The next morning, Calleigh woke up when she felt the bed sag next to her. Rolling over, she came face to face with Eric. His deep, brown eyes were staring at her only inches from her own.
"Hey." Eric said when he saw Calleigh roll over to look at him. His voice was quiet and deep. Calleigh smiled upon hearing Eric's voice.
"Good morning." She said. Her voice was still a bit raspy from her cold, but Eric thought it was the sweetest sound he had ever heard.
"Breakfast is…" Eric stopped and yawned involuntarily. He had tossed and turned all night on the couch in the break room, at one time the sleeping bag had actually slipped off the couch with him in it, causing him to collide with the coffee table. "…breakfast is waiting in the kitchen."
Eric began to get up off of the bed and head into the kitchen to get breakfast when something caught his hand. Looking down at his hand, he realized that it was a someone rather than a something that had caught his hand. Calleigh's hand was wrapped around his, holding him in place next to the bed and tugging him back down onto it.
"You look tired. Didn't you sleep well?" Calleigh asked.
"Me? Oh, I slept fine." Eric assured Calleigh, even though he could tell that Calleigh didn't believe him.
"You've never lied to me before, please don't start now." Calleigh said honestly. Calleigh tugged forcefully on Eric's hand helping him to lose his balance and land next to her on the mattress with a thud. "Get down here. Come to bed and get some sleep."
Eric laughed at Calleigh's forwardness. As he landed on the bed, at first Eric tensed up. He had always dreamed of the day when he could lay next to Calleigh in bed. Just as suddenly as his body had tensed up, it relaxed when Calleigh rolled back over, her back to his stomach, taking his arm with her and wrapping it around her in the process.
"What you did was really sweet, Eric." Calleigh said sleepily as she toyed with the idea of slipping back into her dream world. Eric wrapped around her just felt right. "If I didn't make you want to go out and buy earplugs, I'd say that we should tell Horatio we're going to be late and have a sleepover."
"I don't want anything but you." Eric said, his eyes heavy and drooping with sleep and longing for Calleigh. "And as long as we don't have to paint each other's toe nails later, your idea of a sleepover is perfect."
Calleigh giggled and snuggled closer to Eric. "Perfect… just like you."
Eric pulled Calleigh closer to him. He felt Calleigh's breathing even out, a tell tale sign that she was asleep. Eric's eyes were closed, his mind foggy with sleep and he was just drifting off when he heard it – that faint snore coming from Calleigh. This time, though, he knew better than to care.