Title: The Crush

Character/pairing: N/A

Rating: PG

Spoilers: Season 1, Ep 7 The Best Policy

Summary: How long could you deceive your boss when his job is seeking out deception?

Author's Note: I do not own "Lie to Me" or its characters, the show belongs to Fox and I make no money off of these stories. I wanted to offer something up for not having a new episode on tonight, and I thought a bit of floof might be appropriate. Enjoy!

"…and that is how I learned the hard way to trust the expiration dates on lunch meats to the day." Eli Loker leaned back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head and a satisfied smirk on his face. Much of the research team had abandoned ship during his talk, as they were apt to do when Eli wasn't talking about work. The newest and youngest member of the team, twenty three year old Abigail Andrews, had had asked the question that brought this train of thought on, so she sat politely through the entire ordeal. Subsequently, it would be quite some time before she ate anything that had to do with deli meats.

When Eli showed no signs of continuing, Abigail shook her head and asked nervously, "So, you didn't have that great a weekend then?"

Eli pursed his lips and tilted his head to one side. "Nah, it was pretty good all things being considered," he smiled at her. "Besides, my story got rid of everyone else."

"Why did you want to get rid of everyone else?" Abigail asked, not really knowing where Eli exactly was going with that.

"Because I wanted to be alone with you," Eli grinned. Abigail looked shocked in response to this. "That and I need to take you to see Cal. Meet the man, the myth, the legend."

"Doctor Lightman?" Abigail asked nervously. She had seen him in passing around the offices of The Lightman Group in the few weeks she had worked there but, as Eli correctly stated, she had never actually met him. Eli had asked if he could hire a new personal research assistant for his research team, Cal had approved it and Eli hired Abigail.

Abigail had been able to hide the fact that she had a crush on Doctor Cal Lightman from everyone on the research team – generally her colleagues didn't look for deception right in their own backyards when they had so much else to deal with on a daily basis. She couldn't help having a crush on Doctor Lightman - he was an attractive, educated, kind and, yes, older man but his British accent was the cherry on top for her. If there was one person she would never be able to hide this situation from it was going to be the head of the deception detection agency, a person whose job it was to seek out untruths, and the man who put 'Lightman' in 'The Lightman Group'. Moreover, she was going to meet him face to face.

Abigail could feel in the pit of her stomach that this was not going to end well for her.

"Do we really need to do this today," Abigail asked lightly. "There's so much to do here, can't I meet him some other time?" Like on my last day here…

"No can do, my adorable Abigail," Eli smirked at his own alliteration. "Cal put this in his schedule. I think he needs to make sure you're as qualified as you said you are and that I didn't hire you as a piece of T and A eye candy."

Abigail looked worried. "Well…did you hire me as T and A eye candy?"

"I hired you for your qualifications. The eye candy was a nice bonus," Eli stated, looking Abigail up and down with a look of appreciation. Normally this would sound lecherous and probably be grounds for an open and shut case of workplace sexual harassment, but that was just Eli's ethos of Radical Honesty. It took some getting used to but after a while most of what Eli said would just roll off the back, unless he took the 'disgusting and depraved' route as he had that morning. "Come on, let's go," Eli stood up and held a hand out to Abigail. "Meet the big boss man!"

Eli rambled on about this and that as they made their way to Cal's office, none of which Abigail really heard. She was desperately trying to get her emotions under control, which of course was just making them spiral even more out of control. As they reached the outer waiting room of Cal's office, Abigail had resigned herself to the fact that things were about to get much more complicated for her and her job at The Lightman Group.

Cal's normal administrative assistant was off for the day, and the older, male replacement who sat behind the desk barked at Eli, "Who are you?"

"Eli Loker. Cal wanted to meet my new research assistant Abigail. Is he here?"

The assistant looked at a sheet of paper. "Says here for her to go in by herself and wait for him. He'll be there soon," he looked at Abigail and jerked his head in the direction of Cal's office.

"I have to wait for him alone?" Abigail squeaked.

Eli wrapped an arm around Abigail's shoulders. "You'll be fine. He's really just a big, British teddy bear. Not really, of course," Eli amended, so as to be as truthful as possible, "but he's not going to do anything to you. You'll be fine. Wait until you see his collection of wall art!"

"Go on in, Miss," the assistant urged her.

Abigail turned and faced the door, and Eli dropped his arm from her shoulders. "Come back to my office when you're done," he said and walked out of the office.

I'll go to your office if I still have a job...

Abigail took a deep breath, walked to the door, opened it, and was faced with what seemed like dozens of pictures of Cal himself, slight variations of facial expression captured for all time, posted for all to see. She studied the pictures, trying to understand what she was looking at. There were minute raises or drooping in the chin, lips, cheeks, eyes, brows and forehead creating the slightest changes in expression. On the one hand, it was fascinating to look at, on the other hand, looking at the face of the boss you had a crush on blown up to an exaggerated size was a little daunting. So intrigued was Abigail, Cal Lightman didn't think she heard him enter the office.

Cal quietly moved to stand behind Abigail, wondering what she saw when she looked at the pictures.

"These kind of freak me out," Abigail commented to Cal, not turning around to face him.

"They 'freak me out', as you put it, as well," he admitted.

This slightly shocked Abigail but she stayed facing the pictures. "Then why do you keep them?"

Cal took Abigail's lead and did not cross into her line of vision. "I keep them up because they 'freak me out', because they startle others coming into this office. Creating an air of comfort in this office isn't what I want. This is where I work. This is where I think. Comfort I can have at home, but here," Cal shrugged, "I need to stay on my toes. These pictures remind me where I started, how far I've come, and how far I still have to go."

What Abigail wanted to say in response to this was, 'That should be stitched on a sampler,' but she chose to remain silent. The longer she could put off having to deal with Cal face to face, the better.

"OK, enough looking at the creepy pictures of me," Cal interrupted the moment, thus ended Abigail's far-fetched hope that maybe she would never have to turn around. "I am Doctor Cal Lightman, and while I've had the pleasure of acquainting myself with your back, I've always found the best conversations take place face to face," he quipped, the understated true meaning of 'turn around' coming through loud and clear in Abigail's ears.

Abigail squeezed her eyes shut, opened them and turned around smiling. The smile didn't quite meet her eyes. Cal extended a hand to her, "Cal Lightman." She shook his extended hand, praying he wasn't some sort of human blood pressure cuff. "Abigail Andrews," she said nervously. Her heart rate sped up when Cal raised his unencumbered hand and put his index and middle fingers her neck, efficiently taking her pulse while looking at his wrist watch. Abigail's face showed a fleeting show of fear. Cal removed his fingers from her neck and let her hand go. "You're nervous. Why," Cal questioned.

"Because…you're the boss. You're making sure I'm supposed to be here. Getting called into the boss' office is nerve-wracking."

Stalled speech. Repetition. Can't meet my eyes. She doesn't believe what she's saying. First lie, Cal thought to himself.

"Why don't you have a seat and we can have a little chat," he said, and in courteous fashion pulled out one of the chairs for her, gently seating Abigail at the desk. "I would ask if you wanted tea or water or anything but I'm actually a little afraid of Gerald out there. I don't think he's very happy in his temporary work," Cal rambled as he sat behind the desk in his chair. "You all right?" The British accent ringing in full force through the almost slang-sounding words, the tiniest smile pulled at Abigail's lips.

Likes the accent, Cal added to his mental tally.

"So now, Abigail," Cal started, organizing in his head exactly how this game of cat and mouse – or figure out the new employee – was going to be played. He grabbed a clipboard and pen and stared pointedly at Abigail for a moment, making her feel even more nervous and uncomfortable. Cal reached for his glasses and put them on before he started his interrogation. "What is your middle name?"

"Elizabeth," Abigail answered, taken a little off guard. Cal wrote something down.

"Mother's maiden name?"

"Henderson."

"What's your shoe size?"

"Size nine," Abigail had no idea where Cal was coming at with these questions and she began to feel very warm.

"Have you ever entertained thoughts of having illicit sexual relations with Eli Loker," Cal smiled, looking up from the clipboard.

"What? God! No!" Abigail was properly shocked. "What has this got to do with my job?"

"You are hiding something from me, Miss Andrews, and you have been for a few weeks now," Cal put the clipboard and pen down and folded his hands in front of him on his desktop. "I've seen your surreptitious looks, odd behaviour around the office. You have a secret and I have to find out what it is."

"No you don't," Abigail sputtered before she could stop herself.

Cal's interest was piqued. "I don't?"

Putting a hand over her mouth for a second, she shook her head rapidly, "I didn't mean to say that!"

"No, you fully meant to say it, you just didn't mean to say it out loud," Cal corrected her. "This is my job, Abigail. You're perfectly qualified to do the job you're doing, I'm sure we'll see you moving up in the firm in no time. But," Cal stated, standing up and moving to Abigail's side of the desk, "you have a secret. You're trying desperately to keep it from me and I'm sorry to inform you you're not doing a very good job of it. So this can proceed one of two ways."

Nervously Abigail looked up at Cal. "Two ways?"

Cal numbered off the options with his fingers, "Option number one! We stay in this office until I break you with questions and figure out for myself what is going on here. Option number two," he leaned into Abigail, met her eyes and said softly, "is you just tell me what is going on."

Abigail felt nauseous, and Cal noted the physical signs of her distress. One of her worst nightmares was about to come true. She had no choice – Abigail was going to have to tell the object of her workplace crush that she had a crush on him, and it was the boss no less. She just hoped it would be quick and relatively painless, that she would get to keep her job and if she were very lucky, the Earth would swallow her whole in the next five seconds…

"The ball is in your court, Abigail." Cal said gently.

Abigail stood up and walked a few paces away from Cal. Keeping her back to him, she squeezed her eyes shut and said blurted in an embarrassed and pained voice, "Ihaveacrushonyou."

Cal went over to Abigail, put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. "Face to face, Abigail. It's only polite."

Sighing, Abigail said her secret aloud again. "I have a crush on you."

Cal's eyes widened in shock and surprise. "Really? That's it?"

"What do you mean, 'that's it'?"

"Well I just mean…that wasn't what I had in mind." Cal said, trying to regain his composure.

Abigail stared at Cal incredulously, "Did you think I was stealing or going to blow something up or turn out to be a spy or something?"

"On the contrary, I thought you were sleeping with Loker. We tend to frown on interpersonal relationships here. Not that that has stopped people before-"

"Why would I be sleeping with Loker?" Abigail interrupted Cal's train of thought. Suddenly, she turned her head sharply to the left, speaking to no one in particular, "Why am I discussing this with you?"

"Because I brought it up?"

Abigail sighed, exasperated. "Am I fired?"

"Excuse me?"

"I have a crush on the boss and now he knows. Am I fired?"

Cal shook his head, a look of amusement on his face. "I don't generally fire people for having crushes on me. Not that this has ever happened before that I know of," Cal looked to the ceiling and thought aloud, "Come to think of it, I think my job would be much more interesting if more people here did have crushes on me…"

A feeling of shame was creeping back into Abigail's mind. She has just told her boss she had a crush on him and was now going to have to keep working with him. "You aren't going to tell anyone about this are you? I mean, this is pretty much embarrassing enough as it is."

Cal shook his head. "Nah. I think I'm going to keep this memory to myself."

"What do you mean," Abigail asked, suddenly exhausted.

"A pretty twenty something woman tells me she has a crush on me, I consider that a good memory. One for the books." Cal smiled kindly at her.

"I'm gonna go now, Doctor Lightman," Abigail said, starting to edge her way out of the office.

"Call me Cal, Abby. We have to be friends now," Cal waved at the now stunned Abigail as she left the office.

He smiled after her for a moment before turning and picking up his phone. He dialed a number and said into the receiver, "I want Abigail Andrews in research tested for me, Gillian, can you make that happen?" Cal paused as he listened to his colleague Doctor Gillian Foster rattled off what she would do to get Abigail into the appropriate testing to see how her skills might mesh with Cal's team as opposed to being in the research department. It was something he could obviously do himself but felt that perhaps Gillian handling Abigail's testing would make her less anxious as she was bound to be around him for the next little while.

Once Gillian was finished speaking Cal just had to ask her, "So. Have you ever had a crush on me, Doctor Foster?"

"What? Just curious!"