Choices 4C/?, CSI Miami, Calleigh/Natalia, NC-17
Title: Choices 4C/?
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 read 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.
Getting in the open passenger door, Calleigh winced a bit as her ribs protested all of the movements that they had been doing. “Do we need to make any stops on the way back to our house?”
Cerano leaned against the doorframe of the SUV looking at the blonde. “Depends on how your ribs feel....” She looked at the hand holding Calleigh’s ribs.
“I'm good for a while longer. The pain isn't roaring yet; just getting my attention. Let's go.”
Cerano shut the door behind her, climbing into the driver’s side starting the engine quietly; she shifted in her seat moving the shoulder harness to pull on her seatbelt. She reached up and flipped down Calleigh’s visor so the sun wouldn't be in her eyes. Fractured ribs were a bitch on your weight transfer. She was quiet the entire drive to her side of town.
Calleigh quietly thanked her for the visor, but for the rest of the ride was silent, just looking at the scenery that flew by them on the road. Quietly looking around, she noticed all the CD's on the visor, and tried to read the labels. The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, T Pain, Kanye West, 311 and some band named Fall Out Boy were most of the names she could read, there were several others she couldn't. Looking under the dash, she saw not only a police scanner, but a radar jammer. Smiling her approval, she realized that this woman was prepared for almost anything.
Finally after a twenty minute drive, Cerano pulled the Rover behind a tall three story red brick warehouse, which took up about half a of a city block. The bottom floor looked to be an auto garage, since the entire south face wall had eight rolling doors that were thrown open to the early afternoon Miami weather.
Inside the doors was a mechanic’s wet dream, snap on tools, car lifts, even a rim-fitting machine, plus a paint box that was specially designed for painting cars. The walls of the garage were covered in posters of bands, women, and car parts.
Cerano got out of the SUV, and walked around to help Calleigh out of the vehicle, thankfully she loved lowered SUV’s or that would of been impossible for the blonde.
Three of the eight lifts were occupied with cars, a 1971 Charger RT, a 1967 Mustang, which had seen better days, and a beach dune buggy that was currently missing tires.
Whistling softly, Calleigh walked around the Charger, careful not to touch the paint job. It looked like the original paint; Sunburn Orange with a Black Stripe, and a RT hood. “What’s underneath the hood?”
Cerano smiled affectionately patting the burnt orange paint lovingly. “She’s got a 440 Six-Pack.” She looked under the chassis to see if any improvements had been made since she’d been away the last few hours.
“Nice, I’m impressed.”
New air filter, and the brakes were in the process of being replaced. She leaned back, looking at the blonde carefully. “Birthday gift from my brother last year.”
Walking towards the Mustang, Calleigh couldn’t help running her hand over the cracked paint, and dented metal. Muttering to the car, “Hello baby. it’s looks like you’ve seen better days. Well, it looks like that you’ll be put back in shape soon.”
Turning back to the woman that was leaning against the Charger, she explained. “My dad bought me one of these for my first car, but one night he wrecked it. My dad has a slight drinking problem.”
Cerano walked around behind the Mustang, she patted the fender lovingly as well, and an almost motherly expression as her calloused hands ran over the rusted metal and peeling paint. She was crap at this emotional stuff; her parents were gone, she had her brother, but they weren’t very emotional towards one another, more like a team against the world. She reached behind the car, and pulled out a rolling chair, and slid it across the floor to Calleigh. “Everybody has their fight.”
Carefully sitting down, Calleigh agreed. “Yeah, but they shouldn’t draw other people into it.” Shaking her head, as she didn’t want to get on that subject, she motioned around the room. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”
“Jordan-” Cerano halted at her brother’s name, wondering where he was. She checked her watch, a matte black Oceanus dive watch that read one thirty. He’d probably been trying to call her on the cell phone that no longer existed, oh well. “My brother loves to restore old buildings.”
“Well, it’s evident that he’s very good at it. Does he do it professionally or just as a hobby?”
“My brother doesn’t do anything unless it’s a hobby.... You’ve got to be thirsty.” Cerano waited to see if Calleigh needed help standing up from the chair, she held out a hand hesitantly.
Looking at the hand, Calleigh choose to take what was being offered, and stood up with the help. “I would love a beer. Natalia is quitting for a while, and I find that I miss a good beer every once in a while.”
“You came to the right place then...” she motioned to the freight elevator they’d refurbished when facing the problem of renovating the next two stories. She leaned down lifting the gate open and held it up for Calleigh to go ahead.
“Cool.” Calleigh could tell that Cerano was trying to be as friendly as she could, and realized that it was probably not the easiest thing for her to do. She made up her mind to cut a bit of slack; not much, but enough to maybe earn her trust.
Cerano watched the blonde out of the corner of her sunglasses for a moment before taking, then off hanging them on her collar. She pushed the button for the living quarter’s level, the second story. She crossed her arms. There was a cop, in her home. Never in a million years would she have thought this possible. ‘Goes to show you though.’ she thought bitterly.
Once the door opened, Calleigh looked into a wide-open space. The large ceilings easily topped twelve feet at least, there was a large galley kitchen, any chef would be jealous of done in industrial steel and natural wood accents. The large piece of weathered oak that separated the kitchen from the enormous game room like space that was big enough for a pool table, three large leather couches, four matching recliner like chairs. On section of bare wall that wasn’t open, vertical opening style windows reminiscent of the industrial era, were six flat screen TV’s. Massive black and white photos adorned the walls in between each window down the line. At the very end of the massive room, there were two doors, both bulleted steel to match the kitchen and overall rough theme of the room.
Taking a step out of the elevator, Calleigh moved slowly around the room. “Is this an original Ansel Adams?”
Cerano nodded, walking out of the elevator, she glanced at the large black and white photograph of the twisted tree over the large boulders. It was how she felt sometimes, horribly twisted, and disfigured, but in the right light, maybe she was beautiful on some tragic level. She took the holster off, and set it on the large white oak island in the middle of the kitchen, then she walked towards the refrigerator.
Joining her, Calleigh exclaimed. “Natalia would kill for a kitchen like this. She says that cooking relaxes her, and she is an excellent chef. She said that her mother would spend hours in the kitchen, teaching her all sorts of recipes from scratch.”
Cerano gave a hard pull on the massive sub zero monster, looked in, and pulled out one bottle of Shinerbock, then she shut the fridge. She turned around, put her elbow on the bottle top, twisted her elbow out, popping the top off, then handed it to Calleigh before pulling out a barstool for her. She herself turned on the water, leaned down, and scooped two steel water bowls off the floor, holding them under stream of water now pouring into the sink.
"I remember, in flashes sometimes, what our kitchen used to looked like." She sighed, not really wanting to go into specifics. Jordan was her brother, it wasn't just her story to tell. She'd doubt he'd have a problem with it, but he'd at least want to tell them with her to fill in the blanks she was missing. They were sometimes like a cohesive stream of consciousness together.
Calleigh watched what the woman was doing with a puzzled look on her face, before she realized that she was staring, and took a long draw on the beer.
Suddenly several loud barks, and the scatter of animal nails on wood came bounding down the long room, out of one of the open steel doors that was probably a bedroom. Two large pit bulls slid to a halt, half way past the kitchen, with large traditional grins on their faces for their breed. One of the animals was blue gray, half its face was white with one eye blue while the other was black. The other animal was red with an entire white head; one ear was red though, and both eyes were yellow, Both of the animals had their ears clipped traditional for their breed as well. “Adonis! Echo!” Cerano smiled putting both the bowls on the floor, opening her arms.
Both dogs succeeded in knocking her back into the cabinets, and slobbering all over her while she hugged them roughly, pushing them back playfully, at the same time.
Calleigh almost laughed at the childlike expression on the woman’s face. Clearly, she adored her pets, and that one trait moved Cerano up on Calleigh’s list.
“Alright! ALL RIGHT!” She pushed them back, using their big blunt leather spike adorned collars to move their massive weights. “God, I leave for twenty four hours, and you act like I haven’t been here in months.” She climbed to her feet, opening up a large trashcan full of dog food.
“I take it that these two are your babies?”
She scooped out two large helpings into two more steel bowls she produced out of the cabinet and onto the floor. “My entire world. Dogs don’t need a reason to love you other than to know you’re theirs.” She put the lid back on can, and leaned against the countertop watching Calleigh drink her beer.
Taking another draw of her beer, Calleigh swallowed before asking. “What is it that you need to take to the house, other than a change of clothes, and possibly a new phone?”
“I need some steel.” She patted her hands on the countertop, trying to ignore Adonis spraying water all over the floor by sloshing his bowl around.
“I’m assuming that you are referring to knives.”
Cerano let loose a deep belly laugh, laying her forehead in her hands, looking towards her pistol on the table she nodded. “No sugar, I’m going to chalk that up to a blonde moment…” Wiping a tear from her eye. “Though my brother does collect that kind of steel, I prefer the loud kind.”
Calleigh almost snorted beer though her nose. “Ah, my kind of woman. Well, you are certainly moving up on my list. Any woman that prefers guns to knives is a friend of mine.”
She opened up a drawer in the island, and pulled out another Blackberry Nextel, turned it on and uploaded all her contacts via internet. Once she had them, she looked at the dogs, making sure they didn’t make too big of a mess on the floor.
“Don’t me wrong, I respect the power of a small sharp blade....” She pointed to her neck for emphasis. “But I don’t play games, tough bitches get fucked up, and put on ice for their rest of their lives.” She finished pushing away from the counter, grabbed a towel before dropping on the floor to clean up all the water while Echo leaned her head against Calleigh’s thigh, drooling all over her slacks.
“Hey sweetheart. I take it that you were really thirsty. Sorry about that. Didn’t know that I was taking your mommy away from you.” Calleigh scratched the dog between its ears.
“Isn’t that right Adonis?!” The red pit jumped to his feet, growling playfully, his seventy-pound frame was perfectly tense. “Come on boy, let’s go get some clothes, huh?” She looked back at the blonde. “Echo, STAY.” The blue pit leaned against Calleigh harder, and whined. Cerano rolled her eyes.
Still scratching the dog, Calleigh said. “Sorry Echo.”
Cerano walked out of the kitchen, heading towards the door to her bedroom at the other end of the large room. She stretched her arms over her head, letting the muscles relax for a little while, she pushed her door open, disappearing into the room.
Calleigh looked around the kitchen trying to dissect more about the closely guarded woman with such a horrific past. She noticed several pictures on the counter a few feet away. Carefully getting off the barstool, she made her way over to get a closer look.
One obviously was a picture of her parents wedding day with family members surround the happy couple. It looked like a typical large family wedding, with many on both sides. She could that Cerano looked like her mother, but with her father’s eyes. She was about to go to the next photo when a woman on the far side of the picture caught her attention. Except for the hair color, she was twin of Natalia. Frowning, she filed that information away, and moved on.
The next photo was in a bronze frame was of two toddlers, wearing little coveralls. Both children were adorable, not to mention covered in grease. Cerano had her messy hair in a ponytail while her brother was a messy of unruly black tufts. They were starting up at the engine above them, sucking apple juice boxes.
The third photo was a picture of same two children, though much younger, maybe only two and a half, holding a large Cuban cigar between their four little hands. However their faces were turned up in perfect rapture at the male figure, whose feet they were currently sitting on. The man was laughing in the picture, a large open smile, his eyes twinkling as he looked down at his children. He had a lit cigar in his mouth and a glass of liquor in his right hand.
The final photo was encased in a gold orange frame, both of the twins were probably six, this must have been taken right before the parents were killed. They were curled around a beautiful dark haired woman that looked very similar to the other woman in the first photo.
Calleigh was lost in thought as she made her way back over to the bar stool, thinking back to what little she actually knew about her wife’s family. She knew that her mother had died when Natalia was in her mid-twenty’s, so that would have made her about the right age for the woman in the picture. Seriously, though, what are the odds that Cerano and Natalia were from the same family? A million to one? Closing her eyes briefly, Calleigh mentally went through their bedroom closet, trying to remember if there was a family album anywhere. She still had her eyes closed when Cerano came back out.
Cerano stared at Calleigh, she was either zoning out, or deep in thought, she quietly set the black gym bag on the floor reaching into the cabinet to pull out a bottle of water to drink leaning back against the counter.
Cerano was hesitant about showing Calleigh her personal vault, there were many things in that vault that were illegal, and not all of them were weapons.
“So that’s all you’re taking? Where’s your steel?”
Cerano simply lifted her hand, and pointed up with a lone index finger to the third story. She walked towards the elevator, opening the doors up for Calleigh, and throwing the duffel bag in.
Following the young woman, Calleigh had the feeling that she was about to enter a place that few people had been allowed to go. Swallowing hard, she told herself that there was nothing there that would get their young savior in trouble. She would ignore whatever she had to ignore to keep her wife safe.
Cerano shut the door with a snap, she leaned over, and pushed the button for the top floor. When they finally reached the floor, Cerano leaned down once again to open the gate. The entire third floor was a gym. There were training mats, punching bags on pulleys that slid down the ceiling, massive windows letting in light. The two parallel walls with windows had different vintage swords, and weapons hanging on the wall in displays. The far wall however, was painted jet black with red words painted across the ceiling “I’m a stitch away from making it, and a scar away from falling apart”, below it were two brass doors that resembled vault doors. The gym smelled of coppery tint of blood, and sweat; everything a gym should be, the speed bags moved in the breeze.
Calleigh kept silent as she walked through the room. Cerano was a multi-faceted woman, and she was interested in finding out more about her, and her family.
Cerano dropped the duffel bag on the floor by the elevator, lovingly looking around the room. Hell had a room, and it was this one, ‘Punish yourself to punish others’, was her philosophy. She turned to look at Calleigh’s expression, satisfied at the look of awe on the blonde’s face, she walked over to the set of brass doors.
One wall was dedicated entirely to pistols; Sig Sauers, Smith and Wesson’s, while another wall was dedicated to both automatic and single bolt rifles. A few pairs of brass knuckles were laying on one of the steel benches, next to three bongs and several containers of what looked to be exotic strands of marijuana, Cerano stepped in front of that section and casually draped a sheet over that section of the bench.
She grabbed small sawed off shotgun, and two of the Sig Sauer pistols that were matte black, except for silver inlaid handles. She grabbed enough ammo for both, pushing them into the bag. She then leaned over, and pulled out three brass knuckles, slipping them quietly into the bag.
“Nice collection. I have a few of these at home. I do believe that I may have a few things that you could use however. You can check them out when we get there.”
Cerano nodded, she had a bigger collection at her private home in Vancouver, she doubted though that Calleigh or Natalia would ever see it though. While her brother had been there, he had his own personal home on Lake Como in Italy that was used in the ending scene of “Casino Royale.”
“Ok then, is that it? I hate to cut the visit short, but the ribs are really starting to protest, and the meds are at home.” Calleigh stated, sweat beginning to show on her forehead.
Cerano picked up the bag and slung it over her shoulder, she then jogged to the end of the room and picked up the other duffel bag, and she slung it over her other shoulder in the same way. Walking back to Calleigh, she took a moment to size her personal weight before simply scooping her up in her arms, carrying her as she would a small child, since she weighed little compared to the weights Cerano normally lifted.
“Hey, you don’t have to do this. I can walk perfectly fine on my own two feet.”
Gruffly Cerano agreed, but amended. “You’re right, but your wife will have my ass if you arrive home in worse shape than you left it in, and I don’t mess with Italian women.”
Calleigh turned her head to look into Cerano’s eyes. “Natalia isn’t Italian, she Puerto Rican. Or at least that is what she’s told me.”
“No Puerto Rican woman speaks old Italian Proverbs.” Was all she murmured back keeping her arms around the blonde, she carried her into the elevator, still refusing to set her down she pushed the button for the bottom floor and waited patiently.
“Maybe she’s part Italian then? I don’t know, but her father is Puerto Rican for sure.”
Cerano shrugged easily even though she was carrying Calleigh, and two heavy duffel bags. When they arrived on the bottom floor, Cerano walked out towards the Range Rover, opening the door with spare fingers, she easily set Calleigh in the passenger seat, and then slid the bags into the cargo area before settling herself in the driver’s seat.
After making sure that her passenger was as comfortable as she could be, Cerano started up the Rover, and headed for the DuVista home.
~*~
Natalia maneuvered the Crossfire expertly through traffic as Ryan had the good sense to sit there, and hold on to the door handle.
“So... that was a tense moment back there.” He gripped the door a little tighter every time Natalia barely missed clipping the car either next to them or in front of them.
“Really, I didn’t think so. Cerano seems to be a leveled headed woman, who knows exactly where she stands. I was just making sure she knew what was important, and she agreed.” Natalia replied as she passed a slow moving Corvette.
Ryan shot her a disbelieving look, there was no way she expected him to believe that. He’d seen the tension, and who couldn’t miss the knife in the doorframe? Ryan stayed quiet however and let his silence speak for itself.
After pulling into the departmental parking lot, and turning off the car, Natalia turned to Ryan. “We need to get our story straight. I don’t want your poker face to give us away, so you need to believe in everything that we’re going to say.”
Ryan opened his mouth to object but then swallowed it. She was right, he was a pretty bad liar, that’s why Eric always interviewed the witnesses. The thought of their AWOL friend brought him back to the present. “What are you going to say?”
Sighing, she closed her eyes for a moment to get her thoughts in order. “That Eric has confronted the both of us, and on one occasion, it came to violence. That we don’t want to file charges, but are taking action to find him, and to get him some help since he hasn’t been acting like himself for a while.”
Ryan’s eyes widened a little bit at not allowing Horatio further into the situation, but he understood their need to keep everything in control. “You lead, I’ll follow.”
They got out of the car, and headed inside making their first stop at Internal Affairs, where Natalia signed the required paper work that ended the investigation, and cleared her in the shooting. Then they went in search of Horatio.
Ryan tried not to let his emotions play across his face, laser vision was a trait Horatio could use at any time. No one was immune to the stare from those drilling eyes. Ryan turned to follow Natalia watching her to make sure she wasn’t approached by anyone from the lab since they were trying to find Lt Caine.
Turning the corner on the second floor near offices, they finally ran into the man himself.
“Ms. DuVista, I wasn’t really expecting to see you until much later the afternoon. How is Calleigh feeling?”
“She’s very sore, but otherwise completely fine. I know you weren’t expecting me Horatio, but I needed to sign some things.” Natalia tried to push down the shame she was starting to feel for the lie she knew she had to tell.
Tilting his head, he looked at the young woman standing in front of him, then at Ryan standing off to the side fidgeting. “What else can I help you with then?”
“Is there somewhere private we can talk?” Natalia glanced up, and down the hallway, then turned to look at Ryan, shooting him a warning glance to relax, lest he spoil the farce.
“Of course, let’s go into my office.” They took a few steps, and were soon comfortable seated on a leather sofa while Horatio leaned against this glass desk. “What can I help you with?”
Taking a deep breath, Natalia started. “Well, as you know Eric has had a very hard time reconciling that Calleigh and I are together, much less married, and he has started confronting us one on one. We are handling the situation, and do not want to bring up charges against him. We understand that he always hoped that he and Calleigh would be together, but is taking him longer than we hoped to adjust.”
Nodding his head, Horatio waited calmly for her to continue,
“Eric hasn’t been acting like himself for a bit, and we are worried that he might injure himself so we’ve got someone out looking for him, and are asking you to please let us handle this without bringing the legal system.”
Horatio looked at the young woman sitting across from him, wondering just how much she wasn’t telling him. He didn’t have to look at Mr. Wolfe to know that there was more going on, but he also knew that Natalia, and Calleigh wanted to handle things on their own, and would ask for his help at the proper time.
“You and Calleigh, do whatever you think is best. As you know, I’m always here for family, and I’m sure that Mr. Wolfe here will give good council when needed. I’ll have your back when needed.”
Horatio’s cell phone chirped, so he took the call, then quickly walked around to turn on the television to the afternoon news.
A local news channel WFOR-TV, CBS Miami station was broadcasting from the scene of the bank robbery. Natalia recognized Newscaster Erica Sykes, and pushed down a wave of revulsion. However, her revulsion turned into rage when they ran the video of Natalia’s image in the glass, holding a gun towards the assailant and Calleigh.
“How can they do that Horatio? That didn’t ask for my permission to use my image or anything.”
Sighing, all Horatio could say was. “The media thinks that all is fair when it comes to the news.”
Natalia sighed, even when Ryan put his hand on her back in comfort. Ryan didn’t know what else to do, everywhere they turned, there was another obstacle.
Horatio answer was drowned out by Sykes cupping a hand to her ear, and talking into the microphone. “We have someone on the line right now wanting to say something about what we are watching.” Moments later Eric’s unmistakable voice threaded over the television speakers. “It’s an outrage that things weren’t handled better. Where was SWAT? Where was a Hostage Negotiator?!”
Turning to Natalia, Horatio fixed her with a hard stare. “Are you sure that you want to handle this on your own? This may escalate faster than you think.”
“The person that we’ve contracted to help us is well versed in this kind of work. Horatio please, trust us.” Natalia pleaded openly, her hands clasped together. She had never asked Horatio for anything ever.
Silence filled the room for a few minutes, before Horatio answered. “ As you wish, call me if you need anything whatsoever. If possible, just keep me up to date and what’s going on.”
“We will,” Natalia stood up, and put a hand on Horatio’s shoulder for a moment, instinctively though she hugged him tight. He was such a good man and an even better police officer. Calleigh was more like Horatio than her own father.
With that, Ryan and Natalia left the office, and headed towards the car. Once there, Natalia handed Ryan the keys, silently asking him to drive. Getting into the passenger side, Natalia buckled up, then leaned against the door, and closed her eyes.
“Hey Ryan! Do you remember where my sister Cristine lives? Would you mind if we make a stop there for a little while?”
He shook his head as he looked around to get his bearings, changing lanes and headed towards their new destination. They were almost there when Natalia’s phone chirped. Looking at the caller id, she couldn’t help, but smile when she saw Calleigh DuVista.
“Hey baby.... Are you home?”
Her wife’s smooth Southern drawl calmed her frazzled nerves. “Yup, about five minutes away.... How did it go with Horatio?”
Rubbing her forehead with her free hand, Natalia replied. “Better than I had hoped, even though Eric almost messed everything up.”
“What do you mean? Was he there?”
Hurriedly she explained. “No, the news was showing clips of the robbery and he called in yelling about the lack of support from SWAT or a Hostage Negotiator. However, Horatio said that we can handle this ourselves and to call him when he is needed.”
Natalia heard her wife sigh. “We owe him so much already. We are never going to be able to pay him back.”
“I know.... Hey, we’re headed over to Cristine’s. I need an Izzy B hug. Will be home soon.”
“Are you alright darlin’? We can head over there to be with you if you want?”
Shaking her head, even though she knew that she couldn’t be seen. “No, I’m fine. Just wanted a kid hug. We will be home in about a half hour.”