Calleigh felt the sunlight caress her face as she slowly stirred from her deep sleep. Her eyelids felt heavy as she tried to open them, so she kept them shut and continued to enjoy the morning sun. She stretched out under the covers, rubbing her feet together to warm them. Until then she hadn't noticed the abnormal feeling covering her body. Her eyes opened easily this time as she lifted the blanket and rested back on her elbow. She was still wearing what she had worn to work yesterday. She frowned, rubbing her eyes, and sat up. Before she could begin to think of why she hadn't changed, she yawned. In the time it took her to inhale sharply at the thought, she remembered. She had been going over the case file last night with Eric...

"Eric!" she said aloud. She glanced around her room, no sign of him. Throwing off the rest of her blankets, she jumped out of bed and headed downstairs to her kitchen to call him. She didn't even get through the kitchen door, when she saw him standing at her fridge looking for something inside. She sighed and smiled as she watched him. Running her fingers through her hair, she walked toward him. Standing behind him, she placed her hand gently in the middle of his back. He turned suddenly but relaxed when he realized it was her. He smiled and framed her face in his hands.

"Good morning," he told her, kissing her lips.

"Good morning. You stayed," she smiled, wrapping her arms around him.

"Well, yeah. I didn't want you to worry when you woke up," he shrugged. Calleigh moved from their embrace to grab some orange juice out of the fridge. She grabbed two glasses from the cupboard and poured some for both of them. She handed Eric his glass and together they sat at the kitchen table.

"How did you sleep?" Eric asked, taking her hand. Calleigh took a sip of her orange juice.

"Fine," she answered after a moment. Eric nodded but eyed her now wrinkled dress shirt and creased pants and immediately felt a pang of regret.

"Cal, I'm sorry I let you sleep in your clothes, you must have been uncomfortable. It's just you looked so peaceful last night. I couldn't wake you," he said, looking away. Calleigh looked down at her outfit and shrugged. She put her glass down on the table and leaned closer to Eric. With her hand on the side of his face, she turned his head toward her so she could kiss him. Leaning back she assured him,

"Don't feel bad, I didn't even notice until this morning. I do feel bad for falling asleep on you though," she chuckled, grabbing her glass to take another sip.

"Don't worry about it," Eric laughed but was interrupted by the ring of his cell phone. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered, looking at Calleigh. She cocked her head slightly while Eric nodded and murmured the occasional "Hmm," or "Okay sure," into the phone. Hanging up, he nodded in the direction of the door.

"Time to go."

• • •

Ryan stood against the glass counter as he waited for the blood sample- from the Davis' pool- that Calleigh had given him to either give him a lead, or send him to another dead end. He tapped his fingers on the table and yawned. Natalia walked in, then, and grinned.

"Out late partying last night or something?" She laughed silently coming to face him on the other side of the table. She raised her eyebrows waiting for him to answer. Ryan rolled his eyes and gave her a look that asked "Really?"

"Not quite, but nice try," he smiled. The DNA was still processing when his phone rang. He answered,

"This is Wolfe. Horatio, hey! Sure, okay, see you in ten."

"What's going on?" Natalia asked.

"Nat, could you do me a favor and finish with the results from the blood for me? Horatio needs me on a homicide," he gave her a pleading smile.

"Of course Ryan," she agreed

"You're the best, see you later," he grabbed his jacket and walked down the hallway out of sight. Almost as soon as he'd left, the computer beeped. They got a match to the blood, Catherine Davis, their victim. Natalia sighed and began printing the results. Placing the papers in a folder, she looked up and jumped a little at the sight of Rick Stetler leaning against the door frame.

"Have you seen Horatio, Ms. Boavista?" he asked coolly. Natalia straightened as she answered.

"He's out in the field. Do you want me to leave him a message?" She glanced around, looking for something to write on.

"No, that's fine. I'll talk to him myself," he gave her a cold smile and just as quickly, and as silently, as he'd come, he was gone. Natalia shuddered and picked up her phone.

Ryan felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and heard the muffled ring as he pulled into the driveway belonging to the address Horatio had given him. He looked at the screen before answering. 'Natalia,' the screen read. He put the phone to his ear.

"Hey Natalia, what's up?" he proceeded to get out of the hummer, grabbing his kit off the passenger seat.

"I got a match off of your blood sample, but unfortunately it was the victims. I'm sorry Ryan." Ryan shook his head in disappointment.

"Thanks Natalia," Ryan entered the house as he disconnected the call. He walked through the foyer of the house and into the small backyard through a sliding door in the kitchen. In the middle of the yard was a gazebo. Horatio stood inside next to their new victim. Ryan climbed the steps of the gazebo and began photographing the young woman. Short, blonde hair, she couldn't be older than thirty; maybe in her mid thirties. Horatio stood silently, thinking and scanning the yard.

"Mr. Wolfe, there's something off about this scene," Horatio finally spoke. Ryan stood from the kneeling position he had taken and looked around, following Horatio's gaze.

"It does look clean. The body too; no blood spatters, but some evident defensive wounds." He thought for a moment.

"You know, this is very similar to our Catherine Davis case."

"Yes, young women; blonde women, a clean killer. We may have a serial case on our hands," Horatio's face hardened. At that point, Calleigh and Eric arrived at the scene, still taking every chance they could to work together. With Ryan and Horatio still in the backyard, the two of them processed the inside of the house. Upstairs, Calleigh took the woman's bedroom, and Eric ventured down the hall to her bathroom. Calleigh looked around the empty room and eyed a purse sitting on the bed. She dumped the contents out in front of her; a pack of gum, lipstick and- 'Yes,' she thought- a wallet. She opened the clasp to find a drivers license. Caitlin Douglas. Calleigh bagged the entire wallet, as well as everything else in the purse, and walked out of the room to find Eric.

"Find anything?" she asked, coming to a stop outside the bathroom door.

"No. Did you?" he asked, hoping they'd catch a break.

"I found her wallet. Vic's name is Caitlin Douglas," she told him. It wasn't much, but it was a start. They both headed downstairs to inform Horatio and Ryan.

After an hour and a half of processing the scene, the four CSI's exited the victim's house toward their vehicles, carrying boxes of evidence they collected. Rick was walking in their direction as they neared the driveway. He stopped and stood arrogantly, waving Horatio over.

"Ryan, go back and help Tom with the body. Calleigh, Eric, take the evidence back to the lab. I'll meet you all there later," Horatio ordered, continuing down the driveway to meet Rick. Ryan left for the backyard after handing his box to Eric. He and Calleigh, then, walked past the two men, Rick turning his head slightly to watch them pass. Every time she saw him, Calleigh felt more uncomfortable. She picked up her pace until Eric had to jog to keep up with her. When they were out of earshot he grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"What's the matter?" Calleigh ripped her arm out of his grasp and continued to walk.

"I'm sorry Eric; can we talk about this when we get to the car?" Eric nodded and strode quickly beside her. Back in the driveway, Horatio had lost his patience.

"What are you really doing here Rick, besides interrupting my investigation?" he glared.

"Mr. Delko and Ms. Duquesne, you let them work together even though, as I'm sure you know, they are romantically involved," Rick folded his arms angrily.

"What my CSI's do off the clock is their business," Horatio calmly stated,

"There's a rule in the department-" Rick started but Horatio cut him off,

"Which has been around, and ignored, for a while Rick. The way I see it, they aren't compromising any cases," Horatio checked his watched, finished with the conversation.

"It better stay that way," Rick said flatly, turning on his heel and storming toward the street.

• • •

In the hummer, Calleigh watched Rick practically running toward his car.

"Drive," she told Eric. Eric looked worried. As they sped down the street, Calleigh relaxed.

"Calleigh, can you please tell me what that was all about?" Eric sounded angry, but he wasn't. He only wanted an explanation as to why Calleigh was acting so different.

"Stetler, do you notice how he's always around all of a sudden?" she turned in her seat to face him.

"I've always thought Stetler was strange, so no I'm not sure what you mean," Eric looked at her, wanting her to explain.

"I'm just thinking of that time he caught us together, the time he took you off the Hamilton/Brentford case, and now this; just showing up at the scene and getting into it with Horatio. I don't remember him being so invasive. Something's off…" she was ranting now, biting her nail.

"Cal, the guy has a lot of issues, you know that," Eric couldn't understand why she was getting so worked up over this.

"I guess," she looked out the window. Something in the rearview mirror caught her eye; A silver car following close behind them. She squinted through the glare of the sun, catching a glimpse of the driver. She shot back in her seat so fast Eric almost slammed on the brakes.

"Calleigh, what is it?!" Eric practically stopped breathing.

"Look," she pointed to the rearview mirror. Eric quickly glanced in the mirror.

"It's Stetler," Calleigh whispered even though she and Eric were the only ones in the hummer.

"He's probably going back to IAB. You're scaring me Cal, are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. It just took me off guard." Calleigh took a deep breath. Eric rubbed her shoulder with one hand.

"Are you sure?" he looked earnestly at her, trying his best to help her calm down.

"I promise," she smiled at him, glad to have him there with her. She looked back out the window as he continued to rub her shoulder. The car behind them had disappeared.

• • •

After she had left work later that day- it had taken her a few minutes to convince Eric that she was alright, and that she just needed the evening to be alone- Calleigh stepped into the shower. Her skin burned as she first stepped under the stream of hot water.

Outside, the man- dressed all in black- approached her front door. He didn't have to struggle with the door knob- Calleigh had been too caught up in her thoughts to remember to lock it. He let himself in, shutting the door quietly behind him. He looked around, noticing the fineness of Calleigh's home. He thought for a moment that she might not be here, but he then heard the running water of a shower. He turned toward the sound and silently walked up the stairs toward it. He entered her bedroom and the sound of the water became louder. He inhaled deeply as he entered. He strode beside her bed, running his hand along the top of the blanket. The knife he carried was like dead-weight in his back pocket, but he knew what he had to do. As he neared the bathroom door he reached for it, flipping the blade into place. On the dresser, Calleigh's cell phone rang, sounding so loud in the silence that he practically jumped out of his own skin. Before he could get the knife back into his pocket, he heard the water shut off and the shower door open. The cell phone continued to ring. Almost falling on the way, he ran out of the bedroom, downstairs and back out the door.

Calleigh heard a door slam as she was putting on her bathrobe. She went completely rigid. She could just hear her phone ringing over the sound of her breathing. Slowly, she opened her bathroom door and peeked out into her bedroom, preparing herself for anything. She walked out when nothing struck her as out of the ordinary and grabbed her phone.

"Hello?" she sort of whispered into the phone, moving quietly out of her room to find out what was going on.

"Cal, hey it's Eric. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I know you said you wanted to be alone, but I had to call," he sounded embarrassed for worrying, but Calleigh smiled at his concern.

"Eric, would you hate me if I asked you to come over, I don't want to be alone anymore," she bit her lip, trying to keep her voice from shaking. She wouldn't admit that she was scared. She felt better when she heard the shuffling and grabbing of car keys on the other end.

"I'll be right there."

"Thank you," she answered, heading downstairs. She got to the landing, still holding the phone to her ear. She heard a car speed past outside, but she ignored it.

Sitting down in the living room, she put the phone down beside her and waited for Eric, not even thinking he had just inadvertently saved her life.