Tim walked towards Ballistics and stopped. Why was he going in there? Oh right, Calleigh paged him, saying she had something about their case. Tim still didn't move. He didn't want to go down there. It was too... Calleigh. Finally, Tim gathered up his courage and walked through the door.

"There you are." Calleigh said quietly, not looking up. "I got a match between Palmer's gun and the bullet from the vic."

"Okay." Tim mumbled. "It's a .25 like you said right?"

"Mhmm. So you better go get Frank."

Tim hesitantly lifted his hand and rested it onto Calleigh's shoulder. She tried to ignore the spark that she felt.

"I'm sorry about... before." he said.

"It's okay. You have every right to be angry." Callegih muttered, looking up at Tim. Ryan stood in the doorway and cleared his throat.

"Uh... I'm sorry to break this up."

"You weren't breaking anything up Ryan."

"It was already broken up." Tim said dryly. "What do you want?"

"The prints at the crime scene belong to Alex Palmer."

"Well this was a quick case. Idiot left everything behind." Tim muttered. He glanced over at Calleigh and she tried to hide the upset look on her face. It didn't get past him though.

---------S/C--------

"Are you going to eat?" Alexx asked. Tim looked up from his plate and smirked. "I mean, you treat me to lunch but then you don't eat anything. I feel bad."

"You didn't do anything."

"Ah... but someone did something."

"More like someones." Tim mumbled, picking at his french fries. He chewed on one thoughtfully and gave Alexx a look, which she returned sympathetically.

"Timmy, she was so upset when you went into the coma. I mean... she sees you being taken away, we sat at the hospital for hours before we got answers. Finally the doctor came out and explained everything."

"I got shot and the fall down the stairs put me in the coma." Tim finished. "I heard that."

"You're lucky you're not dead. It's not your fault. Damn patrol should've cleared the house."

"At this point, I'd like to be dead."

"I'm not going to talk to you if you've got this sullen attitude thing going on." Alexx said. "When you landed, you hit your head, badly. The doctor said that there was no possible way that you were going to come out of it and that there was nothing that any of us could do. Calleigh was devastated. She didn't talk to anyone. Finally Eric went to your house to see if there was anything he could do."

"And he did a whole lot." Tim said. "I bet he was happy."

Alexx raised an eyebrow.

"Oh don't give me that. He's always loved Calleigh."

"Why are you acting like you're five?"

"Because it's true. He told me. He told me the night that I asked her to marry me. He was pissed so he went and got drunk and spilled his secrets to me." Tim said. "Now I guess the feeling was mutual."

"Tim, you've got to come to your senses." Alexx said. "Do you think she would've married you if she didn't love you? Things happened."

"Yeah, I'm sure. I have to get back to the lab." he muttered.

----------S/C---------

The next few weeks went by rather quickly. Calleigh and Eric steered away from Tim and Tim steered away from Calleigh and Eric. Tim was now paired up with Ryan or Horatio for most of the cases because Horatio did not want anymore fighting to start. Tim got his apartment and slowly, he and Ryan became friends.

"Hey." Ryan poked his head into the Trace lab after work one night. "I'm going out with some friends. Wanna come?"

Tim sighed and shook his head.

"I'm fine."

"Please?"

"No, Ryan. I uh... I got stuff to do."

"Really? Reading a good science book?" he teased. "Speed, it'll be good for you."

"I don't feel like going out tonight." he muttered. "I'm gonna stay a while later tonight anyway. Got some work to catch up on."

Ryan tried another approach.

"My sister's friend... she's heard about you. Wants to meet you."

"Ryan, I'm not up for dating."

"Look, I heard about the you/Calleigh/Eric triangle thing going on." he said. Tim looked highly pissed off.

"The what?"

"Oh it's water cooler talk." Ryan added. "Everyone's saying that there's stuff going on between the three of you."

"Ryan, you weren't here six years ago. See, I started dating Calleigh. Five years ago we got engaged. Four years ago, we got married. We were married for a year before I went into a coma. See, I was at a crime scene at some house and the scene wasn't cleared because some stupid Patrol newbie, didn't check a closet. So I was by the stairs and I got shot. Took a good fall. That put me in a coma, apparently one I didn't have a chance of coming out of. Now I'm awake and my wife— ex-wife married my best friend— ex-best friend. There is no secret affair going on. There's no fighting. So you can tell Valera to stop spreading rumors about me."

"Please come out with me. I'm not going to stop bugging you until you relent."

Tim sighed and packed his evidence away. Maybe a night out was what he needed.