As the doors opened he heard Gillian take a deep breath. He swallowed hard and put a hand to the small of her back. She smiled appreciatively before walking out, keeping her head down so as not to make eye contact with anyone who might be in the corridors. But the corridors were empty. Gillian headed for the analysis room. She looked at Cal.
"I've got to make a few calls…" he said reluctantly.
"It's fine. I'll talk to Loker and Torres and come into you after?" she asked, not sure if he was meeting Ben or not. But he nodded his head.
"Oh yes. I want them to see what happened to you. And, it might be a dirty stroke, but what I'll threaten every newspaper in this bloody country is going to see if they give me any lip…" Gillian had to smile at that. Cal didn't pay much attention to the media but here he was willing to use it to get one back on those who'd let him and her down. He was sweet in his own illogical way. She cast a quick glance along the corridors before stepping in to brush her lips against his softly.
"I'll see you in a while," she said as she opened the door into the analysis room. He nodded and watched as she stepped inside before heading for his office.
OXOXOXO
"Oh my god! What happened to you?" Torres voice rung out above the other noise in the room. Gillian sighed, sitting down on the chair Loker had quickly jumped out of to give to her. She told them what had happened.
"Jesus," Loker said, "I bet Lightman is like a bear."
"I'd say that's understating it a lot." Gillian said before she even realised she'd said it. She shook her head, remembering why she was there.
"The case involving my brother," she said quickly and the two nodded.
OXOXOXO
Cal was on the phone to Zoe.
"Jesus Christ Cal, she could have been killed…" Cal felt suddenly proud of his ex-wife when he heard the genuine concern in her voice. He nodded his head at what she said.
"I know. This is dangerous Zo, for all of us. I think we need to sit down and seriously discuss what's going on here. The FBI are due in my office in half an hour, can you be here by then?" He checked his watch; she'd be under pressure to get across the city that quickly.
"I'm leaving now."
"Thanks love." He hung up and ran his hand over his face. He was tired but the worry was keeping him awake.
OXOXOXO
Gillian finished talking to them and they were nodding.
"That's pretty straight forward. Bring her in and find out why she's spreading such rumours." Torres said simply and Gillian nodded her head.
"It's straightforward but, I want it done right. If I could do it, I would but I'm counting on you guys on this one. The computer monitor on the desk in front of her caught her eye. The security cameras were open. She frowned, she was pretty sure they weren't supposed to be open in here. But what grabbed her more was the sight of Ben and his AD, Dillon. She stood up.
"Do what you can," she said, pointing at the case file before straightening her t-shirt, feeling totally underdressed, and walked out the door, heading for Cal's office. Loker and Torres watched her go.
"Man, she is one tough woman," Loker said wistfully and Torres nodded, picking up the file.
"Come on. Let's see what we can do with this." Loker looked up at her, his eyebrow raised in surprise.
"Are you kidding?" He pointed at the computer screen. "I want to see Lightman blow his top at the FBI." Torres scowled at him but then, realising that he wasn't going to give in, she sat down in the free seat next to him.
"Where's the popcorn?" she quipped.
OXOXOXO
Cal and Dillon were already threatening to come to blows when Gillian quietly let herself into his office.
"…you left her high and dry. She could have been killed!" Cal was standing on his side of the desk, arms outstretched. Dillon was standing on the other side, arms crossed over his chest, defensive.
"There was no evidence to suggest that Ms Foster would be a target…" he responded weakly. Gillian bit her lip.
"That's 'Doctor' Foster actually. And no evidence? Bloody hell, what's the first thing you do when you want to look someone up? Without your fancy FBI gadgetry now…" Dillon looked at a loss and Cal realised he probably never had to do the heavy slogging himself. He sighed exasperatedly.
"You google them you idiot. And if you google my name, eight out of every ten pictures of me is with her. For crying out loud, there is more evidence of me with Gill than there is of me with my ex-wife!" Dillon bowed his head, knowing he was beaten on this point. Cal Lighman was a terrier with his grip firmly on a bone of information and he wouldn't let it go until he'd rammed it down your throat.
"There'll be someone posted on her house from now until this is over…" Dillon replied weakly. Cal plonked back down in his chair. He had seen Gillian a minute earlier but hadn't pretended to
"Fat lot of good that is now. Come in darling," he waved his hand at her, signalling for her to come over to him. He pulled a chair out from by the wall and she settled herself into it, next to him. Her back and ribs hurt again but she had left her pills in her office. She saw the looks pass over Reynolds and Dillon's faces. She looked down, self conscious.
"Do you think you'd recognise the guys if you saw them again?" Reynolds asked, giving his AD a chance to regroup for probably another onslaught. Gillian shook her head.
"No. Cal asked me that earlier but no, I don't think I would. By the time I even knew someone had hit me I was seeing double…" she paused as his office door opened again and Zoe trotted in, an apologetic look on her face. Cal nodded to her and Gillian caught the look of recognition that passed between the two. Zoe spotted Gillian's face.
"Jesus Gillian, are you ok?" It occurred to Gillian how stupid a question that was considering her appearance but she said nothing. She smiled thinly and nodded her head.
"I'll be fine. It's mostly cuts and bruises." She looked back at Dillon, hoping he would be capable of having some form of conversation that would cut open the tension she had just sensed in the room.
Cal watched the interaction between the two women with great interest. Zoe had shown genuine concern but Gillian's lip had quirked only a miniscule twitch but he'd seen it none the less. He knew Gillian didn't trust him when Zoe was around, that was ok. But Gillian could read faces just as well as he could and she'd responded very defensively to a genuine statement of worry. Maybe the beating had affected her worse than originally thought. Maybe she didn't like that he had called Zoe to come by. But she surely appreciated the fact that this conversation was also about Emily right? He bit his lip and looked back at Dillon.
"There'll be someone at her house within an hour…" Dillon tried again.
"Yeah, you said that already." Cal jumped in, sitting up in his chair, elbows leaning on the desk. He introduced Zoe to Dillon and vice versa. She knew everyone else. Cal sat back in his chair again and cast a quick glance over at Gillian. She was sitting quietly. He could tell straight away that she was uncomfortable. Her back was hurting because her ribs were hurting. He caught her eye with his but she shook her head, urging him to continue. He turned back to Dillon.
"I want to know everything there is to know about Marco's gang. I want names, addresses, star signs, everything…" He was cut off by Dillon's snigger.
"Sure and when you're done with that, I'll tell you who killed Kennedy." He smirked at his joke but Cal wasn't laughing.
"Well you lot did," he said quickly, continuing, "I want to know what your operation surrounding this gang is. What you're doing to try getting them off the streets. Because it isn't working, is it?" Dillon crossed and uncrossed his leg in his seat, a look of amusement crossing his face.
"Now, why on earth would I tell you any of that?" Cal sat forward in his chair, voice low.
"Because if you have any hope of catching them, you're going to need me."
OXOXOXO
A bit afraid of the ending of this one. Trails off a little but set to pick back up again soon. Think my last chapter got lost among the post Killer App fics so hopefully no one missed it!