Had to write this after seeing the end of "Mommy Deadest"/ Beginning of "Time Bomb" with a twist, after Eric witnessed a car explode...story still on hiatus following! SHORT ONE SHOT!

Just Not My time..again.

He was okay.

He was in one piece.

Which was more than he could say for the poor woman whose car he just witnessed explode in the bank parking lot. The impact of the explosion even from twenty-four feet away had knocked him to the ground.

If Eric had to be standing much closer he would shared the woman's fate; and he knew it.

He wasn't a CSI on this case but an eyewitness. He was able to wash up and put on clean clothes before his two older kids saw him again. The father of four was more shaken of his yet another close encounter with death than he thought. He was squeezing his six-year-old much tighter at the school bus stop than he thought.

"Daddy, you're hugging me too tight!" Chloe complained.

Eric had to laugh at himself despite what happened. Ethan had complained of the same thing at home shortly before.

"Sorry, princesa. Daddy just missed you a lot today."

The thought of not being able to hug his kids again had crept into his mind even though he tried to push it away. Ignoring their limited fast food rule, they were ordering pizza tonight and the kids could have as many brownies as they wanted. Calleigh was just shaken, just hearing what happened to Eric. She was the one who sent him to the bank to get the rent money.

Eric immediately her not to feel any guilt. She had no idea this would happen on the routine chore.

"H was first on the scene. You know I didn't get away without being checked out first. I didn't know he could do that, but he said he would arrest me to get me to do so, if I refused."

Horatio had an officer drive Eric home in his car. The young man was too shaken to drive.

Calleigh laughed. "That's new authority."

Eric wasn't on the job that afternoon, seeing his best friend on the scene with dust and debris on his clothes caused Horatio's heart leapt into his throat.

"Eric! Eric! Are you okay?" Horatio said, running over to him.

Eric nodded still trying catch his breath. He had been a few feet from the back of his car when the explosion occurred.

"Yeah," Eric breathed, still washing the dust from his eyes.

His back had been to the explosion but he had managed to see the victim touch the automatic car door opener to unlock the car before the explosion. He was parked ten cars down from the woman. There was no one around when he passed by the victim when he was leaving the ATM. There wasn't anything suspicious. When he was asked if the victim was carrying anything, Eric said all she had was a drink and a bag from McDonald's in her hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he had seen her press the button attached to her keys in her opposite hand, the immediate explosion drowned out any sound that the device made. The woman had not exited the building when he was at the ATM and hasn't been at the ATM when he was there. Eric guessed she was coming from the fast food restaurant across the street.

Eric laughed when Calleigh told him she'd let him hug Zach and Nadya if he agreed "not to squeeze the stuffing" out of them, like he had with their older children.

"I promise," he laughed. "But I can't promise I won't squeeze you that hard tonight," he whispered, kissing her earlobe.

The family wasn't surprised to see Horatio drop in to the home that night. Horatio knew that none of the children heard what happened to their dad that day.

And rightly so. As long as Eric was not injured they didn't need to know stuff like this. Daddy now had the next few days off. The older Delko children seldom asked why when Eric had unexpected time off; they were just happy to have daddy people thought Eric would make a great stay-at-home dad. He was one of those guys who described a day alone taking care of his children as not the longest and most tiring but the most fun and shortest.

No one knew when the day they would die, and Eric Delko and his family were grateful his day was not today.