; there were times he found himself thinking about her without noticing it or feeling slightly jealous at seeing her with another.

It's amusing how she can play with people's emotions and not care if she hurts them in the process. How she could take her own heart and use it as if it were a light switch and turn it on and off whenever she wanted to. Eric had found it even more amusing how she would play and throw him out like he was a broken toy whose uses were no longer needed so he could just be thrown away.

Eric watches how she would walk closer to the guy in front of her with a seductive smile on her lips. He notices how she lifts her hand to brush it through his hair making him feel slightly angered and jealous. That part of him craves to walk up toward her and rip her away from the other man's clutches demanding an explanation for her actions. But he just stands there watching them – it's aggravating.

Sometimes he believes what's happening to him is like a disease. Those types that no matter what you do you just can't get rid of them. That's what she has been reminding him of every time she attempts to reconcile what they had once had. Always saying 'You're the one that I need…' but in the end she makes her true choice as she ends up going to someone else's arms. Those moments when she would come saying one more time how sorry she was for the way everything went down were all just overdone lies. Lies that she hisses out like a snake to its prey.

Eric continues to stare at Natalia. Noticing how she winks at the man before her giving him a light peck on the lips before turning around to leave. She notices him as he still stares at her. Their eyes meet.

Dead silence hanged in the air between them.

Part of him tries to hold on to the last bits of love he has for her but he has also learned to accept the fact that he's better without her. It used to unnerve him, upset him – hurt him but he knows he can't take another empty moment with her or give another fake hollow smile as if everything was perfectly fine.

She broke him and he slowly started putting himself together so he doesn't need her to break him all over again.

He knows if he allows her to get close to him once more the last bit of love he has for her will turn to the other emotion he feels for her - resentment. He doesn't want that to happen, he doesn't want to resent her completely.

He doesn't want to hate Natalia.

Eric breaks off their eye contact with a shake of his head in displeasure seeing her wide-eyed expression. She attempts to take a step forward towards him but he just starts to walk away, heading to the direction he was planning to go from the start. Ignoring her.

Eric doesn't want to become a resentful person.

FIN.