Eric bolted out of Calleigh's condo like the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels. He couldn't get away fast enough. A jumble of emotions followed him, each vying for supremacy, each one staggeringly sharp and forceful. Confusion. Pain. Anger. Rage. Betrayal. Eric had to fight the almost overwhelming urge to puke his guts out at the incredible revelations that had been shown to him this evening. So much to process and he'd barely had any time to do so. The elevator ride seemed unendingly long and Eric passed the moments by slowly counting, a technique his therapist had taught him when sensations or thoughts became too vivid and overwhelming to process. His neurons still overloaded with data and tonight's revelations would certainly fit the bill.

His heart was still pounding when he made it to his car and peeled out of the parking lot, casting a glare at Jake's motorcycle. Irrationally, he was angry with Jake for staying. In spite of everything he'd found out tonight, he was still concerned about Calleigh and did not like the thought of Jake with her right now. How much had he heard? What was his state of mind? But he was angry with her, beyond angry, and he tried to push all thoughts beyond his own emotions to the back of his mind. Let Calleigh deal with the mess she'd made. For once, he and Jake were kind of on the same side, having been betrayed by the woman they loved.

The drive home was occupied by his thoughts, his mind still reeling. Pain that they had had something special and he couldn't remember ate at him. They'd been involved and he hadn't recalled something so incredibly important. Guilt was right on the heels of that emotion for the same reasons. Anger and rage, and most of all, betrayal that Calleigh had kept something so phenomenal from him. She'd essentially pretended it had never happened for six months, since his shooting and waking up in the hospital.

If he supposedly meant so much to her, how could she have done such a thing? And to top it all off, she'd started a relationship with Jake, an old flame, practically weeks after he returned. I still love you. Eric laughed harshly, the sound splitting the night air like a crack of thunder. Some way to show it. Even if they were no longer together, she should have told him within weeks of leaving the hospital, if not that afternoon when she realized he had memory gaps. Although, looking back on that day now, the dead look in her eyes could be explained by more than just his memory loss regarding Marisol's death.

Even so, her excuse for not telling him as soon as possible fell completely flat. She didn't tell him not out of concern for him, but selfish protection for herself. She was the one with intimacy issues; that much Eric knew. His memory was still intensely spotty on the subject heading marked 'Eric and Calleigh's Relationship,' of which there were only a few solid memories, but he knew she was the one with the problem. Something in his gut told him he had wanted what they had for those brief few months, but now? He didn't know what he wanted. There was one thing he was sure of right now: He wanted nothing of Calleigh.

***

Jake stood in the middle of Calleigh's hallway, completely floored by what he'd overheard. Snippets of the conversation hammered away at his mind and he tried to process the information. Nothing was making sense and he didn't like not knowing what was going on. He didn't like surprises and this was one hell of a surprise. "What the hell is going on?" he asked tersely. "What was all that about?"

Calleigh turned away and walked back into the living room. She hesitated at the sofa Eric had so recently vacated and then sat down. Jake still hadn't moved from his spot in the hall and so she tilted her head to indicate he should join her.

When he did, Jake sat tensely, waiting. Hoping he had misinterpreted what he'd overheard. He had heard them down the hall, Eric's voice gaining volume with every word he spoke. Snippets of words and phrases had filtered down the corridor and he heard Calleigh, a desperate, pleading tone in her voice, unmistakable. A sense of hurt he'd never heard from her, even in some of their most volatile fights when they were in the Academy. He had quietly opened the door to the condo with the key she had given him weeks ago, concerned for her, worried about Eric's intentions. He didn't know the man very well and who knew how he would react? He had caught the tail end of the conversation…

"…. we were involved before the shooting and you broke up with me. Not the other way around. You're the one who kept our involvement to yourself. You're the one who 'moved on' with Jake. You're the one who decided everything for us. I'm done playing games, Calleigh. I'm done with you." At that, Calleigh had to suppress a sob. "And now, for the first time in almost a year, I'm going to make a decision and leave."

And now, here he was, in her living room, waiting for an answer to his question when he already knew the answer.

Calleigh looked up at him and opened her mouth, tried to get words out, but failed. Tried again. "Jake…"

Something in him snapped at the soft tone of her voice speaking his name. "Just tell me, Calleigh. No, you know what? Don't. You're in love with him. I heard the two of you. I can piece it together. I'm an investigator. You were involved. Before the shooting. The question is, have you been seeing him while you've been with me?"

Still at a loss for words, Calleigh vehemently shook her head. A few seconds of silence between them had Calleigh grasping for the voice to speak the words that had needed to be said for six months. "I'm sorry Jake. We were together before the shooting and then we broke up a few weeks before it happened. After the shooting, we started to date and I tried to put Eric and what we had had behind me."

Anger and betrayal flooded Jake. "So…what? I was just a fling for you? A way to pass the time until Delko remembered?"

Calleigh adamantly stated, "God no. I threw myself into this relationship with you. You were different and yet the same. Sweet and cocky, but not full of yourself like when we were in the Academy. You had changed and I thought to give us a second chance, because what if?"

"But you're in love with Delko. You never stopped being in love with him. Even while you've been seeing me. You know, I noticed the faraway look in your eyes sometimes, glimpsed this flicker of sadness, and I tried to get you open up to me, but you never did."

"I was trying, Jake. I wanted to try with you," she said quietly. Jake hadn't just been a fling. What they had had was real and for a while, it was what she had needed.

"But it hasn't worked, Calleigh. You close up sometimes and I can't reach you. And recently, with the last couple of days, you've been even more distant. Tonight was a perfect example."

Calleigh felt her face warm and she prayed her thoughts about earlier that night didn't show. She may not love Jake, but she didn't want to be cruel. He deserved better than that.

"I guess I've been seeing all the little signs for weeks now, but I just haven't wanted to admit it. The faraway looks, the sad glances out windows…your heart hasn't been in this for a while now, if it ever was," he added wryly. "It was all for him. You're still hung up on him, Calleigh," he concluded, stating a fact she'd only realized within the last few hours. The anger was buried at the moment, and instead Jake was flooded with weariness. God, he was so tired. Tired of this job. Tired of this relationship, or lack of one. Tired of fighting the inevitable: that he was going to lose Calleigh, for good this time. She loved Delko. It was there in her eyes as Delko had stalked out earlier. And, if Jake were honest with himself, he'd never seen her react that way to anyone, even when they broke up the first time.

Calleigh looked at him pleadingly, urging him to see the truth in her eyes, tears slipping silently down her cheeks. "I'm sorry, Jake. I can't pretend I don't love him, that I miss him. I never meant to hurt you, to make it seem that you were just a moment in time. But I can't…continue this when my heart's somewhere else. You deserve better."

"Yeah, I do," Jake said quietly, reaching over and squeezing her hand gently before getting up and walking to the hall. Calleigh didn't follow him and for once, he was glad. He didn't think he could walk away as easily as he said if she had watched him leave. He removed the key to her home and set it softly on the end table and walked out, closing the door behind him with a soft, final click.