Thank for the reviews! They really make me HAPPY! Thanks to everyone who wished me good luck on my exams! Today was the last one, so I'm really happy about that! HOORAY!

Chapter 21

Cal decided that it would be best to have Gillian in his guest room because it had a bathroom ajoining it. Then she wouldn't have to move so far if she needed to hurry there. He bended and picked her up easily, noting how small she seemed and how light she weighed. He felt her warmth spreading through his body instantly where her body was touching him and he swallowed as he turned away from the bed and carried her through the hallway towards the guest room. It felt so good to hold her. To feel that she was still alive. She felt so warm and soft. He reluctantly lowered her on the bed and quickly placed some blankets over her so she wouldn't be cold.

'Here you go luv.' He whispered as he kissed her on her cheek.

He was glad that she was sleeping so much. Actually, he hadn't spoken to her since the hospital. And even in the hospital she hadn't said much to him. She had fallen asleep so soon again. And talking about sleep, he was tired too. He could use a decent night sleep too.

00

Gillian tossed and turned, she was feeling so hot. The heat was killing her. She felt so trapped. She tossed again and opened her eyes shortly. Where was she? Everything became wide and blurry again. So fuzzy… Everything was so fuzzy.. And she felt so uncomfortable.. And alone. Very alone…. She began to turn around again. Quick sand, she fell in a pool of quick sand and she tried to get a hold of the edge of the root of the tree in front of her, that was the only way to get out but it pulled so hard on her legs, it grabbed her and pulled her down, more and more, she couldn't breath anymore and… She fell into a deepness that frightened her so much that she wanted to scream, but no sound left her lips as the sand closed in on her and left everything dark around her…

00

Cal sighed as he looked in the mirror and was shaving his cheeks. That was really necessary. He looked like he had slept on the streets for weeks now. Bloody hell of a week. He had just taken a shower and had a white towel wrapped around his hips. He studied the dark big bruise on his ribcage as he remembered the men that had beaten him up. And then he remembered her caring fingers on his skin. Wanting to heal him, to help him so badly. He put her out of his mind instantly.

00

Gillian sighed in slight relief. She suddenly felt content again. At peace. Like she was safe again. She was drifting silently on a boat in a calm sea. Everything went slow. Very slow..

00

'So she didn't fire the gun then.' Cal asked in his phone as he walked out of his bathroom towards his bedroom as he stifled a tired yawn.

'No, there was no gunpowder on her hands.' Reynolds said relieved.

'I'm glad. So you're going to leave her alone then?'

'We still need to know her side of the story.'

'Yeah, well she hasn't barely been awake today, hasn't spoken a word. It may take a few days before she knows clearly what happened-' Cal stopped in his tracks as he saw Gillian lying in his bed, again. '-Or what she's doing.' He said as he looked back to the hallway. How'd she done that now?! He shortly doubted himself, he HAD carried her to the guest room yeah? Or had he just imagined that because he was so tired?

'Yeah, take care of her.' Reynolds said. 'Another thing. Torres and Loker recognized Angela Pointer as the woman who gave you the address. They tried to reach her but she wasn't home. We're looking for her now.'

'Yeah, that's good. Don't know her.' Cal said to Reynolds as the name 'Angela Pointer' didn't ring any bells.

'We'll find out who's behind this very soon.' Reynolds said. 'Take care.'

Cal nodded and shut his phone as he eyed Gillian again with his head tilted to the right side and his mouth slightly open.

'Didn't you carry her back to the guest room?' A voice asked from the doorway.

Cal turned around. 'Yeah.' He said as he scratched his head. 'Yeah I did.' He sighed. 'Well, I suppose I'll be the one sleeping in the guest room tonight.' He sighed as he gave Emily a loving smile.

Cal stepped under the blankets Gillian had slept in and her smell enveloped his body as he moved on his side. He sighed heavily. He was so tired. Her smell made him feel at ease. Comforted him. And did other things to him that he pushed away immediately. Just want to sleep.

00

Cal sighed again in irritation as he studied the ceiling again. He was SO tired but he couldn't sleep. He had tried everything. That's it. He though as he got up. He'd go and check on Gillian.

He walked towards his room where Gillian would be sleeping, just to check on her. When he pushed the door open he saw Emily sitting on the bed, in one hand a magazine that she was reading and her other hand rested on Gillian's head that was resting on a pillow on her lap. Gillian had wrapped her arms around Emily's waist.

'You all right luv?' Cal asked softly as he stepped in his room.

Emily looked up from the magazine and nodded.

'Yeah, she was trashing around so wildly I came to look in on her. When I came to sit on the bed she just moved in and hugged me.'

Cal sat down on the bed and caressed Gillian's cheek.

'She's a cuddler I think.' Emily said with a smile on her face.

'Thanks Em.'

'For what?" Emily asked as she looked up at Cal with big eyes.

'For taking so much care of her.'

'Uh sure. She's like family dad. You know that.' She looked down at Gillian's face in her lap. 'And I like having her so close. I'm a cuddler too you know.' Emily said as he smirked.

Cal smiled and caressed Emily's cheek now too. 'Yeah I know.'

'I was just thinking.' Emily began after a few seconds as she put her magazine down. 'If she was awake she would never do a thing like this.'

Cal nodded. That was so true.

'She'd probably be embaressed if she'd wake up right now.'

Cal nodded again as he walked around the bed and climbed in on the other side. He moved himself to sit next to Emily with his back nonchalantly leaning against the headboard.

'Why do you think that is?' Emily asked as she watched her dad stretch his legs out on the bed and lift Gillian's legs so he could place them over his.

'It's about walls Em. Walls everyone puts up now and then. Some people always put up walls around them.' He said in a tired voice as he put his hand on the soft skin of Gillian's calves. He just needed to touch her, feel her. He ached to be near her.

Emily nodded sadly as she looked back at Gillian's closed eyes.

'She is used to doing things on her own. Maybe she doesn't even know how to handle it when someone cares for her.' Cal said in deep thought as he absentmindly dragged slow circles over Gillian's skin.

'I wish she did.' Emily said softly.

'Yeah, me too luv.'

'Dad?' He heard Emily ask after a minute of silence.

He looked up at her.

'I was really scared you know.' She admitted softly.

Cal tilted his head.

'When you sent me back to mum. You told me Gillian was in danger and I know it wasn't a good thing to be around here then. I would probably be in the way and all but…' Her big eyes looked down at Gillian again. 'I was so afraid.'

Cal noticed how Emily's eyes were filled with sadness. She pulled the pillow Gillian's head was lying on closer so Gillian's face made contact with her stomach now. She cradled the older woman's head in a gentil and caring move. 'I was really shocked to see…' She paused for a moment and swallowed to keep her tears away. She looked up at Cal.

'To see her this bruised up.'

Cal nodded as he studied his daughters face.

'When she was trashing around about half an hour ago, she was mumbling things. Most words weren't very clear but she said 'chloroform' a few times, and she sounded scared. What happened to her dad? What exactly happened? I want to know.'

Cal swallowed as he looked in Emily's big eyes. His daughter was growing, getting older every time. And sometimes he forgot. His eyes went back to Gillian's face, it warmed him to see that Emily had her in such a protective embrace so close. And that Gillian had her arms wrapped around Emily's waist. The two really liked each other very much.

Cal looked away as he breathed out some air. 'Well..' He began as he scraped his throat. He looked back at her. 'You really want to know?'

Emily nodded. Yes, she wanted to know. Otherwise she felt left out, and she wanted to be part of this.

'Remember that we went to Vegas?' Cal asked.

Emily nodded. 'For that case about the gambling.'

'Yeah. That's the one. To make a long story short, a man attacked Gillian in the elevator and put chloroform in her face. That's what she probably mumbled about.' Cal stared at Gillian's legs. He began to massage the taut muscles there. 'He beat her up, and it was pretty bad. Very bad actually. And then, he threw her in a…' Cal stopped and disgust and anger flew over his face. 'A dumpster where she got hurt even more.' Cal explained as he bended forward and let his finger slowly caress the trail of the long cut on Gillian's arm. 'The next day she woke up and everything had disappeared from her room. All her things were gone.'

'Gone?' Emily asked shocked.

Cal nodded. 'Yeah, and so were we.' A pang of regret, guilt and hurt shot through his heart.

'What? You left? Without her?' Emily asked confused and astonished.

'Yeah, she left a note, it said that she had gone home earlier. I believed it. It was a big mistake. I should have never believed it. Turns out the people that took her wrote it.' Cal said.

Emily stared at Cal with big eyes, Cal didn't need to ask what she was thinking. 'We had a fight that night.' He answered to her silent question. 'Well, not really with words, just with looks. She was angry with me.' Emily knew that Gillian would never leave like that. But it explained a lot when they had fought before that.

'O.' Emily said as she looked back at Gillian. She fingered Gillian's hair and put it behind her ear.

Cal shook his head. 'I can kick myself for that many times Em. Really I do. This all was very worse and then, when we thought things would calm down again this man let us know that he had poisoned her.'

Emily's mouth fell open.

'Yeah, that's what they had done to her that night.' Cal shook his head as anger filled his whole body. He didn't want to think about all that. It hurt too much.

Emily noticed how her father's jaw worked overtime and how anger radiated from him.

'I'm so sorry dad.' She said as she reached out for his arm.

He looked at her and produced a weak smile as he nodded. She could see how tired he was.

'We had six days, I had to get fifteen million-'

'Fifteen million?!' Emily interrupted in shock.

'Yeah. That's a lot of money ey?'

Emily readjusted her sitting position and Gillian moaned softly. They both looked at her for a moment.

'Then the man would give us the antidote. But someone left a note with his address on the windshield of my car and Gillian went there. We found the antidote and gave it to her.'

'Who left the note?'

'Some woman, don't know why and what she had to do with that. Reynolds, Loker and Torres are on that.'

'So he didn't work alone.' Emily asked with fear in her voice.

Cal shook his head. 'No.'

'I can't imagine that someone would want to beat up Gillian.' Emily said sadly as she looked down on her again and caressed her shoulder. 'She's always so caring, and so sweet.' Emily said softly. She looked up at Cal. 'Always when I'm in the Lightman Group, I always visit her too. It's so nice to be around her.' Emily looked in the distance. 'She makes me feel at ease, warm from the inside, even when I'm not feeling good.'

Cal nodded.

'Do you remember when I had to clean up your library?'

'Don't think I forgot the reason why you had to do that.' Cal warned her.

'She told me you were worried, and that you wanted to help. Always when I felt horrible or awful, she would be around and say something that would make me feel better. Or she would just put an arm around me.' Emily sighed at that thought. 'I'm really glad we know her and I don't want to lose her. Ever.' Emily said in a strong voice as she hugged Gillian close.

'We won't lose her luv. She's going to be fine.' Cal assured her.

'Yes.' Emily said sadly. 'But look what she had to go through.' A tear left her eye.

'Ow luv.' Cal said as his thumb caught the tear on Emily's cheek. 'We're going to make sure that she'll be healthy as hell again okay? Before you know it she'll come and eat all your secret chocolate stashes away right from under your nose.'

Emily laughed weakly as she kissed Gillian on her cheek. 'I hope so.'

'So, you think she'll be angry when she wakes up again with a clear head? Because you didn't leave her in the hospital like she wanted too?'

Cal shrugged. 'She'll just have to deal with that then.' He fingered the soft skin around her ankle slowly. He noticed how he loved playing with her skin. It calmed him, eased his erratic thoughts.

'Yeah but with her being a control freak and all..'

'I can handle an angry Foster. Don't you worry.'

'O, I don't worry about you dad, I worry about her.' Emily said with a smile on her face.

'She would have done the same with me. She's helped me so many times.' Cal whispered as his thumb caressed the front of her foot now.

Gillian suddenly began to move and rolled on her other side. Then rolled back and crawled back down. Leaning her head against Cal's hip this time.

'The pillow.' Cal said as he motioned towards the pillow to put Gillian's head on that instead of against his hip. This was a bit awkward after all, and if she would wake up…

'I don't think she needs that.' Emily said as she put the pillow against her stomach.

'Come on Em, give me the pillow.' Cal prodded urgently. This wasn't funny anymore.

'She's fine dad.' Emily said shortly.

Cal sighed inwardly as he studied his daughter. He had the feeling she was enjoying this and was reading something into the whole thing.

'Em, I know that you really like her. But… Sometimes I think you want.. You want there to be something more and well, there isn't.' He explained carefully.

'Who says that there isn't?' Emily asked serious now.

Cal sighed. Was he really going to talk about this with his daughter? On the other hand, she was a vital part of him.

'Cuz I say so.' He said shortly. He remembered the words that had slipped his mouth in the ambulance and how Gillian had reacted to them. As a friend…

And maybe that was for the best. He was the kind of man that upset her regularly, pushed her. He felt that he wasn't good enough. And she probably didn't want him like that.

'Why? Don't you like her?' Emily asked.

'Ofcourse I do Em. She's very important to me, but we're not romantically involved.'

'Why not?'

'Why would we be?' Cal asked confused.

'Cuz you two are really good together.' Emily answered.

Cal shook his head. 'Not like that luv.' He stared down at Gillian.

'How do you know? You haven't tried have you?' Emily almost asked hopefully.

'No, we haven't tried. Em, it's really complicated. And have you ever tought about that we're good together because we stay friends and nothing more?' Cal asked her.

Emily shrugged as she looked down at Gillian. 'I don't know.' She hadn't thought about that.

'Maybe you should then.' Cal said as he moved forward in an attempt to grab Emily's pillow away from her.

'So you don't think she's attractive then?' Emily asked as she snatched the pillow away before he could even touch it.

Cal swallowed as he looked at his daughter. He thought the conversation was over, but probably not…

'You do think that she is attractive.' Emily said mischievously as she had read him. 'So what's the problem then?'

Cal didn't answer.

'You're my father, don't I have the right to know what's going on in your life?'

'If you put it that way, yeah you do, but my sex life is off limits yeah.' He explained her sternly. That would end this discussion, he was sure of it.

'Ugh duh!! I don't even want to know about that! I wasn't talking about sex! GROSS!' She scrunched her face up, and Cal would have laughed if they weren't talking about a subject that really touched him very deep.

'IEW! BLEEGH!'

'Em, I got the picture yeah.' Cal said as he put up his hand to stop her from being grossed out by the thought that her father did have sex sometimes.

'Yeah, that's the problem with me too now. Bleeh.'

'Maybe it shocks you to know but you didn't come from the stork yeah?'

Emily gave him an annoyed glare. 'Good deflecting dad.' She said. 'I was talking about love.' Emily explained in a hard voice. 'Not about the other thing IEW!'

'Nothing is going on.' Cal muttered as he focused his gaze on Gillian's big toe.

'Yeah sure, that's why she's in your bed right?' Emily muttered as she pushed away the blankets and jumped out of the bed.

'Oy, watch it yeah.' Cal warned. 'Just go to bed, it's a school night.' Cal deflected quickly.

'I'm free tomorrow dad.' Emily said suddenly very annoyed. She eyed the two with a determined hard look. 'And I think you both are stubborn asses.' Emily said frustrated as she left the room.

'Oy!' Cal shouted after her.

000

Okay I know the genre is a bit different now, hope you guys aren't annoyed by that. Because the first chapters were suspense and now it's more easy going and romantic (at least I hope so haha) so I hope you aren't dissapointed that the story is going a bit slower now!