A/N: Thank you for the continued support! Enjoy!
Chapter Two
Rosha was awake when Eric stopped by to see her the next night after work. She was still in bed, hair pulled away from her face, no make-up on, looking exhausted. But still, she smiled when she saw him walk through the doors.
"Hey," she yawned widely.
"Hey yourself," Eric smiled back. He offered a bouquet of Gerber daisies. "I brought you these—congratulations."
Rosha's smile grew by half. "Thank you so much!" she accepted his gift and buried her nose in the colorful flowers. "They're beautiful."
Eric pulled a chair up next to her and took a seat. "So how are you feeling?"
She made a face. "Like I got struck by lightning after I got hit by a bus. How about you?"
He laughed. "In comparison, I feel pretty damn good."
"The nurse put a rush on the paternity results," she said suddenly, scratching at the side of her nose. "They should be in by tomorrow morning at the latest."
"Oh," his eyebrows rose in surprise. "Well that's good."
"Yeah," she made a move to lay the flowers on the side table before she grimaced in pain. "Oh ow. Ow…damnit."
"Are you okay?" Eric panicked and got to his feet.
"Well, no. They took my guts out yesterday." She caught the face he made and smiled. "I know, pretty gross, right? Anyway, I'm not supposed to be moving in anyway that aggravates my incision." She let out a deep, pained breath. "Something that I'll just have to keep reminding myself."
"You sure you're okay?" Eric took the flowers and set them down for her. "I can get a doctor for you."
"I'm fine," she waved his concern away. "No worries."
"Have you seen the baby yet?" he asked, wondering why the room was lacking the infant they were all there for.
"Oh, yeah," she smiled again. "We spent the day together but then they whisked him away to do all sorts of tests and checks and," she shrugged, "other sorts of doctor what-have-you."
"Good," Eric nodded. "That's good."
"Have you seen him?"
"Yeah, last night," he smiled to himself. "He's a good lookin' kid."
Rosha grinned. "I thought so too."
"Look, Rosha, about these test results…"
"I stand by what I said before," she stated firmly. "It's totally up to you."
"I know, and I'm saying that if he turns out to be mine, well," Eric shrugged, "I want to be involved."
She smiled, examining him in a new light. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Of course," she nodded, stray pieces of dark hair falling into her face. "If he's yours, he's yours. I can't keep him from you."
"Well, I mean, how does this work? Do we…I don't know…do we date? Do we get married—"
"No offense," she cut him off, "but I don't really know you."
Eric laughed. "I don't know you either!"
She joined him with a giggle. "I guess we kind of did this backwards, huh?"
He sighed, feeling much better all of a sudden. "Yeah, I guess we did."
Eric stayed and watched Letterman until Rosha fell asleep again. They hadn't planned much or shared anything important, but they'd made each other laugh and feel just a bit more at ease. As he left, he couldn't help but thinking that—despite the bizarre circumstances—this wasn't the worst second date he'd ever been on.
0x0x0
He was in the car with Calleigh the next afternoon on their way back from a call out when his phone rang again. It was the hospital.
"Here we go," he muttered to himself, staring at the display for a moment.
Calleigh glanced sideways from the driver's seat. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," he nodded and flipped open the phone. "This is Delko."
"Hi, Mr. Delko, this is Dr. Jerene Carter, I'm calling from Dade Memorial with your test results."
He took a deep breath. "Go ahead."
"Are you sure you want to do this over the phone?"
"Yeah, go for it."
"Okay then," he heard a rustling of papers. "It looks as though you are a positive familial match…you are the father."
Eric's hand, which had been twitching nervously at his side stopped. "I am."
Calleigh glanced over again, wide-eyed.
"Yes, Mr. Delko. If you'd like to stop by the hospital at some point today we can get all of your paperwork filled out." She paused in her rustling and he heard a smile in her voice. "Congratulations."
"Uh…yeah…" he rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, I can do that."
"Great, we'll see you sometime today then."
"See you then."
He tucked his phone back into his pocket and stared straight ahead.
"I can drop you off," Calleigh said softly, slowing the car at a red light.
"What?"
"At the hospital," she clarified. "I'm sure you'd rather be there right now."
"No," he shook his head. "I don't…I don't really know what I want right now."
He knew what he'd said before, not even twelve hours ago, but that when it was all speculation. It was the right thing to say to someone who'd just had a baby by herself. Someone you liked, despite how you'd met them. But now, as the reality of what was really happening began to hit him, he wasn't so sure he was able to follow through on what he'd promised.
Calleigh turned and met his eyes. "You want to talk?"
"I don't know."
She nodded and turned back to the road as traffic began moving again. "You let me know."
They lapsed into pensive silence for the rest of the ride. It wasn't until Calleigh was pulling into CSI that Eric spoke again. "Would you—" he stopped himself and started again. "Do you think maybe you could…"
Calleigh's brow furrowed. "What?"
"Would you please come with me? Tonight," he continued hurriedly, "to the hospital." He was answered with a stunned silence and Calleigh's raised eyebrows. "You don't have you, obviously, I just…I'm kind of…I don't know…forget I asked," he shook his head and pushed open the door.
"No," Calleigh grabbed his hand. "I can go."
"You will?"
She nodded. "If that's what you need," she shrugged, "that's what I'll do. Okay?"
He gave a slight smile, the pressure in his chest diminishing. "Thank you."
"Anytime," Calleigh squeezed his hand. It was the first conscious move she'd made to touch him in the last week. He hadn't realized just how much he'd missed her touch.
0x0x0
When they passed through the sliding glass doors of the maternity ward that night, people were waiting for Eric. Three people—to be precise. Dr. Carter, who'd spoken to him on the phone, the friendly nurse who'd taken his blood, and another woman he didn't recognize.
Three of any staff waiting for you was rarely a good sign.
"What's going on?" he asked immediately, noting the worried looks on all three of their faces. "What is it? Is it the baby—is he okay?"
"Mr. Delko, your son is fine," Dr. Carter began soothingly. "Please calm down."
"Well then what's going on?"
"It's the mother," the stranger of the group began nervously.
"Rosha? What's wrong with Rosha?"
Dr. Carter looked around at the anxious faces in the waiting room. "Darla," she lowered her voice, "we shouldn't do this here."
"Somebody better start talking," Eric interrupted their conference before it could begin. He felt a hand on his arm and looked down to see Calleigh's green eyes full of worry.
"Eric…" she warned, her voice just above a whisper.
"Mr. Delko, why don't you follow us," Dr. Carter motioned down the hallway. She turned her gaze toward Calleigh. "Are you family?"
"Yes," Eric answered firmly for her. They began the trek down the hall. "What's going on?" he asked once they'd left the earshot of the waiting room. "What's wrong with Rosha?"
"Nothing was wrong, as far as we could tell, Mr. Delko," the nurse began. "Everything seemed perfectly normal and then the next thing we knew…"
"The next thing you knew…what?" he implored. "What. Happened."
"Ms. Ortiz is gone," Dr. Carter said.
"Are you telling me she's dead?" he demanded, his jaw set into a harsh square.
"No!" the nurse exclaimed. "We're telling you she's gone. She checked herself out AMA."
"What?"
"Mr. Delko, I'm Shannon McBride," the stranger finally introduced herself. "I was Rosha's lactation consultant."
"Her what?"
"I was assigned to help her get started with her breastfeeding."
With his mind spinning the way it was, all of this information was meaning very little to him. "Okay…"
"We had an appointment today at three. I explained what she was supposed to do, she seemed okay with giving it a try, and then…"
"Then what?"
"It's very common with first time mothers—they're nervous and scared and worried and when things don't go right the first time, they get discouraged."
"Where is this going?"
"She started getting anxious and worked up," Shannon continued hurriedly. "I asked if she wanted to stop and she said yes, that she just needed some air and she'd be fine. I told her I'd come back in an hour and we'd try again. And when I came back, she was gone."
"You're not making any sense," he told the three women. "This is a hospital. She's a patient. She can't just leave without anyone noticing."
"We told you," the Asian nurse reiterated. "She cleaned out her room and checked herself out—Against Medical Advice."
"Who checked her out?"
Dr. Carter sighed wearily. "One of my interns—before you say anything, it's being dealt with."
"It'd better be." A silence settled over the five of them. Eric ran his hands over his face. "What do we do now?"
"I understand that this changes things considerably," the doctor said, her voice never losing its comforting patience. "I've arranged for someone from Social Services to come down and talk to you to go over your options."
Eric nodded. "I want to see my son."
"I can take you back," the nurse volunteered quickly. "Both of you," she corrected, twitching a smile in Calleigh's direction.
She led them back to a room Eric hadn't visited before. It branched off from the nursery and had walls lined with wooden rocking chairs, sterile looking cribs and changing tables, and a large shelving unit stacked with blankets, diaper, bottles and other baby accessories. The nurse left them alone for a moment.
Eric sighed heavily. "I don't believe this."
"Eric, I'm so sorry," Calleigh shook her head, not knowing what else to say.
"It doesn't make any sense. She seemed fine with everything last night…what could have changed?"
"Can you call her?" she suggested, her fingers playing with a knot of yarn on a stray afghan.
Eric remembered the cell phone tucked in his pocket. "Yeah, I could." He flipped it open and scanned through his contacts before finding her number. It rang twice before he was greeted with three loud beeps. Beep beep beep. We're sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number and try again. He hung up the phone. "It's been disconnected."
Calleigh's phone was pressed to her ear before his was closed. "Ryan can you do me a favor?" she began kindly. "I need you to find somebody for me—Rosha Ortiz?" she paused. "Try surrounding states." Another pause. "Okay. I'll call you back." She hung up the phone. "She's not in the system."
"I don't think she's from around here," Eric muttered, sinking into a nearby chair. "She said she was staying with a friend until she got everything sorted out."
"Eric, we're cops. We can find anybody."
The nurse interrupted them as she rolled the baby in. He'd been moved from his incubator into a regular hospital bassinette and dressed in a white onesie, blue hat and matching blue socks. The dark-haired woman bent and scooped him up in his blankets and turned to Eric. "Would you like to hold him?"
In spite of everything that was whirling through his mind, Eric's heart stopped for a moment. He had been putting off this moment until the results had come in for fear of getting too attached. But now there was nothing holding him back. He smiled. "Yes, please."
The nurse settled the baby in his arms, checked to make sure his head was cradled and stepped back. "You should be very proud," she said softly. But Eric wasn't listening. His eyes were locked on the tiny child in his arms. He had held his nieces millions of times before but this was different. This was his son. The gravity of it hit him at once—he could scarcely breathe.
Calleigh's phone rang just as she was about to step out to give them some privacy. "I'll be right outside," she told him needlessly as she flipped open the phone.
"Okay," he said softly, not looking up. At the sound of his voice, his son's eyes fluttered open and they looked at each other for the first time. Eric's breath caught in his chest once more. He'd been right—dark brown eyes. Just like his. "Hey," he whispered, a smile coming to his face. "It's Daddy." He bent and pressed a gentle kiss to the child's forehead. "I know everything's kind of crazy right now," he continued in the same hushed tone. "But I'm going to figure it all out. I promise."
The baby's miniscule hand curled around Eric's finger. A tiny, significant sign of total trust in his father.
0x0x0
Filling out paperwork had never been Eric's cup of tea. He'd known going in that it was going to be a pain in the ass but filling things out in triplicate? That seemed excessive. Nearly three hours had passed from the time he and Calleigh had first arrived at the hospital. His meeting with Social Services had been brief—he was keeping his child, end of story. They'd discussed Rosha and what her rights as the biological mother were and how they would change depending on when and if she decided to contact the baby.
"Obviously," the social worker had added, "we'll still be doing everything in our power to contact Ms. Ortiz."
It was almost ten o' clock when everything was finished. He signed his name for what felt like the millionth time and pushed the mountain of paperwork toward the nurse for the secretary. "Is that the last of it?" he asked as she began flipping through.
"That's the last of it. As long as all this checks out, you can take your son home with you tonight." She got up and left the room.
Eric followed her out to the hallway where Calleigh was waiting. She smiled. "How'd it go?"
"They said if everything checks out I can take him home tonight but…"
"But what?"
"I don't have anything," he said nervously. "I don't have a car seat or a crib or a stroller or anything to feed him…"
"Wrong you are, Delko," the unmistakable voice of Ryan Wolfe came from behind him.
Eric followed Calleigh's sparkling eyes and turned around to see his friend wheeling a large stroller down the hall. He laughed. "What the hell is this?"
"The best car seat/stroller combination a very small amount of money could buy," Ryan proudly parked the new toy in front of Eric and Calleigh and crouched to the side. "Check it out—you just pop this out when you just need the car seat," he demonstrated. "And then, when you're ready to cruise through the park, you just pop it back in and off ya go!"
Eric laughed as Ryan stood up. "Thank you, Wolfe. It means a lot."
"Hey," he shrugged. "We all pitched in."
"Ryan! Where are you?" a voice called from the elevators.
"Valera?" Eric asked, peering around his partner. Sure enough, Natalia and Valera came stumbling from the elevator, each clutching a pack of diapers and split between the two of them, two containers of formula, a pack of bottles, a pack of blankets, and a few outfits. "I don't believe this," he said through a smile.
"We were all supposed to come together," Valera huffed by the time she reached them. "But then Ryan got all excited and took off of with the stroller and left Natalia and I in the lurch."
"Technically, I left you in the elevator," Ryan pointed out. "It could've been worse. I could've made you take the stairs."
"You guys," Eric interrupted with a shake of his head. "Thank you," he said, not knowing what else there was to say. "Thank you so much."
"Hey," Natalia shrugged amidst her packages. "It's not everyday CSI has a baby."
"I have cards!" Valera remembered, looking around for a place to put her load down. She found none. "Ryan, they're in my purse. Get them."
He found three cards, one they'd all signed, one from Horatio, and one from Alexx and her family. "Oh," Ryan added as he handed the cards off. "And Horatio wanted me to tell you that as of tomorrow, you're on paternity leave."
Eric raised an eyebrow. "Paternity leave?"
Ryan shrugged. "He could only get you two weeks…because technically paternity leave doesn't exist."
"You didn't have to do this," he said, looking around from one to the other.
"Of course we did," Calleigh stepped up behind him and rested her hand on his back. "We're family."
He smiled as another woman in scrubs came from the nursery carrying a familiar bundle of blue blankets. "Look at this welcoming party you have waiting for you," she smiled down at the baby. "You must be one lucky kid."
She handed him off to his father and watched with pleasure as everyone crowded around. That was one lucky kid indeed.
A/N: Whoa! Big chapter! Lots to absorb. What are your thoughts?
