Gillian softly, but firmly, knocked on the door of the Cube before slipping inside. She had already steeled herself for Ria's look of unabashed disapproval, and was therefore unmoved as she slowly walked up to Katelyn who was looking at her with wide, round eyes.
Gillian squatted down in front of the little girl, "Hi Katelyn, my name's Gillian", Gillian flashed a warm smile that visibly released some of the tension from Katelyn's shoulders. "Is it okay if I join your talk with Ria?" Katelyn shrugged her shoulders and Gillian gave her a sympathetic smile. She knew what it was like to be on the other end of the interview.
Gillian started to push herself up, but turned back as if she had recaptured a memory.
"I almost forgot," Gillian pulled the stuffed animal from behind her back, watching in happiness as Katelyn's eyes brightened. Katelyn immediately made a grab for the puppy, but pulled back at the last second with an imploring look of fear on her face.
The sparkle in Gillian's eyes dimmed, "It's alright, sweetheart, you can take him." Still Katelyn's hand shook slightly as she took her toy into her arms. Gillian knew Katelyn was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but decided not to indulge in empty assurances. Instead she pulled up a chair next to Ria and across from Katelyn.
"Her" Gillian and Ria both looked up at Katelyn in surprise. Katelyn continued, addressing Gillian, "Lucy's a girl".
A small smile graced Gillian's features. "Of course," she responded as if it were obvious. Gillian then started into a harmless round of questioning with Katelyn about friends, books, movies, sports, school, and of course Lucy, even supplying some of her own opinions and commentary. Katelyn's answers were short, but no longer monosyllabic. Just as Ria was about to resignedly slump back into her chair, Gillian started in on the more pertinent part of the interview having evaluated Katelyn as a competent minor.
"Katelyn, did anyone tell you why you came to see me today?"
"I-I don't r-remember," Gillian noted the avoidance and continued on.
"Katelyn, I know this is a scary room and you don't want to be here, but you are safe here. I'll even tell you a secret," Gillian leaned in closer to Katelyn and lowered the volume of her voice. "You see that camera over there?" Gillian pointed to the upper corner of the room, "It's recording our conversation and everything that happens in this room. "
"Like a movie?" Katelyn ventured.
"Yeah, like a movie" Gillian leaned back in her chair and turned her head towards Ria anticipating an inquiry from the younger women.
"Why did you tell her that she's being recorded? Won't that discourage her from talking to us?" Gillian was pleased to note that Ria's whispered query was more out of curiosity rather than admonition.
"No. Katelyn would have been informed of the recordings somewhere down the line, us telling her signifies that we trust her with this knowledge and also that we're not trampling on her privacy any more than we have to. She now knows the conditions of this interview and the weight that her statements hold. If she found out from someone else she most likely would have been under the impression that we betrayed her." Gillian explained, her eyes never wandering from Katelyn. Ria nodded and resettled herself in her chair.
"Are mom and dad watching?" Gillian shook her head in the negative, "No".
"Katelyn, why do you think you're here?" Gillian purposefully changed the wording of her previous question.
Katelyn looked at Gillian, her resolve crumbling. Her breathing became more pronounced and her eyes skirted to the video camera. "To talk about the bad things," Katelyn whispered looking down at the floor.
"What bad things, Katelyn?" Katelyn only shrugged in response, refusing to meet either Gillian or Ria's eyes.
"I don't want to talk about it." Gillian nodded, expecting this answer.
"Katelyn, are there any secrets in your family?"
"Y-yes"
"What would happen if you told someone the secret?"
"I won't tell!" Katelyn yelled, her glances at the camera more suspicious.
"What would happen if you told, Katelyn?"
"D-daddy would get angry" Katelyn fiddled with her hands, caressing her thumb in self-comfort.
"Does your dad get angry a lot?" Again Katelyn shrugged.
"Are there any things he does that you don't like?"
"H-he y-yells" Gillian nodded, encouraging Katelyn to continue, "H-he drinks a lot sometimes and gets very angry." Gillian involuntarily flinched at the mention of drinking and it was several moments before she could squash her emotions into impassiveness and continue. Back in the conference room, Cal was leaning forward in his chair staring at the computer monitor, puzzle pieces rearranging themselves in his mind.
"What happens when he gets very angry?" Gillian managed to let out with only a slight quiver in her voice.
"H-he hit-hurts me," tears started to streak down Katelyn's cheeks which she tried to hide with little success. Gillian swallowed deeply, trying to dissolve the lump that had formed in her throat. She didn't know what to feel at the girls final admittance.
"How does he hurt you, Katelyn?" Gillian felt the need to crush the motherly instincts reverberating in her body that were yearning to reach out and embrace the scared child.
"H-he teaches me discipline because I'm a b-bad girl," Katelyn was crying in earnest now and Gillian gave in to her compassion and knelt in front of the girl, bringing her hand to Katelyn's cheek.
"You are not a bad girl, Katelyn, I have no, No doubt about that," Katelyn gave a barely perceptible nod.
"How does he teach you, Katelyn?"
"He hits me," it was barely audible but it may as well have been an explosion.
Gillian gulped, hating herself for having to pry even further into Katelyn's vulnerability. "Does your dad ever do anything with you that you don't like? Does he ever play games with you?"
Katelyn whole body tensed but she nodded in the affirmative.
"What happens when your dad plays games with you?
"H-he t-touches me," Katelyn involuntarily hugged her stuffed animal to her, her knuckles turning white.
"Where does he touch you Katelyn?"
"M-my private parts," Gillian was barely winning a battle against sudden homicidal intent.
"Did he rape you, Katelyn?" Katelyn didn't answer but instead thrust herself into Gillian's arms and started to cry uncontrollably. Gillian proceeded to whisper soft assurances and platitudes, while rocking back and forth. When the sobs started to simmer into hiccups, Gillian proceeded to ask a question that had been bothering her from the beginning.
"Katelyn, where was your mom when your dad was hurting you?" Katelyn did not reply, remaining quiet, though Gillian had no doubt that she had heard the question.
"Was your mom there?" Gillian moved back slightly so she could look into Katelyn's eyes.
"Yes"
"What was she doing?" Gillian felt pain washing through her body.
"She was helping daddy"
X
It was only when she had safely locked her office door and pulled down the blinds that Gillian allowed herself to collapse onto the ground and breakdown. Even when her tears had subsided, she remained crumpled on the ground thinking over the horrors that she knew she had no chance of distancing herself from.
X
Two hours later, her door was unlocked and a fresh coat of makeup had been applied to her face. The blinds were drawn up, and Gillian watched somberly as Ria walked down the hallway looking completely dejected, not to mention defeated. If Gillian had been a gambling woman, she would have bet that Cal had taken all his anger and channeled it into reprimanding Ria.
Her anger with Ria had been lost, or rather pushed aside in light of recent revelations, and she found herself feeling sympathetic for the well-intentioned but faulty actions of her employee. This feeling was compounded when she noticed with slight panic that Cal was purposefully striding towards her office with a game face that spoke of utter determination.
X
Gillian gulped and made quick work of straightening out her already impeccable outfit. She proceeded to close her eyes and tried to muster all the tranquility and calm that currently held no place in her reserves. She opened her eyes just as Cal barged in through her door.
Cal walked cockily up to her, leaving barely a foot of breathing room between the two of them. If Gillian hadn't been claustrophobic before she certainly was now. Recognizing the insatiable and unrelenting glint in his eyes only made her feel more trapped, and she desperately averted her eyes looking for an escape. She was disconcerted to find that she had already been backed into her desk, and physical escape was impossible. She was only left with mental manipulation and distraction, to get out of this encounter with her privacy- her past-intact.
"You're hiding something from me, darling." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. And she couldn't deny it without giving herself away, so she tactfully decided to remain silent.
"Katelyn dredging up any childhood memories, luv?" Cal's question was accompanied by his signature lean and head tilt. The question was asked with a false innocence that Gillian easily saw through.
Cal carried on correctly anticipating that she wouldn't respond.
"What was your childhood like, Foster?" The second the query left his lips, Cal let a silence linger into the room, letting Gillian make the next move.
Gillian proceeded to steer her mental wanderings away from nighttime beatings and morning cleanups (and cover-ups), to the happy, if rare, times of her troubled childhood.
X
"Hurry up, Gill!" Robbie yelled up the stairs laughing.
"I'm coming, just wait a second!"
"Hurry up!" he stomped his feet in frustration.
"All right, all right," Gillian appeared before him in white shorts and a baby blue t-shirt, smiling in good humor at her brothers antics.
"Ah, there's my princess," their father stated with pride, "now come on, we want to get there before its swamped with customers."
With that the trio exited the typical country home. A home that ironically gave off a comfortable and safe atmosphere, adjectives that Gillian would never use in accordance to her childhood. The heinous and violent nature of the abuse Gillian and her brother had survived in there was a sharp contrast to the clean brick siding and crisp green lawn with blooming flowers.
It was a simple, classic house, typical to the rest of the quiet and peaceful neighborhood. It was structured out of a deep, red brick, with the only exception being the grey stone surrounding of the house's central window. The roof was constructed out of deep, grey slaps, held up at one segment of the house by white columns to form a porch that was perfectly inlayed into the side of the building. It was an inconspicuous house in an ordinary neighborhood.
"What flavor are you going to chose Robbie?" Gillian asked playfully, knowing the excited response her question would provoke.
"Chocolate. No, rainbow swirl. No, " and it seemed the metaphorical light bulb lit up, "BOTH!"
Gillian laughed along with her father, the look of an enlightened genius Robbie was now sporting would not have been out of place on the face of an individual who had discovered the key to world peace and eternal happiness.
X
Gillian refused to think of the drinking binge and subsequent broken wrist that had occurred later on that day. It wouldn't do to dwell on bad memories when Cal was analyzing and cataloging her microexpressions. Bringing pleasant memories to the forefront of her thoughts ensured that positive emotions would leak into her facial expressions, bringing a false honesty to the words she was about to speak.
"My childhood may not have been perfect, but it was satisfactory." Cal's eyebrows raised to new heights. He might not be the word choice and language expert in their partnership but he didn't think any wanker would have been fooled by that response. And despite the fact that he had seen happiness flitter across her face during her reply, he couldn't help but feel that it was tainted. Forced.
"I don't believe you, luv" Cal stated gently.
Gillian could sense her defenses slipping and irrationality settling in.
She had to distract him before he could continue. Stop him before he wandered into territory she didn't want him to explore. His ignorance was her bliss. There was no need to disrupt the status quo.
Gillian vaguely realized that she was panicking, she was breathing more heavily and her lips had gone dry. She licked her lips nervously. What was she going to do? She couldn't think of anything short of killing him that would stop his probing. She shiftily scoped out the room looking for someone, anyone to help. But it was useless, it was only her and Cal. Cal. She noted that his eyes were still on her. No, not on her. On her lips. Distraction.
Without any inhibitions or delay, Gillian brought her hand to the back of Cal's neck and pulled him in for a kiss.
It was agonizingly awkward at first, and Gillian wondered whether the women Cal had been with always had to do all the work, but soon Cal's hands crept up to cup her face and his lips started working against hers. Gillian wondered briefly of the significance of it only taking a few seconds for the shock to wear off, but she quickly lost her train of thought when Cal's tongue slid across her lower lip requesting entrance. Gillian's hands slipped into his hair, as Cal's left slid to her lower back pushing her closer against him and his right skated to the back of her neck and added a new intensity to act. Gillian thought about why she was thinking at all and in that moment decided to surrender herself to the passion.
Passion?
Gillian blinked.
It was supposed to be distraction, avoidance, escape from questioning. She pulled back, taking a few steps away to regain her bearings.
Cal's arm slowly rose and he ran his shaking hand through his hair. He swallowed deeply before he spoke, "What was that?"
Hell if she knew.
X
X
In my defense, it took over a week to update because this chapter was a) the longest chapter I have ever written and b) extremely hard to organize and write. That being said, I hope you enjoyed it :D Please review!