Cal woke to an empty bed the next morning and somehow he knew Gillian wouldn't be in the bathroom brushing her teeth with the spare brush she'd left here months ago. He knew she wouldn't be in the kitchen brewing herself some coffee, waiting for him to arrive. He accepted that she would have had to go home. What he didn't accept was that she would leave without saying goodbye. It didn't seem very Gillian-esque. He looked around the room for a note or some form of message but there was nothing. Very strange indeed. He wondered suddenly if she was feeling the fallout from their passion last night. If, in the cold light of day, she suddenly regretted everything and wanted to forget it had ever happened. He gulped and headed for the shower.
OXOXOXO
Torres cornered him as he walked in to ask how Emily was. To her surprise he didn't tell her to get lost. Instead, he told her she was good and staying at her mother's for a day or two. A couple of people double took when they saw his black eyes but anyone who'd worked there for longer than two weeks knew that it was normal to see him injured in someway or other.
"Where's Foster?" he asked as he was walking away and Torres shrugged.
"She hasn't been in yet." Cal stopped and turned to face her.
"Eh?" he said, his head tilted. Torres shrugged, obviously not thinking much of it.
"She hasn't been in yet. Why, is there a problem?" Cal shook his head and walked on toward his office. That was strange. Foster was always in before him. He wondered if he should call her. He sat down at his desk and turned on his computer. He'd check his emails first. Maybe she was just running late.
OXOXOXO
Twenty five emails and a phone call from Zoe later and Gillian still hadn't shown up. Zoe had called to see if Cal could pop by that evening. Emily had told Rick what had happened and he hadn't taken it very well. He and his parents were going to Zoe's that evening to talk about what had happened. Cal scoffed when he'd heard that. They were coming to plead with he and Zoe to believe that Rick was normally a nice boy who they should let their daughter be around. Leaving girls stranded on the side of the road wasn't something he usually did. Cal agreed through gritted teeth that he would stop by as soon as he'd finished in the office.
Cal finally broke and picked up his phone. He dialled Gillian's number. She picked up after five rings.
"Hi Cal," she said pleasantly and Cal was taken aback. She was cheerful and bright. So he hadn't done something wrong and she wasn't annoyed at him.
"Gill, where are you?"
"Didn't you get my note?" Cal frowned and looked around his desk.
"No. Where'd you leave it?"
"In my office. I thought sure it would be the first place you'd go after you managed to crawl out of bed this morning…" There was a playful edge to her tone. Cal liked it immensely. He grinned as he sat down in his chair, swinging his feet onto the corner of the desk.
"Well I'm like Sleeping Beauty, me. I generally like to be woken with a kiss…" It was only after he said it he realised how camp he sounded. He mentally slapped himself as Gillian chuckled on the other end before becoming serious again.
"I didn't want to wake you. I left pretty early." Cal nodded his head. He'd known that.
"So where are you anyway?" he asked as Torres walked into the room. She stopped when she saw he was on the phone but he signalled for her to stay and held up one finger.
"I went to see a counsellor." Cal grinned. He knew it was for Emily but he couldn't resist.
"Oh yeah? You been having those…urges again?" He heard Gillian laughing on the other end of the line and he smirked. Torres raised an eyebrow.
"She said she'll see Emily any time that suits. Just give her a call in advance. I have a number for you." Cal's face returned to his usual neutral mask.
"That's great love. You coming back here, yeah?"
"I'm on my way."
"Great. I'll see you soon then." With that he hung and turned his attention to Torres, raising his eyebrows in the form of a question. What's going on? She held up a file.
"Domestic abuse. Neither knows we've been asked to look at the case. Girlfriend moved in with boyfriend two months ago. He's the abused." Cal looked up at this remark and took the file.
"Dirty laundry Torres, why are you even bringing this to me? You know I hate domestics.
"Because the abused man is David McCall." Cal raised his eyebrows again, shaking his head at her word games. He wanted a good reason as to why he was expected to take on a domestic abuse case. Torres sighed, handing him the file.
"McCall. He's Dr Foster's brother." She said finally and Cal looked up from the mostly empty file.
"Oh bloody hell…" he said, dropping the folder to the desk.
OXOXOXO
SO SO sorry about the delay! If no one reads this I won't be surprised! Sorry! I hope to get more up shortly. I didn't know this twist was coming into it. Just something I thought of while writing. Hope everyone's staying with me. There's still loads more to come in Emily's story too.