CHAPTER8

Three months into their partnership, Gillian showed up for work like any other day.

Cal could tell immediately that something was bothering her. "Feeling under the weather, Luv?"

Gillian blanched at his question. "I'm fine." she said abruptly as she walked past him.

Cal took the reprimand to heart. Although she was pale and looked like she'd been crying, she worked at her normal pace and didn't seem affected by illness.

They broke for lunch and Gillian sat in the kitchen and quietly ate her soup.

Cal flopped in the chair across from her and took a bite of his sandwich. He observed her for awhile and noticed that although she was no longer pale, her eyes still didn't have the same liveliness and sparkle they normally had.

"Maybe we should have an early day today…" he said after they finished their meal.

"Why?" Gillian wondered as she thought about the pile of bills she needed to enter.

Cal shrugged. "I can tell you don't feel well."

"I'm fine…"

"At's not true; if you're not sick…do you want to tell me what's bothering you?"

"It's personal," she looked at him angrily as she stood. "You know…just because we can read each other doesn't mean we have a right to."

"Kinda hard to shut off what we do…"

Gillian ignored him. "We need to establish a boundary between us."

"A boundary?"

"Yeah, like a line, an imaginary line that neither one of us will cross. Unless it's work related, we don't cross that line…ever…our personal lives remain personal."

"All right," Cal blanched at her anger. "Whatever you say, Luv."

Gillian nodded then walked into the office where she buried herself in accounting for the rest of the afternoon.

The next day, she was back to her usual perkiness and things went back to normal.

Eight months later, Zoe came home after work to find equipment neatly stacked on newly made shelves in the garage. She was barely able to fit her car inside.

She walked into the kitchen, dumped the groceries on the counter then walked into Cal's office. "Cal, maybe its time for The Lightman Group to start renting out office space somewhere?"

Cal looked around his cramped office and then thought of the files and equipment stacked neatly in the garage. "At might me a good idea, yeah?" he asked sheepishly.

Zoe sighed. "Yeah, you and Gillian keep taking on more cases and I love the fact that your business seems to be taking off but your stuff is kind of taking over our home."

"I'll tell Foster we need to find somewhere to move, can I have a few days?"

Zoe smiled. "No, you can take as long as you need to; I just want to have our home back."

Grateful for her understanding, Cal moved in for a kiss, which quickly escalated and ended with them upstairs and in bed.

Three months later, The Lightman Group was fully ensconced in their new office in the heart of Washington D.C. Gillian and Cal each had their own desk, on either side of the office. Between the two desks sat all of the analyzing equipment they used on a daily basis.

Their connections in the Pentagon as well as other various government agencies brought them more work then they could handle and Gillian was able to hire a young man named Eli Loker.

Cal was seemingly unimpressed but Gillian could tell that after a month or so, Cal really appreciated the intern's abilities with the electronics. He even spent time with him after work, showing him the training videos he has used when he was teaching Gillian.

With Eli's help, the three solved cases even faster and their case load was gradually increasing. It seemed like the government offices were always coming up with cases and the influx of cash did wonders for the business. Cal and Eli searched extensively for better equipment.

Two years passed and they expanded into the building next to their current one then eventually hired a receptionist/secretary and a few more interns from a local college.

Emily started stopping by after school and if Cal was busy she spent time with Gillian in her office.

The two quickly became close and Cal often found Emily sitting with Gillian instead of him after school.

Things were slowly getting worse with Cal's marriage. Zoe and he seemed to be fighting about everything and the last time they had a company function to attend at the Defense Department, Gillian noticed Zoe flirting outrageously with ever man in the room. She also noticed how Cal tried to cover up his feelings.

Alec came over and whispered in his wife's ear. "There's trouble brewing with those two." He said as he nodded towards Cal and Zoe.

"You see it too?" Gillian wondered as she caught his eye.

"Zoe just told me that I had gorgeous eyes and she could see why you were so attracted to me. She asked me if I was good in bed…"

"She didn't?!"

Alec shrugged and she could tell he had told her the truth. "Oh my God, poor Cal."

"I don't know how he's holding it together, he's pretty hot headed."

Gillian scowled as she looked at the pain and embarrassment Zoe was causing Cal. "He's hurting too much right now to think about lashing out…maybe we should go sit with him for awhile…"

Alec shook his head. "Honey, I'm not getting in the middle of that, besides I came to try to network. Look there's Senator Wilson over there, I'm going to go and introduce myself, you can go babysit Cal if you want."

Gillian kissed Alec's cheek. "I love you, thanks for being so understanding."

"I love you too, babe!"

Alec left and Gillian went and sat in a seat across the table from Cal.

"Hi," she greeted quietly.

"Foster…"

"Do you mind if I sit for awhile?"

Cal shrugged indifferently. "Table's open."

"Thanks, Alec went to make the rounds of introductions to Senators and I'm just really not up for small talk."

A waiter stopped by and Gillian asked for a pot of coffee and two mugs. He was back in record time and Gillian poured a cup for Cal then pushed it his way before she poured herself a cup and added cream and sugar.

"I heard through the grapevine that the Defense Department and the CIA have some cases they're sending our way."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, some of them sound pretty challenging…"

"Huh…"

"Two of them, I think we should get on as soon as they come in. They're high profile cases and if we settle them quickly we can get that new computer you and Loker keep talking about…"

"Whatever…"

Gillian pretended to get mad and stood up. "Look, I'm sorry I'm bothering you but with Alec gone I really had no one else to talk to, I saw you sitting here and I thought you wouldn't mind, I'll just go…"

Her unusual display of anger had the desired effect and Cal shook off his melancholy mood. "Foster, wait! I'm sorry, I just…"

Gillian sat back down as he fumbled for the right words. "Had too much to drink?" she offered.

He jumped at her handy excuse. "Yeah, thanks for the coffee." Gillian nodded then Cal took a long sip before he looked at her. "So what about these cases…"

Gillian told him what she knew and the conversation flowed easily between them.

Keeping an eye on them and seeing that Cal was no longer hurt by her actions, Zoe made her way over to him. "I'm ready to go home now, how about you?"

"I'm talking to Foster here," Cal pointed out.

Zoe flashed an annoyed grin. "Don't you see her like twelve hours a day every day?"

Cal shrugged. "Yeah, but it seems like we always have something to talk about."

Gillian smiled weakly. "If you two will excuse me, Alec is waving me over. It was nice to see you again, Zoe, Cal, I'll see you tomorrow."

Gillian left and Zoe started in on Cal. They left immediately and fought all the way home in the car then continued into the next morning. This went on for over a month.

Two days later, Gillian walked into the bathroom at the Lightman Group and found Emily sitting on the countertop. Her socks and shoes were tossed precariously around the floor and her feet were in the basin of the sink. Her legs were slathered with shaving lotion and she held a razor in her hand. Gillian glanced to see a long line of red blood trickling down one of her legs.

Emily looked at her with big tears in her eyes. "I just cut myself!"

"I see…" Gillian sighed as she stepped forward. She grabbed a piece of paper towel and held it against the cuts. "First time?"

"Yeah…"

Gillian frowned as she leaned against the wall. "You should have waited for your Mom to help you…"

Emily scowled at her. "My Mom said I was too young to shave my legs!"

"Oh…"

Emily's lips quivered as she held back her tears. "Other girls are shaving already but my Mom didn't care about them…today I heard some girls talking about my hairy legs…"

"Oh…" Gillian frowned as she pulled the hair back from Emily's face and tucked it behind her ear. "But…"

"I shouldn't care what other people say about me, its their insecurities that make them say mean stuff…" Emily mocked as she rolled her eyes.

Gillian hid her smile as Emily. "So who is he?"

"Who?"

"The boy who overheard them saying that then suddenly looked at you differently?"

"How did you know?" Emily's eyes were wide with surprise.

"Because I was your age once too…"

"Steven…"

"Is Steven normally nice?"

"Yeah, he's cool!"

Gillian sighed as she looked at Emily. "Tell you what…let me tell your Dad and if he's not opposed to the idea, I'll help you with this…"

"Okay," Emily grumbled.

Gillian looked outside the bathroom door and saw Cal at the end of the hallway.

"Cal!" she motioned to him after he looked up then went back inside.

Totally confused, Cal walked into the bathroom then stopped dead in his tracks. "Bloody hell, Em!" he exclaimed with concern then groaned. "Didn't your Mum tell you no?!"

"Yeah but Dad…"

"Cal," Gillian said as she placed a hand on his arm. "Emily is wanting some help with this and I'd he happy to assist her but I wanted your permission."

Cal sighed deeply as he quickly "read" Gillian. He could see they had already discussed everything but his headstrong daughter was going to do it any way. "Yeah, all right, I better bloody let you help or I'll be taking her in for skin grafts!"

Emily squealed excitedly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…"

"Yeah," Cal grumbled as he contemplated the coming argument with Zoe.

Gillian spent the next twenty minutes carefully showing Emily how to shave her legs.

Emily listened intently then afterwards hugged Gillian. "Thanks for helping me, Gill!"

"You're welcome…you know you're Mom's going to be furious…"

Emily shrugged indifferently. "I'll just tell her I did it by myself!"

"That would be a lie…" Gillian pointed our softly.

"No…I did do it by myself you never once touched the razor!"

Gillian knew it was a distortion of the truth but realized it wasn't her business and threw up her hands in mock surrender. "This is up to your parents now…I'm out of it."

That night the argument was huge and Cal ended up sleeping on the couch.

Emily started spending more and more time with Gillian. Zoe called everyday after school to make sure Emily had gotten there all right and inevitably she and Cal got into an argument.

Cal slammed down the phone then frowned as he went in search if his daughter. "Hey, what's with you spending time with Foster after school instead of your old Dad?"

"I'm sick of listening to you and Mom fight everyday, it's quiet in here and I can do my homework."

Cal shot a look at Gillian who pretended to be looking outside before he looked down apologetically at Emily. "Aye, I'm sorry about that Luv, things have been kind of rocky lately, but we're trying to work them out, it'll get better, I promise."

"Well, they can't get much worse can they?" Emily wondered aloud as Cal grimaced.

Emily was wrong…they did get worse and they stayed worse.