Sorry it took so long, I should be back of more regular posting now.

Eteri: you really capture what I wanted to express with this chapter! Ben's plan is simple, more about it here.

JustMyPillow, where are you my friend?!

After the big scares they will try to fight back, read more about it below.

They were the best liars he'd ever met. They could easily, scarily easily, lie to others; they could successfully lie to each other when needed and, he suspected, they could effectively lie to themselves. They were only humans after all.

Knowing all of that, Reynolds wasn't all that impressed as he watched Lightman and Foster share their versions of what had happened with the police without a second of hesitation. Sure, most of what they reported corresponded to the truth: Cal had been attacked at home by someone he didn't know but could describe, and Gillian had been approached by someone looking an awful lot like the same person at the hospital. Of course, they had been talking to the police separately but it hadn't been a problem; they've had plenty of time to get their stories straight, and they were more than capable of delivering them without making it obvious.

Truly, the only things that they omitted was that they knew the name of the attacker and the message Ward had delivered to Foster…and yes, the small detail that the man was seemingly dead. On the other hand, they had compensated by suggesting the mysterious aggressor was more likely connected to one of their cases, which easily explained why they had both been targeted.

Reynolds had kept an eye on both of them, respectfully observing without being in the room to keep up the appearances, marvelling at how seasoned detectives drank in their words with no clue they were being lied to. He had seen Lightman and Foster lie before, sometimes to him, and he knew how effective they could be; that late morning, even with a troubled and sleepless night behind them, they were hitting a whole new level of lying efficiency.

Even so, there was one thing he was sure they were not faking. They were shaken, deeply affected by the recent events, and the light tremble note coming through their voices here and there was not for the benefit of their audience. He wasn't trained as they were but he could recognise genuine fear, and it had been all over Cal and Gillian's faces the moment the Ward name had come up. It was in the way they looked for each other for comfort, very different from the usual familiarity they displayed, and in the way they both seemed ready to take directions despite being two alpha personalities more used to leading than following.

Whether it really was Lucas Ward or not, this guy had messed up with them in a big way and still had some kind of hold of them, and as much as he liked to think giving his description to the police was going to help he didn't really believe in it all that much anymore. It was obvious that he could have easily killed Cal already, after all he had left him unconscious after the beating, and alone with Foster in the hospital bathroom with a knife to her throat… Decisions had been made both times, decisions to leave them alive for the time being. A scenario he certainly didn't like.

A couple of hours later they were leaving the police station to go back to the office. Cal and Gillian didn't need to discuss how their separate conversations with the police had gone, they trusted each other in doing what had been agreed. Gillian was on the passenger seat next to Reynolds, while Cal was sprawled on the back seat in the least uncomfortable position he could find. Neither of them seemed in the mood to talk, unable to shake the sombre atmosphere that had marked the end of their visit to the hospital.

It was around lunchtime that they got back to the office, half of a day that had started countless hours before and already felt like it was never going to end. The message Gillian had sent out to the staff had worked, the parking was deserted and once they got upstairs the office was as empty and silent as when they had left.

Thanks to the bottle of painkillers in his pocket Cal was mostly able to get around on his own, but he was still too tired and weak to oppose any resistance when Gillian suggested they found him something to eat. They were making their way to his office, where he could lay down and rest while they sorted out the food situation, when Torres and Loker popped into the hallway coming from the lab.

"How'd it go?" Loker asked right off the bat.

"No brain damage, sorry to break it to you," Cal quipped, eyes rolling all around him. "All swell with the police too."

"As in?"

"As in now they have a description matching Ward's to a T," Reynolds answered Torres' question, then sighed. "We told them this guy is after Lightman and Foster-"

"Why Foster?" Torres asked, raising an eyebrow, but after a quick round of glances between the trio Reynolds went on as if she hadn't spoken.

"Look, I know it's not ideal but for now it's the best we can do. We told them it's probably because of one of your cases and at least we have them on alert."

"That's great, but what are we going to do in the meantime?"

Loker had a very reasonable question, one that Reynolds didn't have an answer for yet, so he decided to counter with one of his own.

"Did you find anything on Ward?"

"Not much besides what was in Lightman's file," Loker admitted. "Some commendations he received throughout his career, but nothing about his misdeeds. Interestingly, also nothing about his death." He left the last sentence hanging in the air, carefully watching for the reaction from Lightman and Foster, who looked at each other not at all surprised by that revelation. "Cover up, cool. What's new?"

"Thank you, Loker," Gillian jumped in, honestly feeling the young man's pain.

Cal didn't even bother commenting on the matter and kept wobbling his way to his office. As he walked away, Torres seemed to realise he was uncharacteristically quiet even considering that he was hurt and she couldn't help but take that as a sign she had to look further. So she did, watching as the usually vocal and raucous male boss seemed to be eager to get away from everybody's attention. Then she looked at Foster, who was following him from a close distance just in case, and that was when she noticed the cut and bruise on her neck.

"What happened?" She asked, not with the healthy curiosity Loker had displayed but more inquisitory. "What happened at the hospital?"

Gillian and Cal looked at each other, then over at Reynolds who simply shrugged. His opinion was that they might as well tell their employees, however he had sensed there was something delicate behind it and he felt that had to be their choice. Questionably, they apparently decided not to say anything for the time being and Cal just resumed his dragged walk to his office, pretty much ignoring the young woman's enquiry.

"What's that?" She insisted, following them on the way to his office. "On your neck. What happened?"

Gillian stopped and watched Cal limp his way to the office, then she closed the door behind him and turned around. She looked at Torres, with the same tired and annoyed expression she had already given her earlier, and she must have thought it was enough because she rolled her eyes and started to walk away without an answer.

"Did he do it to you?"

This time, hearing those words, when Gillian turned around her expression was very different. She was no longer annoyed but down right insulted, a flash of rage lighting up her eyes as she scanned Torres' figures from top to bottom before deciding once more that her inquiries were not deign of any acknowledgment on her part. So she stared Torres down for a while before turning around and walking away.

"Why do you always do this?" Torres questioned, oblivious to the shock in the others around her. "Defending him, no matter what?"

"Ria-"

"No, listen. He's losing it!" Torres vehemently protested to Reynold's attempt to intervene. "He attacked her before, and now she has a fresh bruise on her neck."

"Just leave it alone, Torres." The agent warned her, but it was clear that she was on her own tangent already.

"When are we going to stop ignoring the fact that he's not in control? I get it, most of the time he's brilliant and whatever but c'mon! He's confused, you can't tell me you honestly believe this is all happening because of a dead guy. And he attacked Foster-"

"He was in shock, Ria." Loker tried to interject. "He had just been attacked, trying to make sense of the fact he had seen someone he thought he had killed… C'mon, give him some credit."

"Why? Because we always do it?" She scoffed. "This isn't good for anybody, we can't keep indulging him every time he steps out of line. We're always walking on eggshells around him and when we see there's something wrong with him we're just supposed to ignore that-"

"Yes, Torres, we are." Out of nowhere, after having turned the corner to go to her office, Gillian had come back and was now pacing straight at the younger woman. "There's a reason for it. We see things other people don't and sometimes the best thing we can do for each other is to pretend that everything is fine and get on with it. You might want to take a minute to think about all the things Cal saw about you and still kept his mouth shut about because it was none of his business. You have no idea how many times he did that, with me, with you and everybody else. You'd be surprised how many times he looked after you and you had no clue he was doing so." Foster was now face to face with Torres, her voice seemingly calm but her whole demeanour certainly struggling to contain high levels of frustration. "Cal did nothing to me, and I don't care what you make of it. You're free to believe what you want but if you can't get on board with what is happening here you'd better go home. We've got problems here, and if you can't be part of the solution then feel free to go."

The flow of words stopped abruptly, and Gillian made sure she maintained the upper hand by leaving right after the last word. Despite being the one leaving she wasn't running away and everybody knew it, including Torres who uselessly looked around looking for support that wasn't going to come. Foster had tried to ignore her attitude and its many implications, but she had been ignoring the signals and had kept coming back to something that had no grounds at all.

Torres looked baffled, honestly shocked that her concerns about the mental stability of the male boss were being so easily dismissed. Loker had a very similar expression, although it was addressed to her since he was struggling to understand what had gotten into her all of a sudden.

While a few steps away from them, almost forgotten by everybody involved in that exchange, Reynolds watched the whole scene unfold keeping his attention on Foster, who was walking away with a steady pace and heading for her office, his mind split between what he had just witnessed and the scenes he had seen between them at the hospital.

With both paths converging to a rather worrying thought.

What do you think?

The next chapter is going to pick up right from here and it will be a big one: hopefully all the silent readers will find their voice with it too