Chapter 3
'Cause I like you so much
But I know you don't know it
I like you so much
I talk to everyone but you
And I wonder
What you would think of this little number
I wonder
What you would say if you knew
"Hell Yeah", Ani DiFranco
"Hi, hi!" Matt exclaimed wildly as he found them outside of the natatorium the next morning. "You're here!" he said, grabbing Tim into a hug.
"We're here," Tim said, laughing.
"This is great!" Matt chattered, turning to hug a surprised Calleigh before hugging both his parents.
"Matt, come on," one of his teammates yelled from the doorway.
"Ok, I gotta go. But I'll see you!" he called, running off.
"No, he's not excited at all," Danny said, conversationally. "Lord. I hope he calms down enough to actually swim."
"Maybe…" Tim started, but Danny interrupted him.
"Don't even think it," Danny said.
"Ok," Tim shrugged.
"I'm serious, don't even think it. I'd rather have him excited you're here than swim well," Danny said.
"I said ok," Tim said, mildly.
"Let's go find seats," Melissa interrupted, herding them towards the doors.
"Yes, let's," Calleigh agreed. The natatorium promised to be warm and humid, which would be very welcome.
She felt better today. Tim had been right- there was less snow in Albany. Still more than she'd ever seen in her life prior to yesterday, but it seemed somewhat less like a place where summer never came. And she'd gotten some sleep, despite the fact that they hadn't gotten to the hotel until 2am. Tim hadn't really slept, she didn't think, but he didn't seem to be terribly bothered by that fact. Everyone was happy and excited and she couldn't help but be swept up by it.
They got their tickets and their hands stamped and found a row of empty seats in what Danny and Melissa said would be a good vantage point. Calleigh wasn't terribly familiar with swimming meets, so she was more than willing to trust their judgment.
"Wow," Calleigh said, impressed. "This is quite an event."
"Oh, yes," Melissa said. "It's the first year we've come to States, but we've been to the District meet three times now. Matt just barely missed swimming in States last year, but he came out with the team to watch."
"He's in two events?" Tim asked.
"Yup," Danny said. "200 IM and 100 fly."
"Which is the main event?" Calleigh said. "I remember you saying one of them was his main event, Tim."
"200 IM, isn't it?" Tim asked his dad.
"Right," Danny replied. "He's competitive in that one. He barely made the 100 fly, we were surprised. They're two of the hardest sprint events, too."
"Impressive," Calleigh said. "No wonder he's up for scholarships."
Danny nodded. "It's been pretty interesting. Completely different ball game from when we were getting you ready, Tim. Athletic scholarships are just strange things."
"He's been offered a couple of academic ones, too," Melissa added. "But his test scores aren't quite as good as yours were, Tim."
"Well, nothing wrong with that," Tim muttered, seeming slightly embarrassed.
"No, of course not," Melissa agreed. "It would have been unreasonable to expect them to be. Matt's done a very good job for himself."
"What did you get on the SAT?" Calleigh asked him.
Tim shrugged. "A good score."
"No, seriously," she said.
He sighed. "It doesn't matter anymore. That was like 15 years ago."
"I know that," Calleigh said. "I'm just curious. I got a 1320, what did you get?"
"More than that," he shrugged.
"I know that. Come on, what was it?
"You might as well tell her, Tim," Danny said, amusedly. "She'll just keep pestering you, I bet."
He sighed again. "1540", he muttered.
Calleigh whistled. "A good score?" she asked. She would never cease to be amazed at Tim's talent for understatement.
"It is a good score," he said.
"It's a near perfect score," Calleigh pointed out.
"It would be a perfect score if you'd have taken it after 1995," Danny said. "They re-centered the scores in 95, so both of your scores would have been higher. Unless I'm misjudging your age, Calleigh?"
"No, I took it in 1993," she said, smiling. "I'm, what, 18 months younger than you?" she asked, turning towards Tim.
"20 months. End of February vs. end of June," he corrected absently, watching the divers warm up in the dive pool.
She paused at the fact that he knew that off the top of his head. Well, they had just celebrated her birthday a week and a half ago. But still, it wasn't information she would have expected him to know. Come to think, she hadn't reminded him about her birthday at all. "Well, there you go then. 20 months."
"So, you've been out of school for seven years," Melissa said. "Have you been with CSI that long?"
"Oh, no," Calleigh said. "I started out in patrol in New Orleans back in 97. They pulled me to Ballistics in 99, and Horatio came to steal me away about a year after that. So I've been in Miami for just about five years now. I love it, though. I love the city and I love this lab."
"That's great," Danny said. "Don't you guys have something like the best solve rate in the country?"
"Second best, yeah," Tim said. "Unless that's changed and no one told me."
"No, it hasn't changed," Calleigh said. "I'd have told you if the solve rate dropped that much."
He shrugged. "I figured, but you know."
"Yeah," she said. "Anyway, no, we're number 2. And pretty pleased. Horatio isn't too competitive about that, so long as we're the best we can be."
"He'd like to be number one, but if we're number two behind Gil Grissom's lab, then that's plenty good enough. Besides, Vegas has a higher volume than we do," Tim said.
"Speaking of Vegas, there's a conference out west this fall that we've been kicking around the idea of going to," Calleigh told him. "Horatio wanted me to ask if you were interested. He can send two of us. I want to go."
"We'll see," Tim said. "I hate conferences."
"I know, but you haven't been to one in five years," Calleigh reminded him. "Professional development, Tim."
"I'm going to school. How much more development do they want?" he asked.
"Precisely. You're doing plenty of research; you can submit a paper," Calleigh said.
"Oooooh, no. No, no, nope. Absolutely not," Tim said, shaking his head violently. "Uh-huh."
"Oh, come on. I'm going to work something up to submit. You've written papers, Tim. I know you have," Calleigh said. "You just don't ever do anything with them."
"I submitted that one about the weird film on the bullets from that Everglades case two years ago," he protested. "It got accepted."
"You've had a paper published?" Melissa asked. "You didn't tell us that!"
He shrugged. "It wasn't a big deal. I only did it because Megan made me."
"But still, Tim, that's a pretty good thing, to be published," Danny pointed out.
"I guess. But it really wasn't a big thing," he said.
Calleigh sighed. She knew he wasn't going to be persuaded from that stance. She also knew that he had enough material to write at least three other papers just from the last year or so. But Horatio hadn't figured out how to convince Tim to actually write and submit anything. Megan had had a way of doing it that had worked, and that was apparently not a piece of information she had passed on to Horatio.
Suddenly, there was an announcer beginning the meet. Calleigh half-listened to the welcome message and stood automatically with everyone else for the National Anthem. It had gotten rather crowded in the natatorium while they'd been talking. She wasn't the only one to notice.
They sat back down and she saw Tim looking a bit pale. "You ok?" she whispered to him. He nodded. "Ok," she said, but she started looking around for the nearest exit. It was about to get very loud in here if she was any judge of sporting events. Swimmers were lining up at the edge of the pool.
"Which event is this?" she asked.
"200 Medley Relay," Danny replied. "It's the relay version of Matt's event. His event is the one after the next one."
Calleigh started to reply, but the starter's gun went off. Tim really went pale then, and she felt, more than saw, his hands start shaking. "Tim," she said, reaching out to touch his hands.
"I'm…" he swallowed. "I'll be…sorry, excuse me," he said, getting up and slipping past them to the end of the row and moving down to the exit.
"Is he ok?" Melissa asked.
"I don't think so," Calleigh said, standing up.
"I'll come with you," Danny said, following. "In case he wound up in the men's room."
They fought their way through the crowd and out into the lobby, which was considerably cooler and less crowded. It was quieter, too. They looked around for Tim, but didn't see him. "I'll check outside, you check the bathroom?" Calleigh said, looking at Danny.
"Sounds good. Meet back here," he said, moving down the corridor towards the restrooms.
Calleigh walked outside and looked around briefly. It was very cold and she'd left her coat in the natatorium. So had Tim, she remembered quickly, so she doubted he would have gone far outside. She didn't see him, so she went back into the lobby and waited.
Tim and Danny appeared a few minutes later. "Sorry," Tim said sheepishly.
"No, it's ok," she said. "Are you all right?"
"I don't, yeah, maybe," he said. He was shaking, still.
"Do you have your cell phone?" Danny asked.
"Yeah," Tim said.
"Ok, how about this. You two stay out here and get something to drink. I'll call you when the girls start the 200 IM- it's the girls' heats first, then the boys. You'll have plenty of time to get back to the seats by the time Matt's up, he's in the last boys' heat. That way you can see Matt swim, but you don't have to stay in there the whole time," Danny said.
"That'll work," Calleigh said, decisively. Tim shrugged, obviously willing to defer to their judgment at this point.
"Ok, then. It'll probably be about half an hour or so," Danny said. "I'll see you then."
"Sounds good," Calleigh said. Danny went back into the natatorium. She steered Tim to the concession stand where she bought them both a bottle of water and then steered him down the hallway where she saw an out of the way looking staircase. They sat on the stairs. "Do you have any Ativan?" she asked.
He pulled his keys out of his pocket and unscrewed the pill fob attached to them. "Yeah."
"Here," she said, reaching out to take one of the pills and break it in half. "Try a half, first." He downed the pill with a gulp of water. "Good," she said, moving to sit behind him on the steps so they weren't completely blocking any traffic. She rubbed his shoulders gently as he rested his head on his knees. They didn't talk. There was nothing to say.
"Is he ok?" A woman who appeared to be a coach asked as she started to walk up the stairs.
"He's fine," Calleigh said, smiling. "Just got a bit crowded in there, is all. Thank you for asking."
"It can be a bit claustrophobic," the woman said, sympathetically. "Spectators will kind of start drifting away as the events go on, though. It's so hot in there that people just don't want to sit through the whole thing, so they stay until their kid competes and then leave or they wait until later to show up, if they've got a pretty good idea of the timing. So it might be better later on."
"That's good to know," Calleigh said. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. Have a good one," the woman said as she continued up the stairs.
Tim's cell phone rang shortly after that. "You ready to make your way back in there?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said. He looked a bit better. Pale, still, but determined.
"Ok, then," she said.
They found their way to their seats without much trouble.
"Are you all right?" Melissa asked, looking at Tim anxiously.
"Yeah," Tim said.
"Ok," Melissa said, squeezing his arm. "Matt's heat is two heats away," she said.
Calleigh reached over and grabbed his hand. "Just hang on tight when the gun goes off. I'm right here."
He nodded, and clutched her hand fitfully, but made it through the next two starts.
"There's Matt!" Melissa said pointing down at the swimmers. "Lane 3."
"That's a good lane," Danny explained. "You want to be toward the middle, not on the ends. Less of a wake to fight through."
Calleigh held tightly to Tim's hand as the gun went off. They stood and yelled for Matt along with Danny and Melissa. She was glad to see him yelling as hard as anyone.
"Go, kid, go!" Danny yelled. "I don't…Oh, my God, look!" he said, pointing at the scoreboard as Matt slammed into the wall. "Second!"
"Yay, Matthew!" Melissa yelled. Matt was dragging himself out of the pool, but he turned to look up to try and see them. He waved at them, after a moment.
"Come on!" Danny said, grabbing Tim's arm. "Let's go down and see if we can catch him on his way back to the waiting area. And then we'll get you something to eat," he said, leading Tim back out.
"That's a good idea," Melissa said. "Matt won't swim again until later this afternoon. We'll stay here and save the seats and trade off with Danny after awhile."
"Sounds good," Calleigh said. "I'd like to see more of the events."
"Well, there'll be some diving coming up next," she said. "Two dive events, and then back to the swimming until intermission."
"Oh, fun," Calleigh said. "I love watching the diving in the Olympics."
"Me too," Melissa said. "I used to dive in high school, so it's one of my favorite parts of these things. Is Tim really ok?" she asked.
Calleigh nodded. "Yeah. It's loud and crowded in here, and he's been spoiling for a panic attack since we got on the plane yesterday. It wasn't too bad. He just got overwhelmed in here."
"Poor kid. He's never done well in places like this. He used to cry when we took him grocery shopping on the weekend. Just too much going on around him all at once," she sighed. "It's probably better to keep him out there for the most part."
"Definitely," Calleigh said.
They watched the diving, cheering for the divers from schools Melissa was familiar with. Then it was back to the swimming. No one Melissa was familiar with was in the next event, so their attention wandered a bit.
"Can I say something I probably shouldn't?" Melissa asked.
Calleigh shrugged. "I guess."
"You can tell me to go to hell, if you like, and you'd be within your rights, because I really shouldn't interfere, but it seems pretty clear to me that you like my son a lot," she said, slowly.
Calleigh blushed. "Is it that obvious?"
Melissa shrugged. "Why else would you come to Syracuse in March? It's not our best month."
Calleigh laughed. "I suppose not."
"Let me tell you something then. He likes you, Calleigh, but you're going to have to be the one who makes the move. He's not going to do it. I don't exactly know why that is, but I know Timothy is a lot like Daniel, and I had to smash Daniel over the head with a sledgehammer to get him to pay attention. They're incredible guys, but they're also incredibly dense. Or scared. I've never been able to decide which it is," Melissa said.
"Both, I think," Calleigh sighed.
"Probably," Melissa said.
Calleigh was quiet for a moment. Melissa was right on both counts. It really wasn't her business, but Calleigh was definitely going to have to make the first move. "I don't suppose you'd tell me how you got Danny to pay attention," she said, raising an eyebrow at Melissa.
Melissa laughed. "Oh, honey, I just pushed him against the counter and kissed the daylights out of him."
"Really?" Calleigh laughed.
"Really," Melissa nodded. "Tim was about 18 months old, and I'd been hinting around for probably two or three months. One night we got him off to bed and I stayed over to help clean up the kitchen- I wasn't living with them yet, I just came over during the day to watch Tim while Danny was at the restaurant. Well, we were just finishing up the dishes and we'd been sort of half-flirting, half just being goofy, and I realized suddenly that he wasn't going to go anywhere with it, and if I wanted it, I should just go for it. So I pinned him against the kitchen counter and planted one on him."
"What did Danny do?" she asked, wide-eyed.
"Oh, he took over and we wound up on the living room floor trying to be quiet so we didn't wake the baby," Melissa grinned. "Probably more than you wanted to know."
Calleigh laughed. "It's ok. But he just went with it, just like that?"
Melissa nodded. "Just like that. I don't know if that approach will really work that well with Tim, though. You have to remember, Danny and I were about 20. We were just babies ourselves, and well, when you're 20, you kind of just expect to fall into things and they'll work out. You guys know more than we did. Plus, Tim's been burned somewhere along the line. I have no idea what happened there, because anything I know is from Marianne, and I'm willing to bet she got it from Sean, so it's all third-hand or more, but I'm guessing something went very badly wrong for him in the romance department at some point. Danny was hurt by Marianne, but it was really clear that they'd made the best decision they could, and that helped a lot, I think. Tim's going to require a bit more convincing, I think. Although, he might just surprise you. Stranger things have been known to happen."
"True," Calleigh said. "I'm betting it'll be a lot of convincing."
"Probably. But you can do it, I'm sure. I see how he looks at you when he thinks you're not watching," Melissa said.
Calleigh nodded. She'd noticed that too, but hadn't been able to figure out what he meant by it. It was one of the many little things she'd noticed that she couldn't make heads or tails of. "Hmm."
"Well, in case there was any doubt, you have mine and Danny's complete blessing. Go make yourselves happy," Melissa said.
"Is this where you tell me if I hurt him, you'll kill me?" Calleigh asked, wryly.
"No, this is where I tell you that if he hurts you, I'll kill him," Melissa said. "He's a lot more likely to hurt you without even realizing he's doing it than you are to hurt him, I think."
"This is probably true," Calleigh sighed.
"Stop letting him do that," Melissa advised. "You need to tell him when he's doing it, because he has no clue. It's not that he means to be hurtful…"
"It's just that he has really rather flaky communication skills," Calleigh finished. "Oh, I know."
"I'm sure you do. But don't let him get away with it. He can be taught. There just hasn't been anyone willing to do the teaching," Melissa said. "I won't lie to you. My boy is a hard one to deal with and your sanity is probably questionable. If I didn't see how you looked at him when he wasn't watching, I'd have told him to give it up for a bad cause by now, because I really wouldn't want to inflict him on someone who wasn't willing to fight for it."
Calleigh laughed. "Thanks. I think."
Melissa grinned. "Well, it takes two."
"It certainly does," Calleigh said, smiling. "Thanks. Really."
"You're welcome. And you're welcome to call me when he's being infuriating, if you like."
"I'll keep it in mind," Calleigh said.
"Good," Melissa said. "Oh, good, intermission. I'm hungry."
"Yeah," Calleigh said. "Should someone wait with the coats?"
"Nah, bring them with us. We'll find seats again when we get back. I'd like to leave altogether for lunch. The concession stand is not my idea of proper food. Intermission is a half hour, and then Matt is four events after that, so we've got time to spare," Melissa said. "Let's go find the boys."
"Ok," Calleigh said, as she gathered up Tim's coat and followed Melissa. She certainly had enough to think about now. Just take him by surprise, huh? Hmmm…. she thought.
