Beautiful
Calleigh was already asleep. Eric went to check on Chloe one last time before he went to bed himself. Staring down at the sleeping toddler the memory came back to himself of the day he was told he may be a father.
A very pregnant Melissa Jakobs walked into the crime lab. She informed him she was due to give birth exactly a month. A date had already been set for an induction and c-section. Eric might be the father of the baby, the hospital would call as soon as the baby came so he come in and provide a sample for a DNA test. She didn't plan to keep the baby. If Eric was the father, he could take full custody or place "it" for adoption. Melissa then turned on her heel and walked out, leaving Eric with a stunned expression. He was sitting on the bench of the locker room with his face in his hands. Horatio had come in and sat next to him.
"I heard the news,"Horatio said. "You know, if you decide you want to raise this baby, if it's ours, you know you will have a lot of people helping you out."
Horatio was about to stand up when Eric said "can you imagine me raising a kid, H?"
"I can, Eric," Horatio said, rising and heading towards the door. "If you need to talk you know where I am."
This was one of the many reasons why Horatio got to be "Uncle Horatio" to Chloe.
It took Eric all of three days to decide if he was Melissa's child's father that he indeed wanted to raise the child. Of course his parents, extended family and friends would be involved with the child but Eric was determined that he would be raising this child, his parents and sisters wouldn't be 'over involved' and take care of and raise the baby for him just because he was a single man. When he had told his family of his possible fatherhood and his intentions he had also told them this.
In the next two weeks, his mother and sisters had helped him set up a nursery and purchase baby clothes and essentials. Melissa said she didn't know the gender of the unborn child so Eric had decided a gender neutral theme like ever-popular Winnie the Pooh was best for the room. Eric knew he was taking a huge emotional risk by doing this without knowing the DNA test results but he also knew that he had to be prepared if he was going to take custody of the baby, he didn't want the newborn in some foster home for even a day. If the newborn was his child he wanted to take him or her straight from the hospital.
The first call Eric got from the hospital was from a social worker telling him that Melissa had given birth to a healthy baby girl. He was at work at the time. He told the woman that he would be at the hospital as soon as he got off work in four hours. The social worker reminded him to bring along valid documents to prove his identity before the lab would do the test. It was a very long four hours for Eric.
Even though she had come into his life quite unexpectedly and by a woman he wouldn't have chosen, Eric wouldn't change a thing about Chloe. She was beautiful and she was his.