DISCLAIMER: CSI Miami and its characters are the property of Jerry Bruckheimer and CBS. No infringement intended.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Questions
By sinjenkai
Part 10
Waking up in a strange room threw Calleigh off for a moment before she remembered where she was. With no outside noise, she couldn't orientate herself so she happily snuggled back into her wife's embrace.
Lying there, feeling very protected and loved, Calleigh thought about the day before. It had gone better than she had expected, as once Stetler saw all of the evidence against him; the fight had pretty much gone out of him. She didn't know why, but it didn't surprise her that he honestly thought he was doing his job correctly.
A gentle hand making small circles against her back brought Calleigh back to the present.
"Morning darlin'. How did you sleep?"
Placing a soft kiss on the forehead resting on her shoulder, Natalia replied.
"I slept great. I had a beautiful woman in my arms and in my dreams so I can't complain."
Rising up, Calleigh straddled Natalia's waist bringing a smile to her face at the sight of Calleigh's breasts. Following the curves of Natalia's arms. Calleigh found her hands and trapped them by her head.
"That better have been me in your dreams, because I don't share."
"Babe, you've been the only person in my dreams for quite awhile now so you don't have to worry."
Leaning down to nibble on the tender bronze neck, Calleigh murmured,
"Good to know. Now I do believe that there is something that I didn't get the chance to do yesterday."
"Really and what would that be?"
Sliding her hands down Natalia's arms to gently mold them to her breasts, teasing the quickly hardening nipples.
"Pay homage to your perfect body."
Lowering her head to take one nipple between her lips while rolling the other between her finger, Calleigh moaned as Natalia moved beneath her.
"Aw darlin', I love the way that you move beneath me."
Moving a bit to one side, Calleigh brought her other hand down the silky, smooth body, stopping repeatedly, tantalizing different spots.
"Your body speaks to me without using words, showing me exactly what you want, exactly what you need and crave."
Lightly scratching her nails to the underside of a breast, Calleigh chuckled as Natalia strained up against her.
"I never paid much attention to touch or sound until now, but I can feel your body vibrate as I caress you. As you get more aroused, tiny beads of sweat begin to form on your chest, like right now."
Bending her head slightly, Calleigh licked at the moisture that to Natalia, seemed to materialize just at Calleigh's suggestion.
"And your sighs, your moans are so sweet to my ears and when you make that tiny little gasp right before your release... that is what I yearn to hear."
Moving her hand lower, Calleigh teased the soft skin of Natalia's hip before lightly skimming over damp curls. Moving her body down so that she could reach the area that she had just been caressing, Calleigh whispered kisses and light licks across skin while Natalia writhed against her.
Murmuring Calleigh continued. "And your scent, your own unique perfume gives me a high that is so addicting, so intoxicating, that there are times I have to hold myself down. Like right now, all I want to do is to bury myself in you so deep that I can feel you surrounding me, pulsating and warm."
All this time, Calleigh was barely touching, barely making contact with the one spot that Natalia desired. She was blowing warm air against the wetness, making Natalia tremble and thrash about.
"Cal..leigh... Please touch me... Anything... Just let me..."
Moving between her wife's legs, Calleigh breathed.
"Oh God! And your taste! Your taste is like honey on my tongue. There is nothing sweeter than your essence... it's like a life-giving force that I can't live without."
"Damn it Cal... I can't take much more... Let me..."
Reaching out with a slender finger, Calleigh gently flicked the tiny, pulsating nub saying, "Let go darlin'. I'll catch you."
Surging up, Natalia fisted the sheets so hard that they tore and let loose a guttural moan that seemed to come from the bottom of her soul. Waves upon waves rolled through her, sending shocks throughout her body that seemed to go on forever. Another gentle swipe of the nub sent her body arching high off the bed, screaming Calleigh's name.
Calleigh made her way up Natalia's damp body to hold her in her embrace, but as soon as she got within reach, Natalia pulled her on top of her and while holding Calleigh's body close, rolled them until she was straddling one of Calleigh's thighs. Rising up slightly so that she could slide against the taunt muscle, Natalia's damp hair hung down her face like a heavy curtain.
Calleigh's own breath was coming hard and heavy as she imagined what her love looked like. Her own center begged for release, but she wanted to savor the feeling, savor the experience of just loving Natalia. With one hand on Natalia's hip, Calleigh raised the other hand to her face, moving the hair out of her way and gasped as Natalia turned her head so that she could suck on Calleigh's fingers.
"Fuck it..."
Pulling her fingers out of the warmth and the sliding the other hand into even warmer moisture, Calleigh dropped her thigh and pulled Natalia down for a hard, hungry kiss. Tongues fenced with each other as breaths came out faster and harder. Thrusting and twisting, Calleigh brought Natalia to new heights while swallowing the moans that reverberated with the orgasms.
Pushing herself up to kneel on her hands and knees, Natalia pressed back against Calleigh's hand with a cry, a final release exploded and she collapsed.
The room was heavy with sighs and gasping of breaths until slowly a light silence prevailed.
Lying within Calleigh's embrace, Natalia whispered. "That was... I don't have words... You did however... You had all the words to show me how much I'm loved, how much I'm wanted."
"Darlin', I more than love and want you, I need you in my life. I would be lost without you. I don't ever want to go back to what my life used to be."
Brushing away the tears that were threatening to fall, Natalia caressed Calleigh's face with a gentle touch.
"Calleigh, there's nothing more that I want than to spend the rest of my life with you, just like this, feeling loved and happy. I don't want to go back to how my life used to be either. This is where I belong, where we belong, with each other."
Rising up to kiss her wife, Natalia put every ounce of love that she had into the kiss and by the way that Calleigh returned it - she knew all that she needed to know.
They lay in each other's arms for a few more moments before Natalia glanced at her watch.
"Damn, we've got to get going. We have just enough time to shower, get you home and me to change clothes before I have to get to work. Eric is going to be at the convention center for the symposium so I'll probably have to go out in the field."
"Why don't you go ahead and take a shower while I call up and take care of the room. I can shower at home, then when you're finished we can leave."
Giving Calleigh a quick kiss before she got up, Natalia agreed to what Calleigh suggested and handed her the phone.
Listening to the shower start as she waited for the front desk to answer the phone, Calleigh smiled as she listened to her wife humming.
"Yes... Hi... This is Ms. DuV... Duquesne in Bungalow Four. I would like to go ahead a check out now... Yes, I believe that you have my card on file... And if you could please have Ms. Boa Vista's car brought around to the side entrance in ten minutes that would be great... Thank you very much."
Hanging up the phone, Calleigh carefully made her way to the bathroom just as Natalia was getting out of the shower.
"The car will be waiting for us at the side entrance in ten minutes. Did they bring back the clothes that we wore yesterday?"
"Yeah, they're right here."
They spent the next few minutes getting dressed, then headed home. On the way, Natalia remember something that had happened the day before.
"I forgot to tell you... Ryan knows about us."
Calleigh's head whipped in her direction. "How!? When did he find out?"
"He walked back into the back yard and saw us kissing after he led Stetler away. He said not to worry, that he's not going to tell anyone and that if we need anything, just to let him know."
A look of realization flitted across Calleigh's face.
"Ah, that's why he said that we could count on him. Well, I think that it's good that he knows. Now all we have to worry about is telling Eric."
As soon as they got home, Calleigh sat on the sofa while Natalia rushed into the bedroom to change clothes for work. When she came back out, she went over to kneel in front of her wife.
"I'm sorry that I'm rushing off like this. I really want to just stay home with you and continue what we started this morning."
"Don't worry about it darlin'. I'll be here when you get home. You have a good day, and be careful."
Giving Calleigh a kiss that Natalia felt was way too short, she left for work. It wasn't long before, she was standing in her lab coat and looking through the requests for sample results and was soon engrossed in her work.
When she looked up later on, she was surprised to see that it was almost lunchtime and she hadn't even called Calleigh once. Looking for her cell phone, she realized that she had left it in her car so she used one in the lab.
"Hey babe... What are you doing?.. No, just wanted to check in... What would you like for dinner?.. I was thinking about paella... Good, I'll pick up the seafood on the way home...Ok, I love you."
Hanging up the phone, Natalia decided to call Alexx to see if she wanted to get some lunch. She did, and they arranged to meet out by Natalia's car in ten minutes.
By the time Natalia got out to her car, she found Alexx leaning against it, enjoying the sun.
"Hiya Alexx, ready to get something to eat?"
"You have no idea. I was running late this morning, trying to get that boy of mine off to school."
"Trust me, I understand about the running late part."
Natalia unlocked the doors and they got into the car, but the first thing that Natalia did was to reach for her cell phone.
"Here it is. Hang on a sec and let me listen to my voice mail."
The first one was from the day before from Horatio hoping that she and Calleigh were doing alright and the second was from Frank Tripp about a request that she had already completed that very morning. As she deleted that message, Natalia reached to turn on the car when she froze as the third message played.
Alexx looked over to her and gasped as all of the color left Natalia's face and she began to shake.
"My God!.. What's the matter Natalia?"
It was all that Natalia could do to hand her the phone before she opened the door to hang her head out and vomit. Alexx ran out of the car, and around to the driver's side before kneeling down. She rubbed Natalia's back as she replayed the message.
Screams from a female filled the speaker for almost a minute before a muffled voice broke through."This should be you."
Then the sound of something hitting hot metal was heard and the screams began anew. "Soon it will be."
And there the message ended.
Immediately, Alexx reached into her purse, found her phone and called Horatio to come out to the parking lot as soon as possible. Reaching back into her purse, she found a couple of handi-wipes and helped Natalia clean up. Leading her over to a nearby bench, they sat down as Horatio ran up.
"Alexx...What's the matter?" She just handed him the phone and told him to listen.
After listening to the message, Horatio knelt beside Natalia and in his soothing voice, tried to reassure her.
"Don't worry. We'll get to the bottom of this. Now, have you talked with Calleigh recently?" Natalia's head shot up as she reached for her phone.
"Oh my God! I need to call her."
Horatio took the phone back out of her hands while speaking to her softly. "No, why don't you let me? I don't think that you are in any condition to speak normally with her and she'll know something is wrong."
Running her hands through her hair, Natalia agreed.
"You're right... I don't want her to know about this just yet... She'll feel really helpless if she thinks that she can't protect me."
Horatio stood up and walked away from the two women and made the phone call. He chatted with his CSI for a few minutes before he hung up.
"She's fine. She says that she's getting hooked on the soap operas and lying around on the sofa." He knelt back down beside the still pale woman.
"Let's go back inside and see if we can trace this call."
It took less than an hour to decide that the call had probably been made from a pre-paid phone and that there was no way that they would be able to trace it, unless the person called again.
"I wish that I could recognize the voice. It doesn't sound familiar to me at all." Natalia laid her head down on a desk atop of her crossed arms.
"I can't even bear to think what that woman is going through." Horatio quietly replied. "I know that it is going to be close to impossible, but here's what I want you to do. As much as I would love to send you home, I need you here. Go back to the lab and act as normally as possible. If you have to go out into the field, you will have another officer with you at all times and I'll make sure that someone is watching your house around the clock."
Taking a deep breath and sitting up straight, Natalia answered.
"As long as I can keep busy, I'll be ok, but I want you to promise me one thing Horatio: I need to be involved in this. I can't be in the lab, working on another case when you find this woman. For some reason, this guy wants me, and I'll be damned if I going to hide. Calleigh wouldn't, and neither will I."
"You're right, Calleigh wouldn't, but she would if you asked her to. Would you do the same?"
Natalia was in the process of getting off the stool when Horatio's question stopped her. She slowly turned her head to look at him briefly before looking away.
"I don't know Horatio. I can't answer that question right now."
Placing his hand on her shoulder, Horatio gently led her out of the office and escorted her to her lab.
"If you have to leave the building, let me know, we'll also need to make sure that someone follows you from home to work in the mornings."
"Ok, I will." Natalia promised.
The rest of the day dragged by for Natalia, as it seemed like every test that she performed, took hours to produce results. The only bright spot was when Calleigh called to say that she just wanted to hear her voice, and not to worry about fixing dinner. They could just have some leftover onion soup and that would give them more time to just cuddle.
When her shift finally ended, Natalia called Horatio to let him know that she was on her way home. He told her that there was a squad car outside waiting to follow her and that someone would be outside their home at night watching. They then arranged for Natalia to leave for work the next morning at a certain time so that another officer could follow her to work.
As long as the day was, the ride home was twice as short as Natalia couldn't figure out how to keep this from Calleigh. She knew that they had promised to not keep any more secrets, but she also knew that Calleigh would feel helpless if she couldn't protect her.
After pulling the car into the garage and closing the door, Natalia sat there for a moment to calm her thoughts and get her emotions in check. Getting out of the car, she opened the kitchen door and found Calleigh standing there, leaning against a counter, holding a glass of wine out to her.
"Thought that you might need this. When I talked with you, it sounded like you were having a bad day." Natalia gently took the glass out of Calleigh's hand, but instead of drinking it, she placed it on the counter and pulled her wife into her embrace.
"I need this more."
Calleigh was worried when she felt Natalia shaking slightly, but she said nothing, she knew that Natalia would eventually tell her what was wrong.
A few minutes later, once Natalia had calmed down a bit, she slowly loosened her hold on her wife just enough to give her a kiss before releasing her. Only then, did she pick up the glass of wine and took a sip.
"Thank you. You were right. It was a bad day."
"It's ok darlin', I've had quite a few of those. You wanna sit out on the patio for a bit to relax?"
They made their way out onto the patio where Natalia discovered that Calleigh had set up the table with fresh vegetables, sandwich meats, cheese, bread and condiments. Hurricane lamps cast a gentle glow around the pool and soft jazz floated on the breeze.
"Aw babe, you didn't have to do all of this."
Reaching out to draw her wife into her embrace, Calleigh leaned her head on Natalia's chest.
"I know that I didn't, but I wanted to. I enjoy taking care of you and this is the one of the ways that I can do it right now."
Drawing in a deep breath, Natalia closed her eyes to stop the sudden tears from falling. Giving Calleigh another hug, she pulled away asking.
"So, what kind of sandwich would you like?"
The rest of the evening was spent with easy food and conversation. Calleigh had Natalia laughing over the soap operas that she was listening to and when they finally decided to go inside, the patio was dark save for the glow of the lanterns. They cleaned up the dishes, blew out the lanterns and put away the leftovers before making their way into the bathroom to shower.
Taking off their clothes, they got into the shower where Calleigh found the perfect water temperature and had Natalia stand under the water to soak her hair. Pouring shampoo in her hand, Calleigh worked up a lather, then began to work it through the caramel colored hair, massaging the scalp until she was satisfied, then had Natalia rinse the soap out. After finishing that, Calleigh grabbed the liquid soap, a body sponge, and started bathing the beautiful body standing in front of her. In her mind's eye, she saw each inch of the skin she bathed, each curve, and each valley that she touched. And as much as she wanted to take this further, Calleigh knew that Natalia didn't need that at that moment.
When she had finished rinsing Natalia's body, Calleigh quickly bathed herself and turned off the water. Stepping out, she grabbed a body sheet and proceeded to dry off her wife before asking her to sit down so that she could brush out her hair. When she was finished, Calleigh brought Natalia her nightclothes and helped her dress. After drying herself off and getting ready for bed, Calleigh started to lead Natalia to the bedroom when she was stopped.
"We need to put in your eye drops, babe." They put in the drops and then got into bed. Calleigh opened her arms, asking her wife to lay within her arms, but instead, Natalia asked if she could hold her.
"Anytime darlin'. You never have to ask."
Turning off the lights, Natalia drew Calleigh into her embrace and sighed contently. Soon Calleigh's gentle snores filled the room as Natalia laid there trying to get to sleep, but all she could hear were the woman's screams. When she closed her eyes, she could have sworn that she heard, "This should be you." And as much as she wanted to bolt out of bed and go out to swim laps, Natalia was loathe to leave Calleigh, so she just laid there for the rest of the night.