"Cal…" Her voice took on a warning tone, the kind of tone that said 'stop right there'.

"Gillian…" he responded, using the exact same tone as her, slightly goading her, she thought. She took a deep breath and sat back in her chair, reaching for her glass and taking a sip from it. Cal sat quietly, waiting for her to continue, allowing that minute for her to compose her thoughts and him to read them off her face as she had them.

"Sometimes things are more than black and white Cal." He frowned at that, poking his tongue into his cheek and raising an eyebrow.

"What's this, the cryptic crossword?" She stifled a laugh at that but it was clear to anyone that she was trying to get away from the subject of conversation. She looked up, their eyes locking over the desk.

"Just leave it alone Cal. Please."

"No."

"What?"

"Something's wrong. Well, I mean more wrong. Let's face it, something's been wrong for a while, I knew that. So what is it luv? What's happened?" Gillian sighed in annoyance and stood up. Cal nodded to himself. He was right. He stood up after her.

"What's wrong Cal, is the fact that you've stuck your nose into my business. Again. Why can't you just leave me to sort things out myself?" She was picking up her jacket off the back of the chair as he moved around the desk to impede her exit.

"Because I'm worried about you and I don't want to see you getting hurt, that's why. Because, whatever's going on, you've been sitting on it for the last, oh about 6 months? Give or take? And I can tell, I can tell by the fact that you're still here, it's 11 o' clock at night for God's sake, that it's grating on you." She stared at him for a moment and allowed herself, for just a minute, to think about how good he was at what he did. Then her anger took over.

"Why do you find it so difficult to abide by the line we drew for ourselves?" she spat angrily, deciding that going on the offence would likely be her best form of defence. He twisted his head away for a moment, laughing, before turning back to her.

"Because it's bollocks." Gillian shook her head.

"Cal, it's important. In the line of work we're in, it's important that we have our privacy, you know that. How would you feel if I read everything off your face, knew exactly what you'd done, when and where?" Cal shook his head and held up his hand.

"That question's void because I know you do that anyway, I'm not stupid Gill." Gillian shook her head in exasperation. This was turning into a nightmare. She held both hands up, trying to calm both herself and the situation.

"That's my point exactly Cal. It's a problem we both have. We both know too much of what's going on with each other and that's not fair on either of us. That's why the line is in place."

"Yeah, well the line's not working, is it?" he asked, sounding every bit like a petulant child who had just been proved right. Gillian's eyes locked with his and for a moment it looked like they were having a staring contest. Finally she bowed her head.

"No, it isn't." He nodded. Now they were getting somewhere. He leaned against the desk, standing next to her and also looked at the ground. Eventually Gillian spoke, without looking up.

"You know, we always said that this couldn't work, if we couldn't keep our private lives separate…" Cal looked up as she trailed off, the seriousness of what she had just said causing his stomach to lurch. He looked at her but she was still staring at the ground.

"Hey." She ignored him. He reached out and tilted her chin up with his fingers and caught her eye with his. "Don't even think about that," he said, swallowing hard, wondering now if this confrontation had been worth it at all. When he'd sat down with her earlier this evening, he'd had no intention of mentioning anything of the sort to her. But now it had all blown out of proportion and he wondered if, when it happened, the pieces could be picked up. Gillian turned her face away from his touch and sat back down in the chair by his desk. He nodded and rather than sit back into his own, he sat into the one next to her. He took a deep breath.

"Look luv, I'm worried about you. I'm not trying to pry or do anything like that. But you're my best friend and even if I couldn't read faces I'd have figured out something's wrong by now. I just want to help. If I can." She never looked at him but she could tell from his tone that it was sincere. Hell, she knew it was sincere without even thinking about it. She'd seen it in him before. He could be a selfish asshole but when the chips were down, especially for her, he was always there.

"Ok," she said finally and she turned her head to see his face. He nodded sombrely and waited while she took a sip of what was left in her wineglass. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, her free hand fiddling with the hem on the end of her skirt. He watched as she bought her other hand down to clasp it, a nervous habit, he knew and he smiled at it. Finally she turned to face him.

"Alec is using again."