A/N: I promise, in this chapter Eric's secret is revealed, but wait til you find out what else someone else is hiding, you won't believe the outcome. Sorry for the lateness but there were some computer problems

Eric opens his mouth to speak but before he can say anything Tripp arrives at the scene. "Hey you two", Tripp calls out.

Eric bows his head in defeat and Calleigh sighs in annoyance.

They move from their embrace and stand up to greet Tripp. Both of them look angry and disappointed. They need to finish their conversation.

Tripp notices the looks on their faces and starts to feel a bit awkward.

"Ummm, am I interrupting something?" Tripp asks, brushing the raindrops off his shoulders.

"No nothing", Calleigh replies and walks over to her car.

The rain has calmed and now it is just barely spitting.

Tripp gives Eric a questioning look. "Never mind", Eric replies picking up the blanket Calleigh threw to the ground as she got up.

"Sorry I couldn't be here sooner", Tripp apologises, "How much did we lose?"

"A fair bit, but we won't know til we analyse what we got", Eric replies, never taking his eyes off of Calleigh who is now tagging evidence in the boot of Eric's car.

BACK AT THE LAB

"Hey Delko", Tim greets as they walk past each other.

"Oh hey", replies Eric with little enthusiasm. Eric keeps walking and Tim follows him into the break room.

Eric opens the fridge and pulls out 3 cans of coke for Tim, himself, and Calleigh who is exspecting him back in the layout room.

"So...?" Tim asks, following Eric like a dog. Eric gives him a puzzled look.

"I heard you and Calleigh got a bit wet at the scene", Tim says playfully punching Eric in the arm. Tim's grin is widening by the second. Eric chooses to ignore Tim and makes his way to the layout room. Tim runs off into Horatio's office. As he walks into the layout room, he is surprised to see that Calleigh is not there. 'Is she trying to avoid me?', Eric wonders.

Just as Eric is about to leave the room, he sees a little piece of paper stuck to the table.

Dear Shark-man

Turns out, our DB was shot multiple times, and we missed it, some detecting huh.

I'm in the Ballistics lab testing multiple guns for a comparison. Don't forget my drink.

Calleigh.

Eric smiles to himself, he's starting to get used to his little nickname.

Eric walks to the ballistics lab and, sure enough, there is Calleigh, firing with her ear muffs on. Eric stands in the doorway watching, waiting for her to notice him. Calleigh takes off her earmuffs, spins around and jumps a little in shock to see that Eric has been watching her. She gives him a small smile and he hands her the coke, returning her smile. He can't help but smile. It's like an automatic function that he has no control over. As soon as she smiles, he smiles, and it works the other way.

"Guess you got my note", Calleigh grins opening her can and walking to the door(seen as they are not suppose to eat or drink in the lab).

"Yeah, cute", Eric replies following her and opening his own can, "So what's up with the bullets".

Calleigh explains the bullets and comparisons to Eric. Eric nods his head and is about to run off and find Alex. About 2 metres away he stops and turns around.

"Can we get drinks after work and...finish what we started", Eric says with sparkling eyes. "Sure. There's a pub around the corner from my house", Calleigh replies and gets back to her work.

AT THE PUB

Eric walks into the pub, hoping Calleigh won't mind that he's an hour late. He spots her on a stool and sits next to her. She smells strongly of vodka.

"Hey there Eric Dlelko", Calleigh greets drunkenly.

"Umm Calleigh, are you drunk?" Eric asks worried. He has never seen her like this before.

Calleigh bursts into laughter. "Well, I remembered what we were talking about before", Calleigh hiccups, "And I could sense that it was going in a bad bad bad bad bad bad..." Calleigh trails off.

"Cal?" Eric asks worried, grabbing Calleigh's arm.

"direction", She hiccups again and continues, "So I thought what's the harm in a having a teeny tiny teeny tiny teeny tiny little bit of drinks before you get here, cause if I was drunk, maybe I wouldn't become upset". Calleigh burst into hysteric laughter again.

Eric shakes his head in disbelief, "If you were drunk". Guilt consumes Eric. If it weren't for him, Calleigh would not be at a pub right now; well maybe she would but it would be because she would be rescuing her father from the bottle, not becoming involved herself.

"Calleigh I came here to tell you that I'm really sick", Eric's face is serious and his voice is shaky. Eric looks into Calleigh's eyes. He can't find her, she is lost.

Calleigh looks at him confused. Drunk, but confused. "I do not not not know what you are talking about, I'm not sick, I feel great", Calleigh spreads her arms out and almost falls off the back of her chair.

Eric grabs her in time. "Wow", she says nestling her head in his arms, "You smell good, like vodka or something".

"Come on Calleigh I'm walking you home. Maybe some fresh air will help you sober up. Hopefully we won't get called in tomorrow", Eric lifts Calleigh up and wraps her arm around his neck, grabbing her waist.

On the walk home, Calleigh won't shut up. She keeps singing old nursery rhymes but keeps getting muddled up and mixes two different nursery rhymes together.

"Hickory dickory dock ",she sings, "3 mice ran away with the spoon".

When they get to Calleigh's apartment, Eric is glad that there were no nosey neighbours out in the hall staring. Calleigh stumbles and reaches into her bag and fumbles around for her keys. 3 minutes later, she finds her keys and tries to unlock her door with little success. "Wow I think someone changed my lock", Calleigh says, giddily falling back.

"Here I'll do it", Eric says snatching the keys out off her hand and opens the door. As soon as they are in the apartment Calleigh wraps her arms around Eric's neck and starts kissing him passionately. She pulls him to the bedroom and starts undressing him.

Eric pulls away, breathing heavily.

"I can't", He refuses heavily. Calleigh continues to undress him.

"I don't care if you think you're taking advantage of me because I care about you and I know that you care that I care about you and I care that you care but I don't care about all that stuff", Calleigh says and takes a deep breath pulling a confused Eric in and kissing him.

Eric pulls away again. "I have AIDS", Eric yells so Calleigh will listen to him. Calleigh steps back, her eyes are watering. "I don't know what you think you're talking about, but I'm gonna go to bed so It doesn't matter if I'm sick because...I'm going to bred. Bed", Calleigh says correcting herself and slipping into bed without changing her clothes. Eric goes to hug her but she flinches. Even though she is drunk, her sober side is showing.

Eric walks out the room and decides to sleep on the couch. His eyes fill with tears but he just wipes them away. He told himself when he first found out, that he wouldn't be emotional. 'My life is shorter than I thought, and I don't want to waste a second of it. I want to be with Calleigh, I don't want to spend a second without her. But then again, I don't want to get to too close to her. I don't want to leave her in heartbreak when I die', these thoughts were swimming in Eric's head. He could barely get any sleep.

The next morning Eric wakes up to someone moaning and groaning. Eric opens his eyes to see Calleigh frantically searching for Panadol or anything to relieve her aching head.

Eric doesn't know what to say to her. If she remembers what happened last night, it will be too awkward to say anything. But if she doesn't remember what happened, he has to tell her again, which would just be too much for him. Calleigh swallows down two little pills with a big glass of water and walks over to where Eric was sleeping.

Eric rolls over so he is now facing her.

"You spent the night?" she asks in a tired voice.

"Well I didn't want to leave you alone, you were pretty wasted", Eric replies.

Calleigh rubs her eyes and stares at the ground. "I promised myself I wouldn't end up like my dad" Calleigh sighs shaking her head. Eric puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. Calleigh looks up surprised and pulls away.

"Last night was a bit...hazy", she explains walking over to the fridge so she doesn't have to make eye contact with him, "There are some things that I remember, and some things that my brain wants me to believe happened, but didn't. So there are some things I'm not sure really happened. Last night...did you tell me you were sick?"

Calleigh's head is in the fridge, she doesn't want to look into his sweet eyes or she won't be able to focus.

Eric brushes his fingers through his hair. "I don't know what to say Calleigh, yeah I told you...what's wrong with me" Eric rests his face in his hands.

"Eric I can't deal with this now, you have to leave, I'm sorry, I just, I can't. Please go", Calleigh says running into her bathroom near tears.

Eric gets up, collects his clothes and slams the door behind him. He is mad that she could be so hurtful, but at the same time he understands.

Calleigh burries her face into her pillows and cries out the last tears she has in her body. She rubs her still sore head and swallows some more pills. More than she needs. But she doesn't care anymore, she doesn't care about anything, she just wants to escape.

A/N: Please don't hate me for doing this to Eric, but there are two sides to every story, don't lose hop yet, oh yeah and tell me what you think.