A/N: This chapter is slightly risqué. Not by much. The very risqué parts will come up in a future chapter. I promise.

Roger

CHAPTER 6

It was now Friday evening and Ryan had been working hard all day, looking forward to the get-together that night at the Bayview Pool Bar & Grill. He hadn't seen Calleigh since their chance encounter last night at Lombardi's. He kept thinking over and over how happy he felt having her sit with him at dinner. Watching her laugh, watching her smile…he never felt so alive before in his life. His thoughts kept returning to the parking lot, where she kissed him on the cheek. He so badly wanted to move her mouth from his cheek to his lips. But he was so stunned by the whole incident, all he could do was stand there. He wondered if he would ever have the chance to kiss her. He wished that Calleigh was at work so they could talk about last night. He wasn't sure if he wanted to discuss the situation at the bar with the rest of the team sitting around them. Ryan was so engrossed in his thoughts, he didn't notice Eric standing there, talking to him. "-you process the residue yet? Ryan?" Eric paused, then waved a hand in front of Ryan's face, to get his attention. "Ryan?" "What?" Said Ryan, snapping to his senses. "I said, Did you process the residue yet?" Repeated Eric. "Almost done." Replied Ryan. "Sorry about that. I sort of drifted off there for a moment. I'm just burned out from the workweek." "Man, tell me about it." Eric said as he reached over to pull the results from the printer. "I'm so burned out myself. I can't wait to go out tonight and just cut loose." Eric started looking at the paperwork. "Hey, Calleigh was right about her hunch of only one gun for the lake shooting. Her test results with the shells I found show that the shooter loaded the cartridge with bullets of two different calibers. The smaller shells fired, but due to their size, tumbled through the barrel and left grooves as they went out. It easily explains why the two wounds were different. The bullets would have entered the body at a weird angle instead of a straight path. The new toxicology report confirms her findings."

Eric started walking to the door of the lab. "I'm going to take the results up to H. and then I'm going home to take a shower. See you tonight." "See you tonight." Ryan answered as he rubbed his eyes. Ryan looked at his watch. It was now 5:15. The get-together wasn't until 7. He looked over at the phone on the desk and wondered if he should call Calleigh. It wouldn't hurt, he thought to himself, if they talked about last night so there wouldn't be any awkwardness when they would see each other at the bar. He picked up the phone and dialed her home number. The phone rang about 5 times, then started playing Calleigh's message for her answering machine. Ryan listened to her greeting. He just loved that southern drawl of hers. It was so full of warmth and happiness. It wasn't until a minute of silence passed that Ryan realized that he was still on the line and hadn't said anything. He quickly hung up the phone. "Are you still coming to the get-together, Ryan?" Ryan turned around to see Horatio standing there, his jacket hanging over his left arm. "Yes, H. I still plan to be there tonight." "That's good." Horatio answered with a slight smirk. Ryan always felt uncomfortable when Horatio smirked at him. It usually meant that he was up to something or he knew a secret. Ryan knew that Horatio was a very smart man and the thought that Horatio could sometimes figure out things so easily made Ryan feel uneasy at times. "Are you done with all of your work?" Asked Horatio. "Yes I am." Replied Ryan, as he looked around. "I just need to put everything away." "Ok. Glad to hear that you can still make it. See you in a couple of hours." Horatio said as he put on his jacket and left the lab. Ryan let out a deep sigh and started to clean up.

Calleigh was subjecting herself to a long hot shower. She stood there with her eyes closed, as the water slowly ran down her hair and onto her body. She let her thoughts wander back to last night and how happy she felt sitting with Ryan. He looked so adorable from across the table. She remembered the look on his face when she kissed him on the cheek. She wanted so badly to kiss him on the lips then, but she didn't know his personal feelings towards her until the kiss. She didn't want to rush things, for fear that she would be wrong and would hurt him which in turn, might cause their friendship and their work relationship to fall apart. After all, he could have just been kind enough to ask her to sit with him as a friend. However, his look of shock, followed by acceptance and want, told her that he wanted her. There was no doubt that he had feelings for her, Calleigh thought to herself, she now just wanted to know how deep the feelings ran. She still didn't know too much about his personal life and last night was not the right time to start asking about his dating life. She almost changed her mind earlier about taking the day off from work and show up anyway, just to see Ryan. She felt it was time to open up a little more and possibly take this chance in her life up to another level. She was hoping to talk to him in private about last night, so it wouldn't be awkward at the get-together.

She quickly decided that it wouldn't be right to show up on a day off and confront Ryan. The next best thing she decided to do was to call up Horatio and invite him out to lunch so she could talk to somebody who knew and understood her feelings towards Ryan. The whole lunch consisted of her babbling on and on to Horatio about the dinner and over-analyzing the situation. Horatio had eventually calmed her down and told her that she had nothing to lose by going forward. Horatio always had a calming effect on her. Anytime she would go too far out, H. always would have a way to reel her back in. She smiled to herself as she thought how lucky Horatio was always around for her. In a way, he made up for all the things her father had major shortcomings with. As Calleigh turned around in the shower and let the water fully hit her in the back, she thought of what it would be like to have Ryan in the shower with her, slowly washing her body. She started to feel a warmth inside of her that was not from the hot water. Calleigh decided to act on the feelings that she was having as she touched herself. It was a good, long time before she got back to the basics of a shower. She was in the middle of washing the soap off her body when she heard the phone ring. Not wanting to step out at the time, she let the machine answer it.

She finally stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around her and then wrapped one around her hair. Calleigh went into the kitchen to play the answering machine that now had 1 message blinking on its screen. The machine played the message that was nothing but silence, then the sound of someone hanging up. "That's strange. Must've been a wrong number." Calleigh thought to herself. She looked at the time and realized that she was in the shower for a good 40 minutes. Calleigh headed for the bedroom to get dressed for the night. If anything, she thought, she was going to wear something that would drive Ryan (and maybe the other men) crazy. She put on a pair of form fitting blue jeans, followed by a white t-shirt that stopped about an inch above her waist, exposing a little bit of her stomach. Calleigh looked at herself in the mirror and blushed, thinking about how she was dressed. She didn't care. She was in love and was going to show off her beauty. She wanted to break free of the "sterile, controlled environment" she was used to being in. However, her old-fashioned views kicked in at the last moment and she reached for a black vest to wear over her shirt. Calleigh sprayed on her favorite perfume and brushed her hair until it was perfectly straight. "No ponytail tonight," she said to herself as she made her final adjustments. Calleigh usually wore her hair up when she went out but she felt relaxed enough to let her hair hang down.

Calleigh walked back into the kitchen to grab her purse and keys. She took one final look at herself in the mirror by the front door and left. She got into her car and headed straight for the bar. Arriving at the bar, she found a spot and parked. Calleigh got out and immediately looked for Ryan's car, to see if he was there. Sure enough, she spotted it parked next to Horatio's. Calleigh felt an excitement run through her that she had rarely felt before. "Here goes nothing," she thought to herself as she walked up to the front door.

to be continued…