Hey everyone! Sorry this took a little time to get out, vacation can do that to you, but it was well worth it! Um…again, I hope I stayed true to the characters, please help me, correct me or anything if you feel I didn't do someone justice or anything!! Any critique or review is GREATLY appreciated!! Thank everyone for reading and reviewing and as always, enjoy!! =D
The door swung shut behind Natalia with a click. Silence had settled on the room, a thick heavy silence that seeped into every pore and crevice. Eric and Calleigh just stood, staring at each other. The interruption had snapped them both back to their situation. They were at work, and anyone could have walked in just now. It was Calleigh who cleared her throat first as she wiped her face free of tears, and turned toward the door.
"I, um, have a case I need to get back to," she said nodding to Eric as she slipped out of the room leaving him more confused, nervous, and anxious than he could remember being for a long time.
Calleigh stepped into her lab with a feeling of shedding a very large and obtrusive coat. She felt safe in her lab, or as safe as was realistic at the moment. Wishing she could just sit in firearms for the remainder of the day, shooting, she gathered the blood she found on a gun from a gang shooting and headed out once more. She made her way slowly down the hallway towards DNA, hoping desperately neither Natalia nor Valera was present. Her hopes were dashed, however, when she entered the room to find not one, but both of them sitting by the machines, chatting away. Almost sighing, she straightened her shoulders and marched confidently into the room, calling out a 'hey' to them both. She couldn't let Natalia detect anything less from her than normal after what she had just witnessed not five minutes ago. She was 110% always, no matter what.
"Hi," greeted Natalia, smiling nervously at Calleigh, who gave her an ignorant smile back and turned to Valera. She handed her the sample, which Valera accepted.
"Could take a bit though," she warned Calleigh, anticipating her need to stay until it was all processed. "Three other cases before yours."
"It's alright, I'm not busy. What cases?" She did mind, wishing every moment that she could leave the two ladies back to their gossip and be on her way. But she really did have nothing else much to do, which left her with way too much thinking time on her hands, something she did not need or want. This left her with only one option, stay, listen to gossip, and answer prodding questions from them both.
"Well the first two are so typical," complained Natalia. "One, is a drug dealer was shot, by a client we think. Then a club owner and his assistant were shot outside a club." Before Natalia could continue, Valera sighed loudly.
"God, I just hate that!"
"It doesn't faze me too much, to be honest, I mean they're all probably drug dealers and bastards anyway," said Calleigh with a look in Valera's direction.
"No, no! I didn't mean that he was killed; I meant I love his club! It's one of my favorites and now I'll bet it's going to close." Calleigh raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Isn't that the one where they always play porn?" she asked. Valera shrugged.
"Yeah, but whatever, it's a really good club." Natalia shook her head, chuckling to herself.
"Leave it to you, Max, to love a club that always shows porn and has more crime than New York City." Valera muttered something that sounded like 'whatever' and turned back to her DNA. Natalia laughed at her and turned to talk to Calleigh.
"What was the third case?" she asked Natalia, curious since Natalia had said it wasn't like the others.
"This one is awful. A little 4 year old girl and her 2 year old brother were kidnapped by some ass hole in Georgia and brought here to Miami. Horatio's trying to find them. To be honest what Valera's processing now doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference to the case, but Horatio wants us to look at anything and everything, so here I am." Calleigh's stomach turned and began doing an uncomfortable rendition on the Cancan. A little girl was out there with her brother, they could be hurt or dead, or dying. Calleigh gulped down the bile in her throat, and possible tears, pushing her temporary nausea away along with it.
"Is he close to them?" She asked Natalia in what she hoped was the most detached voice she could give for something as terrible as this.
"Kind of, he thinks he may have a lead. He's heading out there right now, if I'm not mistaken. He seems to have a good feeling they'll find something there, but that's Horatio for you." Calleigh nodded absentmindedly, still focusing hard on the children. It made her think of her own child, not even born, at mortal peril in the world where nothing is safe or sacred. It made her want to talk to Eric, she should, no matter how much she wanted to just avoid it and pretend it wasn't happening. Maybe she wouldn't get the chance tomorrow, she knew all too well how much could go wrong in one day.
"I'll be back in a few for my results, ok?" she said to Valera, stepping out of the lab, intent on finding Eric. But before she had gone more than a few steps, her phone began to ring. Picking it up she answered with her customary greeting of 'Duquesne.'
"Calleigh, I need you down by Bal Harbor, now."
"Sure Horatio, I'm on my way over, what's going on?"
"You'll see," was his customarily cryptic reply right before the line went dead. She sighed. No matter how many blows your personal life dealt you in a day, crime never stopped to give you time to pick yourself up, it just kept on happening oblivious to everyone else around it. Talking to Eric would have to wait, although she couldn't say she was too disappointed about it. First though, she had to get through an evening with Natalia and her questions.
"Hey Cal, rough day?" Ryan asked, shutting his locker with a clang at the end of the day. She looked up at him and shrugged.
"It's always a rough day, you know that." Truth be told, it had been a very rough day, but Ryan didn't need to know that, nor did she want him too. He nodded in full agreement and with nothing else to say but a quick good-bye, left. Calleigh was tired. In fact, she was beyond tired. Beside from the physical wear and tear of throwing up at least 5 times since lunch (a lunch she didn't even eat) and the crime scene she had to process nearly alone, the emotional aspect of the day was most certainly taxing her. Not that she would show it, but after her interrupted attempt to talk to Eric, she hadn't felt she had the energy to confront him again, so now she put all her excess energy into avoiding him. After thinking it through she was almost certain she couldn't talk to him, not yet. But avoiding him was harder than she had anticipated and it made her feel weak: ducking behind walls when she saw him, purposely taking a longer route just to keep from running into him. She was a coward, afraid to face her own emotions and the man who brought them to the surface, the man she loved.
She jumped when she felt strong hands grip her shoulders, relaxing again when they began a soothing rhythm between her shoulder blades. Kneading away the tense knots that had began to take up a permanent residence there, forcing her to relax against the hard chest keeping her upright. But when she opened her eyes to see Eric's brown ones above her, the stress returned instantly, along with the walls, automatically pulling themselves into place at the sight of his gorgeous face. She sat up, pulling herself out of his heavenly grip. She didn't want to be near him, she couldn't face him. She had thought telling him would get rid of that feeling, that she would be able to let him hold her again, but she couldn't, not yet.
"Cal-," he said trying to pull her back to him. She shook her head, turning her back on him. "Calleigh," he tried again, softly. "I know you're scared, but you can't run from this forever. Things just happen, whether you want them to or not, and no matter what they are you have to face 'em. Come on Cal, we can get through this. I know you." She didn't turn around, but his words were churning themselves in her head. He knew he could get killed for this. Especially since the same girlfriend he was talking to right now was the same one he shared a room with almost every night of the week and the same one that had an enormous gun vault tucked away in her house. He didn't care right then though. He was just praying this wouldn't come back and bite him in the ass and damn it, he was tired of waiting! Waiting 7 years to go out with her, then to sleep with her, and even longer for her to trust him with the feelings she kept from the rest of the world. He didn't want to have to wait another 3 years for her to come to terms with this new obstacle, she didn't have that long, only about 9 months to be precise. "And you cant turn away from everyone trying to help. Its not only you now, you aren't the only one who needs the help, maybe; maybe…the baby needs it too. You cant turn it all away." He whispered the last words and she turned to look at him, not believing he had said that. It brought everything up to the surface, made it real. She couldn't deal with that.
"I have to go meet Natalia." Calleigh said quickly, looking for any route of escape. She was running from the truth, again. She couldn't really be mad at Eric; he was only telling her the truth, plain, black and white truth. He sighed, not bothering to follow her out of the locker room.
She nearly ran out of the locker room, her composure was threatening to slip from her face and her head was reeling. It hurt; the truth hurt her, like so many other things. But all those other things she had been able to face, to deal with, to meet and get through. But how could she even begin to with this, how could she even try? And Eric, damn it, he had said it! Why had he said it? The baby…No. She couldn't even think it! It made everything too damn real, she couldn't let it be real! When it was real it was all too terrifying.
"Calleigh, hey! " Natalia said, jogging slightly to catch up with her. "We still on for tonight?"
"Um…" She had really only 3 options: Go with Natalia and risk suspicion of what was really going on, go home and talk to Eric (both not very appealing options), or… "You know what Nat, I'm not really sure if I'm up to that tonight. I'm sorry, but another night?" Natalia nodded slowly, her eyes searching Calleigh for any sign as to what was going on. But all she could see in the blonde was a distantly tucked away weariness. Maybe Calleigh did need a night at home.
"Sure, soon. Have a good night," she said and left with a wave and a smile. Calleigh nodded and began toward her car.
She pressed her foot harder on the gas pedal, speeding down the highway, then screeching to a stop by the beach. Changing quickly into her jogging clothes she took off running down the beach, leaving everything behind her and letting the roar of the waves be all the comfort she needed.