Hi all, long time no publish and I apologize for that, I really struggled with this chapter because I know where I want to go with this story it's just connecting the dots to get there that is so difficult. Originally it was going to be short and sweet and all about Eric winning back Calleigh, but as I'm planning it out it's becoming much more then that. Here's the latest installment, I have a break coming up so hopefully I'll be able to work on the next one then. As for now please read and review, it always helps to know someone is reading your work. Thank you. I hope this doesn't appear OOC too much and I hope you appreciate that I've come up with a solution to dial down the Natalia in this story, I felt she was butting in and wanted her out of it. Any Natalia fans, don't worry she's still about, I just want to work on getting more of the team into the story in a believable way. And cue me rambling, ok EC fans I hope you can see the light at the end of the tunnel as it's getting brighter now.
It was mid-morning and Eric watched as the prints he'd just scanned into the system ran through their database, sending the computer screen into a dizzying whirr. Today IAFIS was not his friend and to Eric it seemed like it was taking an eternity to run through. The morning had been slow and fairly tedious, his mind weighing up Natalia's proposal of lunch and a much needed chat if he wanted it. He hadn't been out into the field that morning, he was reviewing old case files whilst his thoughts tried to rationalise yet again the latest of Calleigh's actions. This was until Walter had bought him some much wanted evidence that he was currently processing for prints. It had taken him some time, but he'd successfully deduced a set of workable prints from some broken glass found at the scene. Now that the machine was doing all the work, thoughts of Calleigh began to creep in again.
"Hey Mike, can you page me if we get a hit with these prints on IAFIS?" Eric called out to the lab tech stood across the room from him as he shrugged off his lab coat. He decided that he couldn't wait around for the results to come through and he decided to go in search of Natalia to accept her proposition from earlier. Leaving his lab coat behind, he exited his lab and headed towards DNA in search of his friend. As he made his way down the corridor and through the entrance of the DNA lab a smile of surprise spread across his face as he saw who stood before him, it was Natalia working with Maxine Valera. He hadn't seen Valera in almost two years and true to form, her ever changing hair was now almost shoulder length and a deep shade of red; it had been cut to frame her face perfectly. As he approached the bench, Natalia and Valera looked up from solutions they were both preparing ready to be analysed.
"Hey Eric" Natalia greeted him.
"Hi Natalia, Valera" Eric responded a little fazed by what he saw in front of him, they were both working so in sync with each other it was like Valera had never left.
"You look shocked to see me Delko; you must be the only person in the whole lab that wasn't aware of my return" Valera said with a smirk.
"Yeah sorry, I've had a lot on my mind, I must've missed the memo" he replied.
"Yeah, I heard about you and Calleigh, I'm sorry."
"Thanks, welcome back Maxine, how have you been?"
"I'm good; things didn't exactly work out in Fort Lauderdale, so when Miami Dade called and offered me a raise I swiftly transferred back. It's not just me anymore you see; I have a baby son to help support"
"He's called Noah and he's the cutest thing ever" Natalia chimed in with a distinct tone of enthusiasm in her voice "Show Eric the picture!" she said turning to look at her colleague and friend.
Valera carefully set down her work and slid off her gloves; she reached into her lab coat pocket and retrieved her cell phone. She walked over towards Eric, scrolling through her photos until she reached the right one. She stood beside Eric and once she'd found the right one she held the phone in his view.
"That's Noah, he's seven months old now" she gestured to the baby in the picture smiling proudly "and that's my husband Matthew. He's an astrophysicist and a complete geek, but the man sure knows what he's doing if you know what I mean" she added with a cheeky grin.
"Maybe a little too much information there Maxine!" Natalia said rolling her eyes at her friend.
"Ahem..." Valera said clearing her throat "Sorry Eric, probably not what you need to hear".
"Nice to see you haven't changed Valera" Eric replied with a soft chuckle "Your family is lovely, you're very lucky".
"Thanks Eric" she replied returning her cell phone to her pocket and heading back to her work station.
"So Nat, are you still able to go for lunch a bit later?" Eric asked directly coming over to lean forward against the glass work station with both hands. He lowered his voice slightly as if to protect his request from Valera's ears.
"Yeah of course, we're just running DNA here it should take some time, meet me in about half hour at the new Cafe Hibiscus down the street" Natalia answered softly.
"Okay, I'll meet you there" Eric replied as sauntered out of DNA and back to his lab.
"So lunch, can I come?" Valera waited until he was out of sight to speak "I need filling in further on all the latest gossip please. It really sucks that Calleigh's marrying a doctor, I bet he's nowhere near as hot as Delko."
"He's a nice guy Aidan and maybe next time Maxine; I think Eric wants it to be just me and him this time. He has a lot on his mind that he needs to off load."
The next twenty or so minutes in his lab went by quickly, the prints he'd previously scanned into IAFIS made a match and Walter along with Horatio went out to investigate. He hastily finished his report, before making his way out of the lab to meet Natalia at their destination. He walked briskly down the street; he decided that whatever he was going through he needed to rationalise it. He also needed to quiz Natalia on Calleigh, was she really happy with this new guy or was she running scared? After bottling everything up for so long he needed another perspective to his situation. He settled on a table on the patio, it was underneath a palm tree in some much needed shelter from the Miami heat. The clouds that were so unmoving earlier had lifted slightly now, allowing the sunshine to permeate through. Eric perused the lunch menu as he waited for Natalia to appear, getting slightly lost in his thoughts as he bought the laminated card up to his eyes. He heard the harsh scrape of a wrought iron chair along the patio stone and he looked up expecting to discover that Natalia had arrived, but to his surprise it wasn't her but Maxine Valera.
"You're not Natalia" Eric stated matter of factly, placing his menu back down onto the table.
"I know, I'm sorry, she and Ryan had a call out so she asked me if I could come and meet you."
"No offense Valera, but you're probably the last person I want to talk to about my personal life."
"Well it's either me or Frank, I'm afraid."
"I see your point, no Frank, besides you've been away for quite some time you'll probably have a fresher perspective on things than anyone else. I suppose you can stay" he gestured towards the chair she'd just pulled out and she sat down obligingly.
Valera grabbed a menu and began casually perusing her options for lunch, after a minute or two she glanced up at Eric to find him doing the same.
"So Eric, I thought you wanted my perspective on things, I'm sorry I got distracted by the menu" she started tilting her menu downwards and looking towards the man in front of her "You can tell me a little more about what happened if you want."
"Uhhh yeah, sorry Maxine, where shall I start?" He discarded his menu onto the table and rested his forearms down onto it.
"Well why don't you start with when you two broke up, last thing I heard you two were going full steam ahead after Calleigh's hospital stay, Nat said you raced from Tampa to be at Calleigh's bed side. When did it start going wrong Eric?"
"I suppose not so long after that if I'm honest, I did a few things I'm not so proud of Maxine, I was involved in an investigation into the lab when I worked for Nevins. She made me wear a wire and investigate my team without their knowledge, Horatio was the only one who knew, and I didn't tell Calleigh. I mean I couldn't without compromising what I was doing, I was stuck in between a rock and a hard place and when Nevins was killed by an explosion that I was nearly caught up in too it all came to light. Obviously Calleigh wasn't pleased that I'd kept it from her, but I did what I had to do for the team I had their best interests at heart. I thought I was the best person for the job; no one else would protect them like me. We decided to work through things and I know I had to earn her trust back and it really seemed like we might make it. However one day out of the blue she told me we were over and that was that, she basically shut me out, told me that we couldn't work together and be together and reluctantly I left."
"You didn't try to talk to her about her decision? I mean I know Calleigh can be defensive; I worked with her for seven years, but surely she can't be that bad."
"I tried, I called her the next day several times, and she never picked up. I even went to her house a few days later to collect a few of my things and try to talk to her but she either wasn't there or she didn't want to come to the door. She must've known because she came to work the next day with my things boxed up, embarrassingly we had an argument in the locker room, I told her she was stupid to let work get in the way of what we have and she told me rather coolly again that we had to remain professional and her job came first and we should try to be friends. She couldn't throw our relationship through a loop every time something came up at work and that was that. We haven't really spoken about anything other than work since. The next thing I know she's telling everybody she's engaged."
"Ouch that hurts. No offence Eric, but you guys were never really just friends, there was always something deeper there. So she's marrying another guy, but do you think she's really happy? Maybe she's doing it because she's afraid of what you two had and could have. I know Calleigh and I know you and I both know that whenever things get tough for her she puts up walls, look at her relationship with her dad. She's been doing this her whole life. I assume things are awkward between you two if you don't talk properly; maybe that's the reason behind it. Maybe you owe it to yourself to find out, that's if you still feel for her like I sense you do."
"I still love Calleigh more than anything Maxine, but I really don't think she's going to give up her relationship with Aidan and change her opinions to be with me."
"How do you know if you don't give her the chance? I mean look at me, did you ever think you'd see me married with a baby?" she said raising her left eyebrow at him.
"I suppose stranger things have happened" he laughed remembering the Maxine he used to know, who went out with a new guy every three weeks or so. Now she was sitting in front of him dispensing sage advice.
"So go get your girl Eric!" Maxine encouraged him with a beaming smile.
Having tucked away the silver picture frame back into the box, Calleigh made her way over to her door, straightening out her black v-neck shirt by pulling it gently down at the hem so it covered the top of her jeans. She slipped on a pair of black stiletto pumps and grabbed her purse from the stand beside the door, trying to make herself as ready as possible so Alexx wouldn't have the time to wait around whilst she looked for these items. That could potentially be time for Alexx to discover something that Calleigh didn't want her to find. She took a breath and opened her door to reveal her friend waiting for her.
"Hey baby girl, what took you so long?" enquired Alexx a quizzical look painted across her face.
"Oh, I just couldn't find my purse is all, but I'm all ready to go now see." Calleigh declared adjusting her purse on her shoulder so it sat more securely. She then ducked her head down and with a sense of urgency about her she began to walk forwards to go towards Alexx's car that was sat next to hers in the driveway. But before she could even walk the few feet past her friend, she was halted in her tracks by Alexx's firm hand to her shoulder.
"Where's the fire? Not so fast, do you mind if I use your bathroom before we go Calleigh?" Alexx asked, sending Calleigh into a mild panic, she had to hide that box if Alexx was going to be going upstairs, when she came back downstairs she was likely to stumble upon the box as Calleigh had done.
"Of course not, y'all know which one it is; the door on the left at the top of the stairs is the guest bathroom. I'll just make myself comfortable down here whilst I wait for you." Calleigh replied, bringing her head up and tucking her blonde hair behind her ears trying to appear ever so casual to her friend. She turned and walked back into her home, Alexx jetting off as soon as they got through the door to head to the upstairs bathroom. Calleigh peered up the staircase making sure her friend was out of sight, before she leaned down and scooped up the box into her arms. She made her way towards the garage, knowing that it if she stashed the box in there Alexx was unlikely to find it until she could hide it better. Halfway towards the kitchen Calleigh's home phone began to ring, thinking that it could be important, possibly her dad calling her mind completely lapsed she forgot about what she was doing and casually set the box down. Knowing that the only phone still plugged in was in the one on the wall in the kitchen she dashed towards it before it could ring off. She'd disconnected her answer phone and packed it away yesterday and she couldn't risk missing an essential call. She got to the telephone in time, it was her dad confirming the time for the rehearsal dinner tonight. Calleigh casually toyed with the telephone cord, wrapping the loops around her fingers as her dad diverted from his original question into casual conversation, Calleigh willingly going along with it. After ten minutes or so she made her excuses, citing that she couldn't keep Alexx waiting any longer as she could hear her in the waiting in the lounge. They said their goodbyes and she hung up the phone; she made her way back towards the lounge, she was smiling slightly and relaxed in the knowledge that for once her dad wasn't going to let her down when she needed him. She was also happy to be going out with Alexx for a relaxing day of pampering, they were going to the spa to get their nails and hair done and Alexx had promised that they'd get massages too. They were going to be completely relaxed and looking more than presentable for the big evening ahead, this reflected in Calleigh's demeanour, she strutted effortlessly over to the couch were Alexx had sat herself down. Calleigh had almost forgotten about her discovery just a few minutes earlier that was until she saw Alexx clutching the offending item. Calleigh's face fell, her mouth open slightly in shock, her friend had discovered the picture, and what was she to do now? She stood frozen to the spot not wanting to move.
Alexx felt Calleigh's presence over her shoulder. She'd come across the box accidently perched atop of the side table by the kitchen on her way to find her friend. She'd thought she'd be helpful and put it with the others, but she tripped in doing so, sending the contents of the box and herself flying as a result. The silver frame inside had shot out across the room and as Alexx gathered up the other items from the box she came across it half tucked underneath the couch.
She too became almost entranced by it, admiring the blissfully happy couple captured in the picture. They were the Eric and Calleigh she knew and loved the ones that had somehow become lost over the last year or so. She had let it go though, when she saw that Calleigh was content in her life with Aidan. Alexx had no reason to believe that Calleigh still held onto her relationship with Eric, that she may still love him until now. She turned slowly to face Calleigh, she wasn't upset if anything the fact that Calleigh had held onto the picture and intended to take it with her to her new life saddened Alexx.
"Calleigh baby" she started softly her voice a mixture of care and concern "Is there something you want to tell me?"
"I...I...uhhh" Calleigh started, she was moving slowly to the couch, she didn't want to disclose what she had in her heart. She didn't want to turn her world upside down over a picture, a picture that represented everything she was holding inside. However fate had intervened and she found the words falling out of her mouth unable to hold them in any longer as she planted herself down beside Alexx "I still love Eric, Alexx".
With that the burden was gone, everything she'd been stifling was laid upon the table now, and tears began to well in her eyes.
"Oh honey..." Alexx too now teary eyed, wrapped her arms around Calleigh tightly holding her as close as she could, still clutching the frame in one hand. Calleigh's tears rolled down her soft cheeks as Alexx comforted her. They stayed like that for quite some time before slowly coming apart, Alexx lovingly wiping away Calleigh's stray tears before clasping her hands in hers.
"What am I going to do Alexx? I've made such a mess of everything." Calleigh swallowed hard.
"Baby girl you have to tell the truth to both of them, starting with Aidan. He's a good guy, he'll be hurt, but he'll understand. Then you need to tell Eric how you feel and work as hard as you possibly can to make it work this time, because Calleigh I know that man has loved you since the day he first set eyes on you and something tells me he still does. I telling you this because I want my babies to be happy and you two make each other more so then anybody I've ever known."
Calleigh acknowledged what her friend was saying, it was going to be easy, and she had built up her defences so high this time. Telling the truth and revealing her feelings to Eric would hopefully allow them to crumble irreparably this time, never to be built around her heart again. She had to hope that he'd be open to her confession, only then would she and Eric be able to work towards the happy ending she now knew she so wanted and that they deserved.