Sorry for the delay, I have a very sick little person in my house and so I have been dealing with that. which also means I haven't gotten any more of the last chapter done...Uhg, but I can't begrudge a baby. Anyway, I aslo haven't replied to the reviews...or I think I didn't...sleep deprivation will do that to you...so thank you to all that reviewed. Also ignore any medical inconsistancies, if you can...that isn't the important part anyway...cheers!

Shot Me Down

The gun man raised his arm, the gun in his hand hit the light and reflected it back. Gillian opened her mouth to yell but no sound came out as the gun went off. She looked to towards Cal, worried….He looked shocked, then he coughed and red blood sputtered out of his mouth, spraying her. His knees buckled under him and she tried to hold him up as he fell but he was too heavy…

Gillian's eyes sprung open and her throat closed around a scream. "Whoa there, it's ok, you're ok." Cal said and she was flooded with relief that it had been a dream. She glanced over to see Cal sitting in the chair by her bed, he'd pulled it up so he could still touch her and stroke her head, but she wondered why he wasn't on the bed with her this time. She felt doubt settling in as she worried he regretted what had happened earlier and now was putting physical distance between them. "Don't do that, Love." He said taking her out of the dark mental path she was heading down. "I didn't want to wake you." His eyes assured her.

"I'm awake now." She said and he nodded solemnly. She rolled her eyes at him, knowing he understood what she'd been getting at.

He grinned and waggled his eyebrows as he carefully climbed in next to her. "If you wanted to get me into bed, Gill, all you had to do was ask." He settled so he was on his side, his arm up over her head like when she'd woken up before.

"If I'd known that I wouldn't have gone to so much trouble." She deadpanned and waited for Cal to catch it before they both started to laugh. It jarred her shoulder and she stopped laughing before he did so she took the time to watch as he laughed a little longer. She liked watching him when he was happy, she liked the look of him when he was happy. An image from her dream came back to her and she felt the pleased smile slip off her face.

"Want to talk about it?" He asked reading her face and knowing exactly what was going on with her. She normally hated when he would do that, she would have hated it now except when she shook her head no, he didn't press because he already knew she was going to decline. She snuggled in closer, mindful of her shoulder, intending on forgetting the bad dream when her stomach growled loudly. Cal chuckled. "Cuddlin' will have to wait, Love. Let's get you fed, proper." He slid off the bed and she missed him immediately.

"Ugh, hospital food." She groaned. "Can you get me something not terrible from the cafeteria?" She asked raising the bed up.

He paused at the door. "Do they have beans on toast here?"

She shook her head at him, her lips quirking at the ends. "Just make sure I get a chocolate pudding with that."

His face scrunched up in disgust and she sent him a look back that said, 'oh, don't give me that, you like beans on toast.'

When Cal returned Gillian felt like she would have eaten anything he brought her, even beans on toast. He set the Styrofoam container down on the side table and wheeled it over so it was a tray over her lap. "Sorry about the peas." He said opening it to reveal shepherd's pie. He then pulled a bright shinny apple out of his coat pocket, followed by a bottle of iced tea.

Confused for a moment Gillian used the fork to push the mashed potato and meat dish around. Sure enough in the meat part peas swam around next to corn nibblets and carrot bits. She smiled because he'd remembered she hated peas. "That's fine, thank you." She noticed he hadn't brought anything for himself. "Not eating?"

"Sandwich filled me up." He answered and she believed him. They sat in comfortable silence as she ate all of her food, excluding the peas, each lost in their own thoughts.

She thought about work, and how they must be getting along just fine without her and Cal, and then she felt a wave of guilt that he was there with her instead of at the Lightman Group. A memory of Cal talking with Loker that she wasn't sure was a dream or not came back to her. She took a sip of her drink and carefully set it down, aware that he would be reading into her movements. "The office is probably missing you right about now." She said and hated how she took the cowards' way out instead of just asking him or tell him what she really thought. Instead she skirted around it and had no idea why she had.

"The office can bloody well go to shit for all I care." He replied, his tone slightly on the defensive side.

"I heard…" She started then stopped, irritated with herself for not just being honest. "Before, you were here and so was Loker. I heard you." She watched his face to be sure it hadn't been her imagination working before. He didn't look surprised or confused, but she thought she saw a touch of guilt.

"The cops want me to help them find the shooter." He said after a moment. "I told Loker he could do it. I wasn't leaving." She heard the 'you' at the end, unspoken.

She lowered her head, picking at the bunched covers in her lap. She knew she shouldn't feel guilty that she was keeping Cal from helping finding justice, he had chosen not to go, she hadn't asked him to stay. Only she new that wasn't the whole truth. She hadn't asked him, but with the state of things, the new revelation from her brush with death, she hadn't needed to. "It's alright, I'm going to be ok. You can go now."

"Bloody hell, Gillian, you don't need to do that." He bit out angrily, keeping his voice down so he didn't draw attention to them. The last thing they wanted was for a nurse to come in and tell him he had to leave because he was upsetting their patient.

"No, I don't. I'm not trying to." She said just as low and sighed. "I don't want you to go but you're the best. They need you more than I do right now." She searched his face for understanding.

He looked like he was going to refuse her, backing up slightly and putting his hands in his jeans pockets. He shifted back and forth, his mouth set in a grim line. Finally his eyebrows went up and his head tilted. "You're sure?"

She smiled at him and it was a real one. "Yes, Cal I'm sure. Besides there needs to be a Lightman Group to find the man that shot me. So go, so there is a job for me to come back to and so I can feel secure he isn't going to come back and finish what he started."

Cal lifted a hand, pointed at her and gave her a sideways grin. "That's a dirty trick, love, that is." He came forward and lightly kissed her temple. "Works though, don't it?"

"Why else would I have said it?" She asked, smiling with fake innocence.

Gillian found out later that she'd only been in the hospital for half a day since she had been brought in. She'd thought it had been a lot longer than that, like days, especially with how great she was feeling. She wondered if any of that had to do with there being something other than a job, friends and an empty house waiting for her after she was discharged.

The doctor came back and poked at her wounds, made sure they were healing properly and told her as long as she had someone to help her until the wounds in her back and shoulder had healed she could go home that night. Not feeling like it was a true test of skill Gillian lied smoothly about her friend coming to stay with her. Even though, Gillian was sure, the doctor had been lied to hundreds of thousands of times the doctor bought it and didn't press.

All she wanted to do was get home, shower and sleep in her own bed. She called Cal with the good news. "So could you ask Ria to go to my house and bring me a change of clothes?"

"Sure, Love." He answered and after they hung up she had the strangest feeling that that had been too easy.