Author's Note: Thanks for all the lovely reviews, everyone. They mean a ton, especially when I'm writing years after a show has aired! Just over here keepin' the Eric/Calleigh dream alive. :)

Due to a round of firearm testing and a briefing with an FBI director, it was four in the afternoon before she'd seen Eric's name on her cell phone screen. It had elicited both a smile and an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach – because he'd made contact, and she was the one who desperately needed to tell him what was going on. But as she listened to his voicemail in the empty locker room at her office, his quip about the new ballistics guy had her stifling a laugh and for the first time since she left, she realized how much she missed him. With a little distance, the unease of their situation had lessened and she missed the day-to-day: the wanna-ride-togethers, the evidence transport coffee stops, the ganging up on Wolfe every opportunity they got…

She bit her lip, eyeing the sidearm on her top shelf that she never needed to wear at work here, before hitting the call-back button and lifting the phone to her ear.

It rang a few times before he answered with a bit of a rushed, "Calleigh, hey." She could hear the low hum of music in the background, maybe a radio.

"Hey," she said, bouncing a nervous leg before she gave up sitting and stood in front of her locker. "Guess you survived your afternoon with Ryan."

"Barely."

She could hear the smile in his voice, which made her smile as she tucked the phone against her ear and hooked her gun back on her hip. And then she heard a woman's voice amid the music from the radio – Alicia, she guessed – and despite knowing, despite this being part of the reason she'd wanted to give him space and time, she felt her chest tighten.

"Is this a bad time?" she asked, nervously rolling her lips.

"We're just on our way to dinner," he explained. If she hadn't been so focused on the fact that they were still dating, she might've noticed the hint of disappointment in his voice. "Can I call you later?"

"Mmm, after seven my time if you're free and up that late?" she asked. "I have a yoga date with myself."

"I'll stay up if you promise to tell me why you're doing yoga," he teased.

"Deal," she agreed, laughing a little at herself. It had kind of surprised her, too, but as it turned out, when you're used to working 60+ hours a week and you drop down to 40, you kind of need to fill the time somehow. "I'll talk to you later, enjoy your date."

"Enjoy your yoga."

By the time Eric might be calling, Calleigh had gone to yoga, made dinner, showered, and parked herself on the couch with crime show reruns and a bowl of strawberry ice cream. She'd been craving it all week, and she was finally giving in.

She was both surprised and a little not when her phone rang at a few minutes after seven her time – ten his.

"Hey stranger, how was the date?"

"Hey," he began, sinking back into the pile of pillows at his headboard. "Uhhh, it was fine… It was actually kind of a break-up dinner."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Calleigh dug out a giant spoonful with a strawberry chunk and took a bite, turning the spoon over in her mouth to get the whole spoonful.

"Don't be, it was my decision." Eric let out a deep breath as he ran a hand over the back of his neck, sore from poring over evidence all day. "Just not really what I'm looking for…" Before she could attempt to respond, he redirected. "How was yoga? And are you some kind of west coast meditating hippie now?"

She laughed, sticking the spoon in the melting ice cream for a break. "No. I was just bored. It turns out when you don't work a billion hours a week and don't chase bad guys down every day, you really have to find ways to fill your time. And I already spend too much of it running, so…yoga seemed good to throw into the mix."

"So basically you're going to come back to Miami super fit and running marathons?" he teased. What he was really focused on was how she could leave her favorite line of work for an 8-5 ballistics lab job, even if it was temporary and with the FBI...but he wasn't going to get into that right now, when their conversation was flowing so easily.

"Oh, I don't know about that." She turned to bring her legs up and lay horizontally on the couch, eyes falling to her mostly flat abdomen for a moment before she laid her arm across it. She swallowed hard, eyeing the stack of mail she'd brought in today, the opened letter from Miami-Dade County sitting on top. "So what's with this new ballistics guy?"

Eric scoffed and she was smiling again – amusedly, this time. "He's slow."

"Cut him some slack," she suggested. "He's just a tech and I had to leave before I could train him myself."

"Yeah, well, we're definitely hurting without you."

It was as close to an "I miss you" as either of them would broach given their past and how carefully constructed their professional relationship was now. Her eyes once again drifted to the letter on her coffee table and she bit her lip in thought for a moment.

"Well, I still have to finish up this investigation into the Corner Shot, but it looks like I'll be back in Miami for a few days soon," she began, sitting up to read over the court subpoena. "I got called in for the Eddie Bowers trial next week." She paused, reading over the dates again just to be sure. Next week, for sure. Next week she'd be back in the same town as him, would probably spend some time at the lab…and next week she'd need to tell him that their lives were about to change completely. "I'm sure I'll be by the lab, but hey, you wanna grab some coffee while I'm in?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, maybe a little too quickly. He hoped she was just wanting to catch up, maybe clear the air between them before she came back – but Ryan's words floated through his mind again and a shred of anxiety crept in along with the idea that she could be about to tell him she was leaving.

"Well, it's late there, I'll let you get to sleep and I'll see you next week." Her heart pounded at that, and her hand restlessly toyed with a drawstring on her sweatshirt.

"Sounds good," he said, his voice going gravelly and low as the long day began to wear on him. "Goodnight, Calleigh."

"Night, Eric." She smiled sadly as she ended the call, glancing around the empty house as silence settled around her once again.

Calleigh wasn't sure how her Friday night had dissolved into this, but it certainly made for a much better evening than going out and not drinking with her coworkers or staying at home by herself. A call to Sarah to see if she wanted to catch up over a glass of wine – for Sarah – and a sparkling water for herself had been met with a very stressed out friend trying to chase four kids down for bed while her husband was stuck working late.

"Do you want some help?" Calleigh had asked – tentatively, because while they were close in college, still chatted and visited despite living on opposite coasts, and seemed to be growing closer by the day now that they were in the same town, she'd never really done this.

"God, yes," Sarah had admitted. "But seriously, no pressure. I'd recommend staying away." At the piercing shriek in the background, Calleigh had almost done just that, but she couldn't turn down a friend in need. And deep down, despite her hesitance to be around children right now, she figured she could use the practice.

And so now she was here, on Sarah's couch with three kids and a pile of bedtime stories while Sarah dealt with the youngest. The four- and six-year-old boys sat to her left, while the four-year-old girl had crawled into her lap, laid her back against Calleigh's chest, and had two fingers adorably tucked into her mouth. Calleigh had practically melted when Cora, who looked the most like Sarah with her bright red hair and freckled nose, laid against her, but her twin brother leaning against her arm was pretty sweet, too. The oldest, Tyler, kept helping her read, pointing out words he knew and stringing them together with bits of the story he'd memorized.

"Good job," Calleigh kept praising before she'd return to reading, glancing at each of them every so often.

As she closed the third book, Ben, the boy twin, smiled up at her and asked, "One more?"

Sarah came back to the living room just then, smiling at the sight of her kids suddenly behaving like angels for their new friend. And then, eyeing the two piles of books they had going, she asked, "How many stories did they talk you into?"

"Three," Calleigh admitted – one over their agreed upon two.

"Mama," Ben called out, holding up another book from the unread pile. "Calleigh's gonna read us this one, too."

"Uh, no she's not," Sarah clarified, clapping her hands together. "You're gonna give Calleigh a break, it's time for bed."

Cora, about ready to fall asleep in Calleigh's lap, made no movement, while Ben and Tyler obediently hopped up.

"Can you guys tell Calleigh goodnight and thank you for reading to you?"

A chorus of thank you's came from the boys, while Cora, having to take her fingers out of her mouth, looked up at Calleigh and smiled first. "Thank you," she said sweetly, squirming in Calleigh's lap until she'd turned around enough to wrap her arms around her neck in a rather suffocating hug. "Goodnight, Calleigh," she added, but didn't loosen her grip, instead letting her body sag until she was laying on her again.

"Okay," Sarah said decidedly, laughing a little as she stepped in to pry her overly affectionate daughter from Calleigh.

"Goodnight," Calleigh said to all of them, stifling a laugh as Sarah had to practically drag Cora until she gave up and scooped her into her arms.

When Sarah returned a few minutes later, Calleigh laid a hand over her heart and looked like she'd just had the wind knocked out of her. "They're so sweet."

"They can be," Sarah corrected, making a beeline for the bottle of chardonnay she had chilling in the fridge. "You want anything?"

"I'm good with my water," Calleigh assured, reaching for her bottle of mango sparkling water.

Sarah soon joined her on the couch with a generous glass of wine, sitting across from her and tucking one leg in. She handed Calleigh an empty wine glass, shrugging as Calleigh gave her a look. "I figured you could pretend."

Calleigh smiled, setting the glass on the side table before pouring some of her water into it. She picked up the glass, admiring the weight of it in her hand after months now of not drinking her beloved merlots and sauvignon blancs. "You know, I think this is actually doing something for me."

A knowing smile graced Sarah's lips as she watched Calleigh take a sip. "I've been through three pregnancies, I have a few tricks up my sleeve," she assured.

Sarah studied her friend as Calleigh sighed and grew quiet again, studying the children's books surrounding her. She was still reeling from both the unexpected way her chest had tightened with emotion at the feel of a child in her arms and the implications it held for her future. Her heart was knocking against her chest as the reality of the next few years hit her – not just the next few months, but her future: the feel of a tiny hand in hers, bedtime stories, and a small child completely dependent on her. She still couldn't even process it yet.

"I'm sorry if that was too much," Sarah apologized, tucking back a chunk of red hair that had escaped her messy bun. She'd warned Calleigh several times that the kids were nuts, and yet deep down she'd been even more concerned about throwing Calleigh headlong into something she might not be ready to confront or overwhelming her with four kids when she could just barely stomach the thought of one unexpected one.

"No, it's okay," Calleigh said sincerely. "I mean I'm definitely never, ever having four and I'm going to go on more effective birth control in the future," she said honestly, watching Sarah shake her head and smile. "But they kinda got to me," she admitted, looking over at Sarah with that same look she'd had just after Cora had found her weak spot and worked her way into her heart.

"They do that." Sarah eyed her suspiciously, not knowing how far to push this. "Just wait til it's yours."

Calleigh stared back at her, eyes brimming with emotion and uncertainty as she blinked disbelievingly. "Yeah..." And then she lowered her eyes to her glass, taking a deep, steadying breath in. "About that… I have to go back to Miami next week. I got called in as an expert witness for a trial."

"And you're gonna tell Eric?" she continued for her hopefully.

"Yep," Calleigh answered, certain though not quite confident. "I already asked him if we could get coffee while I'm in."

"Good. How ya gonna work that in? 'Here's your latte. Oh, also I'm carrying your child.'"

"Oh my gosh, stop," Calleigh begged, setting her glass aside and covering her half her face as she ran a stressed hand over her brow. "You're making me even more nervous."

"I'm sorry, you'll be fine," Sarah said assuredly. "He seems like a good guy."

"He is," Calleigh agreed, but she dropped her head into her hands, rubbing at her temples. "I think that's what worries me." She straightened back up, letting her hands slip from her face and drop into her lap. "He ended things with that woman he was seeing."

Sarah eyed her, trying to understand her reaction. She seemed almost more concerned about this new information, when really it should've made things much less complicated. "And…?"

"I don't know," Calleigh admitted. "Part of why I was so willing to come out here was because I thought we could use some space to figure things out without our...situation...as a factor. And when he started seeing her, I thought maybe he'd be happy and…" She shrugged, not sure how to explain it exactly. But Sarah had caught on.

"And preoccupied so things wouldn't be messy and complicated and emotional?"

Calleigh sighed. "That sounds bad, but yes."

"Calleigh," Sarah began, leveling with her. "If he has actual feelings for you, which it sounds like he does, they're not gonna go away."

Calleigh reluctantly met her eyes. Sarah wasn't telling her anything she didn't know deep down, and yet every defense mechanism surfaced, reminding her that she didn't know how Eric felt. And that she was pretty sure he didn't even know how he felt.

"How do you feel about him?" Sarah finally asked.

"I feel like...I can't even go down that road," Calleigh said honestly, and yet her Sarah knew that it wasn't the full truth of it. Nothing ever would've happened between them if it were. Calleigh wasn't one to give into purely physical desires, especially with coworkers, and she wasn't one to cross steeply defined boundaries with friends, either. "We work together, internal affairs would be all over it...and we're very different people."

"Okay," Sarah said, obviously not believing but settling and not pressing it further.

Calleigh gave her a look, knowing what she was thinking, and smiled sadly. "I could really go for about five glasses of that wine right now," she said, scooping her glass into her hand again and settling for a long drag of sparkling water.

As the elevator doors opened, Eric had to blink a few times to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him when he caught a familiar flash of blonde hair through the windows of the DNA lab. But there she was, tucking a long strand of blonde hair – longer already, he swore – behind her ear as she raised her brows and then laughed at something Natalia was saying. The sight of her hit him harder than he cared to admit.

He'd known she'd made it to Miami – they'd texted back and forth this morning – but he'd expected her to be wrapped up in court most of the day. Instead she was here, deep in conversation with Natalia and, judging by the looks of it, completely distracting her from the blinking results on her computer screen.

Eric shook his head in amusement as he walked down the hall and ducked into the lab.

Calleigh followed Natalia's eyes to the door behind her and turned, finding him grinning at the two of them.

"So first you leave us, and then you come back to distract Natalia from my samples?" he accused. His first instinct was to hug her, because that's what he did when he hadn't seen old friends in a month, but given how long it had taken for them to even be in the same room together without friction, there was no way he was initiating contact. And so he just restlessly shifted his weight, leaning against the doorway.

"Well it's nice to see you, too," she quipped. Sensing his hesitation and knowing exactly why he hadn't pulled her into a friendly hug, she smiled nervously and leaned back against the counter.

Natalia's eyes danced between the two of them curiously. And then they remained on Eric, her brows raised playfully as she interjected just in time to ease the tension.

"These aren't even your samples, buddy," she said, nodding toward her to-do list of backed up DNA samples. "These are Ryan's from the Montoya house this morning. You're like third in line."

"So you're telling me it's gonna be awhile," he concluded, taking her overwhelmed shrug as confirmation. His eyes drifted to Calleigh again and he asked, "Wanna grab that coffee?"

"Sure, sounds good," she said, masking the way her throat tightened up at the thought of having this conversation with him on Day One back in Miami. But it was probably for the best. Like ripping a bandaid off, she told herself. "I'll see you later," she assured Natalia before grabbing her bag off a counter and following Eric out of DNA.

"Sooo Vice City?" he asked, as though there were other coffee shops.

"Obviously." She smiled, sliding her purse strap over her shoulder and pulling her hair out from underneath it.

"I have to drop something off at the police station near there, anyway. You wanna ride together?"

Those four words sent a paralyzing wave of nostalgia crashing down over her and took her back to when things had been much lighter: before Mari died, before Eric had shown up at her door grief-stricken and desperate to feel alive, before they'd pushed each other away to preserve what was left of their relationship. It gave her both hope and pause that he was asking again, hope because things were almost light and innocent again, and pause because she was about to completely turn their worlds upside down again.

/~/

Natalia's eyes were still watching their retreating forms when Ryan came into DNA, an amused smile making its way across his lips as he followed her gaze.

"Okay, I really hate to say this," she began, meeting Ryan's eyes before she caught the last glimpse of Eric and Calleigh slipping onto the elevator. "But I think you may be on to something."

"I really don't hate to say this, but...I told you so."

"Eric's a hugger," Natalia began, already gesturing wildly with her hands. "Like, really a hugger. Once a conference bumped right up against my vacation and he hugged me when he saw me back in the lab cause I'd been gone for 2 weeks."

Ryan studied her carefully, waiting to see where this was going.

"And Calleigh, his closest colleague, has been suddenly gone for a month, comes back, and they both just stand there awkwardly like they're afraid to touch each other."

Ryan just smirked cockily, sliding his hands into his pockets and standing up just a little straighter. "So you ready to pay up yet? The next three bloaters are calling your name."

"Not yet," she insisted, holding a finger up. "Can we call it even if I figure out what's going on?"

Ryan's curiosity got the better of him. "Deal," he said, extending a hand so they could shake on it.