A/N 1: Quick reminder about the content warning I offered last time. Chapter 6 contains a reference to sexual assault.

A/N 2: I'm trying to post these very quickly, as I'm about to be pretty busy for a few weeks. This chapter is nice and lengthy, it was the hardest yet for me to revise, and it concludes the current scene. Time for us to move the story along :)

Chapter 6

"Come here," she said abruptly, stepping back and slipping her small hand into Eric's, intertwining their fingers. She tugged him up the last stair. "Welcome to my porch."

"Um," Eric replied, startled by their sudden separation and somewhat confused by her pronouncement. "Thanks, Cal…"

"This is what makes me feel better," she elaborated, earnestness in her voice and written on her features.

Tugging on his hand again, Calleigh led him to her swing and nudged him to sit down. She followed, curled her legs underneath her so her knees rested on Eric's thigh, and let him rock them gently back and forth.

"This is where I come to feel better," she said, and she gestured at the padded swing and the wide wrap-around porch.

Eric now understood why he felt he needed an invitation to join her here, why he hesitated on that last step. This place was sacred to her. The significance of Calleigh welcoming him into her safe space, wanting him there, did not pass by his notice.

"You were here earlier," Eric remarked, studying her closely. Lines of pain and exhaustion had etched her face recently. It tore at his heart to see them, and he promised himself he would do whatever it took to make them disappear.

Calleigh met Eric's careful gaze and nodded.

"Did it help?" he queried.

She cocked her head and bit down on the inside of her lips.

"No, not really," she answered, then grabbed the blanket from behind Eric and wrapped it around her shoulders. The fair Louisiana breeze brought a slight chill to the night air.

Cal had one arm perched on the back of the swing and she rested her head in her hand, content to stare at Eric for a little while. Eric let her, fixing his own eyes on his fingers that were playing with the frayed edge of her quilt, and rocking them to and fro with his foot. Silence descended on the two friends, except for the songs of the cicadas in the distance.

"Don't you want to know what happened?" Calleigh eventually asked, her voice approaching a near whisper.

The night Eric spent with her after her kidnapping, they talked very little about her ordeal. The two exchanged enough conversation about it for Eric to understand she faced a long road to redemption, and for Calleigh to know she wasn't alone. Mostly, they talked about other things. Caught up on Eric's nieces and nephews, Horatio's extradition and return, Wolfe and Valera's endless flirting game…

Looking back on the end results, on Calleigh's subsequent breakdown, Eric now considered that a mistake. He should have forced her to talk more in the last three weeks. He knew not to make the same misstep twice. But he also knew he needed to traverse those waters carefully, draw her out slowly.

Eric shook his head. "Not if you don't want to tell me."

She fidgeted slightly under the intensity of Eric's gaze and took a minute to consider her words. "I want to, it's just hard to talk about. I don't know where to start."

"Well," Eric said, stealing Calleigh's hand from the back of the porch swing and intertwining their fingers. He'd had a lot of time to think about how he would approach Calleigh once he finally found her, but somehow he still felt the need to buy time.

Tapping this side of himself was new and something he'd always tried to avoid. He reminded himself, though, that if he wanted Cal to open up, he had to do the same—first. That thought on his brain, Eric took a deep breath, and he dove in head first.

"When I was shot," he began tentatively, "I didn't know where to start, either. My therapist asked me what I was most upset about in the moments when I snapped. Maybe you could start there?"

That was an excellent question, and one Calleigh didn't really know the answer to. Was it her kidnapping that sent her reeling? Was it the ups and downs with Eric, or being home again?

Calleigh gave a tremendous sigh. "I need more tea," she said matter-of-factly. And time to think.

Eric grinned. "Alright," he said, reluctantly letting go of her hand and heaving himself off the swing. "Tea. First order of business. Stay put."

Calleigh smiled as he grabbed her mug from the wooden railing and walked purposefully toward the wide double doors that stood as a grand entrance to the house. He waltzed in like he owned the place. Through the front windows, Calleigh could see Eric look around for her dad or her brothers, but seeing no one, he strode into the kitchen in the back and searched for the things he needed for tea.

He returned ten minutes later, hot tea successfully in tow. Both of them knew Eric did not need a full ten minutes to find the supplies and brew the tea, but he delayed a bit to give her space to bolster herself for what would be a tough conversation.

The man proffered Calleigh the hot mug and she accepted it gratefully, and when he sat down next to her, she reached over for his hand and placed it carefully on her knee. Eric caught her eyes and saw her small, brief smile, and he gave her knee a soft squeeze.

"Okay," Calleigh breathed deeply, steeling herself.

Eric stopped her. "I was thinking in there, why don't—why don't you start with Derek, at the hospital?"

She nodded and shrugged her shoulders. "That's as good a place as any…hmm, well…"

"Why did you react the way you did when Derek came up to you?"

Calleigh smiled in appreciation. Eric always knew how to draw her out without pushing too far, the same way she always could with him. They made a good team.

"I take it Derek filled you in on the way here…"

"Yeah," he said gently.

Calleigh's eyes dropped to her hands and the tea cradled in her lap. When she spoke, Eric had to strain to hear her voice.

"I haven't slept very well since…since the kidnapping," she said. "I hear things, you know? See things. I have to keep my lamp on at night. Ugh, that's embarrassing."

She rolled her eyes and ducked her head in shame.

"Cal, look at me…" Eric forced her chin upward. "I didn't sleep for two months after I got shot. Sometimes, I still wake up with night sweats."

Calleigh's shoulders slumped. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? That a year from now I'll still have nightmares?"

Eric caressed his thumb across her kneecap. "Would you rather me lie to you? No. Calleigh," he sighed, "I wish I could make it hurt less. But the truth is, it will take a long time to heal."

Calleigh swiped at a salty tear on her cheek in frustration. "I know," she admitted. She'd finished her tea, so she bent down to place it on the porch planks and out of the way. Sitting up, she reached for Eric's hand again. His skin felt cool to her touch after holding the hot mug.

"I didn't see him coming, Eric. That was the thing. He came up behind me and laid his hand on my shoulder and—that's all. I panicked."

Eric nodded grimly. He recalled what it still felt like to hear a car backfire and search around in panic for a gunman. "You thought it was happening all over again."

Calleigh pursed her lips. "Yeah," she replied, tracing Eric's fingers with her own as they rested in her lap. "You know, when I got here I couldn't… no." She shook her head and her look turned thoughtful. "Since it happened…I can't let anyone touch me."

Eric considered that for a minute. "You're letting me touch you now. You let me hug you before you left. Hold you that night."

She looked down at their hands and she couldn't tell whose fingers were whose. A wave of new, but familiar, comfort coursed through Calleigh at the sight, and she sighed deeply. Yeah, she could let Eric touch her.

"That's different," she stated, not sure she possessed the words to explain why. "You're…you don't count."

"Ouch, Cal," he said in mock affront, offering her a half-cocked smile.

Calleigh rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."

Eric tilted his head to the side and said, "There's a lot to unpack with that, Cal. But, I get it. I'm me."

Calleigh agreed with him, not quite able to make eye contact with him after her small confession. "Right. You're you, so you don't count. Anyway…"

"It makes sense. You were taken hostage for two days…Did he—" Eric clamped his lips shut before he could ask the question he'd wanted to ask her since he went home with her.

Calleigh understood, though, and her eyes welled with tears for the third time that night. This. This is what kept her up at night, what caused her shame and fear. She couldn't even look at herself in the mirror anymore.

"Did he rape me?" she finished for him, her voice small and broken.

Eric's voice was even smaller than Calleigh's. "Yes."

It pained him to ask the question, but if he wanted to support Calleigh the right way, he had to know.

He could feel her collapse in on herself. He freed one hand from Calleigh's and wrapped his arm around her.

Cal absorbed his strength and it helped her to respond. "He…his hands…he touched me. You know the law. I fought him, but I couldn't, I-I couldn't stop him…"

That's as much as she managed to say before her windpipe was constricted. Saying it out loud devastated her, but it also freed the tiniest bit of pain from her chest.

Whatever pain Calleigh released, Eric imbibed tenfold. He did know the law and what she was trying to tell him. He'd seen victims of sexual assault as a CSI, but this…this was Calleigh. He couldn't begin to imagine the violation she'd endured. The monster had raped her.

Bile rose from his stomach and all he could do was hold her tighter, keep her closer.

"I'm so sorry, querida," he whispered, choking on the lump forming in his throat, preventing him from taking a full breath. "I'm so sorry we couldn't get to you faster."

Calleigh shook her head and burrowed further into Eric's embrace.

She was supposed to be Calleigh Duquesne, wonder-woman, always in control and always on top of things. Now it felt like she couldn't do anything right.

She strained her voice to speak. "I'm supposed to be strong, Eric. But how can I be strong when every time I close my eyes, I see his face?"

Eric's stomach churned again at the brokenness in her voice. "I don't know. I do know that someday you'll close your eyes, and he won't be the first thing you see.

Calleigh sniffled. "I'm tired of looking over my shoulder."

Eric stayed quiet, trying to come up with something, anything to say. All he had was honest truth. "You will for a while. But not always."

They stayed like that for a long moment, until Eric spoke again. "Cal, what happened at the hospital?"

He didn't want to move away from the heavy revelations of the past several minutes, but he knew Calleigh was at her breaking point. They would have time to talk later. And for Cal's sake, Eric also needed time and space to deal with his knee-jerk reaction to what she'd shared: the visceral desire to track down Seth McAdams, put a gun to his head, and pull the trigger.

Eric fought hard to shake the thought from his mind and focus on Calleigh.

"I don't know, really," she explained. "I remember thinking, 'my mom's dead.' Oh God, Eric."

She looked at him in horror, as if she just realized everything that happened today. "My mom's dead."

Calleigh's mother was obviously the trigger. Cal's eyes were dry, but he sensed the panic lying just beneath the surface. Eric felt her body go taut with rapidly intensifying distress.

Off and on over their eight years of friendship, she shared stories about her mother. Many of them were tinged with pain and offered in response to a case or a bad day. Sometimes the memories brought a smile to her face. Overall, Eric knew Calleigh's relationship with Caroline was highly complex, and he worried acutely about Calleigh's ability to process her death right now.

"Hey, listen to me," he whispered, "take a deep breath. Okay?"

Calleigh's eyes remained wide and frantic. "Eric, she's gone."

"I know, querida," he soothed.

Calleigh dropped herself heavily against Eric's side, trying to focus on her breathing and drown everything else out. She felt his hand tenderly drifting up and down her back. He silently breathed in and back out, setting a deliberate pace for her.

Her mind gradually stopped spinning, and she slowly leaned her head back from the crook of his neck. She ran a tired hand over her face and through her hair.

"Better?" Eric inquired. Her slender fingers absently found his again.

"Yeah," Calleigh murmured. "I can't talk about my mom right now, Eric. Maybe tomorrow, but not tonight."

"I didn't ask you, Cal," he replied, a soft look gracing his features.

"I know. But I need to talk about it, and I know you know I need to talk about it," she said with a half-grin.

"I'm glad you know that," Eric grinned back.

Calleigh chewed the inside of her cheek. "How did everything get so complicated?"

Eric's nerves rattled for a second as he contemplated all the ways he could respond. Calleigh felt him waver next to her, and she sent him a questioning glance with a tilt of her head.

"Everything doesn't have to be so complicated, Cal," he quietly stated.

"What," she responded, pensively studying their conjoined hands. She lifted them a little off her knee. "You mean this?"

Eric captured her green eyes with his, and he just drank her in for a minute. Calleigh was puzzled when he unfolded himself from her side, stood up from the swing and slowly paced a few steps in front of her.

"When I—" he started, then paused and scrubbed a hand over his shaven head. "When your dad called me, Calleigh, I thought…well, I don't know what I thought. I just knew I had to get here."

Calleigh pushed herself off the swing and came to stand a foot from Eric with her arms crossed. When he stopped speaking, she nodded for him to continue.

"Today was the Yankees-Red Sox game—"

Calleigh's stomach sank. "Eric, I am so sorry. I completely forgot. Everyone was at your house and my dad calls you and I ruined everything—"

"Calleigh, don't worry," he said, reaching out for her elbow. "You didn't ruin anything. I would have been upset if he didn't call."

She relented, although she still felt guilt for the chaos she must have caused. "I know…I'm sorry. Finish what you were saying."

Eric started pacing again, using his hands to help explain his story. "Natalia stayed behind to help me clean up, and we started talking."

"About what?" Calleigh prodded.

He shoved his hands in his pockets but quickly withdrew them again. He stopped directly in front of her.

"You," he answered softly.

Her brow furrowed. "Me..."

Suddenly, all of Eric's fear was gone, all his hesitation, and he stepped up close to Calleigh and seized both her hands with his.

"All I could think about was how I could fix this, Cal. All I wanted to do was make it go away, like you asked me to earlier."

His voice cracked with emotion as he spoke. "But I didn't know how. How could I possibly make it better, Calleigh?"

"You're here," she whispered.

"Yeah...You know, I asked Natalia, I asked her what I was supposed to do," Eric confessed. "You know what she told me?"

"Hmm," Calleigh responded, not trusting her voice to form actual words.

Eric locked his eyes with hers. "She told me I can't fix you, Calleigh. All I can do is love you."

Calleigh's lips parted in surprise and her eyes grew wide as Eric weaved their fingers together and took a tentative step closer, decimating any sense of personal space between them.

He pressed on. "If there's one thing I know how to do, Cal, it's love you."

Calleigh's lungs instantly held her breath captive. Her brain stopped working, too, although her hands seemed to have a mind of their own, gently escaping from Eric's and sneaking around his waist of their own accord, her head sinking helplessly to the space below his chin.

Leaning down until his lips feathered against Calleigh's ear, Eric whispered his final words: "I just need to know if you'll let me."

He waited patiently. Cal's mind was already on overload, and the confession he just made wasn't something she could process easily—even with a clear head.

After a few moments and a couple deep breaths, Calleigh realized the numbness she felt earlier was gone, and she could feel. The good and the bad, but especially the good. "Feeling" didn't overpower her as much as she feared it would…

Eric...Eric did overpower her, in the best way. He empowered her, and she made the decision. Feel now, think later.

Calleigh released her hold on Eric's waist and bent her arms up between them, placing her palms flat on his chest and connecting her gaze with his.

"Okay," she stated.

It was the same acquiescent 'okay' she gave him three weeks ago, and her simple acceptance surprised him now just as much as it had then.

"Okay?" he asked, a little trepidation painting his voice.

Calleigh sighed and tilted her head, eyes still locked on Eric's. She ran her hands smoothly up and down his strong chest.

"I needed you here, Eric. I didn't know how much." She gave a short, derisive laugh and dropped her head against his breastbone once more. "I never knew how much."

Calleigh wasn't talking about tonight. She was talking about the last year of their lives. Eric's gentle fingers drew tiny circles on her back and sides as he held her close. He struggled to find the right words. "I want to be here for you, Cal. I've wanted that. But you don't always let me."

He could feel Calleigh smile against his chest, which confused Eric, until she pulled back and fixed him with a fierce gaze. Her sea green eyes weren't free from the hurt which filled them all night, but Calleigh was finally starting to shine through once more.

Faint hope soared deep inside him at the sight of the small, kindling fire he saw in those green depths.

"We've got to get on that, don't we?" she quipped, repeating Eric's words from earlier.

Eric's eyes drifted shut and he dropped his forehead to Calleigh's. She said 'we.'

Cal seized the moment: she deftly migrated her hands up from his chest, wrapped her arms around his neck, and stood on her tiptoes to meld her lips with his.

Eric's eyes opened in surprise at Calleigh's kiss, but he quickly recovered, gathering her gently into his arms as he kissed her in return. His hand traveled to cup the back of her head and his fingers tangled in her silky hair.

They tasted and explored slowly, and at long last they parted for air. Calleigh looked at Eric and bit her lip to keep from smiling. The slightest twinkle shone in her eyes, one he feared was gone forever. He did that. He possessed the power to bring that back for her...

Eric leaned in for another powerful kiss and poured all the reassurance, all the peace and strength he could muster, into their embrace. Calleigh responded with a small whimper and captured him closer, if that was possible.

Eric worried he might push her too far, too fast. He allowed himself a few more moments to tangle his lips with hers, to run his hands over the small curves that pressed into him, then he pulled away.

"You really think we can make this work?" Calleigh asked, a little breathless. A pleading look shone from somewhere in the ocean of her eyes.

Eric kissed her forehead and rested his lips there. She felt them move across her skin and a shiver ran down her spine.

"Cal, I can't promise you it'll be easy," he said, honestly. "But I can promise that I'll be here every step of the way."

Calleigh sighed against him and conceded to the shiver now pulsing throughout her body. She was out of words to reply. Instead, she simply fused her lips with Eric's for a third time and didn't let go. When his tongue swept across her lips, begging entrance, she granted it to him hungrily and melted into him.

Eric and Calleigh found themselves in new territory, quickly realizing that it was still possible to make new discoveries after years of friendship. The sensation was intoxicating. Being together was intoxicating, in a way neither of them expected.

With every kiss and every caress of Eric's hands on her back, Calleigh felt the pain washing away. She still hurt, but she could finally see a light ahead. She could fight her demons; she just couldn't do it alone. She didn't have to.

Eventually, their passionate embrace turned to soft, languid kisses and, ultimately, to brushing lips and bumping noses and whispered words.

"You know I didn't come here just to do that, right?" Eric asked after a while, resting his cheek on top of Calleigh's head.

"Yeah. But I don't really mind," she chuckled playfully, her voice muffled against his collarbone.

Eric grinned. "Me either." Then he added, more seriously, "We'll get through this."

Calleigh nodded underneath his chin. "I already feel better. Natalia was right."

"Hah. She usually is," Eric admitted. He paused, then added, "Cal…I'm smart enough to know that one kiss can't magically make everything better."

Her lips grazed his neck as she spoke. "I'd hardly say that was one kiss, Eric."

He laughed out loud, now, and reached down to frame Calleigh's face with his hand, bringing her eyes to meet his own. "No, uh, no it wasn't. But like you said, you didn't really mind."

She grinned, "Nope."

Her grin faded quickly, however. She let out an exhausted sigh and tilted into Eric a bit, bringing up one hand to squeeze the bridge of her nose.

"What time is it?" she asked.

Eric checked his watch and was surprised at how late it was. "It's almost one. What do you want to do next? It's up to you, Cal."

"Oof," Calleigh muttered. While she thought about her next steps, she happened to look over Eric's shoulder and through one of the windows.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she groaned. Eric whipped his head around to identify the reason for her exclamation and spotted three men sitting in the front drawing room, watching them intently.

Calleigh covered her face with her hands and buried her herself against Eric's chest, lightly bumping her hidden forehead against the muscles there. Eric simply laughed and ran his hands up and down her arms.

"Well, at least there's one thing you don't have to tell them," he said, trying to ease her embarrassment.

"It's not even that," Calleigh moaned. "My family—Eric, there's never any privacy."

"I know how that goes," he sympathized. "Is—is that why you didn't tell them about your kidnapping?"

She granted him a small nod. "Partly. And, it's like I said—it was just…hard."

Eric's palms ghosted up from Calleigh's arms to cup her face. "Look, they're worried about you. And, I know you don't want to hear this, but they deserve at least some explanation. I'll be honest, Cal, I don't think it can wait 'til morning."

Calleigh averted her gaze and didn't respond. When she stepped back from Eric and crossed her arms in front of her, he persisted. "I can do it, or you can, but either way, someone is talking to them tonight."

The woman shook her head. "No, no. I'll do it, Eric. I just—"

Eric wasn't about to let Calleigh withdraw again, so he crossed the space she'd created between them and softly retook her face with his hands. "This is what I'm talking about, Calleigh. You've got to let me in. We're in this together."

It took a moment for his words to sink in, but when they did, steely resolve coursed through her and that infant, reborn fire reared in her eyes. "You're right."

"Are you up for it?" he asked.

"Yeah. Although, you might have to help me fill in some things." She threaded her fingers through Eric's and tugged him toward the front door. "C'mon."

Eric followed her obediently, smiling at the determination she was beginning to reclaim. As they stepped over the threshold, his mind swirled with the words and touches exchanged in the last two hours. Calleigh was a lot stronger than he ever fathomed, and more willing to love him than he ever imagined.

She could do this. They could do this.

"If hope is born of suffering

If this is only the beginning

Can we not wait for one hour watching for our Savior?"