Fic: White Light, Chapter 11 (CSI Miami, Eric Delko / Ryan Wolfe, Speed)
Title: White Light, Chapter 11
Pairing: Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Notes: Inspired by the movie Just Like Heaven
CSI Miami Main List
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
“Eric.” Calleigh approached him carefully. “Put it down like a good boy and I’ll finish this.”
“What?” Eric didn’t look up from the screen of the computer. “I’m busy here.”
“You were supposed to check the name list of the party guests and other who may have had access to the food. I came here two minutes ago, and you’ve been searching the same name over and over again.”
“I haven’t.”
“You have.” Calleigh leaned over his shoulder and tapped few keys to bring up the list of fifty most regent searches. “Same name… seven times.”
“I… got some stuff on my mind.”
“I can see that. Did you even listen to me when I called you half an hour ago?”
“Sure.”
“Then you’d know your poisoner was XX, a female. You could have skipped all the men on the list.”
“I listened! I just… wasn’t sure if Bernard was a guys name or not so I played it safe.”
“Seven times. And you look like you haven’t been sleeping much and some goes for Speed, who says he can’t sleep because you keep showing up at his place. Is something going on?”
“You count ghosts as something?”
“Ghosts…” Calleigh sighed and grabbed the name list from Eric. “I talked to Horatio, you’re going home to get some rest.”
“I wouldn’t sleep anyway-”
“Go peacefully or I’ll call Alexx.”
“Of course, I’m talking about ghosts and you wanna call the Queen of the Dead.”
“Are you okay to drive home? You’re acting weird.”
“Weeelll…” Eric leaned across the desk and stretched his torso. “I’m seeing almost dead people, my best buddy’s ready to send me to the looney bin, hospital machines go crazy around me, hairy nurse is after me and I don’t mean it in a sexy way, I make out with ghouls and they ditch me after just one helping, his ex is in internal investigations and could make my life even more twisted, I had about half an hour sleep last night and my wet dream was throwing my stuff all over the living room and then there was the whipped cream thing-”
“Eric!” Calleigh interrupted and grabbed his head so she could see his pupils. “Are you drunk?”
“I wish…”
“Have you taken any medication?”
“No…”
“Has anyone you don`t know offered you anything? Candy, pills-”
“Cal, I’m not six!”
“Do you feel like there’s a hoop squeezing your head?”
“And I’m not going crazy! Why does everyone think I’m crazy? You, Speed, that Sarah with the huge rack-”
“Farrah.”
“How do you know?”
“Believe me, everyone here knows by now. Go home and sleep before you really loose it.”
“You think I’m loosing it?” Eric glared at her like a grumpy basset hound.
“No, but I think you better go now and come back tomorrow morning.”
“There you are.” Speed marched in, sounding unusually winded. “I got news for you, and-” He noticed Calleigh and gave her an innocent smile. “Hey, Cal. Don you mind, we got some important guy talk.”
“You can’t do that in front of me?”
“Well, I guess we could.” Speed grinned and Eric could practically see the cogs rolling inside his head. “You know Macy from prints? She just got back from her vacation and I gotta say it did wonders. The vacation or the surgeon, not sure which, but the landscape is breathtaking.”
“Some new foliage in the valley area?” Eric interpreted.
“And the mountains too… You could loose your spare change between those things and you’d never find them again.”
“Enough for me, thank you.” Calleigh frowned and walked to the door. “I’m heading out, so maybe I’ll drop by at the communal showers to make sure that new guy from AV uses enough soap.” She walked out and slammed the door shut.
“We’ve worked together for how long…?” Speed chuckled. “And she’s still so easy…”
“Part of her charm. What’s the real scoop?”
“My buddies confirmed what you heard. Wolfe’s awake.”
“Already? Doesn’t that usually take longer?”
“If it’s medically induced, but apparently he woke up on his own. The guys from PD are sending some of his friends over for a visit, they collected money to get him a fruit basket or something like that.”
“Why do people do that?”
“Do what?”
“Bring fruit baskets. A guys been in a coma for months, you really think the first thing on his mind is: Oh my, I could really go for some fruit.”
“Speaking of his mind… and veggies-”
“I said fruits.”
“And I turned it into vegetable. One of the boys from the PD talk to that uncle-guy about him.”
“And?”
“And it looks like there’s no permanent damage. Some physical therapy, but nothing that won’t go away.” Speed tilted his head to the side and looked at Eric. “You didn’t tell me when you came to work… did you get in?”
“Where?”
“To the hospital. I mean after they kicked you out.”
“I did. All the way to the lobby. The ex had flashed his badge and convinced the security guard that I can´t be allowed in or else. I don’t know what else he told him, but the guy didn’t kick me out, he threw me out.”
“Literally?”
“Yeah. He was about six foot five and maybe two hundred and fifty pounds, so I didn’t try to make friends there.” Eric rubbed his chin in deep thoughts. “Actually… you just gave me an idea…”
“I did?”
“You did.”
“Are you gonna tell me about my idea?”
“Later. You got any idea where I could find a basket?”
“Why do you need a basket?”
“Just answer me.”
“No, I don’t know where you can get a basket. What the hell are you planning?”
“I’ll ask Cal, or maybe Alexx. She should know, right?”
“Eric-”
“What kinda fruit do they normally have in fruit baskets?”
“Why do you keep asking me stuff like that? And why do you need a fruit basket?”
“I’ll tell you later.” Eric logged out from the computer and rushed out.
“I’ll tell you later…” Speed groaned lowly. “Last time someone said that to me I had to come and bail her out in the middle of the night after she decided to flash her basement furniture in her ex`s wedding.”
“Did you say something?” Eric peeked his head back in.
“Nothing… Just don’t get arrested.”
---------------------------------------
Eric glanced carefully over a large pineapple. The night guard was gone, replaced by a young man with a well trimmed goatee and a greasy ponytail. Eric lifted the basket high enough to cover his face and headed to the right door. Two men he vaguely recognised from the PD were coming out and he waited till they were out of sight before he pushed the door open.
“Another one?”
The voice was the same, but it sounded slightly lower. Eric tilted his head to see pass the mangos. Wolfe was laying under the covers. He didn’t move, but his face seemed alert and awake.
“Can I put this somewhere, my arms are going dumb?”
“Put it… somewhere.” Wolfe nodded at the direction of the nightstand. One large gift basket was sitting on the nightstand and another one was on the floor next to the bed. “Or just leave it here.” He moved his arms slowly from his chest over to the edge of the bed and patted the empty spot. “I could eat something.”
“Okay.” Eric placed the basket to the designated spot and Wolfe picked a red apple from it. “So… you still got the machinery going on.”
“Yeah. They wanted to keep them on just in case. If everything goes well they’ll take me off it tomorrow.”
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m…” The apple slipped from his hand and rolled down to the floor. “Mobility is not what it used to be when you haven’t used your limbs for a while. And my head`s kinda fuzzy, I keep confusing things.” He looked up at Eric and gave him a small smile. “Sorry, you didn’t wanna hear about that.”
“That’s okay.” Eric sat down on the plastic chair next to the bed.
Wolfe kept looking at him, but didn’t say anything more.
“I…” He finally coughed awkwardly. “Sorry, but I have no idea who you are.”
“You don’t`?”
“You look familiar, but I can’t remember where I’ve seen you. I do know you, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Give me a minute… I’ve seen you… at a crime scene?”
“Right.”
“You don’t look like a cop… crime lab?”
“Yeah.”
“Did we know outside work?”
“Yeah.” Eric leaned closer. “Can you remember anything else?”
“Like what?”
“Come on, think. Me, you, my couch, last night.”
“Excuse me?”
“You gotta remember that. And when you crawled into my bed when I was asleep and-”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You have to remember! That Sarah or Farrah or whatever her name was came in and you covered her with whipped cream and when we were fighting she though I was going crazy-”
“I can understand why she would think that.” Wolfe grabbed a ripe pineapple from the basket. “I don’t know what kind a nutso you are, but you better get out of here right now.”
“Come on, you gotta listen-”
“Out!”
The pineapple hit Eric in the middle of his forehead and he almost fell down. When he recovered Wolfe was holding another fruit and ready to strike again.
Eric was considering a quick escape, but Wolfe`s eyelids fluttered shut and the pineapple fell from his hand. He was asleep before the fruit hit the floor.
“How are we doing here?” A young nurse waltzed into the room. “How long have we been sleeping?”
“He just dozed off." Eric stated. "And why do you people always say "we"?”
“It’s part of the customer service.”
“Is it normal to just nod off like that?”
“Sure, he’s been doing that all day. When a body’s been inactive for months it takes time for the body and the brain to reboot. It takes few days before his mind starts working normally, right now everything’s in there in his head, but he can’t process everything correctly. Especially short-term memory can take some time to come back, but it will, don’t worry. He’ll recover.”
“What do mean about memory? He met me a while ago, before the whole shooting, and he remembered me after he had some time to think about it, but he could remember meeting me some time ago.”
“You mean just before the shooting?”
“I mean…” Eric decided to agree. “Yeah, just before.”
“It happens, the short-term memory is usually the last one to return. His uncle was here earlier and went to get a cup of coffee, he was gone for maybe ten minutes. When the uncle got back he couldn’t remember that he had even been here before.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, he though his uncle had just come here, when in reality he had been here for hours.”
“How long will that last?”
“Mental functions usually return to normal in few days.”
“That’s…” A grin spread on Eric’s face. “… very interesting.”
Chapter 12