Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Sorry that it took so long. I won't be able to get the chapters up as often but the story has not been abandoned and my exams are now officially over so I will have more time. Thank-you for being patient.
Eric arrived at the hospital the next morning with a bunch of daffodils for Calleigh which he knew were her favourite flowers. It was a good choice for her. They were sunny and cheerful, just like she was.
As he entered her room, he was horrified to find it empty and he practically ran to the nurses' station all sorts of thoughts running through his mind. Like how in films when a person died in hospital you usually found out by seeing their empty room.
He was very relieved to find out that she had just been taken for a scan to find out what the cause of her vision loss was.
Eric waited in her room for her to come back. He had taken two weeks of his owed holiday time and was hoping to spend of much of it as he possibly could with Calleigh. He had more time than that but was planning to save some of it for when she was released. She was going to need a lot of help.
His thoughts began to wonder back over the last few days. He couldn't even begin to describe the feelings that he had had when Alexx said that she would not be able to survive with the amount of blood that was in her apartment. To have lost her and then found her.
She was still Calleigh, but she could be so different. Such a long period in captivity and being tortured would do that to you. Then you had to factor in her other injuries. The possibilities of paralysis or blindness. Or both. It didn't bear thinking about.
When their case had turned and they had had no body, he had sunk into a deep depression, unable to function properly without her smile there to reassure him that his life was worth living after all. He loved her so much. Had told her too. They had been in the beginnings of a relationship when she had been abducted. Everything had been exciting and new.
But now? Would she still want him? She might not want anybody near her or feel that Eric was only staying out of pity or a sense of duty. She would be wrong. He loved her so much. When he thought that she was dead, it had taken every ounce of perseverance that he had just to get out of bed in the morning.
After a case which had been heavily reliant on ballistics work to crack it open, he had found himself staring down the barrel of his gun. It was Alexx who had talked him out of it when she had walked into his apartment unannounced because she was worried about him. It turned out that it was a good thing. He would not like Calleigh to ever know that he had very seriously considered suicide.
0o0o0o
A short while later, Calleigh's bed was wheeled back into the little room. Eric stood up as her bed was locked into place and walked over beside her, taking her hand.
"Hey" he whispered softly.
She turned to face him, a ghost of a smile on her face.
"How are you?"
"Eric?"
"Yeah"
"Just checking. I think the voices that I have in my memory are a little off and I can't see you right. You are unbelievably blurry".
"Don't worry about it. I'm just so glad that you are alive. Everything else will come."
She reached out and he took her hand. Holding it tightly he brought it to his mouth and kissed it. The ghost of the smile reappeared.
0o0o0o
"Miss Duquesne, I have the results of your tests from earlier this morning." Said Dr Sheppard, striding into the room.
Calleigh nodded and Eric took hold of her hand once again.
"First off, exactly how much can you see?"
"If someone is really close, I can just about make out their face, but even then, it's really fuzzy".
Dr Sheppard nodded. "There is nothing showing up on our scans. I think that someone had dropped chemicals of some sort into your eyes."
"What does that mean?" asked Eric, sounding very concerned.
"We are going to try and start you on some treatment but we need your permission. It's a bit of a gamble. Within a few weeks you will either have your sight restored or within months, it could cause your sight to deteriorate even further to the point where you can no longer see anything. However, without treatment, the damage to your sight will be permanent and there is still the possibility of you losing it all together."
Calleigh turned her head away from the Dr, trying, unsuccessfully not to let the tears roll down her face.
"How bad could her sight get?"
"I am afraid that we are talking total blindness to the point that you will have no light perception. You would nit be able to tell night from day."
Eric rubbed her shoulder. "Are you saying that if she has the treatment she will either be healed or will go totally blind and if she doesn't she could still go blind?"
Dr Sheppard nodded again. "I'm afraid so. I'm so sorry that I can't give you better news. I'll give you some time to think over your options."
Calleigh seemed incapable of responding so Eric thanked Dr Sheppard who then left the room.
Eric didn't know what to say. How could Calleigh end up blind?
He wrapped his strong arms around her fragile frame, being careful not to jar her injuries and he held her while she cried.
How did anyone make such an impossible choice? If she did nothing, her sight would remain the same. If she did have the treatment she could lose so much of her sight that she would no longer be able to tell light from dark. Or she could get better.
It was estimated that she had about 20/200 vision in her right and 15/200 in her left. That meant that she was already legally blind.
Maybe the choice was not so hard when you put it that way. If she was already blind, what did she have to lose?
0o0o0o
When Calleigh next woke, Eric was gone. The room was darker than it had been and she guessed that it was night time.
She wasn't sure what had woken her.
It wasn't the pain. The morphine had seen to that.
It was more like a sense of being watched, by someone who didn't want her to know that they were there.
Now she was frightened.
They could be standing right beside her and she wouldn't be able to see them.
She had no weapons and had no idea where the call button was for one of the nurses to come in.
She laid still, her body tense, waiting for a sound that would confirm her suspicions.
Nothing moved. Had she just imagined it? Or was there somebody there?
She didn't have the courage to open her mouth and find out.
She lay there, tense for several more minutes before the door to her room slid open. She couldn't help but scream.
The person rushed over to her bedside and put their hand on her arm.
"Calleigh. It's just me" said Alex's voice.
Calleigh relaxed and allowed herself to sink back down into the pillows as Alex settled herself in the chair beside her bed.
"Eric told me baby. I'm so sorry."
"What do I do Alexx?"
"You do the treatment honey. It is your only option."
Calleigh nodded. "If it doesn't work?"
Alexx could see that Calleigh had wanted to ask this question for a long time. "Then you will adapt. Being blind would not mean the end of the world. You would go to rehab to learn how to readjust and then you would get your life back. Your friends will be beside you every step of the way no matter what the prognosis. We lost you once. We don't want to lose you again."
It was true that they had all been to see her. Alexx, Eric, Frank, Ryan and Natalia. Even Kyle had dropped in briefly. There was only one thing that bugged her. Horatio had only been while she was unconscious. She would give it a few days before asking about him. Maybe he was busy.
0o0o0o
Alexx was busy catching Calleigh on the happenings of the lab when a nurse bustled in on her rounds, shooing Alexx home for the night.
Alexx stood up ready to leave and was half way out the door when Calleigh called back to her "Tell Dr Sheppard that I'll do the treatment."
She had decided. If she was going to go blind then so be it but she was not going down without a fight. Likewise she was determined to be that one in a million and walk again. She had to.
If she ended up blind or paralysed she would no longer be able to have Eric. She couldn't trap him in a relationship like that where it was very possible that he would have to take care of her, at least in the beginning.
She knew what it was like, having to care for someone out of a sense of duty and how much you grew to resent them. She never wanted her relationship with Eric to end even if it meant going back to being friends.
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