A/N: Merry Christmas! I'm up early waiting for the family to wake, so here I am writing a quick story. Enjoy the story, and the holidays.
Chapter 22: Fire and Fear
"Fire and Fear"
Set during S.02 Ep.14, "Slow Burn"
Rated K Plus
"Hold still, this will sting," Calleigh said gently.
Eric, sitting on the edge of the break room table, gripped his hands tightly to Calleigh's hips as she hovered over him, eye drops in hand.
She carefully squeezed one, then two drops in his right eye and felt him squeeze her hips as he endured the pain.
"Agh," Eric groaned, shutting his eyes tight at the stinging sensation causing his sight to blur worse. He shook his head against the burn and squeezed Calleigh even tighter as it seemingly only intensified.
"Be still! Let me see," Calleigh ordered.
He obeyed and tilted his head up a degree so she could get a better look.
"Cal, what the hell is in those? My eye is on fire," Eric asked.
"This is what the doctor gave you. They're just eye drops. Here," Calleigh said, and she tenderly used her fingertips to wipe away an errant drop running down his cheek. The wetness left a streak in the soot covering his face.
Calleigh sighed. Normally, she might have chided Eric for being a baby about the pain, but she knew it must hurt, and, honestly, she was simply grateful he was alive. Eric and Alexx could have died today out in the Glades.
Eric's breath caught in his chest, less a result of the smoke he inhaled earlier today than the flip of his heart at Calleigh's touch.
He figured she knew nothing of his feelings, and he preferred to keep it that way, but Eric had loved Calleigh since the moment they met in a parking garage seven years ago. Okay, so maybe not the moment they met, but certainly not too long after.
"Do you need that inhaler?" Calleigh asked him quickly, incorrectly understanding the cause for Eric's burdened breathing.
He gave a small cough and replied, "No, I'm okay. Let's get this over with."
Using his hands on her hips, he tugged her an inch closer, partly to indicate his desire that she finish administering the eye drops, and partly from plain desire; he enjoyed having her this close, if only for a time.
Calleigh studied Eric's face, a mixture of pain and something else. He clearly couldn't see anything, or he might have noted the way her lips parted slightly when he brought her closer, or how she couldn't stop staring at his mouth, or the blush that crept to her cheeks.
He couldn't know her feelings, and she tried hard to keep it that way, but Calleigh had loved Eric since the moment they met in a parking garage seven years ago. Or, perhaps not the very moment, but not so long ago she couldn't remember.
Either way, she knew being this close to him left her stomach in knots and her heart racing.
Calleigh needed to wrap this up before she did something stupid, like kiss the full lips she couldn't currently stop staring at.
She cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and instructed Eric to tilt his head back once more.
"Last ones," she told him, attempting her best imitation of a nurse's soothing voice.
Calleigh reached her fingers up to Eric's jaw to steady his head, and she squeezed the final drops into his left eye. She felt his fingertips dig into her hips, and she was a goner.
Like before, a stray tear leaked from Eric's eye, and she couldn't stop herself from leaning forward to kiss it away. She felt Eric freeze when her lips graced the space between his cheek and nose, and now she knew he could hear her own ragged breath.
The tension ratcheted up between them in an instant.
Eric could see nothing but blurry, watery shapes right now, so his only warning of Calleigh's next move was the shifting of her whole body a step closer to him, and the feeling of her fingers tugging at his jaw.
Then, he felt her lips on his.
Calleigh knew she shouldn't have done it. But his pain, his helplessness now, and the fact that she really did almost lose her closest friend today all combined to overflow her emotional bucket.
As Calleigh pressed her lips to Eric's in a sweet kiss, she felt his surprise only momentarily before he responded, moving his lips against hers. They were dry and cracked after today's events, but she didn't care. It only made her want to deepen the kiss.
Somehow, she held back, much to Eric's disappointment and her own. But they were friends and coworkers, and this was against the rules in so many ways.
Eric needed to breathe, anyway. Their kiss was simple, but his lungs still burned from the smoke he inhaled on the scene earlier. And perhaps from the tide of longing that seized his heart as soon as her lips touched his.
Only inches separated them now and he needed space before he did something he would regret. Nothing on earth could entice him to do anything that would compromise their relationship, so he nudged her back a step.
"Calleigh," he whispered.
He never saw her eyes flare at the way he murmured her name, or how she licked her lips to taste him one last time, but he could hear her breathy response.
"I'm glad you're okay, Eric," she whispered back.
Calleigh wiped the remainder of the leaking drops from his cheeks with her thumbs.
Eric finally released her hips and made to stand up from his seated position on the table's edge, swaying a little on his feet, and inadvertently bringing him into Calleigh's personal space.
He intended to put distance between them to gather his thoughts and cool the heat spreading through his body, but instead, Eric blindly reached for Calleigh to steady himself and only succeeded in pulling her into a tight hug.
"Me, too, Cal," he said quietly into her ear. "I was scared there for a minute."
They stayed that way for a while, each full of a burning fire for the other, each wishing for the same things but fearing what would happen if they spoke their desires aloud.
Maybe, someday.
