A/N: I apologize for this chapter being really long, but I was on a roll and I didn't want to break it up into two chapters. Please enjoy.

Roger

CHAPTER 13

Ryan sat at his kitchen table holding his head with one hand, while his other hand held a cup of coffee. It wasn't just any cup of coffee; it was a cup of coffee that would hopefully wake him up and relieve him from the painful throbbing that resided inside of his head. He didn't mean to drink so much the night before, but he went out to dinner with Eric. During their meal, Eric made a comment at Ryan in response to a story that Ryan was telling him about how uptight he was at times and then asked Ryan if he was a member of the Boy Scouts. To prove Eric wrong at his comments, Ryan challenged him to a drinking contest on the spot. Thankfully he didn't make an ass of himself by the time the contest was over, but Eric and himself clearly weren't able to drive afterwards. The bartender ended up calling both of their wives to pick them up.

"Good mornin', Sunshine." Calleigh said in a chipper tone as she walked into the kitchen.

Ryan didn't look up. He just moaned.

She reached for her cup from the cabinet. "Having fun without me?"

At this point, Ryan finally looked up and just glared at her with his bloodshot eyes.

Calleigh let out a little chuckle as she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down next to her husband. She reached over and grabbed his free hand that was now no longer supporting his head.

"Why did I have to drink so much?" Ryan said, not really asking Calleigh but just saying the question out loud.

"What, you don't remember?"

"Of course I remember, Cal. I just didn't think that I would go overboard with it."

"Well, when Eric told me at the restaurant when I picked you up why the both of you were drunk, I figured that he made a comment about you that set it off. Did he make fun of the fact that you iron your blue jeans?"

"No. By the way, there is nothing wrong with having pressed blue jeans."

Calleigh smirked at Ryan. "Ryan, honey…you let it get to you. It didn't help that you challenged Eric to a drinking contest."

"Ok, first of all…I felt that I had to defend myself to Eric."

"Defend yourself to what?"

"That I'm not a 'prude'."

Calleigh laughed at Ryan's answer. Ryan sighed and shrugged his shoulders at her reaction.

"Ryan, you should've known better anyway not to challenge Eric to a drinking contest, no matter what the reason is."

Ryan looked at her. "I didn't embarrass you or anyone else in the restaurant, did I?"

"Heavens, no…in fact, I was surprised over how much the booze made you so…" Calleigh fumbled with the right word to say.

"Unprudish?" Ryan answered.

Calleigh laughed again. "Yes. After the bartender and I got you into the car and we drove off, you turned on the radio and started singing along to the music."

"Wait…how is that unprudish, Cal?"

"We were listening to rap music. I couldn't believe that you even knew the words to the songs."

"Must've picked them up somewhere." Ryan mumbled as he looked down into his cup of coffee.

Five months had gone by since the wedding and with Calleigh obviously showing her pregnancy, the two of them decided that it was time to move out of their apartment and into a home that would support a family. Since they enjoyed the neighborhood that they lived in, Ryan started spending his off time looking at affordable houses in the area. A new home guide sat at the other side of him. He wearily reached out and picked it up.

"I think I found us a house," he said as he slowly leafed through the pages. "It's about 6 miles from us and there's an open house for it today."

"Let me see." Calleigh pulled the guide closer to her and took a look. "Didn't we pass by this house once before?"

"It wasn't on sale last month," Ryan answered as he rubbed his face again. "This is the new guide that arrived last week."

Calleigh glanced down at the price and made a face. "I think it's out of our price range." She pushed the guide back over to Ryan.

Ryan took another look at the ad. "Still, it wouldn't hurt to take a tour of it."

Calleigh took a sip of her coffee. "Are you up to looking at houses today, anyway?"

"I'll be fine, as long as you do the driving."

"We don't need to see any houses today, Ryan. We could wait until next weekend."

"I want to. I would like to see this house." Ryan reached out to the bottle of aspirin in front of him and opened it.

Calleigh sighed. Why was he so adamant at looking at houses? If she were him, she would relax and try to sober up in the comforts of home. "Let me know when you want to leave."

"I should be ready in a few moments. Let me just try to clear my head." Ryan dropped three aspirin into his mouth and took a big sip of coffee.

The two of them headed over to the house and met with the agent who was there. As they took the tour, Ryan would occasionally look over at Calleigh to see her reaction to the place. They've looked at enough houses over the last month or so that Ryan could tell if she liked the place or not just by studying the look on her face. So far, she looked impressed at what she had seen. The house was a three bedroom/two bath with a medium sized backyard. The two of them asked the agent the usual questions about the place and about the previous owners. By her tone, Ryan could tell that Calleigh really liked the house.

"What do you think?" The agent asked them as they stepped into the two car garage.

"It's really nice…I like it a lot." Ryan answered. "Cal?"

"I like it myself. Is there any chance on the price going down?"

"Sorry," replied the agent. "The owners are insisting that they sell it at the price that is listed. It's already being offered at a price on the market that's below current value."

Calleigh thought for a moment. "As much as I like this house, I'm afraid that it's too much for us to own." She looked over at Ryan, who slowly nodded his head.

"I understand." The agent reached into his pocket and pulled out his card. "Say, if you change your mind or need to ask any additional questions, please feel free to give me a call."

"Will do." Ryan said as he took the card. "Thanks for your time."

As the two of them walked back to their car, Ryan stopped and turned around to walk back towards the house.

"Where are you going?" Calleigh asked.

"I forgot to ask the agent something." Ryan answered. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes. Go ahead and start the car."

Calleigh got into the car and waited. After about fifteen minutes, Ryan still hadn't come back out. She was about to turn the car off and come after him, but then he suddenly came out and got into the car.

"What were you doing in there?"

"Oh, I was asking the agent if he knew about any other listings in the neighborhood that I wasn't aware of."

Calleigh looked down at Ryan's hand. He was holding a set of papers. "Are those other houses to look at?"

Ryan quickly placed the papers in the back seat. "Uh, yes they are. I don't care to go look at anything else today. I guess the liquor is still affecting me. I think it would be nice to go home and rest for a while."

As they drove home, Calleigh couldn't help but wonder if they were making a mistake in turning down the chance to buy the house. It was the first house they looked at that Calleigh actually felt that she could turn into a home for her family. If only if it didn't cost so much.

"Ryan?" Calleigh looked over at Ryan, who was looking out his window.

"Yeah?"

"Did you like the house?"

"Of course, I did. I assume that you liked it yourself."

"I did very much. Except for the fact that it's about $60, 000 more than we can actually afford." Calleigh let out a small sigh. "I guess we could keep looking."

"Guess so." Ryan answered as he still continued to look out the window.

They returned back to their apartment, where Ryan went into their bedroom and promptly took a nap. As he slept, Calleigh looked over the home guide. As she rubbed her belly, she looked at the houses and for some reason, just didn't like any of the ones that were there. She then thought of the paperwork that Ryan got from the agent. She tried to remember where he had put them when they got home, but gave up after realizing that she didn't recall seeing him put the papers anywhere. She contented herself with watching TV until Ryan woke up. However, she found herself getting drowsy in front of the TV and decided to take a nap herself.

Calleigh woke up and noticed that it was getting dark outside. "What time is it?" She thought to herself as she looked over at the clock on the wall. It read 5:15.

"I can't believe that I slept for three hours," she muttered to herself as she turned off the TV. The pregnancy was obviously affecting Calleigh in ways she never experienced before. Her sleeping and eating patterns were all off and at times, she wondered to herself what her first pregnancy would have been like if she didn't lose the baby. That time around she would have been all by herself, refusing to have John, of all people helping her with their child. She seriously doubted had both the baby and John lived, she would have even told him that he was the father. She would have rather deprive the child of its natural father than letting it be raised by such a terrible man. But when she lost the baby, she figured that someday John would have to know that he was the father. It made Calleigh sad thinking about the 'what ifs' in her life and quickly made herself stop thinking about it.

Calleigh heard Ryan talking in the bedroom. She suddenly realized that he was on the phone. She got up from the sofa and plodded her way towards the bedroom. Opening it, she saw him sitting cross-legged on the bed, with various papers strewn out around him.

"-yes, yes I'll fax a signature on Monday to confirm the transaction, but I'll be in Tuesday afternoon to finalize the paperwork. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Enjoy the rest of the weekend." Ryan hung up the phone and looked at his wife.

"What are you doing?" Calleigh asked as she sat down on the bed.

"Oh, I'm just making some phone calls. I woke up about an hour ago and came out to the living room and saw that you were asleep." Ryan started gathering up the paperwork around him.

"Anything that I should be aware of?" Calleigh looked at him with a quizzed look.

"Not really, no." Ryan started placing the paperwork back into a folder that looked old and worn out. "I was talking to my financial advisor."

"Mr. Peters?"

"No, Mr. Peters is our advisor. Mr. Johnson is my financial advisor that I had when I moved down here to live with my grandfather. He handled my grandfather's affairs and eventually mine when grandpa passed on. I was checking up on some things." He set the folder down next to him.

Calleigh was about to ask Ryan exactly what things he was checking up on when Ryan's pager went off. Ryan let out a groan as he looked at the number. "I've got to call into work." He dialed the number.

"This is Ryan Wolfe calling in. Yes. You did? Ok. For how long? Ok. I'll be right down." He closed his phone. "I'm sorry, Cal. They need me to help out in trace for a few hours." Ryan leaned over and kissed her before getting up.

"Are you going to be back in time for dinner?" Calleigh asked as Ryan grabbed the folder from the bed.

"I should be. They said that they just need an extra pair of eyes and hands. I was told it wouldn't be too long." Ryan walked over to the desk and placed the folder down. "I'll call you if I'm held up." He walked back over and gave Calleigh another kiss. "See you in a few." He walked out of the bedroom.

Calleigh waited until she heard him leave before getting up from the bed. She walked over to the desk and picked up the folder. She felt a little guilty about looking at Ryan's private things, but her curiosity got the best of her. The papers inside were financial records of what looked like belonged to Ryan's parents and his grandfather. She noticed that all the records in the file were incomplete, only showing page one or page two of some transaction. Either Ryan didn't have all of the paperwork, or he just pulled out what he needed to use. Nothing in the paperwork told her what amount of money Ryan's family had or what he inherited. She never asked about his life before he came to work at CSI. He never talked about life with his grandfather and he spoke about his parents even less. What things he revealed about himself growing up were always in the first person and never about his family. He did confess one night about what happened to his parents and when he started crying uncontrollably about the incident, she felt best not to bring it back up again. God only knows how many years of therapy he went through. And she only knew about that because Ryan told her he had to reveal his background to be admitted into the police academy.

Although she felt that if Ryan didn't want her to see the papers, he would have told her or locked them away, Calleigh suddenly felt guilty about looking through her husband's past. She quickly placed the papers back together and set the folder back on the desk. She thought again about the house that they looked at and wondered if they made a mistake about not taking it. Houses in Miami were not cheap and even though they had two incomes coming into the household, CSI wages were not that high at the level they were at. Their annual reviews at work were a long way off and there was no way that they could get a raise in pay before then; the budget would not allow it. Besides, they also had the fact that were going to be putting money towards their child. But she really liked the house and didn't like the fact of having to look somewhere else.

Calleigh walked back into the kitchen and noticed the agent's card on the table. Picking it up, she wondered if she should give him a call and see if she could talk to the owners about making a deal on the house. Despite what the agent said, she felt if she talked to the owners themselves, she might be able to get a deal. It didn't hurt to try.

"Hello?"

"David? It's Calleigh. Calleigh Wolfe. My husband and I were over this afternoon looking at the house?"

"Oh yes, Mrs. Wolfe. I remember you. How can I help?"

"Well, I was wondering if there was any chance that I could talk to the previous owners of the house."

"Are you looking to buy?" Asked the agent.

"We're thinking about it. My husband's not here right now, but I was hoping to get hold of the owners to talk about it."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Wolfe, but the house has already been sold."

Calleigh's heart sank. "It did?"

"Yes, A young gentleman came in after you were here and paid a deposit on the house. I'm sorry for your inconvenience."

"No, it's ok…thanks for letting me know about the house."

"Any chance that I could help you look for another house?" The agent asked.

"I'll ask my husband about it. Thank you for your time. We'll let you know." And with that, Calleigh hung up the phone and reached for the freezer door.

"It's therapy time," she muttered under her breath as she grabbed the ice cream.

Ryan came home that night to find his wife sitting on the sofa, cradling her belly. A empty carton of ice cream sat by her feet.

"Are you ok?" He asked as he sat down next to her.

"Yeah…I guess." Calleigh looked over at him.

"What happened?"

"Oh, after you left for work I called the agent we saw today about the house. He said someone bought it after we left."

"Oh, I see." Ryan shifted himself on the sofa. "You know we couldn't afford it, so why call?"

"I was hoping that I could talk to the owners myself, maybe get them to come down in their price."

"Well, we'll just have to look somewhere else, Cal."

"I know, Ryan…but I was hoping to stay in this neighborhood. All the time we lived here I've realized how safe it is around here and how convenient it was for children, with the playgrounds and the schools nearby."

Ryan reached over and rubbed her stomach. "We can find that somewhere else. We just need to be patient."

"I know." Calleigh reached up and placed her hands on Ryan's hand that was still on her stomach. "You're still coming with me Monday for the check-up, aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm not going to miss it for the world. I want to know the sex of the baby." Ryan gave her stomach a little squeeze. He looked up at the kitchen. "You didn't make dinner, did you?"

"Oh, Ryan. I'm sorry. I forgot all about it."

"Don't worry." Ryan replied. I had some Chinese at the lab. I was concerned that you didn't eat." He picked up the empty ice cream container. "Looks like I was wrong." He looked at Calleigh, her face getting red.

"Um…"

"Let me make you something more healthy." Ryan got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen. "By the way, I saw another house on sale that's not in the list. It's not near here, but it wouldn't hurt to check it out tomorrow afternoon. Are you up for it?"

"Sure." Answered Calleigh as she got up to join her husband in the kitchen.

The next day, Ryan and Calleigh drove to where Ryan said the open house would be. He stopped at the house and looked at the address.

"Wait, this isn't it." He said as he got back into the car.

"It's not?"

"No, let me see." Ryan pulled out a piece of paper and looked at it. "Oh. I went to the wrong house. Sorry." He started up the engine and turned around. Soon, he was driving into an area that Calleigh didn't recognize.

"Ryan, are you sure you know where you're going?"

"Yes, trust me. I know where we are." He turned onto a road that went by a local mall.

"Oh, I know where we are now." Calleigh said as she looked around the area. She then realized that Ryan was driving them back to the house they looked at yesterday. "What are you doing?"

"I'll tell you when we get there." He answered. They pulled up into the driveway of the house as Calleigh saw the agent walk out and approach them.

"Mr. And Mrs. Wolfe! Nice to see the two of you again." The agent reached out and shook both of their hands. "Please come inside with me."

"I don't understand," Calleigh said. "What's going on? Ryan?"

"I'll tell you when we get inside." Ryan started following the agent back into the house. Calleigh, who at this point was a mixture of confusion and pissed off, followed after them.

"Ryan Wolfe, you tell me what's going on right now." Calleigh grabbed his arm as the three of them reached the living room.

"Hold on a second, Cal." Ryan reached out with his other arm towards the agent, who placed a set of keys into Ryan's hand.

"She's all yours, Mr. Wolfe. Mr. Johnson called me this morning and finalized the deposit. We'll meet at his office on Tuesday, which you already know. I'll leave the two of you alone." The agent shook Ryan's hand and reached over to Calleigh to shake hers. "Pleasure doing business with the two of you. Enjoy your home. I'll see you on Tuesday." And with that, he left, leaving Ryan alone with Calleigh.

"What…what the hell just happened?" Calleigh looked at Ryan with wide eyes that soon were filled with anger. "What did you do, Ryan?" She snapped.

"I bought the house. Our house." He took a step back and away from Calleigh, not knowing what she was going to do.

"But the agent said last night that after we left, a young man came and bought the place."

"He did…I came back inside after you went and started the car, but I wouldn't say that I'm
young. I'm almost in my thirties-" Ryan managed to say before Calleigh threw herself at him, slamming her fists onto his chest, causing him to stumble backwards and onto the floor.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?" Calleigh screamed at Ryan, who was now looking up at her, not knowing what she was going to do next. Without thinking, he slowly stood up and embraced Calleigh as she started to sob into his chest.

"Shhh. Honey, I'm so sorry. I wanted it to be a surprise." He started stroking her hair slowly, waiting for her to calm down. He looked down at her. "Are you really mad at me?"

Calleigh let out a sniffle as she composed herself. "No, I'm sorry. I overreacted. You could have told me."

"I was going to tell you on Tuesday, when we had to go and sign the paperwork. But you forced my hand when you called the agent last night. I was afraid that you would ask him who bought it. True, he didn't have to tell you but you could get the truth out of anyone. You would've gotten him to confess to cheating on some 8th grade test."

Calleigh laughed at her husband's honesty. He knew her too well. She then remembered about the price of the house. "Ryan…how can we even afford this house? You know that we don't make enough money, not even for a mortgage on a house like this."

"We don't have a mortgage. The house will be paid in full on Tuesday," Ryan answered.

"But how-" Calleigh started to speak, but Ryan cut her off.

"Honey, listen to me. When my parents died, they left me some money. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough for me to go to college with. That, along with the insurance settlement from my parents' death, it was put in a trust fund that I would have access to when I turned 21. Being the stubborn, OCD freak that I am, I put myself through college after I finished high school because I didn't want to wait until I had the trust fund. I never touched the money when I turned 21 and when my grandfather died a few years later, I took the money I got from his estate and put it with my trust fund. I could have easily lived off what was there but I wanted to support myself. I thought that I could save the money for something important. It was hard, but holding out on the money paid off."

Calleigh looked at her husband; an astonished look appeared on her face at what he had told her. "Ryan, how much money did you have?"

"About 1.7 million," he answered. "Give or take a couple thousand. My family wasn't rich, but I invested well with what I received. I was just waiting for the right moment to use it. When I realized that you wanted this house, I decided that-"

Ryan was suddenly cut off mid-sentence as Calleigh pulled him down and locked her lips with his. After a minute of heavy kissing, Calleigh broke away. "Did I ever tell you that I love you?"

"Oh, I never hear it enough," Ryan joked. "You probably love me for the money."

"Bastard." Calleigh said as she grinned. "How did I ever deserve you?'

"I should ask myself the same question." Ryan pulled her back to his chest. "Please forgive me."

"Don't ever do that to me again," Calleigh said as she looked up at Ryan. "What should we do now?"

"How about we go upstairs and decide which room will be our child's. After all, tomorrow we find out if we need to paint it blue or pink." Ryan headed for the stairs, putting both of his hands behind him for Calleigh to grab and take hold of as he started to go up.

to be continued…