XXXV) The Natural

Near Baltimore, Maryland

"I really need to go, Gillian," Noelle Nehru told her, crossing one long bare leg in front of another, inching her short dress even higher up her thighs.

Gillian didn't feel like making another stop. They were so close to their destination. She just wanted to get this done. Interview the client and drive back to DC and get home before dark just for once. There was still much to do to get the nursery ready.

"We're almost there," Gillian told her. It sounded whiny to her own ears.

"I don't think I can wait..."

"Fine," Gillian mumbled, signalling before she crossed over to the right hand lane. The next exit was less than a mile away.

Noelle flashed her a mildly apologetic smile. "Thank you."

Gillian pulled over at the first gas station she spotted, even if it wasn't a particularly pleasant one. Noelle made a face, about to protest until she caught Gillian's look and realized instantly that it would be pointless.

She was good. Gillian had to give her that much. She really was a natural. One of the very few individuals that could read micro-expressions without any training. It was gift. The same way others had a gift for music or sport.

Noelle grabbed her purse and pulled down her tight dress, taking a few awkward steps out of the car onto the uneven ground with her high heels.

Gillian's eyes followed her. They observed the young woman as she charmed the cashier while asking for a key to the toilet.

Noelle was gorgeous. Tall and slender, with long, straight, black hair and dark, exotic eyes thanks to a background that was a melting pot of a half dozen nationalities. Trinidadian. Indian. English. German. Native American. Gillian lost track. Noelle reminded her a little of Zoe, and Gillian wondered if that helped explain at least part of Cal's fascination with her.

Noelle nearly tripped as she walked around the building, over bits of gravel and patches of grass en route to the washroom. Her heels were ridiculously high and her dress tantalizingly short.

It made Gillian think of Alec.

Next time you tell me I dress too sexy, I'll introduce you to my new colleague.

Noelle had the figure to pull it off. And she knew it too, but watching her now made Gillian think it was all a bit much. Maybe she'd ask Cal to talk to her when they got back to the office. Noelle wouldn't take it the wrong way if it came from Lightman. Her respect for him bordered on worship. It hadn't escaped Gillian that Noelle called her by her first name while Cal was always "Dr. Lightman."

She pulled her cell phone out of her purse to check the time, unable to stifle a yawn. They left DC early enough that even with the beginnings of afternoon rush hour traffic and the unexpected stop, they should still make it to their appointment with time to spare.

Gillian closed her eyes, fighting back the urge to fall asleep, hating how tired she was these days.

The office move had taken a lot out of them. They worked thirteen out of the last fourteen days and she was starting to hit a wall. It almost reminded her of their early days. It felt like they were starting over again. It was hectic, exhausting and exciting all at once.

Ten minutes later Noelle still wasn't back and Gillian started to feel guilty. What if she really was sick? Instead of showing a little compassion, Gillian had been too tired and cranky to care.

Fifteen minutes later and Noelle finally emerged, handing the gas station attention back his key before rushing back to the car, slightly out of breath as she sat down and fasted her seatbelt.

"You alright?" Gillian asked her.

"I'm great," she answered with a smile. "Thanks for asking, Gillian."

She was full of restless energy now, crossing and uncrossing her legs twice before Gillian even turned on the ignition.

Something suddenly dawned on her. More memory than awareness.

"You sure?"

"Yes, yes, for sure. Just kinda nervous, you know. It's only my second case and you and Dr. Lightman, you're so good at this. It's kinda intimidating sometimes, makes me feel like I'm back in school and have to give a speech or something, you know?"

Gillian turned to her and saw exactly what she was looking for. The dilated pupils and flushed cheeks to go along with her rushed speech.

How could she have missed all the signs? She of all people?

"Why aren't we moving?" Noelle asked. "I thought we were in a hurry?"

Gillian made no move to turn on the engine. "What did you do in that bathroom?"

"Huh?" Noelle was baffled by the question. "I peed..." She giggled a little. "And then I...did more than pee. Is this, like company policy or something, that I have to give you details when each time I go, 'cause Doctor Lightman didn't..."

Gillian didn't have the patience for this. "What did you take? I'd guess cocaine but there's a lot of other crap out there that produces similar effects."

"What?" Noelle's dark eyes widened.

"Don't play dumb with me."

"What are you talking about?" Noelle shot back, her beautiful face full of indignation. "Are you out to get me or something? I know you don't like me, I'm not that stupid that I don't notice. I mean I have this skill to read people, right? But this is crazy! I wasn't feeling well so I had to use the bathroom. Is this just because I didn't come out in five minutes? Drugs? That's crazy! Do I look like a junkie to you?"

Her indignation was so impressive, Gillian almost wanted to applaud. It reminded her that some naturals didn't just have a stellar records when it came to spotting deception. Some of them were equally excellent deceivers.

"Are you done?"

"Gillian, why are you doing this?" Noelle asked, her voice teary now, as her gorgeous eyes moistened. "What did I do to you?"

Noelle was turning things around so fast it made her head spin. "I asked you a simple question."

"I did! I told you I don't do drugs!" The were tears in her eyes now. "I would never do anything to mess this job up...this is like, the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Gillian exhaled. "Can we stop this act? Just for a second?"

Noelle wiped away a tear with the back of her hand. "I don't get it, Gillian. I really like you. You're so smart and beautiful...it's not like you should be threatened by me right? Is it because you're scared that maybe Doctor Lightman likes..."

Gillian didn't like the turn this was taking, so she cut her off before she had a chance to go on. "You're not just wrong. You're way out of line now."

Noelle put a hand over her mouth, instantly regretting what had just come out of it. "I'm sorry...that's not what I meant."

"Let's get something straight," Gillian told her. "I know you did drugs in that bathroom. You and Lightman aren't the only ones who can spot a liar."

And with that accusation, Noelle's lips started quivering and Lightman's prodigy starting sobbing uncontrollably. Her body was shaking and Gillian saw the gas station attendant staring at the them through his window.

"I'm sorry," was all she said between tears. "I'm...I'm such a fuck up. I knew this was too good to be true for someone like me."

Gillian leaned back in her seat and waited until she was finished, handing her a box of tissues when she was done. Waiting until she blew her nose and regained her composure.

"You're gonna fire me," was what she finally said. There was so much self-loathing and resignation in her voice that it was hard to stay angry with her.

It was Alec all over again.

You're a mess, Noelle. A beautiful, gifted mess.

"You need help," Gillian said softly. "If you need drugs to get through a client interview it means you need help. Professional help. It also means that maybe this job isn't for you."

"No, that's not true." Her words brought on a fresh set of tears. "I want this so badly."

"Do you want to get help?"

Noelle nodded. "Yeah..."

"Alright," Gillian offered, wondering if this was a good idea even as she said. "Then let me help you get help."

Noelle was surprised. "You'd do that?"

Truth was she didn't want to. Didn't want the responsibility of it all. Not when there was so much else on her plate. But she wasn't quite selfish enough to admit it. She never was.

"Yes."

"Are you going to tell Lightman?"

"He has a right to know."

Noelle started crying again. "I don't want him to know. Please, Gillian...please. Not yet. Please, please."

Gillian sighed. She didn't want to keep this from Cal. Not telling him felt like a betrayal.

"Please, Gillian."

"You're going to get treatment and once you do that, I'm going to let Doctor Lightman know."

Noelle's lower lip quivered a little. "Okay. Thank you."

Gillian had another look at her cell phone and wanted to groan. They were officially running late now. And she'd have to leave Noelle in the car. Couldn't risk taking her along to meet their client when she was high.

Gillian turned on the ignition and pressed on the gas, sending an angry cloud of dust into the air as the car flew out of the gas station.

Lightman Group, Washington DC

Next day

Jack Rader was grinning from ear to ear after the client stepped out of the Cube.

"Don't ever think I'll get tired of using that machine," he told Cal. "It's a beauty. Wish I could take her home with me."

Cal Lightman escorted their client out of the room before turning back to Rader. "Don't even think about it."

He wondered if Rader would've been as impressed to know that it took him and Foster and two technicians a week to get the Cube to work again after their move.

He spotted Foster in the doorway and remembered that he needed to talk to her. "Can you take over the interview with the two painters for me?" he asked Rader.

There wasn't the slightest hesitation as Jack Rader adjusted his designer tie. "Of course. Be my pleasure. Give me the file."

Cal handed it to him, just as he lost Gillian in his line of vision. "Foster!" he called out to her. "Can I see you for a sec?"

Gillian stepped back into the room.

"Dr. Foster," Jack cut in before Cal had a chance to say anything. "Nice to see you. How are you...?"

"I need to talk to you," Cal told her, cutting off Rader before she had a chance to answer. It took some getting used to. The number of people that surrounded them these days. In reality it was only two extra staff members since their move last month, but it felt like a lot more because all their research assistants were on site now. All the time.

Cal draped his arm over Foster's shoulder, irritated by the way Rader looked at her. As if she were some sort of prize, up for grabs. Then again, much of what Rader did irritated him. It was wrong and irrational and Cal knew he had to get over it sooner rather than later if they were going to keep him on staff.

"What's going on?" Foster asked him as they walked down the corridor. Half the rooms were still empty and some of the occupied ones were still full of boxes.

"Come sit on my couch, doc," he told her as he led her into his office with a grin. Funny, how his mood changed when he was around her and away from Rader.

"Nice!" She exclaimed, impressed by his brand new leather couch. "When did you get this? Are you sure we can fit this into the budget?"

"Too late. Was delivered this morning. You missed the moving madness." Cal gestured towards it. "Go on. Try it out."

Gillian slipped out of her heels and sat down on the soft leather, curling her legs underneath her. "Comfy. Might just stay here all day. Can you bring me a coffee and a biscotti?"

Cal chuckled and plopped himself down next to her. "It'll cost you. I charge by the hour when you're on that thing."

Foster's blue eyes narrowed and the corner of her lips rose into a teasing smile. "Satisfaction guaranteed?"

"Course, luv. Always." Cal's eyes met hers and for just an instant something flickered between them. Something more than friendship.

Cal enjoyed the subtle sliver of electricity that coursed through his body in response to their flirting, innocent as it was. Deep down he could acknowledge that he was a little bit in love with her. It wasn't something he felt guilty about. After all, who would blame him? It wasn't hard to fall in love with Foster.

Not that anything would ever come of it. Or that her emotions had ever betrayed any similar feelings for him.

That is, until now.

Cal couldn't quite believe what he saw. It was only there for a second, until she guiltily averted his gaze and pulled her legs a little closer in retreat. But there was no mistaking it.

It scared him a little; what he saw. But it thrilled him too.

And that made him wonder if he wanted it more than he'd ever admit. Made him force his thoughts back into other directions and remind himself why he wanted to see her in the first place. Remind himself that it would never happen. That his wanting it made no difference.

"How's it going with the oncologist in Baltimore?"

"Good," she answered, her voice level and business-like again. "I think we'll wrap things up there tomorrow. There's not a lot of deception going on there. Just a lot of paranoia. Easy paycheque for us."

Cal already knew that part. "How's Noelle doing?"

"She's very good at reading people."

"But...?"

"But what?"

"There's a but coming...isn't there?"

"But...I think she's too young and in over her head with this."

"She came to see me last night," he told her. "There were lots of tears and hysterics. She said you accused her of taking drugs. That she was afraid you'd fire her and that..."

"She did what?" Gillian leaned forward in disbelief. "That little..."

"Hang on..." Cal held up his hand. "Lemme finish. She swore up and down to me that she'd never done drugs."

"She admitted it to me!" Gillian shot back. "She even said she wanted to get help!"

"Noelle told me she admitted it to you, because you were so adamant about it. Refused to believe anything she said."

"Right, that makes sense. That girl is one hell of an actress. Please tell me you didn't buy it."

"I want to hear your side," he told her. "And if you really think she's doing drugs, how the hell did it not occur to you to tell me?"

"Of course it did," Gillian explained, not bothering to hide her anger. "But she begged and pleaded for me not to! So I agreed to tell you as soon as she entered a treatment programme."

"I see."

"Cal?" Gillian eyed him with the kind of intensity she only had when she was trying to read him. "Tell me you didn't believe her?"

"I saw no signs of deception from her last night."

Gillian stopped just short of rolling her eyes. Her irritation was almost palpable now.

"Is there a chance you could've been wrong?" he asked her calmly, not in the mood to antagonize her further.

"What do you mean?"

"Did you see her do drugs?"

"No...she was in the bathroom!"

"I'm just sayin', we're both exhausted this week. You're not crazy about this girl and..."

"I saw the immediate effects, Cal!" she jumped in, defensively. "The dilated pupils, the quick breathing, the rapid speech...this wasn't about me going on a witch hunt! You know me better than that."

Gillian got up off the sofa and put her shoes back on. Cal sensed that she was about to storm out of his office, so he grabbed her arm before she had the chance.

"Since when do you have an intimate familiarity with the after-effects of drug use?"

Her eyes met his angrily and for a split second what he read in them threw him for a loop. Cal had to remind himself that he was tired too. Exhaustion sometimes made you see things that weren't there. Things that didn't make sense.

She let the question hang in the air for a long moment before answering. "You're right. I don't."

"So it's possible that..."

"I've counselled my fair share of addicts at the Pentagon, Cal," she cut him off. "I think I have some clue as to what I'm talking about."

"Look," he got up in order to loosen his grip on her. "I'm willing to believe she went into that bathroom and took something to calm her nerves. Didn't we all do that at least once in our grad school days? Doesn't make her a drug addict, Gill. It's a new job and she's stressing because she wants it so bad."

"I suggest we teach her some better coping mechanisms then." Gillian remarked. "It's not even what she did at that gas station yesterday that's bothering me now. It's what she did afterwards, running to you behind my back. Lying shamelessly because she knows how good she is at it."

"Noelle knows you don't like her. It's why she feels threatened by you."

"I don't trust her," Gillian told him. "There's a difference."

"I can tell you don't like her. That means she can tell and Noelle defends herself by going on the offensive."

Gillian crossed her arms now. It was such a defensive gesture it almost amused him.

"Since when are you the shrink?"

"Did you know she was in and out twelve foster homes before she turned sixteen? That her father was charged with raping her when she was fifteen? Her mother died when she was six."

Cal saw Gillian's expression soften. "How come you didn't tell me any of that?"

"A lot of naturals get their gift because of their abusive childhoods. You know that."

"So we let her get away with lying and doing drugs?"

"Not sayin' that, luv. Let's just give her one more chance, yeah?"

She uncrossed her arms and threw them in the air in defeat. "Fine. Your call."

It wasn't fine with her, Cal knew that. But he wasn't ready to give up on his prodigy yet. There was too much about Noelle that reminded him of himself. The ability to go for the jugular and do whatever it takes to get out of a mess. The lousy childhood that she somehow survived on sheer guts alone.

She came with a boatload of baggage. Contrary to what Foster thought, he wasn't blind to it. But she was also feisty, gorgeous and gifted and that part of her reminded him of Zoe. For that alone he wanted her around just a little longer, even if the rational part of him knew it probably wouldn't work out in the long run.

"Lemme finish the case in Baltimore with Noelle. You and Rader can take care of the painters."

"Fine," Gillian conceded. "How is Rader coming along?" Gillian asked and the look on her face suggested she knew that he'd be the one going on the defensive now.

"He's fantastic."

There was a smirk on her face now, her anger slowly fading. "Is that right?"

"You know what he suggested today?"

"What?"

"That we set up this giant backlit photo-set in the main hallway. Full of famous faces making various expressions, you know as a conversation starter for visiting clients."

Gillian put her hands together, as she sometimes did when she got excited. For all her propriety and seriousness, there were plenty of moments when she was a bigger kid than he was. "Oh...I like it!"

Cal cringed. Of course she would. Either that or taking Rader's side was just pay-back for Noelle. "I hate it. It's so...bloody commercial."

"You used examples of celebrity expression in your own book! Don't you remember? Besides, we are a business."

"Everything to Rader is about profit and exposure. Sometimes I think the science is just a means to an end for him. When instead it should be the reason we're here."

Gillian shrugged her shoulders. "I think it's good to finally have someone on our team who thinks like a businessman. You and me, we're both scientists. We have very little business acumen."

"Oh yeah? So it's just luck that turned this into a thriving company?"

"It took us five years to move out of our two-room office. Maybe if Rader was around sooner it would've taken only one or two."

Cal made a face. "Now you're pushing it."

"If we're keeping Noelle, then we're keeping Rader."

Cal put an arm around Foster's shoulders as he ambled out of the office with her. It was good to know that when they disagreed these days it was just that. A disagreement. Nothing more, nothing less. They'd finally come to a stage where it would take a lot more to drive a wedge between them. "You drive a hard bargain."

"I really like the photo-set idea in the hallway. The famous faces."

Cal groaned. "Really?"

Foster nodded. "Yeah, really."

"You're not just sayin' that to piss me off?"

She was smiling now. "Okay, maybe a little."