A/N: More Eric/Calleigh fluff from Dayna. This shall start out as friendship, then probably evolve into more if that's what reviewers are wanting, and probably they are! So it has been a wonderful rainy night, and rainy day and I just had a superb time with my friend that I am going to base this story off us, hence the friendly beginning.
Disclaimer: Own nothing.
Warning: I have not slept for 25 hours now hah. I'm not tired, but I'm not the sharpest either so if this is really weird, hah, it's not my fault. Well technically it is but bah.
--&
It had been a bad week, a very bad week. Calleigh felt like giving up. She never would, she did love her job, no matter how hard it got, and putting away criminals, making the streets of Miami just a tiny bit safer every day was worth it in the end. She did love her job… but every once in a while, it just got to be too much. She noticed the little things now. She missed them. Speed had such a unique sense of humour. When most people cracked a joke of some sort during a murder, you would look at them sort of funny, and chide them for being disrespectful, but Speed had this unique way of lightening the mood, cheering you up, and it always seemed appropriate. He was a special man, and she missed having him around as one of her best friends every single day. Ryan, well Ryan was okay. He was certainly no Speed. He didn't have the humour, or the motorcycle, and frankly, Calleigh just didn't connect with him on the level on which her and Speed's communication was based, although every once in a while, she did appreciate being the teacher, not the apprentice. When she was working with Ryan, she was experienced, he was following her every move, her guide, her rules. But when he messed up, she felt responsible for it. She was feeling like that right now. And boy, did she despise it.
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Eric Delko just wanted to quit. He really did. But he wouldn't, he couldn't. He knew how much it would hurt Calleigh, to see him give up. She put so much confidence in him, she spent so much time comforting him, helping him through this when he knew she was hurting just as much. It was a way of coping for her, helping him cope. It worked both ways, and there was no way he was going to let her efforts go to waste. Speed wouldn't want that either; he wouldn't have wanted Eric to quit, not because of him. Eric knew that he couldn't quit anyways, and not only for Calleigh's sake, but for his own. People got hurt every day, and this way, he could help in the only way he knew how to. But occasionally, today was one of those occasions, it still wasn't enough. Nothing he did was enough, and he didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to break through these days, to end them. He needed to find out, and that would be his mission. Picking up the phone he called his only trusted friend, his only lifeline.
"Duquesne?" She answered the phone.
"Hey Calleigh, it's Eric." I told her, just in case she couldn't tell or something.
"Hey Eric, what's up?" Professionalism gone, and friendly concern taking its place.
"I, just need to talk." I try to explain, but she understands. She always understands me.
"Sure." She tells me, "I'll walk by your place in about ten minutes? I need some fresh air."
"Thanks Cal." I sigh gratefully before the connection goes dead. What would I do without her?
--&
Sure enough, ten minutes later here I am at Eric's door. It's a good thing we live so close to each other, with the amount of reliance we place upon one another. I was almost ready to call him in need of support when the phone rang. Sometimes we're so alike it's scary. I knock on the door and he answers right away, slipping outside quietly as if we're sneaking out, only we're adults, there's no one to sneak from.
"To the coffee shop?" He suggests, and I nod. We walk in almost complete silence until he strikes up casual conversation about music, one of our favourite topics as we both listen to such a vast variety of it. We're forever trading CDs or making up our 'seven song supersets' to test each others music knowledge, and I have to say, we both know our music. I love it how we can talk about music so intensely the whole fifteen-minute walk to the coffee shop. I also love how we both completely ignore the fact that the rain switches from pouring to drizzling back and forth, and we're both completely drenched through. We attract many stares of the other patrons in the shop as we enter, most likely because of our dampness. What do they expect? It's raining outside! Ordering our drinks, we pick a secluded table at the back of the place, our favourite table. We sit here almost every time we come to talk, no one can hear us here.
"So what's up?" I ask him, veering the conversation to the issue at hand.
"I just, can't get him out of my mind." Eric tells me, obviously referring to Speed. "Weeks like this are hard, when we can't get the guy. We know he did it, and we still can't prove it… he's going to walk. I just keep thinking… if Speed was here, he might be able to crack it. I keep thinking I'm losing my touch, that I'm not a good CSI anymore… I've just never been so insecure in my life."
"Eric, you're a wonderful CSI, and a wonderful person." I reassure him honestly. "We'll get him, don't worry. We just have to keep working. After we've had our day off… we'll be refreshed, more positive."
"I want to trust you Calleigh, I do trust you… but what if we don't get him? What if he gets away and does it again?" Eric sighs. He doesn't want to think about the sick pedophile we're trying to nail being able to rape, or abuse, any more children, and we can stop him from doing so if only we could get enough evidence. It frustrates the hell out of me as well.
"He's not going to hurt anymore else. At least we've got enough to keep him for now." I tell him. I'm trying my best to make him feel better, and to make me feel better in the process. I know by the end of the night I will. Give Eric and me some coffee and alone time and we can make any problem go away. Well, almost any. No matter how hard we try, we can't make Speed go away. But that could be because we don't want to.
And so we sit, and we talk. We talk about work, we joke about our lives in general. Our love lives or lack thereof due to work, Ryan, Horatio, Speed, music… Eric and I can make nearly any topic interesting. We have this connection that goes far beyond words, far beyond any connection I've ever shared with Speed… probably and quite possibly far beyond platonic as well. We both know there's something more stirring between us, but we never in a million years would want to lose what we have. So I suppose you could say, that there is one topic we cannot talk about. But eventually, the way our conversations go, it'll come up. And when it does, who knows what will happen.
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Okay, so I am like dying now of sleep deprivation and barley containing my stomach because I always forget I am lactose intolerant and I just downed some yoghurt. Gosh I am sooo stupid. I don't know if this made any sense, or was any good, but I really felt like writing it, so PLEASE tell me what you thought, and I can always delete and repost later, but I feel like posting now. I'll continue if it's wanted… romance anyone?