Gillian Foster had forgotten she was supposed to be at an Embassy dinner with her husband tonight. It had completely slipped her mind after Cal had asked her to stop by his office. And once it was gone, it was gone. Her mind was set on her meeting with Cal and what it would throw up. Now that it had thrown up Emily's accident, her mind was set firmly not only on positive thoughts for the young teenager but for her beside himself dad as well.

"Alec, I'm sorry, I had to work late. We've got a couple of tough cases…" Cal frowned. No they didn't. He'd signed off on the last of their tough cases today. Loker and Torres were handling some of the obligatory 'cheating spouse' cases but otherwise they were quiet. And a bloody good thing too, he thought to himself. He had enough to worry about now.

"I know Alec but I'll hardly be missed, will I?" Cal frowned. He knew by her tone that she didn't want to go. But her words suggested that something had happened before that made her feel like an embassy dinner wasn't her place. He scoffed at the thought of anyplace being above her. Her pedestal rose higher than anyone's. He was biased, certainly, but he'd come across many an unbiased person who'd seen the same as him. It appeared her husband was looking in completely the wrong direction.

"Look Alec, something's come up. Cal's daughter's been in an accident…" Cal grimaced at that one, waiting for the suspected response.

"What? I'm not even going to answer that Alec. You're not doing this to me again…" Cal's eyes widened. Doing what? And again? He suddenly wished he could hear the other side of the conversation. He was still in his own little world when he heard her heels clicking on the tiles. She was coming back. He bounded away from the door and was looking down at his daughter when she re-entered the room. She glanced at him. There was something about his stance. Something more rigid about it. She smirked to herself. She was amazed at how easily he had given himself away. Maybe he'd meant to.

"So, I'm guessing from your posture that you heard everything I said, yeah?" Cal didn't look up. He smirked to himself. She was good.

"Everything right up to 'you're not doing this to me again'. I kind of zoned out after that. Care to enlighten me?" He looked up now, smirking at her. She smiled and shook her head.

"Nope." He nodded, sitting down on the chair by the bed.

"Didn't think so. Why didn't you go to the dinner love?" He patted the seat next to his and she sat down, not flinching as he instinctively draped his arm across the back of her chair.

"Honestly? After you asked me to stop by your office this evening, I just completely forgot about it." Cal watched her face and raised an eyebrow as she finished.

"That's actually true." She smiled at him.

"Not everyone is lying all the time Cal."

"Yeah. Not even me." She glanced at him and he smirked in response. She swallowed and glanced at the ground. He reached across and pulled her hand into his.

"You need to know something…" he began but she cut him off.

"Cal…"

"Everything I said last night I meant…" She stopped him again.

"Cal, you don't have to do this…" He shook his head.

"Yes I do. Because you picked me up horribly wrong last night and I'm not having you think that you're not perfect the way you are. Because you are. You are so wonderfully perfect that it pains me to see you unhappy, and it pains me even more the fact that I'm not good enough for you. Bloody hell, I couldn't be. But your thinking that you don't live up to my expectations of what you should be, that's rubbish. I couldn't, I couldn't think of a more perfect person to want, and to have want me, if you do that is. But you know me luv, people get dragged down into the mud with me. I can't help doing it. I'm not telling you yes or no. I'm just telling you that, that mud's pretty thick." Gillian watched him with a sad smile on her face, the crinkles around her eyes telling him that it was real, genuine. His hand was still wrapped around hers. She took a deep breath, wondering how she was going to respond to this one. In the end she decided just to be honest.

"What if I want to get down and dirty?"