Slightly Condoned

Disclaimer: Don't own anything…

Rating: R (later)

Pairing: Eric/OC, Speed/Calleigh

Summary: This chapter is definitely a transition between the angsty parts of this fic, it's also a big eye opener on the case, and leaves a big cliffhanger at the end. Don't kill me; I'll have more posted shortly. Calleigh fans sorry, Bullet Girl's taking a breather from this chapter.

Spoiler: Tinder Box, Body Count

A/N: I must warn you a lot about this case is fictional and shouldn't be taken heavily, I have no idea what the hell I am writing lol, so please don't flame on me for being politically incorrect and stating some things wrong, I have no desire to be politically enlightened so enjoy this piece of fiction…

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Part 12- Misery Loves Company

" So you're from Long Island?" John folded his arms, as he watched Elisabeth pour herself her umpteenth cup of coffee.

" Yeah, I moved out here for the job offer." She replied the obvious and took a sip of the slightly bitter liquid.

It soothed and burned her throat at the same time, and she enjoyed the combination of those two feelings.

" I was born in Woodmere." John enlightened, and Elisabeth raised her eyebrows in surprise.

" Really?" She asked, shaking a bag of sugar over the coffee mug.

John nodded eagerly, as if he'd been initiated into her circle of friends, just by saying that.

" Whoa, that's the neighborhood next to mine." Elisabeth smiled, stirring in the Sweet & Low.

" Coincidence." John chuckled, and watched her take a sip of the coffee, finishing off the liquid on her lips with her tongue.

He lost track of his thoughts for a second, just staring at her lips, but quickly regrouped and added, " But my parents packed up and moved here when I was about four."

" Eh? I don't think I was even born then." The ADA teased, and moved to the couch.

"Are you calling me old?" John asked with mock concern, and Elisabeth flashed a mischievous look his way, " Maybe, what'd ya gonna do about it?" she took another sip and watched different emotions cross the Detective's face.

At first she thought he was going to tease her about something but then his expression changed to something unreadable.

" John?" Elisabeth's voice trailed off, giving him room to explain.

" Yeah, uh, Elisabeth…" " Call me Liz." The lawyer suggested, hoping the man beside her would relax, so she could also be herself in his presence.

" Okay, Liz, would you like to have dinner with me sometime?" Elisabeth couldn't help but smile, when she watched the detective fidget, and then tense up.

However the full impact of his words didn't quite reach her until she turned to another voice coming from the hallway.

" Liz, Speed paged me, there's an update in the Gale case, we need you in the DNA Lab." Eric spoke in monotone, not skipping a beat.

It almost sounded like he had rehearsed it, just for the sake of not cracking and saying something else, he'd regret later.

Elisabeth hadn't even considered the consequences of either of her answers.

If she said yes, she was most certain that she would have a great time, although Elisabeth knew there was a reason why John wasn't so popular around the lab, she chose to ignore it.

However, if she said no, that would mean something was holding her back, and as much as Elisabeth hated to go against the grain and likely warnings from everyone around her not to do this, she would much rather go out with John then not be in denial of her feelings.

Standing up, she nodded to Eric, " I'll be right there." She smiled and he just looked between the two and nodded back, " K, don't take too long."

That seemed to have been a caution of some sort, coming from all sides in his entry, and to Elisabeth that said something about his feelings too.

Although she knew this, the ADA turned to John and with a parting glance agreed, " Yes."

Then she disappeared from his view, and although John knew he should be ecstatic that he'd gotten her to say yes, somehow he knew it was forced…

***

Eric didn't say anything to Elisabeth as they walked down the hallway to meet Speed in the DNA Lab, and Elisabeth tried not to read into it too much although she could sense the obvious aura of pain around him.

She hoped she hadn't been the cause of that, because if she was, all he had to say was yes, and she'd tell John to take a hike; simple as that.

And at the same time, just as complicated. She knew that despite his wonderful and caring nature that Elisabeth came to love in their brief time together, Eric would never, ever admit his feelings so easily.

That left her with not much choice than to condone him until the time came, until he either cracked or she did.

The way things were going she didn't know if she'd be the winner of this race.

Time was on their side though.

Or at least Elisabeth tried to think so.

They reached the Lab, and Eric politely allowed her to slide in first and then closed the door behind himself.

" Hey Tim." Elisabeth announced over cheerfully, and Speed sent her a cocked glance.

Looking silently beyond her, she was sure, Eric returned the suspicious look, but at this point Elisabeth was desperate to flee from the turmoil inside her head, and the only way she knew was to ignore it and be falsely happy.

Optimistic.

And that's exactly what she was going to do, consequences be damned.

" Uh hi." Speed replied after a few moments of awkward silence, and Delko proceeded to take charge of the situation.

" So what do we got?" He asked, hovering over Speed's shoulder as he reclined in the computer chair, facing the screen.

" Um, aren't these computers only for DNA matches, and finger prints and stuff?" Elisabeth asked cautiously, tucking a strand of auburn hair behind her ear.

" Yeah, but I was too hot on a trail to run all the way across the hall." Speed said with overdramatic undertones, as he maneuvered the gray mouse and opened a document.

" Oh, okay then." Elisabeth rolled her eyes, and moved over to get a better look at the screen, inadvertently touching shoulders with Eric.

He didn't give her a second look, but from the corner of his eye, Elisabeth could tell that he was alerted, and by the tone of his muscles he tensed up immediately.

" Good." Elisabeth thought, glad that she wasn't the only one with mixed emotions and thick tension.

Then she turned her attention back to Speed, as he clicked on the file and opened up a page, which looked to be a bit of a newspaper article.

" The Tampa Tribune." Eric read out loud and shot Elisabeth a clearly confused look.

This one conveyed none of the personal emotions she'd hoped to see and she wondered if before, it was just wishful thinking, her eyes deceiving her.

Then she realized that perhaps if her way of protecting herself was to put up a façade, then perhaps his was work.

Helping people.

Elisabeth returned his unsure look and questioned Tim, " Is this relevant?"

" Read." Speed instructed, semi annoyed that she was taking his skills into consideration, without trusting him to do the right thing.

Sort of undermined his authority, and Tim didn't like that at all.

" Okay." Elisabeth sighed, and then scanned her eyes over the article as Eric took the liberty of reading the starting paragraph out loud.

The first stanza proved to be very significant and Elisabeth felt instantly guilty for doubting Tim's abilities as Delko preceded.

" Last Thursday, on Thanksgiving Day of November 2001, Council Woman Mercedes Escalante vetoed the bill proposed by the City Council of Miami, concerning the rights of newcomers from ports such as Cuba, Cape Town and South Brazil.

The bill included the identification cards presently issued to the new Americans, and their rights to citizenship later on. However, with the declination of this bill comes a price. Any one entering the Port of Miami-Dade from any of those three counties will be deported, disregarding any relatives, or connections they may have in the State Of Florida.

Council Woman refused to give a statement, and still condones the public's outrage. As most of you know, Miami-Dade is quite populated with citizens from all the aforementioned countries, and with this new law passed, some of the prominent political figures are troubled with the fact of what could this mean for our economy, and the high diversity that Florida is known for.

And many of us, fear that Council Woman maybe in over her head. With reelections coming up, we would hate to see her career crumble."

After Delko finished reading the article, he led a breath out, but it was evident by the triumphal smirk on Speed's face that he wasn't done yet.

" Hold up, read this." He clicked on another, neighboring document, and Elisabeth stepped in, sensing that Eric was still recovering from reading the previous page.

" I remember that bill, my mother nearly had a heart attack. They voted again Escalante that year." Eric commented and Elisabeth returned to the screen.

" I don't blame them." She mumbled and then the room settled again as Elisabeth began.

" One week after Escalante's declination of the bill, there are four casualties amongst ten stowaways who have found their way into America from Cuba, three nights ago. Amongst these ten, four woman, and six men, who had spent five days at sea, not understanding why they were being arrested for hitching a ride on a cargo ship.

The word of this new law in Florida had not yet reached other countries. And what a shame, now four men are dead and the rest's faiths are being decided in court. In jail they are treated as prisoners, the public is once again outraged.

Needless to say it looks as if Mercedes Escalante has just now signed her out resignation form." Elisabeth concluded reading the snippet and turned to Speed.

" And?" Her voice trailed off and he rolled his eyes.

" I made some long distance phone calls to Cuba." He explained vaguely.

" Why?" Eric asked incredulously, and Tim turned in his chair.

" Because, a dying woman doesn't just say to a prominent political figure, on the verge of not being reelected, "you did this to me" without having some motive or meaning it at least." Speed pursued.

" So what your saying is Amber had some sort of grudge against Escalante?" Elisabeth questioned, a little unconvinced but willing to hear the CSI out, just because she'd jumped the gun with him before and ended up being wrong.

" Not just any grudge." Speed smiled at her mischievously.

" What kind of grudge Speed?" Delko questioned impatiently and Tim prolonged his torture.

" Chill, you'll find out eventually." He smirked and returned to the computer screen pulling out another file and this time doing the honors of reading it himself.

" Fabian & Karin Galazes, both from Cuba, and raised there all their lives." Speed proceeded to retell, skimming the article.

" Whom I also had the pleasure of speaking to over the phone, their quite fluent in English you know." He said off topic and Eric commented smirking, " Yeah, English, the universal language."

" Okay, moving on." Elisabeth scurried, and Speed continued, " Have two children, Anbar Galazes, born on February 8th 1979 and Lealon Galazes born on September 18th 1983."

" Great, nice peachy Cuban family, move on Speed." Elisabeth probed, anxious to figure out what the hell was going on.

" Ok, ok, I'm just getting to the good part. Anyway in the summer of 97, The Galazes understood that Cuba held no promise for their siblings and with Fabian being offered the chance to flee he had considered all possible options and decided to send his first born to Miami, under a different alias and a completely forged American Passport. It was still legal then, or so he informed me." Speed took a pause.

Surprised no one interrupted him, it seemed he had infatuated his friends with the non-fiction tale.

" Anbar Galazes docked on Miami-Dade on Aug. 19th 1997 and with little help from any one managed to find herself a place to live and an education ad the University of Miami, under the name of Amber Gale." Speed smiled contently when he noted evident shock on the faces of his fellow investigators.

" So let me get this straight." Delko confirmed after sometime, " These people sent their barely legal daughter to a foreign country in hopes of her having a brighter future, but she ends up killing herself? Damn is that a disappointment." Eric exclaimed sarcastically.

" Eric!" Elisabeth cautioned and he was about to snap back but Speed stopped them, " Wait it gets better."

" It does?" Elisabeth asked, perking up.

" Oh yeah." Speed nodded, and went on, " When they received their first letter from their daughter the following month, letting them know that she was alive and well, the Galazes were convinced that they could send their second child on the same path. And they did.

Except this time a little later in the year, and perhaps that was their mistake. But letting Amber know of their plans they sent Lealon Galazes on a cargo ship, unaware that the next day they'd get a letter from their daughter telling them not to send Lealon anywhere or he'd get deported, or worse sent to prison.

There was nothing they could do." Speed paused.

" My God." Elisabeth exclaimed, lowering herself into the seat beside Tim, missing the evident concern mirroring Eric's face because she herself was so outraged with the breakthrough.

" You okay?" Delko asked, and she looked up, her eyes displaying evident distaste for the actions of this woman.

" Yeah, yeah, go on." Elisabeth composed herself quickly, not one to let people see her weaknesses and forced Tim to continue.

" When the boat docked, the ten stowaways were discovered, and four of the six men, young and well put up a fight against a dozen police officers to protect the other six people aboard. Their defense proved bleak and all four were killed amongst them was Leon Gale, also known as Lealon Galazes in Cuba." Speed finished on a heavy note and allowed the information to set in.

" You did this to me." Elisabeth mumbled and then as if a light bulb flashed in her head, she smiled, " You guys." She whispered happily.

" I think I got it."

TBC…