We've come to the end of the adventure, literally. I guess we all needed something lighter after Ghosts;I hope you had fun reading.

I don't know why I didn't think about it before but I looked for an image of Tim Roth as cowboy: not the way I pictured it, but damn the man looks good!

Tina: welcome! OMG, all of my stories in one go?! There's like a dozen of them! I am flattered but also concerned, hope you're ok! Well, really welcome to our little LTM family and you might be happy to know that I have one more big story coming up after this little silly thing.

Tori: yes, this one is only 4 parts which is why I posted every day. Sometimes next week there will be a new one coming and trust me, it is NOT a short one. It's going to have more chapters than Ghosts.

Well, time for the next and last chapter.


The morning after Emily woke up when the sun flooded the tent through the thick canvas, struggling for a second to establish where she was. Then she sat up on the camp bed and looked around, seeing Gillian sleeping nearby and the third bed empty. She wasn't surprised, her father wasn't one to lurk around in bed once awake, being the nervous ball of energy he usually was, but since it was her birthday she felt more than entitled to linger a little longer and not concern herself with him.

However, not long after she had woken up the first time, voices and noises from the outside woke her up again, Gillian too, and they realised the entire group was being called to start the day. Cal was outside, pestering Melissa about the fact that they only served coffee for breakfast and no tea, but other than that he seemed in a normal mood. The group gathered around what was left of the campfire and ate, then shortly after they were back on the horses for the ride back to the ranch. Cal and Gillian chatted briefly, mostly exchanging notes about small and harmless things they had picked up about their travel companions, unable to entirely switch off their trade for so long.

After a couple of hours the group stopped again; apparently it was time for some more activities, and the moment Cal heard that it wasn't mandatory he hopped back on the horse and trotted away, saying he wanted to check out a pond neary Jimmy had told him about. Emily rolled her eyes but didn't comment any further, after all to her it meant that she had some time with Justin without feeling her father's eyes on them all the time.

Knowing that the young girl would hardly pay too much attention to anything else with that plan in mind, Gillian lurked around the area set up for the activity for a bit as if she was pondering whether to join in or not, then eventually slid away and grabbed hold of Thor. She wasn't entirely sure if there was a pond around there, but she had seen in which direction Cal and rode off and pointed Thor that way. It wasn't far, there was a gentle hill which tested the limits of her riding abilities, but once at the top she stopped to take in the view. There was indeed a small pond, nothing spectacular per se and half of it was covered with high vegetation, but the rest of the surface was clear and shining under the sunlight. Cal was there, standing with his hands in his pockets and looking ahead, his horse tied up to a tree. Gillian knew he had heard her coming, kind of impossible not to, but he didn't move and waited for her to close the distance and get down.

She tied up Thor next to Daisy and gave the girl a pat on her neck, thinking she probably was the horse that had been worked up the most in the entire lot. Then Gillian left the animals and moved closer to Cal, who had now moved under another tree looking for some shades and wiping some sweat off his face with the handkerchief he had pulled from his neck. Not knowing exactly why, Gillian waited for him to finish before coming any closer, leaning with her back on the tree a couple of feet away from him.

"You're not interested in building your own dreamcatcher?" She asked then, referring to the activity they were both avoiding.

"I am enjoying myself more than I thought but the day you see me doing arts and crafts kill me and put me out of a misery." Cal replied with a sly grin and made her chuckle, then he glanced at her with a serious expression. "I'm not avoiding you, Gill."

"I know you're not."

She responded with no hesitation, not even a trace of uncertainty in her voice, and Cal had to drop the act and turn around to look at her properly. Gillian was leaning on the tree trunk, the hat dropped behind her neck and her hands behind her back, looking like she was ready for whatever type of confrontation he was about to kickstart.

"You look rather confident about it." He noted, tilting his head on one side with that trademark inquisitorial gaze of his. "Why?"

"Because you kissed back."

And that was why she looked like she was on a mission, why he suddenly felt the heat turning up knowing it had nothing to do with the sunny day. He also knew that when she was like that, so openly determined, the best strategy was to respond in stride and don't hold back.

"You noticed," Cal stated then, hands back in his pockets and a couple of steps taken towards her.

"Hard not to," came her reply, adding a defiant chin lift and the hint of a teasing smile. Then her face changed, morphing into a softer expression that still didn't leave much room for misunderstanding about what she was about to say. "Cal, I could put it down to the atmosphere, the setting, so different from what we are used to…but I won't." He was holding his breath, his body tensed fighting back the urge to touch her and his mind somewhat frozen, struggling to process what she was saying and, more importantly, what she meant. "The fire, the stars…they didn't make me do it. I did it because I wanted to."

"I gathered that, yeah," he smirked, the sensorial memories of that kiss having been stuck in his mind all night.

After she had gone to bed he had stayed there for at least another hour, trying to recover, feeling physically grounded to the terrain. It had been amazing, breathtaking, certainly not a friendly kiss of gratitude gone a little overboard. It had been the touch of her hand on his chest leading up to that, the steady and undoubting expression on her face when she had approached and pulled back, the very same she had in that moment. It had been in the way she had started the kiss, with no hesitation, in the way she had carried on when he had dared to touch her and kiss back.

But that had been the night before, and now in the bright light of the day those things still felt powerful but Cal felt like there had to be more for him to fully grasp the situation. He was well aware of the fact that Gillian was staring at him, reading the hell out of him as it seemed because after a short silence she scoffed and pulled away from the tree, inching closer a step.

"Please don't tell me you're worried that this is just a fluke," she begged, literally, her voice breaking. "That you're thinking it's too easy out here when we're so far away from our usual reality for this to be real."

"See, that's why I don't get why you like those romance novels so much, that's the kind of crap that gets into your head. 'Cause that's such a dumb thing to say." Cal took two steps toward her, his hands coming out of his pockets and for now resting harmlessly along his body. But the way he was looking at her now, that was far from harmless. "None of that love, I'm not that stupid or convoluted. I don't quite care why or how it happened, I just care that it did. I guess more than anything," he whispered, closing the distance a little more, "what bugs me is that I can't help but wonder if this might have been Emily's plan all along."

He was smiling now, and so was she, holding his penetrating gaze fiercely.

"Classic Lightman long con?"

"Something like that," Cal chuckled, but the intensity of his stare didn't waver.

Gillian was starting to feel somewhat dizzy, feeling the thrill of being able to sustain that look of him for so long, so much longer than usual. Usually she could take it for a bit, until he would dip his eyes down to her lips or mercifully set her free, but that day he wasn't showing any signs of letting go and, more importantly, he was clearly liking the fact that she had no intention to back off either. So she decided to up the ante, flashing him an expression she knew he wasn't going to misread and then she stepped back, daring him to follow suit.

"And what if it was?" She asked then, letting her body language speak for itself with the way she leaned back on the tree, her pupils dilated almost on command and her eyes staring at his mouth with definite purpose.

Cal was nearly over the edge, of what exactly he didn't know but close enough that one last push would take him down. In that case, down meant close enough to her, to a repeat of the night before, and when he stepped just a inch from her and took in the way she smelled he had to physically restrain himself.

"I can live with that," he whispered even if after having seen Emily and Justin he doubted that was the case, then his hands gently but surely rested on her hips.

"So?"

That single syllable was all she could utter, her voice raspy as she felt his breath on her lips.

"So…figured I had to lure you out here to do it again."

If she had something to reply or the mental strength to do so, she had no chance to show it. Cal was hell bent on having the last word and once he spoke he leaned in, his lips lingering on hers a second before taking things to the next level. It wasn't just his tongue easily sliding inside her mouth, it was in the way he angled his neck to get better access, in the tightening grip of his hands on her hips as he pushed the weight of his body forward. And then there was her response, eager and demanding, her hands clasping on the back of his neck to bring him closer, and for the love of God, was she hooking one of her legs around his?!

The first kiss had been something more than just a kiss but still mostly PG, but that second one certainly pushed the boundaries. It was passionate, kept under control but still nearly impossible to let go until they were nearly out of breath. When it finally happened, Cal pulled back slowly while hungrily sucking at her upper lip, catching his breath but keeping her trapped against the tree with his body while resting his forehead on hers.

"I'm in on this Gill, all in." He choked on his words, out of air and still pretty high on the kiss. "It's not a fluke, not for me."

"Me neither," Gillian whispered before capturing his mouth again. "This is it for me, Cal."

Cal figured that was one of those occasions where actions spoke louder than words and crashed into her for another passionate kiss, his hands now moving to her back while hers gripped his shoulders. They were panting now, breathing heavily, and when Cal left her mouth Gillian groaned in protest but then she felt his lips and tongue on her neck and there was no more complaining.

The make out session carried on, switching from slow and sweet mouth kisses to lips voracious tasting every inch of skin available and hands roaming whenever they could reach. They weren't going to take it any further, it was not the time nor the place, but that didn't mean that they couldn't enjoy the moment. They kept at it, whispering to each other when they had to break for oxygen, smiling like silly teenagers and marvelling at how easy it all was, until a bell rang somewhere down the small vallery they had left behind.

"What is that?" Cal asked, trailing his mouth on her neck while his hand had found a way under her shirt.

"I -" She had to do a double take, feeling the contact of his finger on the flesh of her abdomen turning into a hot spot. "I think it's time to go."

Cal groaned so loud that she couldn't resist laughing, although when he pulled away from her the emptiness left was no laughing matter. He was a mess, catching his breath and looking red in the face and not because of the sun, and judging by the burning sensation in her lower abdomen Gillian was sure she looked pretty much the same.

"You better go first," Cal managed to say when the damn bell rang again, then he smirked and absently shook off his right leg. "I'm hardly in the condition of getting on a horse right now."

Gillian couldn't help but look down at the bulge in his pants, her pupils reacting to the view and the unspoken promises of it, smiling at his sheepish grin. Then she walked up to him on unsteady legs, resting a hand on his chest while leaving one last kiss on his lips and pulling back with a sultry smile.

"Not helping love," he confessed with a painful moan.

"Wasn't meant to," she pointed out with a disarming smile, one that again didn't help the situation going on south of his stomach, then she walked away and hopped on her horse, leaving him seriously considering a quick dip in the pond to cool down.


Nobody, certainly not Emily, seemed to notice they had been both gone for a while; and nobody, not even Emily, saw anything different in the way they behaved the rest of the day.

The group saddled up for the last time, strolling back to the ranch just about lunch time. Like most people, Cal, Emily and Gillian decided to eat something and unwind before hitting the road to go back home. After all it was Sunday, the weather was holding steady and it made sense to wait for the crowd to thin out before hitting the road. Somehow, Cal went through the motion of all that without reaching a breaking point, not even when Emily joked he should buy the hat he had been wearing or when Justin finally realised she had been flirting with him and started to return the feeling. It was a whole lot easier to deal with that with Gillian looking at him the way she was, with the memories of her touching him and kissing him, and with hopes for things to come growing steadily inside him.

When they were ready to leave and got into the car it was Emily's turn to insist she'd take the back seat, and after a short conversation with her father and Gillian about what an awesome experience they had just been through she finally succumbed to the fatigue and dozed off. That gave them the chance to talk, but they decided not to: silence was perfect, comfortable, intimate, and helped both of them think about what might come next.

Later, when they stopped in front of Gillian's house to drop her off, Emily finally found the courage to ask Gillian if she'd had a good time, beaming with happiness when she enthusiastically declared that she hadn't had that much fun in a long time. All considered, Cal would have had to agree, but nobody seemed to care about his feedback enough to ask and anyway his judgement on the experience might have been tainted by other factors. That was why when they arrived at Gillian's house he told Emily to wait in the car, then got out and helped her with her bags, gone from one to three due to an intense shopping session at the emporium and souvenir shop before they left.

"Thank you Cal."

She smiled at him when they walked up to her door, which she opened so he could drop the bags inside. The fact that she didn't seem to know what to say after that didn't give out any negative or worrying vibes, it was understandable that it wasn't that easy to figure out the next move, at least in the short term. There was no doubt that they could see on each other, no second thoughts…but there was Emily not far away absently looking at them from inside the car, so more than anything they had to be careful, at least with their actions.

Cal then sighed and put his hands in his pockets, speaking in a low voice just in case but still managing to flash her a very eloquent smile of his own.

"Let me take you out for dinner tomorrow," he spoke softly, his voice charged with hope. "I wanna do this the proper way, Gill."

"Emily?"

It wasn't a setback, just a logical question and Cal knew it.

"Zoe is coming to pick her up tonight, she's on birthday duties now." Her smile widened, reading in between the lines, and he smirked. "Let me do this right, love."

"Ok," she said with a small nod. "But now you better go."

Before either of us does something crazy, she wanted to add, but she was afraid that even voicing out something like that would have led to actions they couldn't entirely control.

"Yes ma'am," Cal quipped, then shuffled his feet and gave her one last look and smile. "See you tomorrow."

Gillian replied the same and went inside, appealing to all her strength to close the door and put that separation between them. Cal was fine with the quick farewell, he understood, and more than anything he knew it was a just matter of time.


The return to reality in the morning was quite the shock.

When Gillian arrived at the office more than one person noted and complimented the tan of her skin, which prompted questions about the mysterious birthday celebration. Word had gotten around before the weekend and of course nobody was going to ask Dr Ligthman about it, but she was a much safer bet. Out of habit, Gillian balanced going along with those who dared to take jabs at him - Oh yeah, full on cowboy outfit - and bringing out the best side of him - He did it all for Emily and to honour his promise - until the man himself arrived. Only then she did feel a little guilty, because he looked mighty happy as he strolled in, grinning the second he saw her, and because with all the fear of openly mocking him the staff had nobody was really able to hold back chuckles when they saw the bright red coloured patch on the back of his neck the sun had marked.

A couple of well placed glares and the fact that novelty wore thin fast helped to move things along, and they all got to work. Mondays were always busy, and Gillian and Cal didn't have many chances to talk; not openly at least, not privately. Any moment, any word had to be stolen and quick, so much so that they had to resort to old school tactics in order to confirm their plans for the night. They were in the meeting room, sitting through a boring presentation from the Transport Police trying to explain why they needed the Lightman Group to train their staff to spot turnstile jumpers and moochers. He had long and uselessly protested with Foster about that meeting; not that they didn't need the gig, but he knew that there was no need to sit through a one hour meeting in which someone was practically begging them to become their client. He had been doing his best to keep it together and don't fall asleep, motivated mostly by the fact that Gillian was sitting next to him and would have probably kicked him in the shin if he had, but when the babbling PR Executive holding the presentation started a diversion on what an historical component of DC the subway network was and how important it was to preserve it Cal had to stifle a moan behind his closed mouth.

Bored out of his mind and with no end in sight, Cal shifted on the chair and dutifully keeping his eyes on the never ending talking man took the phone out of his pocket. Throwing quick glances at the phone but letting fingers' memory doing most of the work, Cal typed something short and hit the send button then kept his hand on the phone on his tight, pretending not to notice when Gillian's phone buzzed on the table. He smirked when she looked at it almost immediately, knowing she must have been bored as much as he was for doing that, then marvelled at the way her face didn't change for a second as she touched the screen a couple of times before putting the phone back down. Cal waited a few seconds, he had to because the talking man was suddenly interested in entering a contest with him about what subway network was best, Washington or London, but after the quick lie that he wasn't from London cut that one short he checked his phone for the last incoming message.

YES, was the single word in all caps, right under the question he had typed.

Still on 4 2n8?


The only other moment they had to communicate was three hours later, while Gillian was on her way out for a case and Cal was coming back in. They met up at the entry desk, where Cal picked up a handful of messages and Gillian stopped for a moment to leave an outgoing package with Anna to be sent out. 7.30 was all Cal could mutter before Anna came close to get the package, and Gillian just had the time to hum a positive response before Torres came to whisk her away for their appointment.

They didn't see each other after that, not until 7.24 pm when Cal knocked on her door. The response time on the other side was within the 0.1 seconds margin, and by 7.25 their lips were meeting again for the first time in roughly 24 hours. Cal was gentle, excruciatingly gentle, but with good reasons. Gillian looked stunning, she had just that little extra touch of makeup that was to be expected for a date and she had done whatever she had to do to create that soft wavy movement in her hair that he hadn't seen in a while and missed so much, and he didn't want to ruin that masterpiece.

"You look nice," Gillian whispered once they broke apart, her hand on his chest as she stared down at him, the immaculate clean white shirt smelling of detergent soft under her fingers.

"Hold that thought," he smirked, covering her hand with his. "Because they won't hold the reservation. We should get going."

Gillian nodded, marvelling at how different something as simple and familiar like holding hands felt that evening as Cal gently pulled her towards him and his car. It was only a short drive to the restaurant, a small family-run restaurant he had been meaning to check out for a while and that had immediately come to mind when he thought about where to take her. They had been out for meals countless times but it was almost mostly the same places they visited, out of habit and because they knew what to expect. But that night was different, and he had felt that something new to discover together would have been perfect to mark the occasion.

Dinner didn't disappoint and neither did the conversation, which had been the thing he had been worried about the most. It surprised him how after years of knowing each other, in the way they knew each other, they always had something to talk about that wasn't work related. However, it was flirting that occupied most of their time and when dinner was over and Cal drove her back to her house the air inside the car was charged with powerful tension.

They had been in public all evening and they had kept themselves limited to small touches and hands-holding, but when they walked up to the door and stood there in the deem light of the streetlamp it was impossible to think they wouldn't push a little further. Still, much to Gillian's surprise - and a touch of panic - Cal put his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet, looking an awful lot like the day before with the exception that there wasn't his daughter watching them and putting a damper on their interaction. Then Cal scoffed audibly, rolling his eyes at her and himself when he finally realised that he was being his own worst enemy in that moment.

"Help me out here love," he moaned softly, coming a little closer and tiling his head on one side. "You know I always have troubles reading you, and by God that has never been so true!" He took another half step closer, somehow smiling and brooding at the same time but also taking his hands out of his pockets. "Right about now it's really hard to separate what I hope is going through your head from what you are actually thinking."

Gillian's instinctive reaction was to smile but she managed to hold back, thinking she didn't mind seeing him squirm a little because the truth was he was damn right adorable when he squirmed. Then she stepped forward and closed the distance between them with that same daring and defiant expression she had shown him the day before by the tree. That alone was enough to make Cal feel all hot and bothered, but then she put her right hand on his chest again like before dinner, only this time the tip of her fingers snuck in between the buttons and found a light touch on his skin.

"I think I had a great time tonight," she whispered, her lips but a hair away from his. "I think you're overthinking it. I think we are adults and we both know exactly what is going on here." Her right hand still on his chest, Gillian brought the left one to the back of his neck and pulled him closer so his mouth was brushing against hers. "I think if you don't come inside with me right now I might just lose it."

Cal might have been a touch cautious in taking that last step, but everything about her speech, her words and her actions told him he needn't worry about a thing. And he wasn't the kind of person who needed to be told twice.

He kissed her, his hands closing around her neck to pull her close as his mouth crashed into her, his tongue diving in. The front door had already been opened and Gillian dragged him inside as she walked backwards, happy for him to keep hold of her face if that meant that in return she could seize her hands around his ass and pull him closer. She didn't bother checking but heard the door slam close and figured he'd taken care of it, getting her confirmation when he forced her with her back against the wall and unleashed his hands on her. He slid them to her back and immediately moved them down, cupping her ass with them and feeling every inch of the flesh there the same way his lips tasted the one on her neck. Gillian stretched her head offering him more surface to explore, meanwhile her hands had a life of her own doing quick work of his jacket and immediately moving to undo the buttons of his shirt. Encouraged, fuelled by her breaking the clothing barrier so decisively, Cal groaned and moved his right hand down to her leg, surfing it slowly but inevitably up under her dress, finding a sweet and welcoming cocoon in between her legs.

"Cal," she moaned, biting at his lobe and instinctively bucking her hips forward. "Bedroom."

Part of him wanted to protest, the destination she was calling for seemed so far away with the way she was responding to him, but in a moment of clarity he imagined them in bed, picturing all the wonderful things he could do to her. Letting her go however was not an option and he certainly wasn't going to stop his ministrations, so he seized her hips and dragged her towards the bedroom, stopping only once when she tore the shirt off of him.

Then, talking about mixed signals and contradictory instructions, when he reached the door of the room and motioned to finally get to the zipper of the dress on her back, he heard her doing something that was rather confusing.

She was laughing, all of a sudden, not a full on laugh but still an amused chuckle that really had no place in their present situation.

"You might wanna clue me in here, darling," Cal moaned, not surprised enough to stop kissing and touching her. "'Cause if your reaction to my hands on your ass is laughter we might have a problem here."

Gillian laughed even harder, a wonderful happy laugh that was disarming in all the good ways.

"My bedroom, Cal," she said then, her fingers tracing lines on his naked chest.

Confused and aroused, a deadly combination for brain cells, Cal looked at her baffled and panting out of breath, then looked around and realised he had been leading them to the spare bedroom he had occupied a few times. Then he looked at her, epiphany coming to him like a lightning bolt and expressing itself in a wide smile when she took his hand and gently led the way to a place he'd never thought he'd see in his life.

The end


Well, that was it. Can you believe I managed to write an entire story without drama?

That was fun, a bit silly but really fun to write.

Keep an eye out, new story coming soon: it's going to be long, it's going to be many things and most importantly, it will be my last.

No preview this time sorry!