Title: By His Side
Author: WhatBecomesOfYou
Pairing: Calleigh/Eric
Fandom: CSI: Miami
Theme: #2 – News
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: Miami or any of the characters from it. I'm just borrowing them and will return them intact to their rightful owners when I'm done, promise.
Notes: Written for 30_kisses on LiveJournal. You can either consider this a sequel to "The Loyalty Paradox" or a post-ep for Seeing Red…or both, if you're so inclined. It works either way, I think. After this, I'll be back to the more fluffy stories. Spoilers for 7.25 Seeing Red. Read, and if you like it or have something to say, reviews would be lovely.


Her head hurt, and her eyes were bloodshot. She had spent every waking moment the past three days crying or helping in the search effort for Eric. Or, more often than not, some combination of both. And it wasn't even as though she had spent too many moments sleeping. His face, his handsome, loyal, trusting face, haunted her dreams. The last things she had said to him…the last things before she shot at him…were not the last words she ever wanted to say to him. She propped up her head on her hands and exhaled, letting out a deep, frustrated sigh. She couldn't lose him.

Horatio walked over to where she was sitting and placed one hand on her shoulder. "Calleigh, go home and sleep. We'll continue looking for him," he said softly.

"But, but, I need to be here, in case y'all find him."

"Go home. Sleep. If we hear anything, you'll be the first to know," he said, firmer this time.

"Fine," she huffed, pulling herself out of the chair and walking to the door. "I'll be back, though."


The thin cotton sheets of her bed suffocated her as she thrashed about in her sleep, tormented by visions of a confused and injured Eric. Every time, in her dreams, she tried to reach out her hand and grasp him, touch him, but like a ghost, he faded away like wisps in the wind when she got too close, a faint incessant ringing sound coming from somewhere in the distance. Waking up with a thin sheen of sweat glistening on her skin, she frantically looked at the alarm clock by her bed. 2:23, the clock read. She muttered something unintelligible under her breath, picking up her cell phone, which had been lying on the bedside table. Smiling a thin-lipped smile, she saw that she had a new voicemail. She dialed the number, whispering a faint prayer to anyone who would listen that it was good news on the other end.

"Calleigh, we found him," Horatio's voice said evenly. "We're taking him to Mercy, you can meet us there."

Her heart swelled as she clicked off of the call, and she had to sit down to catch her breath. A nagging thought crept into the back of her mind. Horatio had said that he was found, and was going to be taken care of by some very great doctors, she was sure of that. But nowhere in the message was anything on how he was actually doing.

She hopped around her bedroom, trying to get fresh clothes on so that if she would be able to see him, that he didn't have to see clothes she'd been living in for the past three days. Besides, they smelled fairly bad at this point. Not bothering with makeup, she grabbed her purse and bolted for the door, using every burst of speed she had available to get to Eric that much faster.


"Where is he? Where is he? Can I see him?" she asked, running into the waiting room, nearly knocking over a potted plant in the process.

"And you are?" a heavy-set older nurse with a nametag reading Wendy said, dropping a manila file folder on the counter.

Horatio stepped forward and motioned to Calleigh. "Wendy, this is Calleigh Duquesne, she's with us." Calleigh nodded and gave a tentative smile.

"Uh-huh, well, Mr. Delko is sleeping right now, so sit down and we'll call you in when you can see him."


A few hours passed, and Calleigh was pacing the length of the waiting area, looking up at the wall clock every now and then, muttering rapidly under her breath when only a few short minutes had passed since the last time she had checked. "Why don't you sit down?" Horatio asked her, gesturing at the seat next to him. "I can probably get Ryan to get you a coffee from the cafeteria while we're waiting."

She shook her head, a torrent of blonde hair spilling over her face. "Horatio, I can't, I just can't. I have to keep myself active, or I'll think too hard about what happened."

He nodded, choosing not to press the issue too hard, and turned away, reaching for that day's edition of the Miami Herald.

After what seemed to be an eternity, but was more like four hours, Wendy walked back into the waiting area, and cleared her throat, startling Calleigh. "Mr. Delko is awake. You can see him now."

Calleigh bit her lip as she walked down the corridor to his room, and gently swung the door open. "Hey," she whispered. "How are you feeling?" She scooted the visitors' chair closer to his bed and laid her hand on the bedrail. So many things she wanted to say, and she hoped that her conflicting emotions weren't coloring her face at that moment. A part of her was angry at him for putting himself in a dangerous position, going against everything…but a larger part of her wanted to clasp him tightly against her and never let him go. Ever.

"A little injured, nothing some good rest and the power of modern medicine won't fix. How did you know I was here?"

"H left me a voicemail. He…he had sent me home to get some sleep. I came as soon as I heard."

He smiled up at her. "I'm glad." He let out a low sigh. "I wasn't sure if you would…you know, considering everything that happened before, with us."

"Eric…"

"Cal, can we talk about this when I'm not hooked up to a million wires and an IV?" he asked, holding up a bundle of wires as if for emphasis.

"I was just…so afraid that I'd lose you…right as we were so happy," she admitted, tears filling her eyes. "I know we have things to talk about, but for now, all I want to do is see that you get better."

He nodded and turned over in the bed. "Cal, the pain pills they gave me…they're making me sleepy, and I want to go back to sleep. The nurse will probably kick you out, so you should probably leave." He frowned slightly at the prospect of Wendy dragging Calleigh from his room.

"Okay. I'll be in the waiting area with H and Ryan if you need me for anything."

She knelt over the hospital bed and brushed a faint kiss across his temple, before squeezing his hand softly and walking out of the room. It would take time to rebuild some of the trust that had been lost, but she knew that no matter what, she would always be right by his side.