A/N This is my first ever multi-chapter story. Generally speaking, articulating drawn out plots is a weakness of mine so reviews would be brilliant. I didn't use a BETA for this either, so I really hope there aren't any terribly distracting errors.

I really wanted to write something that focused more on Loker, who I feel has been criminally underused throughout the series. Despite this, Callian is my drug so rest assured that is the focus of this fic.

Usual disclaimer applies. Own nothing except for the enigmatic character that is Isabel Farrow. All ideas and mistakes/typos/inconsistencies are my own as well xx

XXX

"You bringing a date to this thing?" he wagged his eyebrows and he grinned at her mischievously. Gillian rolled her eyes as this usual charade. "Are you ever going to stop doing that?"

"Doin' what love?"

"Interrogating me about my love life". Her voice was firm but her eyes twinkled as she suppressed a grin. "Unlikely, darlin'. Unlikely". She bit her bottom lip apprehensively and turned to face him, "as a matter of fact, I am". Gillian, in a moment of gleeful sadism, noted the surprise tempered with disappointment dancing over Cal's face, "he's a complete pain in the ass but I figure no one else will want to go with him". Catching on, Cal grinned as he linked his arm through hers while they walked down the hallway to their respective offices, "at least he's an excellent dancer".

XXX

Ria looked over her mug of coffee at Eli who had assumed a very Lightman-esque sprawl in his desk chair. Ria considered him silently. She had come to like him; she appreciated his honesty, his work ethic and his quirky intelligence. Despite her first impression of Loker as a coddled and self-indulgent Ivy League grad, Ria and Eli had settled into a productive working relationship. What Ria hadn't expected was that they would become rather good friends.

He slouched with legs outstretched and ankles crossed, casually clicking his mouse scanning through a recently imported file of images. "Is Isabel coming tonight?" she asked casually sipping her black coffee. Eli's face lit up at the mention of Isabel's name which he tried to mitigate with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, "why? Do you need a date Torres?"

"I don't know why you bother" Ria stated, placing the mug on her desk.

"Bother with what?" Eli craned his neck awkwardly away from the computer screen to look her in the eyes.

"Trying to pretend you don't like her as much as you do" Ria smirked at him, her eyes flashing with amusement, "the truth's written all over your face".

A gentle pink bloomed at the base of Eli's neck. 'Oh God', he thought; 'I'm blushing'. He returned his gaze back to the computer screen which displayed a photograph of President Obama standing at a podium, right hand to his face in a fist, but for the middle finger which was extended, ostensibly scratching his nose. In micro-expression jargon, this particular gesture is a not-so-subtle "fuck you" to the person it is directed at. "Do some work Torres" Eli said, mimicking the image with his free hand as a smile twitched at the corners of his mouth.

XXX

Cal deposited Gillian in her office where she was greeted with a stack of files a foot-tall on her desk to peruse. Gillian groaned as she flicked through the top-most one. Today was going to be a long day. "At least I know you don't just sit around looking pretty all the time, love" Cal offered as he bared his teeth in a smirk.

"Yes, I would hate for you to actually have to do some work yourself Cal" she countered, equally sarcastic. Gillian sat down in front of the daunting monolith of paperwork towering above her and sighed, Cal squeezed her shoulder as he turned and strolled out of her office.

"Where the hell is everyone?" Cal yelled as he sauntered down the empty hallway past the similarly empty break room. He paused at the tech room, and peering through the glass of the door saw Loker and Torres sitting at their respective desks, pretending to look busy.

"Alrigh' you two?" Cal asked by way of greeting, entering their space. Both Ria and Eli's heads shot up from their desks. "Dr. Lightman! We were…" Ria fished for an excuse, a redundant exercise given Cal had already clocked the twist of her hands and the obvious, albeit brief, eye flicker left and downward as she tried to quickly formulate a white lie. "We were just–" Loker too was cut off as Cal raised his right hand in a weak 'stop' gesture. "You were both just sittin' around, on my time, gossipin' and pretendin' to work. I wasn't born yesterday ya know". He studied their faces as Ria gave Eli a searching look, her eyes pleading him 'help me out here!'

"So, what were ya talkin' 'bout?" Cal asked animatedly, plopping himself into the spare chair between Ria and Eli's desks. Ria smiled, relieved, he was in a good mood today. "I was asking Loker if the lovely Isabel was going to be gracing us with her presence tonight, and he was deflecting". Cal tilted his head to the left, a smirk playing on the corner of his lips, "you shouldn't pretend that you don't like her as much as you do" Cal had his right index finger out tracing circles in the air in front of Eli's face "the truth is written all over your face". Ria shot Eli a smug, knowing look.

"Well is she?" Cal stood as he regarded Loker's face, then he turned and began to cross the room. Eli rolled his eyes, "this office is hell on earth. You know that right?" With his hand on the door handle Cal looked over his shoulder back at Loker, amusement dancing across his brow and settling in the creases of his mouth, "I wouldn't have it any other way Loker".

XXX

The day had been ticking over as usual without any major dramas to deal with, something that pleased Gillian in particular. In fact, Gillian was happy with the way the company was running generally. The workload was a good, constant stream of challenging and interesting cases that didn't spread the team too thin but kept them busy and still brought in a decent income enabling the Lightman Group to happily remain in the black. Gillian glanced at the time on her laptop screen in front of her, it was one o'clock and she could feel her stomach starting to ache. Breakfast at 6:00am seemed a long time ago.

Gillian made her way to the break room, smiling in acknowledgment to her colleagues who passed her in the hall. It seemed everyone had decided to break for lunch at the same time; Gillian nodded at Ria and Cal who were seated in the corner with several files scattered over the table they shared, weighted down by containers of half eaten sandwiches and small bottles of mineral water. Cal's unorthodox manner with Ria fascinated Gillian. In front of other staff members he could be brusque, superior and condescending towards her, but then there were these sweet moments when Gillian could see him trying so hard to rein in his overwhelming desire flood his protégé with everything he knew about his science. His respect for Ria's natural ability and her easy way of picking up the finer nuances of the science was unspoken, and he often belittled her out loud: his distaste for the "uneducated" barely masked, but Gillian knew Cal and she knew he believed in Ria. Cal Lightman didn't waste his time with people he didn't believe in.

Gillian opened the staff fridge and took out a Tupperware container of salad she had brought in from home and moved to the coffee machine to make a latte. Loker smiled as Gillian made her way over to him, dipping his head slightly he acknowledged her, "afternoon Boss. You've been busy today!" Eli closed the microwave door and punched several buttons on its display. "If I don't ever see another tax return form I will die a happy woman…" her train of thought faltered as she watched the plate inside the microwave spin around, "lasagne Loker? Good God, this is the first time I have ever seen you bring lunch to work. Is everything OK?" she teased. Eli smiled shyly, "Isabel cooked for me last night" he said as he removed the plate from the microwave and made his way to a nearby, empty table. Gillian sat down opposite him, "ah, Isabel. And how are things with you two?" She knew it sounded slightly derisive, and she didn't mean to offend Eli but from the moment Gillian had met Isabel something hadn't sat right. She couldn't quite put her finger on it – call it woman's intuition – but there was something that made her uneasy and it was particularly frustrating because the rest of her colleagues adored Isabel almost as much as Eli did. Eli regarded Gillian carefully before answering, he knew she wasn't enamoured with Isabel and it irritated him that she had no real grounds to dislike his girlfriend. He was sure she wasn't trying to interfere, but with those sharp blue eyes penetrating him, Loker couldn't help but feel like he should be guarded. "Isabel is great thanks Dr Foster. She was very impressed by you when you met; in fact, I think you're a bit of a hero of hers given her psychology background. She's always talking about you. She's coming tonight with me to this benefit thing, so perhaps you could catch up then?" Gillian's mouth curled and flashed contempt; it was so brazenly obvious you wouldn't need to be trained in their profession to identify her true feelings, before breaking into a forced smile; "that sounds lovely Eli". Gillian gently pushed her chair from the table and made her way back to her office squeezing Cal's shoulder as she walked past.

XXX

Cal smiled inwardly at her gentle, familiar touch. His eyes followed Gillian's retreating figure, "I'll be in to talk to ya about tha' Williams case later on Foster, yeah?" he almost had to half yell it as she was closer to her office than the break room, she waved her hand above her head signalling her agreement. Cal returned his attention to Ria and the stack of files in front of them. "She seems a bit distracted" Ria mused, "I wonder if Isabel was the topic of their lunchtime discussion…"

"When you're done stirring Torres, I'd be 'appy ta get back ta work".

"Sorry Dr Lightman, point taken. None of my business." She started to stack the files into a neat pile and pushed her chair back "I think I can take this from here. Thanks for giving up your lunch hour for me". Cal smiled, what endeared him to Ria the most was that she didn't completely comprehend her own potential brilliance, "my pleasure love". He gathered up their empty take-out sandwich boxes and water bottles to toss into the bin, faltering slightly, Cal sighed and turned to her "you can't see it either can you Torres?" his tone was inquisitive, not accusatory, "what Foster sees?" he clarified. Ria shrugged, signalling her exasperation as she looked back at Cal. It had been bothering her since day one that neither of them could read what Gillian allegedly could, "no. I don't get anything suspect from her in the slightest. Isabel seems like a perfectly normal woman. Loker's got himself a catch I'd say". Cal could see she wasn't lying and that it genuinely bothered her that she was at odds to understand Gillian's resistance to this new woman in Eli's life. "Yea, but that's the thing, innit. No one's 'perfectly normal' are they?"

Ria gave him a wry smile murmuring "cynic" as Cal tossed their lunch remains in the rubbish bin. They parted and Cal stalked towards Gillian's office, his mind working over everything he could recall about Isabel. As much as he didn't want to voice it, the conclusion he ultimately came to was that Foster must have got it wrong. If there was something off about her how could he and Ria both not see it? That was impossible.

XXX

Gillian was standing at her bookshelf, fingers trailing over the spines of various textbooks and journals before they settled on what she had been searching for. Pulling it from the shelf, she flicked through the well-read tome before pausing at the page she needed. Cal knocked twice as he pushed her office door open, "this a bad time Foster?" his arms were laden with a rather thick file. Gillian placed the book down on the mantle of the shelf and turned to face him, "no, not at all, I was going to see you shortly in fact". They met in the middle of the room and Cal opened the file to the first page, "so, this rich old bastard wants us to find who has been threatening him, yes?" Gillian could practically taste the disdain Cal had for the 'rich old bastard' as he put it, "well, you've glossed over a few points, but in a nutshell, yes".

"And he reckons it's one of his thousands of employees because confidential information has been leaked to competitors and the threats are of a nature that only someone with internal access could make?"

"Correct".

"And so, instead of having us haul in those that fit the profile he's throwing us a party? Some people just 'ave too much bloody money".

"He isn't throwing us a party Cal" she admonished, rolling her eyes, "it's a benefit that his firm already had in the pipeline but Mr Williams wants us there in an informal capacity. To observe, if you will ". She placed her hands on her hips and stared at him, "you have made sure that everyone from our end knows this is work haven't you Cal? And not a free for all with booze and food at the expense of a paying client" she eyed him carefully. Cal chose to stare her down, his mask lifted so she could see the twinkle in his eye and the smile that flirted with the corners of his mouth, "Cal, you yourself are aware that this is still work and not a free for all with booze and food at the expense of a paying client, don't you?" he could be so childish, and it was made even more irritating merely by virtue of the fact that he knew he was being irritating. "Oh come on Gill, it's gonna be fun. We'll drink and we'll work. And I can be a smug bastard all night because you'll be the most gorgeous woman in the room, and you'll be on my arm" he winked at her, "look, I've even been going over the file, I take this seriously Foster" he thrust the file towards her.

Gillian took the file tentatively, eyeing him up, "so you have actually read this, Cal?" he smiled, waggling his eyebrows at her, "you betcha". They lapsed into silence as Gillian thumbed the pages of information. "So we'll just chat to the employees in turn, see what they can tell us. Find out why Williams and his company would have been the target…" she trailed off looking at Cal, "aside from the fact he's got pots of money stashed all over the show which I reckon is decent incentive for anyone to start a smear campaign".

"See love, you're all over this. By rights I should be able to just sit there and get drunk and you'll do a brilliant job". She returned his cheeky smile with a gentle slap on the arm. "I'll pick you up at seven, love".

"That would be lovely" she said and she playfully pushed him out of her office. "Now go and do some work!"

A/N I had already had this all drafted before 'Rebound' aired and it was revealed that Cal's pug had been called Isabel. I was too attached to the name to change it, but it is a 100% coincidence for those that may have been wondering.