Just saw the last Harry Potter movie…so sad, it's the end of an era, but it did the book justice (and, if there are any fellow Snape fans, they incorporated his story into the movie very well!). Thought I'd give this a shot since I was in such a good mood.
Calleigh drove towards the abandoned house Horatio had told her to meet Eric; the building belonged to a family that had suddenly vanished months ago, now one appeared dead on the causeway and the team had been thrust into the mystery. Calleigh and Eric were completely professional at work, never hostile or allowed their emotions for one another to interfere with their investigations. She was almost thankful they could have such a normal working relationship, for it held proof they had been part of each other's life, it was a good base and reassuring to know not all their relationships had been tarnished. Their romantic one had clearly disintegrated and their once close friendship had collapsed as a result, but when they were just colleagues, they were content, almost happy.
She could see the house coming up on the horizon, as well as the Hummer parked by the curb. Eric, however, wasn't in sight; he probably got a head start on collecting evidence. Her foot tapped on the gas a little more to approach the house at a faster pace.
What happened next came fast, not slow motion like the movies depicted, instead it occurred so quickly Calleigh's mind couldn't fully register it until a few moments after it occurred. The windows of the house exploded and a cloud of black smoke flowed out. Debris and shattered glass filled the yard and part of the road as fire could be seen spreading inside the house through the now vacant window holes.
Calleigh's heart stopped beating and her stomach twisted itself into multiple, painful, knots; Eric was inside that building. The flames began to lick the brick outside as Calleigh stomped on the gas to pull up to the building as she grabbed her radio.
"This is Duquesne. Officer needs assistance at Fifth and Orange Blossom. Repeat, Fifth and Orange Blossom. Possible 10-30. I need an ambulance and Fire Rescue. Immediately!"
After a violent slam on the brake, Calleigh leaped from the car and ran, unthinkingly, towards the house. She felt the heat from the fire against her skin as she approached the house, taking a final breath of clean air before darting inside, the door already down.
The interior was worse than the exterior. The furniture and the walls were covered with orange and violent flames, beams from the ceiling were falling and fragments of various objects were scattered due to the impact of the explosion. Eric, however, wasn't in her sight.
"Eric!" she called, venturing deeper into the house. "Eric!"
"Calleigh, get out of here!" Eric shouted back from further within, towards the area that once could have been the living room; his voice sounded strangled, pained. Calleigh ignored his request and ran towards where he heard his voice, then there he was. He was buried beneath the debris from the collapsing ceiling, including thick wooden beams. They were on his legs, his waist and his lower chest, his arms were free and he was battling to lift the one crushing his chest off him. Calleigh rushed over to him, her lungs beginning to experience the familiar burning as more smoke entered her system and she began to cough violently as she sprinted towards Eric; praying her respiratory system would allow her to get him free before shutting down.
Eric heard Calleigh before he saw her, he heard the heavy coughing that had become the most terrifying sound in his world and it was coming closer until he could see her. A new pain arose, not the physical ones he was enduring because of the beams, but the pain he had from the fear of seeing her in a fire, her face red and not running out.
"Calleigh!" he shouted again as Calleigh began to attempt to heave the beam off of him. "You're going to get yourself killed! Get out of here!"
"I will once we get these things off you," Calleigh responded, the wooden beams hot against her palms as she lifted the beam from his body, her arms aching from the weight.
A fear flooded through Eric in that moment and he wanted to scream to Calleigh how much he loved her and how if she was harmed because she was attempting to rescue him, he would never forgive himself.
Eric felt the pressure from the thick beam was alleviated as Calleigh completely removed it from his chest. He was able to breathe easier, however, there was still a sharp pain in his side and breathing was painful. But as he took a breath, smoke entered his lungs and he began coughing himself. Meanwhile, Calleigh began to heave the second beam from his waist, her hands catching on some nails, parts of her skin tore and began to bleed, the red staining the wood. Eric had sat himself up now and was assisting in the removal of the wood until his entire body was freed from their weight. Calleigh—her face beet red and eyes watering slightly—took his hand to pull him from the ground before they dashed to get out of the hell house, running only on adrenaline.
They darted out the front door, breathing in the fresh air and relieved for the cool air to reach their clammy skin. However, as they stumbled to the sidewalk, the adrenaline high they experienced began to dwindle and the pain returned. Calleigh's lungs were burning with pain and she began to violently cough, however, she was still able to receive a substantial amount of oxygen. She could hear her heart beat in her ears and the cuts on her hands seared. Eric felt the sharp pain in his ribs, making every inhale and exhale pure agony and his torso and legs were throbbing as blood violently rushed back to them.
"Are you okay?" Calleigh gasped when she was finally able to catch her breath, the sounds of sirens echoing in the distance.
"Yeah. You?" he asked, heavily concerned by the fact she had just inhaled an abundance of smoke.
"I'm fine," she assured him, somehow unable to look him in the eye. The way he had been screaming at her to leave him and get out to save her own life had made her feel, just for a moment, that he still cared enough for her to make such a request. There was something in his voice that sounded uncannily similar to the way he had called her name the day the crane had crashed into the building in which herself, Eric and William were inside. He had called to her then too in fear for her safety and she had been certain she had heard the same from him inside. But now the heat of the moment had cooled and the places they held in their non-existent relationship hadn't changed.
Calleigh didn't realize, however, how terrified Eric had been when she had come running into that building to save him. He could have burned in the house for all he cared, but Calleigh had to survive. Period. They may not have been together, they probably weren't even friends at this point, but the idea of living in this world without Calleigh was unimaginable and a feeling he never wanted to experience; he just didn't realize it until today.
"You didn't have to do that," he said, glancing at her as the sound of sirens grew closer.
"That's what teammates do for each other," Calleigh shrugged, not looking at him as she examined her injured hands, the dried blood appearing brown on her palms.
"Yeah," he nodded before sighing sadly. "Teammates."
The nurse at the all too familiar Dade General (by this point, many members of the team were wondering why they hadn't all purchased a shack on hospital grounds, for this was the most frequent location they always ended up, other than the Crime Lab) had only allowed Eric to leave his hospital bed via wheelchair; Eric consented, but only because it would be the only way to go check in on Calleigh. They had been whisked to the hospital in separate ambulances and Eric still had the image of the Calleigh who was gasping for air in the burning house; all he could do was pray that she didn't inhale enough smoke to trigger a negative reaction.
He pushed his hands forward on the wheels of the chairs, causing them to rotate and carry him in the direction of Calleigh's room. He ignored the looks he received from the other patients, their visitors and the staff, but he didn't care; he was hell-bent to getting to her room as soon as he possibly could. There was an anxiety beating through him that came from not knowing her current condition. Fear was running into every capillary in his body, the fear Calleigh had been lost and they were hadn't been speaking on friendly terms; if these previous weeks were his final moments with Calleigh, Eric knew he would live with the regret of not attempting to extend the olive branch to her for the rest of his life. This thought caused his fear to expand and he pushed himself harder, faster.
Eventually, Eric wheeled himself into Calleigh's hospital room, smiling in relief to see she was sitting up with only an IV on her arm, her hands bandaged and a monitor clipped to her finger, a far cry to how she normally looked after a fire and the tension within him eased.
Calleigh turned her head to face Eric and gave him a small grin as he moved his wheelchair closer to her bed, halting just out of arms reach, a distance she was certain he had created on purpose; despite the distance, Eric did return her smile.
"How bad are you?" she asked.
"Not too bad. A few cracked ribs and a few bruises," Eric shrugged. "You?"
"I'm fine. They pumped me full of meds quickly, they just want me to stick around a few hours just in case," she grinned.
"Good," he nodded. "That's good…you know, that you're going to be okay."
"You too."
Eric wanted to tell her about how when he looked up at her in the fire, all the feelings he had been trying to forget, been ignoring and had kept stored away came back to him in that instant…but something stopped him. The love he had for Calleigh may have been resurrected, but the pain hadn't subsided due to that. He couldn't tell her, for that would mean putting his heart out on the line once again, which always resulted in it getting broken.
Bur Natalia's voice entered his head, her voice clearly asking him, "Isn't Calleigh worth it?" and "Do you think Horatio is going to quit working at CSI just because there is the chance he will get shot again?"
"Calleigh, I-." Eric started to say, but suddenly his throat swelled and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, as though the truth didn't want to emerge, his fear overcoming him and not forcing him to once again give into love. Instead, this came out. "Thanks again."
A shadow came over each of Calleigh's eyes, of disappointment and she had obviously been disheartened, believing for a single second he was about to say something in regards to their separation, for it would have been the first time they had openly addressed it since the last time they were at the hospital. Alas, her hopes were brutally destroyed by his words of gratitude.
"You're welcome," she sighed seconds before her nurse in purple scrubs entered.
"I'm sorry," the nurse apologized, sweetly. "But Ms. Duquesne needs to be-."
"Getting some rest," Eric interrupted, nodding in understanding. "It's no problem…I'll see you later," he now said to Calleigh.
"See you," she said, nonchalantly, before Eric turned his chair around and pushed himself out into the hallway.
Eric felt as though an angry jury had attacked him, his mind was in a battle of pros and cons, unable to decide whether or not it was wise to forgive Calleigh and attempt to pursue another arrangement.
Part of him thought: Her way of thinking is too unpredictable; you never know when her inability to trust is going to affect your relationship.
While the other half retorted with: But Calleigh she makes you happy and you make her happy. Remember, she is the only one you have ever even considered having a future with? Doesn't that count for anything? Besides, it's your own fault she lost trust in you.
But the side pointing out the cons would then hiss: But if I haven't earned her trust back by this point and she hasn't realized that she can trust me, then she never will.
And that's how it continued, a devil of one shoulder and an angel on the other, bickering and both raising valid points that left Eric just as lost and confused as he had been the majority of the day.
But there was one certainty in this entire messed. He had been denying it for weeks now, locking the fact in a chest and throwing away a key, attempting to forget. However, today ruined all the effort he had had in attempting to forget what he had always known and there was absolutely no way to deny it now. No matter how rocky their current situation was, Eric was still in love with Calleigh Duquesne.