Just a little idea I got after rewatching a certain episode (can't say which not to spoil the second part).

"Oh, there you are! I was looking for you."

Cal swirled around on his feet at Gillian's cheerful call out, which also happened to scare the living hell out of him. He'd normally hear her coming from a distance thanks to her heels clicking on the floors, but when he glanced down at her feet he noticed she wasn't wearing any shoes. He smirked and looked up at the rest of her, finding her leaning on the door jamb with her arms behind her back.

"I didn't do it," he blurted out then, almost a reflex in response to her inquisitive gaze.

"What?"

Cal blinked a couple times, registering Foster went from questioning to alarmed in the blink of an eye, literally.

"Nothing," he quipped then with a shrug, then walked briskly past her to door the small library attached to his office and reached his desk.

"Cal, what is it that you didn't do?" Her voice had a slightly higher pitch but she didn't move from her position. Instead, she just turned to follow his frantic movement as he went to this desk and picked up a couple of folders before seemingly heading out. "Cal?"

When he turned around, God damned him, Cal had a wide grin spread all over his face. Foster bit at her bottom lip and shook her head, wondering what possessed him to instantly decide to mess with her the moment she had showed up. However, she couldn't entirely complain. It was always refreshing to see him having fun, especially with her, and things hadn't been easy lately. Money was still tight but at least he had finished the book, and there was some occasional awkwardness floating to the surface here and there for reasons she couldn't always identify, therefore Gillian was ready to welcome levity at all times.

"Why does everything have to be a confrontation with you?" She asked then exasperated, but also with a little smile on her face.

"Well, that depends." Cal took a couple of steps closer and eyed her suspiciously. "What have you got back there?"

It wasn't his sudden proximity that made her step back, nor his curious gaze roaming all over her and trying to get a peak of what she was obviously hiding behind her back. She was used to that and most of the times she liked it, at least when she had nothing serious to hide like that evening. And she enjoyed it even more when she could give him a taste of his own medicine.

"You know what happened today?" She stepped away from the wall and moved forward, coming inches away from him before he had to make a bit more room between them. "The case you and I worked on, the insurance fraud?"

It was exhilarating, especially after his little stunt, to see the range of emotions alternating on his face. Gillian saw the confusion her questions provoked in him, saw him focus his memory on the events of the day and going through them looking for something he might have missed. And when he failed at it, she could see him panicking at the thought he might have done something spectacularly bad without even realising it.

Cal was probably one second short from apologising for something, anything really, when he caught the shift in her expression going from intense and inquisitive - kinda sexi really - to downright complacent. Gillian took a mental picture of the childishly hurt expression on his face and filed it away for future personal entertainment, then held a coy smile at him without saying anything else until he grunted in frustration.

"Having fun Gill, aren't we?" She held his gaze, they were both enjoying every second of it. "What are you hiding back there, love?"

He had backed off, unwilling or unable to keep up with her. Gillian was somewhat disappointed he had taken the initiative to stop that little playful confrontation, but took great pleasure in marking that as a victory and promised herself not to let him forget about it anytime soon. Cal saw it all and rolled his eyes at her, annoyed, far more interested in the present mystery rather than in a potential future teasing.

"You know you can be such a bummer sometimes."

Foster whined at his stubbornness, to which he agreed with a smug nod. Then she finally brought her hands forward, revealing the object she had been hiding and holding it in between them.

"Really?" Cal frowned looking at the bottle of champagne in her hands he had given her more than a year before, still goofily wrapped up in red ribbon. "Am I missing something, love? Did you elope with Captain America and forgot to tell me?"

"The case, today," she tried to reel him in again, in passing registering how the mention of Burns didn't seem to leave any mark on either of them. "Noticed anything special about it?"

"I think we've already established I have no idea what you're talking about, darling."

"Today," she sighed, exaggerating the disappointment in her voice, "the Lightman Group successfully solved its 200th case."

She had imagined about a dozen different reactions coming from him, including no reaction at all. Pride for the accomplishment, happiness maybe, disgust for the emphasis she put on something so trivial and she had even considered complete indifference considering Cal Lightman was not one to dwell on that sort of thing. What she hadn't expected, but somehow still found appropriate, was the devilish grin slowly forming on his face combined with the sudden and deep fondness on his face.

Foster was taken aback by that sweet expression, loaded with a meaningful silence rather than an uncomfortable one. It was obvious that he had never considered that might be a thing, but also that now that he had been made aware of it he did see what a big deal it was, and not just for her. It meant a lot to Gillian, who had been prepared for a barrage of pokes about how silly she was for even caring about something like that, almost as much as it seems to mean to Cal that she had brought his divorce present to mark the occasion.

As to confirm her impression, Cal locked eyes with her and stepped closer blindly going for the bottle with his hand, closing it around hers. The smile was now softer, none of that teasing and showing off and provoking attitude he often put behind it, and his eyes sparkled for a moment when she smiled back at him with the same sweet intensity. Then he came even closer and stopped waiting for her to make a move, mighty satisfied when she rested her forehead on his and closed her eyes. To an external observer it might have seemed like a random gesture, but for two extremely guarded people as they were it was a powerful moment to share.

"We've been in business for years and we only solved 200 cases?"

And of course he had to ruin it all with that mouth of his.


Still finding my footing with this, making sure I get the characters right. Lots of ideas going around for longer stories but before I tackle them I want to make sure I get them.