A/N 1: I am posting TWO chapters at once! Gasp. Please don't forget to read (and review!) both. I wrote Chapter 18 first; eventually, Chapter 17 came to me. Sorry it took so long. Perhaps on this holiday weekend (in the U.S.), you'll have extra time to enjoy them.

A/N 2: Massive thanks to doc100 for helping to educate me on medical issues. I kind of wrote myself into a corner with Eric's injury way back when. I don't go deep into all the terms she shared with me in this chapter, but she used her advanced expertise and did a ton of research, and it has distinctly guided the future of this story.

CHAPTER 17

Horatio's mission to find answers resulted in half-encouraging, half-devastating news from a nurse on the O.R. floor.

"Officer Delko lost a tremendous amount of blood and was not breathing on his own when he went into the O.R.; however, given the injury he sustained, his vitals are as good as we could hope for and he is tolerating surgery so far."

At least she was honest in her update: given the caliber of the bullet, the velocity, and the angle of entry into Eric's body, he appeared to be extremely lucky, but he also faced a tough road ahead. If he survived the initial surgery, he would endure weeks and months of additional procedures and rehab.

Calleigh fought hard against her instinct to dwell on the "if" in the nurse's statement.

That was two hours ago, and in the time since they received that first news, the team had officially migrated up to the second waiting room upstairs and Tripp arrived to join them.

Before they transitioned to the O.R. level, Carlisle apologized and explained his shift started in half an hour, which meant he needed to leave. Calleigh was still a stranger to him, but he nonetheless wrapped her in a hug and gave her a tight squeeze.

"Please give me a call when you know more," he asked her.

Calleigh stepped back and nodded. "Thank you, for everything, Jack. I can never repay you," she said, and she sent him a small smile.

"Just name one of your kids after me, 'kay?" he joked.

His grin was contagious and made Calleigh laugh. "I'll put in a good word for you," she said. "Jack's a solid name."

Her smile appeared sincere, despite the current circumstances, and Jack felt better about leaving her behind. Her voice held a certain confidence that she would desperately need to get through the next several hours and beyond. Jack shook hands with the three other men and made his exit.

Calleigh spent the next twenty minutes silently pacing, not listening as Tripp, Horatio, and Ryan discussed matters and made phone calls. Then a familiar voice sounded from down the hall and all four of them turned to see Natalia fast approaching. She didn't even stop when she reached them, she simply scooped Cal into a huge hug and held onto her tight.

"Natalia," Calleigh breathed into her friend's shoulder.

"Hey," Nat murmured in response, her voice muffled a bit by Calleigh's hair.

The two women stayed in that tight embrace for a long moment. Ryan stood to the side and watched as Natalia comforted Calleigh, and something stirred in him, not for the first time. Excepting the news that her close friend shot and killed a man today, Nat remained in the dark about the events of the last two weeks. Yet, somehow, she knew. She knew what Calleigh needed and why, and she gave it to her without hesitation.

He'd been right that day in the storage room—Natalia was most definitely a saint. A good friend, a trustworthy partner, someone who loved and gave freely, without question, and asked for little in return. Ryan watched her closely and the thought occurred to him that the solace she offered came from her own deep well of hurt. She experienced past suffering and drew on her pain to help others, and that made her one special kind of human being.

Ryan knew his attention should be on Calleigh, on Delko and the situation in front of them, but he struggled to shake himself loose of the thoughts churning in his mind. When Natalia released her hold on Calleigh, Ryan's eyes followed her for a second before he turned his focus back to Cal. Even then, he caught himself sneaking a glance at Natalia, studying her face and the compassion he found there.

Now is not the time, Ryan sighed to himself, finally breaking free of his distraction. But in the back of his mind, he thought about the stories of Calleigh and Eric, Speedle and Charlie, and he catalogued this feeling growing inside him, committing to exploring it sooner rather than later, but when grief and fear didn't hang so heavily in the air and in his heart. Right now, his friends needed him.

"Ms. Boa Vista," Horatio greeted Natalia as she stepped away from Calleigh. "I thought you were at the lab."

The youngest CSI tipped her chin up and looked him unapologetically in the eye. Yes, Horatio left her in charge at the lab, and yes, she didn't exactly have the authority to do it, but she did it anyway...

"I called and asked the rest of the night crew to come in. I couldn't not be here, H," she explained.

Nat braced herself for the expected reprimand, but instead, she watched as her LT simply nodded and turned his head to gaze down the hall before returning to look at her.

After days of borrowing members from the night shift, Horatio treaded thin ice with Phil Akers, the night shift supervisor. As the founder and most senior detective in the CSI division, Horatio possessed a great deal of authority, even over Akers, which the other man knew, but that wouldn't keep him from complaining to the Brass if this persisted much longer.

Better make a few more phone calls, Horatio thought. He caught Tripp's eye and knew the same considerations crossed the mind of the homicide detective.

Horatio extracted his phone, flipped it open and excused himself with the promise he wouldn't be gone long.

The group observed the look of guilt on Calleigh's face as she watched him disappear around a corner. She ran her hand through her hair and said on a sigh, "God, this is such a disaster."

Tripp let out a gruff sound and said, "I'd still like to know what's going on, personally."

The guilty look on Calleigh's face intensified and Ryan immediately stiffened. "Frank, Horatio filled you in on the highlights. The details aren't important. The less you know, the better."

"I'm not buyin' it," Tripp responded. He stepped closer to the three CSIs and lowered his voice. "I already stuck my neck out there. Y'all know I'm in. So spill."

Calleigh caught Ryan's eye, then glanced at Natalia whose face betrayed her internal battle between wanting to know and respecting Calleigh and Eric's privacy.

Tired, oh so tired, Calleigh sighed and relented. "Sit down, and I'll tell you the story."

A half hour passed as the friends talked. Ryan and Calleigh traded off sharing certain details from the last two weeks, explaining the discovery of Tim's last video and her and Eric's absence but skipping over the most personal facets of the situation. Ryan took his cue from Calleigh, providing just enough information to be helpful, yet working hard to carefully protect his friends' most intimate secrets. A new sort of bond had formed between the three CSIs, as well as their boss.

Later, when things settle…I'll ask. Ryan told himself that, when the time came, he would request to loop in Natalia-he struggled hiding this from her, and he knew she needed to be included. Not to mention he wanted to expand their little circle, to share this newfound bond with her and tighten their closeness as a team. He concluded she and Tripp would garner more from his and Calleigh's revelations anyway and anticipated the moment Natalia cornered him looking for more answers.

For now, Tripp and Natalia asked basic questions, then they filled the other two in on what was transpiring at the Lab and with IAB. Finally, they all sat conspiring about how to handle things, wondering when Horatio would return and hoping he had a solution, because they found none. God forbid they lose Eric, but if he made it, no one wanted their team to split, either.

Luckily, Horatio knew something the group did not. When they finally spied him returning from his longer-than-expected absence, somewhat more relaxed and walking at less of a clip, they couldn't help but send him questioning looks.

Horatio perched himself on the coffee table in front of Calleigh and reached out to place a gentle hand on her forearm. "I need you to trust me," he said to her. "My team…my team stays as is."

He looked them all in the eye before he said, "Understood?"

Ryan, Natalia, Calleigh and Tripp hesitated to answer at first, but seeing the unbridled confidence on Horatio's face, they all eventually offered small nods.

"Care to share?" Tripp inquired.

"Not quite yet, sir," Horatio responded mysteriously. "I need you with me on a field trip. Mr. Wolfe, Ms. Boa Vista, stay here…stay here and inform me immediately of any new updates."

He squeezed Calleigh's arm where his hand still rested. "Calleigh, keep the faith."

Faith. Is that what she felt? She called it blind hope, but if Eric were here, he'd echo Horatio. Both of them believed in some kind of higher power. Calleigh used to, perhaps still did in moments such as these. Mostly she called it karma now, but a small part of her sometimes thought, maybe they're right.

When Eric lay unconscious in the hospital all those months ago, she gave him the cross her father gifted her as a child. He still wore it around his neck to this day, even while she dated Jake. It meant the world to her that he wore it, not just because he held on to a piece of her, clung to a physical link between them, but because he carried with him a reminder of the last vestiges of her faith in something more. He believed in all the good that cross represented, and by proxy, the good in Calleigh.

Sitting by Eric's side after his first shooting…that was the last time Calleigh prayed. It worked then, maybe it would work now.