Title: In The Line of Fire

Timeline: 7x25 "Seeing Red"

Author: Quitethefangirl

Genre: Angst/Crime

Summary: Eric is missing and on top of that the team is facing another battle and Stetler is behind the gun. As the team' searches for Eric and they put under administrative review by IAB.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Author Note: Here is the next chapter. I know its short, but its a very necessary part of the story. I promised the next chapter will be much longer. Thank you everyone who review the last chapters, I really enjoyed having review to read again, you guys really encouraged me to continue writing. Anywhoser I was watching CSI: NY the other day and the police were coming in to make a bust and guess who was the detective leading the bust? Ron Saris, OK it wasn't the character Ron Saris, but the man who plays him in the show. I was quite confused at this, I was like did they totally "Actor Recycle" him and used him on a different show or does he just really look like the guy who plays Ron. So like we all do when we're in doubt, I googled him and found the indeed it was the guy who plays Ron Saris, whose name is Kim Coates and he has been in at least one episode of every CSI show and he's not the only person to appear in different CSI show as a complete different characters either. Apparently the CSI franchise people are really into recycling actors, random but true. GO GREEN!!!!!!!!!!!lol

Chapter Five

I'm Fine

Calleigh headed straight for the lockers when she arrived at the Crime Lab. She stormed through the halls offering no excuse to the people she collided with in the process. Her grief and guilt had evolved into anger; she was mad at herself, she was mad at Sharova, she was even mad at Eric.

"Why didn't he listen?" she kept asking herself. "Why did he shut me out? Why didn't he tell what he was planning to do? Would it have mattered? Why does he trust that man? How did Sharova brainwash him? Why did I tell him it was his father in the car? Should I have reported it? Why doesn't he trust me? Why did he lie to me?"

She couldn't find an answer or excuse that satisfied her so she punched the locker, hard. Tears of frustration fell down her face, when she noticed she wasn't alone.

Ryan was leaning on the door to the locker room, arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed in concern. The towing truck that was carrying Eric's car to the lab was no comparison to the department issued Hummer, he know Horatio said not to let the car out of his sight, but driving at even the slowest of pace he still managed to make it to the Crime Lab way ahead on the truck. As he waited on the arrival of the tow truck he thought to best to check on Calleigh and make sure she was heading home like Horatio asked him to.

He had no success finding her at first. She wasn't in any of her usual spots, the Ballistics Lab, Trace or the Break room. He knew Calleigh to be stubborn when she was sent home and he half expected he was going to have to drag her out the lab and forcible make her go home, not like he'd be capable. Finding her in the locker room was a completely stunned to him; it also brought him great relief.

She gazed at him swiftly then sat down on the bench, with her back turn to him. He lingered in the doorway a little bit longer, formulating the words to say, before walking over to join her on the bench. He sat down and sighed, scratching his head, still unsure of the words to say. He was there when she fired the shot, and he saw the horror in her eyes. "What do you say to that?" He thought.

He leaned forward; his fingers tightly gripping the edge of the bench, and looked at her. Every aspect of the Calleigh he knew was gone. Her bright smile was replaced with a blank expression; her shiny hair was limp, messy and dull; her posture was all wrong, her back slumped and head hung low. There was something else in her eyes; sadness with a hint of something he never seen, at least not in her eyes. It was something dangerous and it scared him. For a few moments they sat there in silence, before Ryan finally he broke it.

"H, uh- he wanted me to make sure you got home safe. You ok? You need me to drive you?"

She didn't answer right away, just sat there, but after a while she replied.

"We got in our first real argument today; I was livid, I was really mad at him." She saw Ryan's pained, weak smile and continued. "I didn't know it would be the last time I spoke to him or saw him up close, before I- I." Her voice broke and her lips began to tremble, but she had to get it out, she had to tell someone. "I yelled at him, Ryan. I wish I could take it back; tell him I loved him one last time."

Ryan sat there listening in shock, but not because of Calleigh and Eric, he knew they were in a relationship. Although he didn't know to what extent, almost everyone in the building with the exception of the IAB department knew about 'them'. There were quite a few rumors going around regarding the two. He wasn't one for rumors, but he was a CSI and had a gut feeling and every gut feeling had to be backed with some evidence. He'd seen the way they looked at each other when they thought no one was looking, or when their smiles brightened just because the other had entered the room.

If the circumstances were different, he'd let out a little 'I knew it!' chant and dancing before running off to collect his winnings in the 'Are they or are they not?' pool they had running in the office. Frank and Valera (to name a few) were going to have to pay up. He wanted to brag to Boa Vista of his superior observation skills because he was the one to inform her that 'love was in the air,' but he held his tongue.

What shocked him was that it was Calleigh; Calleigh Duquesne was pouring her heart out to him. He was expecting an 'I'm fine' comment and be to brushed away. He'd never seen his mentor in this state; so vulnerable, so unsure, so- so human. He listened in silence as she continued.

"I wish I could hold him in my arms a little longer, but now he's – he's" her tears were starting up again but she quickly wiped them away and replacing them with an angry flash in her eyes. "I need to talk to Sharova. He knows something, he has to." She went to get up but Ryan gently placed an arm in front of her.

"Wait up there Cal, I can't let you do that. H gave specific orders not to let anyone interrogate Sharova, especially not you. We have to do this right." He sounded nervous, as if unsure as to how Calleigh would react. To his relief, she sat back down.

Putting a hand to her face, she sighed, blowing off steam. "I just need some peace of mind. I want to have hope," she said in a teary voice. "But I can't help but think the worst. He could be out there bleeding to death or worse, he could be dead and it's all my fault, Ryan it's my fault I-I killed him. Where is he?" She shook her head before lowering to her lap. She was losing control again and, in agony, she began to sob.

Ryan offered her a Kleenex. He needed to do something to comfort her; he owed her that much. "He going to be ok," He said, getting a little teary-eyed himself. "Eric's a fighter. I'm sure he's ok. They're going to find him, Calleigh. Don't blame yourself; you didn't know it was him." He put his hand on her shoulder and looking her in the eye, flashed a smile of reassurance.

With the Kleenex she wiped the tears from her eyes. He was no Eric, but Ryan's words of reassurance let herself feel hope for the first time since the shootout.

"Thank you, Ryan" She said grabbing his hand. Looking him in the eyes, she sniffed away the remaining tears. "I'm going to go home, but I need to do something first."

"What? What do you need to do?" Ryan asked a little scared. He thought they were making progress, and he'd promised Horatio he'd make sure she went home.

"I need to check the morgue," Ryan looked at her in horror.

"Cal, I don't think that Eric is ther- um that's not a good-" He stuttered.

"Just for peace of mind." She reassured him, offering a weak smile to his reaction.

"You need me to come with you?"

"No, I'm fine." She stood and exited the locker room.

Ryan sat there and couldn't help but roll his eyes at her last words 'She just had to say it!' He thought 'She just had to say it!'

Thanks for Reading, please review and I'll promised a surprise visit from some our favorite characters- Quitethefangirl