Fic: Watcher, Chapter 2 (CSI Miami, Eric Delko / Ryan Wolfe)
Title: Watcher, Chapter 2
Pairing: Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko (eventually)
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
CSI Miami Main List
Chapter 1
Eric was too focused on his jaw cracking yawn to listen to Calleigh`s monologue as she circled around the body laying on the floor.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just had a long nigh.”
“I see.”
“Not the fun kind.” Eric yawned again and tried to focus on the scene. “Have you ever had problems with your neighbours?”
“That’s like asking if you’ve ever had to go grocery shopping. Everyone has had problems with neighbours. Couple years ago there was this newly wed couple living next door. They kept fighting every single day, and then made up. Really loudly. I don’t know which part of it was worse.”
“How did it end?”
“Remember the man found in park near my apartment? The one who was stabbed seventy-nine times?”
“Yeah.”
“That was the newly wed husband. Three months after the wedding they moved on from passion to a crime of passion.”
“I never figured out what the criteria for that is…”
“I guess it means jealousy or rage against someone you feel passionately about.”
“I kinda get that. There’s been some people, who make me wonder if I wanna screw them against the wall or punch them through the wall.”
As if to his proove his statement right, Wolfe marched in carrying his kit.
“Morning.”
“You too?” Calleigh grinned and took a better look at him. “You got problems with neighbours too?”
Eric send Wolfe a quick glare. The man’s short hair was sticking to every single direction and his shirt was slightly rumpled. He looked like he’d had a long night in the best sense of the phrase. Eric looked down and made a spectacle of opening his kit and searching for his camera. Wolfe looked just the way he had looked an hour before, when he had left Taylor’s apartment.
The show that morning had almost ruined Eric’s breakfast. Wolfe and Taylor crawling out of bed and heading for a joint shower had almost made him choke on his coffee. His neighbour seemed to have very few, if any, inhibitions, but he never would have imagined Wolfe as the type to attend a raunchy all-nighter with a willing man. To be more accurate, he had never even imagined Wolfe would be into men.
“Delko, are you okay? You look like a sleepwalker.”
The familiar urge to punch someone through the wall was definitely coming back and quickly…
“This is funny.” Calleigh observed. “Usually Eric’s the one who looks like he just got out of bed.”
“Whose bed?” Wolfe grinned and snapped his gloves on. “It`s always good to be thorough.”
“I should ask you that. Hot date?”
“Not really.”
“Just sex?”
“Are you fishing for information?”
“How often do you have anything to tell about your social life that doesn’t include a new brand of cleaning detergent?” Eric kept his face tilted down and continued to rummage his kit. He wasn’t sure if his face would play along.
“Maybe it’s a new idea for you, but try to concentrate on the job.”
“I don’t need to be told to do my job.”
“Then you should take a step back, you’re standing on the corpses fingers.”
Eric leaped to the side and almost fell face down on the floor. Wolfe started laughing while Calleigh did her best to keep a straight face.
“Just a joke, Delko.”
“I like you so much better when you’re a creepy control freak, who can’t get laid.”
“Maybe you should take your own advice.”
“What advice?”
“When I was cleaning my locker you said: Go and get laid, maybe you wouldn’t be so uptight.” Ryan gave him a crooked smirk. “I think it might work on your lack of sleep too.”
Wolfe turned to greet Alexx, who had just walked in with her minions in tow. Eric gave her a little nod and went to talk to Calleigh.
“I’ll go check the outside. I need some air.”
“They already checked the yard.”
“Then I’ll make sure they didn’t stomp on the vic`s lawn.” Eric marched out of the house and headed to the small backyard. He found a calm refuge in the cool shadows of the large bushes. There was still hours to go before midday, but the sun was already bringing up the temperature to the edge of unbearable. Eric’s shirt was clued against his skin by sweat. He lifted his hand to wipe the river running down his forehead and lifted his head to face the warm blaze. He closed his eyes, enjoying the burning embrace.
The sounds coming from the house were faint but audible. Calleigh and Wolfe were talking to the MEs, throwing around casual comments about the room and the body. The show Eric had witnessed during the night hadn’t had a soundtrack, thanks to two closed windows between them. Eric knew what Wolfe’s speaking voice was like, but he couldn’t imagine what he would sound like in bed. Especially while he’s pounding the new neighbour into the mattress, his imagination added helpfully.
He tried to imagine the sounds he would make, but failed miserable. Taylor was even harder. Eric didn’t know what he sounded like, but his imagination provided a voice that sounded like a mixture of a sergeant running manoeuvres and a seventies porn star with handlebar moustache.
Eric turned and reached up so he could see through the small window into the living room. Alexx was still examining the body and Wolfe had crouched down next to him, nodding his head enthusiastically. He had shed his jacket and sweat had formed a dark spot on the back of his orange T-shirt, making the muscles and spine stand out under it.
“Great. Just awesome…” Eric sat down on the ground with his back against the wall. Couple weeks ago he had felt like a pervert for watching his neighbour. Now he felt like the king of all perverts, who spies on people having sex, and couldn’t act normally around Wolfe. He had been at the scene for less then fifteen minutes, and the images from the previous night kept playing in front of his eyes. He couldn’t look at Wolfe’s back without a flash of that same back, pale in the half-lit room as he pressed the other man against the mattress and-
“Eric?” Alexx`s voice derailed his thoughts. The ME stepped to the backyard and gave him a worried look. “How are you feeling?”
“Overheated.” Eric pulled knees up against his chest to cover the effect his line of though was causing.
“You’re sitting in the sun, you’re probably dehydrated.” She handed him a bottle of water. “Drink and get out of the sun. Are you dizzy?”
“No.”
“Disoriented?”
“Yep.”
“Find yourself a shadowy spot and drink some water. Cal and Ryan have everything under control.” She sent him one last worried glance and walked back into the house.
“Yeah, control…” Eric took a long gulp from the water bottle and pressed the cool bottle against his sweaty cheek. “Control would be nice.”
Interlude