Chapter 5

"Beer?" He asked, opening the fridge.

"Sure." She said with a curious look on her face. "Okay Lightman, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" Asking as she brought the cold bottle of ale to her lips.

"Oi! This isn't 'bout me. Something happened to Foster tonight and I need a favor from you." He took a drink of the amber ale and saw the concerned expression on Wallowski's face.

"Foster?" Wallowski knew Dr. Foster didn't like her and Lightman working quid pro quo on cases, but Wallowski didn't want Dr. Foster hurt or in danger.

"Yeah. Foster's husband, Alec, is addicted to coke and earlier tonight he was out getting high and drinking. He came home in a rage and took it out on Foster. She's upstairs in my bed resting." He tilted his head up and looked toward his stairs to gesture exactly Foster's whereabouts.

Wallowski was bringing the ale up for another swallow and stopped in mid motion listening to what Lightman was saying. She slowly brought the bottle back down and set it on the counter. She didn't know much about Foster but Foster sure didn't look like the type of woman that would be involved with a man using drugs, much less staying married to one. To her Dr. Foster was the goody two shoes type or close to it.

"Why didn't you just call the police? Domestic disturbance isn't for the detectives, you know. Plus they would have taken him to jail." She said, already knowing the answer to her questions.

With is hands out in front of him, palms turned up, he said "Now...why would I do that detective when I have you...the one cop I can squeeze on the street?"

She took another drink from the bottle and with an exhausting sigh she gave in.

"What do you need from me?" She asked, not sure what Lightman was up to, but she could lay money down on it having something to do with pay back to Dr. Foster's husband.

Lightman stepped closer to Wallowski and lowered his voice taking extra care so Foster didn't over hear anything he was about to say.

"I need you to keep an eye on him... Tail him a little bit... Put the squeeze on him just a little. Foster's gonna stay here with me and tomorrow after lunch, you and I are gonna take a ride to her house so I can pick up some of her personal things. She is not to know about any of this. That bloke is not going to get near her again. Now, I need to know if I can count on you detective." Lightman looked at the detective, his eyes staring into hers, letting her know how dead serious he was.

"Sure, I'll do what I can for as long as I can. You do know that I can't spend too much time on this?"

Lightman stepped closer into the detectives personal space. "Bullocks! Detective." His eyes scanned her face and landed on her eyes, then he backed off. "What? You're still here. Go on then, protect and serve and all that."

Cal made his way back upstairs to check on Gillian, he quietly pushed the bedroom door open so not to wake her. He walked over to the bed and looked at her. She looked so frail, so tired and so bruised up, yet he still thought that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He knelt down on the floor beside the bed and watched her sleep. The moonlight was bright enough through the window for him to see just a little of her face. The more he looked at the damage, the more angrier he got. Thats when he realized just how much he wanted to beat Alec and make him suffer for what he had done to Gillian. Cal reached up and took her hand in his while she slept.

"Cal, are you watching me sleep?" She turned her head toward him with a hint of a smile.

"Yeah, I guess I am. How are you feeling? Is your head still hurting?" He pulled her hand to his lips and gently kissed the back of it.

"I'm better and my face is sore, but not throbbing any longer. Still have a slight headache though."

"Let me go get something for that." He got up on his feet and headed to the door.

"Cal just get me some aspirin or something mild. I don't want anything strong."

"Right, be back in a jiffy."

Gillian reached over and turned the lamp on then she fluffed her pillows up behind her so she could sit up against the headboard. Her mind started turning over the events that took place earlier that evening. 'What in the hell happened tonight? How did things get so screwed up?' She thought to herself and she could only come to the conclusion that it was inevitable. That something like this was bound to happen, she just didn't want believe that. She wanted to believe that everything was going to get better. 'Boy was I way off the mark on that one.' She wanted to stop thinking about all of it but pictures and scenes were racing through her head, decisions she would have to make. She would have to face the facts of this messy situation she was in.

Cal made it back with some Aspirin and a glass of water. She swallowed the pills and thanked him. He crawled in the bed beside her and set against the headboard also.

"Cal, I'm not going back to him, but I need to get some things from my house. Would it be alright if I stay in your guest room until I can find a place of my own?" She stared down at her hands laying in her lap. She was embarrassed to ask but what else could she do.

"Gill, you can stay here as long as you need to and don't worry about your things. I'll take care of that."

"But you don't know what to get or where exactly everything is in the house. I need personal things to. No. I'm going over there tomorrow while Alec is at work. It will be fine." She didn't want to admit it but she was a little nervous about going back to her house. Her fear must of shown on her face because Cal took both of her hands in his and turned toward her.

"Look at me, Love". He spoke with a stern voice. Gillian looked at him knowing he was going to disagree with her going back to the house. She was too tired to get into an argument with Cal.

Gillian took a deep breath then exhaled. "Cal, I'm going..."

"Gill. No. Absolutely not. You're not going over there." He interrupted her and looked right into her eyes to show her exactly how serious he was about this.

"Cal... I don't need you to hover over me, to protect me. I'm going whether you like it or not. I don't want to argue about this". She pulled her hands out of his and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Clearly she had started to get agitated with him.

"Alright. Only on one condition. At lunch, you go with me. That is your only option, otherwise, you don't go at all and I'll make sure of that".

"Fine". She huffed. ' He can be so irritating sometimes, so much it pisses me off' She said to herself.

"Oi! I saw that. You're right, I can be an ass sometimes."

"That's not what I..."

"But would you have me any other way? You like it when I get under your skin, don't ya, Love?" He said with a smirk that Gillian would love to wipe off his handsome face sometimes. The corner of her mouth turned up just a little.

"See." He said. "Told ya."

The next morning, Gillian woke after hearing her cell phone alarm chiming. It was automatically set so she could get ready for work. It took her just a few seconds to realize where she was and remember the night before and how much she had tossed and turned in the night. She looked over to see an empty space in the bed. That half of the bed was never turned down but showed results that Cal had laid with her for a while on top of the comforter. Gillian went to the bathroom to wash her face and noticed a hand towel folded neatly on the counter with a new toothbrush on top and a hair brush. She smiled thinking how much thought Cal put into making sure she was comfortable. She glanced in the mirror and looked at the bruises. A few on her neck and only one on her face. Her eye wasn't swollen as bad and the bruise wasn't as big as she thought it would be.

Cal went to the bathroom door and knocked "Alright, Love?"

"I'm fine. I'll be out in a minute". She tried not to sound so groggy.

"I have coffee and breakfast ready for ya". He turned and went back into the kitchen.

Gillian made her way downstairs and stopped at the doorway to the kitchen. She saw Cal leaning against the kitchen counter drinking coffee and studying his laptop. She guessed he was reading the news headlines and looking at the stock exchange. He did that every morning be it here or at the office and complaining about the market falling a few points, and that was happening a lot lately. She didn't know why but he looked different this morning. How muscular his arms were, not bulky but just enough to make her want to run her hands over his biceps. His body language showed an air of dignity around him. And Cal was always confident, 'Sometimes too confident. Oh my God! What am I thinking? I'm looking at Cal as if he were eye candy.' She felt heat rise to her face as she blushed. Cal looked over at her just at that moment.

"Morning, Love." He said with a sneaky grin. "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" He walked over to her wiggling his index finger at her.

"Nothing. What smells so good?" She asked walking to the coffee pot.

"Bacon and French toast." He said as he sipped his coffee.

"Mmm, lovely." She had a smile on her face that put a gleam in Cal's eyes. He was sure that things were going to turn out fine, as long as Alec stayed out of the picture.