Author Notes: I'm engaged YAY! I'm super excited and the ring my fiance picked is perfect. Other than that awesome news, work had been crazy busy, like really crazy. Since I last posted I've had 7 days off including weekends and I normally have weekends off. So I lied I was crazy to think I'd have this chapter posted a few days after I posted last. So I'm going to reframe from using timelines in the future unless they are absolutes so I won't make a lair of myself. I thought since school was over I'd have more time, but it hasn't been the case. Between work, wedding planning, video games and work related events (we had a photo shoot that was extra fun) I've managed to write some here and there, but yesterday I went to Louisiana via plane and I wrote on the plane and when I got here. Vacation does wonders for my fanfiction writing and finally after almost two months I'm done with this chapter. I think y'all will like it and it's extra long like a said last chapter. Enjoy

15. Addition and Multiplication

Calleigh was livid. She hadn't been this mad in a long time. It wasn't like this week hadn't been a totally nightmare already, but it seemed that every day it was getting worse. Today was a total disaster, it was the most stressful day yet and she wasn't looking forward tomorrow. As she exited the lab her tears of betrayal quickly turned to steaming fury. As she walked away she had initially intended to head home.

"I shouldn't have worked today, I'm in no shape to be around other people" she thought as she headed to the locker room.

However, by the time she reached her locker she was so heated. She decided that she wasn't going to leave; she was going to confront Stetler.

"Why not now?" she thought ironically as she threw her belonging back into the locker and heading to Stetler's office. It wasn't like she hadn't destroyed her image enough. The image of control and calmness that had taken years for her to build was seemingly obliterated in one day. She had slapped Natalia across the face; she slapped her as other CSI and lab techs watched. It wasn't like Boa Vista didn't deserve it. It just wasn't the way a supervisor should behave. She hadn't really let herself think about it till now, but the damage control that was ahead of her was going to be great.

"What was done was done" she thought. She may as well give Stetler a piece of her mind too. She was sure news would make its way to Stetler and in the morning she'd be subjected to yet another one of Stetler's meetings. She decided that she may so well let him have it, who knew she might just slap him in the face. Why not give him more material to use against her in tomorrow's impending meeting?

Eric opened the door and stepped out. He found himself in a poorly lit hallway. There was only one light directly over the window of the room he was in and one every 5 feet. They were incandescent light and they gave off a warm yellow hazy glow. The hall wasn't very long about 20 or so feet. The walls made of cider block; it reminded Eric of the tunnel of a sports stadium. There were gray cement floor that matched the color of the cider block walls. It was eerie and cool in the hall like a basement, but this is Miami- Dade County virtually no one had basements. Plus it didn't have a basement's dimness. The coolness was more than like coming from an air system, Eric could hear a dripping that was evidence of that. There were a three other doors Eric could see, two on the opposite wall of the room his just exited and three his right, one on the same side, it was further from him. The door on the same side was pretty much in the corner of the hall and judging from how big the room his had just exited the door had to open was a small room that was probably just a closet of some sort. He decided he'd check the other doors that were more spaced apart on the other side. As he limbed towards the closest door he noticed there were plaque on each door that labeled what was behind, this made his job easier. Before he was too far he looked back at the room he just exited and read the plaque, it read infirmary.

"Maybe this isn't as an elaborate hoax as I thought; they didn't set up that room to trick me it really is just an infirmary" he thought.

This made him feel a little less safe, but he continued his quest of getting out of here. He had to see Calleigh again. He could slowly feel his adrenaline wearing off and the pain creeping back. He turned his mind to thoughts of Calleigh to distract him from the pain and give him something to look forward to, something to live for to give him the courage and reason to fight to escape where ever he was. It saddened him that the last moment he spent with her they were involved in an argument. He had to escape; he had to make it right, even if it was only long enough to tell her he was sorry and that he loves her.

He neared the door and read the plaque it said locker room.

"There is an infirmary and locker room this must be a gym of some sort." He thought as he continued to the locker door. It was his best bet. In his experience most locker rooms had two entrances, one entrance from a common part like a hall of lobby and an entrance from a workout area or swimming pool.

He opened the locker room door slowly and crept in. He was faced with a dark gray tiled privacy wall. He walked to the edge of the wall and peered in. He couldn't see much, the wall was shaped in a J and there was a wall blocked he view directly in front of him. However, adjacent to the wall he could see lockers and straight across there was an arch way that exposed a bathroom. From his view he could see some urinals and some stall. The walls of the bathroom extended back some and he reasoned that the other door he saw in the hall more than likely lead to this bathroom.

"Not the exit I was hoping for, but good to know there another door in case I need it to escape" he thought.

The locker room was much more inviting than the hall, yet the drab color scheme continued.

It reminded him of something Calleigh said when he took her with him to shop for paint for niece's bedroom one day. She had picked out two bright pink colors and showed them to him. He told her one color looked as if Nicki Minaj was murdered and someone sold her blood as paint and the other looked like cotton candy vomit.

"Little girls like those colors" she laughed.

"Why didn't they like grays?" he said waving a color card of grays card he had in his hand.

"Really?" Calleigh laughed "We are not painting a man cave, hon."

"Isn't your room this color?" he said pointing at a light gray on the card.

"No, what? That's a bachelor colors" Calleigh said scrunching her face and shaking her head, smiling. Eric remembered how her blond her cascaded as she did so and smiled.

"Bachelor colors? Are you saying woman don't use these color?" he asked.

"No I'm not saying that, but think of all the straight single man you know and what are the color of the rooms in their house?" she pointed at the card and continued "they are all more than likely color from this card"

Eric nodded in agreement. Calleigh continued

"And the their lack of feminine touch is probably evident in lack of non-sports related and only functional décor makes them bachelor colors" she laughed "Also my walls are a light violet, you should know this you've in my bedroom several times" she added

"Yes" he agreed sly "and all those times I was too distracted to paying attention to the walls." He deviously smiled making Calleigh blush.

As much as he liked distracting himself with thoughts of Calleigh, he snapped back to the present task at hand, his escape. However, he thought about what Calleigh said; there was definitely a lack of feminine touch, all the furniture and décor serviced a purpose and the wall had only plaque descripting competitions won. He also remembered that outside the door it was only marked locker room and not to a specific gender.

"This has to be specialty gym, one that would be utilized by predominately male patrons" he thought.

After listening and waiting he decided that the coast was clear and he moved over to jiuo/;jkl,,;'lrb ,fthe walls directly in front of him. He pressed his back to the wall and inched slowly toward the edge. Upon reached the edge he hesitated and took a few deep breaths then looked. He quickly pulled his head back, there was someone there. In the center of the room was some sort of Jacuzzi or something and there was someone in it. He stood there breathing heavily rethinking his next course of action.

It was a bad taste in Natalia's mouth. She couldn't decide if it was the blood in her mouth or the words she spoke only a few moments prior. She regretted them as soon as they left her mouth; she let her anger with Calleigh get the best of her, even if she said those things on the recording she didn't deserve to be treated like that. As she watched the blond storm off with tear filled eyes in a mad fiery, she thought about what she'd done. She was still mad with her, but she now knew she was out of line to blame John's suicide on her. She wasn't even there when it went down she had no right to mention that. She was listening to heresy for Rick Stetler, Rick Stetler for God's sake. His recording was convincing, but in retrospect maybe she should have investigated it a little more. Everyone knew you couldn't take anything from Rick Settler at face value.

Natalia held her head down. She hated that this lab was made of glass. She knew all her fellow lab colleagues were staring at her though she had managed to avoid eye contact with them; despite that she could feel their glares burning through her skin. She walked to the door of the ballistics lab with her head hung low and walked out. She put her hand to her face. Her face stung from both embarrassment and pain.

As she exited she tried her best to downplay the effects of the slap and act as if it unfazed her. However, Calleigh didn't hold back when she slapped her and she had a mean back hand. Calleigh's instant reaction had caught Natalia off guard causing to bit down on her tongue, hard. Her mouth filling with blood and her tongue hurt something ferocious. The metallic taste was overwhelming, but she refused to spit due to the fact the she was trying to disguise the intensity of the blow and lack of opportunity to do so discreetly. She made her way down the halls in silence, her eyes to the ground. After dread-filled eternity she had finally made it to the end of the hall and turned the corner. She was letting out a sigh of relief as she turned the corner when she smack right into someone.

"Whoa" the person said.

The collision made Natalia hit the floor. She looked up it to be greeted by a man she had never seen before.

"I'm so sorry" the man said sticking out his hand to help her from the floor and offered a smile.

"Yeah I'm sorry too." she mumbled. She got up briskly, ignoring his helpful gesture. He retracted his hand.

Standing Natalia was able to get a better look at the man. He was a Latino man; roughly six feet something tall and he had black hair with piercing black eyes to match. She also noticed he was wearing a lab coat that had the J. Cardoza embroidered above the pocket. He was very attractive and had circumstances been different she would have been more than happy to have ran into this men.

"Who is this man? Definitely not from the night shift, much too cheery and awake." She thought. She stared at him confused for a couple seconds more then continued on her way to the restroom. "Whatever I don't have time for this." She thought as she hurriedly brushed passed him and continued on her way. However, much to her surprise the man started to follow her.

"Didn't mean to knock you down there, I was kind of blazing my way through the lab. I guess I'm excited to be getting to work. I'm Jesse Cardoza. The new addition to the team" He said sticking his hand out once more. This time Natalia shook it and he smiled at her as they exchanged the gesture. As they shook hands, he hesitated for a moment for Natalia to introduce herself but she didn't. She just nodded and kept to walk. So he continued to talk.

"I'm new, well kind of. I wasn't supposed to start until the end of the month, but I was asked to start early with the shooting and the team being down a few CSI. I want to help in any way possible." He said in one breath as he did his best to match Natalia's pace as he followed behind her. She expected that this man wasn't going to stop following her so she stopped in her tracks and faced him. She faced him and was greeted by a sympathetic smile. She gave the man a "Can I help you?" expression as she elevated both brows. She didn't want to be rude to the man on his first day, but quite frankly she wasn't in the mood for this pointless chit chat and he had yet to justify why he was following her. He took the hint.

"Um" he said awkwardly, unsure of way he was getting the silent treatment for this lady. "I'm looking for Lieutenant Caine. He wasn't in his office. Have you seen him around?" He asked.

She had managed to be nonverbal thus far, but now there was no escape. He had asked a direct question, she couldn't just ignore him. Natalia mouth was filled with a mixer of blood and saliva, she didn't want to swallow. She did her best to clear her teeth of the blood that cover them and swallowed and after too long of a moment of silence she was just about to open her mouth to speak when she was saved by a familiar voice.

"Ma'am, Jesse" she heard Horatio's voice say from behind them. They both turned to face the Lieutenant who had seemingly appeared out of thin air as he always did. "I hear your looking for me?" he said sticking his out to Jesse, they shook hands.

"Yes" Jesse replied in a relieved voice.

"Thanks so much for reporting early, we can really use the reinforcement and fresh eyes." Horatio said warily. Much like the rest of the team, Horatio had gotten much rest in the past few days. Horatio continued to spoke. "I see you've meet Natalia Boa Vista, you two are going to be working together so she can get you up to speed on details of the shooting."

"Great" Natalia thought sourly, she looked at Jesse and noticed he had a similar look of displeasure of his face.

"You will also be working with Calleigh Duquesne. I want to introduce you to her but I just walked by her lab and she wasn't there" he was interrupted by his phone beeping and he looked down at it and reading a message. "Um Natalia, do you mind helping Jesse locate her and introducing the two of them. I have to look into something" before she had the chance to reply Horatio he had vanished just as he appeared and she found herself alone with Jesse once more.

Calleigh had made a b line to Stetler's office only to be greeted by a locked door.

"Wow, apparently he feels it necessary to lock the door to his office in a police department. He must really have something he wants to hide." She thought angrily as she jingled the knob to the locked door.

All the locked doors she could think of in the whole department that where locked for security reasons like doors to the lab in civilian areas, the holding areas, the evidence locker and the gun vault doors. His was the only personal office she encountered that was ever locked. She noted this for the future. She still needed to get her hands on those pictures, but now there were other pressing matters. She had to find Stetler. She jiggled the door once more in frustration and peered through the blinds. The room was dark and everything was seemingly shut down. He wasn't here. She scanned the surrounding offices and he was nowhere in sight. She spotted the men's restroom and swiftly walked over to it and walked in. The door banged open in her wake causing the two officers occupying the bathroom look up. The one stood by the sink washing his hands and the other was using the urinal. They both looked at her uncomfortably and the one by the urinal quickly turned as if to shield himself. Not that the Calleigh noticed, soon as she made sure neither man was Stetler it was as if they were invisible to her.

"Stetler? Rick Stetler? Are you in here?" she said in an angry rage as she headed to the stalls. "Rick?" she said as kicked the doors of the stalls open.

The other occupants of the restroom stared at her in shock and slightly confusion. They looked at each other and shrugged unsure what was going on or what to do. Calleigh opened all the stalls, but there was no Stetler. She stood there, in front of the last stall of the roll, huffed and puffed. One of the men started to approach her. When he was close, he cautiously with his arm stretched toward her and placed it on her shoulder.

"Are you O-"He started with a deeply concerned look on his face. Calleigh quickly turned around before he could finish and removed his hand off her shoulder.

"I'm fine, don't touch me" she snapped at the man then stormed out of the restroom.

Her blood was boiling, she couldn't think straight. She was starting to get a headache and her vision was blurred, but she wasn't going to give up. She had to find Stetler and give him a piece her mind. This time he wanted to far, she couldn't hold it back anymore. All the anger that she ever held back seemed to be bubbling to the surface and Stetler was going to be the one it was going to be dump on. He definitely deserve it too, there were a great supply of moments when she held her tongue with Stetler and there was no one else who deserved to be subjected to this venting more than Rick. She quickly looked all around the lab, but she couldn't find him. "He must be gone" she thought. She walked to the lobby and she headed straight to the receptionist desk.

"Have you seen Rick?" she said bluntly.

Amanda, the receptionist looked up at Calleigh, startled. She looked at Calleigh and farrowed her brows.

"Hey, are you ok?" she said. The fact that Calleigh didn't greet her didn't go unnoticed and also noted that her voice didn't sound like her normal cheer self. Her face was really red and was covered with a thin layer of glossy perspiration, something was up.

"Nothing, I'm fine" she snapped a little. Amanda looked at her, shocked. Calleigh noticed and quickly felt remorseful. Amanda didn't deserve her rudeness.

"I'm sorry, I had a terrible day, but it wasn't any of your doing. I apologize." She said.

Amanda smiled sympathetically

"It's ok, I totally understand. It's been a tough week for us all, we loss some good men." She said place her hand on Calleigh supportively. She noticed Calleigh winced when she said loss and felt she needed to clarify what she meant by loss and that she didn't include Eric in that group. "They're going to find him, Calleigh. They're going to find him, alive." She said squeeze her hand in reassurance.

"Thanks" Calleigh said, smiling tightly and squeezing her hand back as she tried her best not to cry.

For a moment the woman stayed like that til Calleigh remember she had to find Stetler. Though she was temporally distracted she was still harboring pointed words for him. So she pulled away and asked her question again.

"So have you seen Rick? It's really important I talk to him." She said.

"Yeah he left out the door a few minutes ago, if you quick you may be able to catch" she said, having to yell the last bit because as soon as Calleigh heard his location she was out the door after him.

In the parking lot, she stood at the top of the stairs and scanned the employee parking lot for him. She raked mind to remember what kind of car he drove, but all she could remember was that it was a black sedan and the lot of full black sedans. After having no success from her perch on the stairs her started to walking through the lot and look between the cars. She was about to call it quits when she spotted him in the adjacent lot for the county cars chatting it up with a few officer. She had him now.

Ryan was at the lab to deal with suspension business and if that wasn't bad enough the employee lot was packed and all the visitor spot were filled as well. He had just managed to find a spot when he saw Calleigh emerge from the build. He waved and smiled at her, but she didn't even reaction. He waved again, but still nothing. She was looking for someone and it was obviously not him. He had decided to just park and catch her on the way in when she walked down the stair and right passed his car. That was when he saw her face. Something was wrong, the expression said it all. He'd only seen it a few times before and he knew who ever was on the other side of the expression was in trouble. Calleigh had one of the sweetest demeanors he could think of, but when she was mad she could lose her grip just like any other human. On top of that with Eric missing and all the worry, pressure and stress in finding him and catching the mob, Ryan didn't know what to expect.

"To hell with this suspension bs" he thought.

He had to stop her before she did anything she would regret. So he quickly turned his car down the lanes she was on and followed her. They didn't need any more people getting suspended

"Calleigh, CAL, CAL" he yelled from his car, but she kept going, scanning the lot.

"This is not good" he murmured to him.

He weighed his options; she was apparently ignoring him or couldn't even hear, so talking her down wasn't an option, so he had to think of another plan and fast, but he couldn't think of any other options that didn't involve force so he had no options. However, she stopped in her track and started to walk back.

"Great, she thought the better of it" he sighed relieved.

He started to pull up next to her when he noticed she had stopped and was looking across to the next lot. He followed her gaze. She was looking dead straight at Rick Stetler. Her target was acquired. She quickly began to maneuver between the cars.

"Crap, crap, crap" Ryan panicked, trying to think of what to do. He swiftly turned the corner and raced down the row Calleigh was now in and speed down it. She was just about to emerge from the between cars when Ryan pulled up and cut her off with his cars. This made Calleigh jump back quickly, just missing the cars and scream.

"Dammit, Ryan what the hell?" She yelled looking at him, slamming her hand down on his hood. She then quickly looked back at Stetler and Ryan saw her eyes narrow. Her voice was apparently carried because Stetler looked over at the two of them and waved with an arrogant smile on his face. Seeng this Ryan quickly got out of the car and grabbed Calleigh by the arms, roughly and guided her to the cars as she protested.

"Get your hands off of me" she said pulling away from him, but slowly she started to lose her well to struggle as they progressed to the car til she stopped resisting entirely. He helped her in the passenger seat of the car as she loses it and burst into tears. Ryan put his car in drive and they sped out of the lot and onto the highway.