A/N: I originally planned Confirmation to be the one chapter I posted many months ago, I had no plans to continue it. But, so many people that reviewed it asked for more. Its taken me a long time to write the continuation, and for that I'm sorry. First I had to figure out where I wanted the story to go, then I had to get it there. I wrote the first part months ago, then set it aside because I wasn't sure how to go from there, nothing seemed to work. Then, a couple weeks ago I sat down with it again, and the story just flowed from there. It will be one more chapter, in addition to this one - but don't worry, its already written and will be up soon. I promise. Since its been so long since I posted the original story, I urge you to go back and read it before reading this chapter.

Calleigh sighed contentedly when his lips touched her skin, and Eric knew then that he would spend the rest of his life trying to make her sigh like that on a regular basis. Not to mention getting her to moan his name and the words 'oh God' on a regular basis.

But first, he had to wait for her to admit her feelings for him. Oh yeah, he could wait. If it meant being able to make love to her like he did in her dream, he would most definitely wait for her. And with a grin he decided he would have to see to it that the wait wasn't a long one.

Grin still plastered on his face, Eric quickly poured his cup of coffee and made a bee line for the exit, wanting to leave before Calleigh woke up. Without bothering to look where he was going, he opened the door and collided with, of all people, Maxine Valera.

"Whoa," Eric cautioned as her lithe body ran into his chest. Thankful he'd taken the few seconds it took to put a lid on the styrofoam cup, he held the cup higher, away from her body, and gently grabbed her arm to steady her. "Careful there," he chuckled, "You came close to getting third degree burns."

"Me careful," Valera exclaimed, glaring up at Eric. "Buddy, more like you should be careful. You damn near ruined my date tonight."

"Kind of late for a date isn't it?" Eric questioned as he moved past her.

Valera's eyes flitted briefly to the clock on the wall just inside the break room door. "No," she answered with a grin. "At this hour I'm just getting started." At that, she winked and turned, leaving a grinning Eric in her wake.

"Anyone I know?" he called out at her retreating form.

"Maybe," she answered cryptically, turning her head to give him another wink as the door closed behind her.

…

Mindful of the time, Valera headed for the refrigerator to retrieve her lunch bag. She'd brought her lunch today but had ended up having lunch with tonight's date instead. Who was she to refuse a lunch date from the very handsome but sometimes irritating as hell Ryan Wolfe? And that lunch date had turned into that night's date. Bonus! As she opened the refrigerator she ran through the various ways she could loosen him up that night. She grinned and her eyes had an extra sparkle as very erotic images popped up in her mind. Moaning inwardly she moved other lunch bags around, looking for her own.

She was about to wrap her fingers around the handle on her lunch tote when a soft sound reached her ears. Thinking she'd moaned out loud, Valera clapped a hand over her mouth and just stood there, bent toward the opened refrigerator, rolling her eyes at herself. When she heard the sound again she knew it wasn't her moaning and she turned quickly, refrigerator door slamming shut as her eyes scanned the darkened room.

Valera snickered when her eyes spied blonde hair spilled out over the side of the couch. Grinning from ear to ear at what she just knew Calleigh was dreaming about, she crept quietly toward her and stood silently by the couch, watching her as she slept, as she dreamed. Bending closer to Calleigh's body, Valera took in her pink cheeks, parted lips, and the short panting breaths she was taking.

"Eric," Calleigh moaned, drawing out his name into two very long syllables. "Yes… right there," she whimpered as her back arched and her arm blindly reached out, colliding with the back cushion.

Valera quickly covered her mouth with a hand to stifle a squeal as she shot back up. Her shoulders shook and her other hand flew to her mouth to help stifle the laughter that she so wanted to burst out with. She turned around, then just as quickly turned back to Calleigh, suddenly and very uncharacteristically unsure of what to do next. She twittered, inside and out, shaking with the knowledge she now had and she thought she was just going to bust a gut if she couldn't tell someone what she knew; that Calleigh had it for Eric - and bad - if her sex dream was any indication. Looking upward, she opened her mouth in a silent scream, fists clenched by her side, lightly stamping her foot in frustration.

Fishing her cell phone out of her pocket, Valera was about to call Ryan, get his help with a little match making when Calleigh moaned, loudly, lowly, and long. Not bothering to stifle her laugh, she bent and lightly shook Calleigh's shoulder.

"Calleigh," she called to her.

But Calleigh only moaned and moved closer to the back cushion.

"Calleigh!" This time Valera shook her a little more forcefully.

Calleigh startled awake, gripping the top and bottom cushions in her hands as she sat up and her bewildered gaze flitted about the room, finally settling on Valera's face. She deflated visibly.

Valera could only grin at the disappointed look on Calleigh's face. "Look, I know I'm not Eric, but…"

"What?" Calleigh interrupted, her eyes wide, heart thumping wildly. "Eric?"

Now Valera was laughing. "Yes, Calleigh… Eric. You were dreaming about him."

"How… how did you…?"

Valera snorted in reply. This was fun. Calleigh was clearly perplexed at being found out. She almost took pity on her friend… almost. "Calleigh, you were talking in your sleep, and I must say," she paused, a sly grin on her face and a devious sparkle in her eyes, "that must have been one hell of a dream you were having about him."

"Oh my God," Calleigh moaned as she sat back on the couch.

"Yep, that's pretty much what you were saying. Actually, I think you were trying to tell Eric where to…" She broke off when she noticed Calleigh's face turn ten shades of red. "Oh never mind!" She moved to sit next to her on the couch, checking the time on the clock as she sat down.

"What all did I say?" Calleigh asked, turning her head toward her friend.

"Not much more than what I've already told you. But then," she added, shrugging, "I wasn't in here that long." She watched silently as Calleigh whimpered and then brought her hands to her face and sat forward, elbows on her legs.

"I promise I won't tell anyone what I heard," Valera softly informed her.

Calleigh looked at her skeptically, eyebrow raised.

"Really," she said with a smile. She lifted her pinky finger toward Calleigh. "Pinky swear."

A smile curved the corners of Calleigh's lips as she lifted her own pinky finger, hooking it with Valera's. "Thank you, Maxine." She sighed. "At least Eric wasn't here to hear me talking in my sleep. I would just… die… if he knew I…" she ended on a whisper, unable to complete the thought out loud.

"Well, um… he was here."

Calleigh's head reared back, a look of utter horror on her face. "What?!" she exclaimed, standing, beginning to panic.

"Now, Calleigh," Valera said as she grabbed Calleigh's arms. "It doesn't mean he heard anything. Maybe he wasn't in here long enough. Maybe you didn't say anything." She was babbling now, trying to alleviate Calleigh's fears. And yet, at the same time she was enjoying this. So, she had to needle a little bit. Letting go of Calleigh's arms she tapped her lips with a finger, pretending to concentrate. "Or… maybe you did." Her eyes were again twinkling with mischief. "Really… just what were you doing in your dream? Because it sounded…" She paused for effect, then winked, "… kinky. I mean, you were telling Eric to put something…"

"Maxine!" Calleigh was horrified. Just what had she said? The dream had been pretty erotic. It has been one of her many fantasies involving Eric. They were making love, not in a bed, but on a blanket on a secluded beach, with the sound of the ocean waves crashing on the shore in the background. And it had been mind blowing. It had been tender, sweet, loving, and charged with emotion. It had been just… perfect. That is, until Valera rudely interrupted. Giving a sigh she plopped herself back down onto the couch, covering her face with her hands.

Moving to sit next to her again, Valera gently gripped Calleigh's hands and pulled them away from her face. She waited until Calleigh looked her in the eyes and spoke softly, "You know, Calleigh, it doesn't have to be just a dream. You could have that."

"Maxine, I…"

She shook her head. "Look, its no secret how you feel about Eric. Don't even try to deny it," she commanded, voice raised, when Calleigh opened her mouth to speak. "I see the way you smile at him. You don't smile like that at Ryan," she raised her eyebrows, "… and you better not or I'd have to pummel you."

Calleigh looked momentarily stunned and then her look visibly softened. She tilted her head as she gazed at her friend, "Maxine, I didn't know you had a thing for Ryan."

"Uh uh," Valera admonished, shaking her finger at Calleigh. "Don't you even try to shift the topic of conversation onto me and Ryan. Nice try though. Let's get back to you and Eric and sex." She noticed Calleigh's walls immediately fall into place again, noted that stony look on her face that said denial was the next thing that would come out of her mouth.

That was it. Valera was frustrated. Absolutely done with it. She stood up, put her hands on her hips and looked at Calleigh sternly, and spoke with the same tone. "Calleigh, put yourself and Eric out of your miseries and just admit to him how you feel. You are in love with him. He's in love with you." She threw her hands up in disgust. "And I can't take the little puppy dog looks he gives you any more. In fact, if I see it one more time I'm going to puke, and I'm going to do it all over you and your beautiful shoes," her voice softened and she pointed down at Calleigh's feet, "… and by the way, I really do think you should share those with me." Her face hardened again, and she raised her voice, "So save yourself the pain and agony of smelling horrible and having to clean up such a mess. And for God's sake… and you know I'm not a religious person… go to him and tell him you love him and that you want to have lots of sex and cute little Cuban babies with him." And with that she turned on her heels and left the room.

For several minutes Calleigh just sat there in a daze, surprised at Valera's outburst. Surprised and mortified that she'd been caught having a sex dream, and with the participant in the sex dream now known to the lab's most notorious gossip. "Pinky swear," Calleigh whispered to herself, "She said pinky swear."

Calleigh sighed. All she wanted to do was go home and forget this had ever happened. She didn't even want to think about what Eric may or may not have heard. But, wanting to finish the last of the ballistics evidence before she went home, Calleigh squared her shoulders and stood up, then quickly made her way back to the ballistics lab, hoping to God she didn't run into Eric along the way.

…

Having done all he could for one day, which wasn't much more than he'd accomplished earlier, Eric decided to go home and get some sleep. He'd been able to think of nothing else but Calleigh's dream, what he'd heard her say. He knew if he tried to process one more piece of evidence when his heart wasn't in it, he'd make mistakes.

Before he could go home, he wanted to check in on Calleigh, see if she was still there. Maybe he'd coax her into leaving, walk with her to her car. Perhaps he'd see if she'd agree to go get something to eat with him at the 24 hour diner nearby. He remembered his earlier resolve to get her to admit her feelings for him, and sooner rather than later.

With a smile on his face, remembering her dream and what she said, he made his way to Ballistics. If she was still at work, he knew he'd have a greater chance of finding her there.

Instead of walking right into the lab, Eric simply stood and watched Calleigh for several moments. He watched as she sat on a stool at a table, evidence bags and a stack of papers in front of her. She was bent over a report, seemingly working on it, but her pen was suspended in mid air, clutched between stilled fingers. Calleigh herself was looking at a spot on the wall opposite her, as if in deep thought; looking at, but not really seeing what she was staring at.

He wondered what she was thinking about, if she was remembering her dream, or if she was merely contemplating the ballistics evidence she'd processed.

Unable to wait any longer to be with her, to talk to her, Eric pushed the door open. "Calleigh, you're still here," he greeted her warmly, still smiling. He took in the way she quickly straightened up, blinked rapidly a few times and turned to look at him. She smiled at him, but he knew that smile. It wasn't her normal 'happy to see you' smile, but one of her forced smiles, the one she gave when she wasn't particularly happy to see someone, but felt it would be rude to not smile.

"Hey, Eric," she said softly as she dropped her pen and tucked her hair back behind her ears. "I'm almost done with your ballistics evidence, just need to finish up these reports."

Warily, he moved to the other side of the table, wondering what was wrong. He knew she hadn't woken up when he was in the break room earlier, so that couldn't be what was bothering her. Deciding to ignore her mood, he looked at the various evidence bags in front of her. "Were you able to identify the types of weapons used? Match any of the bullet casings to the weapons we did find?"

Having him so close to her, after the dream she'd had and was sure he knew she'd had, was unsettling and unnerving for Calleigh and she simply stared at him for a few moments until she realized he'd asked her a question. "Huh… oh yeah," she answered absentmindedly as she slid off the stool. "I um… I have it here somewhere," she added as she began to rifle through the reports.

Eric looked at her strangely. Calleigh would normally have given the answer right off the bat, without having to look at any report. It wasn't something she would forget. He moved around the table and reached out to touch her arm, but dropped his arm back by his side when she stiffened. "Cal, what's wrong?" he asked softly.

Ignoring his question, she continued to flip through the reports, still flustered at his proximity. "I know it's… I just…" she trailed off. 'God this is embarrassing,' she thought to herself as she felt a blush start to work its way up her neck, spreading out across her face. 'Why didn't I just leave when I had the chance?' Becoming frustrated with herself, her inability to think straight, and the now obvious embarrassment she was wallowing in, she dropped the pile of reports and slapped her hand down on top of them. "Damn it," she muttered. To her consternation he only moved closer.

"Calleigh," Eric chuckled, taking his life into his own hand when he placed it down atop her hand, ignoring as she twitched in response. "What is the matter?"

"Nothing," was her quick patented response as she tried to slip her hand out from under his, frowning when he wouldn't let her.

"It's not nothing if you can't even remember evidence you finished processing some time within the past couple hours," he told her gently.

"I do too remember," she lied, and lied poorly, her face still burning with the damnable blush. She moved her hand out from under his and gestured lamely in his direction. "I just thought… that you'd want to see… you know, see the report."

Eric noticed her eyes land everywhere but on him. He could see she was trembling. It was almost imperceptible, but completely noticeable to him. A light went off in his head at what exactly was bothering her and he had to smother the grin that threatened to break out across his face. He was fairly certain that she knew he'd been in the break room and heard her talk in her sleep. No doubt Valera told her, and for once he was glad Valera put her nose where it didn't belong. A smile lit his face as he moved closer to her, bravely invading her personal space. "Oh yeah? What weapons were used?"

Calleigh fought the urge to step back and looked down at her feet as she frantically ran her earlier ballistics test through her mind. But her pounding heart at his proximity was making it hard to think. "Weapons?" she asked, stalling for time.

"Yes. Weapons."

"Well... one of them was a um…" she murmured, reaching out toward the pile of reports, cursing inwardly at her shaking hand before she quickly shoved her hand into her pocket, hoping to God Eric didn't see it.

But he did, and he was loving it. Eric could have just left her alone, let her off the hook, but that was the last thing he wanted to do. What he wanted was for her to admit how she felt about him, to come out and tell him that she wanted him. He wanted them to become a couple, to date. Hell, right now, more than anything in the world, he wanted to kiss her. But this wasn't the time for that. Besides, right now he was enjoying Flustered Calleigh.

"One of them was an 'um'? That's a new one for me, Cal," he chuckled, moving even closer to her. If he was really brave it would have taken only a slight twitch of his hand to make his fingertips brush against her hip, and it took a hell of a lot of willpower not to. Instead he continued to tease her. "What kind of bullets does an 'um' firearm take?"

Calleigh's mouth went dry, each intake of breath inundated her senses with his cologne and a scent she had come to know over the years as simply, uniquely, Eric, and damn it she loved the scent.

His proximity was undoing her, she couldn't think straight, couldn't form a coherent thought; could think only of him and what he was doing to her. But she hated feeling like this, hated not being in control, hated the undeniable fact that he was enjoying the hell out of this. And damn it, her brain began doing funny things, had her blurting words she wasn't ready to confront. "You heard me talk in my sleep." It came out in a rush of words, as if her brain wanted to push them out before she recognized what it was doing.

Calleigh's heart tripped over itself, hard, like a jackhammer cutting into concrete. She was sure Eric could see it beating right through her shirt. Too late to take back the words, she'd just have to deal now. Eyes closed, she breathed deeply a few times to gain some semblance of control, and when she was sure her voice wouldn't waver, she finally looked up into Eric's eyes, gasping audibly at the difference in his eyes, his expression.

Gone was the grin, the mirthful twinkle in his eyes. Instead it was replaced with a look she'd seen before, saw for the first time so many years ago the night he'd taken care of her after she'd been dosed with cocaine. It was a mix of compassion, adoration, and love. And it made the next words to tumble off her lips a little easier to say. "I know you were there, in the break room…" she paused to lick her dry lips, "… while I was sleeping."

When the look in his eyes became too much, Calleigh averted her own eyes, looked back to the pile of reports on the table, but Eric denied her the ability to temporarily hide. With a finger under her chin he turned her eyes back to his. Bright emerald met soft brown.

Her eyes flickered from his eyes to his lips and back again to his eyes. And there went her brain again. "Did I talk in my sleep?" she whispered, and winced, closing her eyes, afraid to hear his answer.

"Yeah," he whispered in return, his voice gravelly, affected. He wanted her, wanted her bad, but he couldn't have her until she was ready. But, that was his mission, to make her his. So with that in mind, he boldly reached out and cupped her face in his hands, hearing and feeling her breath hitch. "You did," he murmured, thumbs caressing her cheeks.

He let his hands drift down to her neck, his fingertips sliding slowly across her soft skin as he leaned in and pressed a light kiss to her forehead, right at her hairline. The full body shiver his sweet and innocent kiss elicited from her brought a smile to his lips and made him even more bold, more daring… for in the next instant he threw caution to the wind and dipped his head to capture her lips with his.

The kiss was soft, tender, heart felt. And if Calleigh thought she couldn't hold a coherent thought before, she was mistaken. As soon as his lips touched hers, she stopped thinking, stopped fretting, and just felt. Sensations rocketed through her, her nerve endings were on fire, and God help her, she whimpered. She didn't even try to stop it from pushing past her lips. And when he captured her bottom lip between his own, sucked on it, her knees betrayed her and she fell forward against him.

But Eric was there for her, as he always was. His arms wrapped around her waist as he gently pushed her back onto the stool, breaking the kiss as she sat.

And to her slightly embarrassed chagrin, she whimpered again at the loss of his lips against her own.

His lips were back on her forehead, his breath stirring the wisps of hair as his hands brushed her blonde locks back off her face. "You could have that every day… several times a day… if you'd just let me in," he murmured, his lips brushing her skin as he spoke softly.

Calleigh was breathing heavily, unable to think straight again. It was becoming a habit she wanted to break, and fast. She wanted to speak, wanted to say she wanted it too, all day every day, but nothing came out when she opened her mouth. Damn her brain! It had no problem earlier, speaking when she wasn't ready, but now… now that she wanted to say something, out came nothing. Nada. Diddly squat. Damn it.

Breaking away from her, Eric looked down at the pile of reports next to her and lifted up the one on top. "Here's the one you were looking for," he told her softly. He let go of it when she took it in her hand, and reached up with a trembling finger, lightly touching her slightly kiss-swollen lips. "Every day, Calleigh," he murmured, then turned and left the room.

Releasing the breath she didn't know she'd been holding, Calleigh licked her lips, still tasting him there. Trembling fingers found their way to her lips, for she could still feel his lips there. His soft warm full lips pressed against her lips. The soft moan she let out bounced off the walls in the otherwise quiet room, startling her.

Taking a deep breath and shaking her head to dispel the sensual fog she was in, she placed the easy-to-find misplaced file back on the stack and picked up her pen. But it was no use trying to work; her heart just wasn't in it. Her heart was somewhere else…