Title: Waking Dreams

Author: JLo10131121

Spoilers: Through the current season

Summary: What if you knew something was missing from your life, but didn't know what it was? EC all the way baby.

Disclaimer: Do I look as if I own this series?

Feedback: is food for my hungry soul and fodder for my ego. EG

Author's Note: In my CSI: Miami-World, Alex did not quit.

*****

Soft, silken skin. Jasmine-smelling hair. Heat from her body warming his. A kiss across an unshaven jaw. Laughter and a hint of Southern twang. Green, green eyes. Piercing eyes. Loving eyes.

Eric awoke drenched in sweat, trembling slightly from the inside out, heart stuttering in his chest in remembrance of the dream he'd just had. He tried to remember, but the more he tried, the more elusive the dream became, like trying to catch smoke. You knew it was there, you could see it, but you couldn't hold it in your grasp. Instead, Eric was left with vague impressions. It had been a sexual dream; that much he remembered wryly as his body throbbed below. But it hadn't been entirely about sex, he thought, getting the impression of warmth and love. The girl in the dream was a blank. It was getting frustrating. He'd had a similar dream two nights before, with the same results: unable to recall much detail and it was driving him crazy. Eric glanced at the clock on the nightstand. 5:43AM. He groaned. Work didn't start until 8AM and if this time was like the first, he wouldn't be getting back to sleep tonight, or rather, this morning. Instead, Eric swung out of the bed, adjusting the slowly abating erection which had tented his boxers as a result of a dream he couldn't remember, and walked into the bathroom. After flipping the switch, he undressed and took a shower. Might as well start getting ready for work.

***

Come on, it's got to be here somewhere, Calleigh thought as she rotated the test-fire bullet alongside the bullet recovered from her latest vic. A few more moments of twisting had Calleigh crowing in triumph. "Yes!"

"What's got you so excited?" Calleigh looked up from the microscope just as Eric walked into Firearms and smiled warmly at him.

"Good morning. And to answer your question, I spent several hours yesterday just reconstructing the bullet under my 'scope here and am very pleased to find a match. The guy murdered his terminally ill wife and said it was 'assisted suicide.'"

"And you don't believe him," Eric finished, nodding his head slightly.

"Not when they'd been on the verge of divorce for the better part of two years since she was diagnosed with End Stage lymphatic cancer. It's the first step in building a solid case," Calleigh completed. "So, what brings you to my neck of the woods?"

"Eh, nothing much. Haven't seen you for a few days and wanted to get my Calleigh fix," Eric teased, half serious. She smiled at him.

"Speaking of which, how were your two days of leave?" she asked as she pulled both bullets from the scope and placed them back in their containers.

"Fine. Went to Ma's and visited with Isabella and the girls, caught up on sleep—" Eric replied. "Always a good thing," Calleigh interrupted with a smile. "Yes, well, it was long overdue," Eric added. Before he could say anything else, his beeper began to sound. "Looks like a double," he said as he checked the message.

Calleigh's pager went off a few seconds later. "Looks like we've got trouble. Want to drive together?"

"Yeah, let me get my gear and we'll head out." Eric and Calleigh drove over to the Grove in a companionable silence. 15893 Spring Forest Road was not usually known for nosy neighbors, but one couldn't help but come out of their house when there was a Lexus in their neighbor's window.

"Alex?" Calleigh called, passing the Lexus imbedded in the large bay window, and walked slowly into the house, mindful of the glass which littered the floor. It always paid to be safe rather than sorry. The job came with some unexpected surprises a lot of the time and Calleigh had learned early on to expect nothing and prepare for anything.

"In here," her muffled reply came, probably from the living room, from the sound of it.

Eric hung back a few steps to appreciate the four-door vehicle hanging in what was the window. He whistled low and shook his head. A few more seconds of gawking, and Eric joined his co-worker. Calleigh walked toward Alex in the living room. She was examining Charise Williams, scrapes and bruises covering her face, arms and legs, and one large laceration which covered much of the side of her head. The vic was dressed in what appeared to be gym clothes, and it also appeared she'd put up a struggle by the look of them.

"Poor baby, somebody really hated you," Alex said, shaking her head, and then checked her liver temp.

"So, what do we have?" Calleigh asked, squatting down to Alex's level.

"Charise Williams, 23. TOD is within the last few hours. That's all I know. The guys outside will have more. Now as for how she died—that's fairly simple to determine, assuming my findings back at the office coincide with my preliminary evaluation. It looks like her head was struck with some sort of object made of wood, maybe a 2X4, paddle, or bat. See here," Alex said, motioning to the wood splitters imbedded in the vic's head.

"Eric…" Calleigh started. They needed to find out more about this situation.

"I'll check with the first on scene and find out more about the situation," he completed, knowing exactly what she would want him to do. It was kind of creepy the way he could sometimes complete her sentences and vice versa. Laughing to himself, Eric walked back outside.

"Thanks," Calleigh called as Eric's form cleared the front door. He waved behind him in acknowledgment.

Eric consulted with the uniforms who'd first responded. Officer McAddams stated they'd received a call around 8:43AM about a robbery and responded to the scene. When they'd entered, they found the victim as she was in the living room. She was a housewife, albeit a very rich one, and had kept to herself mostly, according to the neighbors. Eric snapped off a couple of pictures of the crowds. Sometimes killers came back to see the result of their handiwork, but he didn't have high hopes for that one. It seemed like a B&E gone wrong. 8:30AM—Most people were already on their way to work by that time. Actually, if you weren't on the road by 7AM in Miami, you were looking at an hour and a half to two hour drive anywhere, just due to the congestion, and that was minus any accidents on I-95, the Turnpike, or any of the other major thoroughfares.

Eric walked over to the crowd and approached a young woman about the victim's age.

"Miss, do you know the victim?"

"Emily, Emily Saunders. Yes, Ari was a friend and neighbor. We were supposed to go to Yoga and then Pilates this morning," she said as she swiped at a tear.

That explained the workout gear, Eric mused. "So, what time did you hear the commotion?" he asked, motioning to the car behind him. Emily glanced back at the car and returned her attention to the officer in front of her.

"A few minutes before I called the police. I didn't hear the alarm go off and Ari usually has it on until just before she leaves the house."

"And where's her husband?" Eric asked as he took a couple of notes.

"Richard's away on business. He's in real estate and in the process of selling a condo or some such thing to someone in Seattle, I think. He's been gone since last week."

"Any problems between the two of them that you know of?"

"No. I've known Ari for over four years now. That's how long she and Richard have lived in the neighborhood. We stuck together, you know," Emily softened her tone, obviously not wanting to be overheard. Eric inclined his ear. "Because of the old ladies on the block, such busybodies. They really don't know how to mind their own business," Emily nodded, casting a couple of the so-called 'old ladies,'—who in Eric's estimation were not old (They barely looked older than he and Calleigh.)—thinly veiled glances of distaste.

"Anything worth mentioning that was gossiped about?" Eric questioned. "Anything that could possibly have gotten Mrs. Williams killed?"

"No, nothing like that. Just the typical catty, housewife stuff. Nothing to do and all that," she asserted.

"All right. Well, thank you for your assistance. If you think of anything that could have bearing on the case, please call," Eric said as he handed her a business card.

"Can I call even if I don't?" Emily asked coyly. Eric had to smother a smile and instead of replying, walked away back into the crime scene. After checking the living room, which was empty—Alex must have left with Mrs. Williams—Eric moved on to the rest of the house, checking the rooms briefly for signs of his partner.

"Cal?" he called out.

"In here," came her muffled voice. Eric found her in the Williams' bedroom, or more specifically, the shoe closet.

"Wow, this place is bigger than my apartment," he mused and started to unpack his gear again. Insane. Who needed this many shoes?

"Be still my heart," Calleigh sighed dramatically. "An entire room dedicated to shoes."

"Are you serious? I can't imagine having this many shoes," Eric replied, silently counting. Over two hundred pairs. At least. He lost count around 198 or so.

"Every woman dreams of a closet full of shoes. I don't have a closet full, but a good estimate of around 50. You sho—" Calleigh interrupted herself and abruptly went silent.

When she didn't continue, Eric prodded, "You were saying?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. It was nothing." It was obviously something, but Eric wasn't going to push the issue.

"Didn't get nothing much from outside. The call came in around 8:30AM for a B&E. What brings you in here? I doubt you processed that living room that quickly," he remarked skeptically. And why the bedroom closet? Usually they processed the house room by room, not skipping around. It was more methodical and you didn't miss anything that way.

"According to Alex, TOD was a couple of hours ago. Found a couple of wood splinters in the vic's head and followed a small trail into here," she said as she slowly waved her flashlight with one hand and a pair of tweezers in the other. "Well look what we have here," she noted in an almost sing-song voice. She found a couple of more splinters that met at the closet wall. "This room looks much bigger from the outside, doesn't it?" she asked rhetorically, knocking lightly on the wall and listening for a hollow sound. She didn't really expect an answer and none was given. Calleigh was unusually chipper today, Eric thought, but pushed aside the observation and instead paid attention to what his partner was discovering behind what turned out to be a false wall: a bloodied baseball bat.

"Nice find," Eric commented.

"Ouch!" Calleigh exclaimed as she picked up the bat.

"You okay?" He asked in concern.

"I think a couple of these slivers of wood impeded themselves in my finger," Calleigh muttered as she took off the glove.

"Here, let me," he said, already reaching for a fresh set of tweezers from his kit. Eric drew in close to examine the offenders and remove them. Calleigh could feel her hand tremble very slightly from the close contact of a man she'd always found attractive. It wasn't professional, she reminded herself. And she was with Jake. As he carefully extracted the delicate slivers, a strong sense of déjà vu came over Eric and for a few seconds, he was lost in another place.

"Eric, that hurts," Calleigh whined.

"Baby," he murmured as he removed the tiny splinter from her palm. "There. It's done. Want me to kiss it better?" he asked suggestively, already halfway to her palm.

"Not here! We're working," she admonished, pulling away halfheartedly.

"Hello? Earth to Eric? You okay there?" Calleigh asked, concerned by her friend's lack of response.

Eric shook himself out of it and replied, "Yeah, fine. Déjà vu. It was nothing." Calleigh turned her back to him and began to process the bat for DNA, blood, or other trace. At the same time, Eric berated himself. That's no way to be thinking about your best friend. She's with Jake and has been so for over four months now. Get over it! He ordered himself. But what a daydream that was, a naughty voice inside intoned. He'd had a similar daydream the first time when he'd removed that piece of glass from her finger at the burned out house.

Get yourself together, Calleigh ordered herself. Eric can't—Forget it. Don't go down that road. Now, get back to work and finish processing the scene. "You said the call came in around 8:30AM. Alex said TOD was a couple of hours ago. Which doesn't jive with a home invasion gone bad. Someone else did this to her. And the only reason she was found this fast was because someone tried to break in." Eric nodded absently in agreement, still somewhat lost in his own thoughts.

Calleigh and Eric worked in sync processing the remainder of the scene. One of the last items to process was the beat up Lexus still in the window. "When did the tow company say they were going to get here?" Calleigh asked.

"Supposedly they're stuck somewhere in Lauderhill. It's going to be a while," Eric replied.

"Wonder why the thieves didn't just back it out and drive away?" Calleigh murmured, mostly to herself.

Eric had an answer anyway. "They couldn't. Lexus and several of the other high end manufacturers have started putting 'kill switches' into the new model vehicles so that in the event of a front end collision like this the owners couldn't drive away. Leave the scene. The irony is that if they'd just stolen a POS or even an older model, they could have gotten away." He smirked.

"At least they had good taste," Calleigh quipped.

After the tow truck finally arrived to bring the Lexus back to the lab for further processing, Eric and Calleigh drove back to Miami-Dade with the evidence they'd collected, including the bat. Two days later had the bat, trace recovered from the scene, and the Lexus all processed and analyzed.

Natalia found fingerprints from inside the vehicle on the steering wheel which led to two youths with long rap sheets for B&E charges and pickpocketing but no convictions. Eric called Tripp to round them up and put them into different interview rooms. Calleigh was waiting in Room One for Mr. Rodriguez. "So," she began. "I hear you like to steal other people's property."

"Na, na, you got the wrong dude," Emilio Rodriguez said. "I ain't never been convicted of no theft."

"That's right, but according to the Florida court system, you've been charged several times with breaking and entering, pickpocketing, larceny… Shall I go on? But the reason we're hear is this: Seems like you've graduated to home invasions. And murder," she hammered.

Emilio's face was one of shock and then he started babbling, "Lady, I didn't kill no lady!"

Calleigh was sharp. "I didn't say it was a woman." She noticed he hadn't mentioned the break-in. "And then there's the theft of the Lexus," she said, placing down on the table photos from the crime scene. "Your fingerprints are all over it."

Emilio was quiet for a few minutes and leaned back in his chair. "Look, I'll cop to the Lexus. Man that was a sweet ride, and I'll admit I broke into the house, but I didn't do it alone."

"Yes, we know about your friend Deshawn Johnston. Which one of you killed her?" Calleigh already knew neither of them did it, but she wanted him to sweat.

"Neither of us! Look, we had scoped the house a couple of weeks before, and knew the owner had some sweet electronics inside. You know, Bose sound system, Blue ray player, the Sony flat screen 60 inch LCD 1080p TV, the works. We were goin' to break in and take it. Tha's all. But then dumbass mistakes gas for brakes and next thing I know we're in the house. Got out, saw chickie on the ground and took off. Didn't even take nothing," he finished.

"Thank you," she said, motioning for the uniformed officer to take him into custody for B&E and grand theft auto. Deshawn Johnston was also arrested for the same charges, but they were no closer to finding Charise Williams' killer.

*****

That night, Calleigh returned to her home having closed one case, but no closer to closing another. Jake was waiting for her in the living room, watching what appeared to be Monday night football. "Hey, babe. How was the office?" Jake asked smartly as he leaned up to get an upside down kiss from his girlfriend.

Calleigh had to suppress a smile at his antics. He always did know how to make her laugh, but it wasn't good to encourage him all the time. "Mostly fine. Eric and I got called out on what appeared to be a home invasion gone wrong, but turned out to be a B&E incidental to the murder of a wealthy housewife." Calleigh detailed the case without mentioning names to Jake as she settled down on the sofa, TV dinner in hand. Even though Jake was now one of them, he hadn't worked the case and therefore couldn't know the names of the persons involved. Protocol was protocol and as much as possible, Calleigh stuck to it. As she was explaining the case, she reached for her glass of water on the tray in front of her and almost dropped it as an unexpected soreness made itself known in her pointer finger. Calleigh hissed and pulled back quickly.

"What's up? Hurt yourself today?" Jake asked, leaning over to get a closer look.

"Yeah, it was a splinter. Nothing really. Eric extracted the sliver earlier, just didn't realize it would still be hurting. Got a piece of glass in the same finger last year and I don't remember it hurting this much." Calleigh may not remember that, but she had no problem recalling the way Eric had tenderly removed the large piece from the flesh. The look in his eyes….almost like he—

"Let me look at it a minute," Jake asked, already reaching for the light. Upon further inspection, the skin around the puncture was inflamed and red still, much more so than this morning, Calleigh noted. "Think you might be developing an infection." He moved off the sofa and walked into the nearby guest bathroom, which had a medicine cabinet. A few moments later he returned with a tube of Neosporin and dabbed a bit onto the reddened area. "There, all better," Jake said softly. Calleigh glanced up and found herself drowning in soft hazel eyes. She felt like melting into a puddle, but that wouldn't do. She never did something so feminine. Besides, the man had plenty to boast about. She didn't want to add to the list. There was another person who had made her want to drown in his eyes, but she hadn't allowed herself to think of him for several months now. Things had changed. She had changed. And she couldn't go back now, no matter how much she wanted to. No matter how much she wanted to tell him. Impulsively, Calleigh leaned over and softly kissed Jake on the lips.

"Is it okay if we go to bed early? I'm pretty beat," she asked.

"Sure, no problem," Jake replied. The couple walked into her room and began to prepare for bed. As they settled in and turned out the lights, Calleigh's thoughts followed from the living room.

Another complication was her relationship with Jake. Since she'd initiated this relationship with him again for the first time since the Academy, Calleigh found it harder to keep her heart safe from him. He'd changed a lot and yet, not at all over the last nine years. He was more mature, but still had that puppy charm and wit that could make her laugh. Initially, she'd allowed him to seduce her so she could attempt to forget about him, a means to an end, as selfishly as that was, but it was the truth. However, slowly, so slowly she'd barely noticed, he'd begun a slow takeover of her heart. At this point, it wasn't entirely his, but it could be. A sudden red flush flashed into her cheeks and Calleigh was grateful for the low lighting. She felt guilty just thinking that thought. He had been such a major part of her life for the last several years and then she'd cut it off, abruptly, without word or explanation, and now she was with someone else. Someone not him and it was hard. She still loved him. But she was falling for Jake and she didn't know how she felt about that. Was it possible to love two men? Was it fair? To either of them or to herself?