As promised, back with chapter 2 if you have the stomach for it.

Eteri: glad to see you're taking this in stride!

Tonya: no worries, whatever happens this story will go on for a while

Guest: hope your curiosity will be satisfied

The fall was odd but nothing serious, her elbow just about brushed the edge of the table and possibly struck a nerve but she knew it was nothing to worry about. It didn't matter that he had yelled, that he had pushed and that he looked like the action had come from some foreign inhabitant within his body. The only thing that mattered were his words, the truth about his attacker he had voiced multiple times, and the way his face and stance nearly immediately softened as he realised what he had just done.

"Hei!"

They both turned to the door when Torres yelled, panic in her voice. Cal stared at her with a lost look, unable to see the evident disgust on her face directed at him, but Gillian only gave her a quick look before calling his name and stretching her arm for him to take and help her up.

"Don't touch her."

Torres barked at him, taking a step forward ready to put a stop to that. Foster gave her a look, not pulling back her hand and trying to show the younger woman that she was out of place, then she looked back at Cal and nodded. Confused, his head spinning with the vortex of the events, he took some seconds to focus on the situation and possibly process what he had done, along with the meaning of her gesture. Eventually, careful and tentative, he reached out and took her hand and gently helped on her feet under Torres suspicious glare.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes Ria, I am ok." Gillian looked at Cal, still mostly lost, and gave him a reassuring nod. "We are ok."

That last clarification got through to him. Gillian saw her words to him successfully cutting through the fog wrapping his brain and achieved the intended goal. She wasn't going to make a big deal out of him pushing her, it clearly had been a gesture brought on by panic and fear and if somehow he was right about what he had said, about who was behind the attack on him, a little shove was the least of their problems.

"What the hell happened?"

Torres pushed on, not in the least bit convinced by the boss' words. But Gillian didn't care, the explanation had not been for her benefit after all and quite frankly dealing with Torres' sudden attitude was not at the top of her list.

"Nothing." Foster dismissed her with that single word, then gently helped Cal to sit down again, partly because he needed to and partly because she hoped Torres would take the hint that she wasn't going to indulge in what she thought had happened. "Did you find his car?"

"He's not right, you shouldn't-"

"The car, Torres." Gillian cut her off, somehow combining the stern tone she gave to the younger woman with the soft way in which she took hold of Cal's hand as he sat down. "Is it here?"

Torres watched them for a few seconds, her face hardened by the thoughts going through her mind, and eventually decided to let it go for the time being. She didn't like it, but it was clear she wasn't going to get anything from Foster as long as Lightman was around. Then she sighed and nodded, keeping a watchful eye on him as she spoke.

"Yes. It was parked sideways in the garage, by the elevators." She put her hand in her pocket and took out the keys. "The door was open, these were in the ignition."

"Any blood in the car?"

"Maybe, I don't know. Not much light down there and the interiors are dark."

"Ok, thank you." Gillian mumbled while easing Cal to lay down on the couch again. "Where's Loker?"

"Foster-"

"Has he got hold of Reynolds?"

It was a duel Torres had no chance of winning, and if Cal had been in the right disposition he would have probably found it entertaining. The employee kept trying to rewind to the events she had missed to make sense of what she had seen, while the boss was blatantly refusing to engage and pushing forward instead. It could have gone on for a while, although the outcome would have changed, but then Loker came back into the room. He immediately sensed the tension and stood here, looking at everybody to see if anybody would jump in to tell him what was going on, but when nobody spoke he opted to just carry on.

"I spoke with Reynolds," he announced. "He said he'll wait at Lightman's place."

"Ok, thank you." Gillian took a moment to think about the next move, then addressed Cal. "I'm going over to your house, Cal. You stay here and they'll get you fixed up."

"No! Foster, he's there-"

Somehow, the fact that he worried about that made her smile. It was a tired, worried and sad smile but a smile nonetheless, then Gillian gently brushed some hair away from his forehead and squeezed his hand.

"Ben will be there, I won't be alone." Cal took a long time to figure out if that was enough for him, but eventually nodded. "We're going to take a look and come back, ok?"

He nodded again, still not entirely sold on it but realising someone had to make that move after all. Gillian waited a little and held her smile to him, then eventually let go of his hand and stood up, going straight to Loker.

"I'm going to meet Reynolds. Can you stay with him and fix him up?"

"Sure but…maybe I should come with you?"

"No, stay with him."

Loker didn't miss the strange exchange of looks that went on between Foster and Torres, wondering if he had been picked to babysit Lightman simply because the female boss didn't want Torres to be alone with him and not because she didn't appreciate his company for her visit to Cal's house. He knew he was missing a big chunk of information and couldn't do much about it, but going with the boss' instructions seemed the best option. He nodded to her and took the place she had been previously occupying on the coffee table, looking at Cal's face like a puzzle that needed solving, but then his attention went back to Foster who was now keeling down to the safe in the office.

Loker and Torres looked at each other, both for comfort and to avoid the risk of catching the combination as it was punched in. They heard Foster mutter something when a sound that clearly meant something wasn't right came from the safe, then she sighed and tried again. This time the safe opened and she picked up one of the guns Cal kept there, then she closed it back and walked over to Loker.

"Just in case," she stated as she handed him the weapon, well aware of the implication of the gesture.

Loker was obviously not comfortable with the gift, but a look at Lightman's face and Foster's very serious demeanour quickly told him he'd better get over that. He took the gun and put it by his side on the table, then Gillian nodded and started to make her way to the door, muttering "I assume you'll want to come with me" to Torres as she passed by.

She didn't wait to check if the younger woman was following, although she suspected she would eventually, she simply didn't have the time nor the nervous energy. Gillian had known something bad was up when Cal had called, then he had shown up beaten and bloodied to top it all off with that name… No, it was not the time nor the place to humour Torres on whatever she thought of the littl she had seen.

Foster was nearly at the door when Torres caught up with her but they didn't say a word as they reached her car. Once in there, driving to Cal's place in the early light of the day, Gillian was well aware of Torres' eyes on her and that she had no place to go, so she went on the offensive and as soon as she could she shot the younger woman a glare, daring her to bring up the subject if she had the guts for it.

For the record, she didn't. After a while Torres felt the weight of the boss' gaze and swallowed down her questions, doubts and the rest, averting her eyes to look out of the window. Waiting for the light to turn green, Gillian kept looking at her on the passenger seat struggling to hold back a defiant expression. Putting people in their places or playing the authority cards wasn't her style, more Cal's, but she wasn't against it when the times called for it.

"Did he say who attacked him?" Torres asked after a while, testing the water with a very reasonable question.

"No," Gillian lied - or did she?- and was confident that Torres didn't see it.

She had an advantage, a big one: they naturally thought too highly of her and didn't think she was capable of flat out lying to their faces like Lightman would.

They didn't say anything else until they reached Cal's house, immediately spotting a car parked out front. Gillian parked in the street and got out to approach the car but could see nobody inside, but before panic and disappointment took over she heard Reynolds' familiar voice calling her name. She turned around and spotted the agent by the door of Cal's house, sighing with relief because he was there and because he was ok, then urged to join.

"Ben." She couldn't resist, the quick hug to the former colleague was honest and welcomed on both ends. "Thank you for coming, especially at this hour."

"Wouldn't be the Lightman Group if it wasn't a bit crazy," he responded softly, giving Torres too a quick hug before going back to Gillian. "So what's going on Foster? Loker said that Cal's been attacked?"

More like beaten to a pulp, she thought painfully, but instead just nodded. Then she gave him a quick summary, sadly with nothing much to add: Cal's call, the long wait at the office and his arrival. Gillian felt Torres itch to add what was missing, but wisely kept her mouth shut until the boss and Reynolds had done with that part of the story.

"So you think it happened here?" He asked then, absently pointing at the house behind him.

"Looks like it. But I figured we could have checked." Gillian paused for a second, glancing at the main door. "The state he's in, I am sure the fight must have left some signs."

Reynolds nodded and looked at the door, then stepped closer and asked Gillian if she had the keys. For a brief moment of terror she was afraid she didn't, she certainly hadn't thought about getting the keys from Cal but thankfully she remembered she always had a copy attached to her own. Frantically fishing in her pockets she found the keys, selected the right one and gave it to Reynolds. The agent naturally went to use them,, but the moment his hand touched the lock and handle the door gently opened with a silent movement.

He froze immediately, his training kicking in. He stepped back and silently motioned to the women to do the same, then slowly took his gun and tried to peer through the small crack in the door. He saw nothing of note, not yet, then looked back at Foster and Torres with the intention to tell them to wait for him there, and giving up immediately. There was no way Gillian was going to stay put, and even though Torres looked a bit more reticent it was clear she still wasn't going to leave the boss alone. Reynolds sighed, thinking at least if it had been Lightman he'd already barged through the door on his own, then spoke.

"Stay behind me," he instructed. "Don't touch anything."

They both nodded and did as told, trailing Reynolds as he carefully entered the house. The sun was slowly coming up outside but the interior was mostly dark, so he fished in his pocket for a small flashlight to have a better view. Everything seemed mostly ok by the door, aside from small smears of blood probably left by Lightman on his way out, but he felt better to quickly check with a look at Foster, since of the three of them she was the one more likely to be able to tell if something was off. She shook her head no, understanding the silent request, then they moved on through the kitchen where the scene was pretty much the same. The living room was more of a mess, the coffee table was overturned and under the flashlight they could see bloodied footprints on the carpet.

They looked at each other, wondering if that had been part of the fight or just Cal trying to get his ass out of there. Reynolds had another thought, one that he wasn't ready to share and for that he was glad there wasn't' enough light in the room for them to see his face. They were looking at the scene with the eyes of worried friends, but his analytical take was saying something a little different, something more in line with the injuries on Lightman as they had been described to him: what had happened there wasn't a fight, but a one way beating. And when they got to the bathroom he realised with a shiver just how right he was.

There was a streak of blood on the floor he nearly stepped over, by the door where the tiled floor of the bathroom left place to the wooden one of the hallway. An image flashed before his eyes when he saw the dark and muffled handprint on the door jamb, Lightman down on the ground trying to pull himself up, or away from his attacker. That first detail made him turn around and try to stop Foster and Torres from coming in, to preserve the scene and mostly to spare them the view, but Gillian was already stretching her neck behind him. He sighed and shook his head, thinking the second attention would have been probably useless anyway and confident they both had enough knowledge of law enforcement to know better not to touch anything.

Still, when Gillian behind him switched on the light in the room he really wished she hadn't done that.

There was more blood, not a frightening amount but still enough to add to the level of dread they already felt. The mirror above the sink was shuttered in pieces and there was blood on the ceramic edge; the shower curtain had been ripped away and left on the floor, partially blocking the drain and leaving a puddle of red stained water; a shelf had been brought down sprawling items all over the place; a framed poster had fallen of the wall and had a hole in it and somewhere in the corner there was a splash of something that looked like a concerning mix of blood and vomit.

"Shit!"

It wasn't professional, it wasn't helpful in any shape or form but that wasn what Reynold could process on the spot. He knew he still had the rest of the house to check, by protocol, to ensure the attacker or anybody else wasn't still there, but he had to take a moment to take in the scene. Professional, he knew that the chance someone was still there was very slim and at least he knew Cal had gotten out of there alive. Personally, it was quite the scene to take knowing a friend had gone through whatever level of violence had been unleashed to reduce the small room in that state.

Then he turned around, determined to get Foster and Torres out of there. As he expected, Gillian was staring at the room in horror, an expression he had never seen on her face before and that, he felt, might go beyond the scene itself. Whatever it was, she couldn't stand it for long and eventually stepped back, leaving the room and going somewhere she didn't have to look at it, while Torres stood there more shocked than anything else. He wished he could do something for them, but before he tried anything there was something he needed to know.

He needed them to tell him how they wanted to play it.

He put the gun away and told Torres to wait there, then went back looking for Foster. He found her in the kitchen, standing by the sink with her arms stretched on the counter, head down in between her shoulders and taking in slow deep breaths. For a moment Reynolds thought she shouldn't really be touching anything, but then again she was a regular visitor of the Lightman household so it wouldn't have made much of a difference. Then he approached her carefully, well aware that the scene in the bathroom couldn't have been easy on her, and when he got close he stopped and just waited for her to turn around in her own time. When she did, Gillian gave him a quick nod and attempted a smile to let him know she was ok.

She probably wasn't, wasn't going to be either, but he remembered enough of his time with Lightman Group to know how to pick his battles. So he just nodded in response and folded his arms with a sigh.

"I know you guys like to keep this sort of things close to the chest, what-"

"Not this one." Gillian cut him off, gently with a steady and resolute voice. "Call it in."