It'd been months since that day, and not much had changed.
Tim still felt that same, inevitable jealousy; that same, inexplicable feeling of rejection whenever he saw the ring on her finger. He still teased her good-naturedly about anything and everything, though sometimes with a hint of bitterness in his voice. But Calleigh had gotten used to that; she'd learned not to take it personally. In fact, it concerned her when the bitterness wasn't in his tone. She'd just become used to his ever-present sarcasm.
Despite her earlier reservations about working so closely with someone the polar opposite of herself, Calleigh and Tim had become a great team. Maybe it was because they were completely different from each other. Each of them held what the other lacked. They evened each other out. Even Horatio had been amazed at just how well they worked together.
So of course, he'd taken to pairing the two of them together as often as possible.
Sure, it was great from a case-oriented point of view, but from a personal standpoint, it was driving Tim crazy. All the closeness, all the tension.
Well, he felt the tension. Calleigh seemed to be perfectly fine with the entire situation. But then again, she was engaged. Of course she wasn't going to feel the least bit awkward about working with him.
Tim scowled at nothing in particular as he looked through the photos from their latest crime scene. It was the only thing he could do at the moment while he waited for his results to pop out of the mass spec. Well, that, and wonder what Calleigh was up to.
His mind drifted back to earlier that morning at the crime scene. As usual, he'd been working with Calleigh, and he couldn't help notice that she'd seemed a little different that morning. He'd had four of his sarcastic comments go unanswered by one of her snappy retorts. That was odd. Tim had gotten quite used to her comebacks; they made it all the more fun to tease her. But she'd been quiet this morning. She didn't seem upset or anything, just quiet. Tim had rolled his eyes and assumed she was just tired; after all, her fiancé had been in town for the last couple of days. And since Tim certainly didn't want to hear any details of that, he simply gave up trying to talk to her, focusing solely on the case.
Still, her sudden change in demeanor bothered him. It was the first time since he'd met her that she hadn't been brighter than sunshine. And while Tim swore her perpetual optimism annoyed him to death, he couldn't deny that now that it had faded slightly, he missed it. She still bore that sunny exterior, but it was only skin-deep. He could tell she was troubled underneath.
The beeping of the mass spec brought him out of his thoughts, and Tim sauntered over to it, snatching up the results with more force than was actually needed. Scowling again, he tossed the paper to the side, the results not yielding any new information. "Tell me something I don't already know," he grumbled, rubbing his temples.
"Talking to yourself again?"
Startled, Tim glanced up, seeing Calleigh in the doorway. "I wasn't talking to myself," he said defensively, glaring over at the mass spec. "I was talking to that useless machine."
Calleigh crossed her arms, pretending to look concerned. "I'm not sure which is worse; talking to yourself, or talking to inanimate objects."
Tim smirked. "Yeah. Says you who has entire conversations with guns and bullets."
"Oh, hush," Calleigh said with a grin, for lack of a better retort. She walked the rest of the way into the room, the steady clack of her heels on the floor echoing slightly. Tim snickered, still unable to figure out how in the world Calleigh found those things comfortable.
Seconds later, he felt her perch herself on the stool next to him, watching him intently as she clasped her hands on her lap. "So what's the story?" she asked, nodding toward the case photos.
Tim sighed, raking a hand through his hair. "I really haven't been able to figure that out yet," he replied defeatedly. He glanced over at Calleigh, his eyes lingering a bit on her bare hands. They'd been covered by gloves almost all morning, hidden from view.
"Well, I'm sure we'll figure it out," Calleigh replied, oblivious to where Tim's attention had landed. She turned back to the collection of photos, pursing her lips as she stared at them. Tim, meanwhile, continued to stare at her hands, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
"Uh, where's your ring?" he asked bluntly, the void on her ring finger very noticeable to him. Tim couldn't lie; he'd looked at her left hand everyday, hoping that just maybe her ring would disappear.
He just never really expected it to actually disappear.
Startled by his question, Calleigh looked down, lifting her hand slightly. "Oh. It's…" she sighed, different lies running through her mind. She was halfway tempted to tell him she'd left it on the vanity this morning, or perhaps on the kitchen counter, but she quickly killed that train of thought. Looking up at him, she smiled. "It's in Louisiana."
Tim blinked. "Louisiana?"
Calleigh chuckled. "Yeah, Louisiana." Seeing the confusion still written on his face, she clarified. "With Michael."
"Your fiancé?"
"Ex-fiancé."
"Ex-fiancé?"
Calleigh stared at him, a tiny giggle escaping her throat. "That's what I just said."
Tim looked down, staring perhaps a little too intensely at the trace sample in front of him. "Oh. Well. I'm sorry."
Calleigh shrugged, reaching up to slide her hair behind her ears. The motion hadn't gone unnoticed by Tim; he knew that was one of her many nervous reactions. Simply from watching her over the last couple of months, he also knew that she also tended to fidget with her bracelet or her now missing ring when she was nervous. And then there was her rambling, which still amused Tim to no end. But by far the reaction that antagonized him the most was when she would nibble at her lower lip. That drove him crazy.
Her reply pulled him out of his thoughts and prompted him to glance back up at her, lifting an eyebrow and wondering just how serious she was. "I'm not."
"Why not? You were engaged to him for over a year, weren't you?"
"Fourteen months, yeah." She sighed, and Tim couldn't help but flinch at the fleeting sadness that crossed her features. "I should've known that my coming down here was the beginning of the end."
Pushing aside what he was working on, Tim turned on his stool, facing her completely. "The beginning of the end?"
"Tim, that's like the third time in the past ten minutes that you've simply repeated what I said," Calleigh said, amused. "I get the impression that this surprised you more than it did me," she added with a chuckle.
Tim stared at her. "Calleigh, you were engaged when you moved down here, and now, suddenly you're not anymore. That is a bit...surprising, I guess."
"Well, if you didn't expect it, then yeah." She smiled at him, looking into his dark, questioning eyes. She sighed. "I knew it was over the day I stepped into my boss's office and met Horatio Caine for the first time," she said, purposely inflecting a wistful tone into her voice, just to play with Tim's reaction.
It had the desired effect. Tim gaped at her, his eyes widening. "What does Horatio have to do with any of this?" he asked, slightly suspicious. The way she'd spoken had almost implied…no, he wouldn't go there. Finding out she was engaged was bad enough, but he didn't want to think about the possibility of that engagement ending because she'd fallen for a certain red-headed lieutenant.
Because that really would've been far too much.
Calleigh laughed. "I was joking, Tim! It's nothing like that," she said, teasingly swatting his arm. "I didn't fall madly in love with the man the first time I saw him or anything." Her laughter died down, but her eyes retained that playful sparkle that always accompanied her laugh. "I was still undecided on whether I wanted to come here or stay in New Orleans. And I was working one day, and out of the blue, my boss called me to the office, and there Horatio was. It was like an impromptu interview; as soon as we were done talking, he told me the job was mine if I wanted it. And somehow, my mind was made up then." She shrugged. "I don't know why. They say first impressions are everything, and I guess from the first impression I got from Horatio, I felt it'd be a lot calmer working under him than where I'd been working. I knew the moment I left that office that I was coming to Miami."
She paused, her eyes dropping to the floor as she shifted a bit on her stool. "Michael never thought I'd actually go through with it, though."
"He didn't think you were serious?"
Calleigh shook her head. "He was convinced that I was happy in New Orleans; that I had everything I needed there and that I didn't need to come here." She chuckled bitterly. "He only made that fact abundantly clear to me everyday until I left."
"I don't know why I tried to make the long distance engagement work. I knew he wasn't going to drop everything to come to Miami for me and start over completely. And I think eventually he figured out that I was serious; that I was staying in Miami." She exhaled deeply, glancing back up at Tim. "And it just fell apart from there. He met someone new, and I..."
"You what?" Tim asked, curious.
And I did the same. Calleigh hesitated. "Nothing," she replied after a moment, shaking her head. "Nothing."
Tim lifted an eyebrow, not fully believing her. He was still getting to know her, but he knew Calleigh well enough by now to know when she was uncomfortable or was only being half-truthful. This was one of those times, and Tim couldn't figure out why.
Suddenly she shook her head, giggling slightly. "Listen to me," she said, again sliding her hair behind her ears. "Here I am, telling you all this, and it's probably the last thing you care about."
He shook his head, giving her a rare but genuine smile. "Calleigh; if you ever have something you need or want to talk about, anything at all," he paused, shrugging. "I'm here, okay?" He smirked. "I may mock you or lace everything I say with one hundred percent sarcasm, but I'll still listen."
She laughed again, rolling her eyes. It was easily one of the things she loved most about him; she could have a serious conversation with the man, but his sarcasm kept it from becoming too personal for her. His teasing remarks kept things on comfortable ground. For the first time in a long time, Calleigh actually had someone she felt comfortable talking to.
She nodded slowly as her laughter faded, giving him a smile of her own. "Thanks, Tim," she said softly. With a sigh, she slid off the stool, starting in the direction of the door. "I should get back to work. I'll be in ballistics if you find anything."
"Alright." He turned back to his current task, but found his mind even more cluttered than before. There was no way he could concentrate on this right now. Tim needed a break.
He needed a distraction, and he knew someone else that could use one as well.
Sliding his hand into his pocket, he gently jiggled his keys in his hand as an idea struck him. Deciding they both needed to get out of the lab for a bit, he jumped up from his stool and hurried out the door, catching up and stepping around in front of Calleigh. He grinned, holding up the key to the Ducati.
"Calleigh? You wanna go for a ride?"