Two hours til Nikki would be over. Eric didn't do anything special. He just cooked her spaghetti and bought wine. He meant to ask Calleigh what to do, but she left before he got the chance. No sense in asking Speed or Ryan, who knows how long its been since they've done something romantic.

ring ring ring

"Hello?" Eric asked.

"Hey baby!" It was Nikki.

"Hey, why'd you call? Something wrong?"

"Can't I just call to talk to you?"

"Yeah sorry." Eric laughed at his stupidity.

"It's alright, you can make it up to me later."

They both laughed and then there was an awkward silence.

"Well...someone's on my other line, I'll see you soon."

"Alright, bye Eric!"

He hung up and answered the other call.

"Delko."

"You answer so professionaly." Ryan chuckled on the other line.

"Shut up! What do you want?"

"I'm lonely, I want Nikki's number."

"What?"

"Not for her, I want one of her friends."

"Eh, I don't know if your good enough for them."

"Hey! Come on Eric."

"Umm, I'll think it over. See ya tomorrow!"

"Eric!"

Eric hung up the phone laughing.

-------

ding dong

''Shit!" Eric burned his hand on the pot of spaghetti.

ding dong

He hurried to open the door. His hand was burning but he couldn't keep her waiting any longer.

"Are you okay?" Nikki closed the door behind her and ran after Eric as he stuck his hand under the water coming out of the sink.

"I'll live, I burned my fucking hand."

"Let me see."

Indeed, there was a nice pink spot along the side of his hand.

"Aww." Nikki kissed the burnt spot and then leaned in to kiss his cheek.

"Dinner's ready, if you wanna eat now." Eric said.

"Yeah, I'm starving. I've been saving room for this all night." She smiled when she saw the spaghetti.

"Yeah I can cook." Eric smiled shyly.

"No, it's a good thing. I hate cooking!"

After they finished dinner they both sat on the couch and watched a random movie on TiVo. Eric had a hard time concentrating on the movie with her beside him. She held his hand and layed her head on his chest. He liked it, but it was very distracing. Mostly because she had never done it before.

Suddenly she sat up and looked at him. Without even saying anything he knew what she wanted him to do, what he wanted to do all night. He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. He let her control how far they would take it.

She shoved her tongue in his mouth and that let him know he could get a little rough. He leaned back against the couch and she straddled his lap. They kept up the heavy session for a good while before Nikki pulled away.

"I think I better go."

"What? Why? Nikki wait!" She was already half way to the door.

"I have to go Eric, I'll see you tomorrow alright?"

Before he had the chance to stop her she was out the door. He hung his head and walked back to the couch.

"Damn it!" He yelled throwing a magazine across the room.

-------

Nikki started crying as soon as she got in the car. She knew how far they could have taken it back there and that thought alone scared her.

When she got back to her house she saw more cars there than there should be. Jessy's, Carly's, and...

"No fucking way!" Nikki parked her car and ran inside.

Just as she expected Tim was sitting on her couch waiting for her. Carly and Jessica were not in the room.

"Get the fuck out!" Nikki pointed at the door.

"I need to talk to you okay?" Tim got up and she backed away.

"No, you need to leave."

"I'm not going anywhere until you talk to me."

"Just like always, what you gonna do? Hit me again?"

"Nik come on, I really need to talk to you!"

"Get out! Just get out!"

"Fine, I'll leave, but promise me something if I do."

"Wh...what?"

"Come by work tomorrow and talk to me. At least you'll feel safe there."

"I can't Tim."

"Nikki please, just ten minutes."

"Alright."

"Good night."

He closed the door behind him and Nikki broke down in her room. She cried for hours. Her cell phone rang a few times and she knew it was Eric. She just couldn't talk to him, something was wrong with her emotions, she felt strongly about two people in two different ways.

--------

The next morning Eric woke up in a bad mood. Everything that happened the night before came flooding back to him instantly. Work wasn't something he wanted to think about at the moment, even though he knew he had to be there in an hour. He pulled on some clothes and left. He drove slower than usual and when he got to work he went straight for the break room. All he did was sit in a chair rubbing the side of his head.

"Eric?" Horatio asked coming in the room.

"Sorry H, I know I should be working but I have a really bad headache."

"It's alright, you wanna tell me what happened last night?"

"How did you know that something happened last night?"

"Lucky guess."

"I had a bad night."

"I can see that."

"She just left, she didn't even tell me why."

Horatio smiled sympethetically and punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"She'll come around."

Horatio left Eric sitting alone. Eric decided that he should just get off his ass and forget about last night. Something was obviously wrong, but he would talk to her later. He wasn't going to let her interfer with his work.