CHAPTER 11

Cal and Emily fell into a routine. Emily practically lived with him except on weekends and even then, often came over home early on Sundays to do homework or get her stuff ready for school.

Cal and Zoe were civil to each other and spent birthdays and holidays as a family and tried to make the best of it for Emily's sake.

Things were going okay until one morning when Emily's world fell apart again.

Cal was just getting out of the shower when he heard a cry come from his daughter's room. He was drying off his face and frowned at the noise as he tried to make certain he had heard something. Puzzled he quickly threw the towel around his waist while he headed to her room.

"Em! Emily, are you all right?!"

The bathroom door was shut and Cal walked passed it and into her room. He glanced at the bed and noticed the sheets had a huge blood stain in the middle of them. Cal panicked and ran to the bathroom.

"Emily!"

"Go away!"

"Let me in!"

"I said go away!" she screamed loudly.

"Damn it, are you okay?! Emily!"

"Oh my God will you just leave me the hell alone?!"

Cal frowned as he realized she wasn't hurt then it slowly dawned on him what the blood stain meant. "Bloody hell!" he muttered as he ran for his cell phone.

He tried to call Zoe but kept getting her voice mail. He texted her and then thought about it for only the briefest second before he texted Gillian. "Em...period…help ASAP!"

Across town, Gillian was turning off the hair dryer when she heard a text come through. She glanced at it then groaned as she quickly typed. "Fifteen minutes."

She ran for her purse and was headed for the door when Alec stopped her. "What's going on?"

"Emily got her period last night and needs help."

Alec frowned. "Doesn't she have a mother to help with that?"

Gillian sighed. "Yeah, but I think Zoe's out of town right now and Cal could use my help."

"Of course he could." Alec said flatly.

Gillian looked at him angrily. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Cal Lightman calls and you go running!"

"Cal Lightman doesn't need my help but his thirteen year old daughter does and I'm not going to let Emily suffer because her mother's an idiot and her father doesn't know the first damn thing about feminine products!"

Gillian slammed out the door then raced to the pharmacy closest to Cal's house. Ten minutes later, she knocked on his door.

"Thank God, Foster. Look, I dug in the sink of my bathroom and Zoe had these things called tampons but isn't that those things that go..." Cal motioned with his hand as his face paled and he swore.

"Yeah, they are and we won't go there. Where's Emily?"

"In the bathroom upstairs, she won't come out and she screams at me if I try to talk to her."

Gillian patted his arm comfortingly. "Welcome to the joys of having a teenage daughter!"

She headed upstairs and noticed the blood stain on the bed sheets. She quickly stripped them and handed them to Cal. "Get these soaking in the laundry, then get fresh sheets on the bed."

Cal ran to do as he was told as Gillian knocked lightly on the door. "Hey Em, it's me."

"Gillian?!"

"Yeah!"

Emily quickly unlocked the door and sat back on the toilet. Gillian could tell she was mortified and sat down on the edge of the tub near here.

"I can't believe he called you."

Gillian patted Emily's knee comfortingly. "He was worried about you."

"What did he tell you?"

"That you got your period and he needed my help."

"So he knows?"

"I think he figured it out…"

"Gross!"

"Emily, men know that women get their period every month, and even though they try to pretend it doesn't exist, they do know it happens! I take it this is your first one?"

"Yes."

"Well…what's your mom told you about it?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "All the clinical stuff but we never really got into the gory details."

"Okay…gory details…I guess that's my department today!" Gillian laughed to try to lighten the mood as she reached for the bag from the pharmacy. She took out each product and explained its uses then showed Emily how to dispose of the dirty.

Emily listened intently then Gillian excused herself so Emily could take care of her personal needs. She was sitting on the edge of the bed when Emily came out.

Emily sat down next to her and sighed. "Thanks, Gillian. If it wasn't for you, I'd be in the bathroom for the next week."

Gillian pushed some strands of hair away from Emily's face and noticed she was pale. "Stomach hurts huh?"

"Yeah," Emily admitted.

"I have some pills you can take exclusively for that but you can take regular over the counter pain medication too. Why don't we ask your Dad if it's all right for you to take something?"

Emily blushed but swallowed hard and nodded. "Okay."

Gillian had her arm around Emily's shoulders when they came down from upstairs. Cal sighed with relief when they walked into the kitchen.

"Hey, Foster, you want some breakfast? I'm just cooking up some scrambled eggs here for me and Em."

"Sure Cal, thanks, um…Emily isn't allergic to any kinds of medication is she, I brought some medicine for…"

Cal waved his hand dismissively. "No…no…she's a good little trouper aren't you Em? Not much makes her sick, give her whatever she needs."

Emily closed her eyes with relief that he had taken this so lightly and wasn't going to get into a big discussion about it.

Gillian handed her the pills and the three settled down for a quick meal. Emily finished first and Gillian was cleaning up the dishes when Emily called her back upstairs.

She asked her questions about what to do at school and Gillian gave her pointers on how to take care of everything. At Emily's request, she jotted a quick note to the gym teacher as well explaining why Emily needed to be excused from gym class for the next few days and signed it Dr. Foster.

Emily raced out the door with her book bag.

Gillian walked into the kitchen as Cal's phone rang.

"Yeah, thank God you called back so quickly," Cal muttered sarcastically into the phone.

"I was in a breakfast conference, Cal."

"Our daughter got her period today and needed your help!"

Zoe sighed. "Let me talk to her!"

"Now?! You want to talk to her now?! Why the hell haven't you already bloody well talked to her about all this?!"

"I haven't had the chance, Cal, just let me handle this!"

"That's okay, I called Foster and she handled it she took care of Emily for me."

Gillian's heart sank as she realized Cal just gave Zoe yet another reason to hate her. She didn't hear what Zoe said but Cal shouted loudly.

"Yeah, well, thank God Em has someone to rely on, go back to your bloody conference!"

Cal hung up the phone and spun around as he slammed the phone on the counter.

Gillian picked up her purse and smiled feebly. "I'll see you at work?"

Cal ran his hand down his face with exasperation as he tried to control his racing emotions. "Foster…thank you…again! I swear I don't know what I'd do without you as a friend."

It was quiet at work that day and Emily came to the office after school. She holed herself up in Gillian's office until Cal came back into the building.

"Hey, Luv."

"Hi, Dad," Emily replied tentatively.

"You ready to head home?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go then, see ya later Foster."

Cal threw his arm around Emily as they walked towards the car. After they walked into the house, Cal set his keys on the table and Emily started to head upstairs.

"Hey, Em?" Cal motioned as he made his way into the living room and sat on the sofa.

"Yeah," Emily said nervously as she sat down next to him.

Cal looked down at the floor. "Em, what happened this morning kind of scared me."

Emily had blushed but at his words she turned curious. "Scared you?! You should think about how I felt!"

Cal smiled weakly. "I can't imagine how you felt but I know I was petrified…mostly cause you shut me out, Em."

Emily started to explain and Cal pulled her to his side as he held her close. "Not yet, Darling, let me finish…look…I know that there is going to be loads of embarrassing stuff that happens in our lives but you have to know that no matter what happens or what you do I'll always love you, I'll always be here for you and I want you to be able to tell me anything and know that I won't judge you."

Emily looked up at him then laid her head on his chest. "Really?!"

Cal chuckled. "Well, I may not like it but I know you're a girl and gonna have all that icky girl stuff happening and today, you stopped being my little girl and became a young woman."

Emily wrinkled her nose. "Whoopee!"

Cal squeezed her to his chest. "Yeah, well, your Mum can help with all that stuff and in an emergency like today, you always have Gillian but in an extreme emergency, and I mean…like there's not another living woman in the world around to ask, you can come to me and I'll try and figure it out!"

Emily laughed at him. "Deal!"

Cal kissed her cheek. "I love you, Em!"

"I love you too, Dad!"

"Scoot, I'll start dinner."

Emily raced up the steps and started her homework. A short while later, Cal called her down for dinner and life continued on as normal.