When Calleigh got home she was dead tired. It had been a long day: working on this hard case, specially when you find out a innocent girl got killed. Then going to check up on Eric and having this emotional conversation with him, and more then she cared to admit it, it had affected her... the fact that he kept this inside and never told anyone. Then having to go to her appointment right after it. It was around 11:00 when she was finally able to reach her front door. What drained her the most it was the fact that she had worried about Eric ever since he left that interrogation room. She wondered if he was doing ok after the surgery. It took him longer to return to work then the first time, she wanted to ask him why, but hadn't gotten the chance to do so yet. She was surprised that he even talked to her about what he was feeling, and it shocked her even more when he texted her to go to his parents the next day. She was going to say no, but after she left his house he was the only thing she could think about. She missed him a lot, having him there with her after work, she missed the random text he would send her during the days saying random things that would make her smile, she missed his company. Even though he started acting different towards the end of their relationship, she knew something was going on that he didn't tell her. Thinking about maybe he wanted to, but was afraid. She remembers that day when they were at a crime scene and he excused himself to talk on the phone, something he never did around her. Then he lied to her when she asked who it was, by saying it was someone from the lab asking for information about some fingerprints. She was surprised when he told her later that day, that who he really was talking to was his father. She didn't know if she felt relieved that he told her the truth, or if she felt mad that he told her a lie in the first place. She didn't want him to get involved with his dad, because she knew he wasn't going to be the best influence in Eric's life and he could lead Eric to do something that could put him in danger, and that happened. She knew it would, because Eric just was that kind of person, he always saw the good in people, he always wanted to help and most of that times people used him and that usually lead him to trouble.

She took a quick shower, put on a pair of her favorite PJ's and walked into her kitchen. She decided to have a glass of milk and go straight to bed, since tomorrow was going to be an early day. As she got into bed she smiled at the thought of spending the day with Eric for the first time in months. She hoped everything would go well and maybe they'd be able to get into the same page about certain things. Because more then she acted to admit, she cared a whole lot about him. And after being with him today at his house, she realized that yeah...She was definitely still in love with him.

***

The sound of the alarm going off startled Eric out of his deep sleep, it took him a while to fall asleep the night before, because all he could think about was what would happen the next day and the things Calleigh had told him during their conversation. He flipped over the bed to look at the time, it read 9:15, so he just turned off the alarm and stayed there for about 5 minutes, before he started a shower. It was about 10:45 when he was ready to leave the house, and go pick up calleigh. He texted her when he was getting in his car to let her know he was on the way to her house.

" On my way, is that ok?" - Eric

" yeah, see you." - calleigh

He parked his car in front of her house, and as he was about to open the door, he found himself stopping his actions, when he noticed Calleigh walking out towards his car. The moment he saw her, he knew the reason why she didn't wait for him to get out and knock on her door like he usually did. She was trying to prevent that awkward greeting that had been going on between them the past few months, and in a way he was thankful for that. As he stared at her while she walked towards the passenger side, he could tell she was nervous and if he was being honest with himself he was as well. He kept telling himself he shouldn't be...they broke up, but they were still friends, he needed to put his feelings aside and act like...like they did back when they were friends. But as soon as he saw her at her door, all those thoughts went out the door. He couldn't pretend, he couldn't make his heart believe that he didn't have feelings towards her...because he did, he always have and maybe always would. He needed to talk to her today, tell her the truth about his feelings, explain why he did what he did, tell her he didn't mean to shut her out, tell her that he...

" Hey Eric " Calleigh said opening the door of his car.

" Hey calleigh, how you doing?"

" I'm good. How about you? Headache gone? "

" Yeah yeah it's gone for now, thank god! You ready to go? "

" Yeah."

The rest of the ride there were spent making small talk. Both were trying to not think about what would be like to arrive together at his Parents house. Calleigh knew that his family wouldn't mention anything about them, if they knew about the break-up, which he said they did...and she knew that even if he hadn't told her, she would've known, because Eric wasn't one to keep something like this from his family, and she was pretty sure they had asked about them.

***

" Tio Eric " was the first thing he heard as soon as he walked into the backyard of his parents house. He smiled when he saw one of his younger nieces running towards him with her arms open. He bent down and picked her up and gave her a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek.

She laughed and gave him a tight hug in return. It was then that she noticed who was standing behind him.

" Tia Cawwie." She yelled, while reaching out to her...Eric was sort of surprised by the little girls excitment after seeing Calleigh standing there. He couldn't blame her, she hadn't seen calleigh ever since They'd broken up, around 2 months and a few days ago. He was kind of jealous of the little girl, she got to show how she really felt about having calleigh there without having to worry about anything.

He got closer to Calleigh in order to hand Maddie to Calleigh. He noticed the smile Calleigh had on her face, she loved maddie, even before they started dating. He could tell she had missed her, but he also noticed the uncomfortable look when maddie called her Aunt Calleigh. She started calling her that after she learned that calleigh was dating uncle Eric. They weren't dating anymore, and she wondered if his sister had told the little girls that.

" Hi baby, how you been?" Calleigh asked holding the little girl in her arms.

" I've been good tia Calleigh. I missed you." she said looking at calleigh

" I've missed you too. You look so big" calleigh said tickling her belly.

Maddie laughed. " tio Eric says I'm growing up to fast." she said smiling

Calleigh laughed and looked at Eric who was attentively watching and listening to their conversation and smiled.

" You are." He added pitching her nose playfully.

" He said he doesn't like that I'm growing up to fast." Maddie added looking at calleigh, giving her a look as if saying that what uncle eric said made no sense

" well that's because your tio eric is sad that he will not get to play as much with you after you grow up and then you going to start to like little boys, so he's gonna have to share you" calleigh said in a whisper.

" ewww " maddie said and eric and calleigh laughed.

" yeah baby, ewww. You need to stay away from boys, they're gross." eric said looking at maddie, then he looked at calleigh

" I'm going to let my mom know we're here. You need anything?" he asked.

" No I'm good. thank you."

" Want me to take her?" he asked nodding towards Maddie.

" No no, I want to spend some time with her. I've missed her." Calleigh said looking at the little girl

" Yeah we'--She has missed you a lot too." he added.

Calleigh just smiled and nodded.

" I'll be back." he said and started walking towards the kitchen where he saw his mom, dad, sisters, grandma and other family members staring at them from the window smiling...and he had to smile at that as well.