Emily opened the door and looked at her father, "Dad! I've been worried sick! Why haven't you been returning my calls?"
"Merry Christmas to you too." Cal leaned in an placed a kiss on his daughter's cheek. He looked at her as he squeezed himself through the small space in the doorway, "Can I come in, can I?"
"Sure!" Emily stepped aside and gauged her father warily. Something was off and not just because he'd ignored her previous accusations. She watched him unlace his boots and take them off. She chuckled knowingly. Grandma ran a tight ship even in her daughter's household. When she was younger, Emily and her father teased Grandma by putting their feet on the coffee tables or sneaking through the house with wet clothes or dirty shoes. Until they got caught and got a tongue-lashing from Grandma.
"Cal, is that you?" Her grandfather called from the living room.
"Yes, Jerry. I'll be with you in a second, I'm taking my boots off." Cal retorted and earned a deep male chuckle in resonse. When he was done, he straightened up and scrutinized his daughter, "Where's your mum?"
"In the kitchen", Emily replied and knowing this was code for "what kind of mood is she in" she added, "She's in really high spirits, so count your blessings." She crossed her arms, "What did you do last night?"
Cal looked at his daughter and considered his options. He should be telling her the truth. He had promised Gillian he'd handle Em. "Oh you know, watched a movie…fell asleep on the couch." He groaned inwardly, now he'd have a lot of explaining to do when they picked up Gillian after dinner.
"I called you a couple of times." Emily explained, "I felt bad for you because you were alone."
Cal made a dismissive grimace, "Nah, don't worry about your old man." He put his arm around her shoulders and they ventured down the hallway, ready to greet his ex-parents-in-law. Emily watched her father suspiciously. She wasn't sure but she was pretty damn certain he'd just lied to her.
"Cal!" Emily's grandmother rose from the armchair by the fireside and opened her arms in a welcoming gesture. "How good to see you again!"
Cal returned the hug and kissed the older woman's cheek softly, "Merry Christmas, Peggy. You're looking good as always."
Emily grinned when her grandmother slapped her father's chest and scolded him, "Still the charmer, I see."
"I don't know what you're complaining about. You know I don't condone lying." Cal defended himself. Emily's eyes darkened.
"Don't you mean other people lying?" Jerry Landau piped up from the sofa. He stood up and walked over to his former son-in-law and patted his back.
"I didn't know today's dinner conversation was semantics", Cal replied good-naturedly and returned the pat on his back. "How are you doin'?"
"Can't complain. Enjoying retirement."
"We went to Greece this year." Peggy explained, "I've always dreamed of seeing the Acropolis and finally this year Jerry took me."
"It was a wonderful trip, we brought pictures, you know." Jerry looked at Cal knowingly. A smile hushed over Cal's face and he nodded thankfully for the warning. He'd volunteer for kitchen duty tonight. Peggy had the tendency to take gazillions of pictures on their trips and then give lengthy show and tells to anyone who didn't leave the room fast enough.
"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to say hi to that beautiful daughter of yours before something goes wrong with the dinner preparations and her mood turns sour."
Peggy laughed and gave Cal a knowing look, "Good luck with that, son, I got kicked out half an hour ago."
As he walked out of the living room, Cal threw over his shoulder, "If I'm not back in ten minutes…I'd like my ashes to be spread across the Potomac…"
Emily excused herself to fetch the gifts Cal had left in the hallway but in reality she followed her father to the kitchen. Something was off about him. He seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood. Was there a light skip in his step? Where had he been last night? She saw her parents exchange chaste kisses and engage in a little banter over Zoë's cooking talents. Like her father could talk. He'd be living off of beans on toast three times a day, seven days a week, if it hadn't been for her incessant protests. And then it hit her like a ton of bricks. Her dad had that look on his face. The one she'd come to dread when he spent time with her mom. Only she would have known if he had spent the night, too. And they wouldn't do that while her grandparents were staying with them.
Emily reeled back in shock. Here she'd felt sorry for her father, thinking he was probably drowning his sorrow and loneliness at the first open bar he could find on Christmas Eve, when in reality he'd gone and picked up a woman. She grimaced in disgust. Worse, what if he'd spent the night at Shazzer's place?
0~0~0~0~0
Dinner turned out to be a quiet affair; everyone complimented Zoë on the excellent dinner. She'd truly outdone herself in the kitchen, which undoubtedly contributed to the good mood at the dinner table. Cal had not seen Peggy and Jerry in a few years and found it actually quite pleasant to catch up with them. When he noticed that the dinner conversation was starting to trickle down, he quickly volunteered for the dishes. Zoë cast him a suspicious glance and he quickly explained that he felt it was his duty to help in the kitchen and she deserved a break for the delicious meal she prepared. She looked at him doubtful but decided against going after him. This was one of the nicest holidays they'd shared, especially after their fight on Thanksgiving; she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
0~0~0~0~0
"You picked up a woman!" Emily ambushed her dad who was loading the dishwasher.
"I beg your pardon?" Cal whirled around and stared at his daughter flabbergasted.
"Did you spend last night with Shazzer?" Emily accused him and Cal picked up on the hurt but also the contempt in her voice.
"I beg your pardon?" He crossed his arms and glared her. "And if I did, it would be none of your bloody business."
"Tell me the truth. You've slept with her."
"Did not!"
"Did, too. I can see it on your face!"
"Excuse me?"
"You think I don't know when you and mom are hooking up together but I can always see it on your face. You get that smug, self-satisfied grin on your face after… you know… you've been alone with her!"
"This conversation's over. I really don't think this is something I have to talk about with you."
"Oh so it's okay for you to interrogate me about what I'm doing with my boyfriends but I'm not allowed to ask something about my new potential step-mothers? You're a hypocrite, dad!"
"So sue me. Your mum would do it pro bono!" And with pleasure, he might add, she loved making him flail and watching him fidget and flounder like a fish out of water.
"What shall I sue your father for, Emily?" Zoë asked catching only the tail end of their conversation. She placed a stack of plates on the kitchen counter.
"Nothing!" Cal and Emily chorused.
"What's going on?" Zoë looked from her daughter to her ex-husband and back. "I'm not an idiot. Don't think for a minute I haven't noticed the silent treatment you've given your father during dinner."
Emily rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in a huff. They looked kind of adorable. Father and daughter standing next to each other with their arms crossed in a defiant gesture. In moments like these Zoë felt reminded how much of Cal was in their daughter. They had the same body posture, the same pouting look.
"What did you do, Cal?"
"Hell, if I know." Cal shrugged his shoulders. He was not going to fess up in a hostile situation like this. "And why is it always me who did something?"
"Saves time", Zoë shrugged her shoulder's nonchalantly and gazed at her daughter.
Emily wavered under her mother's glare and glanced at her father one last time. "I want to go to Katie's new year's party and he won't allow it."
Cal hid his surprise well and quickly came up with an explanation, "There'll be drugs and alcohol." Apparently she wasn't upset enough with him to throw him under the next best bus.
"Oh!" Zoë nodded in understanding. "Well, in that case you need to find another lawyer, Em, cause I'm representing your father in this matter."
Once Zoë disappeared, Emily opened her mouth, "How could you?"
Cal held up his finger, "We're done here, Em. I don't want to hear another word from you on this matter."
"Dad!" She protested vehemently.
"Emily!" he mimicked her and then added, "Go to your room."
"You're..." Emily roared infuriated; lacking the proper word to capture her frustration and disgust with the necessary respect she owed her father. "I don't get you! How could you? Right under Gillian's nose?" Emily accused him before she started to stomp off to the stairs.
"Oi! What's that now supposed to mean? What's Foster got to do with this?"
"Sorry, following your orders." Emily threw over her shoulder. She knew she probably shouldn't have said that last bit, so she kept retreating, but in the heat of the moment it had just slipped out.
"Oi, come back here and answer me." Cal pointed to the floor in front of him. Her father's unrelenting stare was making her uncomfortable and she knew that she wouldn't get out of this one.
She sighed, "It's just for someone who can read people you can really be quite obtuse!"
"What?"
"Have you ever thought how Gillian feels, when you flaunt it to her that you scored another chick?"
"I beg your pardon, watch what you say."
"No, I'm sick of it, dad. I'm sick and tired of the Claras, the Shazzers or whomever you picked up last night."
"May I remind you that it was you who told me I needed to start dating again a little while ago?"
"Dating, dad. Not one-night-stands. You're better than that." When she saw her father's raised eyebrows, she elaborated, "You're a great guy, dad. Overbearing and overprotective, yeah, but you're a nice and decent man. Even Torres said so. I want you to be happy and sleeping with mom or Shazzer isn't gonna do that."
"And pray tell me who in your expert opinion is going to make me happy?"
"Gillian!" She exclaimed as if it was the most logical answer in the world, "Look me in the eye and tell me that you don't love her!"
Cal gaped at his daughter's ultimatum. "Of course, I love her. She's my best friend."
Emily rolled her eyes, "You're deflecting, dad. You know what I mean. I'm not blind. You were jealous of Dave and the only reason you've slept with Shazzer last night is to make Gillian jealous. She's more than 'just a friend'." Emily added quotation marks to emphasize her point.
"Best friend, I said", Cal corrected her meekly and interjected, "And for the records, I didn't sleep with Shazzer!"
"Not only do you love Gillian, you're in love with her. But go on and keep telling yourself that you don't. See where that gets you. She'll leave you, you know that, right? If you think you can keep treating her the way you've been doing over the last year, you're a bigger fool than I thought possible."
Cal's lips tightened.
"She's not gonna wait for you forever, dad! I don't understand how two adults can act so stupid! How hard can it be? You love her. She loves you. Any blind man could see that but you two are oblivious."
The thin line of Cal's lips started to give way to a slow spreading smile as he thought back to last night. It did take them a while to get their act together. Neither of them had been ready for declarations of love, but that's where their talents came in handy. He couldn't wait to hear those words coming out of Gillian's mouth but he didn't need to hear them because he could see the love she felt for him. And it had taken him a lot of effort to drop his mask and let her see how much she meant to him. But gosh darn, being with her had felt marvellous. He thought he'd died and gone to heaven when he'd slipped inside her and she brought her arms around his back. He never wanted to leave their cocoon of love ever again.
"Oh God! Oh my! Ew, Dad!" Emily jumped slightly back, "Tell me you didn't!"
"What did I do now?" He asked having not paid any attention to his daughter the last couple of moments.
"Oh my God. You... and Gillian... and you…and aw! You were with Gill last night! Daaaad! That's not how it was supposed to go! You weren't supposed to sleep with Gillian!"
Cal threw his hands up in defeat, "You need to make up your bloody mind. First you tell me to go after Foster, then you tell me off for sleeping with her. I really don't know what you want from me. And you know what? I don't think you know either. So let's end this discussion right now."
"Marry her!" Emily groaned, "Not have a one-night-stand with her because you two feel lonely over Christmas!" Argh! He got it all wrong! He's going to ruin everything. He really couldn't be left unsupervised for more than an hour. Her mother and Gillian were right. He needed a babysitter around the clock.
Cal gaped at his daughter. Speechless didn't even come close to how he felt at his daughter's revelation.
"Call her!" She instructed. They needed to do damage control before Gillian got the wrong impression. "Tell her you love her and you can't live without her and that last night was a mistake."
Cal broke out into laughter. He began to find his daughter's meddling extremely amusing and the whole conversation, scratch that, the whole situation was bordering on the hilarious. Emily glared at her father. He didn't take her serious!
"I don't think telling her that sleeping with her was a mistake is going to make her feel better, love."
"Riiight... You need to court her, dad, really woe her, so she knows she's not one of your flings." Emily stopped and looked at her father with begging eyes, "She isn't one of your flings, is she?"
"Oi, come here, Em." Cal gestured and opened his arms. Emily bit her lower lip and reluctantly walked over until she was enveloped in her father's embrace. "You scheming little monster you," He mumbled affectionately into her hair, "I should be cross with you for meddling in my love life."
"Someone has to, dad, or you'll end up alone like a crazy cat lady when I go off to college. And you need someone to look after you when I'm gone. And Gillian's perfect, she really is, and if you really looked at her you'd know she's not just a friend." Emily looked up and Cal looked down.
"No she isn't." Cal agreed, "She's not just a fling, either." Emily smiled widely. "And she knows that, too. I made sure of it before I left her earlier."
"I knew it. I knew it." If possible, Emily's smile grew even wider.
"Now I don't know exactly what you've been planning for Gill and me but how about you'll let me take it from here? We don't want to scare her off by proposing marriage right away, ok?"
"Deal." Emily chuckled, "That was further down the line anyway. I mean first you guys have to go out on a proper date."
"Of course." Cal replied amused, "But I am glad to know that if the topic ever comes up between Gill and me some time in the very distant future you'll back us up one hundred per cent." Cal rubbed his knuckles gently across Emily's head.
"I love you, dad, I just want you to be happy." Emily whispered and pressed her head into Cal's shoulder.
"I love you, too, Em." Cal kissed her head softly through her hair. Their moment was interrupted when Zoë breezed into the kitchen again.
"Oh look at you two, you made up." Zoë smiled.
"Yeah", Emily sighed, "Dad's convinced me it might not be so bad to celebrate New Years Eve with him."
"Oh!" Zoë looked surprised. She'd expected drawn-out debates, days of moping and whining, and slamming doors. Is this what the end of puberty looked like? Had they made it past that stage? Had they come out unscathed from every parent's living nightmare?
Cal grinned smugly, "Yeah, might even plan a surprise or two over the holidays." Father and daughter looked at each other conspiratorially. "Don't worry, I'll return her in one piece in the New Year."
"You better, you owe me! That was a very mean trick you pulled on me tonight, mister!"
Emily looked at her father worried. Did she know? If her mom found out about Gillian, she'd blow up. Cal gave his daughter a reassuring squeeze, knowing what Zoë was referring to.
"They are your parents." Cal countered.
"They are my dishes!" Zoë threw back.
And suddenly it clicked with Emily. They were referring to Grandma showing around her vacation pictures. Because her dad had volunteered to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen her mom had no excuse. The teenager breathed a sigh of relief. Christmas was safe. This was just a good-natured banter between her parents trying to weasel their way out of the boring part of the evening. Well, she'd show them.
"I'll finish the kitchen." Emily announced and her parents narrowed their eyes at their daughter. "There, problem solved." She grabbed each one by the hand and led them out of the kitchen, "And don't forget to ooh and ahhh when it's appropriate. We don't want them to think you two fell asleep."
Emily grinned from ear to ear as she listened to her parents walk down the corridor arguing whether she was Cal's or Zoë's daughter.
Thanks for reviewing, I usually don't comment too much on reviews, though I read them when I have time, but someone questioned the need for condoms. I know fan fiction is a fairytale land but even though this story is slightly out of character, I'd still like to keep it real. Unprotected sex in real life is dangerous, especially with a manwhore like Cal Lightman. Nevertheless, Cal strikes me as a responsible manwhore, so I want to believe that when he gets the chance to sleep with Gillian he'd take the necessary precautions to avoid STDs. And on a related side note - I don't think we ever learned WHY Gillian can't have any children. There's a chance she can get pregnant but can't carry a child to term, or doing so might be life threatening for her, in which case it would just be outright cruel and reckless to have unprotected sex with her. Just my two cents. Also, please consider this your warning that we're closer to the end than we were to the beginning with this story - in case you haven't already guessed. Only three or four chapters left.