Author's Note: Guess I'm officially back! And I guess long chapters are officially my new thing? Thank you all SO much for the support and reviews after the last chapter. I'm so glad several of you are still around and interested in reading! I promise I'll take a look at other unfinished stories, although I can't guarantee updates on anything. I will say I've been inspired to rewatch the series from season 5 on, so that's a good sign, right? :)

Weeks, not months or some completely unknown date. She knew down to the week, Sarah noted. It meant that she was following along, going to the doctor, taking care of herself, not that she would have expected less of Calleigh. It was just that she could be avoidant when she needed to be, like running across the country instead of confronting her relationship with Eric head on. But not about this, apparently.

"How do you feel about that?" Sarah asked hesitantly, taking in Calleigh's glassy, disbelieving eyes. She honestly didn't know how Calleigh felt about having a family. She'd been hyperfocused on her career in college, barely making time to go out on a few dates with guys she was never serious about. And, unsurprisingly given her upbringing, she'd given a few indications throughout the years that she wasn't really interested in attempting a happily ever after. She obviously loved kids and was great with them, but having them was a whole different ball game.

"Surprised…?" Calleigh offered with a dumbfounded laugh, searching for the right words. "Overwhelmed." Sarah reached across the table to squeeze her hand, and surprisingly the contact helped. Calleigh had spent months running, burying this deep beneath work reassignments and temporary move plans, all the while her emotions were running wild beneath the surface. It was reassuring to not be alone with it anymore.

"I don't know, you know how my family is," she finally expounded after a moment. "I spent a long time thinking I would end that cycle by not bringing any children into the mix. And with my job, you see the worst in people. It's hard to get past that."

Sarah nodded understandingly. But Calleigh was sitting here in front of her, still 14 weeks pregnant despite all her options.

"But," Calleigh continued with a deep intake of air. "The past few years, something changed. I love kids, and I started thinking maybe one day I'd break the cycle by being different and better rather than by not having a family." She rested her hands against her cheeks, her pointer and middle fingers on either side rubbing at her temples. "I just didn't think 'one day' would be now. I was on birth control, but since I wasn't seeing anyone I wasn't as neurotic about it as I usually am. I'd just worked a bunch of crazy shifts so I'd taken it at different times, sometimes the next morning, missed a pill once, and apparently that's all it takes." She shook her head, unable to believe that her carefully calculated life had been thrown into chaos so easily.

"You're tellin' me, we were only supposed to have 3 kids," Sarah commisserated, earning a sympathetic smile from Calleigh. "But hey, things happen. It may not be how you expected it, but it sounds like you wanted this eventually, so...you're happy-ish about it?"

Calleigh pressed her lips together into a straight line, her eyes narrowing as she searched for the right response. "I'm not unhappy," she finally answered. That was the best she could do right now, when her life had been turned completely upside down and she felt like she was losing her control, along with one of her best friends.

"Well, that's something," Sarah assured, studying the way Calleigh's eyes seemed to grow distant as she thought about it more. Or thought of someone more, she wondered more accurately. "He doesn't know, does he?"

Calleigh's bright green eyes met hers again, and Sarah watched as she sighed. "No."

Calleigh tilted her head to the side, smoothing her fingers anxiously over a furrowed brow. "I know that he deserves to know, but you don't know Eric," she began as she shook her head. "He's loyal and bent on doing the right thing to a fault. If I told him he'd probably be down on one knee the next day." She rolled her eyes, both at his equally charming and annoying demeanor as well as the situation. "And that's all context aside… He's been through so much the past few years. He was always a ladies' man, out hooking up at all hours of the night," she recalled with an amused smile. He definitely hadn't done much of that the past few months. "Then it seemed like he kinda lost himself in the party scene and took a step back. His sister got sick and he was taking care of her, and then she got better but was shot and suddenly she was gone."

Sarah let out a deep breath, taking it all in while balancing what she knew about the both of them. "And when that happened, you were the one he came to," she said, recalling their conversation from the other night. It spoke worlds that Eric, grief-stricken and hurting, had come to her; she hoped Calleigh knew that, and she hoped she acknowledged what a big deal it was for her to have given in when she'd set boundaries for them as coworkers and friends.

"He's been there for me a lot, too." Calleigh shrugged, unsure what to make of it as always. "But we work together day in and day out in life-threatening situations. It's...complicated. I don't think either of us know how we feel."

Sarah bit her lip. Calleigh was level-headed and practical, but she also had a tendency to be too practical when it came to her own emotions and relationships. Sarah knew from their previous conversation that the sexual and emotional tension between them had been building for a long time, and that Calleigh had shut him out to preserve their current relationship when he'd tried to address it.

"But he tried to tell you how he felt," she pointed out, hoping Calleigh didn't mind.

"He told me he cared about me, that he didn't know what it meant," Calleigh corrected, anxiously smoothing over her hair that was tucked into a ponytail.

"And you don't think you should explore that, especially now?" Sarah asked, eyes pointedly drifting to her midsection.

"That's exactly what I don't want," she insisted. "I don't want us to pursue anything we wouldn't have just because I'm pregnant. And I just feel like he deserves some time to figure some things out without the added pressure of 'doing what's right.' Besides, he's dating someone now...like actually dating. I think it's the first time he's had an actual relationship since college."

"So let me get this straight," Sarah began, stringing the rather telling sequence of events together. "You two get more and more flirtatious, he stops hooking up, tells you he has feelings for you, gets rejected, you guys hook up, things are weird, and then he starts looking for meaning in some other relationship?"

"I don't know that it's like that," Calleigh said stubbornly. But truthfully, from her perspective, she didn't. She always thought Eric would 'settle down' eventually. He was from a large family, and he loved kids and loved love. It seemed inevitable that one day he'd fall head over heels and do the whole white picket fence thing. "I wasn't willing to risk a relationship with him and he moved on. He seemed happy."

"Have you talked to him?" Sarah challenged.

"No… I don't know what to say to him."

"The truth?" Sarah suggested cautiously. "You have to tell him eventually, and it's just gonna get harder the longer you wait."

"Yeah, I know," Calleigh agreed, nodding in acceptance as her eyes drifted out the large bay window in Sarah's kitchen. Clouds had settled over the Seattle suburbs again, bathing the area in a dark grey that had her starting to miss the Miami sun.

Ryan could already tell that Eric was in a mood before he'd uttered a word. He was in a hurry, his stride sharp and agitated, as Ryan caught sight of him headed for the processing room in which he had evidence spread throughout. Eric released a heavy breath as he entered, shaking his head in frustration.

"Ballistics is taking forever. You got anything from the vic's and witnesses' clothes?"

"Nothing yet," Ryan admitted, wishing he had better news. "I photographed everything and documented the items, but I'm still going over the clothes. We're gonna have to analyze the blood spatter patterns on clothing and compare them to the evidence from the room to recreate the scene and see if our witness accounts check out."

"Want some help?" he asked, already reaching to grab his lab coat from the hanger. "I'm just killing time til I hear back on those bullets. This temp guy sucks."

Ryan paused, an amused smile playing at his lips as he stood frozen in his position with a UV light over a green blouse. "He doesn't suck," he insisted, eyes returning to the top for a moment before his gaze drifted back to Eric to gauge his reaction. "He just isn't Calleigh."

There it was. Eric's jaw tensed at her name and he swallowed, pretending his full attention was on the case before them. "And your point is?"

His point was that every bit of Eric's frustration over ballistics evidence these days went back to Calleigh. His point was that Eric was taking everything out on this new guy, if nothing save for the simple fact that he wasn't Calleigh, because he was actually mad that Calleigh was gone. But he definitely wouldn't say that. "My point is that we're spoiled."

Eric slipped on gloves and laid out a pair of denim jeans on the table.

"Calleigh's really good and she's both a ballistics expert and CSI," Ryan explained. "This guy is a ballistics tech. He has no idea how rushed things are in the field."

"Guess I never thought about it like that." Eric shrugged, begrudgingly resigning himself to their temporary fate. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I know she's good, but I thought other CSI units had pretty solid ballistics experts."

"Nope," Ryan began, laying contact paper over the blouse to pull up trace he'd spotted on the fabric. "Probably why the FBI is trying to poach her."

"Wait, what?"

"Come on, that hasn't happened here yet?" Ryan asked. Pausing at Eric's obvious and intense concern, he set the trace aside for processing and paused his examination. "It happened in PD sometimes. They spot someone good, request their expertise on a temp assignment to test out their skills, then offer them a position if they like what they see."

Eric nodded, his mouth parted just slightly until he pressed his lips together and rolled them in frustration, then shaking his head in disbelief.

"I'm not saying she'd take it," Ryan added, holding his hands up defensively. "She loves it here."

"Right," Eric agreed, but all he could think about were the weeks leading up to her accepting that assignment. The redirected glances, the awkward silence, the short, only necessary conversations. How had it come to that?

Between the years of tension between them and the urgency in his grief, neither of them had expected this to be a drawn-out affair… But the moment he tore his lips away from hers to help her slip his black dress pants from his body, the moment he caught sight of Calleigh undressed before him, the two of them already making a mess of her sheets and pillows, he wanted nothing more than to let his fingers and lips explore her body to ensure she felt as incredible as she looked right now. To make these enjoyable moments last as long as possible in an attempt to outweigh the grief and sadness of the day.

With full lips and flushed cheeks, she smiled a little as he returned atop her, their now bare bodies kissing as he swept wet blonde hair behind her shoulder and captured her lips again.

His hands began to wander as he pressed slow kiss after slow kiss to her lips, knuckles brushing against her side and then fingertips skirting over her ribs. He felt her muscles tighten in anticipation beneath his skin as he trailed down her abdomen, teasingly parting their mouths when he instead followed the curve of her hip to her thigh. His fingers splayed against her sculpted legs, cupping her kneecap before letting his fingers skim over her inner thighs.

"Beautiful," he murmured against her lips, taking in creamy skin and her soft but toned body.

She pressed a hand against his chest, noting the quickening of his breath as her fingers at the back of his head slipped through his buzzed hair and ran along the sensitive skin of his neck. Or maybe it had more to do with his roaming hand slipping between her legs, running along delicate skin before beginning long, slow strokes.

The little breath of pleasure that escaped her lips actually had the corners of his lips turning up for one of the first times since Mari's death. He captured her lips again, the way she arched her body into his touch nearly tempting him. But he stayed the course, increasing pressure just slightly as her kisses grew more and more insistent. It was all wonderfully distracting - exploring her like something out of his wildest dreams, the sight of her green eyes heavy with desire as he parted to press his lips along her jaw, the delicate skin of her neck, over her collarbone.

She was amazed by his patience given the sharpness of his grief, but when she let out a soft gasp of pleasure and she felt his lips curve against her skin, she realized he was at least forgetting the events of the past few weeks in this moment and enjoying himself, too. And then he whispered in her ear, asking her permission - ever the gentleman and communicator - and she nodded before his lips began a not-so-direct path south.

Her hands slipped through his short hair, curling into a fist as his tongue dipped out to take over for his hand. He'd already brought her halfway there and it wasn't long before her gasps turned into moans, before her body was trembling beneath his touch with release and her nails were digging into his shoulders. He pressed kiss after kiss to her inner thighs, her hip, her abdomen as she recovered, but it wasn't long before her hands were at his sides, urging his lips back to hers.

Before he could settle atop her, she pressed her hand against his toned abdomen with enough pressure to stop him, pushing him aside only to flip their positions. With her hand gliding up his chest to cup the back of his neck, keeping him seated upright, she pulled herself atop him.

She watched his eyes grow heavy as he took in the sight of her before him, her curves within perfect grasp of his eager eyes, lips, and hands. And soon he was reaching for her, letting his hands trail over her thighs and hips before settling low on the curve of her back.

The feel of her fingers brushing along the base of his neck drew his eyes back to hers and everything hit him full force: that despite a disastrous year, she'd been there for him; that amid early morning crime scene callouts and drive-thru coffee, something more than just as coworkers was blossoming between them; that both of them were probably completely unprepared to deal with it right now. But mostly, he was struck by the honesty he saw there in her need to take care of him, to drive away the pain and loss of the past few weeks and the darkness of this day.

And that's just what she did as her lips returned to his, what started as a soft, sensual press-and-slide quickly landsliding into tongues greeting lips and hips rocking against his, her hands gliding teasingly over his sculpted chest and abdomen. Her lips abandoned his only to press eager, open-mouthed kisses along his jaw, to his ear, pausing at his neck as she took the length of him in her hands between them and elicited a groan of approval from his lips.

His fingers pressed into her hips, urging her closer as he showed her what he wanted most with a breathy whisper of her name.

She captured his lips in hers again, taking his bottom lip between hers as she shifted her hips enough to take him within her. Slowly pitching her hips against his, she paused as their bodies pressed together and he filled her. He clearly needed a minute, too, judging by the way he rested his forehead against her collarbone and attempted to catch his breath.

She ran her fingers over the base of his head, tracing along his hairline to the sensitive skin behind his ear, silently comforting him and waiting. He pressed a kiss to her chest and rose to meet her, his hands following her hips as she made him feel alive on a day that had nearly completely numbed him.

/~/

This should have been more awkward. The two of them, coworkers and friends, now tangled up in her sheets and unwinding from the adrenaline and pleasure that had both their bodies buzzing. Eric watched his fingers as they trailed over her bare side, her white sheets barely covering the front half of her body, one leg remaining out to abate the heat still coursing through her body. His lips curved upward as his eyes slowly drifted back to hers, stopping momentarily to drink in the way her previously wet hair had sprung into damp but mostly dry waves.

"Your hair isn't straight."

"No," she agreed, reaching for a strand to survey the damage. "It's out of control, I straighten it."

"I like it this way," he told her. Despite the exhaustion in his features and the darkness beneath his eyes, they sparkled a little.

"Well don't expect it to make an appearance any time soon."

"All right, then," he said, scoffing, actually almost chuckling, and then smiling. "I'll enjoy it while it lasts."

She smiled sadly as the weight of his words settled between them. She'd put a timestamp on their honesty, their attraction, their feelings, but that they could deal with tomorrow. Tonight was for making sure he was okay. So she reached out, letting her fingers trail over his muscular arms and shoulders until her palm cupped the back of his head. As she pulled herself closer, he wrapped the sheet around them, enveloping them in a cocoon of warmth and bare skin. She wrapped a leg around his, their bodies kissing as she ran a soothing hand over his shoulders.

"Get some sleep," she urged. "You need it."

His eyes met hers, torn between his utter exhaustion and the need to make "just tonight" last as long as possible. Finally, he gave in to her ministrations, though, closing his eyes to the feel of her soothing fingertips running over the base of his neck and slipping every so often into his short hair.

"Goodnight, Calleigh," he mumbled against the pillow, easily falling into the deepest sleep he'd had in quite some time.

"'Night, Eric."

/~/

He woke to soft light seeping into the room, the unfamiliar surroundings making him blink a few times until he remembered. Wet, black clothes. Blonde hair. Green eyes. Creamy skin against his own. Calleigh. He relaxed, sinking back into the soft pillows of her bed and rolling over, hoping to find her warm body still tucked beneath the sheets. But it was empty, the soft sheets cool with her prolonged absence.

He pushed himself up slightly, taking in the green numbers on her bedside alarm clock. 7:43. Late for him these days and especially late for her. He perked up at the creak of stairs from her hallway and caught sight of her in the doorway. She was freshly showered and made up for work, her blonde hair straightened and falling against a bright red button-up.

"Mornin' sunshine," she teased, cradling two cups of coffee – one black, one with her signature splash of milk and spoonful of sugar – in her hands as she walked towards the bed. "I brought you a coffee."

She sat down next to him like it was nothing, her perfectly dressed for work like normal and him completely undressed in her bed with no idea where his pants were, let alone his boxers. This wasn't bad. This could be okay.

"Morning," he echoed, pushing himself up further, the comforter slipping to reveal more of his toned torso that she was actively trying not to look at.

She bit her lip and focused on taking a long, much needed drink of caffeine. Nevermind.

"Thank you." He reached for the matching mug and took a slow sip.

"Sleep well? I was worried I'd wake you up."

"You didn't," he assured, wishing he hadn't missed the sight of her slipping from the sheets. But maybe it was for the best. "I was completely out till a few minutes ago. Think that's the most I've slept in weeks."

"Good." She anxiously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, not letting herself think about why he'd finally rested soundly.

"You're working today." He stated the obvious with a gesture to her clothing, rescuing them from a sea of implications.

"Yeah." She smiled sadly. "Ryan and I are working a double so you and Horatio have the day off…"

He nodded quietly, appreciation in his eyes as he met hers. "Thank you."

"You'd do the same for me," she assured, taking another sip from her mug. "Look, I have to run soon, but I don't want to rush you. I'll leave you a key by the door to lock up."

"Sounds good, but hey…you might have your evening off after all. I wouldn't be surprised if I make it in later." He shook his head, not sure what else he'd do with the day although he greatly appreciated the time off. "I'm sure I could use the distraction."

"Whatever you need," she said encouragingly, shrugging slightly. "Just let me know if you need anything, okay?"

He nodded quietly, setting his mug aside, which turned out to be dangerous for his restless hands. "Thank you, Calleigh," he began, searching her eyes as he tried to find the words. "For everything." And then he shook his head, realizing how awkward it sounded, and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "Sorry, I didn't mean, uh…"

"No, I know." She laughed a little and rolled her eyes, pushing his arm down in an attempt to brush aside their awkwardness. And it worked – until she realized it left her hand on his bare forearm, inches from the revealed skin of his torso her lips and hands had explored last night. "You're good," she assured, curving her fingers around his arm to squeeze it gently. "Seriously though, let me know if you need anything."

"I will," he said honestly.

She reached up, proud of her resolve as she gently cupped his jaw in her hand and leaned in to press a friendly, though lingering, kiss to his other cheek.

"I'll see ya later," she said softly, returning her hand to cradle the warmth of her mug. And then she was gone, leaving him in her most personal space to try to convince himself that life could be perfectly and utterly normal again.

Eric gripped the edge of the processing table, knowing his knuckles were going white beneath the latex gloves he'd just snapped on. But his temper and worry got the better of him and he pulled them right off, tossing them into the trash.

"Sorry, I gotta go talk to H. Those bullets should've come through by now."

Ryan watched him go, releasing a deep breath and narrowing his eyes on Eric's retreating silhouette in the hall. What the hell had happened between those two?