Hello everyone!
So, my name's Rachel and this is my first fanfiction here! I hope you'll like this one since it's my fist time, hopefully it will be a good one and maybe, continuing to write, I'll improve.
Enjoy and if you'd like, comment what you think. :)
It was morning and Gillian Foster was lying on her bed, tired for not closing her eyes at all. In her head the images of what happend last night were playing frenetically as in a movie, a movie without a happy ending. She wanted desperately to yell for help, she wondered why this was happening to her, what she did so wrong for this, why that man chose her or Emily. She wanted so badly to run to his best friend and cry on his shoulder, as it has always been. She wanted so badly to tell him everything and let him help her, protect her, like he secretly did when she was upset. But this time she truly couldn't.
She caressed softly her bruises trying to give relief to her pain. She remembered what she saw on that man's face, she knew it wans't finished. She knew she had to think of something to do, she knew that she couldn't keep going like that, but she also didn't know what was right at the moment, what won't hurt anyone.
Suddenly her phone rang and brought her back to reality. She was happy at first when she looked at the name, but it dind't last so much. What could she tell him? A lie? He would have heard that something was wrong. She didn't know if answer, but then she thought that he'd keep calling her, so she responded.
"Hi." It was everything that came out of her mouth.
"Gill, luv, where are ya? You're late for work and you never are, is everythin' fine?"
"Yeah, yeah it is. Is just that...when I woke up this morning I wasn't felling very well so I...I decided to sleep some hours more." She did her best to sound credible, but you just can't lie to Cal Lightman.
"How are you feeling now?" He asked pretending to believe her.
"Better...I think I'll come to work soon." Actually she didn't plan to go at the Lightman Group, but it may distract her.
"As you want love, don't feel compelled to come. Rest if you need."
"No...there's...there's no problem.." Her voice was broke now. She really tried, but she couldn't stop the tears from falling and Cal, of course, noticed it.
"Gill, are you crying?" He was getting really worried. She just dried her tears with her free hand and tried to seem credible.
"I'm not, don't worry. I'm coming." She said and hung up before he could ask something else.
Gillian quickly got out of bed and run into the bathroom. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and fighted her tears to not fall down again. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and then had a shower. She put on her make-up, got dressed and reached her car outside her house. When she arrived at the building and opened the doors, she tried to act as normal as possible, but it didn't take much until she heard a voice behind her. It was Cal that has waited for her, for sure, all the time since they talked on the phone.
"Hey, love. I've missed you." She knew that he was just pretending not to be worried, to greet her as they always do to start the conversation.
"Nah, you didn't for real." She said accepting his 'joke', walking straight to her office, without facing him.
"What? I was completely lost without you." He replied following her in her office. They both laughed and in that moment he could finally look into her eyes. What he saw made him loose immediatly his smile. What he saw was something he hated on her, something that he would have done anything to make it go away. It was sorrow mixed with pain, it was so clear. He saw Gillian sad more than once, but this time it was different. He never saw this deep ache on her, her eyes that were reddish probally for crying. He also noticed that when she looked at him she felt something like guilty, but not for something she did. It was like if she was fighting with all her force not to tell him anything, to be unreadable. She looked down unable to stand his eyes still on her. He came closer and stroke gently her arm, as for telling her not to be worried about anything with him.
"You know that I'm here if you need, right, luv?" She nooded and damn, how much she would have liked to rush to him, to have somebdy that actually cared, telling him everything. But again, she couldn't. The consequences were just too dangerous.
He could still see how scared she was, he didn't know why, but she was, a lot. He didn't really care, even without a reason he felt the urge to hug her in comfort. At first she didn't returned it, but after some seconds she hugged him back tight. He wanted this moment to never end, but like all things, it had to. Out of the blue Torres came in the office.
"Dr. Lightman, Dr. Foster, we need you in the lab!"
"Knocking, is it outdated? You and Locker have the same vice." Said Cal. "Anyways, we'll be there in so..." He was about to tell her they were busy at the moment, he wanted to know what was happening to his best friend, but Gillian interrumped him.
"We'll be there in a minute." She didn't want to stay so long again with Cal. Usually she loved spending time with him, but that moment she couldn't stand it without doing a mistake. He noticed that she did it on purpose, but he decided it was okay for now. He would have talked to her later.
In the lab Gillian was so distracted, she couldn't focus on work and it was so odd for her. Usually she was the one recalling others for not paying attention, but now it seemed as if her body was there, but her mind was in a completely other planet. They only time she was really interested was when a girl who got abused was telling her story. Cal let Ria and Eli do the questions, since he wanted to observe Gillian and find out what was going on. His head titled to the side, scruting her features deeply. His eyes caught her touching her arm while the girl was talking about the violence she endured. This was making him going crazy.
When they were done, Gillian went to the bathroom. She took off her cardigan since it was pretty hot and looked at herself in the mirror. Her gloominess grew always more. What if that man was waiting for another round tonight? What if he wanted more this time? She was terrified at the thought.
Suddenly also Ria joined her.
"Oh, Foster, I didn't know you were in there..." Said Torres and Gillian quickly hide her left arm behind her. "I saw that you came late today, you okay?"
"Yes, everything's fine." She replied with the biggest fake smile ever, but her employee wasn't stupid.
"Oh God, Foster what have you done?" Asked Ria noticing the bruises.
"Nothing, just a tennis injury." She lied.
"It doesn't really seem like a tennis in..."
"But it is." Said Gillian putting her cardigan back on. "Now I have things to do." She finished leaving the room. Ria stood there puzzled for some seconds and then thught she had to talk to Lightman. Did he know all about that?
As she promised, she made her way to his boss's office.
"I need to talk to you!"
"Bloody hell Torres, is it really a problem for you to knock? It is easier than ya think, you come close to the door and pat your knuckles on it."
"It's important!" She barely yelled ignoring his previous affermation. He studied for a couple of seconds her face and saw the concern.
"You seem so worried."
"Well, I am. It is about Foster." Saying that she got all Cal's attention.
"Go ahead."
"I bumped into her first in the bathroom, in her eyes there was...terror...a deep terror and..." She took a deep breath before finishing the sentence. She really didn't know how to tell him it.
"And what, Torres? Continue!" He barely screamed, he was just too impatient when it came to Gillian, especially her happiness or health.
"I saw she had bruises on her arm and shoulder!" She said it all at once. Hearing that for Lightman was like if someone had just shot him.
"You sure they were really...bruises?" He asked not wanting to believe her.
"Yes, I'm sure! She was trying to hide them from me and when I asked her how, she told me she did them at tennis. She was clearing lying."
At this time in his mind came million toughts. He couldn't think of Gillian, his weakness, being beaten or something like that. How did she do them? Was someone that did them? On his face appared anger mixed with also a hint of jealousy at first, just thinking about anybody even simply touching her and then sadness for the immage of her being hurted.
"Thanks Torres, you can go now." His eyes looking at a fixed point. Ria nodded and left. He took a deep breath and stood up, making his way to his best friend's office.