Jacks makes some fantastic points.
When it comes right down to it, it might not be the best time in their relationship, but if there's one thing we know for sure from watching them, it's that they are solid. This is the real thing for both of them, and they love each other.
Agreed. I don't think Eric is going anywhere anytime soon; his devotion to her has been clear since mid-to-late season 5. Between then and when they got together in S7, that's two years that a sexy guy like Eric (
) could have been out playing the field, being with just about any girl he wanted. But he wasn't. Calleigh might've been confused ("
What do you want, Eric? You are going to have to tell me..."), but it's been clear to us that he's wanted nothing more than to be with her. He waited through the Jake thing. He was there by her side during SYG, All In, Wrecking Crew, and we all saw how he acted during the entirety of SGIYCSI. After they finally got together, well, we all know all of the super drama they've been through since then.
:lol: He might have walked away from CSI, but I don't think he ever had any intention of walking away from Calleigh, not after waiting so long and fighting so hard for her. :adore:
And Calleigh...
Eric lied to Calleigh, and they're working through that. We know that trust is huge to Calleigh, and the fact that she's willing to trust him still says a lot about how she feels about him.
This. I hate to compare ships (especially when I ship both of them :lol
, but there is one
huge thing that stands out to me concerning Calleigh/Eric and Calleigh/Jake. When Jake and Calleigh kept running into issues that stopped them from having dinner, Calleigh suggested that they look at it as a sign, that maybe it just wasn't supposed to happen. Well, there have been
tons of things like that between Eric and Calleigh (um, the fact that they both continue to nearly die comes to mind... :lol: ), and not once has she suggested they give up on each other. Oh, and remember Peter Elliot? He led her on, lied to her once and she was done, not gonna deal with him any longer. Hagen got under her skin once, and she was done with him. Eric, as
Jacks said, lied to her at least twice throughout seasons 7 and 8; he tried to do things on his own when they'd already agreed to do things together; he ran off to Puerto Rico without so much as a word to her; he investigated the team and wore a wire which undoubtedly upset her whether or not he was wearing it at home; oh, and he drove a car at her.
And then there's the fact that, unlike Jake or Hagen or Peter, Eric is a
direct coworker, and I don't think Calleigh would even start something with him unless she felt it was
real. My conclusion? Calleigh is just as
in this as Eric is.
So, yeah, it probably
isn't the best time for a baby, but I do not think it would cause anything negative for EC at all. Yeah, I think they would be terrified at first, and it might derail some plans a bit (I feel like Eric would want to put a ring on her finger before a baby in her belly
) but I don't think at all that a baby would cause Eric to run for the hills. He's a good person, he wasn't going to abandon Natalia when she had her pregnancy scare; he definitely isn't going to abandon the woman who was his best friend for 5+ years before he fell in love with her. The history there is just too strong. And Calleigh, as well as she has interacted with kids, I feel like there's probably a yearning there, despite her own negative experiences as a kid. My gut feeling is that Eric and Calleigh would make this work, absolutely.
My only reservation lies with the writers. I'm not entirely sure I would trust them to not 1) write a kidnapped baby storyline, 2) make it possible that the baby could be Jake's, 3) write a miscarriage, or 4) put a 7-8 month pregnant Calleigh in the midst of a shootout in which she loses the baby. Excellent angst storylines, but come on, no more of that. Honestly though, I was surprised they decided not to write it in - just because we've had a pregnant Lindsay on NY doesn't mean we've had a pregnant Calleigh on Miami, and seriously, the two are as different as night and day. I would have loved to see stubborn Calleigh being annoyed at being taken out of the field and spending most of her time in the lab at some point, and Eric amused at her stubbornness, but obviously relieved that she's
not out in the field with all the bad guys with guns.
I also think that a team scene with the EC baby would have been the most adorable thing ever - think JJ bringing her baby to the BAU for a little visit on Criminal Minds that time. That scene was
too cute, and I can imagine Ryan holding the baby while everybody coos and smiles and EC kind of stand back a bit, watching their "family" with their baby.
Also, maternity leave for Calleigh? Would have presented a chance for some of the other characters to shine in her absence.
Bottom line, I would have
loved to see Emily's pregnancy written in, just because I feel like there is
so much that could have been done with it, despite my own apprehension with the writers. True, it isn't the best time, but if there is any doubt, I think this could have been the perfect opportunity for Eric to go all in, so to speak. To declare that he's in this for good, that a family with Calleigh is what he wants, to prove that what they have is
more than just "we promised it wouldn't happen again, but it keeps happening, oops." It could have presented the writers with the opportunity to write a more careful Eric and Calleigh, an Eric and Calleigh who aren't at death's doorstep once every three or four episodes - it would have presented an opportunity to drop back on the EC angst and drama, and just let them proceed smoothly through a pregnancy together. Wouldn't have even been that hard to introduce it - just throw in a post-finale/premiere checkup for Cal and have her doctor discover it then; or even have Cal already know about it and let that be the first thing on her mind when she wakes up in the premiere. It definitely could have worked, given the right kind of writing.
So, sure, it's certainly not the
best time for a baby, what with lingering trust issues and grey areas in certain parts of their relationship (but those are areas that EC are committed to working through, I believe), but it would have definitely been a very possible direction to take their storyline. Babies happen quite often to couples who are
far less committed to each other and
far less mature than Eric and Calleigh are.
