Title: Ripped (2/?)
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down, cause I'll never pay!
Rating: R
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC), Tim/Calleigh
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.
Soundtrack to this part: "Why Can't I?" by Liz Phair.
__________________________________________
But this is just the beginning
We're already wet
And we're gonna go swimming
Why can't I breathe
Whenever I think about you?
Why can't I speak
Whenever I talk about you?
It's inevitable, it's a fact
That we're gonna get down to it
So tell me, why can't I breathe
Whenever I think about you?
________________________
Calleigh waited until she heard the water running, then walked swiftly to her bedroom and opened the door.
"Did you tell her I'm here?" Tim asked, emerging from the bedroom.
"I was going to." Calleigh sighed. "But she seemed upset about something, and seeing as she just came from Delko's apartment, I thought maybe I'd better not. I don't want her to get the wrong idea." In the two weeks since Eric and Maria had been hospitalized, Calleigh and Tim had been spending more time together, keeping an eye on their two friends at the request of the doctors who had treated them.
Watching the increasingly dysfunctional interactions between the couple, or rather, "non-couple," they had joked about feeling like spectators watching a tennis match. That had led to discussions about office romances, which in turn had led to discussions about their own love lives. All of this had led to Tim spending more time at the women's' apartment, to the point where the two of them had fallen asleep on the couch during a movie the night before.
It had been completely innocent, but Calleigh wasn't sure Maria would believe that, and besides that, her emotional state had seemed less than stable.
"She's been spending more nights there lately, huh?" Tim observed.
"Yeah, which I can't say I mind, exactly." Calleigh admitted. "I mean, I don't exactly miss going to sleep every night to the 'music' of the headboard banging against the wall and her shrieking 'Oh God! Yes! Yes! Right there! Don't stop!'" She said the last part in a perfect impression of Maria's breathy, multi-regional accent that came from a lifetime of moving to a new time zone every six months. "I swear, it's like the goddamn 'Nympholympics' or something."
Tim chuckled, even as he glanced at the bathroom door, hoping Maria couldn't hear them. "I'm sensing there's a 'but,' though."
Calleigh sighed and leaned against the wall. "She's just seeming so withdrawn. But every time I try to talk to her, she brushes me off."
"At least she knows that you're concerned." Tim said, trying to reassure her. "Hopefully, she'll keep that in mind if she ever does need to talk."
"Yeah." Calleigh nodded. "You're right."
"Guess I'd better go." Tim broke the silence that hung between them for a moment.
"Yeah." Calleigh agreed. "Listen, the video isn't due back until Tuesday, why don't I call you later, and maybe we could finish watching the movie?"
"I'd like that." Tim said. He paused, and for a moment he looked like he was about to pull her into his arms, but instead he just lay his hand on her arm for a moment. "I'll see you later."
_____________________
I would love for you to make me wonder
Where it's going
I would love for you to pull me under
Something's growing
Out of this that we can't control
Baby, I am dying
Why can't I breathe
Whenever I think about you?
Why can't I speak
Whenever I talk about you?
It's inevitable, it's a fact
That we're gonna get down to it
So tell me, why can't I breathe
Whenever I think about you?
________________________
Maria drew her knees up to her chest, resting her arms on them, and her chin on her arms, as she curled up at the back of the bathtub. The cold water from the showerhead pelted her body and assailed her face, mingling with her tears.
'It's just fucking.' She thought. That was all it was supposed to be. She was not supposed to feel trapped. But she did.
And she shouldn't have felt like that. Eric never tried to possess her or hurt her in any way.
She tried not to think about the way he touched her, and the way he whispered to her how good she felt, and how beautiful she was. She could almost believe him when he said that. While he was fucking her, she felt beautiful, and strong. But it was only temporary, and only physical.
It drove her crazy, the contradiction of the physical pleasure and mental anguish he could cause her to feel.
She didn't deserve Eric. He was a good man, and he treated her well. And she didn't understand that at all. He treated her better than she ever could hope to deserve. Better than she had ever given him reason to treat her. He cared about her.
Part of her wanted to come clean, wanted to be honest with him. But every time she saw him, she couldn't find the words. And maybe it was better that way.
She could let him fuck her, but she could never let him really know her. Because if she did, she was sure she would lose him.
Slowly, she rose to her knees, and reached up to turn off the water. Stepping out from behind the shower curtain, she grabbed her burgundy bathrobe off the hook on the back of the door and wrapped it around her dripping body. Twisting a towel around her wet hair, she opened the door.
"Hey, Calleigh...holy shit!"
"Maria!" Calleigh gasped as she and Tim broke apart, startled by the outburst. "Jesus, this isn't what it looks like!"
"It looks like you guys were making out, and I interrupted." Maria observed, leaning in the doorway, pulling her robe a little tighter around herself.
"No. Well, yeah, but Tim was just leaving and we..." As she stammered an explanation, she opened the front door and nudged Tim towards it. "I'll call you later." She whispered to him.
He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. "I'll call you first." He glanced past her, to her bemused roommate. "Bye, Maria."
"Bye." Maria replied calmly as the door closed behind him.
Calleigh had managed to recover her senses. "Oh my God. I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me."
"It's cool, I needed a good laugh." Maria said, sitting on the couch. "Besides, it's none of my business. You can screw whoever you want."
"I didn't sc-" Calleigh paused and corrected herself. "I didn't sleep with him."
"Yeah, but you so want to." Maria teased.
"I don't know." Calleigh sat down in the armchair. "I've known him for a while, we've always been good friends, and now, we've been so much time together, and I'm feeling completely different...and sounding like a goddamn teenager."
"No, you're making sense." Maria assured her. "God, we're fucked up. You're all bent out of shape over someone you've known forever, and I'm all bent out of shape over someone I've been fucking for two months and barely know at all."
Calleigh looked at her. "I knew it. Something happened with you and Eric?"
"Nothing." Maria sighed. "Well, nothing besides what usually happens when the two of us get together."
"He's crazy about you." Calleigh said. "The way he looks at you...I've never seen him like that. Hell, I've never seen anyone like that, period."
The phone rang, a welcome reprieve for Maria. She picked up the cordless receiver on the coffee table. "Maria and Calleigh's brothel and sushi bar."
"What the fuck?" A confused male voice sputtered. "Maria?"
"Oh, Hagen, it's you." Maria said casually. "Is this gonna be pickup or delivery?"
Calleigh laughed. Maria was showing a few signs of being back to her old self, and that was a huge relief.
"Yeah, okay...both of us?" Maria was saying. "Okay, we'll meet you there in about half an hour." She turned off the phone and rolled her eyes. "We've got a DB at the marina. That's all he knew."
"So much for the day off." Calleigh observed. "Guess we'd better get dressed."
________________________
"Lucy. Ethel." Hagen greeted the two women as they got out of Maria's car.
"You're Ethel." Maria and Calleigh said to each other at the same time.
"What happened to Jugs and Ammo?" Maria asked Hagen, referring to his former nicknames for herself and Calleigh.
"Got bored." Hagen replied with a shrug.
"Yeah, why do I have a feeling you get bored a lot?" Maria muttered under her breath. Out loud, she asked "So, what do we have?"
"One vic, female. She's back behind that dumpster." Hagen said, gesturing.
"Have you taken a look yet?" Calleigh asked.
Hagen shook his head. "Just got here. Ladies first."
"Well, I don't see any of those." Maria scoffed as the three of them walked behind the dumpster.
Seconds later, all three detectives practically bolted from behind the dumpster.
"Holy mother of...I mean, my God!" Calleigh gasped out, shaking her head as if to erase the memory of what she had just seen.
"Maybe she was attacked by a shark or something." Hagen was so pale he was almost translucent.
"Forty feet away from the water?" Maria said incredulously. "But...holy shit! I mean, have you ever seen anything so...it's like she was ripped to pieces and put back together wrong...what kind of sick...oh, God, I think I'm going to puke."
At that point, they noticed that the officers around them were all staring.
"Uh, I mean...we'd better get started." Maria stammered, trying to maintain some semblance of dignity.
_________________________
"Geez, man, they called you in, too?" Eric asked.
"Yeah, sounds like we've got a pretty gruesome one." Tim replied.
"Gruesome doesn't begin to describe it, boys." Maria sighed as she entered the breakroom, looking thoroughly shaken. "We need all the help we can get processing everything we found at the scene."
"Why?" Tim asked.
"Well, because the victim was all over the scene." Maria shuddered. "All we've got so far is an I.D. Shenique Harris, thirty-seven. A prostitute, apparently, she had three priors. Alexx is working on cause of death, but the fact that all of her insides were pulled out is what I'd bet on."
"She was eviscerated?" Eric said, stopping in the middle of reaching for a jelly donut from the box on the counter. He drew his hand back as if the box was on fire.
"We found her kidneys and intestines near the body." Maria replied. "Her breasts, uterus, heart, and all external genitalia were removed, and apparently went with the killer."
"Jack the Ripper." Tim said, almost to himself. "I mean, a prostitute, completely mutilated, heart and reproductive organs taken. That's pretty similar to his M.O, right?
"That's exactly what I was thinking." Maria agreed. "I studied that case almost obsessively for years, and the similarities are almost frightening."
"Studied it obsessively?" Tim repeated. "That's a little morbid, isn't it?"
"Yeah." Maria replied nonchalantly, sitting down and grabbing the same jelly donut Eric had just turned away from. "Hey, why don't you go talk to Calleigh? She's pretty shaken up, and Hagen's being such a wuss, he's no help."
"Yeah, I'll go see how she's doing." Tim replied, choosing to ignore the knowing smirk Maria flashed at him as he left the room.
"So..." Maria suddenly realized her mistake in sending Tim away. She was now alone with Eric, for the first time since she had left abruptly that morning.
If he felt at all awkward, though, he didn't show it. Instead, he moved closer to her and ran his hand down her arm as he leaned in and kissed her softly. "How about you, are you all right?"
"Yeah." She managed to say, even as his lips pressed firmly against her bare shoulder, following the path his hand had taken moments before. His fingers were now busy on her opposite shoulder, tracing the wide lace trim on the low neckline of her crimson top. "It's pretty hideous...but we're trained to handle this sort of thing."
"So, what are you working on now?" Eric asked. He stood up straight and slowly spread his hands across her back, rubbing her tense muscles.
"Nothing, until Alexx finishes the post." Maria replied, letting her eyes drift shut. His hands could do amazing things to her willpower. As if he sensed her weakening, he leaned down again and kissed the back of her neck, exposed by the tight braid she had pulled her golden hair into. "Eric..." She moaned softly, trying to ignore the fact that his hands had slid around to her breasts. "We can't...not here..."
______________________
"Hey." Tim said, approaching Calleigh in the corridor.
"Hey!" She replied, clearly glad to see him. "When did you get here?"
"About ten minutes ago." He replied. "Maria said it's pretty hideous, are you okay?"
"Aside from seeing it every time I close my eyes, yeah." Calleigh sighed. "She tell you what we were thinking?"
"Jack the Ripper rip-off, yeah." Tim said. "You gotta admit, it's ambitious."
Calleigh gave him a wry smile. "Well, here's hoping we can squelch this guy's ambition."
"Yeah. Hey, listen, about this morning-"
"Calleigh!" A voice interrupted from behind them.
The CSIs turned and saw two tall, muscular men with military haircuts approaching.
"Hey, you guys." Calleigh said cheerfully. "Tim, this is Maria's brother Anton, and her half-brother, Estefan. Guys, this is Tim Speedle, he works with me and Maria."
"Nice to meet you guys." Tim said, sizing the two men up. He was anything but out of shape, but both of them, he decided, could probably snap his spine with one hand while making coffee with the other.
"Yeah, you too, man." Anton replied, grabbing his hand in a crushing handshake. "Maria's mentioned you a few times, sounds like you guys get along pretty well."
"She's a real piece of work." Tim agreed. "And a hell of a CSI."
"That's our Amtrak." Estefan said. "Cal, is she here? We gotta talk to her."
"Yeah. We're working on a new case, but she's got some down time." Calleigh replied.
"Check the breakroom." Tim suggested. "Take a right at the end of the hall, it's the second door on the left."
"Okay, cool." Estefan said. "Thanks, man. Nice meeting you. Later, Calleigh."
"Yeah, later." Calleigh replied.
"Amtrak?" Tim repeated as soon as the two men were gone.
"That's their nickname for Maria." Calleigh explained. "Because she's as chaotic as a train wreck."
"Yo, we checked the breakroom." Anton said as he and Estefan returned. "Only person in there's your boss, and he ain't seen her."
"He's kinda...intense, huh?" Estefan added.
"Yeah, that's H." Tim said.
"I'll page Maria, she might have stepped out for a few minutes." Calleigh offered. "You guys can crash in the breakroom."
"All right, thanks." Anton said. A minute later, the two of them were gone again.
"Hey, page Delko, too." Tim suggested. "He was in the breakroom with her when I left, maybe he's seen her."
"You left them alone in there?" Calleigh tried and failed to stifle a laugh. "Well, guess we know where Maria is."
"What do you think, storage or gun vault?" Tim asked, rolling his eyes.
"Gun vault?" Calleigh repeated. "They didn't...did they?"
"Yep, they befouled it." Tim said teasingly, earning him a playful slap on the arm.
"They truly are depraved." Calleigh sighed, taking out her cell phone to page Maria.
_____________________
TBC…
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down, cause I'll never pay!
Rating: R
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC), Tim/Calleigh
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.
Soundtrack to this part: "Why Can't I?" by Liz Phair.
__________________________________________
But this is just the beginning
We're already wet
And we're gonna go swimming
Why can't I breathe
Whenever I think about you?
Why can't I speak
Whenever I talk about you?
It's inevitable, it's a fact
That we're gonna get down to it
So tell me, why can't I breathe
Whenever I think about you?
________________________
Calleigh waited until she heard the water running, then walked swiftly to her bedroom and opened the door.
"Did you tell her I'm here?" Tim asked, emerging from the bedroom.
"I was going to." Calleigh sighed. "But she seemed upset about something, and seeing as she just came from Delko's apartment, I thought maybe I'd better not. I don't want her to get the wrong idea." In the two weeks since Eric and Maria had been hospitalized, Calleigh and Tim had been spending more time together, keeping an eye on their two friends at the request of the doctors who had treated them.
Watching the increasingly dysfunctional interactions between the couple, or rather, "non-couple," they had joked about feeling like spectators watching a tennis match. That had led to discussions about office romances, which in turn had led to discussions about their own love lives. All of this had led to Tim spending more time at the women's' apartment, to the point where the two of them had fallen asleep on the couch during a movie the night before.
It had been completely innocent, but Calleigh wasn't sure Maria would believe that, and besides that, her emotional state had seemed less than stable.
"She's been spending more nights there lately, huh?" Tim observed.
"Yeah, which I can't say I mind, exactly." Calleigh admitted. "I mean, I don't exactly miss going to sleep every night to the 'music' of the headboard banging against the wall and her shrieking 'Oh God! Yes! Yes! Right there! Don't stop!'" She said the last part in a perfect impression of Maria's breathy, multi-regional accent that came from a lifetime of moving to a new time zone every six months. "I swear, it's like the goddamn 'Nympholympics' or something."
Tim chuckled, even as he glanced at the bathroom door, hoping Maria couldn't hear them. "I'm sensing there's a 'but,' though."
Calleigh sighed and leaned against the wall. "She's just seeming so withdrawn. But every time I try to talk to her, she brushes me off."
"At least she knows that you're concerned." Tim said, trying to reassure her. "Hopefully, she'll keep that in mind if she ever does need to talk."
"Yeah." Calleigh nodded. "You're right."
"Guess I'd better go." Tim broke the silence that hung between them for a moment.
"Yeah." Calleigh agreed. "Listen, the video isn't due back until Tuesday, why don't I call you later, and maybe we could finish watching the movie?"
"I'd like that." Tim said. He paused, and for a moment he looked like he was about to pull her into his arms, but instead he just lay his hand on her arm for a moment. "I'll see you later."
_____________________
I would love for you to make me wonder
Where it's going
I would love for you to pull me under
Something's growing
Out of this that we can't control
Baby, I am dying
Why can't I breathe
Whenever I think about you?
Why can't I speak
Whenever I talk about you?
It's inevitable, it's a fact
That we're gonna get down to it
So tell me, why can't I breathe
Whenever I think about you?
________________________
Maria drew her knees up to her chest, resting her arms on them, and her chin on her arms, as she curled up at the back of the bathtub. The cold water from the showerhead pelted her body and assailed her face, mingling with her tears.
'It's just fucking.' She thought. That was all it was supposed to be. She was not supposed to feel trapped. But she did.
And she shouldn't have felt like that. Eric never tried to possess her or hurt her in any way.
She tried not to think about the way he touched her, and the way he whispered to her how good she felt, and how beautiful she was. She could almost believe him when he said that. While he was fucking her, she felt beautiful, and strong. But it was only temporary, and only physical.
It drove her crazy, the contradiction of the physical pleasure and mental anguish he could cause her to feel.
She didn't deserve Eric. He was a good man, and he treated her well. And she didn't understand that at all. He treated her better than she ever could hope to deserve. Better than she had ever given him reason to treat her. He cared about her.
Part of her wanted to come clean, wanted to be honest with him. But every time she saw him, she couldn't find the words. And maybe it was better that way.
She could let him fuck her, but she could never let him really know her. Because if she did, she was sure she would lose him.
Slowly, she rose to her knees, and reached up to turn off the water. Stepping out from behind the shower curtain, she grabbed her burgundy bathrobe off the hook on the back of the door and wrapped it around her dripping body. Twisting a towel around her wet hair, she opened the door.
"Hey, Calleigh...holy shit!"
"Maria!" Calleigh gasped as she and Tim broke apart, startled by the outburst. "Jesus, this isn't what it looks like!"
"It looks like you guys were making out, and I interrupted." Maria observed, leaning in the doorway, pulling her robe a little tighter around herself.
"No. Well, yeah, but Tim was just leaving and we..." As she stammered an explanation, she opened the front door and nudged Tim towards it. "I'll call you later." She whispered to him.
He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. "I'll call you first." He glanced past her, to her bemused roommate. "Bye, Maria."
"Bye." Maria replied calmly as the door closed behind him.
Calleigh had managed to recover her senses. "Oh my God. I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me."
"It's cool, I needed a good laugh." Maria said, sitting on the couch. "Besides, it's none of my business. You can screw whoever you want."
"I didn't sc-" Calleigh paused and corrected herself. "I didn't sleep with him."
"Yeah, but you so want to." Maria teased.
"I don't know." Calleigh sat down in the armchair. "I've known him for a while, we've always been good friends, and now, we've been so much time together, and I'm feeling completely different...and sounding like a goddamn teenager."
"No, you're making sense." Maria assured her. "God, we're fucked up. You're all bent out of shape over someone you've known forever, and I'm all bent out of shape over someone I've been fucking for two months and barely know at all."
Calleigh looked at her. "I knew it. Something happened with you and Eric?"
"Nothing." Maria sighed. "Well, nothing besides what usually happens when the two of us get together."
"He's crazy about you." Calleigh said. "The way he looks at you...I've never seen him like that. Hell, I've never seen anyone like that, period."
The phone rang, a welcome reprieve for Maria. She picked up the cordless receiver on the coffee table. "Maria and Calleigh's brothel and sushi bar."
"What the fuck?" A confused male voice sputtered. "Maria?"
"Oh, Hagen, it's you." Maria said casually. "Is this gonna be pickup or delivery?"
Calleigh laughed. Maria was showing a few signs of being back to her old self, and that was a huge relief.
"Yeah, okay...both of us?" Maria was saying. "Okay, we'll meet you there in about half an hour." She turned off the phone and rolled her eyes. "We've got a DB at the marina. That's all he knew."
"So much for the day off." Calleigh observed. "Guess we'd better get dressed."
________________________
"Lucy. Ethel." Hagen greeted the two women as they got out of Maria's car.
"You're Ethel." Maria and Calleigh said to each other at the same time.
"What happened to Jugs and Ammo?" Maria asked Hagen, referring to his former nicknames for herself and Calleigh.
"Got bored." Hagen replied with a shrug.
"Yeah, why do I have a feeling you get bored a lot?" Maria muttered under her breath. Out loud, she asked "So, what do we have?"
"One vic, female. She's back behind that dumpster." Hagen said, gesturing.
"Have you taken a look yet?" Calleigh asked.
Hagen shook his head. "Just got here. Ladies first."
"Well, I don't see any of those." Maria scoffed as the three of them walked behind the dumpster.
Seconds later, all three detectives practically bolted from behind the dumpster.
"Holy mother of...I mean, my God!" Calleigh gasped out, shaking her head as if to erase the memory of what she had just seen.
"Maybe she was attacked by a shark or something." Hagen was so pale he was almost translucent.
"Forty feet away from the water?" Maria said incredulously. "But...holy shit! I mean, have you ever seen anything so...it's like she was ripped to pieces and put back together wrong...what kind of sick...oh, God, I think I'm going to puke."
At that point, they noticed that the officers around them were all staring.
"Uh, I mean...we'd better get started." Maria stammered, trying to maintain some semblance of dignity.
_________________________
"Geez, man, they called you in, too?" Eric asked.
"Yeah, sounds like we've got a pretty gruesome one." Tim replied.
"Gruesome doesn't begin to describe it, boys." Maria sighed as she entered the breakroom, looking thoroughly shaken. "We need all the help we can get processing everything we found at the scene."
"Why?" Tim asked.
"Well, because the victim was all over the scene." Maria shuddered. "All we've got so far is an I.D. Shenique Harris, thirty-seven. A prostitute, apparently, she had three priors. Alexx is working on cause of death, but the fact that all of her insides were pulled out is what I'd bet on."
"She was eviscerated?" Eric said, stopping in the middle of reaching for a jelly donut from the box on the counter. He drew his hand back as if the box was on fire.
"We found her kidneys and intestines near the body." Maria replied. "Her breasts, uterus, heart, and all external genitalia were removed, and apparently went with the killer."
"Jack the Ripper." Tim said, almost to himself. "I mean, a prostitute, completely mutilated, heart and reproductive organs taken. That's pretty similar to his M.O, right?
"That's exactly what I was thinking." Maria agreed. "I studied that case almost obsessively for years, and the similarities are almost frightening."
"Studied it obsessively?" Tim repeated. "That's a little morbid, isn't it?"
"Yeah." Maria replied nonchalantly, sitting down and grabbing the same jelly donut Eric had just turned away from. "Hey, why don't you go talk to Calleigh? She's pretty shaken up, and Hagen's being such a wuss, he's no help."
"Yeah, I'll go see how she's doing." Tim replied, choosing to ignore the knowing smirk Maria flashed at him as he left the room.
"So..." Maria suddenly realized her mistake in sending Tim away. She was now alone with Eric, for the first time since she had left abruptly that morning.
If he felt at all awkward, though, he didn't show it. Instead, he moved closer to her and ran his hand down her arm as he leaned in and kissed her softly. "How about you, are you all right?"
"Yeah." She managed to say, even as his lips pressed firmly against her bare shoulder, following the path his hand had taken moments before. His fingers were now busy on her opposite shoulder, tracing the wide lace trim on the low neckline of her crimson top. "It's pretty hideous...but we're trained to handle this sort of thing."
"So, what are you working on now?" Eric asked. He stood up straight and slowly spread his hands across her back, rubbing her tense muscles.
"Nothing, until Alexx finishes the post." Maria replied, letting her eyes drift shut. His hands could do amazing things to her willpower. As if he sensed her weakening, he leaned down again and kissed the back of her neck, exposed by the tight braid she had pulled her golden hair into. "Eric..." She moaned softly, trying to ignore the fact that his hands had slid around to her breasts. "We can't...not here..."
______________________
"Hey." Tim said, approaching Calleigh in the corridor.
"Hey!" She replied, clearly glad to see him. "When did you get here?"
"About ten minutes ago." He replied. "Maria said it's pretty hideous, are you okay?"
"Aside from seeing it every time I close my eyes, yeah." Calleigh sighed. "She tell you what we were thinking?"
"Jack the Ripper rip-off, yeah." Tim said. "You gotta admit, it's ambitious."
Calleigh gave him a wry smile. "Well, here's hoping we can squelch this guy's ambition."
"Yeah. Hey, listen, about this morning-"
"Calleigh!" A voice interrupted from behind them.
The CSIs turned and saw two tall, muscular men with military haircuts approaching.
"Hey, you guys." Calleigh said cheerfully. "Tim, this is Maria's brother Anton, and her half-brother, Estefan. Guys, this is Tim Speedle, he works with me and Maria."
"Nice to meet you guys." Tim said, sizing the two men up. He was anything but out of shape, but both of them, he decided, could probably snap his spine with one hand while making coffee with the other.
"Yeah, you too, man." Anton replied, grabbing his hand in a crushing handshake. "Maria's mentioned you a few times, sounds like you guys get along pretty well."
"She's a real piece of work." Tim agreed. "And a hell of a CSI."
"That's our Amtrak." Estefan said. "Cal, is she here? We gotta talk to her."
"Yeah. We're working on a new case, but she's got some down time." Calleigh replied.
"Check the breakroom." Tim suggested. "Take a right at the end of the hall, it's the second door on the left."
"Okay, cool." Estefan said. "Thanks, man. Nice meeting you. Later, Calleigh."
"Yeah, later." Calleigh replied.
"Amtrak?" Tim repeated as soon as the two men were gone.
"That's their nickname for Maria." Calleigh explained. "Because she's as chaotic as a train wreck."
"Yo, we checked the breakroom." Anton said as he and Estefan returned. "Only person in there's your boss, and he ain't seen her."
"He's kinda...intense, huh?" Estefan added.
"Yeah, that's H." Tim said.
"I'll page Maria, she might have stepped out for a few minutes." Calleigh offered. "You guys can crash in the breakroom."
"All right, thanks." Anton said. A minute later, the two of them were gone again.
"Hey, page Delko, too." Tim suggested. "He was in the breakroom with her when I left, maybe he's seen her."
"You left them alone in there?" Calleigh tried and failed to stifle a laugh. "Well, guess we know where Maria is."
"What do you think, storage or gun vault?" Tim asked, rolling his eyes.
"Gun vault?" Calleigh repeated. "They didn't...did they?"
"Yep, they befouled it." Tim said teasingly, earning him a playful slap on the arm.
"They truly are depraved." Calleigh sighed, taking out her cell phone to page Maria.
_____________________
TBC…