A/N: Wow, an update on time. This is impressive : ). As a little warning, I might have taken some liberties with Calleigh's family and family life, please just ignore any inconsistencies you may notice with the show for the sake of the story. And once again, thanks muchly for the reviews, you guys rock!

Chapter Five

Calleigh quietly pushed open the door to her father's room. She gave a quick glance around, and was relieved to see that some of the machines had been removed since her last visit. Making her way over to the bed, she saw that her father had his eyes closed. Not wanting to wake him, she carefully slid her hand into his, content to wait as long as she had to.

She didn't have to wait long, as her father almost immediately opened his eyes.

"Hi, Dad, how're you feeling?" Calleigh asked, her eyes shiny with tears of relief.

"Lambchop, is that you?" Kenwall asked, his eyes not quite focusing on Calleigh.

"Yeah, Daddy, it's me."

"Shouldn't you be at work sweetie? You didn't leave just to come and visit your old man now, did you?"

"Yeah, Dad, I've been worried about you. Now don't you go scaring me like that again, it's not a nice feeling," said Calleigh, smiling through the tears and glad that her dad seemed to be back to his old self.

"I don't plan on it. I don't even really remember what happened; they told me I crashed my car?" He phrased this more as a question.

"Yeah, you did. Um, they also said that you'd been drinking, Daddy. Now, I'm not mad, just a little disappointed. You'd been doing so well, what went wrong?" 'A little disappointed' was going to win the understatement award of the year. Calleigh had been just as devastated at the fact that her father had been drinking again as she had about the accident.

"Drinking? No, I haven't touched a drink in six months, why would I do that? You have to be mistaken, it was just an accident…" Kenwall looked over to see his daughter slowly shaking her head, looking about as upset as he'd ever seen her. He certainly didn't remember drinking, but quite frankly, the last thing he remembered from before the accident was a phone call, so could it be possible… "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, just, why Daddy? You've done so well. Why now?"

"Sweetie, I don't know, I don't remember why, I don't even remember drinking. But, whatever the reason I know it's not going to happen again." Kenwall could still see the disappointment in Calleigh's eyes, but he couldn't help her. He couldn't remember drinking; he couldn't remember anything after the phone call. He could barely even remember that, something about Louisiana maybe?

"Okay, Dad. I'm sure it was just a one-time thing." Calleigh sunk into the chair feeling completely drained. Her relief was slowly ebbing away into sadness. She'd been down this road, done this dance before. Hell, she knew the music off by heart. But right now if this was the dance her Dad wanted to perform, she'd let him.

"I'm sorry, lambchop. I just wish I could remember. The last thing I can think of was a phone call, from Louisiana I think. Must have been your mother. You haven't heard from her have you? She isn't here?" He shouldn't have felt the dread that he did from that statement, but he felt awful enough without being reminded of his old life which he had single-handedly screwed up.

"No, she isn't here. I've been calling but no one's ever answered. I figured she was just gone, or something, would get back to me when she came back."

That sentence triggered something in Kenwall. 'Gone'. Why did that word seem important, why was that jumping out at him? Oh well, the doctor said this might happen. If it was important, he was sure it would come to him. What mattered right now was his daughter.

"I'm sorry, lambchop, I really am. I never meant for this to happen, for you to have to go through this. I'm going to make this up to you, I really am."

"I know, Dad, it's okay. I'm just glad that you're going to be alright." Well, at least the last part was true. She was very relieved that her father was going to be alright. She wasn't sure she could handle another disaster at this point in time.

After the short exchange Kenwall and Calleigh lapsed into silence, each lost in their own thoughts. For Calleigh, it was wondering about what she could do for her father. He had always forgone formal inpatient rehab in the past, but maybe now he would go. Or maybe she wouldn't give him a choice.

Kenwall, on the other hand, was trying to remember the phone call that was on the edge of his mind. He was fairly certain it had been from Louisiana, from his ex-wife? Gone. Maybe she was on vacation? Gone. Maybe she had moved? Gone. What was it about that word? The realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

Eric had been staring at paperwork for the past thirty minutes, and was wishing that he was done. They'd finished interviewing everyone, and had run all the other evidence, so now all they were waiting for was a call from Tripp to say that he'd found the wayward partygoer. Everyone else had pretty much checked out, no smoking guns there. The wife had an insurance policy on her husband, but he'd also had one on her, so that wasn't a big surprise. It was something they'd apparently agreed to together on their honeymoon, which had been five years ago. Anne Waters had also seemed upset, and genuinely so. If Eric were to hazard a guess, his bet would be some unpaid debt owed to O'Keefe. From what he could gather, O'Keefe was big-time into gambling. He probably figured if he threatened Waters, he could get his money. When that didn't work, he got mad.

However, all this was conjecture until they found O'Keefe, so Eric figured he might as well get through some of his paperwork that he'd been putting off. Just as he flipped over to another page his phone rang. Glad for the break he answered quickly, without even glancing to see who was calling.

"Delko. What, wait, Calleigh, is that you?" He glanced at his screen to confirm, and sure enough, it was Calleigh. "Are you alright? What's wrong? Is it your Dad?" All he could hear from the other end was muffled sobs and gasping. What was wrong with Calleigh? "Calleigh, where are you? Calleigh?"

"Hospital," was the muffled reply, followed by a very quiet, "Eric, I need you."

"Hold on. Stay there, I'm coming to get you, okay? Just don't move, I'll be there in fifteen minutes." After pausing a second to try and figure out if Calleigh had even heard him, he grabbed his stuff and bolted out of the lab, heading for his car. He'd only gotten half-way down the hall when he ran straight into Horatio.

"Eric, where's the fire? Did you get a…" Horatio's voice trailed off as he caught a look at Eric's face. "Is it Calleigh's father?"

"I don't know, H. I just got a phone call from her, she couldn't even get two words out she was so upset. I'm pretty much finished everything here so I was going to go and find her, if that's okay?"

"Go, Eric. Give me a call if you guys need anything. And let me know," said Horatio.

"Absolutely, thanks H," said Eric as he flew out the door.

Unknowingly, Eric broke Calleigh's original record to the hospital that she had made just three days ago, and was out of the car and on his way to Duke's room before the engine had even come to a complete stop. He found her sitting outside of her Dad's room, with her head in her hands.

He slid quietly into the chair next to her, and gently pulled her over so that her head and back were resting against him. He started stroking her hair as she looked up into his eyes.

"Eric," she whispered.

"I'm here Cal. Is your Dad, okay?"

He felt her nodding against him, but she didn't say anything. After giving her a moment to collect herself, he asked, "What's wrong, sweetie?" The term of endearment slipped out without him even thinking about it.

Calleigh half-turned sideways, still keeping herself in his embrace. Eric caught sight of her red-rimmed eyes and his heart nearly broke. The news had to be bad.

"My Mom died four days ago." With that, Calleigh sunk back into her original position, eyes closed, just letting Eric hold her.