Chapter 3

"She would have been twenty-three this week," Eric said as he settled further into Cal's overstuffed couch. His voice was just above a whisper. "On Friday."

Eric and Calleigh had been sitting on her sofa for fifteen minutes, listening to the soft music coming over her stereo speakers and sipping mugs of hot tea. Her momma's recipe for spiced orange herbal tea never failed to calm the nerves. Eric had completely drained his mug and refilled it before he spoke.

As soon as he said the words, Calleigh understood. "You lost your temper?"

Eric shut his eyes tight, trying to block out the memory of David Kendall smirking at him with that sick gleam in his eye. "To say the least," he said on a sigh.

He explained what happened at the motel, down to the last detail. When he was finished, Calleigh grabbed his hand it squeezed it gently. Nothing she could say would make his pain disappear or fix what he'd done. She also couldn't say that if she was in Delko's position she wouldn't have done the exact same thing.

-FLASHBACK-

"Eric!" A heavily accented voice interrupted Calleigh and Eric's conversation as they stood in the hallway just past the reception area.

"Papi," the young CSI called as he saw his father walking toward them. "What're you doing here?"

The tall, gentle-looking man laughed and Calleigh could see the crow's feet crinkle at the corners of his eyes from twenty feet away. This man obviously spent a great deal of time laughing. He was fit and had broad shoulders, and his thick silver hair and mustache were just a little out of control. All in all, Eric's father looked just the way Calleigh had imagined him.

She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face as Eric embraced his father warmly. The two men backed up a step but held on to each others' arms as the greeted. "I thought I would surprise my only son and take him to lunch to celebrate," Pavel said with a mischievous grin.

Eric had joined CSI less than a week ago, and Calleigh could see that this man was one proud papa. He turned to face the blonde. "And who is this beautiful lady?" he asked his son.

Eric laughed and rolled his eyes. "Keep the charm in check, Papi. I have to work with these people." Looking at Calleigh, he said, "Pavel Delektorsky, meet Calleigh Duquesne. She's our resident ballistics expert."

Pavel raised his eyebrows in respect. "I am honored," he said in his thick Russian accent, offering Calleigh a little bow.

Laughter bubbled from the woman's chest. She tossed Eric an amused glance and quipped, "I see where you get it, Delko." He rolled his eyes again and his father chuckled deeply.

"Would you like to join us for lunch, Ms. Duquesne?" Pavel asked politely.

Cal checked her watch and then looked back at Eric and his dad with a smile. "As long as Eric doesn't mind, that would be great. We've got an hour."

The younger Delko welcomed her along, and the trio set off for lunch. They spent an hour and fifteen minutes laughing hysterically at Pavel's old stories and Calleigh's adventures during her last two years as a CSI. Eric finally looked at his watch and jumped in surprise. "Calleigh, we need to get going. It's already 1:15."

His father had already paid the check, so the three of them made haste to walk back to the Crime Lab. Before Pavel bid them farewell, he said to Calleigh, "I must see you soon. Eric, you make sure to bring her home. Your friend, too, Mr. Speedle." His eyes danced with merriment and Calleigh knew she couldn't deny him what he wanted.

Eric was pleased to see how taken Calleigh was with his father, and vice versa. He was still learning the ropes at the lab, and inviting them over for a famous Delko dinner would be the perfect opportunity to get to know his new co-workers. "Will do, Papi," he said with a smile and hugged him tightly one last time.

With that, they parted ways. That weekend Calleigh invited Eric, Speed, and another half-dozen people to her apartment for a proper Southern meal in her own celebration of Delko's arrival to the team. The night went off without a hitch, and Eric felt—for the first time in a long time—that he had finally found a place where he belonged.

He stayed behind to help Calleigh clean up after everyone else left. As he brought in the last of the paper plates from the courtyard, she chastised, "Eric, you can't clean up after your own party!"

"Soy cubano," he retorted. "Todos cocinan, todos limpian."

A sparkle grew in Calleigh's eye. "You mean you're half-Cuban, half-Russian," she said with a chuckle. "I can honestly say I've never met anyone quite like your dad."

Eric's grin faltered a little, but he recovered quickly. Calleigh was a CSI, though, and she didn't miss the slight flicker on her colleague's face. She stored his reaction away to consider another time.

"He loves you," the woman remarked with an affectionate smile. "He really loves you. I thought he might explode with pride when he walked into the lab."

Eric's brown eyes brightened at her comment, and he locked his gaze with Calleigh's. "He wanted me to be an engineer like him," he explained. "But then he cried the day I graduated from the Academy." His voice was happy and full of nostalgia, and Calleigh's chest tightened as she saw the same love on Eric's face that his father's had shown earlier that week.

There was something about this man, Eric Delko. Calleigh couldn't explain it, but he was uncommonly interesting to her. He was quiet but enjoyed a good joke, unassuming but highly intelligent, and somehow he'd fit right in with their team. Strangely enough, Calleigh already felt like she could trust him.

Eric felt the same way, struggling to understand why he was so comfortable opening up to Calleigh Duquesne. He never shared things about his family with people he'd just met. But then again, he also didn't make a habit of taking people to lunch with his father after less than a week of acquaintance.

He looked up to see Calleigh lost in thought. She felt him staring at her and tilted her head up to meet his eyes, giving him a small smile. "Is your whole family like that?"

Eric was confused. "Like what?"

"I don't know. So…open?"

"Yes," he laughed. "Sometimes we're too open. I have four nephews and nieces, and I watched my sisters give birth to every one of them. Not to mention all my cousins' kids."

Calleigh had a hard time picturing a man like Delko willingly enduring the phenomenon of childbirth—and more than once. "How many sisters do you have?" she asked, intrigued.

"Four. Isabel, Clara, Gabriela, and Marisol."

"And their kids?"

"Clara's came first—Leila and Aubrey. Then Isa had Alejandro, and Gabi just had Ana Maria."

"How many cousins do you have?"

That look was back on Eric's face, but this time he couldn't hide it as well. How was he supposed to respond? He shifted uncomfortably on the couch, wishing now he had never opened the door to this conversation. It seemed odd that no one had ever asked him that question before. And now that Calleigh had done so, Eric didn't know what to say.

He cleared his throat before he answered. "I only know my mother's side of the family. I, uh, have six immediate cousins, and they have five children between them. Beyond that, I couldn't begin to count. Half my family is still in Cuba."

Calleigh watched Eric closely, debating whether or not she should push the subject further. Given the look in his eye at the moment, she chose not to give in to her curiosity.

Eric saved her the trouble. The words spilled out of him before he could stop them. "Actually, that's not entirely true." His hands fidgeted in his lap as he began to tell his story. Alida's story.

"I used to have six cousins. Now I have five." His eyes darted up to Calleigh's to gauge her reaction. Her face was filled with curiosity and concern, and she moved to sit in the empty bar stool next to Eric.

"When I was twelve, my baby cousin was murdered." He chuckled sadly as he continued. "I call her 'baby,' but really she was only five years younger than me. At the time, we all lived in the same house—my parents' house. And she was constantly following me around, trying to copy everything I did."

Calleigh smiled as she pictured a teenage Eric Delko, thoroughly annoyed with his seven-year-old cousin. "What happened?" she asked delicately.

Eric sighed heavily. "One day I couldn't find her. I looked and looked, and I finally decided to search by the canals where we used to play. I'm the one who found her body."

He recounted the whole story for her, and Eric felt a sense of relief as he spoke each word. He hadn't spoken for three weeks after he found Alida's body by the canal, and after a while people just stopped bugging him for answers.

When he finished his tale, Eric locked his eyes on Calleigh's and said earnestly, "She's the reason I became a cop." Then he added, "I never told anyone that before."

"Well," Calleigh said quietly, "Sometimes it's good to keep secrets. But other times it's good to let them out."

Eric knew what she meant. "Well, my family's got enough secrets to spare."

He hadn't told Alida's story in search of pity. Calleigh got the feeling that Eric was, in some ways, still going through the stages of grief. And his last statement was more a declaration of fact than an invitation for Cal to ask questions, but she couldn't help herself.

"Like what?"

He gave her a funny look. She was certainly straightforward, wasn't she? He chuckled and replied with a wink, "I'd tell you but I'd have to kill you."

Calleigh rolled her eyes. "Lame," she retorted. "No, really. What skeletons do the Delektorskys have in their closets?"

Her tone was playful but Eric could see that she was genuinely interested. And oddly enough, he didn't mind telling her. "Hmmm, let me think," he said, grinning. "Well, my tío Hernán tells everyone that he limps from a shark bite he got crossing over from Cuba. But really, he tripped over a soccer ball when he was twelve and broke his leg."

"Yeah?" Calleigh laughed.

"Yes," Eric said, grinning crookedly. "Oh, and my cousin Mercedes burnt down the shed in our backyard when she was nine. No one knows that but me and Marisol, though. Everyone else thinks it was our next door neighbor Antoine."

"That's horrible!" Calleigh cried.

"Not really," Eric shrugged. "I swear that kid was the spawn of Satan."

"I doubt you were so angelic yourself as a kid," Calleigh laughed again. A shrewd look came into her eye as her amusement died down. "Something tells me that's not what you meant by 'secrets,' though."

"You're good," Delko said, studying the firearms expert closely. "I bet you give 'em hell in the interrogation room."

"You'd bet right."

Eric never took his eyes off Calleigh. He had no reason to tell her his family history, but then again, he had no reason not to tell her. From what he could tell, she played things pretty close to the vest. After all, he'd just spent an hour telling her all sorts of things about his life, but he still didn't know anything about her.

"The man you met on Thursday," Eric started slowly, "is not my real father…"

-END FLASHBACK-

That conversation marked the beginning of Eric and Calleigh's unique friendship. It had taken quite some convincing on Eric's part for Cal to believe that Pavel wasn't his real dad. Eric was like him in so many ways—they even walked the same: relaxed, self-assured, and one foot turned slightly inward.

Three years later, Calleigh could still sit there and count off a million ways Eric was just like his father. Especially the seriousness and depth of emotion that both men brought to everything they did. That was the problem now. More than twenty years after learning the truth about his heritage, fifteen years after losing Alida, he still felt those things deeply. The secrets of Eric's past haunted him, but they also drove him to seek justice—to give a voice to those who couldn't speak for themselves.

The ringing of Eric's cell phone interrupted the silence that had settled in the room. He took one look at the caller ID and groaned. "It's H."

Calleigh sighed. "Answer it, Eric."

He flipped open the phone. "Delko." His eyes were trained on Calleigh as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line.

The call was brief, and Eric only said, "Okay," before he hung up.

Cal looked at him anxiously. "What did he say?"

"He wants to see me at headquarters."

"I'm coming with you," she declared, pulling her friend off the couch. Eric didn't bother protesting; he knew he wouldn't win.

Calleigh grabbed her keys as Eric slipped on his shoes, and then they both headed out the door.

A/N: Leila- I've had my own version of Eric's family tree drawn up for a while, and I couldn't bring myself to change his niece's name. It's just so perfect. So, congratulations! You are officially a member of Eric Delko's family ;)