Disclaimer: Obviously not mine.

Spoilers: "Bolt Action"

Retiarius

Rick Stetler was not an unusually vindictive man. He was an IAB agent. He hadn't wanted the job, but now that he had it he was going to be the best IAB agent he possibly could be. It was an important component of the criminal justice system. Someone had to police the police. And if people hated him for just doing his job, so be it.

He was not a vindictive man.

But sometimes he wondered if, having failed at taking Horatio Caine's job away from him, he subconsciously desired to take anything else he possibly could away from him.

Who could blame him?

Every cop in the city knew Calleigh Duquesne was a great CSI. There would have been a mutiny if she'd been prosecuted or fired for the accidental shooting of Eric Delko. Unfortunately, it would have been equally difficult to make the case that Delko deserved to go down for rescuing his father. And there was no evidence he was trying to do anything else.

Stetler wished there were. There was nothing he wanted more than to take Horatio down, but he'd settle for taking down his brother-in-law and closest friend.

But maybe that wasn't what he wanted most.

Horatio once told him that it was a mistake to mess with Calleigh Duquesne. He'd learned over the years to never, ever underestimate her. A strikingly beautiful woman with a charming Southern accent, fashion sense, and an encyclopedic knowledge of weapons. Back when he harbored hopes of taking Horatio's job running the crime lab, he'd always envisioned Calleigh by his side--his devoted right hand. Of course he knew that would never happen. She disliked him as much as the rest of the CSIs, as much as most cops disliked IAB. But it was an image that he couldn't shake from his mind.

He had been more than happy to go after Calleigh and Detective Berkeley when they were dating. After all, if he couldn't have Calleigh, why should anyone else?

"I don't know where you get your information," Delko had said during the interview.

Was he serious? Like it hadn't been obvious for years the way he'd looked at Calleigh when he thought no one was watching (forgetting IAB was always watching). Stetler had suspected that Delko ratted on Calleigh and Jake out of some kind of jealous spite or long-shot gamble to get her for himself. It was the same instinct Stetler had now, even though he knew he wouldn't have a chance with Calleigh even if he did break them up.

But then, he used to think that about Delko. The troublesome CSI didn't deserve Calleigh. Not even close. Stetler couldn't figure out what she saw in him. She knew about his past reckless promiscuity. Everyone did. Rick had made mistakes when he was dating Yelena, but he'd never cheated on her. And he'd never cheat on Calleigh. Eric would, probably without even thinking about it. Just like his affair with Natalia. Rick didn't want Calleigh to get hurt the way Natalia did.

At least that's what he told himself so he could feel noble in his efforts to break them up.

It had been a guess, really. He'd seen the way they were together, and noted their overlapping days off, but until the look on Eric's face when he said "your partner and girlfriend" he hadn't had proof. He wasn't fooled by Eric's attempt to distance himself from her by saying former partner and then vaguely alluding to Calleigh's problematic father. He'd been trying to make it seem like he didn't care about her, trying to convince Stetler that they weren't involved. It was exactly the kind of thing Stetler would do in his place.

But of course he wasn't going to let Calleigh know what Eric's ulterior motive was. It had been with a flair of malicious glee that he'd seen her take the bait.

"'Former girlfriend'?" A slight widening of her eyes betrayed her inner dismay.

"That's the way he put it," Stetler said, pretending he meant what Eric said about Calleigh's difficulty trusting certain men in her life, knowing full well what she thought he meant.

It was a delicate balancing act. He knew he wouldn't be able to get them for the shooting, at least not without incurring Horatio's wrath and scrutiny from the higher-ups, so he tried to fan the flame of bitterness and mistrust the shooting sparked. He just had to do it so subtly that they wouldn't notice his interference at all.

Rick Stetler did not consider himself an unusually vindictive man. He considered himself a crime fighter. But the criminals he fought were other cops, those who were or might become corrupt. And if his weapons were words instead of guns, stratagems instead of handcuffs, false smiles instead of Miranda rights, then that was what he would fight with. And if being a good IAB agent meant hating his enemies, then what was wrong with taking just a little bit of pleasure out of hurting them?