Disclaimer: I do not own Lie to Me or any of the characters in this story.

Here it is- the start of Cal's birthday. This chapter is HUGE, primarily because I couldn't find a break in it that fit nicely with the 'words' theme :P Yes, it's cheesy. It's not as cheesy as the fluffy chapter that's coming next, but it's up there, and it does serve a purpose in the 'bigger picture'... Let me know what you think!!

Saturday morning came around quickly and before he knew it Cal was waking up on his 'special' day. "Good morning, birthday boy," Gill greeted him with a wide smile, kissing him on the lips.

Cal chuckled quietly and wondered, not for the first time, how Gill managed to be so chirpy. "Morning,' he replied, rolling over and wrapping both of his arms around Gill before placing a kiss to her shoulder.

Gill could barely lay still. It was all she could do not to jump out of bed and rush around fussing over Cal. "How can you be so calm and still?" she asked him. "Don't you want presents?"

Cal grinned, grazing his teeth over Gill's shoulder blade. "I've got my favourite present here," he told her. "My first birthday with you as my wife. What more could a bloke possibly want?"

Gill shivered when she felt Cal's teeth, then sighed happily at his words. "For someone who can pretend to be a real bastard when you want to be, you're such a romantic," she said.

"Sometimes," Cal agreed with a grin, rocking his hips forward so he was grinding his crotch against Gill's ass.

"Oh, I see what this is about," Gill smiled, rolling her hips sensuously to press back against Cal.

Cal groaned quietly. Damn, that woman could move. "Soon, but not yet," he told Gill, reaching down to still her hips. He kissed the back of her neck, letting his stubble scratch there. "I don't want to wear you out before you've had a chance to make my carrot cake."

Gill whimpered softly when she felt Cal's stubble against her skin. How could he possibly want to wait right now? She respected his wishes, though, and stilled her hips. "I have a lot more things than just that to do for you today," she told him, trying to contain her arousal. "I'm absolutely determined that by the end of the day you're going to love having a birthday."

Cal smiled and nuzzled Gill's hair. "I have no doubt you'll be able to convert me, love," he replied, giving her a gentle squeeze.

Gill sat up when cuddle time was over, kissing across Cal's chest, then up onto his lips. "You stay here," she instructed him. "I'm going to go and get you the newspaper so you can read it while I make you breakfast in bed." When Cal didn't argue Gill practically bounced out of bed and down the stairs, collected the newspaper from the front doorstep then making her way back up. "Your paper, Dr. Lightman," she smiled, handing it to him.

"Thank you, Dr. Lightman," he replied, taking it from Gill.

"Mrs. Lightman," Gill corrected Cal. Technically she was Dr. Lightman, but she preferred being called Mrs. at home. It was quite a number of names she went by. Apart from her first name and the string of pet names Cal and her parents had for her, Gill was Dr. Foster at work, Dr. Lightman when she was out and about, and Mrs. Lightman when she was with Cal. That was a lot of roles for one woman to fill, but Gill thought she was managing. If nothing else it helped her keep her work and home lives separate, to an extent. Somehow it felt like when she left the office she could switch from her role as Dr. Foster, lie detection expert, to Mrs. Lightman, Cal's wife. It wouldn't have been so important if they didn't work together, but at the end of the day they did, and Gill wouldn't have it any other way. Although it was inevitable that they would, she just wanted to limit the extent to which the lines between her two roles to get blurred in her interactions with Cal.

"Sorry. Mrs. Lightman," Cal smiled, unfolding the paper.

"I'll bring breakfast up soon," Gill promised, hurrying out of the room and downstairs again. She made her way into the kitchen and took out a fry pan, setting it on the stove and turning it on. The rest of it was relatively easy. Sausages when in first then, as they got closer to being done, bacon, eggs and tomato. Baked beans went in a separate pot while Gill put on toast and coffee, humming softly as she moved around the kitchen.

Cal could smell his breakfast cooking upstairs, and his stomach rumbled quietly. Bacon. That was definitely bacon. He turned the page in his newspaper and continued to read, hoping it wouldn't be too long before it was ready- the smell was making him hungry!

Gill put Cal's breakfast onto a plate, which she loaded onto a tray along with his coffee and carried carefully upstairs. "Here you go, honey," she smiled, waiting for Cal to be ready before she sat the tray down on his lap. "One cholesterol special."

Cal chuckled then licked his lips in anticipation. Gill never let him have a traditional English fry-up for breakfast, rattling off a list of all of the reasons it was unhealthy and should be avoided. "Do I get to eat this, or am I only allowed to look at it?" he asked.

Gill smiled."You can eat it," she told Cal. "But you'd better enjoy every mouthful. This is a once-a-year treat. I don't need you having a heart attack on me and leaving me a widow before I'm 40."

Cal grinned. "Have you seen the amount of junk food you eat?" he asked Gill playfully. "Not that it looks like it, mind you..."

"That's different," she told him. "It's part of a balanced diet, and I exercise. Plus, it's the cholesterol I'm worried about more than anything else. Everybody deserves treats sometimes, Cal."

"I like the sort of treats where you're naked," Cal informed Gill, starting on his breakfast. "Or in sexy lingerie."

Gill laughed. "I'm sure you do." 'You're going to love what I have in store for you after dinner, then,' she thought. "I have to go out for a few hours today, I need to pick up one of your presents that I didn't think I'd be able to hide. There's football taped, you've got your newspaper and I bought a book with crosswords and puzzles for you to do if you run out of other things. No work, though, okay?" she instructed him. "It's not every year your birthday falls on a weekend, so just enjoy it."

"I enjoy my work," Cal protested. "What's my present? Is it big?" He studied Gill's face. He was good at working out the answers to questions without the person he was talking to ever having to speak.

"Cal, don't," Gill replied pleadingly. "Please don't spoil it. I've tried really hard to surprise you, I've managed to make it this far. Let me do this for you. I promise you'll like it. It's something you've asked for before."

"Not nipping down to the baby store, are we, love?" Cal asked, taking a bite of his toast.

Gill rolled her eyes and brushed a few crumbs off his lips before she kissed him. "I'm not talking about that today, Cal," she said patiently. "Just trust me."

"Alright, darling," Cal agreed, kissing Gill back. She was right, he shouldn't have brought it up today when it was obvious she was going to a lot of trouble to make sure things were nice for him. "I love you, you know. You're a good wife." Gill smiled and Cal picked up a piece of his toast. "Hungry?" he asked, offering it to her by putting it next to her lips.

Gill took a bite and chewed before swallowing. "Thank you," she replied, taking another bite when it was offered to her. "I cooked this for you, you know," she said.

"I know," Cal agreed. "But it tasted good, and I wanted to share it with you." He set the toast down and handed Gill his fork. He'd have fed her, but there wasn't much sexy about that sort of breakfast. "What time do you have to go out?"

"Any time," Gill replied, eating a piece of tomato off Cal's plate. "Depends how long you can wait for your presents," she smiled, piercing a piece of sausage with her fork and putting it in her mouth before handing Cal his fork back. "Earlier is probably better, though."

Cal smiled, watching the way the muscles in Gill's face worked as she chewed. He was a little odd like that. "Do you want to go after breakfast, then?" he asked. "That way when you come back I can have you to myself for the rest of the day without any interruptions."

Gill smiled at Cal's response and picked up the napkin, wiping her lips. "Sure. I can do that," she replied. "I'll have to have a shower and get dressed first, though. I don't know how people would react to me going out in public in my nightie."

"It's a very nice nightie," Cal said. "It would be better if you slept without one, but if you feel the need to cover up you're not going to get pyjamas much nicer than that."

"You have a one-track mind," Gill told him. "Can you check the water and oil in my car before I go, please?" she requested. "I have a bit of a drive today."

"Of course," Cal agreed, setting his breakfast tray aside. "Where are you driving that's so far away?" he smirked, trying to get hints out of her.

Gill rolled her eyes. "Your present is coming from Woodville. I'm meeting the person I'm purchasing it from halfway."

"Woodville, Virginia?" Cal asked. Now he was really intrigued!

"Yes, Woodville, Virginia. Now, please stop asking or you're going to spoil it!" Gill smiled.

"What's in Woodville?" Cal asked curiously, sitting up in bed and moving closer to Gill.

"Your present, for now," Gill replied with a smile. "I have to go and call the person to let them know what time I want to meet... and I need a shower. While I do it can you check my car for me, please?" she requested, kissing Cal a few times.

Cal smiled. If there was one thing he could say about Gillian, it was that she wasn't unaffectionate. "Yup. I'm on it," Cal replied, rolling out of bed with a groan. "I'm getting old," he told Gill.

"You're young where it counts," she smirked, getting out of the bed herself and sauntering into the ensuite, pinching Cal's backside on the way past.

Cal grinned as he pulled on a shirt and left the bedroom, feeling pretty damn good about himself, to be honest. It was funny how even a little comment or gesture from his wife could make him feel like a stud.

When Gill was showered and ready to go she ventured back downstairs to find Cal at his laptop. "Cal, that better be personal email or news," she warned him. She'd asked him not to work.

"No, love, Emily's signed me up for facebook," Cal frowned, scratching the stubble on his cheek. "What is this rubbish? 'Emily Lightman just found a lonely bull on her farm in Farmville'. Does that mean she's going to move to the country I don't have to pay for college now?"

Gill laughed. "It's a game, Cal," she informed him. She was surprised Emily had signed him up- the youngest member of the Lightman family was always complaining her father was too involved in her life and knew what was going on all the time. This just seemed like another way for him to monitor her. "You have a pretend farm and you grow crops and collect products animals produce. It's cute, you might like it."

"Sounds like a bloody waste of time to me," he frowned. "What's the point?"

"What's the point of watching West Ham United play Millwall?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

"Oi! That's years of tradition and rivalry, that," Cal defended it. "I should be disgusted you'd even ask, but truth be told I'm actually kind of turned on by the fact that you actually know the names of two teams." It was rather impressive.

"I do listen when you talk, Cal," Gill said gently, sitting down next to him and stroking his cheek while she pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "It's important to you, so it's important to me. You think I wouldn't know who your favourite team was?" If nothing else she had to hand-wash that hideous maroon and sky blue supporter's scarf he insisted on wearing. It would never be as good as basketball, but Gill was willing to listen and follow along enough that she could at least understand what Cal was talking about. "I have to go now," she told him, adjusting the sleeve on his t-shirt then letting her hand rest on his chest briefly, just over his heart. "You'll probably want to be showered and dressed when I get home so you can enjoy your present."

"Come on, love. One hint before you go," Cal requested hopefully.

Gill sighed, relenting. "It fits in my car," she told him. That should have been obvious. "I love you," she said, standing up and kissing him again. "Be good. I'll be home in a few hours."

"I could come with you," Cal offered. "Keep you company on the drive... "

Gill considered it. He'd find out what his present was eventually, and at least this way he could help her with it on the way home. "Only if you put some pants on first," she told him with a smile.

"Where's the fun in that?" Cal asked. Even as the words left his mouth he was up off the couch and making his way upstairs to find some jeans.

While Cal was upstairs Gill decided to use his laptop. It took all of her self-control not to look through his browser history and try to find out what this damn thing was he kept hiding when she walked into the room and caught him looking at it. It was pamphlets as well as the internet, and he looked at it at work, so she knew whatever it was it wasn't R-rated. She was a good girl, though, and she didn't invade his privacy.... She might have considered it more carefully if she wasn't relatively sure he'd probably have deleted the pages he didn't want her to see anyway.

Rather than sticking her nose in where it clearly wasn't wanted, she had a poke around Emily's facebook page, finding a picture of Zoe and Roger. 'He certainly can't match Cal on sex appeal...." she thought, scrunching her nose up slightly. No wonder Zoe had kept sleeping with him even after she and Roger got engaged. She didn't blame Cal for that- Zoe had always had a pull on him that he couldn't resist. She knew just how to manipulate him to get exactly what she wanted from him then she chewed him up and spit him out, leaving Gill to scrape him up off the floor. She was glad those days were behind them. "Zoe's got nice arms," she commented when Cal came back downstairs. She wasn't hiding the fact she was checking out Emily's profile from him, she knew he wouldn't mind.

Cal hesitated a little. There wasn't much he could say here that wouldn't get him in trouble. If he agreed Gill wouldn't like it, if he disagreed she'd think he was lying. "All-the better to squeeze the life out of poor, unsuspecting blokes with," he told her. It was rare he actually put Zoe down, but what choice did he have? "Come on, love, let's not worry about Zoe's arms right now," he encouraged, gently taking his laptop from her. He wondered, briefly, if she'd been trying to find out what he was up to, but he didn't see any guilt on her face, and to be honest he knew she wouldn't do that. She respected his privacy. "We've got a present to pick up."

An hour and a half later Cal found himself sitting in the passenger seat in the car park of McDonald's somewhere between Washington DC and Woodville, Virginia. Gill had made him promise to wait and not to peek so she could be the one who handed it over, and he was having a hard time not looking over to see what his wife was up to. She returned after about ten minutes of conversation carrying a cardboard box in both of her arms, and she knocked on Cal's window with her elbow.

Cal wound the window down and looked at Gill. "Fantastic, love, I've always wanted a cardboard box from Virginia."

"Smarty pants," Gill laughed. "Open the door."

Cal complied and watched as Gill very slowly and very carefully set the box down in his lap. It wasn't overly heavy, but he wasn't sure he'd call it light, either, and the weight wasn't evenly distributed in the box. Furrowing his brow, he looked up at Gill and, upon receiving the okay, took the lid off the box to reveal a tiny, sleeping brown and white border collie puppy. "Blimey, you bought me a dog?" he asked, genuinely surprised. He'd already figured out Gill had bought him a trimmer for his facial hair so he could tidy it up a bit without shaving it off, and he was pretty sure she'd bought sexy lingerie to wear for him, but he had absolutely no idea about the puppy.

Gill smiled broadly, her whole face lighting up as she nodded. "Yep," she said proudly. She'd even managed to catch that he was genuinely surprised! "You said you wanted one a few weeks ago and I wasn't really fair in the way I responded. I thought your motives were less than.... innocent, I guess. I was pretty sure you wouldn't ask again after I was so awful about it, even though I could tell you wanted one, so... Say hello to your new little friend."

Cal couldn't wipe the smile off his face. "This is brilliant," he said, carefully lifting the sleeping pup out of its box. "I haven't had a dog since I was a kid."

"Well," Gill told him. "I know I told you it wasn't a replacement for a baby, but I thought we could probably both do with something little to share our love and attention with."

"Thank you, Gill," Cal said, gently scratching behind the dog's ears. "I really appreciate this. It was a fantastic surprise." To be honest, he didn't know Gill was able to hide things from him. He'd always been good at reading her in the past, even when he wasn't meant to. Now he'd have to watch her even more carefully!

"You're welcome, honey," she said, leaning in to kiss him. "Happy birthday." She removed the box from Cal's lap then and took out the towel that had been lining the bottom to rest over his pants.

"What are we going to name him?" Cal asked, setting the puppy in his lap and stroking its head.

"I don't know, that's up to you," Gill replied, walking back around to get in the driver's side of the car.

"Can we swap seats?" Cal asked when Gill got back in the car. "I'm not used to being the passenger while you drive. It's abnormal."

"It wasn't 'abnormal' when you used to go out drinking and call me at three in the morning to come and pick you up."

"It was, I just had a skin full and didn't know it," Cal told her. "Come on, love. It'll give you a chance to bond with Finn."

"Finn?" Gill asked, relenting and getting out of the driver's seat. Cal was such a man sometimes!

"Sure, why not? Like Huckleberry Finn. I used to love that book when I was a kid," he told her, getting out of the car and then reluctantly handing the dog over.

"Figures," Gill smiled, instantly cradling the puppy in her arms. So much for the dog not replacing a baby- it had taken all of about two seconds for Gill to enter mummy-mode, even if she was determined to hide it from Cal as much as possible."All of that mischief and adventure after he escapes from a life of having to bathe and go to church." She could see how Cal might have identified with the character. Stepping back into the car she closed the door and put her seatbelt on.

Cal didn't have to be an expert on body language to realise the reaction Gill had had to the puppy. He smiled to himself- yes, his motivation had been innocent in wanting a dog, but it appeared it was having unexpected benefits. As much as he wanted to call her on it he knew that would only cause problems. Instead, he smirked to himself and never said a word.