Chapter 2

Not even the sun streaming in through Eric's bedroom window could stir the exhausted couple wrapped in the plush covers of his bed. Calleigh slept soundly for the first time in months, resolutely snuggled into Eric's comforting embrace. His naked body engulfed her— his broad chest melding into the soft curve of her back, strong arms holding her to him, long legs tangled with her daintier ones. Even their fingers had entwined in the sub-consciousness of sleep.

A harsh beeping sound finally drew Calleigh away from the perfection of her dream world. When she groggily opened her eyes, Cal realized that her dream world surrounded her still, with the grand exception of the sense of impending destruction hovering about (though not between) them. The perfection could not last. The dream would, and must, end.

She shifted carefully in Eric's arms to lay on her other side and face him, gently winding an arm around his waist, re-tangling their legs, and burying her nose against his chest. Despite the sadness in her heart, and knowing she was only making this harder for herself, Calleigh held on just a little bit longer, hugged Eric a little closer.

The offending beep intruded their slumber again. Eric had only been pretending to sleep for the last ten minutes, watching Calleigh through heavily-lidded eyes, treasuring her closeness and the intimacy she so obviously wanted to prolong. Wanted, but couldn't. Eric cursed the cell phone on his nightstand for cutting short his dwindling time with the woman in his arms.

After the third consecutive ring of his phone, Eric sighed and peeled one arm from his best friend (who looked breathtaking in the morning light, he observed). Before his hand left her body entirely, Eric carefully brushed the hair out of Cal's face and kissed her sweetly on the corner of her eye, then along the line where her lashes met her cheek. She sighed in contentment and burrowed her face into the soft flesh of Eric's neck as he fumbled behind him for the blasted phone.

Part of the man longed to think he would ignore a call-out to stay here with Calleigh. But the reasonable part of his brain reminded him that he couldn't knowingly disregard his responsibilities, no matter how much he wanted to.

The fog of sleep lingering over Eric vanished abruptly as he checked the caller ID. His entire body froze. Calleigh was irritated that the phone was still ringing and cracked one eye to see why the hell Eric hadn't shut it off. The horror-struck look on her lover's face caused alarm to shoot up the blonde's spine.

"Eric?" she asked worriedly, scooting up into a reclining position atop his pillow so they rested face-to-face. She saw fear and concern and a lot of guilt flood the chocolate brown eyes which sought out her green ones.

Speechless, Eric showed Calleigh the caller ID. Her stomach dropped and she sighed angrily, upset that they had to face this so soon. It wasn't fair. This wasn't fair. One night with him could never be enough for her, but it was all she could ever have. Yeah, Calleigh was angry.

She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead heavily against Eric's temple. He could feel the resignation in his best friend's body as reality set in, although he couldn't quite isolate the emotion in Calleigh's voice as she whispered, "Just answer it, Eric," against his cheek. She pulled back a fraction and bent her elbow up on his pillow to tilt her head into the palm of her hand.

Watching Calleigh's every move, now Eric became angry, and for all the same reasons. Even though the tanned CSI had no right to be mad at the man who waited impatiently for him to answer the phone, he was. If anything, Eric was the one in debt here, for he had crossed a serious boundary, whether the other man knew it or not.

Eric sighed and curled his right arm-pinned between warm, feminine flesh and his mattress-more firmly around Calleigh, who welcomed his embrace and strengthened her own hold around him. She dropped her head from her hand and laid it softly on her upper arm, bringing her face closer to Eric's on the pillow and using her liberated fingers to caress his neck and the back of his shaven head in quiet support.

On the last ring, Eric finally flipped open the phone. "Delko," he answered, trying to sound like he was awake.

"Delko, where the hell have you been? I've been trying to call you," came the frustrated voice of a very on-edge Jake Berkeley.

Eric bit back a nasty retort and sent Calleigh a pleading glance. Did he really have to do this? She simply leaned down and placed a kiss on his brow, mouthing a sad 'It's okay' against the skin there.

Try to play this off, Eric thought with a groan. All he could think about, though, was Big Bur in his face, yelling that this was a line he could not cross. Too late now, not that the man regretted a single moment of the last…had it really only been fifteen hours since Calleigh fell into that booth in the bar? Not the time to think about that…

"Yeah, sorry Berkeley. I'm driving," he said, shaking his head at the lie. Calleigh ran an empathetic hand down Eric's chest, knowing how much he hated to lie to anyone, how lies had destroyed him in the past. Now, he was lying for her. She wanted to tell him that this wasn't his fault, that they were in this together. But she had to settle for a comforting touch.

Her touch gave Eric the courage he needed, though. Simple as Cal's gesture was, it reminded him that she was still there, and that whatever consequences and whatever pain lay in the future, he wouldn't be the only one facing them. When they returned to life as normal, stealing glances across the lab and ignoring sad sighs in the Hummer on the way to a crime scene—then, Eric knew, he wouldn't be the only one trying to mend the gaping hole in his heart.

On the other end of the phone, Berkeley mumbled something indistinct, clearly in frustration. "Listen, I can't get a hold of Calleigh and she's not at her house. Do you know where she is?" He obviously detested having to stoop to this level to find his girlfriend, and Eric wisely chose to play nice.

Calleigh had flippantly announced that she was going out with some old friends yesterday at the end of their shifts, much to Jake's surprise… until he remembered she'd told him about it a week before…

'Cal, you ready to go?' the detective asked as he spied the blonde from in front of the elevators of the Crime Lab. She was rushing down the hall, purse in hand and attempting to pull her long hair out of the jacket she'd just donned. Jake grinned as he realized how excited Calleigh seemed to be to leave work. He was taking her out on a friend's boat in the morning, and his skin crawled with desire as he pictured the weekend in front of them.

The look of confusion on Calleigh's face should have been his first clue, but he was too preoccupied with his plans for the weekend to notice. He would finally have Calleigh all to himself. They'd been dating for four months, and much to the man's dismay, their physical relationship had gotten off to a slow start.

Actually, 'slow start' was an understatement, Jake had thought. He'd planned to sweep Calleigh off her feet that day he kissed her in the lab. Drag her to a dinner which they'd mutually agree to end early in favor of more delicious activities between the sheets. Berkeley remembered their energetic exchanges as young and naïve cadets at the police academy, and he itched to feel her again after all these years.

Calleigh, it seemed, had other plans. As soon as they got in the elevator, she kept her distance from the detective's eager hands. Same MO in the car and at the restaurant during dinner. Finally, he asked Calleigh why she was avoiding his touch, and for the first time Berkeley realized that this was not the same woman with whom he once shared a young, playful love. She had grown up a lot since then, become a nationally recognized expert in her field, witnessed a lifetime's worth of tragedies. So when Cal informed him that she wanted to take this slow, Jake conceded. After all, he'd been through his fair share as an undercover cop. He could grant her some space.

At the time, Jake thought she just meant that she wouldn't be going home with him that night. But as time progressed and Calleigh still remained cagey, Jake admitted to her that his patience was wearing thin. He didn't exactly pressure her into sleeping with him, but he did let her know that he was ready whenever she was.

Calleigh almost laughed when she perceived Jake's apparent pride that he'd controlled himself for two-and-a-half weeks before he said anything else. She supposed, for him, that was a long time to wait for sex with a woman he was dating. Honestly, the CSI was just trying to protect herself. Like she'd told Eric, she wasn't even sure how she felt about Jake yet.

Eric. Only late at night, alone in the safety of her dark bedroom, would Calleigh even dare to admit that he was the reason she wanted to take things slow with Jake. For six weeks after she started dating her old flame, Calleigh battled with herself over the decision. At work, she and her best friend barely spoke to each other, for reasons neither of them would ever concede. Those reasons shouldn't be there.

But they were. They were there, and they sat like a giant pink elephant in any room the pair of officers entered. Any time Jake entered that same room, the elephant roared and trumpeted, although only Calleigh and Eric were aware of its presence. They were aware, but they refused to recognize.

Jake was edgy on their dates and Eric ignored her at the office. She couldn't give half of herself to both of them forever. So six weeks after she 'made her decision,' Calleigh finally surrendered and really made up her mind. That night, when Jake inevitably made his advances while they sat watching a movie on her couch, Calleigh didn't stop him.

Over two months had passed since their first physical reunion, and Jake smothered a grin at how he had conquered the stubborn beauty. Every time she resisted him, he caressed and cajoled her with sweet nothings until she relinquished. None the wiser, the man attributed her surrender to the history and attraction between them.

Calleigh wouldn't deny that she was attracted to Jake Berkeley. They had always had chemistry. Only, in the years since they parted ways, Calleigh had discovered that chemistry wasn't enough. She'd hoped it would be different this time, and that was part of the reason she initially put limits on their sexual relationship. She needed to see that he could care for her. Even before she caved to Jake's demands, she'd realized that nothing about him had really changed. She caved nonetheless, because she knew she couldn't have the one man she truly wanted.

Shame threatened to overwhelm her constantly. Every time Jake touched her, Calleigh felt a twinge of guilt for her own desperation, her need for someone to warm her bed. She'd inevitably throw herself into their relationship even more in an attempt to atone for her sins, but mostly because she could forget the ache in her chest when she let go of her senses and just let Jake have his way. Sometimes she really did find release with him, but most of the time Calleigh found herself playing a part to assuage the man's ego.

The act and the shame wore on her. Whenever she looked at Eric (who was now talking to her again), Calleigh saw in his eye's that he knew it was all a cheap façade, he knew that she was tired. Jake was oblivious to it all, just like he was as she walked toward him in the hallway yesterday afternoon…

The firearms expert came to a stop in front of her detective boyfriend, confusion written clearly on her face. 'Jake, I told you I had plans tonight,' Calleigh said lightly, trying to jog his memory. 'Remember…I've been talking about it all week?'

Jake remembered now, and a sour look crossed his face. No wonder he didn't remember, he'd been trying to shut it out. 'I still don't get why you have to go,' he grumbled.

Calleigh's eyes flashed angrily and she pulled him down a side hallway for some privacy. 'We've talked about this Jake. I'm going because I want to go. You're being irrational.'

'How am I being irrational? I'd be fine if you'd just let me go with you!'

'I told you, babe, it's…too private. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to bring you.' Calleigh couldn't find the right words to describe her reunion with the guys tonight, but those were definitely not the right ones. She realized it with a cringe as soon as they left her lips.

Berkeley's eyes flared. 'Too private?' he seethed. 'Too private for me, your boyfriend, but perfectly fine for Eric-fucking-Delko, best friend of the century?' His lips curled in sarcasm as he uttered the words.

Even though he saw the angry blush forming on Calleigh's cheeks, Jake continued. 'Inappropriate is you gallivanting off to spend the night with a bunch of guys you never went to college with. You see them, what, once or twice a year? They're his friends, Calleigh. His. So how is it that you belong there and I don't?'

He ended his little tirade on a huff and stood staring furiously at his girlfriend. Calleigh, for her part, neither needed nor wanted to deal with his shit at the moment.

Cal could never explain to Jake the importance of her friendship with Dub, Courtney, Conner, AJ and Bur. She didn't understand it herself. She'd stopped trying to figure out how she fell in so easily with the rag-tag bunch a long time ago, and she resented the fact that this man was questioning one of the only things still right in her life.

'Are you done?' she asked icily, watching as Jake faltered under her glare. 'Because if you are, I need to go. I'm late.'

Without another word, Calleigh turned on her heel and stalked smartly to the elevator. Before Jake could stop her, she slipped between the doors of the lift and disappeared.

When she failed to show up at the marina the next morning, Berkeley at first assumed his girlfriend was just running late. More time passed and he began to think that maybe Calleigh was madder than he originally thought after yesterday's argument, and that this was his punishment. Jake tried her phone, but no one answered. Frustrated, he'd climbed in his car and raced to Calleigh's house. If they left in the next hour, their weekend wouldn't be entirely ruined.

But Calleigh wasn't home. Where the hell could she be? Sitting in front of her well-manicured house, Berkeley dialed her number again. No answer. He called her four more times before he slammed the cell closed. His frustration had turned to anger, painted slightly by worry. That tiny feeling of concern was what compelled Jake to call Eric Delko, a man he might have actually been friends with under any other circumstances. Berkeley could admit, begrudgingly, that Delko was a pretty cool guy, if only the man wasn't in love with his girlfriend. If only his girlfriend wasn't in love with Delko…

Calleigh tried to hide it, but Jake knew. How many times could he have sworn he heard Eric's name in the back of Calleigh's throat as he tortured her body in the middle of the night? She rarely said much when they had sex; whenever she did moan or utter a string of words, they were always in the most heated moments of their union. Jake would forever deny that he knew Calleigh never looked at him when she said those words. The distance in her eyes told him exactly where—or, more accurately, who— her mind and desire were with.

He placated himself with the knowledge that Cal chose him and not the Cuban Neanderthal. Yet, here Berkeley stood in front of Calleigh's house, swallowing his pride and calling the asshole because he had misplaced her.

Jake personally hated trying to dig in his pocket while he drove, fighting the seatbelt to answer his cell, so when Delko explained why he hadn't answered, he didn't think twice about it. He also didn't think about how silent he'd been on his end of the line, until Delko's voice sounded through the earpiece again.

"We got a new case?"

"Um, no," Jake responded. "Calleigh and I had plans this morning but she never showed."

"Oh," Eric said, thinking desperately of a way to keep Berkeley from creating a situation in search of his girlfriend. "You know, she might still be over at Bur's place. She, uh, had a bit to drink and he convinced her to crash on his couch."

Jake silently thanked the stars that Delko wasn't the one who had taken Calleigh home. He still didn't like the fact that she was in another man's home and apparently ignoring him, but at least she was with a guy like Burwell. The detective had met the burly black man about a month ago when he picked Cal up at MDPD for a lunch date. Nothing to fear on that front; unlike some others Jake knew, Calleigh and Bur really were just friends.

"Okay," he said. "Do you have his number? Actually," Jake searched around him for a pen, "I don't have anything to write with." He sounded like a damn idiot.

"Forget it, Berkeley. I'm almost to Bur's house anyway. Give me five minutes." He wasn't sure where Calleigh's cell phone was after their rampage into his condo. This was insane, the lengths to which Eric was going to cover up his night of indiscretions. Night of incredible indiscretions with his best friend and the love of his life, he thought with only a small pang in his gut.

"Alright," Jake said and hung up.

"Yeah, sure, you're welcome," Eric muttered as he closed his cell and tossed it back to his night stand with a loud clatter.

The silence that descended on the couple was surprisingly un-awkward. It wasn't sad, or angst-ridden, or even desperate. Just…quiet, and maybe a little thoughtful.

Eric had expected Calleigh to pull away from him, embarrassed as things became focused in the sharp light of day. Instead, she slid slowly down the bed a couple inches and gently kissed his lips. Her sweet taste assaulted Eric's senses, and he fought the urge to deepen the kiss and forget that Jake Berkeley had just called while he lay naked in bed with the man's girlfriend.

Good plan, in theory. He couldn't run from this forever, though, and he knew it. Agonizing as it was, Eric pulled back from Calleigh's embrace. He didn't retreat too far, however, until Calleigh stopped him firmly in his tracks.

"Don't," Cal said softly, her eyes pleading with him not to ruin this. They both had the day off; what if… But, no, Eric thought. No.

The infinite sadness that was often their companion finally trickled into the quiet of the room, inflating the silence to daunting proportions as Eric stared helplessly into Calleigh's teary green eyes. He knew his were just as damp, though nary a tear escaped from either of them.

"Calleigh, we can't do this," he said, broken. Despite his words, his hands seemed to have a mind of their own, pulling her toward him possessively. Eric's composure was quickly crumbling under the burn of Calleigh's eyes, under the weight of the world that pressed in on them from all sides. With a deep sigh, the olive-skinned man buried his face into the silky lines of his partner's neck, placing a small, resigned kiss to the base of her throat. He breathed her in, deeply, as if he could bottle up the way she smelled and carry it with him after today.

"We can't do this," he repeated against her skin in a strained whisper.

Cal bit back the dry sob forming in her throat. She knew Eric was right, but she wasn't ready to let go of him yet. She just held him, her hands running up and down his body. She could feel the uneven rhythm of his breathing. Calleigh knew last night that this moment would come. She knew it couldn't last, and that at some point she would have to say goodbye to her best friend. Goodbye, because their relationship was forever changed.

That was the knowledge that drove every delectable kiss, every tantalizing thrust the night before: it was all or nothing for Eric and Calleigh. And since they couldn't have it all—they couldn't be best friends and co-workers and lovers at the same time—they must settle for nothing. Well, they would still be co-workers. But the joy of coming to work to see your best friend… what was left for them if they couldn't even have that?

A thought formed deep in the recesses of Calleigh's consciousness, growing and growing until she couldn't ignore it anymore. Mind occupied, she pressed a distracted kiss to Eric's forehead and rolled him slightly to the side so that she could sit up.

Eric's hands dropped from her frame, and his heart dropped, too, because Calleigh was leaving him. He thought he was strong enough to handle this, but right now, as he watched Calleigh draw away from him and pull the sheet up to cover her bare chest, he wasn't so sure.

But wait.

Something wasn't right. Calleigh hadn't left the bed at all. Instead, she'd just moved to sit Indian-style in the middle of the mattress. Her knee still brushed against Eric's under the covers, and she made no effort to terminate the contact with his skin.

Delko narrowed his eyes as he studied the woman now facing away from him, confusion building in him as he realized she had no intentions of leaving his bed. Before, Eric thought she was covering herself with the sheets in embarrassment. Upon closer examination, he noted the action was automatic for her. Modesty was innate for her. But Eric also noticed that Calleigh left her back completely exposed to his view, and when she reached slightly behind her to link their hands, she never fixed the sheet which slipped to reveal half her left breast to him.

Cal sat contemplatively at Eric's knee, softly caressing the back of his hand with her thumb. She needed a little space to process the thought which had just steamrolled over her—a little space, but not too much. Her instincts seemed all wrong with this man. The fire of Eric's eyes along her back didn't have Calleigh running for cover. She actually relished the attention. And when she should be rushing to extricate herself from his arms, from his bed, all she really wanted to do was stay forever.

Should. Who came up with that effing concept, anyway? Who gets to decide what people should do? Calleigh should be a good daughter to a father who emotionally abused her all her life. The expert CSI should love her job come hell or high water. She should find friends of her own instead of borrowing someone else's.

Cal should feel guilty for making love with her best friend all night long, and she should be running back to Jake right now. Yeah, she should.

But she didn't. She wasn't.

Calleigh gasped as she finally admitted to herself what she'd been denying all night. What she'd denied for months. The only shame she ever felt was the shame of pretending to love Jake Berkeley. Not once in the last four months had Calleigh felt guilty for loving Eric. Not once last night had she felt the burn of regret for letting him love her. No, she didn't feel guilty. And no, she wasn't running back to Jake, either.

Whoever had decided what Calleigh Duquesne should or shouldn't do could go straight to hell.

On fire with a new-found excitement and resolve, Calleigh whipped around to face her best friend. In the process, she carelessly neglected the all-important sheet. Unabashedly naked and with a brilliant grin gracing her features, Calleigh climbed back to the head of the bed and settled herself confidently in Eric's embrace. She arranged the down comforter around them once more, tangled her legs in his, and held out her hand for Eric's cell phone.

"Cal?" Eric was completely baffled by this woman's behavior. She lay across his chest staring up at him with a blissful smile. Their naked bodies merged effortlessly together under the warm covers of Eric's bed. And, as intelligent as Eric liked to think he was, he could not understand how that was possible. Could it be possible?

Calleigh sensed Eric's trepidation, and she placed a lingering, deliberate kiss to his toned chest. Her hands rubbed soothingly along his sides. When their eyes made contact, he realized that her look was bordering on...impudence, maybe?

"Cal?" Eric queried again, growing a little concerned.

His friend-turned-lover simply shook her head and offered him a small, bubbly laugh. "Eric, give me your phone. Don't argue," she added in mock-seriousness as Eric opened his mouth to object. "Just do it."

"Fine," he said, still baffled but willing to cooperate. He handed her his cell and waited for her next move.

Calleigh's playful air disappeared as she hit redial, but she sent Eric a reassuring smile that told him not to worry. Strangely, Eric wasn't worried. A little lost, but not worried. Something in the way Calleigh touched him, the way she looked at him…infant hope took root in his soul. Infant and fragile and completely undeserved, but hope nonetheless.

His eyes flashed to Calleigh's when she addressed the person who had apparently answered her call on the first ring. "Jake! Hey," she said. Eric detected the slight hesitancy in her voice when she spoke to her boyfriend, and he refused to let himself interpret its meaning.

"Calleigh, what the hell is going on?"

Calleigh's irritation reared up in high fashion, indignant that his first question was uttered in anger and definitely not in concern for her well-being. If there had been any question in her mind before, Jake Berkeley had just unknowingly sealed his fate

Cal reined in her emotion, knowing that she still needed to keep a level head. The rebel deep inside her cheered at the fact that she was currently talking to her boyfriend on the phone while she was lying naked in Eric Delko's strong arms. Happy and naked in Eric's arms, and not swatting away the fingers that were drawing absent, loving designs on her hip.

"I'm sorry, Jake. My phone is on vibrate, and I completely forgot about this morning."

"How could you forget, Cal? We've been talking about it all week!"

Calleigh fought her urge to argue and lost miserably. "You were talking about it all week, Jake. I've had a lot on my mind, but you never noticed. I'm sorry for the trouble, ok?"

Jake stopped short at Calleigh's words. Maybe she was right—she had seemed a little preoccupied this week. Now that he thought about it, the detective realized Calleigh had worked three major cases and two drive-bys in the last five days. No wonder she was distracted.

"You know what, babe? You're right. You've had a ton on your plate," Jake apologized smoothly. "I should have recognized it. But that's the perfect reason for our getaway. Just throw some stuff together and we can still leave within the hour. Clothing is optional," he joked huskily, "so that shouldn't be a problem."

Jake thought he was being funny, and normally, Calleigh might have flirted back. Under the current circumstances, his words only caused her stomach to turn a bit. Nothing he could ever say to her would rival the love and devotion dripping in every word Cal received from the man tangled around her.

With that thought, Calleigh pressed on. "Jake," she said quietly. "I'm not going."

What did she mean, she wasn't going? "What?"

"I'm not going, Jake."

Her boyfriend furrowed his brow, and she could hear it in his voice. "Calleigh, are you still pissed at me from last night? Because that was just me being dumb."

Calleigh heard his sincerity and knew Jake meant it. He knew he was being an idiot, and he was sorry. "I'm not still mad at you," the woman explained. "But…listen, can we go for dinner tonight?"

Go for dinner tonight? That was something she said to a long-lost acquaintance when they met on the street. She was acting like she wasn't going to be with him all day, which was absurd, because they had spent every weekend together for the last three months.

Something about this situation wasn't quite right. "Cal, what is going on?" His question was more concerned now and less accusatory, but Calleigh still picked up on his slight insinuation.

"I don't want to talk about this now, okay?" she said as gently as she could.

"What, because Delko's there? Go outside."

Delko was there, more than Jake knew. Calleigh didn't care if Eric heard this conversation. Actually, it would save her the trouble of recounting the whole story later. But she wasn't the type of woman to dump a man over the phone.

"That's not the issue, Jake. I just don't want to have this conversation like this."

Seconds ticked by as understanding dawned on Detective Jake Berkeley. "You're not at Burwell's, are you."

It wasn't a question. Calleigh's eyes grew wide as saucers and she glanced up at Eric, a little afraid of the menacing tone in Jake's voice. Eric saw the slight fear in her eyes, and he hugged her closer, squeezing her hip in support. He couldn't hear Jake's side of the conversation, only mumbled and muted phrases, but things obviously just took a turn for the worse.

Cal didn't answer. Eric lying to Berkeley and her lying to him were two different things. She'd never intended to tell Jake about this time with Eric, not even after her decision that 'one night' would now be 'every night.' But she couldn't lie to him about it either. Luckily, she didn't have to; her silence said it all.

On the other end of the phone, Jake's heart had just broken into a million pieces. He'd lost her.

For a split second, Jake drowned in sadness. He'd actually started planning a future with this woman. He was happy and settled for the first time since he left home at eighteen, and Calleigh was the major reason for that.

He knew better. It was his job to know better, for Christ's sake. The way she lit up when Delko walked into the room. The looks that passed between them. Her seemingly unfounded anger whenever Jake mentioned him in any other context than a current investigation. Just mentioned him—like his name was off-limits or something. Like Jake tainted it somehow.

The ache in his stomach for this woman he'd loved turned to spite. If Jake knew that Calleigh was in love with her best friend, she sure as hell did. She'd known all along. Jake suddenly saw their entire relationship in a new light, and he realized that he hadn't lost Calleigh. She wasn't his to lose.

Ironically, he'd known that, too. So had the entire lab, and probably the entire Miami-Dade Police Department. Suddenly, Berkeley wasn't just angry. He was livid. Delko and Calleigh had made a mockery of him, and he'd let them do it.

"What the fuck, Calleigh?" Jake spat into the receiver. "What… was this just some kind of joke to you?"

This time Eric could clearly hear Berkeley's words, and he tugged Cal even closer and brushed a kiss against her hair. Calleigh tucked her head under Eric's chin and shut her eyes against Jake's rage. Her entire body trembled in regret for hurting this man.

"No," she said quietly. What could she do? It's not like she was going to deny her actions, and she certainly couldn't deny him the right to be angry.

"No. No! That's all you have to say, is no," Jake barked into the phone, pacing in front of his car parked across the street from Calleigh's house.

"Jake, I am so sorry. You never deserved this from me. I never meant—"

"Don't you dare say that you never meant for this to happen, Calleigh, because that's a load of shit."

Calleigh jolted up in the bed, and Eric shot up beside her, concern evident on his face. "What is that supposed to mean?" she asked Jake pointedly. "You think I planned all this?"

"Why not?" came the strained reply. Jake's voice was rising in volume and octave and he finally gave up trying to restrain his emotion. "I knew, didn't I? I knew that you had feelings for him. Why should I have assumed you weren't fucking him the whole time?"

The blonde's face flamed in protest. How could he think that? She paused as the full import of Jake's words struck her. 'I knew, didn't I?' He couldn't place all this on her. Yeah, she made a mistake. A monumental mistake, and not just last night. She chose to start a relationship with a man she didn't love because everything and everyone told her she couldn't be with the one man she'd learned to love more than life itself. She chose to stay in that relationship, even when every last fiber of her being told her it was wrong.

But Jake was responsible, too, and Calleigh wouldn't let him walk all over her anymore. She was a strong, intelligent, independent woman, and for some goddamned reason she'd let Jake Berkeley barge into her life and take that from her. Right now—right now Calleigh sat next to a man who loved those things about her, he didn't fear them. That's the kind of man she deserved. That's the way she deserved to be treated.

"Stop right there, Berkeley," Calleigh replied heatedly into the phone. "One, don't you ever speak to me like that again. Two, if you knew I was in love with someone else, you are just as guilty for pressuring me into a relationship as I was for entering one. I could have said no to you, but you never gave me the chance."

And Calleigh knew that as truth. If Berkeley had slowed down for two seconds, she probably wouldn't have had the courage to run off and admit her feelings to Eric, but she might have had time to think twice about the precarious line she was walking with the devil-may-care detective.

Jake stood in disbelief. "You're actually going to blame me because you cheated?"

"No," Calleigh sighed. "What I did wasn't fair to you. But, Jake, you bulldozed me into a corner and then expected me to find my way out. You pushed and pushed, knowing that I loved someone else."

"So I brought this on myself, then?" he bit sarcastically. "And now I should just suck it up and move on, like the last four months never happened?"

God, this is why Calleigh wanted to do this in person. "Of course not. I take full responsibility for my actions. But I refuse to let you place all the blame on me."

"You are not some weak, spineless creature, Cal! You could have stopped me, you could have said no!" Jake yelled at her through the speaker.

"No, I couldn't!" Calleigh cried, finally losing control and yelling right back at him. Eric watched the dam break in the woman sitting beside him, and he wanted nothing more than for all of this to go away. He reminded himself that he was the one who threw all caution to the wind last night. He accepted the consequences, and now he had to deal with them. It didn't seem fair, though, that Calleigh was bearing the brunt of the assault.

Eric didn't want to hear all about Calleigh's relationship with Jake, and he also figured she could use some space to handle this situation. With a long kiss to Cal's temple and a squeeze of his hand on her thigh beneath the covers, Eric flipped back the comforter and rotated his body to place his feet on the floor.

A small, entreating hand appeared on his shoulder. Eric turned to peer at Calleigh and his heart stopped at the look on her face. Without hesitation he grabbed Cal's hand and pulled her off the bed with him, into a fierce hug. Utterly exposed and not giving a damn, they simply stood there and held on tightly.

Calleigh became faintly aware of the cell phone hanging limply in her hand and the harsh voice blaring over the line. Numbly, she brought the phone to her ear. "I'm sorry Jake. I have to go." She clapped the phone shut and threw it to the nightstand behind Eric before losing herself in her lover's embrace.

Eric and Calleigh stayed silent for what seemed like hours, but were really only minutes. Eventually, Eric loosened his hold on Calleigh just enough to run his fingers up and down her spine. He felt hot tears stinging against his skin.

"I wasn't leaving, baby," he whispered.

Calleigh nodded into his neck. She knew he probably just wanted to give her some space, but she'd panicked. She was more than a little embarrassed at how much she needed him, more than a little surprised. And damn him, he always knew exactly what she was thinking.

"It's okay to need me, Cal. I want you to need me." Eric felt the last weight fall from his chest as he finally said the words he'd longed to say to Calleigh for over a year. His body buzzed and his head was dizzy with all the things he wanted to say to her. The things she'd already said…

Calleigh felt Eric chuckle deeply, and she pulled back to meet his eyes in question. The utter joy she found in his gaze took her breath away, and her question died on gaping lips. The man didn't leave her curious for long.

Glancing playfully up at the ceiling as if he was trying to recall something, Eric recounted Calleigh's earlier words. "Knowing that I was in love with someone else…" The twinkle in her best friend's eye took on a dangerous glint as their gazes met. "Cal, who in the world could you be talking about?"

Eric knew the answer, but he wanted to hear the words from Calleigh. "Oh, I don't know," the woman in his arms sighed in response, drawing herself further into his embrace. "Just this guy I know. You'd like him a lot," she said with a slightly evil grin.

Eric huffed in true frustration, though his smile never dimmed a notch. He decided to play along. "Oh, would I?"

Calleigh smiled sweetly and nodded. "Yeah, you two have a lot in common," she said, ducking under his chin and tilting her head to nip at his Adam's apple.

With Calleigh naked in his arms and trailing her wet lips along his neck, Eric struggled to maintain a single coherent thought in his brain. "Yeah," he managed to murmur huskily, cravenly.

Cal missed nothing, and the drop in Eric's voice told her just how easily she could turn him to putty. "Mhmm," she mumbled against his skin. She moved to kiss his jaw, then the corner of his mouth. "See, he's my best friend, he's incredibly sexy," Calleigh smiled against Eric's lips and met his fiery brown eyes with her own, "and I am hopelessly, desperately in love with him."

The petite blonde had barely uttered the words when she found herself crushed against Eric's chest and flying through the air. Two bodies hit Eric's bed with a resounding 'thud' that catapulted them both into fits of laughter.

The laughter choked to an abrupt halt as Eric's lips descended on Calleigh's. He poured every last drop of himself into that kiss: seven years of friendship, seven years of devotion in one form or another, all the pain and disappointment they'd faced and triumphed together, every dream and wish and desire he held for their future. He gave her everything he had, everything he was. Slowly, the day disappeared just as the night had done before, falling victim to the cosmic release of long-shackled love and lust.