Louisiana Lovin'

CSI: Miami

Genre: Romance

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers: None, I made them up

Pairing: Eh, guess: Calleigh/Speed, duh!

Summary: "Speed, I promise it's only for this one night…or so."

Disclaimer: I own no part of this story. CSI: Miami belongs to CBS and my main man Jerry B. Also, all these places are really in New Orleans and I quite obviously don't own them either.

AN: Ok, I have had his idea in my head for a really long time, like, I was gonna write it as an S Club fic and I haven't written one of those in forever, so I'm doing it as a CSI: Miami fic. It'll work better anyway. And, I've decided that this is going to be part of a series and I've got the whole thing planned out for like, 9 different fics, but it's going to take a long time. Ok. Please review! Thank you kindly.

And sorry it took so long to get this up…without Speed on the show I guess I lost my muse for awhile. But it came back. Yay. Enjoy.

Chapter 5- Day 5

Time frowned. Why was Calleigh dressed up as a French maid…on a basketball court? As the players ran around in their Pistons uniforms she dusted the ball and swept the court, winking at the players as they ran by whooping at her. "Calleigh, what's going on?" he asked making his way over to her. Immediately all the players stopped what they were doing and stood behind her. "Get away from her!" Time shouted at them. Calleigh frowned and opened her mouth to reprimand him. "Brrrrrrring, brrrrrrring!" she said. Tim blinked. "Huh?" She rolled her eyes and said again, "Brrrrrrring, brrrrrrring!" When something sharp dug into his ribcage, Tim's eyes snapped open to see Calleigh climbing over him. "I didn't know you were a Detroit fan," he mumbled.

She gave him a weird look. "Why don't I get it?" she said sarcastically, reaching over him to answer the phone.

Tim rubbed his eyes, clearly he had some insecurity issues to deal with, as well as her basketball team preference. "Sorry," he admitted sheepishly.

Calleigh waved it off as she answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Calleigh?"

"Oh, hi, Horatio." Calleigh said his name very pointedly and gestured to the phone so Tim new to stay quiet.

"Good morning. How are you?" Horatio answered.

"Great, what about you?"

"I'm alright. I'm just calling to…remind you bout today's meeting." Horatio spit out, quite uncharacteristically.

Calleigh grinned. "No worried, I'll be there."

"I know you will. And could you tell Speed if you see him? He hasn't been answering the phone and our cell phones are out of service here." Horatio replied evenly.

"I'll be sure to do that. What there anything else?" asked Calleigh, remembering his previous hesitation.

"Uh, yes, I…no, nothing." Horatio lied.

"Are you sure?" Calleigh's brow furrowed.

"Positive. How about," Horatio suggested, "how about I just see you later?" He stated, rather than asked.

"Definitely. See you then, Horatio."

"Goodbye, Calleigh."

"What did he want?" Tim asked after Calleigh hung up the phone.

She smiled and climbed back into bed with him. "He said that if I see you, remind you about the trace meeting today. So don't forget about the trace meeting today."

"Of course I won't forget; it's my element." He said, gently brushing her hair out of her eyes and kissing her forehead.

She sighed contentedly, snuggling closer. "The meeting isn't until one and it's about…10:30 right now, "said Calleigh, glancing at the clock by the bed. "What do you want to do for two and a half hours?"

"Honestly, I'd just like to sleep some more. I'm e-e-exhausted," Tim replied, yawning widely.

Calleigh nodded into his chest. It was nice to have someone to hold her while she slept, keep her safe and warm. Just by being there with her, he was chasing away demons that he didn't even know existed. Yet.

Calleigh glared at Tim as they exited the trace meeting that afternoon. "I hope you enjoyed that because while you were being 'in your element' I was having my ear gabbed off."

Tim shrugged. "It was interesting. Sorry bout Heidi, though. I would've done something, but Horatio sat right next to me; it would have peaked his interest if I'd said, 'Hey leave my wife alone.' But I thought you two were getting along better."

"We are," Calleigh sighed and squeezed his forearm. "And I know. I'm sorry. It's just that all I heard about the entire meeting was, 'Shane's coming tomorrow! Shane!' I swear if I ever hear about Shane again I'm going to-"

"I'm so excited you get to meet Shane tomorrow!" Heidi appeared on Calleigh's right.

Tim grinned. "What were you saying, Cal?"

"Just how excited I am to meet the infamous Shane," Calleigh said through gritted teeth.

She noticed a wave of- no, could it really be? Yes it was- panic splash over Heidi's features, but it was gone as fast as it was there, should Calleigh have had any doubts. "Now- now listen to me," Heidi stammered. "You- you might be…surprised, to say the least, when you meet him. I might have- have, uh, made him out to be a bit- well- different…than he really is…" Heidi avoided their eyes.

Calleigh frowned and lightly touched the other woman's arm. "Heidi, is-"

"I have to go now." Heidi broke her off and sped off toward the lobby.

Calleigh rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, that was…" she searched for a word to describe the situation.

"Weird?" Tim offered.

Calleigh chuckled as they entered the elevator. "Yeah, you could say that."

As they finished their dinner that evening, courtesy of room service, Tim and Calleigh were stopped dead by a knock at the door. They stared at each other like deer caught in headlights. Finally Tim whispered, "Well, go see who it is."

Calleigh tiptoed to the door and pressed her eye to the peephole. "It's Horatio!" she hissed. "What do I do?"

Tim shrugged.

In a split second decision Calleigh opened the door partway and stuck her head out. "Oh, hi, Horatio. I wasn't expecting you." She said cheerfully and convincingly. Tim figured if she wanted to take up acting quitting her day job wouldn't be a problem.

"I'm sorry, if this is a bad time I can come back later; I just thought we could talk." Horatio's voice rumbled from deep inside his throat, as he shifted feet.

"No, no you're fine!" Calleigh assured him. She glanced quickly inside, then said, "why don't we take a walk?"

Horatio must have agreed because she wiggled her fingers in a discrete goodbye to Tim as she shut the door behind her.

Once they had started down the hall, Horatio cleared his throat. "So how has the trip been so far? I haven't seen you very much all week. I just wanted to check in and make sure everything was ok.. I heard something happened in a bar…?"

Calleigh smiled. "It was nothing, I'm fine now." No sense in worrying her boss. "Aside from that, everything has been great. I'd say this week has been very worthwhile." She thought of Tim, and then continued, "And I'm sorry we haven't seen much of each other, but I ran into some old…friends, from when I worked here." She laughed, remembering that second day. "I took Speed and Alexx on a tour of the city too."

"I'm sorry I missed it." Horatio's lips curved into a smile. Calleigh had always loved his smile; to her it was charming, boyish, and shy all at the same time. She nudged her mentor. "So what have you been up to?"

As they walked on Calleigh steered the conversation away from anything that might lead to her blossoming relationship with Tim. She wasn't ready for her boss to know about it yet, but neither was she prepared to lie to the man who had taught her everything he knew.

Horatio smiled that smile again. "Well, good night," he said quietly.

Calleigh grinned. "Yeah, night." She leaned in to give him a hug, but he quickly thrust his hand out in front of him. Calleigh looked at it for a moment, then reached out and gingerly shook it. For a moment she looked questioningly at him, as if she had a query pinching at the tip of her tongue, but shook her head and dropped his hand. "Night," she repeated and turned into her room.

When the door closed behind her, Horatio rubbed his hands over his face, then brought them to rest on his hips. He smiled his smile again. "Sweet dreams," he murmured.

Inside, Calleigh was taking off her shoes on the was to the bedroom. She stripped herself down to her bra and panties and threw on one of Tim's T-shirts. Yawning, she crawled into bed next to him and snuggled up.

"Hey," he croaked, waking up. "You're back late."

Calleigh shrugged against his chest. "We got to talking. Now go back to sleep," she said, kissing his chest.

"Did you tell him about us?"

"No, go back to sleep." As they drifted off, Calleigh suddenly remembered her demons and whispered into his ear, "By the way, we're having lunch with my mother tomorrow."