How It Must Feel

Author's Notes: Late is better than never, right?

5. In Shock

Calleigh's head was pounding, her memory was playing hide and seek with her mind and the disorientation wasn't helping either. Her senses were playing tricks on her. She scanned her surroundings. There were monitors and she was in a bed with tubes that seemed to be plugged in all over her. There was this beeping noise which seemed to be getting louder with each beep. It was confusion.

"What happened? Where am I?" She thought as she lifted herself from the bed she was laying in. As she tried to stand a wave of nausea hit her, almost making her stumble to the floor. She braced herself on the bed trying to gulp back her breakfast that was threatening to make an appearance. Just then someone walked in. Calleigh slowly turned to face her visitor praying it wasn't Eric, but of course it was.

"Great" She mumbled under her breath.

"Hey there" Eric said walking over to Calleigh side. "Get back in bed; you are in no position to be walking around." He helped her back into bed and tucked her in. Stubbornly she turned away from him, but begrudgingly complied. "I'm glad you're awake" he said as she turned around to face him, however this time she wasn't greeted by just Eric. "I hope you don't mind a brought a visitor." Eric said as he turned and presented the woman as Vanna White would a prize on Wheel of Fortune.

"Well does it matter if I mind? She here already isn't she?" Calleigh thought bitterly. She felt like crap and probably looked like it too. She didn't want him to see her like this and especially not with the competition.

Eric continued "This is Nadia, you talked on the phone with her once"

Nadia was gorgeous. She was tall, like a supermodel with the looks to match; she had a foreign exotic look going for her. She had long glowing legs that were put on display by her red bodycon dress and six inch heels. She had perfectly tanned with olive skin, her hair was long and a flowing dark brown. She had intense eyes and shiny white teeth. She looked like a goddess. Calleigh thought of herself as beautiful to average everyday working woman standards, but not at model standards like this woman. Her job didn't allow a lot of glam, but she thought she was doing great with what she was working with. Nonetheless, even on her best days she didn't look as good as this woman and today of course wasn't one of her best days. She no longer felt she had competition, she felt she was playing a losing game.

"Hello" Nadia said, sticking her hand out to Calleigh. They shook hands.

"Her handshake is even perfect" Calleigh thought as they finished their greeting.

"I've heard so much about you, I'm so happy to meet you" Nadia said sweetly. "Eric says you are such a great friend and I'm glad he has such a great friend like you. You know friends can be really hard to find. Most people want more than friendship; however you're a true friend to Eric just as he is to you". Her words made Eric look uncomfortable, he watched Calleigh intensely. Now Calleigh was pissed, not only did Eric bring a Glamazon model to the hospital to visit her when she was looking the crappiest of crap, was this chick marking her territory?

"What the hell?" Calleigh thought. "It's not like I don't feel bad already. Can I get a how are you feeling at least? You had to take it right there, right away? Wow! And think you said 'friend' enough? I get it; you made your point, Barbie. No need to be threatened, I'm obvious no match for you and apparently Eric isn't even interested in me, if he's always talking about how good of 'friends' we are. I can't believe this." As Calleigh though this, the room was awkwardly silent.

"Yeah Eric's a good friend" Calleigh replied, looking at Eric the whole time. There was another short awkward silence where Calleigh continued to stare at Eric and Nadia stared at Calleigh with this look of half smirk and half disdain. "It's nice to meet you" Calleigh smiled coldly. She sat up in bed. "So do you have any leads on the person who did this to me?" She asked trying to break the awkwardness that was hanging the room.

"Yes, you won't have to worry about him anymore, He'll be in prison for a long time" Eric replied.

"Prison, did you guys fast track the trial? Wow you guys didn't waste any time. How long was I out?" Calleigh said, cheerfully.

"Well, um-" Eric stammered. Nadia cut him out rudely.

"What is Eric is trying to say-" as Nadia begin she clasped her hands in front of herself and that was when Calleigh saw it. It was a huge ring and it was where an engagement should be. She couldn't keep her eyes off it. "What the HELL" she thought. Time froze for a second; she toned out what Nadia was saying. "Who gave her that ring? When did this happen?" she tried to see Eric hand but it was out of sight. "Calleigh, are you even listening to me?" Nadia snapped "CALLEIGH!"

This made Calleigh snap back into reality. "Huh?" she said.

"I'm talking to you, but I can wait till you can give me your full attention. It not like I haven't waited long enough" she said in a sarcastic manner. Nadia looked sharply at Eric.

"Excuse me, what your problem? What do you mean you waited on me?" Calleigh asked even more confused. "Why was she so rude?"

Before anyone could say a word more visitors entered the room.

"HEY girl, we missed you. It's so different around the lab. No offense Nadia." Natalia said, as she entered with Horatio and Ryan. She walked over the Calleigh and gave a long, big hug. Calleigh was really confused.

"Nadia?" She asked. Her question was swallowed in the hugs and cheerful words from her coworkers, who were happy to see her, Horatio even gave her a long hug, kiss her on the head and call her sweetie. Eric and Ryan stood on one side of the bed, Horatio and Natalia were on the other side and Nadia stood at the foot. They were all talking at her and over her, except Nadia. She just glared. She couldn't focus on what they were saying. The commotion continued and Calleigh head was starting to spin, everyone was ignoring her questions. "How long was I out? Why was Nadia wearing an engagement ring? Why was she waiting on me? Why was Nadia around the lab? Why were they acting like they haven't seen her just this morning" she thought.

"HEY" she yelled, she couldn't take it anymore, she need answers. "What is going on? Nadia works at the lab, since when?" she knew that question wasn't the top priority question, but she wanted to know.

"Well she's a ballistic specialist and has been manning your post while you were out, the bullets were not going to analyze themselves" Natalia said in a mock sarcastic voice.

"I'm gone for a morning and you guys replace me?" Calleigh laughing dryly "Did you guys think I was dead?" she looked around at the group, Eric would not make eye contact. Nadia give her a smirk.

"We know you weren't dead and it wasn't just a day, silly?" Ryan added "She was just keeping your spot warm for you till you returned"

"Warm? How many days was it?" She asked. Ryan and Natalia finally realized she didn't know.

"Delko must have not told you, like he said he would" Natalia cut her eyes at Eric.

"I tried" Eric said still refusing to make eye contact.

"As did I, not that anyone cares" Nadia mumbled not quite under her breath, Natalia rolled her eyes at her. This cause a little whispers agreement between Ryan, Natalia and Eric. Calleigh couldn't make it all out, but apparently Eric agreed to tell her something and didn't follow through and Natalia and Ryan where less than pleased. She strained her ears to hear, but the words were not making sense, it was like her ears were jumbled. She'd had it.

"TELL ME WHAT?" Calleigh interjected loudly, panning from face to face hoping for answers. No one said anything for a sec. Horatio, who besides his greeting had been quiet til now.

"Ma'am what their trying to say is that you've been out for a year" H said solemnly.

"What?" Calleigh looking at him wide eyed "a year?" she was shocked beyond words, she was having trouble processing.

"Yeah and now that you're awake, thing can move forward like the wedding." Nadia added.

"Wedding?" Calleigh's mind was exploding. The room seemed to be getting smaller and Nadia lifted herself on the foot of the bed and started closing in on Calleigh. Closer and closer she crawled towards Calleigh face.

"Since little miss sleeping beauty wouldn't wake up," Now she was on all four, bent over Calleigh and when they were face to face Nadia grabbed her shoulders, roughly. "We had to wait and wait and wait" She hissed, she started to shake her. "Wait and wait" she continued. The room wasn't seemingly getting small, it was getting small. All the other had vanished, Calleigh was frantically trying to free herself for Nadia grasp, but Nadia continued to hiss as her and squeeze tighter. As the walls were just inches from them Calleigh was starting to lose consciousness and Nadia started words started to sound more like wake.

"Calleigh, wakeup, wakeup, wakeup" she said very quicken voice and then her voice started to sound deep more like a man's voice and she spoke and a slow exaggerated tone. Right before Calleigh lost consciousness with all her might she pushed Nadia off her.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" she yelled as she shove her off, she was much heavier than she expected. Nadia landed right beside with a thud. That was when Calleigh noticed she was no longer in a bed, but she was on a patch grass and she was drenched in water. This observation was interrupted by a thud and sound of Eric's voice next to her.

"OUCH! What was that for?" He groaned.

Calleigh shot up quickly, too quickly her head was pulsing and she was dizzy. She didn't let it faze her; she leaned forward to maintain her upright position. She scanned her surroundings; she was at the harbor a few blocks away from her house, just like she had been this morning. "What day was it?" she thought to herself.

"What day is it?" she asked out loud, frantically. Eric, who was drenched as well, was still on the flat ground gathering himself. Her shove was unexpected and his head had hit the pavement quite hard.

"OUCH! What? I didn't know. Why'd you push me? I pretty sure I'm going to have a concussion" he groan as he rolled to back and forth.

"I need to know" Calleigh continued in a panic, ignoring Eric's pain. She pulled out her cell phone and looked at the time and date. It was the same as it was this morning. "It was a dream, thank God." She said, relieved.

"What? A dream?" Eric was so confused.

"Wait this could be a dream." She stated starting to panic all over again. "Eric, do something to prove this isn't a dream." He rolled toward her and pinched her on the arm. "She is losing her mind" Eric thought.

"OUCH! Why you do that?" she snapped and hit his hand.

"One because you shoved me first and two because you can't feel pain in dream, you did say do something. You should be more specific." He lifted his body off the ground and set next to her "So you had a dream? Was it about me?" He asked smirking. She blushed "little did he know"

"We should focus on the crime scene" she interjected, negated his question. She stood up, her back to the harbor, wobbly on her toes. Eric, seeing her unsteadiness got up quickly behind her, ignoring the pounding of his head, in case she crumbled once more. "Is the man ok?" she asked weakly, slightly leaning on Eric for support.

"What man?" Eric asked, though Calleigh.

"He was on the yacht, he was covered in blood and he punched me when he was trying to escape, but when he ran out he got shot and he fall." She said. He had to have seen him; he fell right on the path.

"Are you sure that this wasn't part of your dream?" he asked, jokingly.

"I'm quite sure it wasn't, the yacht is right there in harbor 2T" she turned around to point at it, but it was empty. Eric furrowed his eyebrows, he didn't see any yacht, but he saw in Calleigh's eyes that this was real to her.

"That harbor has been empty since I got here and I was here in minutes of your call. I think I would have seen something on the water." Eric said.

"Well what about the blood on-" she touched her black track jacket, it was wet, but with water. The blood that covered it earlier was gone.

"My jacket" her voice faded, this didn't make any sense. "There has to be bullets, I heard at least a round being shot off. There have to be some spent rounds around here somewhere" her voice trailed off again. She scanned the area. She saw not one bullet, not even in places she was sure bullets had fallen. There was nothing. She scanned the area. Nothing of the crime she had just witness was visible even the yacht was gone she don't even see in the water. It was impossible. Eric furrowed his brows. The way she was acting had him very concerned. "Cal, maybe you should take a breather. What meds do the doctors have you taking your lungs? And what are the side effects? Hallucinations? " Eric asked, half joking and half not.

"I'm not hallucinating. That was a man covered in blood in a yacht that was docked in this harbor that was shot and there was a sniper I shot him, it happened" she said panicked. She stressed the last affirmation to convince Eric as well as herself. She couldn't find a logically explanation how a totally crime scene could vanish. She needed to find evidence. She had to prove it actually happened. "I need to investigate" she said deliriously. With haste she staggered to the harbor, searching. Eric quickly followed behind her trying to stop her.

"You" Eric said following her "Are going to do no such thing, when I could hear before my recent head injury, the ambulance did sound too far behind me. "Though Horatio does see it as necessary for him to have medical attention most of the time, you know how he is about us." She nodded, He was right; H would be pretty furious, especially since her recent "taste" of fire. However, she was going to show him she wasn't crazy and that something fishy was going on. As she continued to the harbor despite Eric's protest. She was so confused and her head was spinning, yet she continued move expeditiously around the dock scanning and scanning, with in Eric close proximity. "Nothing, there's nothing" She whispered. She had pushed herself too much and could barely see straight. She started to collapse and Eric caught her. As she fell into his open arms she saw it. Under the porch of the house adjacent to the harbor was the yorkie and it was covered in blood.