Slightly Condoned
Disclaimer: Don't own anything…
Rating: R (later)
Pairing: Eric/OC, Speed/Calleigh
Summary: This is another bonding chapter, but I promise lots more next. Also I am introducing a peripheral original male character. Thanks for reading.
Spoiler: Tinder Box, Body Count
A/N: I *need* to take a break from Cardboard Copy…and perhaps this is a feeble attempt for your entertainment, but I just need to write an Eric fic…he's so lovable…hope you like it. Note: direct mentions from episodes will be featured later.
***
Part 11- Stepping Stones
The dive that Mia knew turned out to be filled with College Students drinking beer and playing pool, at 3 pm on a Tuesday.
Calleigh snorted at the sight of the bartender trying to mix drinks, and couldn't help herself as she teased the DA, " Come here to meet college boys?"
Mia condoned her remark, and found them a table by a heated billiard game taking place in an over smoked room.
" Something tells me that wouldn't hurt you." Mia commented and impatiently tapped her nails against the rough surface of the table, as a young waiter made his way to them.
" Please." Calleigh exclaimed, thinking how ridiculous her friend was being, " I can barely handle some one my own age what makes you think I can hold my own with a 20 year old?" Calleigh asked with a slight chuckle and didn't actually expect an answer.
She got one anyway.
" I figured a pretty lady like yourself would have no trouble finding men." A husky voice behind Calleigh spoke and she found herself turning around.
Mia smirked at her stunned expression and the ballistics expert had the urge to kick her friend underneath the table.
She didn't.
Instead she turned around and flashed the tall brunette behind her a flirty smile.
" Don't assume things." Calleigh admitted just as seductively as his reply had been, and Mia found the exchange to be quite amusing.
" For the record I'm just over the legal age." He smirked, and Calleigh found herself returning his smug grin, with her own southern charm.
" Oh boy." Mia murmured warningly, but Calleigh seemed to be too far-gone to even acknowledge her friend's presence, much less a cautioning sigh.
" Good to know." Calleigh commented, and he smiled, happy that he was making progress, although neither knew where this could be headed.
" I'm Josh." He reached out and accepted her hand in a light handshake.
" I'm Calleigh, pleasure to meet you Josh." Calleigh remained under her southern spell, ignoring the warnings Mia was sending her, as well as the artlessness of the situation.
" Oh, the pleasure's all mine." Josh countered, and Mia tried desperately to withhold a snort at his feeble attempt to lure Calleigh.
" All right then, if you insist." Calleigh shrugged flirtatiously, still a little dazed from the turn of events.
Just then a voice from the kitchen yelled, " Josh get your bony white ass in here."
Mia and Calleigh didn't miss the shade of rose that flashed on the waiter's cheeks when he was beckoned.
Yet, it didn't stop him from reacting just as quickly.
" Oh, lord, Maddy's gonna have my head on a platter. Here." Josh scribbled something on his order pad and tore off the sheet, handing it to Calleigh.
" What's this?" Calleigh looked at the digits written underneath his name.
" It's my number, I would be traditional and ask for yours but then I might never get the chance to call you before she kills me, so there, the ball's in your court." He smiled, putting the pen in his apron.
Calleigh looked at the scrap of paper reluctantly, the physical evidence of what she'd just done took on a different aspect of her situation.
" Umm, thanks." She asked quizzing, gnawing away at her lower lip.
Mia looked concerned, when Josh sent her a confused look as well, wondering what he'd done wrong.
Mia shrugged, thinking Calleigh would want to tell him herself that she was taken…well sort of.
Josh then looked at Calleigh again with a soft smile, " it's no obligation, just know that on our date we'll both be drinking alcohol." He kidded, and Calleigh seemed to come back to her normal self.
Flashing him a brilliant smile she ducked her head shyly and nodded, " Well that just threw me for a loop." She touched his shoulder and folded the paper neatly, putting it in her pant pocket.
" I'll be waiting by the phone." He started walking away.
" Don't hold your breath." Calleigh winked and then watched him saunter into the kitchen hurriedly.
She took a moment to regroup and then returned to Mia, who sported a disappointed look.
" Hypocrite." She snarled, and Calleigh's lips curved upward in a small smile, " It felt good you know." She pointed out as she fingered the paper in her pocket secretively.
Still not believing what she'd done just a few minutes ago actually happened.
" Calleigh, think about what you just did." Mia threw in, and Calleigh frowned.
It was apparent that she hadn't realized the impact of her actions until it was too late and although Mia hated to be the one to point it out to her, she knew she had to.
" I don't want to." Calleigh mumbled, sounding more depressed than she was before she came to see Mia that afternoon. Some how the DA felt responsible for the exchange that took place a few moment before.
If she hadn't brought them here, Calleigh would've confined in her, and they would've found a better way to resolve her issues, other than leading a poor college boy on.
" But you have to." Mia reached across the counter top and grasped Calleigh's hand.
" I don't want to." Calleigh repeated more sternly, staring down at her lap.
" No one wants to, but you have to." Mia pressed on.
" Why? Why do I have to? He doesn't, he's a completely different person sometimes, I just wish he'd let people see him the way I do. He doesn't always have to be so negative and pessimistic." Calleigh announced and Mia could feel her voice breaking.
However that didn't stop her from analyzing the situation, she was pretty sure she knew who Calleigh was talking about, and frankly even though she'd met the man a handful of times, she couldn't agree more.
" Honey, it's called self defense mechanism, he doesn't like opening up to people." Mia suggested and Calleigh looked up, her blue eyes crystal with tears, and making Mia want to go to Speed and rip his head off for making Calleigh so upset.
Although Mia knew that if she so much as voiced her opinion about the trace expert Calleigh would scold her and would likely always have second thoughts about confining in Mia, and she definitely didn't want that.
There were only a handful of people in her life that truly meant to her as much as Calleigh did, and not just because they seemed to have suffered the same loss but of course they'd known all along that they wouldn't lose contact with each other.
And sad to say, Janet's death only increased that premonition.
Calleigh was a loyal person by nature, and Mia knew that sometimes that trust could've been taken advantage of, by those she loved, and the lawyer hoped that that wasn't the case here.
" I still don't understand what he has to be so fucking afraid of I mean this morning we were talking and I brought up the subject of Liz and Eric."
" Wait a minute, my Liz? Elisabeth Kaytlin?" Mia asked raising her eyebrows, wondering what could her ADA and diving boy have in common.
" Yeah." Calleigh nodded, and Mia still remained unsure if she wanted to hear the rest of this.
Calleigh continued anyway, " And he just seemed so discouraged, and said love isn't worth taking risks, and I just, I know I'm being overly anal about this but it sort of makes me wonder where my place is in his heart you know?" The ballistics expert looked up at Mia's pensive expression.
She remained silent, so Calleigh probed, " What'd ya thinking?" she asked with hope evident in both her voice and eyes.
Mia didn't want to disappoint Calleigh, but she also didn't want to lie, so she took a different approach, " I'm thinking you need to talk to him instead of me about this." Calleigh sighed.
" Find out what it is that keeps him from being the same person around every one. Why does he only trusts you with that piece of himself." Mia suggested, squeezing Calleigh's hand gently.
" Mia, that's so childish, we haven't even been together for that long, how am I gonna ask him all these personal questions without sounding nosy and clingy?" Calleigh asked, throwing her hands up in exasperation, and she sank in her seat.
" Calleigh, answer me this, who took care of you when you were grieving over Janet's death?"
" Tim."
" Who helped you drive your dad home from his recent bar raids?"
" Tim."
" And who helped him get passed Megan's departure?"
" I did."
" Who worried sick about him after the drug Dispo incident?"
" Every one did."
" Okay, let me rephrase that, who forced Horatio to give him a gun cleaning kit as a present?"
" I did." Calleigh said after sometime.
" Yeah, and it doesn't matter how long you've been together, it's obvious that you two love each other, but are too stubborn to admit it. So I suggest you be the bigger person here and call him on it, it'll benefit the both of you." Mia advised, and Calleigh elicited a grunt.
She wanted to argue with Mia, and point out to her any possible shortcoming of her suggestion, but as hard as Calleigh tried she couldn't come up with a decent rebuttal.
Taking a deep breath and sitting up straight Calleigh agreed, " Alright, I'll talk to him."
" Good girl, now how about we get some damn grub here." Mia said loudly, and smiled when Josh made his way back to their table to get their overdue orders.
Calleigh opened her mouth to speak but Mia silenced her, " We'll talk about Kerner later." She said primitively and before Calleigh could disagree, began to order.
***
" Me?" Eric made sure he heard his usually level headed boss say something so irrational.
" Yeah, you." Horatio nodded, not seeing the same absurdness in his words that his colleague obviously did.
" Your not on any medication are you?" Eric double checked, and watched his boss shake his head in a negative response, and then smile.
" Okay, good, because that would mean your usually sensible mind isn't being clouded when you say that." Delko smirked, and leaned back in his chair, still hung up on the little commented his boss supplied.
Could it be true? Could Elisabeth honestly harbor the same sort of feeling for him, which he might have for her, and if so how deep did they go, and how in the world did Horatio know?
But then again that was a stupid question, Horatio knew *everything*.
" I can honestly say that I'm not under the influence of any drugs, and that it's me who's telling you that don't shot your luck down, until you've been to the other side." Horatio stretched on cryptically, creating an even bigger void in Eric's head.
" Horatio, please cut the symbolic bullshit you can be blunt with me, I'd like to know your take on things, but only if your straightforward." Eric laid out, and Horatio couldn't find a reason to disagree.
He, himself, sometimes didn't enjoy people's obscurity when they were addressing him, so Horatio decided to comply with Eric's requests to be honest with him.
" Alright, this is my take on your situation." Horatio began and Delko felt his attention perking up.
" I'm listening."
" You must confront your issues, and at the risk of sounding like a shrink, I'd advise you to talk to Elisabeth before you jump to conclusions about where the two of you stand." Horatio supplied and Eric found himself believing his boss to be truthful.
" Eh, thanks H, I'm just a little confused you know." Eric sighed, running a hand through his hair.
" Your smitten." Horatio chuckled and Delko's head shot up, in a half threatening look, " Am not."
" Don't deny it, and I refuse to play childish games with you, you are what you feel Eric, and it seems that right now you want to feel something other than the void." Horatio pointed out, and Eric sat back in awe.
" How do you do it?" He mumbled.
" Do what?" Horatio asked over humbly.
" Do you honestly read minds?" Eric asked with mock suspicion, forcing his boss to smile again.
" No, I don't, but I do have these little devices called eyes, and I see the emptiness in yours, and if something tells you that Elisabeth will fill that in, then you have my blessing."
" I didn't know I needed it." Eric said, but he was already too relaxed to get offended.
Somehow talking to Horatio always helped, no exception and sometimes Delko wondered whom Horatio talked to when he had a problem.
He didn't talk to himself obviously.
" Oh but you always do." Horatio said with a half-smile, " Don't forget that." He added and Eric grinned.
" Thank you H." He gratified genuinely, and Horatio replied, " No problem, anything to keep my CSIs happy." He agreed.
" Risking sounding corny I'd have to say I don't deserve you as a boss, I've done way too much shit to have this good of a karma." Eric remained blunt.
" Don't jinx anything." Horatio warned well naturedly, and the two men shared a laugh.
The silence fell upon the room in a comfortable state that is until Eric's cell phone went off.
The caller ID flashed Speedle, and he flipped it open not opt for privacy since this could be concerned with the case, and Horatio had every right to hear this.
" Delko."
" It's Speed, I found something, you and Liz oughta take a look at. Something about Amber Gale." Speed clarified, and Eric understood, " Okay, then I'll see ya, thanks."
" No prob." Speed replied just in time to shut off his phone.
" A break through in the case?" Horatio asked with subtle interest.
" Yeah, I gotta take this." Eric said sheepishly, getting up.
" No doubt, take your time, this case is important to her." Horatio threw in and Delko nodded.
" Yeah, and apparently she's important to me so it works out." Delko smirked piteously, and Horatio gave him an empathetic smile.
" Don't worry, everything will work itself out, eventually." Horatio supplied.
" I'm sure, thanks H." Eric said heading to the door.
" No problem."
TBC…
***
Yeah, Yeah, I can just hear all you fellow Speed shippers yelling at me for putting so little of him in, not to mention the whole Calleigh/OMC development, but I promise you in the next chapter there will be a lot of him not to mention a huge Eric/Elisabeth scene and some S/C angst…plus who could forget about The Cold Case.
Disclaimer: Don't own anything…
Rating: R (later)
Pairing: Eric/OC, Speed/Calleigh
Summary: This is another bonding chapter, but I promise lots more next. Also I am introducing a peripheral original male character. Thanks for reading.
Spoiler: Tinder Box, Body Count
A/N: I *need* to take a break from Cardboard Copy…and perhaps this is a feeble attempt for your entertainment, but I just need to write an Eric fic…he's so lovable…hope you like it. Note: direct mentions from episodes will be featured later.
***
Part 11- Stepping Stones
The dive that Mia knew turned out to be filled with College Students drinking beer and playing pool, at 3 pm on a Tuesday.
Calleigh snorted at the sight of the bartender trying to mix drinks, and couldn't help herself as she teased the DA, " Come here to meet college boys?"
Mia condoned her remark, and found them a table by a heated billiard game taking place in an over smoked room.
" Something tells me that wouldn't hurt you." Mia commented and impatiently tapped her nails against the rough surface of the table, as a young waiter made his way to them.
" Please." Calleigh exclaimed, thinking how ridiculous her friend was being, " I can barely handle some one my own age what makes you think I can hold my own with a 20 year old?" Calleigh asked with a slight chuckle and didn't actually expect an answer.
She got one anyway.
" I figured a pretty lady like yourself would have no trouble finding men." A husky voice behind Calleigh spoke and she found herself turning around.
Mia smirked at her stunned expression and the ballistics expert had the urge to kick her friend underneath the table.
She didn't.
Instead she turned around and flashed the tall brunette behind her a flirty smile.
" Don't assume things." Calleigh admitted just as seductively as his reply had been, and Mia found the exchange to be quite amusing.
" For the record I'm just over the legal age." He smirked, and Calleigh found herself returning his smug grin, with her own southern charm.
" Oh boy." Mia murmured warningly, but Calleigh seemed to be too far-gone to even acknowledge her friend's presence, much less a cautioning sigh.
" Good to know." Calleigh commented, and he smiled, happy that he was making progress, although neither knew where this could be headed.
" I'm Josh." He reached out and accepted her hand in a light handshake.
" I'm Calleigh, pleasure to meet you Josh." Calleigh remained under her southern spell, ignoring the warnings Mia was sending her, as well as the artlessness of the situation.
" Oh, the pleasure's all mine." Josh countered, and Mia tried desperately to withhold a snort at his feeble attempt to lure Calleigh.
" All right then, if you insist." Calleigh shrugged flirtatiously, still a little dazed from the turn of events.
Just then a voice from the kitchen yelled, " Josh get your bony white ass in here."
Mia and Calleigh didn't miss the shade of rose that flashed on the waiter's cheeks when he was beckoned.
Yet, it didn't stop him from reacting just as quickly.
" Oh, lord, Maddy's gonna have my head on a platter. Here." Josh scribbled something on his order pad and tore off the sheet, handing it to Calleigh.
" What's this?" Calleigh looked at the digits written underneath his name.
" It's my number, I would be traditional and ask for yours but then I might never get the chance to call you before she kills me, so there, the ball's in your court." He smiled, putting the pen in his apron.
Calleigh looked at the scrap of paper reluctantly, the physical evidence of what she'd just done took on a different aspect of her situation.
" Umm, thanks." She asked quizzing, gnawing away at her lower lip.
Mia looked concerned, when Josh sent her a confused look as well, wondering what he'd done wrong.
Mia shrugged, thinking Calleigh would want to tell him herself that she was taken…well sort of.
Josh then looked at Calleigh again with a soft smile, " it's no obligation, just know that on our date we'll both be drinking alcohol." He kidded, and Calleigh seemed to come back to her normal self.
Flashing him a brilliant smile she ducked her head shyly and nodded, " Well that just threw me for a loop." She touched his shoulder and folded the paper neatly, putting it in her pant pocket.
" I'll be waiting by the phone." He started walking away.
" Don't hold your breath." Calleigh winked and then watched him saunter into the kitchen hurriedly.
She took a moment to regroup and then returned to Mia, who sported a disappointed look.
" Hypocrite." She snarled, and Calleigh's lips curved upward in a small smile, " It felt good you know." She pointed out as she fingered the paper in her pocket secretively.
Still not believing what she'd done just a few minutes ago actually happened.
" Calleigh, think about what you just did." Mia threw in, and Calleigh frowned.
It was apparent that she hadn't realized the impact of her actions until it was too late and although Mia hated to be the one to point it out to her, she knew she had to.
" I don't want to." Calleigh mumbled, sounding more depressed than she was before she came to see Mia that afternoon. Some how the DA felt responsible for the exchange that took place a few moment before.
If she hadn't brought them here, Calleigh would've confined in her, and they would've found a better way to resolve her issues, other than leading a poor college boy on.
" But you have to." Mia reached across the counter top and grasped Calleigh's hand.
" I don't want to." Calleigh repeated more sternly, staring down at her lap.
" No one wants to, but you have to." Mia pressed on.
" Why? Why do I have to? He doesn't, he's a completely different person sometimes, I just wish he'd let people see him the way I do. He doesn't always have to be so negative and pessimistic." Calleigh announced and Mia could feel her voice breaking.
However that didn't stop her from analyzing the situation, she was pretty sure she knew who Calleigh was talking about, and frankly even though she'd met the man a handful of times, she couldn't agree more.
" Honey, it's called self defense mechanism, he doesn't like opening up to people." Mia suggested and Calleigh looked up, her blue eyes crystal with tears, and making Mia want to go to Speed and rip his head off for making Calleigh so upset.
Although Mia knew that if she so much as voiced her opinion about the trace expert Calleigh would scold her and would likely always have second thoughts about confining in Mia, and she definitely didn't want that.
There were only a handful of people in her life that truly meant to her as much as Calleigh did, and not just because they seemed to have suffered the same loss but of course they'd known all along that they wouldn't lose contact with each other.
And sad to say, Janet's death only increased that premonition.
Calleigh was a loyal person by nature, and Mia knew that sometimes that trust could've been taken advantage of, by those she loved, and the lawyer hoped that that wasn't the case here.
" I still don't understand what he has to be so fucking afraid of I mean this morning we were talking and I brought up the subject of Liz and Eric."
" Wait a minute, my Liz? Elisabeth Kaytlin?" Mia asked raising her eyebrows, wondering what could her ADA and diving boy have in common.
" Yeah." Calleigh nodded, and Mia still remained unsure if she wanted to hear the rest of this.
Calleigh continued anyway, " And he just seemed so discouraged, and said love isn't worth taking risks, and I just, I know I'm being overly anal about this but it sort of makes me wonder where my place is in his heart you know?" The ballistics expert looked up at Mia's pensive expression.
She remained silent, so Calleigh probed, " What'd ya thinking?" she asked with hope evident in both her voice and eyes.
Mia didn't want to disappoint Calleigh, but she also didn't want to lie, so she took a different approach, " I'm thinking you need to talk to him instead of me about this." Calleigh sighed.
" Find out what it is that keeps him from being the same person around every one. Why does he only trusts you with that piece of himself." Mia suggested, squeezing Calleigh's hand gently.
" Mia, that's so childish, we haven't even been together for that long, how am I gonna ask him all these personal questions without sounding nosy and clingy?" Calleigh asked, throwing her hands up in exasperation, and she sank in her seat.
" Calleigh, answer me this, who took care of you when you were grieving over Janet's death?"
" Tim."
" Who helped you drive your dad home from his recent bar raids?"
" Tim."
" And who helped him get passed Megan's departure?"
" I did."
" Who worried sick about him after the drug Dispo incident?"
" Every one did."
" Okay, let me rephrase that, who forced Horatio to give him a gun cleaning kit as a present?"
" I did." Calleigh said after sometime.
" Yeah, and it doesn't matter how long you've been together, it's obvious that you two love each other, but are too stubborn to admit it. So I suggest you be the bigger person here and call him on it, it'll benefit the both of you." Mia advised, and Calleigh elicited a grunt.
She wanted to argue with Mia, and point out to her any possible shortcoming of her suggestion, but as hard as Calleigh tried she couldn't come up with a decent rebuttal.
Taking a deep breath and sitting up straight Calleigh agreed, " Alright, I'll talk to him."
" Good girl, now how about we get some damn grub here." Mia said loudly, and smiled when Josh made his way back to their table to get their overdue orders.
Calleigh opened her mouth to speak but Mia silenced her, " We'll talk about Kerner later." She said primitively and before Calleigh could disagree, began to order.
***
" Me?" Eric made sure he heard his usually level headed boss say something so irrational.
" Yeah, you." Horatio nodded, not seeing the same absurdness in his words that his colleague obviously did.
" Your not on any medication are you?" Eric double checked, and watched his boss shake his head in a negative response, and then smile.
" Okay, good, because that would mean your usually sensible mind isn't being clouded when you say that." Delko smirked, and leaned back in his chair, still hung up on the little commented his boss supplied.
Could it be true? Could Elisabeth honestly harbor the same sort of feeling for him, which he might have for her, and if so how deep did they go, and how in the world did Horatio know?
But then again that was a stupid question, Horatio knew *everything*.
" I can honestly say that I'm not under the influence of any drugs, and that it's me who's telling you that don't shot your luck down, until you've been to the other side." Horatio stretched on cryptically, creating an even bigger void in Eric's head.
" Horatio, please cut the symbolic bullshit you can be blunt with me, I'd like to know your take on things, but only if your straightforward." Eric laid out, and Horatio couldn't find a reason to disagree.
He, himself, sometimes didn't enjoy people's obscurity when they were addressing him, so Horatio decided to comply with Eric's requests to be honest with him.
" Alright, this is my take on your situation." Horatio began and Delko felt his attention perking up.
" I'm listening."
" You must confront your issues, and at the risk of sounding like a shrink, I'd advise you to talk to Elisabeth before you jump to conclusions about where the two of you stand." Horatio supplied and Eric found himself believing his boss to be truthful.
" Eh, thanks H, I'm just a little confused you know." Eric sighed, running a hand through his hair.
" Your smitten." Horatio chuckled and Delko's head shot up, in a half threatening look, " Am not."
" Don't deny it, and I refuse to play childish games with you, you are what you feel Eric, and it seems that right now you want to feel something other than the void." Horatio pointed out, and Eric sat back in awe.
" How do you do it?" He mumbled.
" Do what?" Horatio asked over humbly.
" Do you honestly read minds?" Eric asked with mock suspicion, forcing his boss to smile again.
" No, I don't, but I do have these little devices called eyes, and I see the emptiness in yours, and if something tells you that Elisabeth will fill that in, then you have my blessing."
" I didn't know I needed it." Eric said, but he was already too relaxed to get offended.
Somehow talking to Horatio always helped, no exception and sometimes Delko wondered whom Horatio talked to when he had a problem.
He didn't talk to himself obviously.
" Oh but you always do." Horatio said with a half-smile, " Don't forget that." He added and Eric grinned.
" Thank you H." He gratified genuinely, and Horatio replied, " No problem, anything to keep my CSIs happy." He agreed.
" Risking sounding corny I'd have to say I don't deserve you as a boss, I've done way too much shit to have this good of a karma." Eric remained blunt.
" Don't jinx anything." Horatio warned well naturedly, and the two men shared a laugh.
The silence fell upon the room in a comfortable state that is until Eric's cell phone went off.
The caller ID flashed Speedle, and he flipped it open not opt for privacy since this could be concerned with the case, and Horatio had every right to hear this.
" Delko."
" It's Speed, I found something, you and Liz oughta take a look at. Something about Amber Gale." Speed clarified, and Eric understood, " Okay, then I'll see ya, thanks."
" No prob." Speed replied just in time to shut off his phone.
" A break through in the case?" Horatio asked with subtle interest.
" Yeah, I gotta take this." Eric said sheepishly, getting up.
" No doubt, take your time, this case is important to her." Horatio threw in and Delko nodded.
" Yeah, and apparently she's important to me so it works out." Delko smirked piteously, and Horatio gave him an empathetic smile.
" Don't worry, everything will work itself out, eventually." Horatio supplied.
" I'm sure, thanks H." Eric said heading to the door.
" No problem."
TBC…
***
Yeah, Yeah, I can just hear all you fellow Speed shippers yelling at me for putting so little of him in, not to mention the whole Calleigh/OMC development, but I promise you in the next chapter there will be a lot of him not to mention a huge Eric/Elisabeth scene and some S/C angst…plus who could forget about The Cold Case.