Note: Thanks so much for all of your patience while you waited for me to get on with the updates. I needed to wait for the Season 6 dvd set to come out so I didn't screw up on any really good E/C moment simply because I missed it because I forgot that that was the episode that it was in. So, with my dvd ready in the player, here we go!
Awkwardness
Eric's POV:
It was going to be hard and Eric knew it. After the excitement of finding out that H had a sixteen year old son that he knew nothing about died down, Eric found himself at odds with himself about how much time he wanted to be in Calleigh's presence. She was still a powerful draw for him, but he couldn't get past the ache in his heart every time he saw a flash of her silky blonde hair or hear her bubbly laugh.
Being around her on a crime scene was relatively easy since they had a long established rhythm of working with and around each other and her renewed romantic relationship with Jake didn't affect it. He wasn't a CSI and outside of getting details to them and from them, he left when they began processing the scene. Besides, his job was to mostly interact with H, which he seemed to be going out of his way to do. It seemed like Calleigh's penchant for keeping personal life and professional life separate was coming in to play and Eric couldn't be happier about it.
He broke out of his musings as Natalia entered carrying a compound bow. A high school senior was killed while cheering his girlfriend on at a swim meet earlier in the day. "What do you have?" he asked mildly.
"The murder weapon. Calleigh just determined that from the striae on the arrow shaft. The launchers leave unique marks just like a gun barrel. This one's markings match the arrow pulled out of Luke Selyan," Natalia said, holding the bow out to him. "I'm done swabbing it for DNA and I'm running it through CODIS. That's going to take time so I thought I'd see if I can jump it to the head of the line in here. Any luck with that?"
Eric couldn't help but smile at her. She was probably the most earnest newbie CSI he'd seen in a long while. He knew that some of the techs still gave her a hard time about the mole thing a while back, but, at least in his eyes, she more than made up for it and gave 100 percent in every case. Her enthusiasm was entirely contagious and losing himself in that contagion made the ache in his heart fade just a little. "Sure, why not? I'm just going over things that can wait a bit. Let's see if we can get anything off the bow."
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Eric sat back, watching the prints he'd pulled up run through AFIS when he got a page from Calleigh. Ryan was in with some evidence from their case. He'd already heard that Ryan was playing bodyguard to Candace Walker, they cyberstalking victim and girlfriend to the murdered boy. Calleigh wanted to meet him in the hallway with some information. Taking a deep breath and steeling himself for seeing her, He rose and went to see what she wanted.
"Yeah, Calleigh, you said you had information," Eric said, falling in step with her.
She glanced up at him. "I thought you might want to know that Ryan was attacked while protecting Candace."
"Is he okay?" he asked, concern for his former and hopefully returning colleague flooding his voice. Suddenly, he was very glad that he answered Calleigh's page.
"I think so; he's here and says he has evidence for us," she replied. "I don't know, Eric. I really hope he's alright and shouldn't have needed to go to the hospital instead of coming in here. I know he wants to be back here so badly that he can taste it, but..."
"Yeah."
They fell silent as they climbed the short flight of stairs that lead to a private interview room. Ryan was sitting comfortably at the table waiting for them.
"Wow, so it takes two CSI's to process someone these days. You guys must be more desperate to get me back than I thought," Ryan teased.
"Come on, Ryan, I heard about the attack and I wanted to make sure you were alright,' Eric said seriously. Ryan looked alright, but looks could be deceiving. He had to make sure.
A small smile played around Ryan's lips as he replied, "That's very sweet of you. The guy did get the jump on me but he didn't get away scott free." He held up his hand, showing it to Calleigh, whom he already seemed to have established a warmth with.
She was already pulling on gloves. "Whatcha got?"
His smiled broadened. "I've got DNA from our attacker."
Eric could hear the admiration in her voice when she spoke. He missed the time when that same warmth and admiration laced her voice when she spoke to him.
"That's a nice get, Ryan," Calleigh said, swabbing under Ryan's fingernails. "You know if the DNA of the attacker matches the DNA of Luke Selyan's killer, you just broke the case."
"I just broke the case," Ryan repeated in what sounded to Eric like he was trying to flirt with Calleigh.
What the hell was with him today? He couldn't concentrate and he was finding his emotions just way out of line. Was it always going to be like this when he got around Calleigh? This was a work related situation. She was gathering evidence from under a victim's fingernails. Granted, the vic was still alive and one of their friends, but...
He covered his growing discomfort with a laugh that sounded very forced to his ears. "Not bad, Wolverine. You couldn't have grabbed a handful of hair just in case?"
Ryan didn't sound amused at all. "That would be funny if the girl wasn't assaulted."
Eric could have kicked himself. He was acting like a jerk, like how he remembered himself being sometimes before the bullet buried itself in his brain. "Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry. See you later."
He beat a hasty retreat, but not before hearing Calleigh remark that to not mind his teasing and that everyone was looking forward to Wolfe's eventual reinstatement. Again the warmth and affection she showed Ryan so openly ate at him. He knew that their estrangement was hard on the both of them and he wished he could get past the kiss that he witnessed and could forget the knowledge that Calleigh and Jake had gone on vacation together and had every appearance of being in a relationship. He mentally kicked himself for the millionth time in the last several weeks for not pushing Calleigh harder and not being more up front about his feelings for her. He might have just opened the door and Jake had taken the opportunity and walked through it.
He made his way back to his lab and checked in with his AFIS search. Nothing had turned up. The prints found no correspondence in the database. Eric sighed, frustration and a feeling of being entirely out of control of anything taking over. He checked his watch, noting that it was about time for his therapist's appointment and, for once, was glad.
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Eric drove home in silence after leaving his appointment. His therapist wanted him, initially, to talk about issues related to his recovery, but Eric quickly steered her away and into what was bothering him with his feelings toward Calleigh. It had taken a long time, but she made him see that if he loved Calleigh as much as he thought he did, he'd be happy for her if Jake made her happy. Calleigh and Jake's relationship wasn't set in stone and could easily end as easily as it could as become something more lasting. Their past had been turbulent and if it ended, Eric would kick himself if his and Calleigh's friendship hadn't been repaired and he wasn't there for her. Natalia's words on how that one kiss so many weeks ago could have affected Calleigh as well and they both knew that Calleigh was a master at putting up walls and fronts and could hide like a chameleon if she didn't want you to see what was really going on.
So, Eric decided, no matter how much he was hurting, he was going to try and get past the pain and try to rebuild his friendship with Calleigh. He'd rather do that than lose her forever.
