Well now this was a nice surprise! Just came out of nowhere, the way I like it. Wasn't planning on updating until next week but lucky for you I couldn't tame the bestial muse;) Thanks once again to all who read and reviewed.

It was well after 7pm and the entire team, save Cal, was still at the office. It was becoming clear to them all that taking on the Broder-Kemmel account would mean more than just money at the end of the day. Besides the extra paperwork that proved a nightmare, with Torres and Loker handling the evaluations, Gillian and Cal were left to deal with any other case that came in. On this day, they had no choice but to fly solo, each dealing with a case on their own, in order to get things done. Gillian had just arrived back from her interview with a blackjack guru being sued by a small casino in the area for allegedly counting cards and cleaning them out. Cal was off to his family dinner with Emily and Zoe as he had earlier promised and Gillian decided that it would be best if she sat this one out.

Although she felt part of the family, Gillian understood that when Zoe was around she should keep her distance, and it was a position she accepted. It was one of the complications that came along with entering a ready-made family and Gillian felt strongly about keeping her place, as she had put it to Cal a few hours earlier after he had insisted she join them.

"Do you have a minute?" Loker fell in step with Gillian as she made her way to the break room. It had been a long day and all she was focused on was a strong cup of coffee to prepare her for the lengthy report writing session that loomed ahead.

"Can it wait?"

"No," his response was trite and Gillian acquiesced by following him to the lab.

"That's the interview with the teenage girl from earlier today," Gillian said as the video clip sprang to life on the monitor in front of her. She stood over Loker's shoulder and watched as he brought up the vocal stress analysis of the same interview.

"Yeah, you were talking Ria through the evaluations so I thought I'd listen in."

"But I thought this case was closed?"

"Just – watch," Loker's tone carried an air of urgency that abated Gillian's impatience somewhat and she decided to humor him.

"Well what am I looking for?"

"What we always look for," Loker said matter-of-factly. "She accused her father's best friend of seducing her and getting her hooked on meth. Put up a very convincing performance."

"Addicts always do," Gillian said, thoughtfully as the display on the monitor grabbed her full attention. "It's because they actually believe the lies they tell to be the truth."

"But a lie's a lie. What their body doesn't tell us, their voice will," Loker offered.

"Exactly." Gillian tried to hide the surprise in her voice.

The young associates had both come a long way since starting at The Lightman Group and even though she had faith in both Torres and Loker's ability, moments like this sometimes caught her off guard.

"There," she said, pointing to the monitor, "her shoulder. She has no confidence in what she just said."

"And if you look at the VSA over here," he said as he brought up the vocal stress analysis of that particular part of the interview, "it corresponds."

"Eli, are we approaching a point? Because everything you've showed me is pretty basic. I don't see anything that should –"

"Did you listen to Lightman?" he interrupted.

"What about him?"

"You don't find anything strange about the way he conducted this interview?"

"What does it matter? He got the result he wanted." Gillian's patience was beginning to wear thin and she didn't like where the conversation seemed to be headed.

"Well first of all, he didn't form a baseline." Loker looked at Gillian for the first time, waiting to see her reaction. In classic Foster style though, there wasn't one. She carefully tucked the disquiet she felt behind the stoic presentation she alighted for Loker's benefit. It wasn't like Cal to stray that far from procedure; forming a baseline with a new client was one of the most important things necessary in getting an irrefutable read and he had neglected to do it.

"He went in," Loker continued off Gillian's stony expression, "read her and then left. Then he came to me and asked me what I thought." He said this last as if it was the most unthinkable behavior for Cal.

"I know you think he doesn't value your opinion but-"

"No, he didn't ask me like that. He told me he was pretty sure that she was lying – his words. Then he asked me what I got from the VSA and whether I agreed."

Gillian took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as she processed what Loker was telling her.

"It was like he was asking me to tell him whether she was lying or not. As if he didn't know." He stopped talking then and waited.

Gillian kept her gaze on the VSA as it looped. If what Loker had said were true, it meant that Emily leaving was having a bigger impact on Cal than she had anticipated and the situation would only become worse if it wasn't addressed. Knowing Cal, though, Gillian also knew that addressing it with him could be the cause of it becoming worse.

"I'm sure that's not what it was," she finally broke the silence that had come to rest between them.

"I wouldn't have come to you if I thought it was nothing," Loker persisted.

"Well I'm telling you that it's nothing."

"You didn't see him. He couldn't tell with certainty whether-"

"Well like I said, addicts are convincing liars and-"

"This is Lightman we're talking about here. He could read your face even if you didn't have one and today, he looked off his game."

"I think you're reading too much into this, Eli. What with Emily leaving tomorrow-"

"Don't do that. Don't let the fact that you share a bed cloud your judgement." He knew he had overstepped before the words had left his mouth and the glare from Gillian confirmed it. It meant too much to him, however, to leave it alone.

"I suggest you stop talking now," her tone was firm and heavy with caution.

"Lightman has done better work with a gun to his head and you know it. Don't use Emily as-"

"And you know," Gillian interjected, raising her voice as she abandoned the tethers on her rising irritation, "that it's other people's lives that Cal holds in high regard, not his own."

"I know what I saw," the words spilled from his mouth as his mind frantically tried to put an end to it before further antagonizing his boss.

"Drop it, Eli. And get back to the work we're paying you to do." This time Gillian didn't wait for a response but quickly turned on her heel and stormed out of the lab.

She had a hard enough job awaiting her without having to worry about Cal all evening. At the same time, she had to admit that after that conversation, worrying about Cal was all she would be doing.

Gillian's headlights cast an eerie luminescence on the familiar posture of one Cal Lightman sitting on her front steps as she pulled into her drive. His expression was pensive as he watched her get out of her car and walk toward him. It was enough to make Gillian decide not to mention the conversation she had had with Loker earlier that evening.

"I should probably get a key made," she said lightly as he rose to greet her.

Cal placed the softest of kisses on her cheek, the chastity of which made Gillian regard him suspiciously. When surrounded by people they knew and strangers alike, Cal could barely tell the difference between what was appropriate and inappropriate touching and now, standing in front of her door without an audience, the best he could do was make her feel like a fifth grader being sent to bed by her father.

He snaked his arms around her waist in the way that made her forget life could be cruel and she let him pull her into him. Cal's gaze bore into hers as he spoke, barely above a whisper

"It's after ten."

"I wasn't in the mood to bring work home tonight," she responded, matching her tone to his. "Have you been waiting long?"

He shook his head slowly and let his arms drop to grasp her cold hands between his.

"Do you want to come inside?" His stillness worried her; it seemed as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and worse still, it seemed as if he were utterly comfortable doing it.

"It will just make it harder for me to leave," he objected. "I'm making a big breakfast for Em tomorrow before we head off to the airport."

Gillian nodded her understanding, all the time studying Cal's face for the slightest hint of what he was thinking and why he had come to see her.

"You're still coming?" His question brought her attention back from the wells of his eyes in which she was slowly drowning and she nodded again, this time a little more animated.

"Of course I am. Wouldn't miss it." The smile she plastered on her face almost hurt and she knew that Cal noticed the concern in her eyes because when next he spoke, it was to the point.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm not jealous of your relationship with Rourke. I trust you. So…" he let his words fade with the last of his breath as he looked at her and the amazingly terrifying feeling of vulnerability slowly crept over him.

"Then what's the problem?"

"I was angry because you didn't come to me with it, Gill. This here," he closed the space between them again, "this is us. And secrets, they have no place here. That's not what we're about."

Gillian took a moment to reflect on what was happening. It was rarely that Cal allowed himself to become so completely vulnerable and the gesture made her mist up just a bit as she managed to acknowledge him with a nod.

"I'm sorry," she added to the apology that had been floating behind her eyes that whole time.

His acceptance was a light brush of his fingers to her cheek and the way that her breath escaped her lips when he did, made Cal want them.

Her lips. On his.

So he took them.

The kiss was gentle, sweet; their tongues unyielding as they whispered their I'm sorries and I forgive yous, all the time reaching for that comfort they each knew the other held. When Cal broke from her he was breathless and a quick kiss to her forehead sufficed as the perfect Good night.

"Cal!" she called to his back as he made his way from her. He diligently turned and watched as she crossed the distance he had created. "What did Zoe have to say?"

The thought occurred to her only as he was leaving; Cal had mentioned Zoe's visit to her and she was curious as to what his ex-wife had to say to him. His shoulders slumped visibly at the mention of her name and his demeanor resembled his defeated form as it had perched on her steps moments before.

"In a nutshell – she said that if I'm not careful, I'm going to end up weighing you down." His tone was matter-of-fact as he spoke but Gillian knew that he was simply doing a very good job of hiding his disconcertedness.

"And do you believe her?" she asked quietly, apprehensively.

She recognized that besides herself, Zoe was the one other person who knew Cal better than he knew himself and for her to have made an observation like that warranted a measure of caution.

"Little bit," Cal conceded, his gaze held firmly on the grass at their feet.

"Don't." The quiet desperation in Gillian's tone made him look up.

"She said I thrive in chaos and that if I can't find it, I create it. That much is true, I'll grant her that."

The hand that touched his cheek came with more than a command for his attention; it demanded that he take the words about to be spoken and bury them in the deepest confines of his heart where they should always be cherished.

"I fell in love with the man you are, Cal," Gillian started. "Not the idea of what you should be."

And still her hand on his cheek. It was as if it formed a physical link for the words to not only be spoken but also to flow from her soul directly into his where they would find a new home.

"Your love is not a burden to me. So don't listen to her because what we have, it's ours. It belongs to us and nobody else."

She was standing so close to him that he could not only see his reflection in her eyes but in the tears that filled them as well.

"You're too good for me," the choked whisper came from Cal.

"Bullshit," she said as she took back whatever space remained between them and kissed him.

Gillian broke from him to find a slight smile play on his lips and her face mirrored his. It seemed to have worked; Cal seemed lighter than when she had arrived to find him on her front steps. She squeezed his hand which had somehow woven itself into hers.

"Now go home before I make you happy you came here."

He left her with another kiss to her cheek before making his way back to his car. Gillian's smile faded quickly as the car moved out of sight and the realization dawned that the road with Cal was going to be an arduous one; there was so much damage that she was going to have to consolidate. It wasn't a question of whether she loved him or not. That much was plain. The question she faced was whether it would all be worth it, and if it wasn't, did she have the heart to admit it to herself and walk away.

TBC