A/N: Thanks to those of you who reviewed last time; they mean a lot! P.S. I don't own any lyrics or the song!

You're there for me, through all of my ups and downs,
And what I feel you always seem to know.
You find the words when I need comforting and dry my eyes,
That's why I love you so.
More than a friend, you're my first love;
I can always depend on my first love.
I feel like I have known you all my life, I can't explain how close we are;
When something's wrong, you know how to make it right.
That's why you stay close to my heart.
More than a friend, you're my first love;
I can always depend on my first love.

-First Love, Karina

"Eric, you do realize that I haven't done that since college?" Calleigh remarked. She was snuggled between his warm legs with her favorite large, cream-colored throw draped cozily around the both of them. Right after she said this a large clap of thunder resounded through the neighborhood, and Calleigh sighed. While rain storms usually calmed her, they were dually resented. Strange and uncorrelated though it sounds, the strangest crimes often occurred after a doozie of a thunderstorm such as this one. She guessed people thought they could blame the weather for an "accidental" crime, but Calleigh knew better. She was brought back to the present when the arms surrounding her tightened and pulled her body closer to his and a pair of warm lips brushed the outer edge of her ear.

"Come on, baby, what else are we going to do?" he cooed into the sensitized skin, feeling her shudder slightly. "The power's been out for a while now, and I don't know about you, but I don't exactly feel like moving right now."

Calleigh marveled at the way he so easily convinced her. A touch of his lips here and a few sweet words there and she was his, all his. She had to agree, though, about not wanting to move. The many candles they had lit so as not to be submerged in near-total darkness, the feel of his broad chest against her small back, the sound of the rain hitting the earth and house, his breath tickling her neck now; it all combined to create one romantic evening. Glancing out the window, she noticed even through the darkness of the rapidly approaching night that the sky wasn't getting any clearer.

"It's just you and me. Nobody else," he said softly, pressing a gentle kiss to the creamy skin of her neck.

Never one to share her past, Calleigh hadn't had a good, old-fashioned game of 'firsts' since a rather drunken sleepover in her and her roommates' shared apartment junior year of college. To this day she still doesn't remember how it all played out, just that it hadn't happened since.

But this was Eric.

"Fine, alright," she gave in with a smile.

Eric chuckled lightly. "Good. Um, ok, let's start with the basics: first kiss?"

"Mm, Henry Wiseman, when I was ten years old. We were partners in marbles one day during recess, and we had both bet our ice cream money that we would win. So towards the end we were losing, but I had a hitting streak and I won the game for us. He was so happy he grabbed me by the shoulders and kissed me for about five seconds before he realized what he had done." Calleigh finished her recollection with a grin, remembering her brother's fury when she bought two ice creams after school. She turned her head to gaze up at him. "You're turn."

Appropriately, Eric dropped a quick kiss to her lips before Calleigh turned back around to face forward. "Well, I won't count Ariella Chavez, because that was a meet-me-behind-the-tree first kiss when I was four."

"Always the ladies man," Calleigh giggled.

"You know it. Anyways, I guess my real first kiss was Samantha Domingo in the sixth grade. When we had our first world geography course, everyone started calling her Santa Domingo and, well, I felt bad for her. So in gym the next day I took her behind the bleachers and kissed her. We went on until Coach Sanger caught us and made us run twenty laps around the gym as punishment for 'behaving like ill-mannered children,' as I recall."

Calleigh laughed. "Did it cure you?"

"Nope, we were late to fourth period. We were quite the couple, you know. She was very pretty, too…" Eric trailed off.

Calleigh squeezed his knee, his only tickle spot. "Alright, mister, back to business."

Taking his restraining hand off the top of hers and threading their fingers, Eric thought. He finally settled on, "First job?"

Calleigh took a moment to assess this. "I guess working for my then-boyfriend's dad's outdoors store when I was sixteen. It was incredibly boring, but it was money, and it was something to do over the summer. I would have worked at my dad's firm, but he wouldn't offer me pay."

He took her silence as his key to share his story. "I mowed my elderly neighbor's yard for thirty bucks each time." He paused and chuckled. "I don't think old Mrs. Contreras was ever in her right mind, because her yards weren't that big, but it was great. Girls would drive by and see me sweaty, shirtless, and assisting a little old lady. She always sat on the porch and read her book; she said she liked the smell of the freshly mown grass, but I think she had secret ulterior motives."

"Not everyone is affected by your witty charms, Delko," Calleigh pointed out good-naturedly.

"Mmhm," he mumbled, nuzzling his nose into the tousled vanilla blond locks. Calleigh sighed contentedly and rested the side of her head against his warm chest. "Fortunately for me, that doesn't include you."

She took in a deep breath through her nose, inhaling his unique scent of cloves, man, and something precisely Eric that she could only describe as masculine yet sweet. She would never be afraid as long as she had that scent around her, never lonely, but always comforted. Reveling in the tiny kisses he was planting on the nape of her neck, she broke the comfortable silence. "I know you want to ask it."

"What?" His voice had gone lower, softer, and it only made Calleigh's spine tingle even more than it already was.

"First time." It was all she could put together in her lazy state.

"Only if you want to."

Calleigh gave a tiny shrug. "It wasn't romantic or special or anything. It just happened one night when I snuck out with my boyfriend Kenny to go horseback riding, and when we put the horses away in the stables we went to the barn and…I don't know, it just happened."

"Your first time was in a barn?" Eric asked incredulously.

"It was more like a big storage room-slash-playroom. His family was wealthy, to say the least, wealthier than us, anyway, and we weren't poor. There was a mini basketball court and on the upper level there was a bed and everything. All in all it was nice, I guess and definitely not as bad as it could have been. I was never one to plan those sorts of things, so it was as good as I could have hoped for."

Eric nodded. "Same here, I guess. Her name was Alyssa Gonzalez, and she was hot and twenty and I was almost eighteen. It was on the beach, and it was terrible. Not because of us, but sex on the beach just really wasn't meant to be."

Calleigh chuckled. "Believe me, I've been there."

There was a comfortable silence full of gentle kisses and nuzzles. "Did you love him? Kenny, or whatever?"

"No," Calleigh answered quietly. "I liked him, really liked him, but no, not loved."

"Who was…you're first love, then?" He was almost hesitant to ask, for he was almost certain the answer was Jake. Her silence confirmed his suspicion, but her actual answer surprised him so much it took his breath away.

"You."

Eric was absolutely dumbfounded. "Me?"

"Yes, you, silly," Calleigh giggled, looking up at him to meet his chocolate eyes with her emerald ones. Without breaking that precious eye contact, she stretched her neck to brush her nose with his in a sweet Eskimo kiss.

"But Jake – "

Calleigh silenced him with a kiss so sound he got the message without words, but he listened to them anyways. "I thought Jake was love. Now I realize, though, that Jake was just lust. You're my love. You're the one who's always been there for me, who knows exactly what it takes to make me happy, who understands me, and I don't know how to tell you how much I appreciate you. I love you, Eric."

To her immense surprise she saw the faintest hint of water rimming the lower part of his eyes. "You are the first woman besides my mother to make me cry. Ever."

Calleigh smiled genuinely and kissed him softly before snuggling her nose into its favorite part of his chest. "Do you love me, Eric?" Of course she already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it now.

"I love you so much, Cal. You can't even imagine how much," Eric said lowly, huskily. He hugged her tightly to him. "And you don't know how long I've waited to say that."

A wave of guilt washed over her immediately, for making him suppress his feelings because she hadn't been ready to hear them, to comprehend them. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," he assured, rubbing slow trails up and down her back. "I was willing to wait for you, Calleigh. Don't ever blame yourself for my decisions." He pressed a kiss to her soft hair. "God, I love you."

Without warning, Calleigh turned to face him, straddling his hips with her thighs and reaching for the hem of his undershirt to tug it over his head. Dotting kisses along his neck, she whispered, "Show me how much, Eric. All night, right here."

Eric grinned, the mood changing suddenly from heavy and steamy to light and teasing. "Don't you think that might be a little difficult in the recliner?"

"We'll manage," Calleigh assured, swiping wet kisses across his chest.

"We are pretty good at that, aren't we?" Calleigh lifted her head and pressed her lips to his, alternating between press and slides before tugging his bottom lip gently between her teeth, releasing it gently with a smile.

"We sure are."