Hello everyone here the chap you all been waiting for that will answer all your question , but i will admit that i was a bit dissapointed from the lack of response for the last chapters but ohh well waht can you do
Being back at home was strange to say the least , 3 days she had spend at the hospital and for 3 days she had been probe by needles , question by psychiatrist and had gotten visits by her friends , she was supposed to get some rest but how can you get some rest when everyone enter your room every 5 minutes , she actually felt more tired then before .
But now there was definitely something different she felt liberated , she came to the conclusion that if she wanted to have a normal she had to let go of Eric . That was easier said then done .
Sitting on her bed she looked around her bedroom , holding Eric crossed between her hand she closed her eyes , finding some peace and strength within her .
She heard footstep approaching her bedroom , opening her eyes she saw Jake leaning against the doorway arms crossed with a concern look on his face .
JAKE: You ok ?
With a faint smile she tilted her head and scowled at her friend .
CAL: For the hundred time Jake I'm fine .
JAKE: Alright look i have to go do something but i can be back later if you want ?
CAL: I think i'll rest a bit and then check for travel plan , i'll be ok i promised 1
JAKE: Your really going through with those travel plan are you ?
CAL: yes but i have to take care of the lawsuit before i leave .
Stepping inside her bedroom Jake sat next to her on the bed.
JAKE: You have an appointment with the county lawyer tomorrow morning right ?
CAL: Yes in the morning then in the afternoon we have an hearing with everyone , stetler , the lawyer , Eric family and their lawyer to see if we can come to an agreement .
JAKE: Are you sure your up for it , i mean you have reason to have it postponed a few day at least .
CAL: I' ve decided that i will not contest the lawsuit .
JAKE: WHAT? Calleigh you will be pay for that lawsuit the rest of your life !
CAL : then so be it Jake , if it gets some sort of recomfort to his family then so be it i'll live with it .
JAKE: you do know that stetler wont leave you alone after that .
CAL: How can he bother when i wont be here .
JAKE: How long are you exactly planning on leaving ?
CAL: Long enough that im buying a one way ticket .
Defeated that his only friend was leaving Jake shoulder hung low has he looked down contemplating once again a world where he would be alone .
CAL: Look Jake i know your worried about me but i' ve got enough sick day to last me a while and honestly I'm in no shape to work .
JAKE: about freaking time you admit you stubborn southern woman !
Showing her he was teasing and accepting everything she wanted to do Jake slightly pushed her with his shoulder .
JAKE: so i guess that means i have to find someone else to spend the Holidays with!
CAL: you could always ask Maxine ! she said with a hint of teasing .
JAKE: Ahh i see the woman has been talking about me !
CAL: Are you kidding she came to see me yesterday and all she was talking about is how she hated you .
JAKE: Yeah i know she totally dig me right !
CAL: If by dig you , you mean dig your grave then yes Jake she digs you .
Laughing Jake then clapped his hand hopping down from the bed he looked back at Calleigh .
JAKE: Alright i have to go , you sure you don't want me to come back later .
CAL: nahh don't worry i'll be fine i promised
JAKE: Well if you change your mind just give me a shout out alright .
CAL : Will do .
Has Jake left Calleigh lay back in her bed , the silver cross between her finger , she thought about the trip she was going to take , the lawsuit ,having to deal with Stetler she had a lot coming int the next few days and she wasn't sure she was ready to face all of them . One thing was sure she would go the place Eric wanted to discover with her and she would leave him there , not forget him per se but move on from the ghost that had been hunting her for years now .
Sighting she headed for her living room searching for her laptop , god knows she Hadn't used it in months and didn't even remember where she put it last , after a little bit of searching she found it on the top shelf of of her book case , after finding her charger somewhere into one of her desk drawer she power it up , barely remembering the password .
its not like she hadn't been using a computer in months but this was her personal laptop the one where she kept her pictures and her personal email address on it .
Has soon has the screen came to life a large picture of her and Eric in embrace smiling back at the camera appeared in the back ground .First thing she did was to change the back ground to some sort nature picture she didn't really care which one she just wanted the old one gone.
When her msn came online she wasn't shock that nearly a hundred messages had been waiting for her after all she hadn't been checking her personal email in nearly a year .
When the window to show her online or offline friends pop up she was shock to see his name there , Eric Delko in grey letter shown has being offline , she thought by now his account would have been disable but apparently his family hadn't thought of it.
Slowly she reached for her mouse pad , directing the arrow toward his name her finger hovering above the right button for a second before she clicked on it , before she changed her mind she deleted the contact from her list of friend .
With a sharp intake of breath she watch the screen has the name disappeared from her list of contacts. Felling her nerves about to crumble over a simple click of a mouse she made her way to her kitchen retrieving an unopened bottle of red wine , before she knew it the bottle had been open and she had swallow a full glass of wine . Leaning against the counter she felt guilty having promised herself that she wasn't like her father , an alcoholic but that was easier said then done .
Making her way back to her laptop she sat down in front of it another glass of wine next to her . checking her email she realized she had literally put her life on holds for three years she had missed so much , her high school reunion , an old friend wondering why she wasn't returning her email and another telling her she was getting married and expected Calleigh to be at a wedding that happened 3 monts ago , she had definitely lost many friends due to her mental state ,worst was that her friends probably didn't knew why Calleigh was gone from their life.
Her next step would be harder , opening the third rawer of her desk she found a disc and pop it into the laptop .
Going through every single files she had on her laptop she found every single pictures of Eric she had on her laptop and saved them onto the disc before erasing them from her laptop she absolutely refused to erased them completely .Even though she was trying to move on she couldn't do that erased him completely because no Matter what Eric would always be a part of her .Maybe In a few years she would be able to look at the pictures without a pain in her heart so hard that the tears fell down her cheek quietly .
Every picture she found , every pictures she erased brought on memories but hell bent to get this done quickly she didn't dwell on them and before she knew it all traces of Eric Delko had been erased on her laptop .Retrieving the disc she wrote his name on it , put it in a case and safely it back into the drawers .
Now that all of that was done she thought she would feel relief that a step had been taken forward but it didn't soon guilt hit her , sobbing quietly into the darkness of her living room glass in hand and half empty bottle of wine on the coffee table .
Jake couldn't stay in place has he waited at the pier like he had been instructed it was 5 minutes pass five and Coleman was late and Jake didn't have any patience left .
HOR: Will you calm down .
Jake scoffed at the older Lieutenant casually leaning forward against the railing gazing at the ocean in front of him.
JAKE: Hes late !
HOR: Only by 5 minutes !
JAKE: How can you be so calm ?
HOR: Years of practice !
With a rare smirk Horatio took his sunglasses off smiling at his younger counterpart who couldn't stay in one place.
JAKE: I don't know how you can joke in a moment like this.
HOR: Because Jake no matter what Coleman will say we will have answer .
JAKE: What if he refuses to answer , then what ?
HOR: Jake Coleman agree to meet us , he knows who we are , he probably did his research before he even agreed so if Eric alive he knows why where here right know .
JAKE: What if were wrong and we got everything twisted and Eric not alive ?
Horatio looked back at the ocean his hand on his hip , for three years he wonder if maybe, maybe Eric was alive somewhere , but he never search never ask for answer because he had made a promises to protect his family and Calleigh but now he definitely needed answer for Calleigh sake .
HOR: Then we'll have to find another way to help Calleigh .
Looking at his watch Jake sighted with impatience it was 10 minutes pass noon and Coleman still hadn't show .
HOR: Jake whats the first rules of undercover work ?
With a frowned Jake stared at Horatio wondering why he would ask such a question right now .
JAKE: You've work undercover you know has well as i do !
HOR: Just indulge me !
JAKE: Always watch your back no Matter what ?
HOR: Exactly ! he said with a smile at Jake .
It took Jake to understand Horatio meaning and when he did he leaned back against the railing still stress but more relaxed scanning the crowd on the pier , some were fishing other were indulging in a romantic embraces with their love one and he knew that among that crowd was probably Mark Coleman watching his back before he came to talk to them , all the 2 detectives had to do was be patient and showed him they were genuine .
10 more minutes later and Jake notice a man walking away from a the hot dog stand walking toward them a long and greasy hot dog in his hand .
Walking toward them casually eating his hot dog he came to stand next to stand silently eating ,Jake patience wearing thin but Horatio kept his calm giving the man a quick glance before looking back toward the horizon .
Jake was about to loose it especially when the man turned back him too looking at the horizon slowly very slowly eating his hot dog it was like the 2 older man in front of him were taunting him with their patience .
Mark Coleman wasn't your typical ATF agent , he didn't wear a tie and suit like the others didn't even carry his gun or badge with him , had an office that he never used , some of the brass in ATF swear they didn't even know what he looked like , he blended perfectly within a crowd .But when any agency in the united state needed to make an important witness disappeared he was the go to guy .
What made Mark Coleman wasn't only his way of blending but his way of working , only trusted a handful of agent to work with him , knew every of his witness in the program by numbers no names no case files only what he had in his head and always follow the simple rules of watching his back .
Once he was done with his hot dog he threw his paper towel into the garbage bin and light himself a cigarette , Jake had a feeling that this man had one to many cigarette in his the man finally spoke it wasn't what Jake wanted to hear .
COL: Detective Jake Berkeley , raised by 2 older parents , single child , happy childhood ,played football in high school , graduated the Louisiana police academy with honor , shortly after was recruited by ATF where he did remarkable work as an undercover officer and then we have Lieutenant Caine AKA John Walden , killed his father in what he claimed to be self defense , work for the NYPD many years before joining the Miami Dade department , worked shortly with the bomb squad and now head of the CSI lab , had a brother Raymond who died a few years back in shady circumstance . father to Kyle , proud marine in the army , who's about to be a father himself. Married Marisol Delko who's deceased
Blowing the smoke from his cigarettes he took another long puff before lazily leaving his cigarettes between his at the 2 men in front of him .
COL: Did i forget anything ?
JAKE: alright enough with the game Coleman you know about us , you read our files you can read good for you , so you probably know why we wanted to see you so tell us what we want to know .
COL: i might have forget to mention ''impatient '' too .
JAKE: STOP PLAYING GAMES !
HOR: Jake calm down ,Coleman you know why were here .
COL: I do , but just were on the same page , why don't you ask away .
JAKE: FINE! Tell us why on earth did Alexander Sharova would give your name and number to officer Calleigh Duquesne?
Smirking Coleman threw his cigarette on the round stomping on it with his foot .
COL: I think you know the answer to that question Berkeley .
JAKE: I'd like to hear it from you !
Mark Coleman wide smirk fell from his face replaced by a faint smile squirting his eyes as the sun shine on them walking toward the nearest he sat followed by Horatio and Jake .
COL: Alexander Sharova was my initial witness to relocate although when they learned in his involvement into aiding Yvan sarnoff escape ,resulting into the death of a fellow officer his deal was rescinded .
COL: But you guys know all this already , don't you .
JAKE : We do know that what we want to know is what happened after ?
Leaning back against the bench he took the time to light himself another cigarettes before blowing the smoke away scratching his eyebrow .
COL`You do know im breaking my own rules for telling you all of this right ?
HOR: we do , and we will appreciate anything you say to us .
JAKE: Look i get i work this job , i even sent witness into the program myself i know how it works , but right a dear friend of mine is suffering because she think she killed the man she loved.
After another long agonizing silence where Coleman eyed the two men he took a deep long breath .
COL: She didn't !
JAKE: what?
COL: she didn't kill him !
Jake and Horatio waited glaring at the man , waited for the truth they already knew .
COL:Hes alive !
For the first time in three years Horatio could breath and felt a huge weight off his shoulder gone , Jake him was angry , at Eric , ATF , to have world to put Calleigh through this torment .
Kicking a garbage can he leaned against the railing looking down and white knuckling the railing .
COL: She didn't shot him though , got him in the chest , when we found him in the car he was in bad shape his dad was trying to help him but Eric was unconscious .
HOR: why didn't Sharova tell us anything , he could have he knew how much we cared about Eric.
COL:When i found the both of them Sharaova knew Eric had to go he had no choice ... When i had been assigned this case i had met Eric and Sharova a handful of time , initially we were supposed to get Sharova into the program has you already know that didn't happen because of his action , but then ...
HOR: Then Eric found out is family had been targeted .
COL: Exactly ! so Eric didn't have choice it was him or his family he chooses to sacrifice himself .
JAKE: HE COULD HAVE TOLD CALLIEGH FOR GOD SAKE !
COL: He didn't have a chance , like i said when we found him he was in bad shape , not only had he been shot in the chest but that wasn't life threatening what worried us was his head .
Rubbing his face Horatio was still grasping everything he wished he had come looking for him sooner.
COL: His bullet had shifted , he was brought by helicopter to the Pensacola Naval hospital where they operating on him for 10 hours .
Stomping his cigarette on the floor Coleman did feel for these 2 men he barely knew , today for the first time he was breaking one of his rules , he felt somewhat relieved but also like he had betray the code he had imposed on himself .
HOR: Is he ...i mean is he ok ..did he have any residual damaged .
COL: He was in a induce coma for ten weeks by then we had moved in to another facility , but to answer your yes he did have residual damaged ...from what i understand he had hallucination for a while and severe headaches but i heard his medication is helping him .
Horatio flashback to a moment a few years back where Eric had admitted to him he had been seeing speed and has much as Horatio would have liked that to be true he convinced Eric to seek help to which he did and Eric had pronounce those word to him ''the medication is helping''.
JAKE: THIS...This still doesn't tell us why he didn't reach out to Calleigh .
Jake was still gripping the railing shaking is head in disbelief at everything he was hearing .
COL`: Well like i said he was in bad shape when he woke up but he did ask for her , scream for her actually ...once he was well enough to understand i told him everything , about the threat not only against his family but against him , now you see the Russian didn't really like that Sharova had soon who was a cop and were afraid that it might bring too much attention onto them .
JAKE: It doesn't make sense !
Pushing himself off the railing Jake glared at the agent sitting on the bench has if he knew he was hiding something .
JAKE: Russian they don't kill cop ...you know that i know it brings too much attention like you said !
COL: No but they like to make a statement ...go after the families !
Shaking his head and running hand through his hair Horatio couldn't imagine anything happening to Marisol family .
COL: Look if it makes you feel better he wanted to come back for her , he did actually a few weeks back but i told him she had buried him and moved on .
JAKE: SO THAT WAS HIM!... JESUS CHRIST I THOUGHT SHE WAS HALLUCINATING !
COL: believe me i wasn't too happy about it either !
JAKE ; YOUR A REAL PIECES OF WORK YOU KNOW THAT !
Mark Coleman wasn't one to take shit from anyone about his work , from anyone !
Before Jake could finish his thought Coleman was on his feet grabbing the younger man by the collar !
COL:Your one to talk Berkeley ! how many witness did you send yourself into the program? how many laws did you break to solves case? ... so don't talk to me about morals i did what i did because i was ordered too ...did you think that FBI , the ATF ,THE DEA would let their biggest case against the Russian mafia go down over a street cop.
Pushing him back Coleman calm himself along with Jake would fought the urge to punched the man in front of him but he was right Jake had no right to be an hypocrite .
COL: Look three agencies...three agencies worked together for years , many men died , others never to be seen again and for what to bring down the entire Russian mafia in north America and they this close to make arrest that would send a huge blow to their organization and Delko was a torn on their side , like i said he was gathering too much attention .
JAKE: So basically they forced a man to give up his life? ...and for what ?... a case ?
COL: I Followed orders coming from above my head Berkeley i had no choice anyway Delko agreed with me after...some convincing .
Turning around Coleman reached inside his pocket fetching himself another cigarette while he light it up Jake gazed at the man with a anger that he didn't know he had in him .
HOR: Why now ! why you telling us this ?
COL: Things change and what can i say i'm a sucker for love .
HOR: WHAT CHANGED?
COL: I' ve been told that the case is coming to a close their will be arrest made soon and with Sharova death Eric is safe to come if he want to , why you think Sharova had been trying to contact her for weeks he knew that with his death Eric will be safer to come back .
Sitting back down on the bench Jake ran his finger through his dark hair still grasping everything Coleman had just revealed , now that he knew the truth how will he tell Calleigh.
JAKE: How the hell were going to tell Calleigh ? he asked looking at Horatio , who didn't know himself .
COL: If it can reassure you , hes been asking about her for 3 years .
JAKE: Is that supposed to make us feel better ?
COL: Hey im just trying to show you that the guy didn't move on ok ...Look im not telling you he can come back right now im not even sure he can come back at all the fact that the case is near end and that his father dead doesn't mean hes not in danger but my superior have decided that he was no longer liability for the case he can come back once all the arrest are made which will be in a couple of weeks maybe months were not sure .
HOR: Where is he right ?
COL: He was in Ohio for a while then Alaska but we moved him to Hawaii under his request .
When Jake busted into a laugh but agents look at the younger agent wondering what was so funny .
HOR: JAKE?
JAKE; SERIOUSLY ? HAWAII ? SERIOUSLY ?...I'LL BE DAMN !
Horatio and Coleman were completely dumbfounded at Jake a second ago the young man was ready to punch something but now he was laughing at something that they had no idea what it was .If only they knew the irony .