Title: Do it right
Disclaimer: I don't own them. At this point I don't even own the ability to make a funny disclaimer.
Summary: 'Ryan?' 'Yes?' 'If they find anything in that blood sample, I will kill you.' [CaRWash
A/N: I know nothing of American law, so don't go chewing me up for things that don't make sense or are completely nonesense. It's all in good fun.

Silence overlapped the room and kept it in its grip. It was like the people inside were afraid to speak up, afraid that the fragile thin walls they had built up around themselves would crumble down if any sound was heard.

Calleigh Duquesne sat in one of the chairs, her legs crossed. She was wearing a formal black skirt with a black blouse, the top of which revealing just the tiniest hint of a purple shirt underneath it. Her hair was tightly pulled back into a plait with a purple hair band; no hair seemed out of place. Her fingers were wrapped around a steaming coffee mug, hanging in mid-air somewhere around her chest area. Her eyes were focused on a file that was lying in her lap, scanning the pages with her emerald green eyes. Her carefully manicured fingernails tapped on the cup to a rhythm no one but herself seemed to know.

From next to the window, a pair of hazel eyes, belonging to Ryan Wolfe, darted across the room several times. He was leaning against the wall next to the only window in the room. An irritated sigh left his lips and he nervously fiddled with his tie. He was dressed up in a suit, and an attempt had been done to keep his hair under control instead of the normal ruffled look. He looked out of the window for a second before turning his head and glaring at Calleigh again. He kept his eyes on her for a while and after a while he seemed satisfied, he focused on fiddling with his tie again. He wasn't satisfied for long though, after about a minute he was rolling his eyes and glaring across the room again.

"Would you mind?"

Calleigh slowly looked up from her file and their eyes met. Her face expressed confusion as she picked up the file she had been reading and crossed her legs the other way around before placing the file back down.

"Mind what?" She asked.
"The thing with your nails…would you mind stopping it? It's driving me crazy."

Looking down at her nails, Calleigh realized that he meant the tapping of her fingernails against the coffee cup. She put on an apologizing face and nodded, then taking a sip out of the cup. She started reading again. Ryan stared out of the window again.

Natalia Boa Vista had watched the play in silence. She had her hands folded on her lap, eyes directed at a random spot in the distance and she seemed deep in thought again. When a noise was heard in the hallway she snapped out of her trance and brushed some dirt off of her white dress pants, straightened her dark-blue blouse and cleared her throat. Two pairs of eyes focused on her, thinking she wanted to say something, but she raised her hands as an excuse. It had merely been a nervous habit.

The door opened and all three persons in the room looked up. Eric Delko entered, also in a formal suit, and nodded his head at Natalia, who stood up.

"How did it go?" She briefly asked.
"Good luck." was his only reply.

She made a face and nodded, walking out of the room. When she looked over her shoulder, Calleigh and Ryan gave her an encouraging smile, and Eric stuck up his thumb. She took a deep breath and turned around, being lead through two big wooden doors.

The silence returned to the room as Eric slumped down onto the chair Natalia had just gotten up from. He buried his face in his hands and leaned forward for a moment. Calleigh and Ryan's attention never left him. When he looked up, feeling their eyes on him, he sighed.

"Terrible. Disaster even. The defense has put Claire Davis on the case."

Calleigh groaned, closing her eyes for a second. "God no."

"Who's Claire Davis?" Ryan asked.
"She's a defense attorney. A good one." Eric replied. "She knows everything about you. And if she doesn't know something, she will find someone who does. She can get anyone to tell her everything she wants to know."
"What did she do?" Calleigh asked.
"The drugs. It's not like I hadn't expected it, but now my sister…I didn't think they'd go deep into it. I should have known they would. And of course, the shooting. I had prepared my arguments for that but she always finds a way to go beyond what I prepared."
"Great, I'll have to defend my father again."

Ryan looked from the one to the other as they spoke.

"Wait, how come the both of you know her but I don't?" He asked.
"She took a very long break to have two children. She was on a lot of cases before you got here." Eric answered.
"So…what do I do?"

Calleigh put away her coffee mug and her file and leaned forward slightly. Eric rolled his shoulders and stood up to sit down closer to Calleigh. She licked her lips and started:

"Speak slowly and surely. As long as you're convinced of your own right, you will be fine. We did nothing wrong, you did nothing wrong. She will ask you about your firing, without a doubt, but you have to be ready for it. Don't answer questions that aren't relevant for the case. If you're not sure, look at the DA. He will give you a nod if you have to answer."
"My God. What kind of questions can I expect?"
"The worst." Eric jumped in. "This woman knows no mercy, she has no limit. She will shamelessly ask you about the gambling, the pay-off and everything else that could break your credibility as an expert."
"Great. Is it too late to pull out?"
"Yes." Calleigh replied seriously.

A lot more nervous now than he had been before, Ryan silently waited for his turn to testify. He knew he had to go after Natalia. He waited and checked the big wooden doors, anxious for the moment they would open and Natalia would come back. It took long, but not long enough to him, before she came back. She was biting her lip and when she thought he wasn't watching, she shook her head.

Sighing deeply, Ryan stood up straight and swallowed.

"Wish me luck." He said, trying to sound self-assured.
"You can do it Ryan." Calleigh said, though her voice didn't sound as calm as she probably had wanted it to.
"Yeah, break a leg." Natalia fell in. Somehow she looked like she was on the verge of crying.
"Good luck." Delko merely said.

They all watched him leave, and when they saw him enter the court room, Eric didn't sound hopeful at all when he said: "He's going down."
Natalia nodded. "She didn't leave a piece of me unharmed."
"I know the feeling."
"What evidence is Ryan testifying for?" Natalia asked.
"The bloodstain." Calleigh knew.
"Oh God. Without that we hardly have a case, do we?"
"Calleigh can make up with the gun, but it would be tough." Eric said.

Silence trapped the room again. No one knew what to say so they just waited in silence. When the doors opened they expected to see Ryan coming back, but instead a court clerk asked Calleigh to come in. She looked at Eric and Natalia separately before rising and following the clerk in. Arriving there, she realized why Ryan hadn't come back. He was sitting in the public. Claire Davis had probably called the right to ask him more questions later.

She gave him a look, trying to find out how his testimony had gone, but he avoided her eyes. She was placed under oath and sat down on the witness' stand. The DA stood up. It was a tall, broad man that looked like he could pop out of his suit any moment. But Calleigh was familiar with him, and she knew he would go easy on her. He would ask for facts, nothing more.

"Miss Duquesne, your area of expertise is ballistics, is that correct?"
"Yes it is." She calmly replied.
"So you were the one to process the murder weapon when it came into your lab?"
"Yes I was."
"Can you tell us what you did with it?"
"Of course. I dusted it for fingerprints, ran the serial number through the database, tested to see whether it had been fired recently and test-fired it to match the rounds."
"And what were your findings?"
"I found one workable fingerprint, belonging to the defendant. Also the gun was registered to his girlfriend, and it had been fired recently. Striations from the bullet we found at the crime scene were a perfect match to the striations left by that gun."
"So you're definite that this gun is the murder weapon?"
"Yes, I am."
"Thank you Miss Duquesne. Your witness."

Calleigh took a breath. She was past the DA's part, but now it was the defense's turn to question her. Claire Davis rose from her seat and looked Calleigh straight in the eye. Calleigh quickly looked her up and down. She was dressed in a dark red knee-length skirt, and her well-formed upper body was covered by a white jacket. Her dark hair was bound into a knot, and the glasses on her nose made her resemble a strict school teacher.

"Miss Duquesne."

Calleigh was silent and waited for the first real question to come.

"You testified that you found one of my client's fingerprints on the gun, which you identified as the murder weapon, correct?"
"Correct." Calleigh answered.
"But...my client's fingerprint on his girlfriend's gun…doesn't necessarily mean that my client fired that gun, does it?"
"Not necessarily."
"Can you, without a doubt, place this gun in my clients hand when it went of and killed the victim?" Claire Davis asked, tilting her head just the slightest bit.
"Not completely without a doubt, no."
"So, what makes you think that my client indeed fired the gun, and thereby killed Mrs. Karen Wilson?"
"There is a lot of other evidence that suggests Mr. Carter's guilt." Calleigh said, folding her hands together.
"Right. Your colleague, Mister Wolfe…"

Claire Davis turned slowly to indicate Ryan's position in the crowd, before turning back to Calleigh.

"…Mister Wolfe testified that he handled the blood evidence found on the crime scene, matching my client. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"Mister Wolfe has recently been fired from the department for a period of time?"
"Yes."
"He has only recently returned?"
"Yes."

The DA rose from his seat and leaned his hands on the table in front of him. "Objection your honor. Is the defense going to keep asking for things they already know?"
"Sustained. Get to the point Mrs. Davis." The judge said.

"Alright your honor. Miss Duquesne, I assume that after someone gets rehired to your department, a sharp eye is being kept on him? After all, he was fired for a reason."
"If you mean whether we checked Mister Wolfe's progress and methods during this case, then yes, we did."
"Mister Wolfe pointed you out to us as the one responsible for keeping an eye on him."

Calleigh let her eyes wander to Ryan for a second, but he was looking down at the floor.

"I checked up on him a couple of times during the case."
"Were you present when he collected the blood sample at the crime scene?"
"I collected the blood sample, not him."
"Right. Were you present when he analyzed the blood sample you had collected?"
"No, I was not."
"Weren't you interested to see if the evidence you collected was of importance?"
"Of course I was, but there is more work to do. I cannot follow up every piece of evidence I collect in a murder investigation."
"Was anyone else present when Mister Wolfe analyzed the blood sample?"

Calleigh inwardly groaned. Now she understood why Ryan had been kept in the court room. She blinked slowly and again searched for Ryan's eyes. This time he was looking at her, but when she looked back he diverted his head.

"I cannot testify to that." She replied.
"Assuming…that no one was present at the time. Is it possible that the blood evidence was tampered with?"
"By Mister Wolfe?" Calleigh asked, her eyes growing wide. "No, I do not believe that is possible."
"And you are sure of this because…?"
"Because I trust my colleagues."
"But your colleague has done things to conflict with a case before."
"If you're afraid the blood evidence is tampered with, Mrs. Davis, then you're free to have another lab test it. I can assure you though, that the results will be the same."

A few members of the jury started to snicker, and the judge asked for order.

"I will do just that, Miss Duquesne. And if I find even the slightest difference in results, I assume I can hold you responsible for it? Since you had responsibility over Mister Wolfe?"
"Yes ma'am, go ahead." Calleigh nodded.
"No further questions, your honor."

Calleigh was allowed to leave the witness' stand and together with Ryan she was escorted out of the room. In the hallway, after the doors had closed, she abruptly stood still, causing Ryan to have to do an emergency stop.

"Cal?"

She turned around, her plait falling over her shoulder.

"Ryan, for God's sake! Do you realize what you've said?"
"Yes. I mean, I'm sorry. It was out before I even had the chance to ponder it. It just…slipped."
"I just pray you haven't done anything wrong while processing that blood sample. I hope you washed your hands thrice before you started on it, I hope you were double gloved, and I pray to God you didn't sneeze." Calleigh said, counting on her fingers as she spoke.

"Cal, I did it right. I promise. I documented every step, worked exactly by the book. I know it wasn't very smart of me to name you, but I swear, they're not gonna find anything."
"Why did you give them a name anyway?"
"The way she looked at me. I knew she was going after me, the blood evidence…our strongest piece of evidence. I had to do something to make sure she wouldn't completely rip me apart."
"So instead you gave her my name, so she could rip me apart?"
"No. She didn't even ask you anything personal."
"She got something better, Ryan. Responsibility. If something is wrong with that blood, you'll get fired for tampering with evidence, and I will get fired for giving you the chance to tamper with evidence. You just put the blame completely on my shoulders."

Ryan fell silent.

"Well then I guess it's just another thing to add to the list of things I've done wrong. You can ask the court clerk for the full list." He said softly.
"What?" Calleigh's voice had softened.
"She knew everything. She named everything. She made a complete fool of me. I know I have made a lot of mistakes but when you name them all in a row…it makes me wonder why I'm even still here."

Eric and Natalia, alarmed by the raised voices in the hallway, stopped when they reached them and caught the ending of the conversation.

"Hey, Wolfe, you're still here because we still want you to be here." Eric said.
"Yes, she lectured me big time too on being a mole. Don't let her get to you." Natalia agreed.
"Ryan."

Calleigh placed her hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her.

"As long as you processed the blood evidence right, there's no problem."
"I did. I mean I think I did."
"Stop doubting yourself. A minute ago you were convinced you did it right. Now tell me, did you do it right?"

She looked him in the eye and squeezed his shoulder.

"I did it right." He said.
"Good." Calleigh gave him a small smile and stepped back. "Well, since we're done here, I'm going home. See you guys tomorrow."
"See ya."

That evening, Calleigh came back from a head-clearing run when she found Ryan on her doorstep. He was sitting there, arms wrapped around his knees, and he didn't notice her until she kneeled in front of him.

"Ryan? What are you doing here, it's cold outside."
"Well, it was kinda hard to get inside." He grinned weakly.

She took her key out of her pocket and opened the door as Ryan got up. She stepped in and looked back at him. "Come on in."

"Thanks."
"Uhm…I need to change. Sit down, make yourself comfortable. It'll only take five minutes."
"Sure."

When Calleigh came back, Ryan was sitting on her couch, staring at her pictures. She sat down next to him and looked at them too for a while before turning to him.

"What are you doing here Ryan?"
"I…I thought maybe I owed you an apology. Actually I do. I just hope you'll accept it."
"You don't have to apologize."
"No, I do. I could've caused you so much trouble. If they find anything in the blood evidence, I'll tell them you weren't responsible for me."
"Why did you pick me, anyway? Why not Horatio, he's your supervisor?"
"I have never felt like Horatio was keeping an eye on me. You were the one that taught me everything. And honestly, your name was just the first thing to pop up in my head."
"I'll shrug that off as a compliment." She smiled.

Ryan took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I didn't mean to get you into trouble. It's just…when she named the list…I saw the jury looking, thinking…I guess in a way you were right when you said I gave her your name so she would stop chewing me up."
"Listen to me; you forget that list, alright? Just black it out of your mind. Now give me a list of everything you did right, every case you cracked, every suspect you put away." Calleigh said.
"I don't remember all of that."
"It's a long list, isn't it? Longer than the list of mistakes, no?"

Ryan grinned in spite of himself. "Yeah, it is longer."
"It's this thing, Ryan. If you make a list of my, Eric's or even Horatio's mistakes it'll be just as long, if not longer. But the good things we did, the right decisions we made, they are what matters in the end."
"I am making a difference."
"Exactly. And I happen to remember a time when you were the only one that got my head off my negative points."
"Thanks for repaying the favor. I better go."

He got up from the couch, and with renewed self-esteem, and renewed belief in himself, he walked over to the door and extended his hand to open it.

"Ryan?"
"Yes?"
"If they find anything in that blood sample, I will kill you."

His hand stopped in mid-air and a shiver ran down his spine. He turned around.

"I'll let you choose the gun though." A wicked smile crossed her face and he swallowed. The bewildered look stayed on his face until Calleigh winked at him.
"I'm gonna get out of here. See you tomorrow." Ryan said.
"See you."

The following week was lived through as if it was an illusion, up until the point where they got the news: the blood sample had been clean. That day, Ryan's grin looked like it was going to split his face in half, and the relief written on Calleigh's face seemed to have been carved into it.

When they found themselves alone in a lab room, they exchanged a quick hug.

"I knew you had done it right." Calleigh said.
"No you didn't. I bet you'd already searched out the ammo for killing me."
"You…" She said, smacking his chest. "…were not supposed to know that."
"I have a sixth sense for knowing the unknown."
"Well then you know you have to get back to work now."

Ryan nodded knowingly and started to back out of the room. "I'm taking you out for drink tonight to celebrate that the list of things I've done right just got longer." He pointed at her.
"As long as you pay." Calleigh commented, her attention already back on the file she'd been working on.
"Hey Cal, thanks for everything."
"You're welcome babe." Her distant answer sounded, and Ryan left the room.

There might be a huge list of things he'd done wrong, he thought, but for now it was Ryan: 1 date with Calleigh, Claire Davis: 0.