The third chapter, Eric gets into a spot of bother and Ryan has some unanswered questions for Calleigh; CaRWash here.

Chapter 3: Questions and Trouble

Ryan had wanted to ask Calleigh why her address had been there, he really had wanted to, but, he had chickened out. He didn't have the guts to ask her. There were a lot of things that he didn't have the guts to ask her. He ran an uneasy hand through his hair, he could see that whatever was going on back at the crime lab was bigger that him, or Calleigh or Jake or even Horatio, them getting involved might not be a good thing. He had to trust that Calleigh knew what she was doing. Without that trust he had nothing. There were a lot of things about this case that he did not understand, things that had yet to be explained. His phone buzzed in his pocket causing him to jump slightly before he retrieved it, he looked at the caller ID and answered it; "Eric?" he asked, clearly confused.

"Ryan, hi." Eric's voice sounded distant.

"Are you ok?" Ryan asked suddenly worried, Eric sounded almost scared.

There was a long pause; "Do you know?" he asked avoiding Ryan's question.

Ryan's eyes grew wide, he wasn't sure what Eric was asking, but he remembered what Calleigh had said; 'Do not discuss this with anyone, this must remain between us. Do you understand.' He decided to play dumb; "What is there to know? You are aware that I am on leave right?" Ryan asked playing his part perfectly. He heard Eric cough loudly, he was saying something to someone in the room which he was in; "Eric? Are you ok?" Ryan asked clearly concerned for his colleague. There was a loud bang on the other end of the phone and the line went dead. Ryan looked at the phone in his hands, what was going on?

He stared at his phone for a minute or so more before deciding on a plan of action, he dialled Calleigh's number, he waited as it rang, once, twice on the third ring it was picked up; "Hello?"

"Calleigh!" Ryan was frantic.

"Ryan? What's wrong? Has something happened?" she asked worried for him.

He took a deep breath; "I am fine, but," he paused and closed his eyes; "I just received a call from Eric, he sounded panicked, I think he is in trouble Cal." He told her, he heard her breath hitch in her throat; "What should I do?" he asked her.

"Nothing, there is nothing you can do. Eric…apparently Eric has gotten himself into trouble, when all of this is resolved we will find him," she paused unsure of herself; "I…I…know, this is hard Ryan, but it is necessary…" she trailed off, Ryan could tell that she was struggling to hold her emotions in.

"Calleigh, are you ok?" he asked now clearly worried about her, he had began pacing back and forth, nerves coursing through him.

She paused and he could tell that she was crying; "I am fine, look, I'm coming over we need to talk," she paused- they were talking- "face to face." She finished. He found himself nodding, she was right, there was a lot they needed to discus, questions that required answers, and there was a lot he needed to say to her.

--

Calleigh grabbed her bag and car keys, Horatio was standing in the doorway; "Emergency?" he asked, sun glasses in hand. She looked at him and nodded.

"Ryan called, I…" she paused and looked into H's kind blue eyes, "…Eric is in trouble." She confided in him.

H nodded; "Mr. Delko's absence had been noted. You have to go then?" he asked with raised eyebrows, she nodded and hurried past him; "Be careful." He called after her. She did not need telling twice. She would certainly take great care, with the whole team now somehow involved Calleigh knew that trust was limited. She drove as fast as the speed limit would allow to Ryan's condo. He had clearly been looking out for her, as the moment she stepped from her Hummer he was out on the front lawn waiting to meet her.

"Ryan?" she asked looking him up and down.

"You know all of this stress really can't be good for my heart." He told her, she smiled sadly at him. She had no words of comfort to give him. As far as she could see this wasn't about to come to an easy conclusion.

"Other than an uneasy heart, how are you holding up?" she asked as he led her inside.

"Before Eric's call I was fine, well as fine as can be expected. But now…" he paused and looked up at her; "…this is hard, there is practically no one we can trust, except each other, we're all in danger aren't we Cal?" he asked her, he suddenly sounded a lot younger than he was, Calleigh felt her heart jolt as she looked into his eyes, she took a step towards him and drew him into her arms, she hugged him tightly.

"We are, but we have each other as you said." She whispered in his ear. She made no move to pull away from him, standing with her arms around him like this felt so natural, his arms had snaked around her and were resting on her hips. If only she knew what this did to him, if only she knew how his heart was racing just because she was close to him. Almost as if Calleigh realised what she was actually doing she pulled away, she didn't miss the look of hurt in Ryan's eyes; "We, uh, need to talk about Eric," she paused and waited for Ryan to pull himself together.

"And other things besides." Ryan muttered looking into Calleigh's eyes. She nodded, she didn't know what it was he wanted to say, but she could tell that it was important to him. A moments pause and Ryan looked away from Calleigh almost as if he couldn't bare to keep her gaze any longer.

"What did he say when he called?" Calleigh asked sitting on Ryan's couch, he took a deep breath and followed suit as he then recited the conversation word for word. When he was finished Calleigh was looking down at her hands that were placed in her lap.

"This is getting out of control Cal, there are things that you need to tell me, things I need to know. Surely you must have realised this by now." He begged her. She nodded slowly looking up into his eyes, he looked frightened, it was understandable.

"They," she paused and sighed; "men from the top, are after us." She whispered as if that explained everything; "H discovered something, a conspiracy, a plot to kill so many people, and well, these men can't have anyone knowing about this plot…we're in more danger than you understand Ryan." Her voice had slowly got smaller and smaller; "There are things about this that I don't know and I'm not sure that I want to…but it's quite clear that either we won't get out of this alive or…they won't." Ryan nodded in understanding.

"Your name. Your address." He whispered, he watched as she closed her eyes, he moved closer to her on the couch taking one of her hands in his; "You can tell me Cal, please, you can trust me."

She smiled, her eyes remain closed; "They know that I know. We got Cooper to hack into their systems and my name and address popped up, this is huge Ry." She told him, shortening his name affectionately. She was glad that she had told him, it had been hard seeing the way he was struggling to understand before.

"Aren't you going to have protection?" he asked, his concern was touching, be he should have known better.

"It's not that I don't want it I assure you, but we don't know who we can trust anymore, Jake still doesn't trust you." She muttered the last part under her breath but Ryan still heard her.

'For different reasons I'm sure.' He thought to himself unable to hide a smirk; "Cal, I want to protect you." He whispered the hand of hers that she was holding gripped his more tightly, she knew that he meant every word.

"I'll have to hold you to that." She said with a smile. He trusted her, and she him but other people were a different matter, Ryan knew that he would have to keep so much to himself but how were they going to solve this crime? Take down whoever it was who wanted to kill them? This would be harder than any case he'd been on before. Unfortunately for Ryan and Calleigh however with Eric down and in grave danger they didn't have a lot of time to save him, racing against a ticking clock can cause people to make fatal mistakes.

A/N: Sorry that this took so very long, college work makes me slow. Ahh, I love cliffhangers, will they get to Eric in time? That my friends is the question. Well anyway, I love reviews, they make me write faster. No Flames please.