Disclaimers: same as usual!

Notes: Thanks for all the lovely reviews, and I'm sorry for the delay, my computer crashed and I only managed to put this on LJ last Saturday cause a friend lent me her computer... As my luck would have it, was down at that time and I only got my computer back yesterday, so here it is!! I particularly enjoyed writing this chapter so I hope you'll like it. As for the one coming up right after this one, it might be NC-17. I don't remember what the site policy is on this, so if I am not allowed to post that here, I might leave you a note to alert you when I update on the next chapter and a link to my LJ. I'll see what I do. So anyway! Hope you like it!!! :D Reviews are love.

OH! And by the way, to avoid any misinterpretation: wankered=knackered. Same thing. ;)

Chapter XI

"Oy! Torres!" Cal yelled from across the hallway.

Ria spun on her heels and stood motionless, watching her boss hobble up to where she was. She grimaced.

"Are your shoes too tight or something?"

Cal stood in front of her, slouching his shoulders, and tilted his head.

"What?" he breathed out in exasperation.

Ria shook her head, as if to shake a thought from her mind.

"Nothing. What's up?"

He observed her for a long moment and straightened up, widening his eyes.

"Is everything ready?" He paused only for a second before interrupting whatever she was about to say. "And by ready, I mean under control. I don't want to have you calling in the middle of the week, crying because you cannot tell whether-"

"Hi, dad!" Emily's voice rang in his ears and he looked over his shoulder, his finger still pointed at Ria, whose shoulders relaxed slightly as he turned around.

"Hey, Em" he replied, turning fully to face her. He draped his arm around her and pulled her in to kiss the top of her head. "What are you doing here?"

"I…"

"Uh oh" Cal raised his eyebrows, sensing that there was something coming up. Emily had a look of confusion mixed with resignation on her face, and for once he was not sure if he was ready to hear what the problem was.

Emily stared at him, examining his reaction, and sighed.

"Just -girl stuff, you don't want to know" she said, stealing a glance at Ria, who smiled understandingly. Then she looked back at Cal. "I really need to talk to Gillian. She here?"

"Yeah, in her office, love" he replied, pointing to the other end of the hallway. Emily started walking and he hesitated. "Uh, Em?" She turned around as Ria glanced at the clock on the wall. They still had an hour's worth of antsy Lightman to endure.

"Yeah?" Emily's eyes were big and expectant, as usual.

"You ok?" he asked.

"Sure, dad. Don't worry. I'll see you later!" she smiled and waved at him as she made a bee-line to Gillian's office.

Cal faced Ria again, and the small smile he'd given Emily dissolved quickly.

"So, do you oliver?"

Torres eyed him suspiciously.

"I- what?"

"Oh, nothing. Just make sure everything's ready before we leave. I mean it-" he held up a hand, again interrupting her before she had a chance to reply. "-No phone calls. Unless it is paramount business," he waved his hand around, "but that's really for me to decide, so really, no phone calls".

Ria nodded. "Got it. No phone".

"Good". Cal watched her and nodded too. "Good" he repeated.

Then he cocked his head to the side and leaned in slightly, examining her thoroughly.

"Date tonight?"

"What?" she looked up and frowned in confusion. "No, why?"

"You seem pretty apprehensive about time" he said, putting his hands in his pockets.

Ria couldn't help the way her eyes darted to the clock again.

"Loker's waiting for me, that's all".

Cal's face inched closer to hers and he smiled.

"You want me to leave". The corners of her lips twitched ever so slightly. "That's it, isn't it?" Her face became flushed and Cal took a step back, vacating her bubble of personal space.

"Well it's your lucky week then, Torres. Let's see how much you can do without us. You might even impress me".

After a few seconds, he moved past her and then turned, walking backwards to look at her.

"Aye" he pointed at her and motioned with his hand, "follow me".

Ria sprinted after him, watching him as he quickly shuffled forward, his arms swinging beside him, taking up way too much space. She sometimes wondered if he had always walked like that: his body slightly leaning forward, his feet taking long steps, his eyes fixed on whatever was his objective. She had also noticed that when he was angry, or anxious, he often looked like a predator chasing his prey, with no doubt in his mind that he would succeed.

And then, there were times like these: getting a "follow me" from Cal Lightman could mean absolutely anything.

Lightman stopped short at the door of the lab, where Loker was playing a video of a woman in her early thirties. She was fairly pretty, and Eli was rewinding and replaying over and over again a part in which she looked particularly embarrassed. There was an amused grin on his face as he observed carefully.

They walked in and Ria sighed in resignation as Loker failed to realize his boss was standing right behind him, and exclaimed: "Torres, you've got to see this. It's hilarious!"

Cal rolled his eyes and stepped in front of him, checking his watch. Then he stared at Eli.

"Do you think I should wear a tie to my meeting tomorrow?"

Eli chuckled.

"What? Why?"

Cal smiled smugly. "Exactly. We don't have time for nonsense. So will you stop piddling about and get to work?"

"Sure, sir" Loker replied with his best poker face.

Cal's eyes shifted back and forth between one and the other, secretly wondering why the hell he had left them in charge, and hoping they wouldn't do anything stupid. Of course, he always had his computer; but this time Foster wouldn't be at the office but with him, and as good as it sounded he was afraid that both heads of the company traveling at the same time would mean chaos for the ones staying. He was starting to think London was a bad idea, so he decided to push the subject to the back of his head.

He put his hands in his pockets and licked his lower lip, frowning. Then he raised his eyebrows and nodded.

"Okay, then. Go on".

As he was walking out of the lab he looked over his shoulder, and with just a hint of sarcasm in his voice, directed himself to Loker.

"Make me proud".

There was a moment of silence and Loker swiveled in his chair, throwing his head back to see Ria.

"Was that what I thought it was?"

She examined his upside-down face, and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah". Another silence, and then Torres walked over to the chair next to his, sitting down and frowning, her eyes fixed on the frozen image on the screen.

"What's that?" Loker asked her, propping his feet up on the table and stretching out.

"What does oliver mean?"

Loker hesitated before answering.

"Well, as far as I know, that's a common name for boys".

"No, no" she shook her head. "Lightman said to me, 'Do you oliver?' What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh" he laughed, straightening up. "Yeah. That's common slang. As in, do you understand? Lightman uses it every now and then".

Ria held his gaze for a while.

"Huh. I see", she mumbled. "Why oliver?"

"Cromwell" Loker smiled, then looked at the screen in front of him. "Shall we?"

Torres leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms up.

"Yeah".

This was going to be a long week.

Emily knocked her fingers lightly against the glass doors. Gillian looked up from her papers and smiled wholeheartedly, waving the girl in.

"Hey, Em!" she greeted, leaning back to rest against her chair.

"Hi, Gillian" Emily grinned and sat on the chair opposite hers, propping herself up on her elbows against the desk. "Are you busy?"

"Not really, no" Gillian replied with a slight tilt of her head. "How are you? I hadn't seen you in a while".

"True that" her eyes went wide as she nodded. "School's been crazy, with everything that happened last month, everyone's still a little... You know".

"Yeah" the older woman nodded along, her soft gaze posing on Emily's. "I know".

She could see that something was bugging Emily, but she let it go. There was a reason why Cal's daughter was here and by the looks of it, she was going to let Gillian know about it soon enough.

"Anyway-" she started. "Do you mind if I talk to you about something? I really don't think telling my mom is a very good idea".

"Uh, sure" Gillian answered, though a little taken aback by the fact that Em would choose to talk to her rather than her mother or a friend. Which also made her think that it wasn't just teenager stuff she wanted to chat about.

Emily shook her head and sighed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I broke up with Dan. His father- he has cancer, and that's got Dan acting really weird". She paused for a moment. "And I know I should be there for him if I really care about him, I talked about that with dad".

Emily shot Gillian a knowing look, and Foster smiled shyly, touched by the image of Cal giving his daughter some advice other than not eating meat that can't be seen.

"I really do care" she continued, "and I want to be there for him. But it just doesn't feel like he wants to be with me anymore".

"Oh. Wow, well-" Gillian sighed. "Did you talk to him about it before you made the decision?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah. And I mean, I thought we were good, but then everything just went back to not speaking to each other, him not wanting to talk to me about any of it... I just-"

"Got tired of trying" Foster completed her sentence, choosing her words carefully.

Emily glanced at her.

"Yup".

Silence.

"Do you think I made the right decision?"

Gillian crossed her legs and stared up at the ceiling, then looked back at Emily.

"Do you think you've done everything that could be done?"

"Positive".

"And the situation was still making you feel bad?"

"Yeah".

"Then, yes. I think you did the right thing" Gillian concluded, a little more than surprised that Emily's relationship with her boyfriend was, after all, so alike her and Alec's in some way.

She gave her an understanding smile, but then a thought crossed Emily's eyes and her eyebrows pushed against her forehead with sadness.

"Hey, are you okay?" Gillian leaned forward and reached out to touch her hand, now resting on top of her desk.

Emily pursed her lips.

"I'm just scared that he might turn to partying, or drugs, or... whatever, you know?"

She froze for a moment, instinctively withdrawing her hand from the young girl's. Then she collected herself and, settling back into her chair, looked down with a sigh.

She was battling with her own thoughts. What kind of advice was she supposed to give a teenager about such things as illness, separation and drugs? Especially when she had gone through all those things. One could only be objective up to a certain point.

She knew she had been there for Alec. She hadn't left him. She had only left when neither her mind nor her body -nor her heart- could take it anymore. Up to that point, she had always felt somewhat responsible for Alec's drug use, like she somehow owed it to him and it was her obligation as a wife to take care of him... But there were so many other things to be considered; and it had been too much.

But how could she tell Emily all this? The truth was she couldn't, really. And she couldn't tell her to take care of Dan by herself. God forbid that someone so young, let alone Emily, should have to go through something like that at such an early age.

She tried not to let her feelings get in the way, even knowing that Cal would kill her if he heard her. But she just couldn't leave Emily hanging, and she had already made it clear that she wouldn't talk to Zoe about it.

"Well" she started, a little hesitant. Emily's expectant eyes were piercing into her. "Keep a close distance, if you want to make sure that he's coping alright" she nodded. "But don't get too involved. Cause if anything happens, you'll only be caught in the middle, and that almost never turns out fine".

With as much confidence as she could muster, she added:

"And don't take responsibility for anything he does. You did your part. Do not blame yourself for anything. If he falls into any kind of vice or does anything... extreme, well, that doesn't mean you did something wrong. Maybe he needs help from someone more experienced, someone-"

"-like you" Emily said, obviously referring to Gillian's occupation, not the woman per se.

"Exactly".

The two stared at each other for a long moment, sharing an understanding look in the quietness of Gillian's room.

"What's all that schmozzle?" Cal asked with a playful grin as he walked in on them all of a sudden.

Emily smiled and looked at Gillian from the corner of her eye. The way she was looking at her dad made it so obvious that they were seeing each other. Her eyes sparkled and her smile widened to at least twice its normal size.

"Not much" she replied, turning back to Cal. "Just having a lighthearted conversation. Girl stuff, as I told you".

"Pickles!" Cal snorted. "I know you're conspiring against me".

Gillian laughed and shook her head, and he approached, sitting on the arm of Emily's chair. He ran his hand through her curls and then put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.

"Is your mom picking you up?"

"Yup" she replied. "I called her on my way here".

"Good" he said, glancing at Gillian. "What about you, Foster? Need a ride home?"

"Actually, I might take you up on that offer" she said. "I walked here today".

It was a terrible lie. Of course she had come in with Cal, but Emily wasn't supposed to know. Or anyone in the office, for that matter. Gillian knew that Cal didn't really care, but he was testing her, seeing how far she could get without telling the truth –or anyone spotting her lies. It was a challenge for both of them, and it made everything a lot more fun.

About an hour later, Gillian was fastening her seatbelt in Cal's car, both headed to his place.

"What did you think about this Catherine Graham?" he asked, referring to the woman Loker had been ivestigating today.

"Awful liar. And you stared way too much" she said with a pinch of jealousy.

Cal scoffed.

"Seriously? That fake, plazzy excuse for a lady?" He shook his head. "I'd rather have you any day, love".

Gillian blushed slightly and ran a hand through his hair, watching him as he drove.

"So, do I get to play touchy touchy to-night?" he asked, wagging his eyebrows.

"No" she dead-panned.

He looked at her in mock desperation and then kissed the back of her hand.

"Too bad" he said. "I'm wankered, though. So that's good".

Gillian laughed and relaxed against her seat, glad that her bags were waiting for her at Cal's place, and at least for now, she had nothing to worry about.