I dedicate this chapter to Dayna... she wanted me to write it and it's her birthday! Happy Birthday!

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As the crime scene they had been heading to that morning hadn't involved a shooting, Calleigh was taking an unwelcome break from the ballistics lab.

She was in Trace with her nose down a microscope when Eric found her.

"Hey Calleigh? Got a DNA match on the semen we found at the scene."

"Great," said Calleigh, lifting her head from the microscope lens. "Are they local?"

"Yup," replied Eric with a grin. "The name's Nick Williams, lives about fifteen minutes away. You got anything interesting there?"

"I'm not sure… It looks like sand or something. I'm not so good at this stuff, take a look. "

A few seconds later: "Yeah, that's sand. Good guess. It's just plain sand."

"Okay, shall we go and pay Mr Williams a visit?"

Calleigh left to pick up their flight-case-style crime scene kits as Eric left to start up one of the Hummers. As much as he tried to ignore it, thoughts about what had happened that morning kept forcing their way into his head.

She's not normally as distant as she was this morning… maybe something's up…

Oh pull yourself together Delko! She only missed a turn! It's nothing! Maybe it's that time of the month for her. Perhaps it's the hormones.

To give Calleigh some credit, she doesn't normally go off the wall because of something as small as hormones…

Eric started the car and drove out of the garage to the front of the building where he had arranged to meet Calleigh.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before one of them swallowed their pride and asked the question that they had been dodging.

Calleigh swallowed.

"Eric," she said, breaking the silence. "Are we okay? I mean, since what happened."

Eric nodded with conviction he didn't feel.

"Yeah, we're cool."

"Are you sure?" Calleigh's eyebrows lifted. "Because I can't help feeling that we haven't got back what we had before."

Eric contemplated what she said. "You're right Calleigh. And I miss it. I miss how we used to be."

"I miss it too."

They sighed and the car was silent as Eric drove the final few miles to their destination.

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"Nick Williams?" Calleigh asked curtly as the door opened, showing a large man, wearing a dirty vest top and shorts. He smelt slightly of alcohol and had shadowy stubble around his chin.

Hangover, Calleigh thought, knowingly.

He nodded and grunted.

"Mr Williams, we have reason to believe that you were at the scene of a murder, while the crime took place."

Mr Williams suddenly stood up straighter and his expression sobered quickly.

"What? I was never at no crime scene!"

"Well how do you explain your DNA being found in a building site, next to a dead girl?"

Calleigh's face was a picture of innocence; a totally neutral expression, but her tone was accusing.

Mr Williams glared down at her, fury beginning to burn in his eyes.

"I work on a building site."

Calleigh had not wanted to go down the route she was going to have to take, but Mr Williams' manner had forced her.

"Sir, we found your semen on the body of a girl who was raped repeatedly and then murdered."

While the look of horror passed over Mr Williams' face, Calleigh opened the case file and flicked to the autopsy photo of the so far, unidentified girl.

The two CSIs nodded to each other before Calleigh lifted the photo in front of the shocked man.

"Do you know this girl?"

Horror quickly became fear and anger when he saw the photo. Breathing became laboured and he clutched at his chest.

"That's… that's my daughter!"

Eric looked at Calleigh, who looked back, totally flummoxed. Neither of them had been expecting this.

Calleigh decided that she should speak.

"Sir? I think you-"

"You think? You think? You accused me of murdering my own daughter, you bitch!"

He pushed Calleigh hard away from him, into a metal fence that ran along his path.

Eric's gun was trained on Mr Williams in less than a second.

Eric made the arrest while Calleigh stood up and brushed herself down. Only when Mr Williams was arrested for assaulting an officer did Eric decide it was safe to leave him.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently. He, ironically, put his hand on Calleigh's stomach where she had hit the fence.

"I'm fine," she replied, succeeding to rid all snappishness from her voice.

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Back at the lab, Mr Williams was interrogated. Eric took the lead rather than Calleigh, but she stayed in the room and tried to outstare the suspect.

But when, after nearly two hours of one way conversation (Eric just asking questions), they had got nowhere, they decided to give in.

In the observation room, next to the interrogation room, they watched Nick Williams sit alone. Mostly he was still; not even a fidget.

"This is useless Calleigh. Let's go back to the evidence again."

Eric made to leave, but Calleigh stayed, staring unmoving at the glass.

"Calleigh?"

"You go. There's something I have to do here first."

Eric shrugged and shut the door behind him. Calleigh took a deep breath before heading back into the interrogation room.

His eyes were on her immediately.

"I'm not saying any more until I get my lawyer," he told her for the fifth time that hour.

"I know," she replied. "But now isn't the time to speak. It's time to listen."

Calleigh glanced around, as if to make sure there was no-one else in the room, before telling him what she wanted him to here.

"I am pregnant. I'm about a month in and today, when you pushed me, I hit that fence against my stomach. Against my baby."

Calleigh's tone hardened.

"You could have killed my baby today. If I have a miscarriage, then I hold you responsible for the murder of my child. Are we clear?"

There was no answer.

"I said," Calleigh whispered icily. "Are we clear?"

He suddenly felt intimidated by the woman standing before him while her fury filled the room, so he nodded, quickly and tentatively.

Satisfied, Calleigh left the room and walked right into Eric, who was standing in the observation room.

The look on his face told Calleigh that he had been listening the whole time.