A/N: Chapter Ten finishes Calleigh's piece from last chapter. I understand you all expected something out of this that I have not written but I may (more than likely will) make the alternate ending the only one included. I wanted to do a darker ending but I can't seem to get it to make sense. I will include it, in a way…

Warnings: Violence

Disclaimer: Still don't own it.

Chapter Ten: Sombras (Shadows)

Calleigh had nearly surrendered to her own fate of running from everything. But a stubborn half of herself, almost brutishly so, wanted to make things work out. After all, didn't she deserve it? Why would she want to give up what she knew she wanted? Perhaps she didn't know what she truly needed. Things were too complicated, too confusing, to ever be that pure. A streetlight had gone out on her left hand side, the darkness adding to her frustration. She grunted as she saw passing headlights coming by her passenger side. She raised an eyebrow, why were there so many people this time of night?

It was midnight after all; the blinking orange-red of her car's internal clock told her that it was close enough to that hour. She was half tempted to call Eric just to make sure he wasn't worried, but some piece of her mind told her that he wasn't. After all, they were just friends, weren't they? The question wasn't as cut and dry as it seemed and their lives certainly were not just black and white.

The more she thought about it, the more 'in the gray' it seemed, getting itself truly stuck in the center. "He can't love me that way, can he?" She asked the steering wheel as she came to another stoplight, the headlights from before now gone from her view. She sighed softly at their absence, relieved that they had not followed her.

The paranoid feelings of before seemed to melt into exhaustion, their original root no doubt. She felt herself relax, if only just. The stoplight changed just as soon as the resolution became real in her mind, the fleeting feelings becoming as leaves in the wind. Her car seemed almost on autopilot as the tiredness took its toll, shadows placing themselves under her emerald eyes. She was not exactly unaccustomed to staying up to this hour, but doing so after rising early left her completely drained, devoid of any other feeling.

The feeling of being followed did not repeat itself, she felt perfectly safe. But safety is often an illusion, a cushion we give ourselves when nothing else can comfort us. The idea of security was one that passed the lips of the ill-informed masses that didn't have to neither carry a gun nor face down criminals as she had to- day in and day out. Cases seemed to bleed into one another, the evidence had to be processed and the perpetrators were caught. At the end of the day it felt monotonous at the worst of times.

Eric was the one shining beacon in the world, the change of pace that she needed, he got her out of her 'evidence only' attitude. Without him, she'd have been a good forensic scientist but not a great one- perhaps. She had accepted that each of her co-workers had influenced her in one way or another, giving pieces of themselves to her. Either by mentoring her, like Horatio; or caring for her safety, like Alexx and Eric.

"He does care about me in some way." She thought, resolute in finding out what that some way was. She'd ask him, but not directly. She knew well that Eric would either get defensive or become defiant, neither of which she wanted or needed from him. She cared too deeply for her friends to see them hurt, even by their own actions. "I care about him too much to see him get hurt…" She thought; the shadows of self-doubt set in her mind. A yawn interrupted her introspection, forcing her attention back to the task at hand, driving. She knew her home was only a few more miles, and she needed to focus.

As much as she wanted to rid her mind of the distracting thoughts about Eric, tonight left too many questions unanswered. The majority of which began with the word 'why'. The more she tried to answer these, the more they eluded her, like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands. He had dated her once, told a psychiatrist that he loved her- but never told Calleigh herself. That was the major source of her self-questioning. If he did love her, why could he not say it- out right? And if he did not, then why lie?

A headache worth of questions was not what she needed tonight. After all, she had more important things to worry about. She had a promise to keep, and that included getting home safely. She noticed a red light on her dash, a warning light. She would normally worry about these kinds of things, but she was already exhausted. She figured she could get it looked at in the morning. After all, it was only a few more miles. Luck was not, exactly, her friend- she knew this well- but it was also not her enemy either. She frankly didn't believe in luck or chance, all things happened for a reason. She smelled the distinct scent of smoke and saw it was coming from the hood of her car. She turned into a nearby parking lot and turned off the car. "Damn…" She said as she hit the steering wheel with her hand, a moment of frustration.

She popped the hood but knew little about cars, other than the basics. The Miami weather was not good on vehicles, the constant humidity liked to settle in the engine compartment and cause trouble. Muttering several curses under her breath, she took out her cell phone and dialed the first number on the contact list. "Hey, Horatio, it's Calleigh…"

A/N: Not what I originally planned for this chapter, I feel like I'm going a bit off track here. There is a reason she called Horatio instead of Eric. Next chapter focuses on Eric. Enjoy!