3.

As the young man Robert carried on pacing around the Cube anxiously, Cal reclined further into his chair, legs stretched and hands folded loosely together. "Right, so, lemme get this straight," he drawled. "You think that your…mum is going to kill your dad."

Robert nodded, now rubbing his neck. "Yes,"

Cal nodded. "Alright. Just making sure," he said quite casually, "And what makes you think that?"

As the boy answered, Cal watched him carefully, eyes moving back and forth as he read over Robert's face and body. "Well, she's my step mom, actually-…"

Outside the Cube, Loker snorted, then contained his mild laughter as Foster shot him a quick and disapproving glance. "..that explains everything…" he uttered.

Meanwhile inside, the young man continued, "…she only married him for his money. I knew it from the start…I told him so! But he didn't believe me…told me some crap about how I don't understand love, too young to understand…"

"Yea, how old are you exactly?" Lightman asked, squinting his eyes some.

The boy paused and gave him an unsteady look. "Twenty-one," he answered.

Cal smirked and shook his head. "No, son, you're not." The boy furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth to retaliate, but Cal cut him off, "And I wouldn't suggest lying again if you want me to help you at all," he pointed his hands to himself, "I'm the 'Lie Guy', r'member?"

Robert's shoulders dropped slightly in defeat. "Seventeen."

"'S what I thought. So, I take it you an' your step mum don't get along then?"

Robert shook his head. "No. She hates me. The only thing she cares about is waiting for dad to die so she can make off with his money and then ship me off to boarding school in Europe to 'make me a man'," he said scornfully. His mouth twitched in contempt as he spoke, but Cal didn't feel the need to point that micro-expression out. It was already pretty clear the kid hated this woman. Typical. "She's been acting…suspicious lately. I know she's up to something…"

Cal stretched hi s arm out to the boy and gestured to the other chair. "Son, you wanna sit? You're gonna wear a hole into my floor there if you keep that up." Robert stopped his mad pacing and hesitated before taking a seat opposite of Cal, who gave him a reassuring nod. "Right, so I take it you want me to have a chat with her and see what her true intentions in this whole thing are?"

"I already know what her intentions are," the boy answered coldly. "But yes. I need proof against her. I've tried talking to Dad about it…but he just tells me that I'm young and jealous…"

Outside the Cube, Foster was making mental notes of the building case while Loker stared blankly off into the distance, occasionally glancing at his shoe and wondered where that mustard stain had come from…but his thoughts were lost as the a door opened and the sound of heels entered the room.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Torres asked curiously, glancing at the productive Foster and the extremely unproductive Loker, who quickly sat up straight in his chair and pretended to look…productive.

"New case," he answered mildly, running a hand through his hair quickly. "Rich kid's got it for his step mom. Or rather, thinks that she's got it in for his dad."

Torres raised an eyebrow, and Foster filled her in properly. "He thinks his step mother is going to kill his father, but it doesn't look like he's got any proof."

Ria crossed her arms and stared into the Cube, where Lightman continued to interview the boy. "He looks pretty freaked, that's for sure." Torres paused and scanned her eyes across the bare desk that Loker sat in front of. "We got a file on him or his family at all?"

"No, the Martins like to keep a low profile apparently."

"Martins? As in-…"

"The rich folks just outside of DC who have home decorating competitions with the Obamas? Yes." Loker replied quickly.

"Don't they have dog races too?"

Foster cleared her throat. "Anyway, Edward Martin has used his ah, influences to keep him and his family out of sight, meaning no profile. So it looks like we'll have to do our own digging on them."

"Sounds like fun."

Just then, the door to the Cube opened and Lightman strolled out with his usual swagger. "Right, well, it looks like we'll be going undercover again to check out his mum. No way we'll be able to get her in here." He tossed the empty blue file onto the desk and glanced up at Ria. "Torres, glad you could join us. Mind escorting our boy out of here?" With a very slight eyeroll, she nodded and left to go tend to their young client. "Loker, I wanchya to find Reynolds and see what the pair of you can dig up on the Martins." Eli nodded and spun out of his chair, leaving Lightman and Foster alone. "As for you, Foster," Cal said with a cheeky grin, "you're with me."

She let a small smile play at the edge of her lips as he turned to lead them from the room. "As usual," she sighed quietly. Gillian quickly followed him from the room and walked beside him down the corridor of The Lightman Group. "So what exactly are we doing now?"

He tossed a glance over his shoulder, seeing that she was struggling to keep up in her heels, so he slowed his strides down to a mild walk. "Well for starters," he said as he made a turn into the break room, "I'm famished and gonna make a sandwich." Cal reached for the refrigerator and smirked at Foster. "Care to join?"

She smiled and nodded."Of course,"

Cal's tiny smirk grew into a smile as he turned back to the fridge to inspect it's contents. He was pleasantly surprised to see that a sandwich had already been made up, sat beautifully on a paper plate, and had a post-it hanging off the edge of it with the word Dad scrolled across it, with a girly heart drawn under it. Cal swiped it up and spun around to show it to Gillian. "Lookie here, my daughter has a heart after all." Cal sat himself across from her.

"And you suspected otherwise?"

"She ditched our lunch today for Dick," he said as he took a huge bite from the sandwich.

"Rick?" Gillian corrected, trying to hide her smile.

Cal worked hard to quickly swallow his food before replying. "'S what I said."

"She really likes him you know,"

"Yea, I know," he answered in a smart tone, taking another bite. "She's too young to be dating. An' I don't like 'im…" Gillian couldn't help but chuckle as Cal ranted against the kid. There was something about hearing a man with an accent rage on about things, especially if that accented man was both British and Cal. For a moment, she stopped listening all together and just watched him babble and eat, lost in her own thoughts. He was lucky to have a daughter to rant about and worry over. She sometimes found herself jealous of the Lightman family, no matter how messed up they seemed to be sometimes. Cal began to wave his hand around as he spoke, bringing Gillian back into focus. "…an' it certainly doesn't help that Zoe is always bloody encouraging her to be reckless…damn pills. I'm surprised she didn't buy her a pack of condoms for Christmas," he paused to swallow, "…an' then she dumps it all on me!"

"No, she doesn't. Zoe worries just as much as you do, like any mother would." Gillian said softly, wondering what it would be like to be a mother for a brief moment.

"Yea, well, she sure doesn't act like it. Drives me insane." Cal stopped, looking down at his nearly finished sandwich. "Sorry luv, didn't even ask, you want some? Or you want me to make you something?" he offered, holding his plate up.

Gillian waved it off. "No thanks, I've got something back in my office."

"Please tell me its actual food and not pudding." Gillian wiggled her eyebrows with a coy smile. "God almighty…" he sighed.

Gillian stood from her chair and smoothed out her skirt, looking down at Cal. "Speaking of which, I think I'm going to go start nibbling on that and get a bit of paperwork done before we get started on the Martins. You going to get a hold of me when you get some more information?"

"Yeah, soon as I hear from Loker and Reynolds."

Gillian nodded. "Great, I'll see you later then?"

"Of course, luv."

Cal had every intention to sneak into the study to catch a nap as he headed to his office. There were definitely some perks to having a couch in that cozy back room of his. However, he was sadly disappointed when he opened his office door to find a tall, beautiful, dark hair woman leaning on the edge of his desk, arms crossed.

"Hello, Cal," she greeted cooly.

He groaned internally and nodded his head. "Zoe,"

She stood up straight as he walked right by her, still heading to his study. "Where's Emily? I thought you two were doing lunch today."

"I had an interesting client to deal with and she decided to ditch me for her new boyfriend," he called over his shoulder from the study. There was a pause and he popped his head out the second door. "Was he your idea?" he asked suspiciously.

Zoe smirked. "No, Cal, he wasn't. She met him at school. And he's a very nice young man-…"

"You're lying," as he ducked his head back in, this time heading to the couch.

Zoe sighed and slowly followed him into the darkened study. "No, I'm not. You may be the lie expert but you're just saying that because you're miffed that she's got a new interest. Really, Cal, he's a nice guy. Give him a chance."

He scoffed as he cleared some old folders and papers off the couch, sweeping them into a pile onto the floor. "Yea, well, whatever. What are you doin' here anyway?" Cal quickly plopped himself onto the couch, stretching his legs out to the other end.

"Just wanted to say hi to her. And she left her cell phone charger at the house, she texted me and asked me to bring it by."

Cal stretched his arm out and waved his fingers. "I'll give it to her when she comes back," he studied Zoe as she began digging through her purse. "…why else are you here?"

"What do you mean?"

"You haven't looked me in the eyes or moved your face at all. Which means you're trying to hide something," he replied smugly, knowing he had her pinned.

She rolled her eyes as she handed the charger to him. "It's nothing-…"

He raised his eyebrows and pointed his trademark finger at her. "Liar," he teased.

After a moment, Zoe sighed, placed her hands on her hips and finally looked straight at him. "I…just wanted to see how you were doing." When Cal said nothing for a moment, she continued, "I didn't see you at Christmas…after you came back from Afghanistan…"

"Ah, right," he shrugged his shoulders, "I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

She raised her eyebrow and gave him a look. "Really? Because I know how you are," as she spoke, Zoe walked to the couch and sat down on the other end on top of his outstretched legs. He made an uncomfortable noise, which satisfied her slightly, then moved his legs so she could sit, and placed his legs on her lap. "…and I know what that sort of place can do to you." She watched as he said nothing, only staring at her. Probably reading her to see if she was being genuinely concerned. "Emily was really upset by it."

"Yea, I know. We talked about it," Cal recalled.

"And…I was scared too."

"You didn't even know until you came back-…"

"It still scared the living daylights out of me that you went over there. Practically jumped at the chance, I'm sure." Again. Shrug. "Cal, I know you're a thrill seeker, but my god, you can't go running off into the battlefield when we've got a teenage daughter here. I travel all the time, and that's because you convinced me to stay so that you could spend time with our daughter."

"Zoe, I was doing my job."

"I know, but just keep in mind that your job is just a suit. Being a father isn't a suit. Remember?"

Cal opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as he saw an angel stick her head into the study. "Hi Dad-…oh…hey Mom!" said Emily.

"Hi," they both chimed together.

Emily cringed as she saw her father and mother actually touching body parts. "Er, you guys aren't doing it again, are you?"

The parents exchanged alarmed looks and Cal quickly withdrew his feet from Zoe's lap, planting them on the floor and sitting up right. "No no, god no."

"Did you need something, sweetheart?" Zoe answered quietly. Cal looked up. Was that deflection? He shook his head. Nah.

"Charger?"

"Oh, I gave it to your father…"

Cal reached behind him where he had placed the charger on the side table. "Yea, luv, here you go." As Emily walked into the study to get it, Cal saw a lanky figure behind her standing awkwardly in his office. "I see you brought 'im along…" he growled.

"Be nice," Emily warned dangerously.

"'ello D-…" Cal started, but stopped as Emily lightly kicked him in the shin before walking back over to the door by the boy. "…Rick."

The kid nodded quickly and waved a hand. "Hello, Mister Lightman," he stopped and shook his head, "Sorry, um, Doctor. Doctor Lightman."

Cal smirked smugly at the sight of Rick being so nervous. It was probably one of his favorite parts of being a father, scaring the shat out of young boys.

Emily, however, did not find it amusing. "Right well, thank you father, mother," she said cheekily, "and we will be on our way now."

"Oi, where are you going?"

"Back to Mom's."

Cal shot Zoe a look, who had moved from the couch to the doorway by now. "You know about this?"

"Yes…"

"You going to be there to keep an eye on them?" he drilled.

"Dad…" Emily hissed.

"I was going to head that way, yes."

"Good. I want pillows between them on the couch and hand checks every ten minutes."

Emily looked mortified. "Dad!"

"Shut up, Cal, I've got it." Zoe sighed, ushering the teenagers from the room. "C'mon, I'll walk you kids out,"

"Oi, Zoe…" Cal stood and strolled to the door by her, "we gonna finish this later?" he asked quietly.

"I'll call you."

Cal nodded and shut the study door behind her as she left, then moved back to the couch to finish what he had started. A nap. "'Bout bloody time," he mumbled to himself as he closed his eyes. Sadly, not one minute later, there was a knock on the door and he groaned. "What?" he snapped.

Much to his dismay, it was Loker. "Hey, Lightman. Got stuff on the Martins."

"Already?"

"Reynolds is god at this stuff," Loker shrugged.

Cal sighed and sat up again. "Right then, let's get to work."

Tah dah! Getting everything into motion. More to come, very soon. Let me know what you think! And the new chick is coming soon, I promise. I had to get this out of the way first. It's all organized up in my brain, I swear. Cheers- K.