Author's note: Uh…I'm sorry for the near month wait? I didn't mean for it to be that long but I had a lot of schoolwork to do and then this chapter did not want to be written. I'm not completely satisfied with it, but it'll have to do. Had this chapter ready like 4 days ago but the site was being stupid. Hopefully these instructions I got from another story I read works!

Summary: Spoilers for "Man Down" AU, kinda. Ryan goes to visit Eric after the case is closed.

Warnings: Spoilers for "Man Down", slash, itty bitty spoilers for any episodes after "Man Down"

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. And, while I have not seen any other stories like this, this is my take on the idea; any resemblance to other stories is sheer coincidence.

'thoughts' "talking" --------- scene change

This chapter takes place approx. 3-4 weeks after Eric is released from the hospital. ----------

If he had thought being cooped up in the hospital was bad, being stuck in the lab with every single pair of eyes on him was even worse. Well, nearly every pair of eyes on him, everyone except Ryan. He seemed to go out of his way to avoid Eric and when he did approach Eric, he kept his eyes adverted and sentences short and cold. This attitude, plus his swiss cheese memory, had Eric turning to Calleigh for an explanation.

"Did Wolfe and I ever get along?" he asked the blonde CSI as she came into the break room. "Or would it be better to avoid him completely?" He held his breath as Calleigh contemplated on how to answer that question. He hoped that she would say that him and Ryan had been friends before and were just in a rough patch. If she said that he and Ryan had never gotten along, it would cause Eric to revise his plan slightly.

"You and Ryan were…" she paused, trying to think just how mad Ryan would become if she told Eric the truth. "Well, let's just say it's complicated."

"Complicated?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Well, he replaced Speed and that was hard on all of us…and then there was that reporter…Why don't you just ask him yourself?"

"Because he's avoiding me. That's why I thought there might have been a problem between us" Eric said with a small sigh. "And it's not like I can just go and tackle him so that he'll talk to me…not until I've gotten rid of this thing." He gestured to the cane that was resting against the wall behind him. The bullet wound in his leg was healing slowly and his doctor had wanted him to use it until he could walk normally without pain. He had another doctors appointment after shift and he hoped that the doctor would clear him for field duty again, or even to be able to live by himself.

Calleigh's eyes widened slightly as a mental image of Eric tackling Ryan took over her mind. Maybe things weren't so hopeless after all. She would have to tell Alexx there was a possibility that on some subconscious level, Eric remembered Ryan. "To make a long story short, you two eventually worked things out." He nodded, smiling slightly. "I'll talk to him if you want."

"No, it's okay Cal. I'll eventually catch him and find out what the hell his problem is," Eric replied, grinning. "It's only a matter of time." And really, it was. To put it simply, Eric was attracted to Ryan. His curiosity was enticed by the mystery that was Ryan Wolfe and he wanted nothing more than to untangle that mystery. He wanted Ryan and what Eric wanted, he got. He smirked inwardly. This was going to be fun. -----------

Eric let out a soft sigh as he closed the door of his apartment behind him and leaned against the door heavily. He was finally alone and took his time appreciating the comforting silence. He had seen his doctor earlier that day and nearly cheered when he finally declared Eric fit enough to be living by himself. However, Eric knew that he would not be alone for long. Soon enough, one of his co-workers or family members would make up some kind of excuse to come over and visit him. Grimacing, he pushed himself upright and limped slightly towards the living room. If his mother was going to come over, he was going to have to clean up his place a bit.

"I don't even want to see the size the dust bunnies have grown to since I haven't been here," he muttered darkly. He had never been the best at keeping his apartment clean when he was there daily. He expected by now to see mutant dust bunnies planning a revolution in his living room, but instead found that it was sparkling clean. The dark-haired CSI's jaw dropped. "What the…."

Every surface was shiny and brand-new looking, all of his various magazines had been straightened into two neat piles instead of just being tossed all over the place and the pillows on his couch had been fluffed and arranged in perfect order. This cleanliness puzzled Eric to no end. Either his mother had been here, which was physically impossible since she had spent nearly every waking moment by Eric or else he was a clean freak and had forgotten about that part of himself.

Sighing, he decided that it wasn't worth worrying about for now and walked over to his bookshelf in order to get a better look at the pictures that were lined up there. From what he could remember, he had never been the type of person to put pictures up which made him wonder if Calleigh or Alexx had had a hand in the clean state of his apartment and the spontaneous appearance of pictures. There were a few expected ones such as pictures of him and his family, him and Mari (he had to swallow a few tears at the sight of that one), but one that caught his attention immediately. It was a picture of him and Ryan; heads close in conversation and Eric's hand placed almost possessively on Ryan's shoulder. It was clearly a candid shot as neither of them were facing the camera but Eric was drawn to it. He had seen the same picture in his locker when he first came back. The image had been the first clue to Eric, that, contrary to Ryan's attitude, they had been friends and good ones by the looks of it. It was also the first thing that convinced Eric that his crusade to rekindle the friendship and then turn it into something more was not as farfetched as he originally thought.

'Patience' he reminded himself silently, moving away from the pictures and towards the kitchen to see what leftover his mother had sent home with him. 'I have to be patient with him…one step at a time or you might scare him off.' -----------

Horatio let out a tired sigh as he hung up his phone. He hated having to send Ryan to a construction scene but he had no one else. Calleigh and him were already working another case, Eric was not ready to work a scene alone yet and since Valera was backed up in DNA, Natalia was giving her a hand for the next few shifts. His thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on his partially closed door. "Yes?" Calleigh stuck her head in, folder in hand.

"Are you busy? I can come back later," she said, smiling brightly. The redheaded man waved her in.

"No, I just got off the phone with Ryan about a new scene" he replied, managing a small smile of his own. "I'm guessing by your smile that you have good news?" She nodded and sat down in one of the chairs in front of Horatio's desk.

"Yup, ballistics got a match and Frank is bringing in the suspect as we speak. Turned out the best friend hadn't told us everything." He nodded, having already suspected that.

"Good, once we're done here, would you go give Ryan a hand? It's a dead body at a construction site and he could be there for several hours if he doesn't get some help." Calleigh started to reply with a 'yes' and then paused as a thought entered her brain.

"Horatio, are you aware of the…situation between Ryan and Eric?" she asked hesitantly. She knew that Horatio was observant but even so, she also didn't want to be responsible for outing her two friends. It was bad enough that she was going behind Ryan's back like this; she didn't need to dig herself into a deeper hole. However, much to her relief, her boss smiled knowingly.

"I've known for awhile. Those two are not always subtle" he replied. "And Alexx has filled me in on the details."

"Good because I think you should send Eric to work with Ryan then. The doctor has cleared him for most things and it's a secured scene…it'll force the two of them to at least talk and hopefully things will progress from there" Calleigh explained, eyes sparkling with mischief. Instead of offering a verbal reply, Horatio offered another smile as he picked up his phone and dialed.

"Eric? Do you think you're ready to try a crime scene? Really? Good." --------

Ryan looked around the scene as he tried to figure out where to start taking pictures. He was feeling more than a little uncomfortable being at a construction site. Horatio had sounded slightly apologetic over the phone, though how his boss had known that being around anything remotely related to nail guns made Ryan wary was baffling him. He glanced up as he heard another car pull up to the scene and barely held back a groan as Eric slowly climbed out of the Hummer.

'The world is against me' he thought bitterly, trying to pretend that he was engrossed in putting new film in his camera as Eric walked towards him. It wasn't that Ryan didn't want to be around Eric; it was that he wanted to be around Eric too much. It had to be some form of torture, to be so close to someone you love and yet not allowed to touch them, or even talk to them the way you had once upon a time. 'You did this to yourself' he mused grimly, hands shaking slightly as he attempted to put the film in. 'You could have told him when he woke up and then you could be together, like before. No more cold, lonely nights, no more sleepless nights, no more nightmares of Eric dying…you could have prevented this.' Teeth clenched, Ryan quieted his wayward thoughts and pulled his focus back to the crime scene.

"Hey" Eric greeted him softly. Ryan nodded in response, not trusting himself to speak at the moment. "What have we got?"

"Body was found an hour ago by a worker. Looks like a stabbing to me" the brunette replied briefly, finally getting the film in correctly and standing up from his crouched position. "Alexx is on her way here. Did you want the perimeter or the body?"

Eric blinked, still not used to Ryan's cold, brisk attitude towards him. It just didn't feel…right. He could see Ryan growing impatient as he struggled to make a decision. Could he trust himself not to make a mistake? Or could he make himself believe that his double vision, which popped up at the most inconvenient times, wouldn't cause him to miss anything?

"I'll take the body," he decided, finally reasoning that if he missed anything, Alexx would at least be checking it over again. Ryan nodded, pinching the bridge of this nose as he felt a headache building behind his eyes. He wanted to end this torture, fast. "You okay Wolfe?"

"Yeah, just a headache" he said shortly. "Let's just get this done, okay?" Eric frowned slightly as some foggy memory danced out of his reach. Something to do with nails…and Ryan. He barely managed to hold back a gasp as it became clear.

"Your eye!" Eric blurted out and Ryan finally looked up at him, confusion clearly evident in his hazel eyes.

"What about it?"

Eric paused, trying to sort the muddled images. "It's...is it okay? The nail didn't hit anything important, did it?" he asked worriedly, resisting the urge to go over and check Ryan out. Ryan looked even more confused.

"Uh Eric, that was over a year ago" he replied quietly, trying to quiet his pounding heart. If Eric remembered the nail incident, what else would he remember? Not for the first time, he wondered if he had done the right thing by lying to Eric. "And I'm fine…" 'Now' he added silently.

There had been some frightening moments during the healing process, like the infection that could have taken his sight and the car accident that had finally pushed him to go to the doctor. All of this on top of struggling to figure out what exactly was between him and Eric. The Latino CSI had made his move shortly after Ryan had gotten home from the hospital. Ryan had balked at first, believing that this was some cruel joke by Eric. He had never once believed that a gorgeous man like Eric could ever like someone so plain as he was. However, Eric wouldn't take no for an answer and slowly, he had wormed his way into every aspect of Ryan's life. At first, Ryan couldn't imagine living a day with Eric, now he couldn't bear to live a few hours without him.

"A year?" Eric asked, breaking Ryan's train of thought. "What happened exactly?"

"A lady trying to hide the murder weapon, in this case the nail gun, got scared when I came in to search the place and shot me. You came and took me to the hospital."

"I…did" he murmured, amazed at the fact that he had managed to hold onto the fuzzy memory. "Yeah, I remember now." Ryan managed the smallest of smiles.

"Good, Alexx will be thrilled" he said dryly, knowing that she had been hovering over his former lover. Eric rolled his eyes, happy that Ryan seemed to be relaxing slightly around him.

"I'm almost tempted not to tell her…or my mother" he replied darkly. "I don't know how much longer I can take it from those two."

"Well, just be glad they haven't teamed up."

"Don't even say that!" Eric said, a horrified look on his face. "Don't even think that Wolfe. Because if that happens, you are going to face them with me."

Ryan let out a short laugh that surprised the both of them. Ryan had forgotten that he was with the new Eric and not the old Eric. Red-faced, Ryan turned away as he silently berated himself. Eric looked away as well, not wanting to show Ryan how much that small laugh had shown him that it wasn't hopeless after all. He picked up his kit and prepared to walk over to the body before stopping and turning back with a determined look on his face.

"Ryan?"

"Yeah Delko?"

"I know you're probably busy, but Calleigh and I were going to go out after shift and get a couple of beers. Did you want to come?"

'Say no, say no' the more rational part of his brain commanded. "Only if we get a good start on this case" Ryan answered, trying to sound calm as his brain fairly screamed 'idiot' at him. Eric offered him a dazzling smile before heading back towards the body. Seeing the new Eric grin like the old one had caused Ryan's stomach to flip-flop. He was in so much trouble…

TBC

Ok, this story has now taken on a life of it's own now. There were only supposed to be 4 chapters and now it's looking to be 5 or 6. Again, so sorry for the wait! Hopefully the next chapter will be out soon, but no promises though since I'm heading into exams.

Oh, as for the picture in Eric's apartment, one of the reviewers (I am so sorry, your name has slipped my mind at this moment) suggested that Calleigh or Alexx should leave a picture in Eric's apartment. Now, I'm not saying that they did that for sure, but there's a good possibility that they did ☺ Thank you for the idea!

Wishful Thinker