Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or(almost) any of the FBI agents, yeah, Heather Landrey is a real character!
Summary: When you have a one night stand, it's almost impossible to have regrets. It was just a fling right? Then why the hell did something so beautiful come from something so simple?
Spoilers: up until One Of Our Own, and the end of Rio.
Sitting and Standing by Liv

And just six precious hours before bed to forget everything I learned today.- Calvin
chapter 11: Forgetful

Heather sat in her apartment in her rocking chair, with Abby in her crib next to Heather's bed. Heather sat biting her thumb nail. Now would be a perfect time to call Ryan.

But she couldn't. She couldn't bring herself to call him. A tear leaked out of the corner of her eye, and she wiped it away harshly before breaking down completely. She coughed into her hands as her breath caught in her throat.

Then Abby started crying.

Heather's heart wrenched and she stood up quickly, reaching over the bars of the crib and picking up her daughter. Placing her carefully in the crook of her elbow, Heather brushed Abby's dark, feather light hair off of her face.

"It's alright sweetheart," whispered Heather softly, hugging Abby closer to her chest and rocking back and forth. "It's okay, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere."

You left Ryan.

Heather swallowed her tears and smiled down at her child, walking back towards the rocking chair wondering briefly if she was hungry.

You left Ryan. You could have stayed.

Heather hummed to herself, trying to calm both Abby and her thoughts. Abby quieted after awhile, nuzzling her face into Heather's chest protectively.

You left Ryan. You could have stayed. There was an opening, you could have convinced Peter to let you stay.

A second tear slipped out of Heather's eye.

-x-

"Professor Plum in the conservatoire with a machete," said Ryan, walking up to Calleigh and Horatio, standing in the hallway together discussing the case. Calleigh raised an eyebrow.

"Doctor Jacob did it?" she asked almost surprised. Ryan smirked at her.

"Yup, caught his wife in the music department with the janitor, got angry, found a makeshift knife made out of that pot handle we found in the dumpster outside his house and flipped," said Ryan, crossing his arms over his chest and grinning at her. "Your hair looks nice by the way."

"Thanks, Ryan," said Calleigh giving Ryan a smile and holding back the urge to touch her hair just to make sure it was there.

"Calleigh!" Ryan and Horatio turned around to see Peter and Agent Perry walking towards them. He nodded to Horatio and Ryan respectively and stopped as he neared them. Perry just looked annoyed.

"Agent Elliot, Agent Perry," said Horatio (a.n. damn no sunglasses to take off). "What brings you to Miami?"

"Night shift has a forgery case. The other agent who was assigned to come had...something to take care of, so I was sent instead."

"I heard Agent Landrey was assigned on the case, too bad she wasn't able to make it," said Horatio, noting that Ryan had held his breath.

"Yeah," said Peter slowly, not really comfortable about telling Ryan, his co-workers and Perry that Ryan had a daughter... that he still didn't know about.

"I wanted to stop and say hello before you all disappeared," said Peter, Calleigh gave him a smile and Ryan just looked grimly at the two of them.

He could so kill me, thought Perry, resisting the urge to step back just a little bit.

"How is Heather?" asked Ryan after a moment.

Please tell me she's called him, thought Peter nodding his head a little.

"She's fine, had to go to the hospital a couple months ago, but she's fine," Ryan raised her eyebrows.

"What happened?" Perry flinched inwardly.

"She had something...um, growing. They had to take it out," Peter suppressed the urge to hit Perry in the back of the skull and to laugh until his gut burst. Horatio's reaction was best, he just lifted his eyebrows.

"Well, we had better get going," said Peter, giving Calleigh a smile and nodding at Ryan and Horatio. (Perry avoided Ryan's eyes.)

"Damn that guy's big," muttered Perry, looking back over his shoulder at Ryan. Peter raised his eyebrows at Perry.

"You're just a wimp."

"A wimp who works with taxes."

"Alright you got me there."

Oh! Second shortest chapter! I enjoyed writing this chapter. I don't know why but it made me laugh. I can totally see Perry being afraid of Ryan for a bit and then making some crack about taxes and then getting along with him. I hope you review, because if you don't I'll be sad.

-x-liv

Next Time: Heather buried her face in Abby's shoulder and choked back a sob..."No way!"