I do not own CSI Miami or any characters from the show; the wonderful people at CBS do. I just wanted to get the disclaimer out there.

This is a multi-chapter story that has been dancing around in my head for the longest time. I don't know if it would have ever gotten published if Kazalene hadn't read it and encouraged me to go for it. The rating might have to go up to M depending on how brutal my serial killer is. Please read and review. Enjoy...

Beginnings

Calleigh Duquesne was not having a good day. It was a mystery how it had happened since she had been in the ballistics lab most of the day. Ballistics was her own private haven and generally put her in a Zen state, but not today. Today had been a bitch. It started out well enough; she and Jake had spent an amazing night together, and then had awakened early to enjoy the sunrise and have coffee together. He had made her giggle at his stupid jokes while they were getting ready for work. He made her heart race; even now after all of the misunderstandings and heartbreak, he still made her feel like a giddy teenager. Jake wasn't the problem, everything there was fine; there was something else bothering her. It wasn't her job, though she was stuck doing paperwork, never her favorite chore, but made even more difficult by her distracted state.

Calleigh ran her hand through her long, blonde hair and shifted in her seat. The paperwork in front of her was forgotten as she ruminated on her day. Her problem was at work. Actually, if you wanted to get specific, her problem was with someone at work. Not to put too fine a point on it, her problem was with Eric who just happened to be her best friend. The thing that really had her irritated was that he hadn't even done anything to deserve her ire. He was just really happy these days, and for some reason that had her really irritated.

Two weeks ago out of the blue Eric had met some fantastic woman and was now involved in a relationship with her. Ever since he had started seeing Elizabeth he had been walking around with a perpetual grin on his face. He had also stopped giving Calleigh the long meaningful looks and innuendo laden remarks. She found that she missed the attention that Eric used to lavish on her; she couldn't remember when she had begun to take it for granted. Now he just treated her as his friend and co-worker, and she was depressed about it. All of the self analysis had led Calleigh to one conclusion: she was just a tiny bit jealous of his new girlfriend, and she really didn't like that side of herself.

It wasn't even that she disliked Elizabeth. She had met her a few days after Eric had started seeing her. Elizabeth had come by at lunch to (and Calleigh still couldn't believe this) pick Eric up and take him for a picnic at the beach. It was supposed to have been his day off, but Horatio had called him in when Ryan had been unable to make it to the crime-scene. They had been processing evidence, and Calleigh had been in the print lab with him when an officer had stuck his head in the door.

"Delko, you have a visitor at reception," the officer had nodded at both of them and left.

Eric, with Calleigh in tow had walked up to the reception desk. She had expected to see Eric's mother or one of his sisters, so she was completely unprepared to see the woman who was taking to Melissa, the receptionist on duty. Melissa indicated that Eric was on his way and Elizabeth had turned to watch them approach. She had a wide smile on her face as he had walked up to her and hugged her. He had turned to introduce Calleigh.

"Calleigh, I'd like to introduce you to Elizabeth Finale, Elizabeth, this is Calleigh Duquesne."

Calleigh had looked at the visitor with curiosity. For as long as she had known Eric he had always had his pick of beautiful women, but even she could see that this one was something special. Elizabeth was about 5'7" tall with a perfect figure and long muscled legs. Her face was framed by long curly hair the color of mahogany; her skin was the color of cream. She had high cheekbones and full lips as well as the most unusual eyes she had ever seen; they were gold with green surrounding the iris.

Elizabeth looked at the beautiful blonde standing in front of her. She studied Calleigh with a steady gaze. After a second she smiled and said, "You're Calleigh! It's so nice to finally meet you. Eric has told me so much about all of you and it is really nice to be able to put a face with a name."

"It's very nice to meet you too, Elizabeth," Calleigh said with a smile. "It's always a pleasure to meet Eric's friends."

"Beth, what brings you to the lab," Eric had asked.

Elizabeth had cocked her head and looked up at Eric. "Well, since you got called in this morning, our plans were postponed, so I just came by to pick you up for an early lunch. I have everything in the car all I need is for you to sneak away with me."

Horatio had been walking in their direction and he heard her last statement. "Eric, have you processed the evidence from this morning?"

"Ah, yeah H, it's finished. I'm just waiting for trace to finish the analysis."

"Why don't you take off for the rest of the day? Mr. Wolfe is here now; he can cover for you. Take the rest of the day and enjoy your weekend. We'll see you on Monday morning."

Eric had left with Elizabeth, and no one from the lab had seen him all weekend, but when he had come in to work on Monday he had been smiling like he had the world by the tail.

Eric was happy. He deserved to be happy. Calleigh admitted that to herself. She also admitted that she missed all of the longing looks he had given her. She had been fighting her growing attraction for Eric for months now. She was seeing Jake, but wasn't sure how she really felt about him. The passion was there… oh was it ever, but what about love and more importantly trust? That was the rub. Calleigh knew she trusted Eric with her life, but they worked together. The bottom line was she was just too chicken to cross that line, and it was that thought that made her grimace with disgust at herself. Calleigh sighed and rubbed her forehead; she was sick of second guessing her emotions. At least she had Jake. He wasn't perfect, but he did make her pulse race. Maybe that was enough, for now anyway.

If Calleigh was having a bad day then Eric was having the complete opposite. He was having an amazing day; no, he was having an amazing couple of weeks actually. Ever since Elizabeth had come home on a leave of absence from her job and they had reconnected, he had been feeling great. He had been depressed for months over Calleigh's relationship with Jake and her inability to see that he had feelings for her. He had been contemplating trying to get out and meet someone, maybe move on, and then Elizabeth had come home. She had been the first woman he had really loved, and when they had split he had wondered if he would ever fall in love again. Here they were, eight years later, and she had walked back into his life in the same seamless manner in which she had left it.

Her arrival had pushed thoughts of Calleigh and Jake straight from his head. In fact, Eric couldn't remember when he had worried about them last. He and Calleigh had resumed being "just friends", and she had seemed relieved about his new indifference. He was enjoying being with someone with whom he had so much history. In fact, Eric had been spending all of his free time with Elizabeth. His last weekend off had been spent with her on her grandfather's boat, The Amphitrite, somewhere south of Key West. That trip had been fabulous. They had spent the days scuba diving and the nights making up for lost time.

She had changed a lot in the past eight years. The woman she was today was calm, cool, and self-possessed while the girl he remembered had been all fire and passion. They had met in freshman Chemistry class their first day of college at the University of Miami, and had been lab partners that semester. They had spent four very good years together, on and off finally living together by their graduation. Eric remembered all of it fondly. They had traveled together during each summer, and at times Eric had counted them lucky to have made it through college alive. Elizabeth's fearlessness and wild nature had gotten them into some pretty intense situations. If they were together there had been nothing that they wouldn't try, but they had fought constantly and made up as often. Both of them had been equally passionate about life and how to live it to the fullest.

After graduation, he had gone to work for MDPD Search and Rescue, and Elizabeth had gone straight to graduate school. They had talked about getting married and having children; Eric had gone so far as to buy her a ring. He should have known it was too good to last though; everything had fallen apart when she had finished her Master's degree in Clinical Psychology and had been offered a job with the FBI.

After the fight to end all fights, she had left him because he had been less than supportive of her career opportunity. He had blamed her for the choice she had made, for ending their relationship, but she had always been a wild thing, in fact that had been a major part of what had attracted him to her in the first place, and, as his mother had told him the day after Elizabeth had left, there were some birds that should never be caged. It took him a few months to understand what his mother had meant, but he had finally realized that as much as he had loved Elizabeth he would have eventually suffocated the very things he had loved most about her, her adventurous spirit and passion for life. Once he understood that he had never blamed her for leaving again. He had just blamed himself for losing her.

Eric didn't want to second-guess his luck, but he laughed to himself thinking that for now at least, his bird had returned to her cage. His mother had been beside herself with joy when he had taken Elizabeth to Sunday dinner that first weekend after she had come home. Now tonight his parents and Elizabeth's grandparents were having a family dinner to celebrate her homecoming and their reunion.

Eric blinked his eyes; he had been lost inside his memories for far too long. If he and Elizabeth were going to meet both their families for that dinner, he'd better get a move on with the evidence sitting on the counter.

Horatio chose that moment to walk into Eric's lab to check on his progress. "Eric, how are you doing with the prints from the Conner case?"

"H, the prints here are just like the prints from the other three scenes, only family members and a few smudged prints that are unusable. What do you think? Do we have a serial killer?"

"Eric, I think we might, the crime scenes are very similar, but without getting the FBI involved, we won't know until we catch him."

Eric looked at Horatio and started to say something but stopped. Horatio noticed and asked, "What is it Eric?"

Eric looked chagrined but asked the question anyway, "H, do you remember Elizabeth? You saw her that day she picked me up for lunch; I want her to look at the evidence."

Horatio had been listening without comment, but Eric's suggestion had him raising his eyebrows in surprise, "Why?" was his only comment.

"H, she was a profiler for the BAU. She didn't want me to say anything to anyone, but since we have bodies piling up I don't think she'll mind. She's on a leave of absence from the Bureau, but I'll bet if we ask her she'll give us a profile."

Horatio looked at Eric considering, "Call her Eric, I want to talk to her before she sees anything. And Eric?"

Eric looked at Horatio, "yeah H."

"Thanks," Horatio walked out of the room.

Eric waited a couple of beats and reached for his cell phone.