Part 1: You Don't Lie To Me Chapter 36, a lie to me fanfic

"Tell me what you see." He played the video again.

Gillian saw the flicker. Eyes down and away. "Shame."

"Yeah." He played another.

Lips pressed together. The eye lids retracted. "Fear."

"Very good," Cal turned to her. "You're good at this."

"You make it easy."

Cal smirked. "No it is easy. Anyone can learn this."

"Oh good I feel so much better now."

Cal gave a genuine laugh. "If it makes you feel betta, it normally takes people months to pick it up."

Gillian gave him an unimpressed expression. "Don't placate me." She indicated the training video with a jerk of her chin. "How fast do you play them?"

"One fifteenth of a second."

Gillian absorbed this information. She was watching them at about a fifth of a second. She pushed her chair back from the desk. "You know you really didn't have to take me through this personally."

"I feel I owe you one."

"How do you figure that?"

"I told you," Cal turned to her. "For the Mitchell case."

Cal had requested her assistance, demanded it apparently, and Gillian still wasn't entirely clear as to why. But she was figuring out that Cal liked it that way. He liked to keep people guessing and he liked to see how much they could figure out on their own. Gillian filed away little snippets of information here and there to make a fuller picture of Doctor Cal Lightman. He was too smart for his own good but his science was sound. He had proved it to her over and over the past few weeks until she had requested training. She had been interested from the start, but didn't want him to think she was too keen.

"And I told you, you don't owe me anything for that."

Sure, she had gone as a favour to Doctor Lightman because she had been interested in him and his work and liked to see him doing his 'thing'. But then the case had also been interesting and he had listened to her opinion and she had been right about a few things too. She had found she looked forward to his respect and she liked being in his company.

"When are you gettin' married?"

Gillian was thrown by the question. "In a few months."

"Best wishes."

"Thanks," Gillian smiled at him and glanced at her engagement ring. She had been wearing it for a while now. It was funny he was just asking her now.

Gillian gave him a brilliant smile as she walked down the corridor and approached where he was waiting, more like hovering with an electric energy. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you."

"You did not," Gillian accused. "You want something."

"I want a fave-a."

"Ah a favour. What a surprise!" Gillian teased with a warm smile. Cal gave a slight grin, his lip pulled up in the corner and his eyes seemed brighter. That's how she could tell he was amused. "What kind of favour?" She turned the way she had come and started walking towards her office. She had moved from the foster home to the upper floors of a clinic where she had also shifted from working with children to treating adults.

Cal fell into step with her. "I'm a workin' a case."

"You always are," Gillian retorted quickly.

"There's a little girl involved."

She was immediately interested and he knew that because he tilted his head slightly so he could watch her face carefully. She ducked through her office doorway and Cal followed. "What's the case about?"

"It's kind of a delicate situation. She might have information about her fartha."

"And you want me to get the information out of her? You'd be better at it than me." She moved to her desk, perching on the edge of it.

"It requires a gentle touch," Cal crossed her office to look at something on the shelf and then, while they talked, wandered back to where she sat.

"Aw and you thought of me?" Gillian teased again. It was much easier to deceive Cal by answering questions with questions; unless he asked a direct question. That was too hard to avoid.

"You ask the questions and I watch the answers." Cal used his finger to indicate who was to do what while he didn't respond to her comment. "You in or not?"

"Of course," Gillian answered seriously. Ok, so she loved it when he came to beg for her help. It was always a nice feeling to be sought after but she loved that he respected her opinion so much and had such faith in her work that he came down personally now to ask her to go with him. It was like someone was finally seeing her.

"Let's go," Cal indicated the door.

"Right now?"

"You're not busy are you?" He peered at her for less than a second. "No, you're not busy. Let's go."

"Alec and I are trying for a baby."

Cal looked over at her as he drove. He wasn't quite used to her volunteering information. Too many people kept too much to themselves and he was one of them. But Foster just blurted out things that were happening in her life and expected him to be interested. The surprising thing was, he was interested. She must have known that because she kept talking to him.

"Good luck with that," he said genuinely.

She flashed him a brilliant smile, the excitement showing in her eyes. "Did you plan Emily?"

"Not at all."

"She's such a sweet kid."

"Yeah she is," Cal said fondly.

"You didn't have a shot gun wedding?" She asked almost appalled.

Cal could see her frown out of the corner of his eye. "Nah we were actually married first. She came along less than a year late-a. Bit of an accident but I love her all the same."

"That's not a lot of time to get used to being married."

"What about you and Alec? How long have you been married now?"

"A year." Gillian was silent for a moment. "Do you think I'm rushing this?"

"I don't know luv. Whateva's right for you and Alec."

"I really want kids."

Cal glanced at her again. She was staring straight ahead but he saw the truth in her expression. He had kind of figured that out a while ago. The way she was with children. Gillian Foster was the kind of woman who had a way with children. "Then I really hope it works out."

She gave him another smile.

"And before that?" Gillian drew on the straw in her soda. Cal could see the dark liquid cola shoot up to her waiting lips.

"I was at Oxford."

"So you went from college straight to British Intelligence?" She should already know the answer to that one. She did read his dissertation after all and she was blown away by it, and if she had been then there would have been others who would have immediately taken a very intense interest in Cal Lightman. MI6 would not have been much of a stretch. A human lie detector, how very convenient.

"Pretty much. I did pull beers in a pub for two months."

Gillian's forehead creased into a slight frown. She wasn't sure if that was a serious or truthful comment. "And then you came to America?"

"Yeah."

Gillian wasn't exactly sure, and when it came to Cal she never was, but she thought she saw his expression flicker for a moment. Something he didn't want her to know about him coming to America. "Legally?"

He laughed. "Yeah legally. What kind of question is that?"

"I don't want to be party to some conspiracy involving you and illegitimate immigration," she smiled and kept her tone light. She was joking.

"I'm married to an American rememba? That automatically gives me a green card."

"Ah, yes, Zoe."

Cal immediately picked up on the inflection on his wife's name. For some reason, that he was yet to work out, his new friend and his wife didn't exactly take to each other very well.

"Why did you come to America?"

Cal gave a deliberate shrug. "Somethin' different. And then I met Zoë and ended up stayin'."

Gillian nodded that she was listening, but the story was vague enough to not really answer her question at all.

"Fosta? What are you doin'?"

"I'm working," Gillian almost rolled her eyes at the wall. He was calling on her work line after all.

"But are you busy?"

"Sort of. What's up?"

"Have coffee with me."

"Ok."

"Now."

"Right now?"

"Yeah, right now, can you meet me?"

"Uh," Gillian hesitated and looked at her watch. "Sure, I guess I can spare you half an hour."

"That's all I ask," Cal hung up on her.

Gillian put the phone down with a frown. She was as ever, confused by Cal. She got up from her desk and grabbed her cell phone, tucking it into her purse as she headed for the door. She also took hold of her coat as she left her office.

Cal was waiting for her in the place they usually met. It was kind of half way between their two work places and they often caught up over lunch or sometimes if Cal wanted her to do him a favour and look at whatever he was currently working on, despite the fact that he had access to several very capable in-house behavioural psychologists. She figured this was more of the same. He wanted her to take a look a file but when she approached him though, he looked agitated. "What's up?" She asked again as she came to a halt in front of him.

"Usual?" Cal inquired instead. He didn't wait for her to answer and strode toward the counter. Gillian pulled off her coat and took a seat in the window. She checked her phone in case she hadn't heard it ring while she had walked the two blocks to the café. It wasn't snowing yet but they were promised a dumping in the next few days. It was warm inside and smelt like coffee and biscuits. 'A biscuit would be nice,' she thought while she waited and wished she had thought to request one when Cal had still been within ear shot.

Cal returned a few minutes later and placed her cup of coffee in front of her. He drank tea. Balanced on his wrist was another small side plate with a chocolate chip and macadamia cookie. Gillian smiled, he knew her very well. She cupped her hands around the mug of coffee and waited for Cal to settle. She was going to demand answers to this midmorning meeting, especially because he clearly had no work related material with him, but as soon as he had poured milk into his cup he looked up at her and stated: "I'm in trouble."

"What for?" Gillian asked alarmed. Thoughts of immigration and green cards still on her mind.

"That doesn't matta," Cal waved a hand to dismiss the comment. "But I might be lookin' for another job."

"I can't give you a job Cal. That's completely out of my hands." Not that she was sure he had any clinical experience whatsoever either.

"That's not what I'm askin' you."

"What are you asking?"

"I want to start my own company. And I want you to come and work with me."

Gillian was surprised. Cal gave her an expectant expression. "I'm serious. What do you think?"

"I think I'd have to know more about it."

Cal gave a slight smirk as if he had expected that response. "I want to set up a place where people can hire us to find out the truth."

"Ah, the 't' word."

Cal ignored her interruption. "I want to help people."

"Isn't that what you do now?"

Cal gave an expression that said he didn't entirely agree with that. "Well it's the government. It's all very political."

"Oh." It was starting to make more sense now. "What did you do?"

"I might have told a few people to cram their job up their arse."

Gillian gave a slight laugh. "You're kidding?" She asked even though she shouldn't have been surprised.

"Well, there was…" Cal started and then waved the comment away again. "I'm just ova the politics. I want to cut out all the bureaucratic B.S and just help people. The simple truth."

"For a fee?"

"Of course for a fee," Cal gave a slight smile. "But the point is, we work for the client, for their best interests. For the truth first and foremost. No more politics."

Gillian watched him for a moment. He seemed very serious.

"I've been thinkin' about it for awhile. I was just waitin' to find the right person to do this with."

Gillian felt her heart beat speed up slightly. "Are you so sure that's me?" She asked seriously without fishing for a compliment. Going into business with someone was a big deal, no matter who it was, no matter that the potential business partner was also a deception expert, there were still trust issues to work through.

Cal raised his eyebrows slightly. "I think so. You're very smart, you're very good at your job, you're compassionate, you stand up to me, and you don't lie to me."