Chapter 6

Natalia smiled down upon her girlfriend and leaned down to plant a peck on her exposed shoulder.

The blonde was sitting between her girlfriend's legs on the floor, leaning against her as they watched TV. For the first time, Calleigh felt as loved as she felt in love. Being with a woman surely was different from being with a man. She sighed deeply thinking about Eric, and smiled again as she felt Natalia's arms tighten momentarily. That was one of the best things about Natalia. She never pushed; let you come to her if you wanted to, but gave you all her support and comfort either way. She knew almost immediately when something was wrong, too.

When she'd been taken by Ivan, she'd thought she'd never see the brunette again. While being kept imprisoned, she'd realized just how much she'd liked the tenderness between women instead of the usual harder intercourse with a man. She'd liked it, and she would have liked to have more of it. A man was surely more physical than a woman – less tender, too. Or she could have always been with the wrong ones. She didn't know, and neither did she long to find out. She was happy now.

Polygamy was perfectly acceptable. It didn't necessarily have to be bad. It wasn't really more than a life style, rather a different way of living. Calleigh could maybe accept it, but not the fact that he hadn't trusted her enough to talk about it. Not necessarily everything needed be discussed in a relationship, but this? Couldn't sleeping with more than one woman at the same time be important enough to share? Did the lack of talking simply mean that he hadn't had enough with her and didn't want to hurt her? Calleigh had missed the honesty; felt as if the past months hadn't been anything but a lie.

The brunette slowly leaned back against the couch, continually stroking Calleigh's arm up and down. She couldn't say just how relieved she was that she could still do that. It had been about a month since Ivan had been caught. In the meantime Calleigh had gradually moved her things to Natalia's and even though it was maybe a little fast, they both felt comfortable with it. They had known each other for years before the sparks had started flying around. They were sure from each other, and Natalia was happy about that.

She still remembered the day Caleigh had been found. It had all gone so fast so suddenly... They had given up on hoping since no useful evidence could be found, when Horatio had gotten a phone call from Ivan himself. He'd requested to exchange his biological son with Calleigh that night, otherwise Calleigh's fingers would end up in the mail one a day, and then her toes... Maybe in the end even her tongue... He'd been so smart to make sure he couldn't be tracked and mislead the track device system they had. He however hadn't been so smart to shut out the background noises. The sound of metal being smashed had eventually done it and led them to the car scrap yard, to the old hangars from the times before it had been a car scrap yard to be more precisely.

It had all made sense all of a sudden. On the way from the scrap yard to Natalia's neighborhood was a little DIY-store where they sold things like metal strings. The owner recognized one of Ivan's man as to be the one who had bought the metal string with which Jensen had been murdered.

Ivan's plan had fucked up. His intention had been to lure Horatio with Natalia and Ryan into coming to the docks alone, without back-up, saying that they would get Calleigh back if they had Eric in her place. The real plan had, however, been to use Calleigh just as bait and finish them all. It would be the ginger who surprised Ivan and his gang by showing up a little sooner than anticipated and on the wrong place, though. The right one for them, of course.

Ivan and his gang, taken by surprise and helpless against three well trained CSIs and two SWAT teams had been forced to give in the end. They hadn't done so without a fight, though. Ryan had gotten a bullet wound in the lower arm, which had healed well after Alexx' care. Horatio's upper leg had gotten a nasty graze, but he too had been fine and back the old one after a couple of days. Natalia had remained unharmed and had been the one to find Calleigh and cut the blonde's wrist bondages to take her to the hospital for check-up, even though the ballistics expert promised so much she was fine. Natalia had wanted to make sure. The hospital staff had kept her overnight before releasing her.

Natalia still felt sorry for her girl as she thought back at that particular day. She remembered taking Calleigh to her place, because she'd requested so, and staying with her. The petite blonde had been starving. Ivan hadn't done any effort to give or let give his hostage anything to eat or drink and Calleigh didn't precisely like the hospital food. She'd almost begged Natalia to stop at the McDonald's on South Biscayne Boulevard on their way home – Natalia's residence – and had ordered without shame Large French Fries with a Big 'N Tasty and a Side Salad, a McFlurry with M&M'S and a Large Iced Tea. Natalia still couldn't grasp how all of it had been wiped away in barely a couple of minutes. She'd ordered the amount a horse would be satisfied with. Natalia herself had had enough with a Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken and a Small Diet Coke.

Eric had been released by IAB-Sergeant Rick Stetler himself and been told he could start working again immediately, and Calleigh had gotten back to work after two days off and being cared for by Natalia. Both she and the brunette still worked with Eric daily in the lab, but Horatio mostly tried to send him off with Ryan. Natalia nor Calleigh could feel any more toward him than collegiality anymore. Maybe their friendship would be established sometime, but it needed time first. After all, Eric's cheating had somehow been the cause of it all in the first place.

Neither of the women tried to think about that now, though. They were happy, and they planned to stay that.