Sorry it took me so long to update, I lost the old draft and had to completely rewrite it. It was a complete nightmare!
Anyhoo, thanks to my reviewers: daxy, night-star-93, Yoda11, JustMeForNow and delkosgirl88.
As always, dedicated to my best friend Courtney. Love you!!
--
Calleigh came storming into the trace lab, startling Eric and Speed. Good, she thought, before letting rip. 'All right, which one of you stole my Crime Light??'
Speed glanced back at Eric, smirking. 'Well, "stole" is-is very negative. I-I had borrowed it, and I had replaced it. I, uh, I put it back.' he offered, obviously trying to dig himself out of the hole he had put himself in.
She felt a grin coming on, and fought to keep her face straight. 'It would be nice if you charged it first. I was at the scene and it flat lined.
Eric sniggered. 'Sounds like she's mad at you.' He leant in closer to the evidence, his face nearly split in two by his wide grin.
Speed laughed, a deep sound that filled the lab. She fixed him with a steely glare, and he stopped, looking slightly ashamed. 'Calleigh, I sincerely apologize.' He said, not sounding sorry at all.
'Apology accepted.' He grinned, thinking he was out of the woods, when Calleigh suddenly added, 'Give me yours.'
He faltered, but Calleigh thought he rallied brilliantly. 'Go ahead, it's in my kit.'
She nodded, and spun on her heel, stalking out. As she left, she heard them laughing about something, and Speed's gruff voice mentioning her.
She'd held herself together at the funeral. Barely, but together. However, now she was alone in her apartment, she let it all go. She cried herself to sleep that night, and woke in the morning, pillow crusty from her salty tears. And so it became a routine. Wake up, hold it together for work, go home and cry. It had been a week, and it was getting better. Not by much though, and she doubted she would ever feel the same again.
Then came the knock on the door. A young woman was standing there, looking timid, and holding a plain white envelope. She said nothing, just held it out, and Calleigh took it.
'What is it?' she asked, turning it over, CALLEIGH DUQUESNE written on it in messy scrawl. She'd know that writing anywhere. Her eyes filled with tears.
'A goodbye.' the woman at the door said, before turning and disappearing into the night.
For a long time, she couldn't open it. She shut it away in a drawer, hiding it away from sight.
Until, one day she woke up and it didn't hurt quite so much. And she found she could open the letter. So she did.
Dear Calleigh,
I'm so sorry you're reading this. I really truly didn't want to put you through this. Not after last time. I know you were always on at me to clean my gun, and keep it clean. And I never listened.
If that's the reason I'm lying six feet under, then you have every write to hate me.
I didn't want to leave you with nothing, but I have nothing you'd want, so I'm leaving you with memories.
Memories like your first day here. I was supposed to be helping you with your firearms proficiency. I shot first and then you just picked up the gun, smiled and shot a full clip's worth of bull's eyes. Then you took a photo on your cell! I was so pissed off. Once I got over my shock. When the photo of me looking gormless and slack jawed appeared on the notice board of the break room, I couldn't help but laugh. That's when I knew we would be friends for life.
Another lasting memory I have of you is the Palm case. We were wading through inches of blood and guts and crap, and you just turned to me and said 'I hope the Crime Lab is going to reimburse me. These shoes were 300.' It was completely tasteless, but it was our third case that day alone, and I was so tense I just had to let it go. I laughed till the tears streamed down my face. The bollocking we got of Stetler was legendary, the guy turned purple!
I could go on forever, but I don't want you to sit wallowing in the past. Go out and live your life. Ask Delko out, you knew you like him and he told me he likes you.
One last thing. Listen to the CD. You'll understand.
Goodbye Calleigh. I'm gonna miss the sound of your too-happy voice at six in the morning.
Tim
XXX
P.S. I'm sorry I borrowed your narco test kit. Forgive me?
Through her tears she smiled. She remembered opening her test kit one morning to find all her tests had vanished. She'd given him seven shades of hell then. He'd just grinned and handed over a fresh, unopened packet of tests, a ribbon tied around them. Lovable sod.
She let herself cry for a while longer before taking Speed's advice. She was going to live her life. Starting with the CD in the envelope. She slid it into the CD player in her room and the music began:
When you
were young and your heart was an open book
You used to say live
and let live
You know you did
You know you did
You know
you did
But if this ever-changing world in which we live in
Makes you give in and cry
Say live and let die
Live
and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die
What does
it matter to you?
When you got a job to do
You got to do it
well
You got to give the other fellow hell
You used to
say live and let live
You know you did
You know you did
You
know you did
But if this ever-changing world in which we live in
Makes you give in and cry
Say live and let die
Live
and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die
Listening to the song made her feel determined. Yes she would miss Speed, but she had other friends. Friends who were hurting like her.
And so, taking another piece of advice from her dead friend, she picked up the phone and rang Eric Delko.
--
SO what did people think? I wasn't too happy with the song choice, but I couldn't think of anything else at all.
As usual, appletinis for reviewers!
A/N-As of this Saturday, I will only be posting on Saturdays, cos I have exams soon, so I won't be on the computer much on weekdays. But this way, you wait a week and get maybe 2 updates, depending on how inspired I was this week.
Also, I have a new account strictly for slash stories, the first one is posted now, so check me out, the penname is LivinInAFantasy (points for guessing the song its based on.)