Here's the final chapter. Thank you, thank you to everyone who read and especially to my fabulous reviewers. It's been a lot of fun sharing this with you all.

Chapter Fourteen: Worth Fighting For

Calleigh had promised Tim that she would go home soon, and she really had meant to keep her promise. But the bullet that he had left behind proved too tantalizing to leave, and so she stayed in the lab for two more hours until it finally gave up its secrets. Smiling smugly, Calleigh sealed up the evidence and left it on Horatio's desk. He and Tripp could file the paperwork later.

Arriving home as late as she did, Calleigh had to park quite a ways from her apartment. She walked briskly across the parking lot, not afraid, and yet very aware of everything going on around her. Even at this late hour, there were still a few people milling about – most, like her, were coming in, but there were a few preparing to go out. She trotted quickly up the steps to her apartment and let herself in, locking the door behind her and only then letting down her guard. When she turned around to lay her purse down, she screamed in surprise at the sight of Tim sitting on her couch.

"You promised me that you were going home soon," he said cooly.

Calleigh took a few deep breaths, trying to stabilize her breathing. "Someone left me some evidence I had to process first. "

Tim frowned. "It could have waited."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Why are you here?"

"I thought about what you said earlier."

"About what?"

"About me not fighting for you."

"And?" Calleigh's breath caught in her throat as she recalled their previous conversation. Tim claimed to have done everything short of crawling into her bed and waiting for her – and then he'd asked her if that was what she wanted. Having given him no answer, had he finally decided to take matters into his own hands? She certainly hoped so.

"And I remembered that when I first met you, before we – whatever – I remember thinking that it was too bad that I'd had to meet you under those circumstances. I remember thinking that if things had been different, then I would have fought for you until I'd gotten you."

"I'm hardly a prize to be fought over," she remarked dryly. "I'm not some maiden trapped in a castle by a fire-breathing dragon who needs rescuing by a knight in shining armor."

Tim smirked. "That's good, because my armor's at the dry cleaners."

His smart remark caught her so off-guard that she could only gape at him, which only caused him to smirk even more.

In her surprise, Calleigh hadn't paid attention to her own movements, but she'd somehow ended up near the couch, and she yelped with surprise when Tim grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into his lap.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn, Princess?" he cooed softly, running one finger up her bare arm.

"I am not stubborn," she argued.

"Are too," Tim teased.

"Are not," she snapped back, before realizing how childish she sounded. Tim laughed.

"Admit it, Calleigh," he said softly. "We're good together."

Calleigh gasped softly. Tim's hand had strayed up her shoulder and crept over to her face, where he brushed his thumb across her lips before burying his hand in her hair. His other hand trailed slowly across her abdomen, one finger somehow managing to snag on the hem of her shirt and slip under, where it burned a hot trail across Calleigh's bare skin.

"Tim," Calleigh breathed.

"Shhh," he said, pulling her flush against him. "Shhh."

Calleigh relaxed against him then, allowing herself to be absorbed in his presence, giving into her need for his touch. Tim relaxed as well when he felt her body meld against his, and he sank back into the couch and closed his eyes. They sat there for a long while, lost in their own thoughts and in each other.

Tim would have stayed like that forever, knowing that the second either of them moved, the spell would be broken and things would go back to the awkward back and forth he and Calleigh had been engaged in since the moment they met. Were they making progress? He liked to think so. But he was impatient. He didn't want to make progress; he wanted to reach his goal. But reaching his goal involved convincing a rather unwilling blonde that he was serious about his intentions, and he didn't think that was going well at all.

Calleigh nestled against Tim's body, trying to put as much of her body in contact with his as possible. She had missed him fiercely, and it was only by touching him, by feeling his warm skin pressed up against hers that she knew that this time it was real. She'd imagined him back in her apartment a hundred times, had shut her eyes and wished so hard for him to come back to her that she had more than half-believed that he would be there when she opened her eyes. He never had been, but he was here now, and Calleigh's hand skimmed down his arm, reassuring herself that he was actually with her.

And if he was here, as she'd so often wished for him to be, then what was she waiting for? What else could she possibly want from him? He'd willingly jumped through every hoop she'd set out for him, as well as a few more that she hadn't asked for.

Because this – just her and Tim, alone in her apartment, stripped clean of barriers, labels and conventions – was what she knew she wanted. Here there was no past and no problems. Here there was no FBI, no CSI, no protective custody. Here it was just her and him, man and woman, both very much in love. And that, she realized, was all that mattered. Now there was just one last detail to work out.

"What if you break my heart?" she asked quietly.

"I'm not going to do that," he said confidently.

"There's no way you can possibly know that," she argued.

"If I break your heart, I'd have to break mine, and I'm rather adverse to visiting any more heartbreak upon myself."

"Any more heartbreak?"

"You've been breaking my heart ever since you walked out of that hospital room," he explained.

"But we knew that our affair wasn't going anywhere." She choked on the word affair. That was all it really could be called, but it had been so much more to her.

"We said it wasn't going anywhere," he corrected her. "But that last night – do you remember when we agreed that we'd deal with tomorrow tomorrow?"

She nodded, clinging to him more tightly at the mention of their last night together.

"I was going to figure out some way for us to stay together. I don't know what I would have done – the shooting changed everything – but I was determined to find a way for us to stay together. I wasn't going to let you go."

"But there was so much you were hiding from me, Tim. That whole mess with Horatio? Didn't that cross your mind?"

"I knew I was fighting heavy odds. And honestly, I didn't have a clue as to how I was going to be honest with you about everything. All I knew was that I loved you, and that I was determined not to lose you." He sighed, as if knowing that he'd failed miserably at his task.

"But then you just let me walk out of that hospital room. It was the very next day, Tim. Where was your resolve then?"

"I'd been cracked over the head with a gun, Princess. And you were determined to find out what the bad blood was with me and Horatio. And after that…. I didn't think it mattered what I did. I couldn't fight the odds and you. I was willing to move heaven and earth to be with you, so long as I could believe that you wanted to be with me too. But you wanted to go, so I let you. Although, if I'd known that it was going to be this hard to win you back, I would have chased after you, concussion or not."

"But you're here now."

"I am," he agreed.

They were silent for a long time then. Tim absently ran one finger up and down Calleigh's arm, content to listen to her slow, even breathing.

She yawned, reminding Tim why he'd broken into her apartment in the first place. He kissed Calleigh on the temple and whispered, "It's time to put you to bed, Princess."

"I'm tired of sleeping by myself," Calleigh said sleepily, her eyes still shut.

Tim chuckled. "I didn't think you'd been doing much sleeping period."

"It's too lonely at night without you," she said, snuggling against Tim, her barriers lowering as sleep began to creep in.

"I've missed you too."

"Then stay with me." She nipped at his earlobe before kissing her way down his jaw line, stopping only when her lips were right next to his.

Tim drew in a shaky breath, his mind barely winning out over his body. "I can't," he said, shaking his head and turning his face away from her. "Not without knowing that we're not going to fall right back into the same pattern as before."

"What was so wrong with that?" she asked, cupping his face in her hand and turning it back to her, forcing him to look at her. "You stayed over, we woke up, went off to work, came home, spent the evening together…how is that any different from a normal relationship?"

"Because according to you, it was just sex."

"You know that's not true," she said. "Remember? When I said that to you in the truck that day? You laughed at me, because you knew I was full of it. It was never just sex to me, and I know it wasn't to you either. If it had been just sex, then I wouldn't have been so upset that last night. I didn't want you to leave, Tim. I'd told myself that I was going to prove you wrong, that I wasn't going to get involved with you and then ask you to stay, but I couldn't do it. I wanted you to stay, because I loved you." She paused. "I managed to tell you that I loved you, but then all that other stuff happened before I could tell you that I wanted you to stay. And that gave me an out when things got tough. I could just walk away from it all, because I hadn't said anything to you. But you stayed anyways."

"Is that what you still want?"

Calleigh's certainty found its voice. "Yes. I want you to stay – with me." She took a deep breath. "I want you to come by the ballistics lab at the end of the day and ask me if I'm ready to go home with you – to our place."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. I always loved you, and I always wanted you to stay. I just…had to work through some things."

"Are you about finished working through them, Princess?"

"I think so."

"Good," he said gruffly, and then, more softly, "I'd do anything for you, Calleigh. Whatever you want. I'm not going to let you down, I promise."

"Anything?"

"Anything."

"Come to bed with me?"

He balked at Calleigh's request. She laughed. "Just to sleep," she clarified. "Now that you're here, I can finally get some rest."

"I feel like maybe I should be insulted by the idea that my presence in your bed puts you to sleep."

"You always put me to sleep. It's just a matter of what has to be done first."

Tim smirked. "Fair enough."

"So can we go to bed now?"

"What happens tomorrow?" he asked.

"Can we wait until tomorrow to deal with tomorrow?" she asked, a coy smile on her face.

"As long as you can promise me that there will be a tomorrow for us."

"I'm planning on there being lots of tomorrows for us," she countered. "We're okay, Tim," she told him. "All that other stuff, it doesn't matter to me anymore. It never should have mattered in the first place. I'm sorry that it did."

"It's not you who needs to apologize," he said. "I'm sorry I ever gave you a reason to doubt me. Now no more apologies, ok?" Calleigh nodded, and Tim kissed her soundly.

After a moment Calleigh broke away. "I just want to be with you, Tim. That's all I've wanted for a long time now. I just haven't been able to work up the nerve to say it."

"That's all I needed to hear, Calleigh," Tim told her, laying kisses across her face between each word. "I'm going to be here for you, I promise. And I'll be here as long as you let me."

Calleigh giggled. "Well then, you better plan on staying a long time, because I'm not planning on letting you go."

Tim kissed her one last time before scooping her up into his arms and carrying her to her bedroom. Calleigh's arms were draped loosely around his neck, but she tightened her grasp when he tried to lay her down on the bed.

"You said you would stay," she reminded him, refusing to let go of his neck.

"I am staying," he reminded her, his back protesting the awkward position. "I'm just putting you down long enough to take off my shoes."

"No," Calleigh said, tightening her grip.

"What?" Tim asked, trying to slip out of his sneakers and nearly losing his balance in the process.

"I told you that I'm not letting you go," Calleigh reminded him.

Tim sighed, but he was smiling. "As you wish, Princess," he teased, finally pushing out of both of his sneakers and falling onto the bed with Calleigh. Once on top of her, he couldn't resists kissing her – her cheeks, her eyelids, her throat – every piece of bare skin that he could reach.

"Sleep," Calleigh reminded him, stirring in his embrace but still more asleep than awake.

"Sleep?" Tim asked, his lips never once leaving her skin. "You were serious about that?"

"Mm-hm," she murmured. Tim gave Calleigh one last smoldering kiss and rolled off of her.

"Come here," he said, pulling her into him. Calleigh came willingly, snuggling up tightly against Tim's body. Tim stroked her hair a few times, pushing a few stray strands off her face. "I love you," he whispered.

"Love you too," Calleigh responded sleepily. She drifted off then, her body twitching involuntarily a few times as sleep finally claimed her. Her last thought was that she had finally reached the place she had been looking for on that fateful Friday afternoon. She hadn't known at the time that she was looking for someone like Tim, that she wanted to be with someone who loved her for exactly who she was, someone who recognized her faults and never once asked her to change, someone who put her ahead of everything and everyone else, including himself. But found him she had, and even though it had taken her a while to realize what she had, she was not about to let him go - now or ever.

Despite being ecstatic over finally finding himself back in Calleigh's good graces, Tim felt his own eyes grow heavy. He hadn't been sleeping much better than Calleigh since she'd kicked him out of her bed, and now that he was back – for good – his mind was rapidly shutting down.

Calleigh was right. Everything else (including the diamond solitaire tucked safely away in his jacket) could wait until tomorrow. Right now, he had Calleigh in his arms, and they were both finally where they belonged – with each other. He softly kissed her temple one last time.

"Sweet dreams, my Princess."

The End