AN: Hello once again. This story has taken yet another turn I didn't expect, but what a turn it will be. This is the first installment of the Zoe/Gill showdown. I have made a couple corrections in previous chapters to fix my math and the quote from the show in the first chapter (Gill says I'm okay, not I'm fine like I put). I adjusted their friendship from 15 to 18 years so that Gill would indeed have been around while Cal was with Zoe, but before they were married and had Emily.

I don't own the show or the characters...etc. Enjoy!

Ch 7: Confrontation

The next two weeks went by without much fuss for Cal and Gillian. They told Emily of their decision to be together and received mixed reactions from her. Cal had thought that Em would be over the moon about them, but he sensed that she had some doubts. Not wanting to make Gill uncomfortable, he let it go at the time and would revisit it with her in private.

Lost in thought, he didn't hear Gillian come through his office door. He looked up at her when he felt her hands on his shoulders.

"Hello."

He smiled at her and she went to sit in the chair across from his desk.

"Hey… gave Loker and Torres a case before they left for the night. The cops think that a group of kids are involved in a shop lifting ring and the kids insist that two local teachers had them do it as part of an experiment. They'll start first thing in the morning."

"Right. So are you up for joining me for dinner later? Em's going to her mum's."

"Have you talked to her at all? She seemed a bit conflicted over the news."

He smiled at her. She was always thinking of others…he loved that about her.

"Not yet. I wanted to give her a couple days of space. You know how teens are…we may have just caught her on a bad day or she may have concerns. Either way, I didn't want to badger her and then have her off to Zoe's. If she does have issue with it then we need time to talk about it."

He saw her nod and the concern cross her face briefly. He knew that Em would come around, but he also knew that Gillian would hold back until things were settled. She always treated Emily as if she was family and she never patronized her. Gill would take things at Emily's pace, which pleased him.

"Yes to dinner. I'm going to go finish up some paperwork before we leave for the night."

He walked over to her and grabbed her hand and pulled her to him before she could leave. He let his hand fall to her ass as he kissed her soundly.

"Well, Cal. Looks like you've finally landed the 'unattainable' one."

Cal broke the kiss and rested his head for a moment on Gillian's holding her in place after anticipating her move to separate herself from him. He looked in her eyes and they had a short conversation between them without uttering a syllable. She thought she should leave. He was okay with her staying, but knew she would leave them anyway.

He kissed her briefly on the lips before they separated. Gillian turned and smiled at Zoe, greeting her as she always had…with a cool, professional tone.

"Good evening, Zoe. Cal, I'll be in my office."

Cal waited until Gillian left, admiring her ass on the way out, and then turned his attention to his ex wife. It was the first time that he had seen or spoken to her since he realized the extent of how she manipulated him… No. That wasn't right. He allowed her to manipulate him – even before they were married. He still couldn't get over how much power he relinquished to her.

He looked her up and down and noticed her smug smile. Now that he finally had the blinders off, he could see her for what she was…a cold, vindictive woman. Normally, he would feel a familiar desire when he was in her presence, but the spell had finally been broken. She was a beautiful woman on the outside, but all he saw now was her bitterness. She didn't realize that the game had changed.

"Hello, Zoe. What brings you here?"

He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk. She sat down in the chair recently vacated by Gillian.

"Emily said to pick her up here, that she was dropping your car off here for you. She's not here yet?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but she should be here momentarily."

He kept his answers short. He didn't want to get into the details of what he had discovered with Gillian's help since he knew that Emily would be there soon.

"Sooooo… You and her have finally brought your friends with benefits routine out in the open. Does Emily know?"

Her eyes were cold and her words were tinged with spite. He knew that she was trying to push him into a fight by insinuating that they had been together before either of them was divorced.

"Yes, Emily knows that Gillian and I finally decided to pursue a relationship together. She also knows, as you do, that we were only close friends before things changed a couple of weeks ago."

Cal felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out to answer it.

"Hello, Em…yeah sure, I'll come unlock the door. Where are you now? Okay, love. Bye."

He got up and walked past Zoe.

"She'll be here in a few."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Gillian went back to her office. As soon as she heard Zoe's voice, she felt uneasy. Her relationship with Cal is still new and they really wanted to keep Zoe out of it for a while, but that didn't happen. She knew deep down that Cal would be true to his word and that their relationship was built on a foundation of friendship that was forged over many years. Her doubts didn't center on Cal's fidelity, but on the fact that Zoe could manipulate him in a way that no one else could. She had fully expected to hear them shouting at each other by now, but things were quiet. Too quiet.

She turned her attention back to the paperwork on her desk and the budget spreadsheet on the computer screen. She cringed inwardly when she heard Zoe enter her office, but expertly masked her disdain at the woman.

"Where's Cal?"

"He went to let Emily in. So you and Cal aren't hiding your trysts anymore?"

"Excuse me?"

"Oh please. You know exactly what I'm talking about. How long have you been fucking my husband?"

Gillian let nothing show on her face. She knew exactly where she and Cal stood. She no longer had to take a powerless position in this triangle, as she was Cal's lover, friend and partner. The latter two gave her no authority to interfere in Cal and Zoe's relationship, so she had always taken what she said without argument. Zoe always took cheap shots at her, but she always took the high road and didn't let them bother her…well she didn't let Zoe or Cal see that the comments bothered her anyway.

This was different, though, and probably the result of Zoe walking in on them. She could see Zoe's tactics a mile away.

"Cal and I have been friends for, what, 18 years now," Gillian mused. "About two weeks ago, we decided to pursue a relationship and discussed it with Emily shortly thereafter. Whether or not we are fucking is none of your concern and fortunately for him, he's not married to you anymore."

Gillian saw the blatant anger and hatred on her face. No micro expressions there.

"Who the hell do you think you are talking to me like that?!?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Cal had his arm around Emily's shoulders as they walked back to his office. They both stopped in the hallway when they heard Zoe shouting.

"Em, love…go wait for me in my office."

"Dad, who is mom yelling at?"

"Probably Gillian, as she was the only other one here when your mum showed up. Just go to my office and I'll sort it out."

He kissed her on the cheek and went toward Gillian's office, as she headed in the opposite direction to his.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Emily was tired of being dismissed from the room when it came to the adults in her life. Her mom and dad had no problems blowing up in front of her when they were still married, but now they shooed her into another room. She figured that her mom finally found out about her dad and Gillian being together.

She flopped in her dad's chair and spun around to look out the window. When she saw the camera mounted in the parking lot, she got an idea.

'I'll find out what's going on…'

She moved the mouse to get the computer out of the screensaver and clicked the icon for the video surveillance. She scrolled through the cameras until she found the cameras in and outside of Gillian's office. She plugged in her earphones to the computer so she wouldn't tip off her dad. She sat back, rewound the video to catch up and watched her mom and Gillian arguing while her dad stood just outside the office.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Gillian allowed a small smirk to play at her lips.

"Look, Zoe…I've taken your shit for a long time without comment because your opinion and snide remarks aren't important to me. But I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and listen to you spout innuendo, lies and attack me just because you can't handle your ex being with me."

"You know Cal only wanted you because he couldn't have you. He'll discard you when he gets bored, just like all his other sluts. He kept coming back to me, though. He always came back to me."

Gillian shifted her posture…sitting straight, elbows on the desk and eyes staring down Cal's ex. She was tired of yielding to her and decided that she would stand her ground with Zoe.

"Came back to you. As in past tense. We're together now and unlike you and Cal, he and I have an 18 year friendship as our foundation. We've seen each other at our worst and lowest points and still came through stronger than ever. You had a relationship built on sex and manipulation; of course it didn't last."

"You bitch!"

Gillian smirked and leaned back in her chair. She knew Zoe was on the defensive and scrambling to regain the upper hand she was so used to having. She knew Zoe never expected her to fight back after years of ignoring her. 'I should have done this years ago.'

"You knew, didn't you? All those years ago, you knew that there was a connection between Cal and I. That's why you pushed him into marrying you, isn't it?"

"That's absurd. He went after me."

The false indignation in Zoe's voice was unmistakable.

"Like hell he did. You were on him like a dog in heat. I was there…remember. Unlike Cal, however, I'm trained in physical science and behavioral science. He couldn't see you for what you really were…a manipulative barracuda. He let you manipulate him emotionally over and over again and through the years it took its toll on him."

Gillian watched as Zoe paced in her office like a caged animal…anger swirling in her wake. She chose her words carefully. She knew that Cal and Emily would be up here soon and wanted to end this before they got back. Unfortunately, Zoe showed no signs of backing down.

"Look, let's just agree to disagree and end this before Emily and Cal get back. Nothing good is going to come of it."

"Agree to disagree?!? I don't think so. You've been after him from day one. Always fawning over him. Following him around like a stray. He didn't want you then and he'll tire of you now. You're nothing but a failure…your marriage failed, your adoption failed, you can't have children and you've spent nearly your entire post college career riding on Cal's coattails. You are a failure."

Gillian felt like she had been physically punched. Having lived through the experiences was bad, but having Cal's ex hurling her failures at her was worse. There was no masking this and she could tell by the smug look on Zoe's face that she knew her words hit home. She felt somewhat defeated and angry.

"Ok, Zoe. You want to put all the cards on the table, then let's do so."

Gillian got a faraway look and began speaking; more to herself than to Zoe.

"There's something that I've never told you or Cal, but you better sit down for this one. I don't understand why you hate me so much, even after all I've done to protect the three of you."

Gillian paused, gathering her thoughts and Zoe sat back looking at her with curiosity. Her anger temporarily muted by Gillian's last statement.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Cal stood outside Gillian's door and couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew that Zoe disliked Gillian and was jealous of her, but never thought that she would be so hateful to her. As angry as he was at her, he was proud of Gillian for finally standing her ground with Zoe. All these years, Gillian took Zoe's bullshit without a word in her own defense. She always treated Zoe with a professional demeanor even though he knew that some of what Zoe has said had to get under her skin. Clenching his fists and his jaw, he wanted so badly to go in and defend Gillian against his ex's tirade.

Gillian's words got his attention and stopped him in his tracks.

'What hasn't she told me?'

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Emily sat looking dumbfounded at the computer screen. She couldn't believe what was going on before her eyes. Her mom went into Gillian's office looking for a fight and yet Gillian seemed so composed at first. She stood up to her mom, but her words didn't hold the hatred and malice that her mom's did. Even after her mom called Gillian a failure, Gillian still didn't retaliate with the vengeance she would expect from anyone being attacked like that.

Emily thought about Gillian's statement about protecting them as she watched her mom and dad both forget about their intentions at the moment, instead hanging on Gillian's words.

She always thought that her dad and Gillian would be good together, but when it finally came to pass she wasn't exactly thrilled by it. She supposed it was because she got used to having her dad to herself or maybe it was because she was jealous of the time that he and Gillian got to spend together at work. Seeing Gillian now, after having been attacked and belittled by her mom, she was beginning to understand what her dad saw in her. She was different than anyone else she knew. She didn't lash out when she got hurt. She didn't defend herself by attacking others. She was nothing like her mother.

She sat forward in the chair, waiting to see what Gillian would say.

tbc