Date Chapter Written: July 2, 2008.
Author: LePecoreNere
Beta'd by: faithobrien
3 Elements from: faithobrien
1. A grocery store
2. New shoes
3. A pharmacist

A/N: Woo it's -finally- finished, hope it's good. Thanks to Kaz for helping me, otherwise I never would've gotten it done.


Chapter Seven: So Far Away


As Calleigh listened to what Horatio had to say, she was forced to do a double take. "What?" she said, making sure she didn't mishear the Lieutenant.

"Mrs. O'Shea-Venkman is pointing her finger at the mother," Horatio repeated calmly.

Calleigh glanced at Eric, noting the confused looks he was giving her. "Why would Susanna accuse her mother?" she asked.

"Well, ma'am, I sent the interview to the lab. You may see for yourself. But, for now, I need the crime to be investigated without prejudice."

"Okay," Calleigh started slowly, trying to figure out the parallels, "should Mrs. O'Shea be taken in for further questioning?"

"I don't think that's necessary, ma'am. I trust you'll be able to continue the investigation without pulling in an old family feud," Horatio replied. "I'll handle Susanna for now, until then, take care of yourself."

"Yeah, talk to you later," Calleigh said, feeling all too much like a cloud had replaced her brain. She closed her cell phone and placed it back on the side.

"What did Horatio have to say?" Eric asked.

Sighing, Calleigh ran her fingers through her hair and began to recount her conversation with their boss. "What do you think?" she asked after a moment's pause.

Eric frowned, knowing the opportunity to talk about him and Calleigh… us, had just gone out the window. "I think it's strange that Susanna would accuse her mother of this," he said, chuckling in disbelief. "I mean, I can't picture Mrs. Venkman as a cold-blooded killer," he finished with a shake of his head.

"Yeah, I know. I wonder how the case from Miami is connected to this one? That's what I don't get; there's no apparent link between them," Calleigh said thoughtfully.

"I wouldn't have known that these two murders were connected at all until the bullet evidence," Eric replied, looking down at his empty plate. He took a moment to think before he glanced back up and suggested, "Maybe we should take H's advice. There's obviously some kind of family feud going on with the Venkmans, so we should stay neutral. Go with what the evidence tells us."

Knowing that he was right, Calleigh nodded. It was perhaps the most important rule of being a forensic scientist - focusing solely on the evidence. And a small smile graced her mouth as she tried to work out when her role reversal with Eric had taken place - she was usually the pragmatic one.

Eric watched her carefully, wondering what she was thinking about, wanting desperately to try and broach the topic of 'them' once more; but knowing that the moment had well and truly passed. The pregnant pause between them was broken, however, when Calleigh suddenly said, "I think we should go back to the crime scene."

Eric blinked. "For what?" Hadn't they already gotten all that was needed from it?

"I think we might have missed something," she replied. "Call it gut feeling." If the crimes were indeed connected, they needed a way of proving that the same killer was at this crime scene, and not just the gun. They need something; a proverbial nail in someone's coffin.

"Okay, like what?" he asked.

"I don't know, but first we've got to see if there were any results on that blood."

- - -

To say that the Quantico Crime Lab was big was an understatement. That had been the first thing that Calleigh noticed when she'd stepped foot in it before, and it still hit her now. The second had been that it was busy; people in lab coats moving to and fro, talking in small knit groups obviously about cases littered the tiled floor. The occasional suit spoke of detectives, and uniformed police officers strolled around; some laughing, some stoic.

"Kinda puts our lab to shame, huh?" Eric breathed next to her, effectively reading her thoughts. "Place is huge."

"Hey, welcome back," Angela said, walking up to them. The humor on her face was evident as she watched their slack-jawed amazement. "Don't worry; it gets less daunting after a while. Matt was awe-struck for a week; he even went shopping in an attempt to fit in better - brought new shoes and everything!" She let out a small laugh. "But, I've got news: the evidence and case information just arrived," she informed them. "If you'll follow me..." She began to walk and they set off after her, passing A/V rooms, DNA and Print labs, various rooms full of high tech gadgets... until eventually they came to a stop in the Layout room.

The evidence from James' murder was spread out, and the box with Paul's murder stood prominent on the table. Matt looked up from the photos and greeted them.

"Okay, first things first: the blood in the antibiotic ointment had no hits on CODIS, but I can definitely tell you that our killer is a male," he said.

"So that definitely rules out Mrs. O'Shea, as well as Susanna," Calleigh deduced.

"No familial match to relatives or anything?" Eric asked.

"Already did that, and nope, no family ties to either Mrs. O'Shea or the daughter."

Eric and Calleigh looked at each other. The look was simple and clear: Neither woman had a hand in murdering their husbands. Back to square one?

"We've got Detective O'Leary digging around in Mr. O'Shea's past, who knows? We might find someone linked to them," Matt told them.

"You mean besides obvious family relations?" Angela asked. "Other than family, I don't really see much that connects these two cases," she said, irritation evident in voice. "We've got no leads and it's day two of this case."

"Tell me about it; it's been longer than that for our case. We were getting ready to put the case in the cold case files," Calleigh replied, letting out a small sigh.

The air was cut suddenly with a loud ringing of a cell phone. After realising that it was coming from him, Matt flipped his open and answered, "Davies." There was a brief pause. "Hello, Detective O'Leary… uh-huh… okay. Yeah, I'll tell her. Yeah, we'll be there soon." He finished the call and hung up before turning to his colleague. "Angela, O'Leary found a possible lead. We're gonna meet him out front," Matt informed her.

"Okay. Well," she began, turning to Eric and Calleigh, "we'll fill you two in later." She turned to leave, but not before she remembered, "Oh, by the way, I'll let you two in on something." She leaned over the table, and lowered her voice. "You'd better watch out for Mr. O'Leary. He's a mean old Irish cop who thinks the sun shines out of his ass. Like there was this one time, we were questioning a suspect at a pharmacy and he-"

"Ange, we've got to get moving," Matt told her, looking a little impatient.

Angela rolled her eyes. "Alright, I'll finish the story later."

- - -

Eric and Calleigh left the lab; both having the intention of returning to their hotel rooms and sleeping. But as Eric started the car, a thought popped into his mind. "I'm gonna stop at the grocery store on the way back."

"Why?" Calleigh asked as she strapped herself in.

"Because I have a feeling we're going to be here for a while. Plus the hotel food is barely edible."

"Eric, do you remember what happened to the potatoes?" she reminded him with a fond smile.

He groaned as the memory came up. "You had to bring up the potatoes." He shook his head as he remembered when he'd tried to cook something for his sister's party. The dish had ended in a disaster, literally. In his desperation, he had called Calleigh for help, and she'd walked into the house to find a surprise.

- - -

"Eric! What happened?" she exclaimed upon entering. The kitchen was a disaster. The top of the stove was emitting an unnatural amount of smoke, and Eric was using a fire extinguisher to try to put it out.

"I was trying to make some papas rellenas, but, well, I'm sure you can put two and two together." He gestured to the smoldering deep fryer.

"Yeah, but what were you cooking for? A special occasion?" she asked.

"Yeah, uh, my sister is having a baby, and mamí is throwing her a party. She asked me to bring a dish, and I guess that I decided the best way to eat them is burnt." He let out a chuckle. "But anyway, I kind of need another dish, and I was wondering if you could help me?" he asked with a grin.

"Sure," Calleigh smiled, "I'll show you how to make my mom's red beans and rice," she told him, her accent thickening with the memory of good Southern food.

"Red beans and rice? Don't beans take like two hours to cook? I mean, the party starts in an hour."

"My, for someone who burnt potatoes, you sure do know your beans," she sassed. "Yes, they do take a long time to soak, but we're going to do the fast and dirty method; it'll only take about twenty minutes." She began to rummage around his kitchen, taking out some rice, and searching for beans.

"Oh? And is this 'fast and dirty method' your mom's recipe?" he asked, crossing his arms as he watched her raid his kitchen.

She turned and narrowed her eyes. "Well, I'm kind of wingin' it. But I don't think you have the time to complain," she told him pointedly, trying to be serious, but a smile giving it away. "Eric," she sighed, "you've got no kidney beans in your cupboard."

He smiled. "Well, we can always stop by the store and pick some up?"

"Yeah, we'll also be needing some ham at the store, too," she replied.

"Lead the way, ma'am," he said, gesturing for the door.

"My, aren't you quite the charmer?" she teased as she walked out the door, smiling as he quickly followed.

- - -

"Well, I can assure you that I am not going to burn the food this time," Eric informed her, shaking the memory from his mind and pulling out of the parking lot.

"Alright, I guess we'll have to test your cooking abilities later on." Calleigh tensed as she realized what she was implying. Last time they'd been alone and around food she'd nearly opened up to him, and cooking together was just so... conventional. With a deep breath, she rambled, "I meant you could cook, and afterwards we could go to bed…" She paused. "Our own beds," she rushed as her face began to turn a brilliant shade of red. Why was she making the situation so much more… awkward?

"I, uh, knew what you meant," Eric assured her with a chuckle, clearly just as embarrassed by her faux-pas. But the idea of cooking for her did sound nice... maybe it would give him a chance to broach the topic about their relationsip. Again. He felt old doubts and fears arise. Would it be too late? Every time he tried to broach 'them', it only seemed to push her farther away. He hoped he would have the words this time to tell her… before everything he wanted drifted farther from his reach.


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Next Chapter Post Date: 23/07/08