Hello all, happy weekend!

They finally were reunited! Wasn't that nice?

Guest: Thank you so much! Keeping them in character as much as possible is always my mine concern!

Now, it's time see how Gillian really deals with the aftermath and don't forget, Zoe and Emily are coming.

After leaving Cal's hospital room, Gillian had been told by Reynolds that Zoe and Emily had gotten on plane as soon as possible right after his call and were on their way back home, due to arrive later in the day. She was glad to hear it, Cal could use all the support he could get and his daughter was always the best of balsam for his malaise of any kind, but then she thought some preparations might have been necessary. It was logical to assume that they would have stayed at Cal's house which, as far as Gillian knew, was still a bloody mess. She asked Reynolds if he could take her there, so that she could try to tidy and clean up before their arrival, but he told her it wasn't necessary. He had already sent someone of his own initiative after Zoe had told him that they were coming, and reassured Gillian that the place was going to be spotless.

Once again, she was pleasantly surprised to know he had had that kind of attention, also because despite her offer she wasn't entirely sure she had the energy to go through the task herself. However, once that was settled she felt oddly stripped of things to do and suddenly didn't know what to do with herself. She had been constantly busy - if that was the right word at all - for days, getting little rest and hardly a moment resembling a normal life, and even on that last stretch, waiting to know if Cal was going to be ok, she had had thoughts of what to do next keeping her company. Now it was all gone: Cal was ok, he needed quiet and rest but he was safe and nothing was going to happen to him. The Group's activities had resumed, albeit slowly and without either of the partners having a faintest idea as to what was going on, but she thought that if their employees had enough dedication to come into work even when told not to and take care of business they probably had nothing to worry about. Warton was dead, the dark cloud chasing them gone, and Rodriguez was probably going to be steamrolled by the consequences of her own actions.

And she had nothing left to do, nothing else to worry about.

"I can drive you home," Loker offered then, honestly ready to jump forward and catch her because she looked like she was about to faint. "You need to get some rest."

Gillian nodded despite some part of her refusing to give in, out of silly pride and the automatic response developed from the previous days. Loker's words made her smirk, thinking that was the kind of thing Cal would say and had indeed suggested before she left him, even though he looked like he could use some R&R himself.

Then she simply nodded, asking Reynolds if he was going to stay at the hospital a little longer and to call her if he needed anything. Then she just followed Loker out of the hospital, having to screen her eyes from the sunlight once she stepped outside. She nearly fell asleep on the passenger seat during the drive, lulled by the regular movement of the car and humming of the engine. Loker insisted on walking her to the door and she was really just too tired to oppose any resistance, and he asked if she needed anything before he left. Gillian thought she needed about a thousand things, but nothing he could provide really, so she politely said no and thanked him before going inside.

Being back home was surreal, but extremely soothing too, especially knowing that there was no longer a threat out there. Then, with the last drops of energy, she set a schedule for herself: shower to wash away the days worth of not doing so, sleep a few hours to stop feeling like a zombie, shower again to shake off the sleep and then eat, because she was positively starving.

Hours later, feeling refreshed and more like herself again, at least on the outside, Gillian took a cab from her house to go to the office and retrieve her car, then drove to the hospital. She had something to do again, and even something as small and self-assigned such as bringing Cal his phone and a cup of tea was doing wonders to her spirits.

At the hospital, when she came out of the elevator with the paper cup in her hand, the first thing Gillian saw was Zoe, talking to Reynolds. She looked tired too, like a woman who had been on a night 10 hour-long flight only to rush to a hospital, and an immediate and honest feeling of sympathy grew inside her. She knew how it felt, to wait hopelessly, and she couldn't even begin to imagine how it must have been for Zoe and Emily to sit in the confined space of a place for hours without even the possibility of a phone call, all the while looking after her even more distraught daughter.

Emily wasn't in sight, but there was a man next to Zoe, Rudi was her guess, holding her shoulders as the FBI agent was talking to her. As she approached the trio, Gillian thought that it wasn't all that fair to him. Reynolds had been the one drawing the short straw of delivering the news to Zoe over the phone because she had asked, but Gillian thought she should be the one relaying the finest details. After all, a lot if not all of what had happened to Cal was directly related to her. But judging by the expression on Zoe's face, Reynolds had taken that burden away from her.

"Hi Zoe," Foster mumbled then once she was close enough, feeling the awkward atmosphere intensify.

"Hi," the lawyer responded with a nod, then glanced at the man next to her. "Rudi, this is Gillian, Cal's business partner."

The introduction between the two strangers seemed to ease the tension, which wasn't really a negative one but mostly strange: there was no etiquette to follow for something like that they knew of. Hoping not to overstep, Gillian asked where Emily was and Zoe informed that she was with Cal. They had landed less than three hours before, immediately finding messages from Reynolds on Cal's less worse than expected conditions, and went straight to the hospital from the airport. Emily, God bless her, hadn't been really interested in knowing what exactly had happened - also probably knowing the grown ups around her would have likely opted not to tell her anyway - and all she cared about was to see her father. Which had provided Zoe with the perfect opportunity to badger Reynolds with questions about what the hell had happened.

"How is Cal doing?" Gillian asked then, not sure who to direct the question.

"He's in pain, he's trying to hide it mostly," the woman said, clenching her jaw and shaking her head. "But he's ok, the doctors say there should be no long term damage, just-" Just a lot of pain, and fear and memories haunting him for a while, Gillian thought but said nothing. "He seemed to feel so much better the moment he saw Emily."

Gillian nodded to herself, thinking that made sense but also wondering how truly happy Cal could be about that. She remembered his slight confusion from their previous conversation, how he had needed confirmation that Warton was dead, and wondered if was now lucid enough to see that there was no danger for Emily being back.

"Ben was telling me about what happened, Warton and everything else." Gillian looked at Reynolds, honestly surprised to hear that, and Zoe smirked. "Oh, he was trying to keep some stuff to himself but I've got friends in the Attorney General office. It's not every day a high ranking Pentagon official is indicted for hiring a hitman to kill civilians."

Reynolds huffed when Zoe said that, clearly not comfortable with that sort of thing being said out loud, but Gillian had to side with Zoe on that, reading the possible implications in the news that someone with power was going to look into it.

"Do you think they are going to try and cover this up?" She asked then, not to Reynolds but to Zoe, whose sources probably had better insights than an FBI agent, no matter how good he was.

"From what I hear, this might be too big to be swept under the rug."

"There won't be a cover up," Reynolds jumped in then, his discomfort suddenly gone. "The Ward thing back then was different, terrible but nowhere near as compromising as this. Some of Rodriguez's decisions back then were green-light because some people had it in for Cal or thought it was good to have a backup plan, but getting Warton to come after them was her own doing and nobody wants to touch that with a ten foot pole."

"So they will let the ugly truth about one person come out now and preserve the lies of the past," Zoe scoffed, shaking her head as she sat down. "Regardless of everything Gillian, you two didn't leave that place soon enough."

Foster found herself agreeing with Zoe once more, a strange feeling but certainly not the most unusual thing to happen to her as of recently. Still, as she felt Reynolds' grave expression all over her, she thought that she didn't mind that trade to be made. She wanted Rodriguez to be held responsible for coming after them for such a futile reason, but after having spent years burying any thought of Ward she was more than happy to leave that part of the story untold.

With those strange thoughts running through her head, Gillian sat down next to Zoe and seized her hand around the tea cup she had brought for Cal, now gone cold. Then she wondered exactly how much Reynolds had shared, doubting he'd gone into detail of the torture Cal had been subjected to or the dynamics of Warton's attacks on them. She hoped it wasn't much, no more than necessary. She was sure he had stuck with Warton's related stuff and avoided very specific facts about her past interaction with Ward; she had no doubt he'd never betrayed that confidence.

She looked up then, finding Zoe giving her furtive glances with a pained expression. Gillian could see what that was, there wasn't the recognition or pity a woman would have displayed facing a victim of abuse, and she silently thanked Reynolds for his discretion. What she saw in Zoe's face was a very angry and worried woman, who rightfully cared about a man who had been her husband, and also someone who could guess whatever had happened to Cal had not happened solely to him.

"This guy, Warton," Zoe asked then after a while, to no one in particular. "Cal was the one who killed him?" Reynolds glanced at Gillian but she was looking away, so he nodded and Zoe spat out hastily. "Good, well done Cal."

As warranted as it might have been, the woman's closing comment brought an uncomfortable silence to the small group. Rudi more than anyone else, who looked like he'd rather be descending into an active volcano than being part of that kind of conversation. But the weight of those words seemed to affect Reynolds and Gillian as well, and the agent found himself staring at Foster even after Emily came out of Cal's room and joined, claiming her father was asking who he had to bribe to get a nice cup of tea.

I forgot how short this chapter is and that there is no direct Callian: well, since it's the weekend and I am in a good mood keep an eye out for another chapter to be posted tomorrow!