Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with the television show "Lie to Me" and I won't pretend to.

Author's Note: Hm...for some reason I found this chapter hard to write. :/ But, hey! I tried my best! :) I hope you enjoy it! Reviews, please. ;)


4. Help

Ben stopped in his steady pace, unsure if he was hearing things or not; there were some weird things that went on with these old buildings. He strained his ears to listen carefully.

Thud thud thud.

"Please, Reynolds! Please!!" shouted a stifled, frantic female voice. Torres. He quickly strode over to the door subject to her beating. "Please, Reynolds..." she sobbed.

"Torres?" he inquired loudly, leaning towards the door.

"Oh, Reynolds!" she gasped. "We need help!"

"Why, what's wrong?" he asked, trying to budge the door. There was a simple lock, which he untwisted, and tried again. But, there was still no movement.

"It's no use." she cried. "There's too much...stuff in the way."

"What happened?" he demanded, looking for another way in.

"Jacobson locked us in here...there was a bomb..." she blubbered, her emotions clearly stretched to their limits. Ben couldn't help but become anxious himself, since he had never imagined Ria to be the type to break down. "Eli...he's...he's..." She had difficulty fighting to the second half of her statement and Ben felt like tiny needles were poking into his insides.

"He's what, Torres?" he barked, staring at the wall as he waited for the dreaded answer.

"He's almost dead." she finally choked out. "There's so much blood, and it's cold...I just...Reynolds, help!" Ben's breath lingered in his chest until he finally remembered to release it. He was quiet, unsure how to answer. If Gillian hadn't had an awful feeling, how long would it have taken for them to find the two? Would it have been too late by then?

"Reynolds?" Ria whimpered on the other side of the metal door.

"I'm going to call help. Stay with Eli, I'll come back in a few." he said monotonously, still stunned by this discovery. He walked briskly to the outdoors, finding service on his phone to make a couple calls. First, help; then....Lightman.


"Jerk." Gillian sighed, still angry at Cal for his scoffing. She stood in the break room, stirring a third mug of herbal tea to soothe her nerves. Foster didn't want to leave the haven of the room, still wanting to avoid that awful idiot of a co-worker. She had always looked past his negativity and uncompassionate moments, but she was so hurt by how little of faith he had in her and her words that she couldn't let it go. A knock on the doorframe caused her to glance up and see the very person she wanted to be away from.

"Love..." he mumbled, holding his cell phone in his hand. "I'm sorry." Terror gripped icily to her heart, widening her eyes.

"What is it? What's happened?" she shot off, setting down her tea and stepping towards Cal.

"Reynolds says Torres and Loker are stuck in part of the abandoned building." he muttered.

"Are they okay? They're just locked in, right?" she interrogated, coming closer still.

"Torres told Reynolds there was a bomb...Jacobson locked them in one of the rooms." Cal answered, then paused. Gillian's lungs lacked movement for a few seconds. "She also said that...Loker's badly injured." The air held inside Foster came out in a rush, only to be sucked in sharply.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she gasped, a hand fluttering up to her collar bone as her eyes watered.

"I don't know; that's all he told me." Cal admitted guiltily. "I suppose that means we'll be going then, huh?"

"Oh, Cal..." she cried, crumpling up into his arms as her fears came true.

"It's alright, love." he assured her uselessly. She continued to weep bitterly into his shoulder, still affected from the shock.


"Come on, Eli. Wake up..." Ria moaned, gently shaking his shoulder for the tenth time. His pulse was still detectable, though barely, and his breath still came and went in small, steady amounts. Ria had never seen him so still in her life and it was just so...wrong. He didn't move from his office chair very often, but his eyes always danced with a smirk and there was life to his face. Right now, there was nothing. He looked more like sculpted marble than he did a person.

"This isn't fair." Ria cried. "It's not fair..." Help was too slow and Eli's death was coming much too quick.

"Torres?" Ben's deep voice boomed through the door. Ria scrambled to reach the door, quick to reply to her only help line.

"Yeah?" she croaked, leaning her head against the cold iron.

"What's happened with Eli? How bad is it?" he inquired, afraid to hear the answer.

"We were in..." She sniffled, then went on. "separate areas of the room when it happened. Eli was the first to see the bomb and he was...he was the closest." She inhaled a shaky breath. "I don't know...there was just...there's lots of blood."

"Where? Where was he injured?" Ben demanded from the other side.

"His...his stomach..." she answered. "He's really pale...I told him not to go to sleep, but now he won't wake up." Tears rolled down her face as anguish enveloped her delicate features.

"Is he going to die?" she sobbed.


"That's brilliant, Reynolds." Cal said into his phone as he drove along the nearly deserted roads. "We'll be there in about ten minutes." Lightman flipped his phone closed and looked over at Gillian. She gazed out the window with reddish eyes and a tissue wound within her fingers.

"They're trying to get to Torres and Loker now." Cal informed her. "They're cutting open the door to get to 'em." She nodded, dabbing her eyes with the tissue. Reynolds had called the various emergency teams to successfully conclude this unlucky situation, including the bomb squad. Cal was speeding along the blacktop, rushing to get to the incident. Now he felt the anxiety and the fear, and he was sorry he'd ever doubted Gillian. His mind floated into its own world, repeating Gillian's words.

What if I had this feeling about Emily?

Now that Cal thought about, he would have called his daughter, just to make sure. But why not his team? Why weren't they as important? Of course, he had gotten a lunatic to quit pressing a gun against Ria's head, telling the madman something about her making tea... But why didn't he care enough just to check up on them? Was it because he thought they were capable? Or was it because his time was more valuable than a simple phone call?

They're people, not tools.

Cal cringed as Gillian's blatant statement of how she thought he viewed his team rippled through his conscious. Tools? Is that really how he treated them? He depended on them to do the work allotted to them and they worked hard but...they were human. For weeks he had been brushing away guilt as he watched Loker mooch from his co-workers, probably hardly having enough money to eat proper meals anymore. He had no pay...so how was he paying his bills? He was at The Lightman Group practically all day, how would he find time for a second job? But, it was proper punishment and Loker was the one choosing to stay on the team. Was he really that intent to work at The Lightman Group? A new appreciation for Eli settled into Cal's brain as he took the time to think of the situation.

Reach out more to others this week.

"You alright, Gill?" he asked. It was easy for him to show compassion to Foster and comforting her was just as easy. He'd done it several times before; it wasn't awkward for him to reach out to her.

"I'm fine." she sniffled. But, he was unaware of the frantic, hectic thoughts that tangled in her mind.

They could hear the gravel grind beneath them as they pulled up to the now busy site. Reynolds's SUV was parked beside what they knew was the vehicle Loker and Torres had came in. An ambulance waited for their patients and Cal's and Gillian's innards squeezed uneasily. As soon as the car was stopped, Cal turned the car off and they jumped out, quickly trekking towards the building.

Their footsteps echoed around the cold interior as they jogged to where all the action was. Ben stood stiffly and observed the work, waiting anxiously for the iron door to be taken off so he could rush inside.

"How's it goin'?" Cal asked the agent. Gillian hugged herself as she stared at the door.

"They're making progress." Ben answered, bouncing on his heels worriedly. "This whole thing just makes me nervous." The three of them watched the sparks fly as they watched the men try and remove the door. Gillian was just about ready to rip it off by herself.


Ria listened to the muffled noises outside, salty water flowing freely down her face. She would've held onto Eli's hand just for her own comfort, but it did more damage than comfort. It was like holding onto ice and it sent uncomfortable chills of dread up her back. If she had only looked for her phone when she found Eli...If she'd found it then, it would still have had enough battery to call for help. Why didn't she look for it? She must not have been thinking. Imagine that: a job that forces her to use logic and she forgets to apply it when it really matters. Ria was all Eli had to depend on and she failed. At least, she thought she did.

"Oh, he'll never make it...!" she cried, finally giving up and covering her face with bloodied hands. "He's going to die!"

The iron door popped off its hinges.


Author's Note: Intense. Now to stretch my fingers for the next chapter... A friendly reminder: reviews. Please? ;P