Ria Torres was simply fascinated by her boss, he wasn't a typical American, he knew when you were lying and had a past that not a lot of people had the privilege of knowing or finding out about it. She was one of those people that didn't have it. Her curiosity had peeked when they took the case that his ex-wife presented them and soon noticed (for the time that she was with them at leas) that her boss appeared to be quite flustered around the woman who called herself Zoe and thanks to the fact she was there when Cal saw her, she was now more intrigued about his past than ever before. Popping her head into her boss' office, she let out a breath of relief when she noticed it was empty. Sneaking into the room, she made her way towards his desk and tried to find anything that might help her figure out her boss even more.
The pictures behind his desk were calling out to her as she stared at them with sympathetic eyes. The smile that Cal had on the pictures with his ex-wife and daughter was the brightest smile she had ever seen on his face. The happiness was so real and pure that it amazed Ria that the couple even ended up divorcing. Picking up one of the pictures, she let her eyes focus on Cal. He was holding Zoe from behind as she was doubled over in laughter, his eyes were closed and his nose was slightly scrunched up, letting her know that he was also laughing. Apparently Cal had quite a bit of strength in his arms as he lifted the woman up a few inches from the ground and so scaring her since she was desperately grasping onto his arms around her waist.
Another picture she saw and picked up with her free hand was a picture of Cal somewhere on a parking lot with their office building behind him and Gillian and Loker both next to him and leaning on his shoulders, easily dwarfing him. Both of them were holding a sign that said 'I love Cal Lightman' while just behind the group Emily was in mid-jump with her hair flying around her and also holding a paper that said 'I love him more than anyone', to complete the picture, Cal was looking frightened at the camera while holding a paper saying 'I'm scared'.
It was the most adorable picture she had ever seen of Cal, and she hadn't seen a lot of them so that had to mean something. It was nice to see her boss so relaxed for once, even if it was a thing of the past and he was now always tensed up and just an emotional breakdown waiting to happen. Hearing the voices of Gillian Foster and Cal Lightman approach his office, Ria's eyes widened and she quickly put the photograph back down before ducking under her boss' desk, hoping in the back of her mind that he wouldn't sit down and find her there.
"I am not flustered Gillian!" Cal's voice preceded its owner as it entered the room just seconds before Cal stormed in with a hurried Gillian behind him.
"Something happened to you Cal and I'd like to know what."
"Why must you always mother me?" her boss wasn't exactly in one of his happy moods like he had been on the picture she had observed earlier, so much was clear. He was close to shouting and his footsteps were heavier than they usually were. Torres had the gut feeling that the man was hiding something, and she was sure that Gillian had it too, which was probably why the two were arguing right now.
"Because whatever you're hiding is seriously messing you up Cal! You missed at least 5 signs of lying in that TV-interview we watched just now, what the hell was up with that?"
"Okay so I wasn't focused, just drop it Foster!" Cal was right at his desk now and Torres bit her lip in the hopes that he would just walk away again in an attempt to just avoid Gillian Foster's interrogation but instead of doing so, the man just leaned against the desk and stayed there, making Ria's heart go at least twice as fast.
"Is it Emily?" Gillian wasn't going to give up now, that was for sure, "or Zoe?"
"You're worse than Torres you know that? What is it with women and the disability to mind their own business," Cal emphasized on the last part of the sentence while he walked closer to Gillian and then away again to the small study next to his office. Ria let out a soft breath of relief as Gillian followed him and she wasn't caught red handed on spying on her boss.
"I told you working with Zoe would mess you up."
"Gillian. Drop. It."
"No, I won't Cal; because clearly, this is something seriuos and honestly, I'm curious."
"You want to know?" Cal asked, clearly not happy with the fact that he was cornered by his colleague and walked closer to her.
"Yes, yes I do."
"Fine, I slept with her alright? Now happy?" Cal turned around and picked up one of the books laying around the study and put it back where it belonged.
"you what!?" Foster sounded absolutely horrified by the news, "Cal! What were you thinking?!"
"Oh don't even dare to attack me right now or tell me some of your psychobabble Foster."
"I can't believe you actually did that Cal Lightman! She's your ex-wife, who's engaged if might add since you clearly forgot this little bit of information!"
"No I haven't forgotten it but thanks for pointing it out to me that my ex-wife is engaged to a guy who has his head up his ass!"
"You admit it then? You still have feelings for her?"
"It was a one time thing Gillian!" Cal raised his voice again and made Gillian jump up slightly before she placed her hand on his arm and tried to make eye contact with the man.
"We both know what happened last time you said that."
"I got married to her and we got a beautiful daughter, anything else you want to add to make me feel even worse?"
"And you divorced her Cal, she moved on but by sleeping with her, she now knows that you haven't, at least not yet."
"I have Gillian," Cal grumbled under his breath before his head shot up at a sound that came from his office, they were supposed to be alone in here. Gillian frowned at him and then guided him to the armchair before she pushed him down and crouched down in front of him.
"It was just once," he whispered, looking down to his hands, "I mean, we didn't mean too, it just happened."
"Cal-"
"-it just happened Gillian, one moment we were talking in her car as I drove her home about Emily and how I told her about my mother and what happened to her and the next thing we know we're both on top of each other in her bed, clearly not with the idea in our minds to stop."
Gillian looked at Cal who was sitting with his fingers in his hair right now, grasping onto the roots as he kept telling himself that it was just this once and it would never happen again. She tried her best to believe her and couldn't grasp the fact that this actually happened while in the back of her mind, a nagging voice told her that she had known all along that something like this would occur. She placed her hand on Cal's shoulder and looked at him with sympathetic eyes, the memory of what he had just done with his ex-wife and how it had even started was clearly not something that he liked to think about and she had just caused the memory to resurface.
"Does Emily know?"
"She does," Cal nodded, looking up and showing his partner a small smile, "I stayed the night since Roger wasn't coming home anyway and just walked in on her eating breakfast the new morning, she seemed rather happy actually."
She could understand that, the young girl didn't want anything else than seeing her parents get back together and she would do anything to make sure it happened, the fact that it happened this time without anything she had done was a miracle and probably made the girl get a new spark of hope that Cal and Zoe might get back together. The fact that Cal actually spend the night with Zoe again made a pang of jealousy arise in Gillian's chest but she tried to ignore it as she shifted closer to Cal and hugged him as he hugged her back. Cal wasn't thinking about the consequences of his actions right now, so much was clear.
"For once since the divorce, I actually slept more than 5 hours, how surprising is that?" Cal asked it more to himself than to Gillian who couldn't answer it but felt sad at the news that Cal was clearly getting more sleep-deprived every year. And the though cases that weighted on his shoulders didn't always help, "it just felt so good to hold someone that love, loved me even, even it ended on such a bad note."
Gillian knew exactly how he was feeling but didn't say anything, it was the same with Alec and Cal, when she had hugged him earlier, she had felt something she hadn't felt in ages, comfort and warmth. Alec didn't even hug her anymore and they barely talked to each other, both of them knew that their marriage was over and Gillian wasn't even going to try to save it.
"Cal," Gillian whispered as she placed a finger under his chin and lifted his head up a bit so she could see into his eyes. They were showing unshed tears but he wasn't going to let them fall, nothing would convince him to just let go and cry.
What Ria Torres saw next was something she was never going to forget. Her eyes widened as she saw Cal suddenly push himself forward from the couch he was on and almost tackle Gillian to the floor. The woman managed to balance herself by putting her hands on the floor behind her but couldn't resist running one of her hands through Cal's hair as he kissed her with every bit of energy he had left. Part of her wanted to look away as she saw that Gillian clearly kissed the older man back but another part of her wanted to know the aftermath. What would both of them say after it? What would they do? How were they going to act?
She wanted to crawl away and get out of the office while she still could, act like she never saw her two superiors comfort each other in their sadness about what had just happened to them. While nothing really had affected Gillian, Torres was sure that the woman was affected by Cal's actions too, albeit indirectly, it was clear as daylight how much she really adored Cal. Ria sighed and ran her hand through her hair (or at least, tried to, her hiding spot didn't leave a lot of room to move around) and considered what to do. She could see that both Cal and Gillian were now preoccupied to even think about paying attention to their surroundings and she could easily crawl out of the room without ever leaving a trace of being there. Then again, perhaps she should just wait for the other two to leave the office but it was very unlikely that that was ever going to happen.
In the end, she decided to remove her high heels and crawl away as stealthy as she could, often glancing towards Cal and Gillian who had now ended their make-out session and were cuddling on the armchair that Cal had vacated earlier. They weren't saying anything to each other and their eyes were closed but it was rather adorable just to see them sitting there in a close embrace like their world was about to end if they were interrupted. Ria sighed in relief when she finally made it to the door and managed to escape the clutches of Lightman's office, never again was she going to spy on the man, that was clear.
"Hey Torres."
"Jesus! Loker! You scared the crap out of me!" Ria jumped up and turned around to face Loker who was grinning widely, his green eyes shone with amusement as he hit her playfully on the arm and said she looked like she just saw a ghost.
"More like a make-out session between Lightman and Foster."
"Oh so they finally came out huh?"
"It was more like Lightman just pushing himself onto Foster but yeah, I guess you could call it that..." Ria winced, not really knowing if she was even supposed to say this to Loker who clearly couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"Yeah, that sounds like something he would do alright."
"You're not worried what might happen to their professional relationship now? To Foster's marriage? I mean for god's sake Loker!"
"Foster will act awkward and Lightman will appear flustered for a while but otherwise they can handle it," Loker shrugged as they walked closer to the doors and the parking lot, clearly the man had gotten the idea that he could walk her to her car. Not that Ria minded but it was a weird thing since Loker rarely left the office in the first place. He was almost as bad as Lightman.
"I don't think so, I mean, Lightman sleeps with his ex-wife for once after so many years and already he seemed like a nervous wreck, and now that he kissed Gillian of all people," Ria sighed, not really in the mood to continue the sentence.
"Wait, Lightman slept with Zoe?" Loker stopped her by holding her wrist and looked at her shocked.
"Yeah I did, anything else you want to know about my sex life Loker? Torres?"
Cal appeared behind them and looked rather relaxed yet composed, just like he always did. A wrinkled shirt, a bit of messed up hair and his hands in his pockets but the man still managed to send a chill down Ria's spine. He could be quite intimidating even if he didn't know it. She winced as she realized that her boss had figured out that both of them now knew about his little fling with Zoe the previous night and didn't want to know what he was going to do now.
"Are you into bondage?" Loker asked, clearly not getting the sarcasm that Lightman had clearly used earlier.
"Ask Zoe next time you see her," Cal rolled his eyes before he walked past them and towards his car, clearly not in the mood to joke around with Loker at this time of the night, it was late and he was exhausted.
"Sure, mind if I disguise myself as you then?"
"Fuck off Loker."
Disclaimer: don't own