A/N: IMPORTANT! Whoa I actually got reviews. That's so cool to me! Any who, I know the spelling is bad, but I'm awful at spelling and I only have word-pad on my computer, not Microsoft, BUT if I'm spelling character names wrong tell me! I also have no idea when this story is taking place series wise. But I said it's AU so just pretend Marisol and Horatio didn't get married until recently in the series? And that Kyle isn't around? Also, I tend to get caught up in my story and I just want to get to certain parts so I rush through the little details, sorry!
Disclaimer:I DON'T OWN ANYTHING (sadly)
"What took you so long? Everyone else already got here!" Marisol said as soon as she opened the door.
Calleigh smiled at her, "Sorry, blame Gramma over here." Calleigh jerked her thumb in Eric's direction with a wink at Marisol
He held up his hands in mock defeat. "It's my fault. I stopped to get this." He held up a present he had bought for Ella, he always bought things for his other nieces and he felt he should do the same for Ella no matter how unorthodox her addition to the family was.
Marisol closed the door behind them. "Buying your way into my daughter's heart!" She pretended to swat angrily at him.
"Guilty." He stated simply, smirking a little, so that his lips just formed a crooked smile. Little did he know Calleigh's smile widened unintentionally when she caught sight of it.
"Come on, come on. Everyone's outback, the CSI Wolfe helped Horatio put out tables since someonedarted off then showed back up late!" She fake-scolded them again. He and Calleigh exchanged eye-rolls and couldn't help but smile.
Catching sight of the backyard Eric made a mental note to apologize to Ryan. There had to be about a dozen white plastic tables set up, and even more plastic chairs they must have been a bitch to set up.
Everyone Horatio was friendly with from the lab was already scattered around the lawn. Eric caught sight of Horatio chatting with Tripp, Ella in one arm and a drink in the other. He was momentarily dumbfounded to see his boss acting so casually. Alexx was bent over, firmly talking to one of her kids while her husband manned the grill with Ryan. He noticed Natalia standing somewhat awkwardly by herself with a drink in her hand, but she lit up and relaxed when she seen Calleigh. A few of Marisol's friends from her cancer-support group were floating around in the mix as well, some sporting durags and wigs, but others with chin length hair who he assumed, like Marisol, had recovered. It was a normal lazy summer Sunday-afternoon cook-out. Well except for the fact that more then half of them were carrying a concealed weapon.
Calleigh touched him lightly on the shoulder and walked with Marisol down the path from the backdoor, the two of them talking happily. He watched them go for a minute but then shook his head and went to give Ella her present. When he got close he caught snippets of Tripp and Horatio's conversation. They were still discussing the child-killer case.
Tripp nodded to Eric, Ella smiled shyly from under Horatio's chin.
"Hi Ella, got you a present." he said simply passing the gift to the girl quickly, not knowing how else to go about giving a present to a little girl he barely knew.
"It's not my birthday.." The 4-year old said confused. Her mouth opened almost too animatedly and it made her look adorable and her English toddler accent just added to it.
"Sometimes, sweetheart, people give you presents just because your special to them." Horatio said softly. He set Ella down on the grass with her present and she opened it with her eyes occasionally drifting up to Eric.
When she got off the mall-wrapped exterior she lit up. "Daddy! A metal-dog!" She said holding up the package for Horatio.
He looked at it puzzled but handed it back to Ella with a smile. "Very nice, Ella. What do you say to Uncle Eric?"
She looked at him then hugged one of his knees, which is as high up and the small girl could reach. "Thank you." she beamed at him.
Eric laughed and ran a hand down the girls hair. "Your welcome. But hey, see the pretty lady with the blond hair?" he got down on one knee to point out Calleigh to Ella.
She nodded.
"She helped me pick that out, if you get a chance you should say thank you to her too." he looked at the girl to gage her reaction to his suggestion. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable.
Instead she nodded again, stood on tip-toes to place her gift in Horatio's arms and ran off to thank Calleigh, her brown-blond curls whipping behind her.
Feeling oddly pleased with himself Eric excused himself from Tripp and Horatio's conversation, he wasn't working today and he didn't feel like hearing about a serial child-killer, especially not with his new found soft spot for his, unknown until that day, niece.
Walking over to the grill, he noted the white Christmas lights strung along the side of the plastic fence and worried how long the party was going to last. He wasn't so sure how long he could last at a Miami barbecue without incident with Calleigh and alcohol. Until this very fast paced and surprising day, he hadn't known how he felt about the pretty female CSI, but now that he was sure he truly liked her, he wasn't sure what to do.
Playing it safe, he siddled up along Ryan casually pulling a beer from the cooler next to the grill.
"Delko, hey." Ryan greeted, looking up from the grill momentarily.
"Hey. Sorry you had to set up all these tables. My sister guilt you into it?"
Ryan laughed quietly. "Sort of, but no hard feelings, man."
"The only woman I know who throws herself a welcome home party and uses it as an excuse to make sure people don't over react to her randomly adopted daughter." Eric said shaking his head.
"Give them a break, their happy at least. And look," he said gesturing vaguely to Ella with a spatula. "she's happy. And well adjusted, she even called me uncle.." he added with a chuckle.
Wolfe's right.. Eric thought. He watched Ella run with her arms outstretched in front of her, Calleigh close behind her bent over slightly to be a little closer to the girls height. He subconsciously commented that she would make a good mother someday.
"What are Tripp and Horatio talking about?" Wolfe asked. Eric tore his eyes from Calleigh quickly and dragged his attention to his brother in law and the detective. Tripp had one hand on his hip and was waving another one about angrily.
"Uh, the potential serial case." he answered
Ryan paused a few seconds. "Hey, can you watch the grill? I want to jump in, if this case is going to be big, I want to be on it." He passed the spatula to Eric without waiting for an answer and walked off toward the pair.
"He has a one sided mind, don't he?" Alexx's husband sighed, shaking his head.
Eric laughed. "Yeah, well he wouldn't be Ryan if he wasn't."
Alexx's son ran up to his father and started impatiently tugging his away.
He shrugged and said, "Kids." as if it didn't need an explanation, and truly it didn't. Once another human is that dependent on you, you don't have a choice anymore.
Finding himself completely alone in the corner of the yard with the grill, and not able to leave, he got lost in his own thoughts. So deep in his own thoughts, that when the hamburgers were almost done, and someone casually touched him on the shoulder, he almost punched them.
"Whoa!" Calleigh laughed at Eric's reaction.
Eric shook his head and took a steadying breath. "You scared me."
"Yeah, I can see that." she tried to keep a straight face, but you could hear the smile in her southern voice. "Need any help? I noticed you all by yourself and it just broke my heart." she said sarcastically.
"Nah, I got it." Truthfully, he wanted her to stay, but in his mind it was easier to talk to her before he decided he had feelings for her.
She didn't say anything, but she didn't leave either. She stood watching the rest of the yard.
"I know where I want to go on my honey-moon." She joked casually.
Eric looked up and followed her gaze to Ella before laughing. "England? Just do me a favor and don't rush into any flaming buildings, your not H."
She hit him playfully, then said seriously, "I know why they couldn't leave her. A half-hour and I would already give my life for that little girl!"
"Tell me about it. She's not shy that's for sure." He said, catching sight of Ella skipping in a circle around Natalia with Marisol laughing near-by, hanging off Horatio's arm.
"She sure isn't." Calleigh agreed. Eric snuck a peek at her, her eyes were still locked on Ella and he didn't catch her staring, but absence of mind leads to mistakes and he a stinging in his hand made him drop the spatula and jerk away from the grill.
"Ah!" he gasped, and popped his finger in his mouth without thinking.
Calleigh practically jumped. "What? What's you do?" she asked, and almost started laughing again when she noticed his finger in his mouth. "Burn yourself?" she asked condescendingly, but not being insulting. "Lemme see." she said, gently tugging at his wrist.
"Uh ah." he said from around his finger.
"Oh come on! You've been shot and your whimpering over a burn?" she placed a hand on her hip.
Eric laughed and dropped his arm to his side. Calleigh looked at him, and without taking her eyes off his raised his arm to her eye-level.
"Oh that's not that bad, you baby!"
"Baby!? I've been shot!" he stated, pretending to be offended.
They laughed, but then slowly stopped, still staring into each others eyes. His heart sped up and thoughts flashed threw him mind..
"Cahleee!"
Calleigh dropped Eric's arm and he self-consciously cleared his throat.
Ella stood before them, her tanned skin flushed and her chest moving up and down quickly, a huge smile plastered on her face.
She tucked a strand of damp hair behind her ear clumsily. "Hi, Un..cle Eric. Mommy wants to know...when is dinner?"
"Tell mommy to hold her horses." He replied.
Ella laughed, it was a cute tinkling noise between a babies laugh and a child's laugh. "Calleigh will you play chase with me again?"
Calleigh glanced at Eric, who was now powering down the grill, and putting the hot-dogs and hamburgers onto a large plate.
"Sure, sweetie." She agreed, regretfully leaving Eric.