"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."
-Semisonic
Calleigh looked around her dingy new apartment and sighed deeply. It wasn't a patch on her sun filled house back in Miami. She was glad she hadn't put it up for sale yet; it was the only tie to Miami that she wasn't ready to cut. She had to keep reminding herself that this was her home now and she would just have to try and make it as comforting as her old place had been, even if it killed her. She looked around again and thought 'Home. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.' Smiling to herself she shook her head and made a mental note to get out more.
Standing in front of her full-length mirror she smoothed the crease that was running down the front of her smartest suit pants, straightened her ponytail and headed out the door, muttering all the while "New beginnings Calleigh. New beginnings."
On the long journey from her apartment to her new workplace Calleigh thought back to the day she had started work in the Miami crime lab. She remembered it being a dull and rainy day, something that very rarely happened in the Florida climate. The unexpected rain had soaked through her flimsy jacket and left her looking like an entrant of a high-class wet T-shirt contest, yet Horatio had still greeted her with respect, though she suspected that he had been laughing just a little bit inside.
The thought of him brought a flood of images and sensations floating through her head. Horatio standing over the microscope examining trace materials, the determined look he got on his face when he knew he had the right bad guy but couldn't prove it, the way he had hugged her goodbye and finally asked her not to leave, even though they both knew it was too late.
The final image that floated through her tired brain was the worst of all, the look on his face when she had admitted that she loved him, it seemed to her like a lifetime ago but in reality it was just over two weeks. She had seen that look so many times in her head yet she still couldn't identify the emotions passing through his usually stoic face. She sighed heavily and wondered if he was missing her at all.
+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -
She made her way inside the Vegas crime lab building and walked straight into a guy going in the other direction. She opened her mouth to apologise but he beat her to it.
"Why don't you look where you're going?" he yelled at her, and before she could try and apologise again he had stormed off.
"Great start Calleigh (!)" She muttered to herself whilst thanking the powers above that it had only been a delivery guy that she had walked into.
When she got to the front desk, she explained to the desk clerk who she was and asked for the directions to Gil Grissom's office. The clerk up looked at her uncomprehendingly and told her to wait for someone to come out and show her around. Calleigh did her best to hide the feelings of disappointment floating around her head. She may have been new to this crime lab but she wasn't a new CSI, she just wanted to get on with the job and work hard enough to forget all about Horatio.
She made her way over to some padded blue chairs in the corner of the room opposite the desk where the clerk sat filing her nails. Sitting down, she noticed a glass topped coffee table in front of her with a few magazines haphazardly scattered on it. For some reason she didn't feel like reading 'Forensics Focus' or 'The Crime Lab News' so she sat watching the clerk still filing her nails, and envied the simplicity of her life for a moment. She was sure that clerk had never had to switch jobs just because she had a crush on her boss and then had the stupidity to tell him about it.
A door opened to her right and a young guy, cute in a puppy dog way emerged through it. Calleigh watched him as he made his way through the room heading towards her. She had seen hundreds of guys like him back in Miami - the cool surfing type - and wondered what he was doing working a crime lab. Her pondering was brought to a conclusion when he stopped in front of her and held out his hand. She stood, smiled at him and shook his hand firmly. It was always good to be positive when making a first impression.
"Calleigh Duquesne?" She nodded. "I'm Greg Sanders and Griss, uh... Mr Grissom asked me to show you around the lab while he's out on 'personal business.'" She heard him make the verbal speech marks and wondered what kind of 'personal business' Gil Grissom would find himself out of the lab on. She'd heard that he was a reclusive character who was incredibly dedicated to his work; she doubted that 'personal business' fitted high on his agenda.
As they stood there Calleigh saw a woman she recognised coming towards them. The woman took Calleigh's hand and shook it firmly.
"Calleigh Duquesne, I heard you were transferring up here but I didn't think it would actually happen. Horatio says you're one of the best he's got." Suddenly the woman's name hit Calleigh - Catherine Willows - the woman that Horatio always called when a case had connections to Las Vegas. Although she knew that Horatio and Catherine had only met up a few times inside work, it hadn't stopped the green-eyed monster rising in Calleigh. She cleared her throat, hoping to clear the lump that was impeding her from speaking.
"Well I uh… thought it was time for a change of scenery." She said in what she hoped her most convincing voice. Even thinking about Horatio was making her uncomfortable.
"We're certainly lucky to have you. I'll have to call Horatio later and thank him for letting you go." She smiled at Calleigh once again and left her with Greg, feeling utterly bewildered and alone. Greg turned to her with an adoring look on his face.
"Wow! Catherine is never that enthusiastic about anyone. You must have really made an impression there." She smiled at him shortly and quickly moved to change the subject.
"So, tell me about your ballistics lab…"
+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -
It had been a long day and she was exhausted. Calleigh unlocked the door to her new apartment and surveyed the mass of boxes that she still had to unpack. She threw herself down onto her couch and sighed deeply. She tried to summon up the energy to sort through them but failed, and soon she was drifting to sleep.
She woke with a start; her body bathed in a cold sweat, visibly trembling in the fading light. As she rubbed her eyes and stretched, bits of her dream came back to her. She remembered that in the dream she was sitting in her car in front of the sandwich store, exactly as she had on that fateful day when she'd made what she considered to be the biggest mistake of her life. At first the scene played true to what had happened: The car door had opened, Horatio had gotten in next to her, she'd admitted her feelings and then it all changed and he produced a knife. It was about 10 inches long, probably carbon steel she remembered thinking. He had pointed it at her chest and shook his head at her.
"I'm sorry I have to do this Calleigh, but I just don't feel that way about you."
She could feel the blade ripping through her flesh and slowing as it made contact with her vital organs. She shuddered violently at the thought and tried to dislodge the images from her brain. Horatio would never do that.
The bleep of her cell ringing shook her from her nightmare. She picked it up and saw the name on the screen showing 'Horatio'. She pressed the call end button. She just couldn't face him right now. As she leaned down to place the cell back on the coffee table where it had been, it began to ring again. She sighed and picked it up again; she answered it without even checking the display.
"Horatio, I don't want you checking up on me. I've got a new life now so please just leave me alone." She went to press the call end key again but was stopped by the sound of a familiar male voice that wasn't Horatio.
"Uh… Calleigh it's me, Greg." Mentally she swore at her own stupidity.
"Oh hey Greg." She answered in her sweetest voice, praying he didn't ask about what she'd just said.
"I was just wondering if you wanted to come out and meet the rest of the team. They've been in court all day." She thought for a moment before answering. It couldn't do any harm to go out socialising with her new workmates could it?
"Well sure, you just tell me where you are and I'll come down and meet you." He named a bar downtown, away from the tourist infested casinos and seedy strip joints. Smiling to herself she told him she'd be there in 20 minutes.
+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -
Calleigh stepped through the doors of the bar and stood still for a moment, dazzled by the brightness of the walls and the volume of the music. She peered around hoping to spot someone who looked vaguely like a CSI but all she could see were hundreds of moving bodies everywhere. Some were dancing in front of a juke box but the majority of the crowd seemed to be standing by the bar trying to order drinks. Finally she heard someone calling her name.
"Hey Calleigh, over here!" She walked over Greg who was sitting with two other guys and a girl. He turned to the other members of his group.
"Everyone, this is Calleigh. Calleigh this is Sara, Warrick and Nick." As he said each name he indicated them with a nod of his head. As her gaze followed his final nod to the guy called Nick, Calleigh realised there was something distinctly familiar about him. It took her a moment but she finally remembered who he was. He was the guy who'd yelled at her for getting in his way at the lab this morning. He smiled at her warmly and though she returned his smile she made sure that hers was tight and cold.
Calleigh turned away from Nick and sat down next to Greg, who immediately jumped up and went to get her a drink. She looked around the table and noticed Warrick and Sara having a heated debate about the existence of spontaneous human combustion. She considered joining in, but her attention was drawn by Nick who was staring at her intently, his eyes boring into her cheek. She turned to look at him, her eyes meeting his gaze.
"Can I help you?" She asked him in her firmest tone of voice. Greg reappeared at her side with a drink, and sat down beside her before she could catch Nick's response.
"So uh… Calleigh do you have a guy waiting for you back home?" She had to try very hard to suppress the snort of laughter that was threatening to burst from her. She could swear she heard Sara mutter something under her breath that sounded like "real subtle there Greg" but decided to ignore it in case she was mistaken.
"No not at the moment Greg." She grinned at him and in return she got another glimpse of his puppy dog eyes. "I guess I've not met the right guy yet." She turned to Sara who smiled at her and rolled her eyes as if to say 'men!'
+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -
It was late the next morning when Calleigh finally woke up. She opened her eyes and then promptly closed them again. Groaning loudly she rolled over onto the other side of her bed and tried to bury herself under the sheets whilst simultaneously reaching up to switch off her alarm. On the way back under the comforter her hand brushed against something that felt distinctly like paper so she pulled that under the covers with her. It took a moment for her to gather the energy together to open the note and even then she had to read it three times before the words began to sink into her sleep and alcohol riddled brain.
"Calleigh,
Thanks for last night. I had a really great time!
See you at work,
Greg x"
When the words finally permeated the fug inside her head, she shot up from under the comforter but had to close her eyes again. She sighed heavily. The last thing she needed right now was a hangover.
Fragments of the night before slowly returned to her. She remembered drinking cocktails with Sara, having quasi-philosophical discussions about nothing with Warrick, ignoring Nick completely and dancing with Greg in front of the jukebox to Elvis' 'Love Me Tender'. The last memory that returned to her was the most disturbing of all, she remembered inviting, well, dragging Greg up to her apartment and kissing him in her living room. Her cheeks burned red with embarrassment as she remembered the look of fear on his face as she'd taken his hand and led him up the stairs.
"Oh My Lord." She said out loud to herself. "What did I do?" She shook her head in an attempt to clear it a little, and then wished she hadn't. Moving it hurt too much. 'So much for new beginnings' muttered the little voice in her head.
