Author's Note: This the longest chapter yet. I want camping over the weekend and I brought my laptop cause we had power in our camper, so why not right? It was so inspiring I couldn't stop writing. There something about the wood that help with the writing juices. I even had to break this chapter into two chapters because it was almost 9,000 words. I hope this satisfies some of ya'll questions, but I'm sure there will be more. What can I say I like keeping ya'll on the edge of your chairs. Enjoy

14. Subtraction and Division

After a few hours of being cooped up in the office, the wait was over. An email titled recording popped up in Stetler's inbox. He opened it and listened to the file. He played it. It was much smoother than the one he tried to edit. There was no choppiness and it sounded as if it hadn't been edited at all. He downloaded the file to his phone and walked over to the window of his office and peered through his blinds. He spotted Natalia in the break room.

"Perfect timing" he thought. Emotions were running high and that was the key ingredients his was going to exploit. Natalia was normally quick to let them rules her decisions without much forethought. That was a volatile mix he depended on to destroy a greatly emotionally weaken Calleigh. He knew the recoding would easily be destroyed in a court, but he didn't need the courts. He only needed Natalia. She would be the judge, jury and executioner and with this recording he was hoping it would be the vehicle for both women's destruct. Further with the disappearance of Eric he couldn't write this more perfectly.

He was about to walk towards the door when he saw Natalia walk over and stand right next to Calleigh. "Great!" He thought with much displeasure. He had to talk to Natalia alone, Calleigh had to go. He looked at Calleigh; she was looking right at him. He backed away from the window. "Did she see me?" he thought.

After a moment of waiting, he went back to the window this time they were both looking at him. He had to be sure they didn't see him. He didn't want them to think he was staking them out; he didn't want them to be suspicious. He waved his arm and much to his relief neither woman reacted. He watched both woman exchange words. Calleigh said something and got up, Natalia turned spoke to Calleigh, but Stetler saw she had already exited the room, Natalia rolled her eyes. Though he couldn't hear a thing he had derived that was some division brewing between them.

"Maybe this is perfect" he thought. He waited till he was sure Calleigh was gone and exited the office. He briskly walked over to the break room. Natalia saw him coming and quickly tried to vacate the premises, but she was too late. He caught her at the door of the break room.

"Do you have a moment" he asked.

She let out a big sigh; she was not in the mood for Stetler right now, well she was never in the mood for Rick Stetler.

"No, Rick actually I don't." she said trying to push pass him. Stetler pressed play on the audio on his phone. "What was your relationship with Eric Delko?" Stetler's voice played from the phone, freezing Natalia in her track. Her interest was peaked.

"What is this?" she thought. Stetler stopped the audio luring her in. She stepped back and looked at him.

"What is this, Stetler?" she asked aloud this time.

"Something you're going to want to hear." " He stated. He pressed play on his phone and Calleigh voice came from the speaker. "We're involved"

Natalia looked at Stetler, shocked. She wasn't shocked about the relationship; everyone in the office except IAB knew about them. She was shocked because she couldn't believe Calleigh was telling Stetler about it. She couldn't believe her ears; Calleigh was fuelling the fire for her own destruction. Stetler let the audio continue.

"Can you say that you believe that Eric was involved with the Russian mob?" Stetler voice played for the phone.

"Yes, I do believe that. I thinks he's dirty, I didn't trust him. He's involved with the Russian Mob. He is not innocent in my book. He knows the law and he would break it" Calleigh's voice replied. Natalia didn't know how to feel. She couldn't believe Calleigh would say these things. Natalia knew Calleigh loved Eric, how could she say that? She was so confused, she didn't trust Rick Stetler but it was Calleigh's voice. How could she deny this? Natalia looked at Stetler, bewildered. He let the audio continued

"When you shot at the car, did you know Eric was driving?" Stetler voice played from the tape.

"I knew," "Calleigh's voice replied coldly. "I was following protocol, they were trying to flee the scene, I shot him."

"Maybe that's what you tell yourself" Stetler's voice said.

"How dare you? I don't have to account for or explain to you what I do." Calleigh's voice played

Stetler stopped the audio and watched Natalia's face intently. She looked horrified, she looked like she brought.

"It's hard to believe, right? Delko and Duquesne are always so chummy I couldn't believe she would do that" he said offering his own shock to make the story more believable. "But someone that cheerful it's no surprise she has a wicked dark side." He continued.

Natalia just stared at him. She'd known Calleigh for a several years, working on a team with her every day. She couldn't really say she'd seen her complete lost her temper at this level with anyone. Of course she's seen her mad, but it was with in reason. Everyone on the team, her, Eric, Ryan and even Horatio at one time of another would take their anger too far with a suspect, criminal or someone who got in the way of a case, but never Calleigh. She would be the one telling them to back off or settle down. She always kept her cool even with people who didn't deserve it, like with Cooper and the credit card incident and the witness's wife who slapped her in the face when he died on her and Eric's watch. She reacted calmly and dealt with the situation in a profession manner and she didn't care for those people as much as she cared for Eric. His was part of the team, part of the family. They went far back.

"She wouldn't do that to Eric, she cared too much for him. She would never, but that was her voice." Her mind was so confused.

Stetler gave Natalia some time to process then continued

"They wonder why we have that fraternization rules. I wonder if she actually believes he's part of the mob or she was still mad about that big argument. She was pretty heated" he added to ensure Natalia completely brought the story.

"What argument?" Natalia asked. Calleigh never mentioned she and Eric had an argument. "What was he talking about?" she thought.

Why would he mention this to Stetler and not to her? She knew Calleigh was a closed book most time, but there were instants were she would open up. There were few and far between, but they had some deep talks on very rare occasions and they were most definitely closer than Calleigh and Stetler. Normally she sassed him when he was drag her into his "meeting" when he felt a rules was violated or something was mishandled. Calleigh hated Stetler with a passion. Why all of a sudden was he becoming the confident of her deepest darkest secrets? Why had she not come to her?

"Well the one they got into before the shooting at the armory occurred." He said in a voice as if she was aware of the fight and he was merely reminding her.

Her face was even more confused and slightly angered. Stetler raveling in this, the hurt that Natalia was hearing this from him and not Calleigh first hand was apparent on her face. Calleigh closed book mentality was the icing of the cake, it was the element that made this fib a raving success. His was on a roll, he couldn't stop now.

"She didn't mention that?" he said, rubbing in, taunting her almost. "Wow, it's the nice ones you have to watch out for, right? First their little sweethearts, always smiling and then next thing you know they got you blowing your brains out in the middle of their ballistics lab. She sure knows how to pick them" he paused and looked at Natalia, square in the eye. She was seething. He continued "and dispose of them. She's got you all fool, shooting Delko was no mistake. She just had no option but get her hands dirty on this one. Who know Ms. Perfect had a dark side, huh?"

Natalia didn't even the question, she was so enraged. She had to hear this from Calleigh herself and without a word she brushing by Stetler. She headed right toward the ballistics lab. Stetler watched her storm off wearing a big smile on his face.

Eric was in a bind. It hurt to move, but he had to escape. He didn't know where he was but he was definitely not in the company of friends. For the last few hour lay in bed feigning sleep devising a plan. He had to remove himself for this situation. His plan was simple, takedown the nurse and escapes the room. However, it was flawed. He was at a great disadvantage. He was sure if he was being watched via camera or was there just a nurse waiting outside the door? He didn't know. Also once he escaped what was he to expect outside the door? This was obviously not a hospital, so once he exited the room what waited for him outside there could be anything or anyone. Nevertheless, who ever had him in their grasp wanted him alive, why else would they see to his wound and nurse him back to health? And stage a hospital to convince him he was safe? He was 95% sure they wouldn't kill him if he tried to escape, but he wasn't sure how long that would last. So he had to subtract himself from this situation before they decided they would subtract him from the world, permanently. He opened his eyes and began to sit up in bed, he slipped his arm with the IV attached under the blanket and slowly removed the needle. He couldn't risk them drugging him. As he did this, he scoped out the room in part to distract from the discomfort of removing the needle so he could do so in an inconspicuous manner and in part to weigh his options. He surveyed the room for camera that were watching or look for weapons to aid him in his escape. There were no obvious camera, but items that were suspect like the teddy bear from "Calleigh" he noticed on the night stand and a banquet of flowers next to it. He had to remove them, but not set off any red flag just in case they were bugged.

He trying to get off the bed and yell out in pain, just as he did before. He braced himself on the night stand knocking all of its items on the floor and pulling a blanket off the bed, covering them.

"Hopefully they don't have audio" he thought.

However, not one but two nurse ran in, the normal nurse and a male nurse. He thought fast.

"Water, water" he grasped reaching out with one hand and grabbed his neck with the other then started to tremble.

One nurse walked toward the pitcher near the sink and the other went to grab him before he fell. As soon as the one nurse's back was turned Eric stopped the act and quickly grabbed the IV needle and aimed for the nurse's nearest vein. In a rush of adrenalin and streak of sheer luck he hit a vein and pushed the nurse on the bed. He quickly turned the dosage dial up. It didn't seem to have an immediate effect on him and the nurse started fight back. He quickly counteracted the nurse's movement and pinned him on the bed, then proceeded to place him in a carotid chokehold knocking him out. This was not done in a quiet manner and the other nurse turned at the commotion.

She placed the cup of water on the counter. She pulled metal tube from her uniform and opened it revealing a syringe filled with a liquid and headed towards Eric. Eric had rendered the male nurse unconscious and dropped his body to the ground, the whole time starring into the female nurse's eyes. He wasn't backing down. Halfway there she hesitated before closed the gap between them completely and eyed the door, contemplating if she should just escape. This gave Eric the opportunity to jump to his feet and rush her. He caught her midway between turning away from the door and back to looking at him, startling her. He forced her into the sink council; she struggled between his arms as her lower back hit edge of the council, trying to force the syringe into his body anywhere she could. He grabbed her hand stopping her and force it the wall. She dropped the syringe into the sink. They continued to struggle and she managed to turn her body to facing the sink to facing him and they both scrambled for the syringe.

Eric was restraining himself from using his full force on the women as he did with the man, but despite her small frame, she was managing to hold her own much more than he expected. He didn't want to killed her, but only subdue her long enough for him to escape. However, she was leaving him no option, he started to use more force. Neither of them had managed to get a good grip on the syringe, but they had managed to knock the drain stop out of place and the syringe became wedged in the exposed hole partially, needle end facing downwards. Eric tried purge the liquid from the syringe and was somewhat successful, emptying it halfway. The syringe started to fall deeper into the hole, but before it fell in completely the nurse caught it and grabbed it out. She quickly aimed for Eric neck and injected the remaining liquid into his neck.

However, the needle part was no longer attached to the syringe and it dripped in a stream down Eric's neck. Noticing this she quickly reacted by head butting him and jibbing her fingers into one of his wounds, causing him to fall forward. It really hurt, but he ignored it. She slipped from between his arms and run towards the other nurse. He braced himself on the counter and spit some blood in the sink. He grabbed the glass of water, unsure how he planned to use it and turned toward her. He looked at the glass, its base was pretty thick and could do some damage.

She fumbled through the other nurse uniform, searching. She didn't find what she was looking for, but stood to face him as Eric closed the gap.

"You want more" she taunted, beckoning him with her hands in a fight stance. He heard her speak in Russian before she drugged him, but it hadn't registered until now that she was Russian. She had used an American accent she was playing the role of nurse, but it was no longer necessary to keep up the ruse. She spoke with her accent undisguised.

"Russian, huh?" Eric laughed, spitting out more blood out on the floor. He mirrored her stance, ready to fight, yet he held on to the glass. She answered him with some Russian profanity.

"Cute" Eric replied, sarcastically. "Come on, I won't hold back." he said provoking her.

She started at him, when she was closer enough he tossed the water in her face. It only stunned her for only second, but it caused her to stop. She wiped the water from her eyes and laughed.

"You're going to stop with a glass of water?" She continued to laugh. Eric laughed too. Actually he was going to stop her with a glass of water. The water was just the distraction; the glass would do the rest. He was always good a baseball and with his pitching arm he chucked the glass at her. It hit her square in the head, shattering on impact. She staggered forward and started to waiver. Her head slowly began to bleed; she brought her hand up to her head and touched the blood then brought it down to her face to look at it. Eric watched her ready to attack, not sure what was happening. For a short moment she starred at her hand before crumbling to the ground.

Eric stood there, he was a little shocked at the feat he just achieved. He gunshot wounds were not even close to healing and still were causing him great pain, yet he managed to take down two perfectly healthy people.

"God was really looking out for me" he thought, looking up.

He started towards the door. As he did so he surveyed the damage to his person from the fight. It was low; he only received a bussed lip. However, his previous injury had adverse reactions; his wounds had reopened and started bleed through his bandages, a lot. However, besides the instant when the nurse thrust her finger in his wound, he didn't feel much pain. His adrenalin was still in effect. He reached the door and waited, looking and listening. There was nothing, no sound of reinforcement troop, no alarms being sounded, he saw no one. As he lean on the door and he weighed his options. He knew not what waited for him outside the door, it could be far worse than stay in here. On the other hand, his adrenaline rush wasn't going to last forever and he didn't want it to wear off in this room when the two angry nurses came back to. One of the nurses started to groan and he quickly made up his mind. He turned the handle of the door, entering the unknown.

The doors of the lab flew open as Natalia entered, startling Calleigh. She nearly dropped the gun she was handling; thank God she had the safety on and better yet she'd just unloaded the chamber. As the doors closed the walls of the glass room rattled. Calleigh looked up to be greeted by Natalia, she frowned at her.

"Natalia" Calleigh abruptly "This is a ballistic lab. I could have blown my head off had I dropped this gun and it been loaded."

Natalia said nothing, just crossed her arm under her chest and glared at her. Calleigh looked at her confused; she just shook her head and went back to analyzing the gun. She didn't know what Natalia's deal was, but she didn't have time for this and quite frankly she didn't care. The gun she was analyzing was one of the guns from the trunk of Eric's car. She'd hoped to find some DNA off this gun because they were link to the armory which meant they could be linked to her finding Eric.

After Natalia noticed that Calleigh was going to ignore her, she decided to speak.

"You really don't care?" Natalia said, disgusted.

"Actually I don't" Calleigh said snidely. She shrugged in a blasé manner. She didn't know what she didn't care about, but it didn't involve processing this evidence or finding Eric so she really couldn't care less. Normally she would care about Natalia's emotional meltdown, but she had so much going on already. She couldn't believe she was doing this now. At Calleigh's reply, Natalia's mouth dropped open in outrage.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Rick is right. You've lose it." Natalia said.

Calleigh stopped what she was doing and laughed harshly. Natalia picked the wrong day for this. Calleigh was sick of being accused, she was sick of being badgered and she was sick of playing miss nice girl. It was bad enough she had to deal with this from Rick this morning, she didn't have the patience to deal with it from Natalia. She was someone who should know better, the job was first priority. That was all she was trying to do her job and with all the hindrances she'd had this day she barely made a dent in her workload.

"I've lost it," she said. She pointed at her chest and chuckled ironically. "I've lose it?" she raised her hands as if she was surrendering. "Ok Natalia" she walked toward her, pointing at her as she neared. "You storm into my lab like a mad woman, starring me down. Then you inform me that I've lose, because Rick Stetler said so? And I'm the one who lose it? I didn't have time for this? Get out of my lab" She growled, right in Natalia's face, staring right in the eyes.

Her words hurt Natalia. There was a coldness in her eyes that Natalia had never seen before and the way she spoke to her, there wasn't an ounce of her normal sweetness. It was like she was another person. However, Natalia stood her ground, face to face with Calleigh. She wasn't going to leave she had to hear Calleigh say it herself.

"I heard the recording" Natalia said firmly.

"What?" Calleigh said she wasn't aware of any recording.

"The recording of your meeting with Stetler" Natalia said.

"What? He was recording me?" Calleigh said surprised "You can never trust Rick Stetler. I don't even see why I'm shocked" She shook her head "That is what this is about? What? You didn't like something I said? What can I say it's been an emotional few days," she put her hand to her head, running it through her hair. "I broke. I was sick of playing this stupid charade. I wanted to get this off my chest so I just told the truth, flat out. I'm not going to apologize. Why is that a problem?" she asked, stepping back from her face.

"That was the truth? And you don't see how that is a problem? You see nothing wrong?" Natalia shrieked, pointing in Calleigh's face, angrily.

"I did what I had to do for the team, to protect the team." Calleigh yelled equally as loud, tears in her eyes.

"How is shooting Eric protecting the team, Calleigh? Explain that?" She shouted in her face.

"What?" Calleigh whimpered, taken aback "He said I didn't that?" she seated back from Natalia shaking her head.

"No you said that Calleigh you said. You said you knew it was him" she yelled.

That was when it hit Calleigh, it all made sense. She thought Natalia was angered by something she had said to Stetler, which made no sense because she only said things that were condemning to only her, like confessing Eric's and her romantic relationship. Yet Natalia was angry because apparently she'd confessed on this so call recording that she had shot Eric intentionally. She softened her tone and started to reason with Natalia.

"And you believe that?" Calleigh said in a strained, but soft voice.

"You were recorded, it was your voice. You didn't even know he was recording your little heart to heart. You that Stetler would let you disburse your deepest blackest secrets and he could be trust with them? You shot the only person you so call trust and you go straight to confuse this to Rick? Are none of us worthy of your honesty that you go running to Stetler your enemy instead?" Natalia's yelling was getting louder.

Calleigh looked out the glass walls. Today really made Calleigh really hated that this lab was made of glass, some of the night shift CSI who were helping with the case and the labs tech watched the dispute from the adjacent labs.

"I didn't say that, I don't know what this recording is saying, but I was there I know what I said. I was there. Stetler is playing you." Calleigh saidin shaky voice. "I have been honest with you"

"Well you didn't mention that you and Delko were in an argument the day of the shooting" She shot back.

"It wasn't an argument, we were discussing a case. We disagreed. That was it." She said gently reaching out to touch Natalia arm. Natalia jerked away.

"Don't patronize me," she said jerking from her grasp "That proves nothing. You want to be honest, what was the 'disagreement' about?"

"I told him his father was involved in Sarnoff's escape and he should distance himself, he didn't agree. He didn't listen." She said sadly, looking down.

"I don't believe you" Natalia hissed.

"Well that is the truth, Natalia" Calleigh yelled back losing her cool once more

"If you're telling the truth, Calleigh what are you connection in this? Your hands are not clean" Natalia yelled.

Natalia really didn't trust her. She expected Stetler not to trust her. She expected Stetler to call her a dirty cop, but she didn't expect this from Natalia. Calleigh always had her back, especially when Stetler was on a witch hunter to accuse her of the murder of ex-husband Nick Townsend. How could she believe these things? Stetler accusation when mere cherry punch to the pain the Natalia's words held.

"Listen to yourself," Calleigh angrily, she pleaded to her, pointing at herself. "I'm not involved in this. I didn't know it was Eric when I shot. How could I? Why would I shot Eric?" She cried.

"Because you couldn't get him to do it himself? Like John?" Natalia yelled.

Then Calleigh lose it, her hands moved fast that her mind, slapping Natalia across the face, hard. Tear in her eye she exited the Ballistics lab she couldn't do this.

I'll update as soon as I finish the other half of this chapter which should be next week hopefully. Please review and thanks for reading -Quitethefangirl