Title: Demanding
Summary: "She was just more demanding… and she had the right to."
Spoiler: Death Grip
***
Now how can things get more unfair than that?
A white junior tennis champion disappeared, and the whole Miami – if not the whole world – was noticed within twenty-four hours.
A Hispanic girl disappeared for months and nobody gave a damn about her.
Of course, Eric Delko understood how this world worked.
Like what he had told Calleigh earlier, you need to have blonde hair and blue eyes in order to get attention.
He had blurted it out at rage of the moment, somehow, seeing that foot with the tennis shoe, the decaying flesh, the once healthy copper skin now a sickening gray was like a message to him.
What kind of message, he didn't know then.
But now, as he stood at the river bank with a white rose in hand, he understood.
Even though his family had succeeded in pursuing American dream, even though he – and many others – had excelled, flourished in this society, they were still being looked down by the majority of this white-dominant society.
He opened his hand, felt the muscles in his arm expanded and contracted as he willed himself to let the flower join the few others that were starting to flow downstream. He watched the flower, as it traveled in a graceful arc, as it hit the water, making tiny splashes and ripples.
The image – the flower, its movement, the effect it had made on its surrounding – the picture was perfect. Like a fairytale.
But the reason behind the presence of that beautiful flower and many likes of it was no fairytale. It was in fact, chilling.
He felt someone stepping up next to him, and he tried to move to make more room. But as he looked over his shoulder, he stopped.
Calleigh looked up and smiled at him. She stared at the water for a few seconds before sending her flower flying. And then she stepped back, squeezed his hand, and turned to leave.
Now there's another message – a message that told him to follow. And so he did as he was told; he walked behind her silently until they were next to the road where their cars were parked.
"Thanks for coming," he mumbled as his hand reached into his pocket for his keys, "I really appreciate it."
Calleigh looked up and smiled. "Wow Eric, all of a sudden you sound like you're a family member, or at least a close friend of that girl."
"Well, for a moment I sure felt like I am," he admitted, turning to his side. "I mean, just look at them." The two of them stared at the small crowd of about a dozen or so for a moment before Eric continued, "See what I mean? The only people that give a damn about the fact she was killed by a sick pervert are her family; if anyone else even knows about her, they'd only know it because her killer also 'kidnapped' that Lana girl who everybody in Miami probably know about by now."
Spitting out the last word, Eric stopped and took a deep breath. Calleigh had remained silent while he blurted, and now the silence was starting to wrapping around them like a blanket, and Eric felt uneasy, like he always did when Calleigh wasn't chirping away happily like he was used to.
"Sorry," he muttered, finally managed to found his keys, and was now trying to fit the key into the lock without looking.
"For what?" Still leaning against her car, Calleigh asked innocently.
Eric's hand slipped away from the car door as he leaned back against his car and thought about it for a moment. "Hey Cal, you know all that stuff they teach you in the academy – about how we are supposed to stay detached to our victims, being a CSI and all?"
"Yeah I remember that."
"The fact is, sometimes it's hard to follow it, all by the book, you know? I mean, theoretically we're supposed to treat every case the same way, but this time I took it personal, which shouldn't have happened."
"Eric—" she paused and thought over her wording before she continued, "Did you take it personal because—because she was also Hispanic, just like you?"
He nodded. "Yeah. And probably also because nobody gave a shit about her, even though she disappeared for months. When I saw that foot it was almost like a message to me – that nobody cared about her was because of her race, especially when I think about how much media attention the case of Lana got."
"Yeah. And I hate to say this, but this is the way this society is and it's probably the way the society will stay. But you want to know what I think? I think that even though no one had really paid any attention to her, she was just as demanding, maybe even more than other victims, and she had the right to be."
He looked at her with a puzzled expression. "What do you mean, demanding?"
Calleigh only smiled as she opened the car door. "Remember the old phrase 'the dead do speak?' It exists because they do – they demand justice."
"And it's up to us… to make sure that she is satisfied."
They exchanged smiles, and Calleigh got into her car. But before pulling out onto the road, she rolled down the window. "Eric?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember what you said about only people with blonde hair and blue eyes can attract attention in this country?"
Eric turned around, confused. "But I thought you said your eyes are green—"
"They are. I was just wondering, will blonde hair and green eyes attract a bit of attention from you?"
Before Eric could understand what Calleigh meant, her car had already disappeared down the road.
Watching the dust settling down on the road, Eric looked down on the keys in his hand. "Yeah, that'll do nicely, Cal."
***
For Ruby, because the last part was written that way to satisfy her demand.