Note: Yep. Still can't stop writing. Hope y'all enjoy. :)

They'd asked for their coffee to go, opting to take advantage of the shop's proximity to Town Square and strolling through the boardwalks and parks that lined the shore. It was what they'd always done when they needed a break, whether it was just a reprieve from a long day or they desperately needed to clear their heads.

It was hot today, and she was glad she'd ditched her black blazer after court, although her tasteful blue blouse, black dress pants, and heels weren't exactly the best in this heat, either.

He kept hazarding a glance her way. Usually he was a little transfixed by how light and green her eyes were in the bright sun right by the ocean, but today he couldn't help but feel like something was off. It was like a month in Seattle had already changed her, her hair already longer, her skin her more natural creamy porcelain without the Miami sun, her demeanor a little more subdued than he remembered.

"So," she began, perking up a little. "I hate to say it but you may be right about the ballistics guy," she admitted, shooting him a glance that he met with an "I told you so" look.

"My files are a mess." She shook her head, sighing at what she'd have to deal with when she returned.

"Maybe you can whip him into shape while you're here."

"I'll try but I can't promise any miracles," she said, shooting him a smile before she took another sip of her half-caf coffee.

They took the path down through Margaret Pace Park, her eyes on the horizon off shore as she took in the ocean, the warm, humid air, the bright sunshine, and then Eric as her eyes drifted back to him. She'd really missed this. Although Seattle had its own allure, it wasn't home.

"How's Seattle?" he asked as though reading her thoughts.

"It's good." Her lips curved at the experience: a whole new group of coworkers who had their own quirks and secrets, a tricked out ballistics lab and FBI resources, hills to run on and cloudy skies to run beneath, and Sarah, whom she'd missed more than she realized. "Did I tell you my best friend from college lives there?"

"No, you didn't," he answered as an uneasy feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. She hadn't told him much of anything about Seattle, and he was getting the feeling there was more to it than she'd let on. Maybe Wolfe had been right.

"It's been nice to be near her again," Calleigh said, nervously twisting her cup in her hand as she thought of Sarah, of what she needed to do. "Look, Eric...I need to tell you something. About that day–that night…"

She hated to bring it up because they were so close to getting past it professionally. She hated that his brows furrowed in recollection as he watched her with an intensity that threw her off guard as she turned to him, stopping at a standing table by a beach overlook.

"Calleigh," he interjected, shaking his head. He'd been about to reassure her with a touch to her wrist, then realized that went against everything he was about to say, so he stopped short, setting his coffee down instead. "What happened between us...it threw me for a bit at work, okay? And I'm sorry for that," he said honestly – so honest that her eyes actually glossed over with a bit of emotion. "But before you decide anything crazy, I want you to know that things will be fine at work." His eyes searched her face, taking in the sad smile that had etched its way across her rosy lips, the bright green of her eyes against the ocean. He had his work cut out for him, but he was determined to preserve whatever was left of their friendship, if that's all this would ever be. "I miss working with you, and I'm not going to let anything get in the way of that."

Surprisingly, she was the one to falter and touch him, reaching for his hand on the table and covering it with her own. "I really appreciate that, Eric," she said honestly, letting her fingers slip around his to squeeze his hand. And then she thought better of the contact, pulling her fingers back to her warm cup of coffee. "But 'before I decide anything crazy'..." she repeated her eyes searching his. "What do you mean?"

He stood up a little straighter, his eyes questioning her. "Wolfe told me about the whole temp assignment thing...that the FBI will recruit cops and CSIs for contract work to test out their skills and see what they're made of, then offer them positions." He shrugged, searching her for any confirmation, but she only knit her brows together. "I just didn't want you to leave because of things between us."

Calleigh took in a deep breath, sighing heavily as an amused though troubled smile spread across her lips. "Eric, I'm not leaving Miami," she leveled with him. "Especially not now," she added, her fingers and gaze suddenly finding the cardboard sleeve of her coffee cup very interesting.

"Especially not now?" he asked, missing something.

She pressed her lips together, rolling them anxiously as she stared back at him and swallowed hard. "I'm pregnant."

Of all the things he'd been expecting her to say to him today, that had not been one of them, and he looked about as stunned as he felt as he held her gaze. She gave him a minute to process it, but the silence was deafening.

"I don't want this to change anything between us," she began, trying to reassure him. "You can be as involved as you want to be."

"Calleigh, this changes everything." It was a little too sharp as it left his lips, but he'd just been suckerpunched with the news and although he knew what she meant, it still felt like she was trying to downplay it. "Of course I'm gonna be involved."

She smiled sadly but knowingly. "I figured." With the weight off her chest, she sighed again, but a ball of nerves still clenched her chest tight.

"That was almost three months ago," he said after thinking back and doing the math.

"Yeah." She looked at him disbelievingly, biting her lip.

"How long have you known?"

"Not that long," she told him, "but a little while."

It made sense now: the distance she'd been keeping, the time away in Seattle, the willingness to give up field work for a ballistics lab.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me," he breathed out – a little accusatory, but mostly just honest, concerned, and a little hurt.

"I, um," she began, pulling a strand of blonde hair back that had blown across her cheek. "I couldn't believe it at first. And you'd just been through so much. I know I should've told you right away, but you finally seemed better after Mari, and things were settling between us. You started seeing someone and I didn't want us making decisions we wouldn't make because of this."

"Those would've been my decisions to make," he insisted, and she pressed her lips together, nodding.

"You're right, I'm sorry." She looked out at the ocean, searching for the right words. "I just kinda couldn't believe it for a while, and then I figured I'd make sure this was really happening – that everything was okay."

"And if it wasn't, you'd just deal with it yourself?" he asked, softening as his eyes danced over her. "You know you don't have to do this by yourself, right?"

She smiled, swallowing hard again as her breath caught in her throat. He was even better at this than she thought he'd be. "Okay."

He paused, exhaling deeply as he turned and leaned against the railing that overlooked the beach. And then he glanced right back at her, latching onto her words a little late. "But you're fine? ...everything's fine?" he asked, eyes drawing over her.

"Yeah, all good," she assured, a little smile toying at her lips that he was asking that despite everything. "You wanna see?"

He watched expectantly as she grabbed for her phone, thinking she'd hand him a screen filled with a fuzzy photo or something. But instead she placed a rather detailed stilled image from a sonogram video in his hands, the play button waiting for him in the center of the screen. He wasn't sure he was ready for this. He'd only just found out, and he felt like he needed a stiff drink or three along with a few nights alone to actually process this. To let it become real and figure out how the hell he felt about it.

He smoothed his thumb over the edge of her phone and turned it over in his hands, and when he looked back over at her she was patiently waiting, giving him whatever time and space he needed.

"You don't have to," she said, hesitating, ready to take her phone back. "I can send it to you sometime."

But his brows furrowed and he looked down at the screen, tapping the play button and letting the image come to life. Something that looked surprisingly like a baby already filled the screen, moving, squirming, then disappearing until the angle changed and stopped at a perfect profile shot. It was the sound that got to him, though: the quick, thudding heartbeat that filled the space between them and made his own heart skip a beat.

"This is crazy," he finally said, his gaze lifting to dance over her before returning to the screen just as the video ended.

"Yeah," she agreed, biting her lip again as he pressed play again and closing her eyes for a moment as emotions overwhelmed her.

As it finished for the second time, he stared at her phone moments after it had stopped, his lips curving up sadly as he finally handed it back to her. "I didn't even know if you wanted kids…"

"Well I do," she said, staring at the screen for a moment. She was still having trouble coming to terms with it, too. "Preferably planned ones while in a committed relationship, but…"

"Yeah." He got it. It wasn't the way either of them would've wanted to go about this, and yet they were both willing to.

"I'm sorry, I'm usually better about having the whole birth control conversation," he said, leaning his forearms back on the railing.

"Don't be, that was an awful day." She leaned into the railing, too, grasping it with her fingers before resting her arms against it. "Besides, it wouldn't have mattered. I was on it… I wasn't as precise about taking it given our schedules and the fact that I wasn't seeing anyone, but...I was on it."

"Well, that makes me feel equal parts less irresponsible and more terrified."

"You're tellin' me," she joked, and yet he heard the tremble in her voice – saw the tears welling in her eyes as he glanced over at her. And he knew. Calleigh, more than anyone he knew, had a carefully calculated, carefully controlled life. After the way she grew up, every action was premeditated, every decision turned over a thousand times. She wasn't one for chaos at all, and yet here she was, in the midst of it.

"Hey," he said softly, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Trying to resist, trying to stay collected, she kept her eyes on the ocean and swept the tears from her eyes. But Eric pulled her into a hug anyway, tucking her head beneath his and pressing his hand into her blonde hair as he cupped the back of her head. "I'm serious, you don't have to do this alone."

Calleigh closed her eyes, pressing both her cheek and a palm to his chest as she let him envelope her, her other hand clinging to a fistful of his shirt at his side as she held him close. She remained there for a while, soaking in the surprising comfort of being wrapped in his arms, his hand soothingly moving up and down her back.

"Can you send me that video?" he asked after a moment, and he felt her go slack against him as she relaxed, felt her smile against his chest.

"Yeah, I can do that."

After a few days with the knowledge, Eric knew several things: that he was actually pretty mad at her for not telling him sooner, that he really was serious about her not doing this alone, and that this development was like an ignition source for his already very complicated feelings about Calleigh. Because now they were inextricably connected. Now they were sharing one of the deepest bonds two people could share. And now, as he watched her visit the lab with water bottles or strawberry smoothies – a compromise for her strawberry milkshake craving, she'd told him – instead of her usual caffeine fix, or make knowing eye contact with him before bowing out of the room when Natalia went to use a potent chemical, the realization that she was already really good at this made his chest tighten with emotion.

Aside from bumping into each other at the lab when she was helping the new ballistics tech, they hadn't talked much. She was busy between court hearings and trying to keep the ballistics lab straight in her spare time, and he was balancing several cases at the moment. But she'd texted to check on him the night after she'd told him, and that had started a casual back-and-forth of text messages and brief in-person conversations.

As he wrapped up a long fingerprint session that had been a bust, he pulled out his phone and found their message thread.

"How's court?" he typed out, pressing send and slipping his phone back into his pocket.

It buzzed almost immediately, and before he even had his hands on the computer keyboard to start up his report, he was fishing his phone out again.

"Long," she'd said, the little bubbles dancing to indicate she was typing again. "Judge is in a bad mood and we haven't recessed for lunch yet."

He glanced at the time – 12:55 – and then typed back. "Yikes. You doing okay?"

When she replied simply with the green sick emoji, a little smile made its way across his lips despite his concern. She'd told him she hadn't been that sick as long as she ate little things regularly, and a stretch from whenever she'd last eaten that morning to one o'clock had to be pushing it.

"Need anything?"

She took longer to reply that time, and he wondered if she was hesitating. "Thanks but I'm ok. Can't get out til 1:30 anyway. She's giving us 20 for lunch. Must wanna push through today. I'll grab something at the cafe."

"Ok," he typed back, but it didn't sit right with him. Some instinctive, protective streak was developing within him, and despite their unusual circumstances, despite their history, despite her fierce, hardheaded independence, he had to give in. Glancing at his results and the good hour of report-writing in front of him, he packed up his evidence, shut off his monitor, removed his lab coat, and ducked out of the lab.

By the time court finally adjourned at 1:30, Calleigh couldn't decide what took precedence: how starving she was, or how nauseous she was. Starving, she thought a second later. Definitely starving. She'd reached a point where she needed to wolf anything down, even some crappy sandwich from the little cafe connected to the courthouse, regardless of the consequences.

But as she slipped her phone into her back pocket and began to cross the lobby, she caught sight of an undeniably familiar figure seated on one of the benches. Eric.

He spotted her just after she'd spotted him and he stood, lifting a bag from what looked like her favorite place to stop for lunch. A smile pulled at her lips – disbelieving, grateful, and overwhelmed all at once. She slowly walked toward him, curiously peering at what was in his hands.

"Hey," she said softly, hesitating.

"Hi." He handed her a bag of what looked like both her favorite sandwich and favorite salad, definitely from her favorite restaurant. And then her eyes lit up as he reached down to also hand over what looked like a strawberry milkshake from Miami's best creamery.

She practically grabbed it from his hands, immediately taking a sip and letting the flavor she couldn't get enough of crash over her taste buds. Smiling, he watched her, her mood practically brightening right in front of him.

When she released the straw, she sighed, eyes dancing over him appreciatively. "You're my hero."

Eric chuckled at her reaction, writing it off with a shake of his head.

"Seriously," she said, taking another sip. "Thank you."

As she stood there looking back at him, she felt an unfamiliar, overwhelming surge of emotions overtake her. She blinked and looked away as her eyes grew glossy, trying to hide it.

It worked – for a minute. But then an amused smile crept across his lips, and even though he thought better of it he asked, "Are you crying over food? Really?"

She smiled, for once not shying away from an emotional moment with him. Wherever this was coming from – whether it was just him being caring and protective, being a good partner in...whatever this was, or because he actually cared for her in ways they couldn't talk about, she really didn't care at the moment. He'd gone out of his way, and she couldn't have been more grateful.

"It's not the food," she said simply, meaningfully, meeting his eyes as hers still welled with emotion.

Eric swallowed hard and his lips tightened with emotion. This was monumental for Calleigh, and seeing her all open and affected, he wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms and press his lips to her temple. But he couldn't do either of those things, because whatever they were to each other, that wasn't a part of it.

So he kept his distance, the moment actually becoming too much for him, and so he checked his phone, where the time on his break was ticking and 10 unread messages awaited. "I gotta get back to the lab."

"And I should eat," she said, taking a deep breath in as she tried to clear her mind. But she couldn't look at him without feeling overwhelmed with appreciation. "Eric, thank you, again. Seriously."

All he could do was hold her gaze meaningfully as he reminded her, "I told you you're not doing this alone."