A/N: Still trying to keep the creative juices flowing with this story as I chip away at the older, unfinished ones. I don't want this to turn into a novel, but I'm also writing without a plan...whatever comes out when I type becomes the story at this point! We'll see where it goes.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 5


"So I heard you hurt yourself," Horatio said by way of greeting.

Calleigh was taken by surprise. "No," she said defensively. She only just left Eric and he wouldn't have ratted her out, so that left a certain brooding homicide detective.

"Did Detective Hagen tell you that?" she asked, a now familiar annoyance growing somewhere right below her ribcage.

"In passing," Horatio admitted. "Are you okay?"

Calleigh relented, only because this was Horatio asking and he always knew when she was lying. "Alright. The exemplar speargun did give me a run for my money."

Horatio nodded. "Can I see it?"

Calleigh knew he wasn't trying to invade her privacy; she knew the path down which he was headed. She tossed back the right lapel of her jacket to reveal the darkening bruise on her shoulder.

"Ouch," her LT grimaced. "Well, our victim didn't have one of those."

"Well, then he didn't shoot the speargun."

"So he didn't kill Paul Jackson," Horatio concluded.

He turned from Calleigh to talk to Speed and she engrossed herself with the task at hand. At least, in appearance. Inwardly, Calleigh was running through all the reasons why Hagen would have reported her incident with the speargun to Horatio. She was fuming as she tried to finish her writeup. He had no right.

Back at the lab a few hours later, Calleigh had mostly calmed down. The news that their vic was part of a sophisticated cocaine smuggling operation had served as a good distraction. The smudgy prints on the speargun they found on Betancourt's boat had been lifted and now she was busy testing it in her firearms lab.

She was in the zone, and wouldn't have noticed her cell ring save for the vibration against her hip. Cal looked at the caller ID and the corners of her mouth upturned the slightest. It was Eric.

"Still enjoying yourself on this case?" she said playfully when she flipped open the phone.

Delko's rich laugh sounded on the other end of the line. "I know, I know. Kid in a candy shop, right?"

She chuckled. "What's up?"

"Just got a call from H. Sounds like things just got a little more complicated," he said.

"Yep," Calleigh sighed, setting the speargun down on the table next to her. "We got ourselves a drug ring. Certainly adds a few motives for murder to the mix."

"H wants me to suit up and meet him at the marina in twenty. He asked me to give you a heads up. It's a dead zone out there, no radar."

Calleigh didn't like the sound of that. If something went wrong while they were on the water–or, in the water in Eric's case–the Coast Guard would have a time finding them.

"Are you taking an escort?" she asked, somehow masking the concern in her voice.

"No, not this time. We don't expect any trouble. Anyway, gotta head out. We'll let you know if we find anything."

Eric was oblivious to the fact Calleigh wasn't asking about the escort because of the danger posed by the smugglers. Her fear stemmed from one thing alone: he wasn't himself, and he was about to go on his second deep dive in as many days.

"'Kay, well be safe. Call me," Calleigh said. She heard him say 'yes, mom,' before he hung up the phone.

She bit her lip and debated what to do. John Hagen had interfered in her personal business, gone over her head and talked to Horatio about her speargun mishap. She was ready to ream him a new one the next time she saw him because of it.

Now, she faced a similar dilemma. As far as she could tell, Eric's symptoms from the first dive hadn't yet let up. It was fine for her to talk to Speed about what she'd observed, but bringing it to their LT's attention would open a whole other can of worms.

Two things swayed her. One, she wasn't making it up; Tim had seen the same odd behavior in Eric and expressed her same concern. Two, she wasn't questioning Eric's capacity to do his job, the way it felt like Hagen had called her into question. This was a safety issue, one that would be exacerbated at sea if something happened and they had no backup divers.

There was no way Horatio would be able to extract Eric if things took a turn for the worst.

Decided, Calleigh secured the speargun and ran full speed upstairs, hoping to catch Horatio before he left.

She spotted him just in time. "Horatio!" she called, out of breath from taking the stairs two at a time.

He had his sunglasses halfway to his face and one foot out the door, but on hearing the urgency in her voice, he let his hand fall and turned to meet her. Now he saw the fear–and hesitation–written on her countenance.

"Ms. Duquesne," the man said.

"Horatio, I don't think it's a good idea to take Eric on this dive," she said in a rush. She wrung her hands and averted her gaze for a second, before locking eyes once again with her boss.

"Why not, Ms. Duquesne?" Horatio tilted his head and shifted his weight to another foot, willing the CSI to elaborate.

"Yeah…" she started. "About that..." Cal couldn't quite find the words to explain to her lieutenant why her best friend and partner should be pulled off duty–something Eric would resent and rightly categorize as 'overstepping her bounds.'

She felt all the guiltier because he had respected her privacy and not told Horatio about her shoulder. This was different, though. A bruise on her shoulder was not life-threatening. Eric diving in his condition could be.

"You're worried about the narcosis from yesterday, aren't you, Calleigh?" Horatio surmised. "Narcosis only lasts about 10 minutes."

Calleigh nodded but pressed forward. "He's still not himself, Horatio. Speedle and I both saw it, long after he surfaced yesterday. He was…discombobulated."

"Would you say that's a scientific term," Horatio quipped softly, his purposeful humor only slightly lifting the sharp tension Calleigh felt in her bones.

She gave a half smile and shrugged. "He's not himself, Horatio. Please, just watch him before you hit the water. It's your call, but at least request an escort, for my sake."

A group of techs passed by them and he steered her out of the way. "Calleigh, I trust you," he said, lowering his voice, not wanting to advertise his CSIs' personal matters in the front lobby of their headquarters. He watched as she sighed in relief and some of the tension left her shoulders.

"What will you do?" she asked with only a small amount of trepidation in her voice.

"Leave that," Horatio said, bringing his sunglasses back to his face and turning to leave, "leave that to me."