AN: Been a good minute since I've updated...I apologize... it really was a long last week...

BECAUSE OF YOU
Chapter 14

"Calleigh?" Eric reached out a hesitant hand to her only to have her push it away and back away from him.

"Calleigh please look at me."

"No! Just leave me... please, I can't... I can't do this anymore. Please..." she pleaded moving further from his grasp.

"Please" she whispered, his heart broke when he saw the tears running down her face.

"Let me help you." He begged reaching for her once more only to have her push his hand away.

Her breathing became labored. She was fighting to stay conscious. "Calleigh." he moved closer. Her breathing became more labored.

"Eric." Horatio reached for the young mans shoulder. "Back away from her, I want to try something."

Reluctantly Eric moved away just a few feet. There was no way he was going to go any further. "Calleigh." He heard Horatio try. His hand reached out to her. He was shocked when she opened her eyes lazily. She didn't back away. He felt a pang of hurt.

The paramedics could be heard down the hall. "Calleigh, you're alright. You're safe now." She opened her mouth as if to speak but nothing came out instead she closed her eyes and gave into unconsciousness.

"Gentlemen, we're gonna need you to step back." Having no choice both Eric and Horatio stepped further back to where Natalia and Ryan stood silently.

"How long has she been here?" The older of the two paramedic asked.

"Five days, the other women were all beaten, broken bones, internal bleeding, bruises, and were all malnourished."

"Thank you, that'll help us." The second paramedic inserted an IV while the other placed an oxygen mask to Calleigh's face.

Slowly they straightened her out, laying her on the gurney. "We're taking her to the Miami General, you can fallow us there."

"She has a chip put in the back of her neck, we need the doctors to get that out as soon as possible." The paramedic nodded before carrying Calleigh out of the room.

Eric stood there still shocked at her reaction to him. How could Calleigh be afraid of him. How could she back away from him as though he'd hurt her. Tears formed in his eyes. He shook his head there was no way he would lose it in front of everyone.

"Let's go Eric." Horatio nudged him. "Ryan, Natalia I want you to sweep this entire building, get night shift to help you. I don't want you to miss a thing. I wanna know what that chip was used for, start with that." He said pointing to the projector in the center of the room.

With just the two of them in the room they looked at each other. "So you want top or bottom?" Ryan asked with a small smile. Natalia shook her head. "You're impossible. I'll start on the top floor, have the night shift split between the floors when they get here. I have a feeling that this room will have A LOT more evidence then the entire building combined."

Ryan agreed placing his gloves on.

An hour and a half later, as she'd thought, the rooms on the top floor were void of evidence. In fact they looked like they hadn't been used in years. Besides some debris and dust there was nothing else. Packing her kit she left for the main floor.

"Natalia" She answered the phone hoping to hear from Horatio.

"Natalia you have to come see this, I'm on the main floor last room." The night crew investigator spoke excitedly.

Hanging up she rushed to the room. She gasped at the many monitors in the room. A quick glance at the monitors she spotted Ryan on four different screens, one of each angle of the room. She felt sick.

She finally glanced at the three small workstations and two laptops on the desk. "Have we figured out what those are for?" She pointed to the devices.

The two CSI's shook their head no. "In addition to those." He pointed to the workstation. "We found two controller, we have the AV guys coming we're hoping they can figure out how to activate everything without having to take apart the whole system. It'll take some time to put together."

"That's probably a good idea, somehow these computers control those chips, let me know when they get here."

Pulling out her cell phone she called Horatio.

"Any word?" She asked when he greeted.

"No, nothing yet, have you found anything?"

"There's a room full of monitors, workstations, laptops and controls. The AV guys are headed this way now to look at it all. We'll need that chip."

"As soon as I get it I'll have it brought to you." He assured her.

Hanging up she called Frank. "Frank, I need someone to bring the chips recovered from the first three victims, there's a room full of electronics I'm hoping the techs can figure out how to trigger the chips when they get here."

"I'll get someone right on it."

"Thanks Frank." She placed the phone back in its holster, poking her head into the basement room they'd found Calleigh in.

"How's it going in here?" At the looks of frustration from three different people she frowned.

"There are just too many samples, I'll bet you that they belong to Calleigh and the other three victims, we haven't been able to turn on the projector so I'm guessing the controls are somewhere else. "

With a quick glance at the ladder in the middle of the room she informed Ryan of the room with all the electronics.

"Good maybe the techs can figure it out. The sooner we know what they did to Calleigh the better we can help her to recover and move on."

Natalia couldn't agree more, she smiled at Ryan, he looked exhausted she knew none of them looked much better, she couldn't imagine all that was going through Eric's mind at that moment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hospital-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Eric you need to sit down before you burn a whole in the ground." Horatio was worried about both Calleigh and Eric. He had not stopped pacing the hall since she was taken into the emergency room. Horatio knew if Eric kept this up he would end up sharing a hospital room with Calleigh. One ember in the hospital was bad enough.

Looking at Eric, Horatio frowned, he knew that look and before Eric could make a move Horatio placed a hand on his shoulder. "Eric, I promise you that the nurse hasn't found out anything new in the last five minutes otherwise she would have told us."

"I know H, I'm just so worried and it feels like we've been waiting forever."

As if on cue a doctor walked out the double doors and headed their way.

AN: That's it for this chapter folks sorry for its somewhat short length, I tried so hard not to refer to Calleigh as a victim because the other women died, but who am I kidding, if after all that she isn't a victim then I don't know what. I truly believe that you are only a victim if you allow yourself to be... A quote used in Criminal Minds says it best... 'Scars remind us where we've been, they don't have to dictate where we're going'.