Chapter Two:
A/N: Thank you to SincerelyInDenial and Jumaolster for the reviews. They were greatly appreciated! Today is indeed Saturday, so here comes another Thanksgiving update!
PS: I pretty much suck. I am going to try my best to fight the Calleigh and Eric pairing I want to put in this story, but just a side warning, I might give in. I'm sick. Not in fighting condition.
--&
Saturday rolled around, and luckily Calleigh had the day off to prepare. If she hadn't, she didn't know how she would pull everything off. She had to clean her condo, shop for all the supplies that were not food as well as pick up her share of that later, call her family and say hello, though that was her least favourite of all the things on the list, and then get herself ready for the evening. It didn't seem like a lot, but she was sure she would, as always, run into dilemmas and, per normal, things would stand in her way of reaching her thanksgiving goal. Of course, she did have the whole day, and a full day it was, so she decided to sleep in that morning, all the way until nine thirty, which, when you had to get up at quarter to six each morning, was a very long time. Anyhow, that had been her plan until seven o'clock when the phone awakened her. Despite desire to pull the contraption right out of the wall, she fought the temptation, and answered thinking it might be work.
"Hello?" She mumbled sleepily into the phone.
"Calleigh…" She heard a voice start in a frustrated tone.
"Ryan! You woke me up!" She complained. "This had better be important."
"It is. I assure you, it is." Ryan told her. "Why does Natalia seem to have the idea that she is invited to your thanksgiving tonight?"
"Because she is." Calleigh yawned. "Is that all? This has been a short conversation and I could still get back to sleep and forget it even happened."
"No! That is not all! Well, I guess it is. But I'm not done talking about it." Ryan protested.
"What is there to talk about?" Calleigh wondered, though she clearly knew.
"Calleigh, you know about my history with Natalia. And Eric's too. When he finds out about it, he won't be any happier than I am." Ryan tried to explain.
"That's selfish of you." Calleigh rolled her eyes. "Natalia is a part of our family at the lab. It's your fault that you decided to have whatever relationship you had with her before getting to know her enough to judge her properly."
"Fine." Ryan resolved. "I'm sorry for waking you up."
"I'll see you later Ryan. And play nicely with the other children." Calleigh cooed before hanging up. Eric had better not call her about that today too. She decided, since she was already awake, that she might as well just get up. So she did. Going through her morning routine of a shower, quick breakfast and then changing into clothes for the day, she was ready. First thing on her list was to clean her condo. It wouldn't be that big of a deal, since she was rarely home being the workaholic she was, and when she was home she only ate, slept and watched TV. Surveying the general living room and dining room areas, which were not separated by a door, but merely an indentation in the wall. Deciding this was a good place to start, she began dusting and arranging things on the relatively clear table tops. After sorting her CD and DVD collections, and tidying up what needed to be tidied in her kitchen, Calleigh came to the realization that the time she had allotted to spend cleaning her house would go towards compensation for other setbacks. It was barley eight o'clock and she was finished. It was then her phone rang again.
"Hello?" She answered. It was her home phone, so she didn't bother with the professionalism.
"Calleigh, it's Eric." He informed her.
"I noticed. And if you're calling to bug me about…" She started before he cut her off.
"I'm not." He reassured her. "Ryan already told me what happened when he called you this morning. And I am looking after your child, don't worry."
"Eric, that wasn't funny." She rolled her eyes.
"Well, you know, Ryan was saying how he felt like your child when you told him to play nicely with the other kids and…" This time she cut him off.
"I got the joke. It just wasn't funny Eric." She told him, now stifling a giggle at his completely silliness. He tried way too hard to be funny, and in doing so, was.
"I can hear you laughing." He teased her.
"Don't flatter yourself." She teased him back. "But really, why are you calling? Shouldn't you be working? Slaving yourself to Valera… examining crime scenes…"
"Not today." Eric smiled, knowing fully well that he was not getting out of the Valera joke any time soon. It was all in good fun. "But I could come slave myself to you for the day. Horatio let me go early, since it is thanksgiving and I had asked for the day off if it wasn't busy… and now I have nothing to do…"
"Sure." Calleigh accepted. "I don't have anything spectacular for you to do. My whole day schedule was thrown off when I realized it wasn't going to take me all morning to clean my apartment."
"Well, at least I can keep you company." Eric shrugged. "I'll be over in a bit."
"Okay. See you then." Calleigh shut the phone. She was glad Eric was coming over. Today was looking like it was going to shape into a rather boring day until the evening rolled around, and she could use someone to keep her company.
--&
It was almost an hour, and much channel flipping on Calleigh's part before Eric showed up at her door. He rang the doorbell.
"Hey!" Calleigh smiled.
"Hey," Eric smiled back. "Sorry it took me so long…"
"No problem at all. You are slaving yourself voluntarily you know." She winked playfully at him as he stepped inside, and followed her to the living room where the TV was turned to a random morning talk show.
"Wow Cal, your place looks even more…perfect than usual." Eric commented. It really did. Spotless and not a thing out of place, when usually he could place at least something out of place if he looked hard enough.
"Thanks." She replied. "I did spend the last hour and a half cleaning it when it didn't need any cleaning to begin with." She laughed. "But are you ready to go?"
"Go where?" Eric asked.
"Shopping." Calleigh said with a bright smile.
"I don't like that smile." Eric told her.
"Awh, are you afraid of shopping?" Calleigh teased.
"When you say it paired with that smile, yes." He took a step back in mock fear.
"Well it's not even clothes shopping. Just supplies for tonight. You should be fine and by every means safe." She reassured him.
"Alright then. But I'm taking your word on it." He told her, in mock seriousness.
"Let's go." She shook her head as he followed her out the door.
--&
Three hours and many stores later, a worn out Eric and Calleigh made their way back to Calleigh's apartment.
"You said it was safe! Harmless!" Eric said dramatically as he walked into the condo, setting his bags down carefully by the door.
"It was!" Calleigh rolled her eyes at him, clearly amused by his display.
"You call me safe and unharmed?" Eric asked.
"You look fine to me." Calleigh shrugged.
"But you can't see my pain." He continued, "It's all on the inside. All that teasing… all that walking! I'm hurting. I really am."
"Eric, you are such a damsel in distress." Calleigh laughed.
"Then you'd better rescue me." He suggested, dramatically throwing himself towards her.
"When did you take up a sudden interest in acting?" Calleigh raised an eyebrow, and Eric shrugged.
"I don't know." He answered. "I'm just spontaneous. I can't help it if I'm funny."
"I'm laughing at you. Not with you. Trust me." Calleigh smirked.
"That's what they all say." Eric told her.
"Cute. Now help me with this." She gestured to all of the bags. They had groceries, they had beer and other assorted liquors, they had pumpkins and other assorted thanksgiving decorations and anything else they would need to prepare for and host the evening. Calleigh was in the middle of carrying three small pumpkins towards the living room when the phone rang. "Can you get it?" She called to Eric.
"Mm, sure." He answered from the kitchen where he had been stocking groceries. "Hello?"
"Who is this?" Came an obviously southern voice on the phone. Calleigh came back into the kitchen at that very moment.
"It's your Mom." Eric mouthed to her, and she stifled a laugh. "This is Eric… Eric Delko."
"Are you my daughter's boyfriend?" The woman asked.
"Uh, no." Eric answered awkwardly.
"Then why, might I inquire, are you answering her phone?" The woman continued.
"Because she was in the other room, and she asked me to." Eric answered honestly.
"Okay. Well is she still preoccupied in the other room or can she talk to her Mother?"
"She's right here." Eric handed the phone to Calleigh who was smirking at him.
"Hi Mom." She said into the receiver. "Yes. Eric is a colleague and a friend. We're having our work thanksgiving at my house tonight, and we both have the day off. He's helping me prepare. Yes Mom, I am sure that's all. All right. Love you too." Calleigh hung up the phone.
"Was your accent that strong when you lived in Louisiana?" Eric asked.
"Probably." Calleigh shrugged.
"You knew it was going to be your Mom didn't you?" He accused.
"Well Eric, today I have laughed with you, and at you. Right there I was laughing for you." Calleigh explained.
"Laughing for me?" Eric raised an eyebrow. "I've never heard that one before."
"Me neither." Calleigh shrugged. "I just didn't have an answer to your question. I figured it'd be her, and I thought it'd be fun to watch you squirm."
"I hope you enjoyed it…" Eric pretended to be hurt before moving suddenly to grab Calleigh around the waist before tickling her. "Because now it's my turn."
"Eric!" She squealed, laughing hysterically. How had he known she was ticklish? "Stop!" He slowed down slightly, as he would never want to hurt her at all, but continued tickling her a bit until they were both out of breath from laughing. "Now I got to see you squirm. We're even." He reasoned.
"For now." She challenged, and he knew that for the rest of thanksgiving, this silly competition was not going to stop.
--&
A/N: WHAT a random chapter. Saturday had too much in it for my liking, and I am very tired, but I wanted to post something. Saturday part two and Sunday will come tomorrow since I'm going to sleep now so I'll be able to actually think and process thought tomorrow to a degree where I can accomplish more. Review please, and again: Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
