Here's the next chapter. Hope you all enjoy this and your weekend. Thank you to all who take the time to consistently review. It's very kind of you and much appreciated.

Chapter 6

Saturday,

9:13 am

Calleigh pushed her breakfast around the bowl, completely uninterested in eating. She supposed it was something that they even let her have real food - relatively speaking anyway. Bland, boring oatmeal wasn't her idea of a decent meal and hospital cuisine hadn't undergone any dramatic improvement since the last time she'd been stuck in one. That had been years ago, when she'd still been with patrol back in New Orleans. She and her partner had answered a domestic dispute that had turned into a free-for-all. She'd come out of it with a concussion, bruised ribs, an overnight hospital stay and two long weeks of desk duty. She'd done her best to stay out of them since then and now this. Calleigh contemplated the oatmeal with distaste and sighed. They'd started her on juice and jello and Dr. Staniforth had expressed cautious optimism about her healing progress. Then the man had turned around and okayed a miniscule amount of a food she considered less flavorful than shredded cardboard.

Truthfully, that wasn't the only reason for her lack of appetite. Eric's deer-in-the-headlights reaction to her slip about wanting more than friendship had hurt. How could she have been so stupid? Morosely, she picked at the oatmeal again trying another small bite. Had she ruined everything? Having Eric as a friend was better than nothing. What if he was too uncomfortable to handle being around her? How could she fix this while stuck in the hospital for God knew how long?

At least she now knew what had put her in here. Calleigh had jumped on the doctor as soon as she was able and he'd told her it was a pretty serious stab wound coupled with a mild concussion. That had shut her up for a time while she considered how such a thing could have happened. Had she been home or at work or somewhere in-between? Neither Alexx nor Horatio had been particularly forthcoming on that front. She understood their reluctance but it was damn frustrating. Judging by the continued police presence, whoever had attacked her was still on the loose. There was something else going on as well although she wasn't sure what. She was getting some odd vibes from the various officers that had been on duty.

On the plus side, she didn't have to worry about her father for the moment. Alexx had filled her in on the steps Horatio had taken on her behalf. Then the ME had grinned and offered a $5 bet on whether or not Horatio would deflect any effort at a thank you. Calleigh hadn't taken the wager but that didn't mean she wouldn't attempt to convey her gratitude. Knowing her father wasn't drowning his fear in a bottle was too big a gift to ignore. Hopefully, he would put off another visit until she could fabricate some sort of facade at normalcy.

Calleigh finally put the spoon down and rubbed her eyes with a slight grimace. Her fever had broken in the wee hours of the morning and given her a few hours of sound sleep. It had taken some of the edge off the exhausted feeling but the constant undercurrent of pain was dragging her down. It was her own fault. The other thing she'd done was talk her doctor into keeping her pain meds down to a bare minimum. Knowing that addictive personalities ran in her family, she didn't want prescription narcotics to do to her what alcohol had done to her father and mother. Unfortunately, taking the high road also meant she'd just have to deal with it.

A tap on the door had her and her current watchdog looking in that direction. A moment later, Eric cautiously put his head in. He smiled brightly when he saw Calleigh was awake and entered the rest of the way, "Hey, you're up." He walked over to the bed, one hand held behind his back, "You look better, how are you feeling?"

Calleigh couldn't help smiling back, pushing away thoughts of last night. It seemed Eric was willing to pretend it hadn't happened. That was fine by her, "I'll be better when they let me out of this place. You know how I feel about hospitals."

"And hospital food," Eric breathed a silent sigh of relief. It seemed Calleigh was willing to pretend last night hadn't happened. That was fine by him. He looked down at her dish and then smiled again, "Which is why I brought you a little something." He produced the bag from behind his back with a bit of a flourish and grinned at the look on her face, "How about your favorite blueberry muffins?"

"Oh Eric, you're a lifesaver!" Calleigh laughed, gingerly reaching for the bag. She hesitated, her smile faltering, at the sudden change of expression on Delko's face. "Eric? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

He chuckled mirthlessly, shaking his head and staring at the floor. 'Lifesaver?' Him? This was his fault. He'd left her alone and she'd damn near died. Even a blind man could see the pain she was in. How ironic that she would call him that, especially after his stellar performance last night.

"Eric, please, you're scaring me." That brought his head up and Calleigh was shocked at the abject guilt that was splashed across his face.

"This is my fault." His voice was barely audible.

"What is?" He didn't answer and she suddenly realized what was bothering him. "Was it how I got hurt?" Calleigh struggled to keep her voice steady, "Eric, tell me what happened."

Delko stared at her in surprise. He'd accepted what H had said about her loss of memory but seeing the reality still left him feeling off-balance. This was Calleigh after all - Wonder Woman in a small blonde package. "You don't remember anything?"

Calleigh leaned carefully back, grateful he was at least talking and slightly exasperated at the same time, "I remember everything up to leaving for a double homicide and I remember waking up here. Alexx and Horatio keep dancing around the issue because they don't want to 'upset' me. I finally got Dr. Staniforth to tell me I'd been stabbed but I still don't know how it happened." Her gaze sharpened. Eric might tell her, "Do you know? Was it at a crime scene?" She didn't mention the frustratingly random bits of images that popped into her head or flitted through her dreams. She couldn't get a firm hold on any of them and nothing made sense.

Eric slumped a little, "It was at the Hennessey crime scene. I'm so sorry, Cal."

"I don't understand. Sorry about what?"

"About this! About everything!" Suddenly angry, he waved his hands and realized he was still holding the bag of muffins. He slammed it with a thump onto the tray, causing the bowl of oatmeal to bounce.

Calleigh froze, her face going blank as she stared from the bag to Eric. It was a defense mechanism perfected in childhood when any kind of an expression could set off a drunken rage with either of her parents.

Eric watched her face drop all expression and deflated. He could never understand how she could move so quickly from emotional to emotionless but suspected he wouldn't like the answer. Eric raised a hand to scrub his face and almost missed the slight tightening of her features. Pained, he took a deep breath, "Calleigh, you know I'd never hurt you."

"I know." She did know but had been unable to quell the long-instilled reaction. Embarrassed that he'd caught that, she lowered her gaze to the bed for a moment before looking back up at him. Her instincts were screaming at her to keep her distance and it was a struggle not to shut down completely. Eric didn't deserve that, he seemed to be carrying enough guilt and anger. "What is it? What did I do?"

"Nothing! Good god, Cal, how can you even ask?" Delko scrubbed a hand through his hair while he tried to get a firm hold of his emotions. He knew he had scared her even though to the casual observer, it would look like she hadn't reacted at all. He needed to fix this before her fear turned to anger. Calleigh didn't respond well to being frightened... or to appearing weak. Being hospitalized had to be making her crazy. He eased closer to the bed and rested his hands on the side rail, "The victims of that double homicide were Darian and Constance Hennessey. Do you remember who they were?"

Calleigh's brow furrowed in concentration, "I... I'm not sure, I think I should know." She brought a hand up to rub her forehead and looked at Eric ruefully, "You have no idea how frustrating this is."

He gave her a sympathetic look, "No, I guess I don't." He paused for a moment, "The Hennesseys were part of Miami's high society. They were found shot to death by the maid. He was killed in the downstairs study and she was killed upstairs in the master bathroom."

"One shooter?" Calleigh frowned slightly when Eric nodded, "And two pretty separate locations - so the killer used a silencer."

Delko smiled, this was the Calleigh he was used to, "Yeah, there were double striations on the slugs we recovered." He relaxed a little more, leaning on the railing, "It's turned into a three-ring circus. The press and the television news have been all over this. We can't turn around without having a camera shoved in our faces." He smirked slightly, "Ryan's thrilled."

"Eric, stop. He's getting better," Calleigh couldn't help grinning a little. It faded as she fixed Eric with a stare, "What happened?"

Delko tensed, "Horatio sent you and me back for a second look. There doesn't seem to be any motive for killing the Hennesseys and Horatio thought we might be able to find something else to give us a lead." He dropped his gaze to the bed, "We split up to work each crime scene. I went upstairs and you went to the study... I'm sorry, Cal, it was my idea to work separately. If we'd been together, this never would have happened."

"You don't know that," Calleigh countered firmly. She paused and then looked at him in confusion, "So someone attacked me in the study? Didn't the police secure the house?"

"Yeah, they did... " He was about to tell her about the panic room he and Horatio had discovered when she suddenly interrupted him.

"Why is IA involved?"

Eric froze for a second, he did not want to be the one to tell her this. Why hadn't Alexx or Horatio let her know what was going on?

"Eric?"

Steeling himself, he said carefully, "As far as they knew, at the time of the attack, the house was secure and you and I were the only ones there." He stopped, not sure if he could bring himself to say the rest.

Calleigh's eyes widened, "They think that you... that's ridiculous! Why would... " Her face blanched as she realized what they might have considered as a motive, "They didn't."

Eric hung his head as he nodded. He knew what was being said. The only way he'd agreed to cooperate with Alexx earlier was if she told him exactly what rumors were flying around. He'd convinced her that he had a right to know what he was dealing with. Alexx hadn't been happy but she hadn't pulled any punches either. Eric thought he'd surprised her with the restraint he'd shown. He hadn't yelled, or thrown, or hit anything although he'd been sorely tempted. If he ever ran into Stetler, however, he'd risk firing and jail time to beat the hell out of the man.

"They think that we were... involved, and what? You attacked me because of some lover's spat?" Calleigh closed her eyes for a moment and rubbed her temples. If she didn't feel so much like crying, she'd be laughing hysterically at the irony of it all. She'd been so careful not to give in to her feelings about Eric and now this. It was ludicrous.

Eric kept his eyes on the bed and didn't say anything. How could he tell her that Stetler had painted her as a tease and a slut?

"Eric? What are they saying?"

There was a slight tremor in her voice but Eric couldn't tell if she was upset or infuriated. He glanced away, unable to look her in the eye, "The theory is that you were leading me on while seeing someone else and I lost it." Delko stopped and waited for the explosion. There was nothing. Finally, he couldn't stand the silence and chanced a look back. He felt a stab of pain at the devastated expression on Calleigh's face. He hurried to say something, anything that might alleviate the damage, "Cal... Calleigh, c'mon. No one who knows us believes that crap."

She stared at him, refusing to let herself cry, "What about the rest? Oh god, Eric, you know how people love this kind of thing. How are we supposed to do our jobs after this?"

Eric reached for her hand and stopped when she flinched. He took a deep breath. It had been a forlorn hope that she would see them as equal victims. Calleigh wasn't an idiot, by any stretch of the imagination. She knew exactly how she was being portrayed and how easily it was being accepted by the predominantly male police force. He was the victim and she was the bitch and that's what they would remember long after the true facts were known. Anger blazed once again at what that bastard from IAB had done. Eric's fists clenched as he straightened up, "I'm going to kill Stetler."

"No you won't, baby." Eric spun around to find Alexx standing in the doorway. She walked into the room, pausing to drop a hand on the blanket covering Calleigh's legs and smiling softly, "Hey, sugar." Alexx turned toward Eric who had backed up slightly and her gaze took in both CSIs, "What you two ought to do is file suit against that pathetic excuse for a man. This goes beyond a good faith error in judgment. He's slandered both of you and he did it deliberately in his vendetta against Horatio." She settled herself on the foot of the bed, keeping her focus on Eric and Calleigh and well aware that the patrolman in the corner was soaking up every word.