Choices 8B2/?, CSI Miami, Calleigh/Natalia, NC-17
Title: Choices 8B2/?
Pairing: Calleigh/Natalia
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: I don't own them, but I spend a lot of time with them. This is gonna get really dark folks, so consider yourselves forewarned.
Archiving: P & P, DuVista, women_in_kevlar, all others please ask. Next in my series. Many thanks to Soul_Caged aka Complete_Machine for being my new writing partner. This is not beta’d so all mistakes are ours.
Ryan escorted the women out to the Charger. “I’m following you home, and I’m not taking no for an answer.”
Turning to face her friend, Natalia explained. “We’re not going home... We can’t for a few days. I’ll go into more detail later... Just follow us, and thank you again for being such a good friend.” Natalia gave him a hard hug before she turned back to the car, to find that Calleigh was already inside, sitting as far away from the driver’s seat as she could get without not being in the car.
Silently Natalia started the car, backed out and pulled up to the parking lot exit, pausing a moment to let Ryan pull behind them. Checking traffic, she headed towards the Complex.
The feeling in the car was colder than the A/C was pumping out. Natalia didn’t know what to say, and Calleigh couldn’t say anything. They both were relieved when the Complex came into view and Natalia was pulling up to the garage doors.
Grayson was standing in the open bay door, the only one open. She was wearing a white long sleeve button shirt, the sleeves rolled up high to reveal her tan muscular arms, her jeans were distressed denim, but skin tight, her feet with encased with rattlesnake cowboy boots and the shirt was untucked hanging over a Texas belt buckle. The shoulder holster strapped to her back and arms held a steel plated Glock. Half of Grayson’s face was covered in her traditional Oakley sunglasses, reflective as always, her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. She waved them into the lift, her hand on the gun as soon as she saw Ryan, then relaxed noticing who it was.
The white sunglasses matched her white shirt, and it offset how tanned she really was. It also showed off how many scars crisscrossed over her arms, face, chin, neck, any visible skin really, though they were subtle. Grayson stood patiently while they pulled the Charger into the lift.
Natalia got out of the car first. “Did you find Eric?” was all she said in an ice-cold voice.
“Come upstairs to talk with me first and then we’ll talk about Eric, Natalia.” Her voice was calm, with even more ice behind it than her cousins. It wasn’t a question, it was a command.
Grayson walked around the car, opening the door for Calleigh, but not touching her, just letting her out.
Calleigh waited, refusing to move until Grayson stepped away. She couldn’t look at her either. She couldn’t bear to see the displeasure in her eyes.
Grayson knelt down on the floor in front of the blonde, her head down, so Calleigh didn’t have to look at her at all, just the back of her neck. She looked like some modern day Templar Knight pledging herself to the blonde in service. “I know, come upstairs. You can have a shower... if you want... my bed is yours… if you want... my room is dark enough. Adonis and Echo can sleep with you.” She never once looked up, touched, or leaned towards Calleigh in anyway, just stayed completely still.
“Just protect Talia.” Calleigh whispered. “That’s all I want.”
Grayson rose and backed away from Calleigh, leaving the door open, but not before whispering. “Then I have to help her kill Eric...” She stepped back more, walking around the car. So this was how it was going to be. Natalia following in her psychotic footsteps, how ill fitting. She was going to have be incredibly blunt, once she got Natalia alone, as she stepped around her cousin, shutting the lift door.
She then motioned Natalia to follow her up the steps, and leave the blonde, even though she knew it must be hell to do so.
“NO! SHE DOESN’T GET TO DO THAT! THAT’S WHAT YOU DO... THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!” Calleigh bolted out of the car, grabbing Grayson by her arm, yanking her around to face her, screaming.
Grayson smiled, her tactics had worked. She was playing off Calleigh’s love for her cousin. She was counting on the fact that Calleigh wouldn’t want that for the woman she loved. And she was right. “Are you asking me to kill Eric Delko?” She said back calmly, behind the lenses, her eyes were flickering to Natalia, who was standing there in shock for a moment. Suddenly she was beside them, trying yank them apart, even though Grayson hadn’t even moved a muscle to stop Calleigh in the first place.
“Calleigh! LET HER GO! She will help me track down Eric. He has to die for what he did to you. He has to DIE!” Natalia was yelling now as well.
Calleigh backed away. She couldn’t let Natalia touch her. She still couldn’t look her in the eyes. Coldly, she spat out. “You don’t get to make that choice.” Shaking her head, her hair covering her face. “It is not your choice.”
“Fine. I’ll do it. Jesus FUCKING Christ already… Please follow me upstairs and pick out the way he dies then.” Grayson strutted up the steps backwards, beckoning the couple to follow her in a satirical manner. “Shall I smear honey all over his face, in his eyes, nose, mouth, ears? Bury him chest deep in a fire ant pile? How would that work for you? Or maybe just bury him and leave him in the wilderness for the bear and wolves?” She was getting into stride now, picking some of the most inventive methods she’d used and devised in the past. “Or maybe just toss him off the back of a boat covered in pig’s blood? I hear sharks love the taste of Cuban food...” She stared down hard at Calleigh, ripping her sunglasses off. “Sugar, if you want him dead, it’s on the house. And you can have it anyway that you want, just say the word.” Her cold eyes boring into Calleigh’s eyes, forcing her to look at her. Make her realize the depth of the situation and what she was insinuating.
“I want my hands around his neck... slowly squeezing the life out of him.” Calleigh’s eyes were just as cold as the ones that she was staring into.
Grayson jumped down the steps, landing in front of Calleigh, purposefully walking towards her, her strides long and powerful, her black eyes glittering maliciously.
Flinching, Calleigh almost took a step back, but she didn’t.
Grayson stuck out her hand, palm upwards, presenting it to shake. “Fine. You’ve just made a deal with the Devil... Calleigh DuVista.” Grayson stared at her under her lashes, giving her the same glare she gave every client. Every person who’d asked for her services had been on the receiving end of the stare. Lesser men had crumbled and backed away. “One body, one soul, one life, in exchange for your happiness... Can you live with this deal?”
Grayson hadn’t properly washed her hands on purpose, letting the caked blood under her fingernails stay, along with the red plasma stains that still tinted her skin red, she had merely wiped the blood off, not even bothering to use soap.
Natalia stared at her cousin. No! She wanted to kill Eric. Grayson could help, but she couldn’t allow Calleigh to kill him. That would be her right to face her accuser, but Natalia would be there to watch Grayson kill him instead of Calleigh, if she couldn’t do it. “As long as I get to help.”
“I’ll take your deal if you get Natalia to a safe place right now. You leave tonight.” Dropping to one knee, Calleigh pledged. “Afterwards, I am yours to command.”
Natalia stared down at Calleigh, completely horrified by what she was seeing. She couldn’t take the image, racing up the stairs to be alone. Grayson flinched, hearing the one thing that she hadn’t counted on this at all. “Stand up. Now.”
Reaching up, Calleigh took the offered hand. “Deal.”
Grayson was surprised Calleigh let her touch her at all, she didn’t let go of her hand, yanking her close just like she’d man handled Grayson earlier. She stared down hard. “Do you have any idea what the hell you’re sacrificing here...?” She let the implied question hang, if Calleigh went through with this, she would most likely lose Natalia forever.
With tears in her eyes, but with a completely impassive face, Calleigh just said. “Yes.”
“Then Natalia gets the house... everything goes to her. And you live here, under my supervision. I’ll teach you how to kill, if that’s what you want...” She looked at Calleigh disgusted. How could she just walk away from Natalia, from everything she loved. Grayson was enraged. Natalia was her family, how dare this woman just drop her? She let go of her hand, backing away from her, walking up the steps, leaving her to take the elevator.
“I want the ‘divorce’ to be as pleasant as possible, and you will stay the hell away from Natalia.” Grayson turned around to smile at Calleigh. “Congratulations, I hope this everything you wanted. My prices are steep.”
“Will she be safe? Can you promise that?”
“No one will be safer from you than my cousin.” Grayson left her to her own devices, walking up the stairs silently.
Calleigh stood there in the lengthening shadows, listening to the retreating footsteps of the Devil, finally allowing the tears to fall.
Grayson walked up the stairs completely enraged, Eric would pay the most physically, but the mental torture she would save for Calleigh. She almost hated to do it, but she would turn Calleigh into student. She could be the new Grayson, she grimly thought. Entering the kitchen, she saw Natalia opening a bottle of rum from under the cabinet, and she sat down on the stool to watch her.
“Talia... I don’t know if that’s a good idea...”
Natalia ignored her, pouring three shots of rum, placing each one on the counter in front of her. “Probably not, but this is my life and I can do what I damn well please.” Picking up one of the glasses, she stared at it long and hard, before she flung it across the room. “Shut the fuck up! You don’t even have a heart. What do you know about feelings Grayson? You kill for a living. Where is the feeling in that?” Natalia screamed, her anger finally breaking through the smooth veneer of clenched emotion.
Grayson stared back her impassively. Natalia’s argument was right, she’d lost her soul a long time ago, her heart was probably soon to follow. “You’re right... I don’t know anything about feelings... I only know how to kill people. How to make them suffer... Natalia I’m sorry...” Grayson slid off the stool to stand behind her cousin, a hand resting on her bronzed shoulder. “I can’t protect you from this.”
Natalia turned to stare down at the Devil herself. She looked into glittering chocolate eyes, and felt something move inside her. It was like looking at her mother when she was young, after she’d been told she’d failed a math test, the crushing look of pity.
Natalia turned away from Grayson even as she spoke to her, softly and gently. “Go lay down... you need to rest... trust me to do this for you Natalia... Familia...” Natalia shook her head, turning back to face the Devil.
“Don’t you get it? He touched her. He put his hands and his mouth on her. He MARKED her. And for that, she’s trying to protect me. She knows that Eric won’t stop unless he’s dead. That he will come after me even harder. She’s giving up everything that we planned, everything that we hoped for. She’s even giving up our… future, just so I can be safe.” Natalia cried. “She doesn’t care what it costs her, as long as I’m safe. She doesn’t care that she just sold her soul as long as I’m safe.” Balling her hands into fists, she went to stand toe to toe with her cousin. “You know the irony of all of this, was that I was going to ask you for the same deal. The exact same deal.” And then she collapsed to the floor.
~*~
Calleigh didn’t know how long she stood there in silence. It could have been ten minutes or hours, but she finally made herself move. Walking over to her Crossfire, she peered into the window, pleased to see the keys were in the ignition. Going over to the garage door, she pulled it open, got into her car and backed out. Eric wanted her... well, he could have her. Yanking the gearshift into drive, she roared off down the street.