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

This one's only relatively short but I'd still be keen to hear what you think. A little bit more confident/assertive Gill, and slightly obnoxious Cal (who I kinda like :P)

When Cal saw Loker a short time later, the young man ducked his head and kept his eyes down, walking past him silently. His shoulders were hunched and he was bent over slightly. His body language was that of someone who was incredibly ashamed of themself. The older man raised an eyebrow and turned to watch Loker's back as he left. What had Gill done to him? She was normally so sweet!

"Hey," he said, walking into Gill's office and plopping down on one of her armchairs comfortably and swinging his feet up onto the coffee table.

"Come in, take a seat," Gill encouraged sarcastically. "Get your feet off my coffee table. You know better than that."

Cal brought his feet back down to rest on the floor, sitting up a bit. "I just saw Loker," he told Gill, reaching over and picking up an apple out of her fruit bowl.

Gill wondered if Cal was intentionally trying to be obnoxious today. He got in moods like that sometimes, where he tried to push her buttons, and she was ashamed to say it worked- he knew just how to irritate her to get a reaction. "That's nice," she commented. "Can I do something for you?"

Cal shrugged. "It looks like you really, uh..." he paused, taking a bite out of the apple, then talking with his mouth full. "Beat him into submission."

Gill rolled her eyes. "Cal, if you came in here to irritate me and use bad manners you're doing a fantastic job of it," she told him. "Mission accomplished. Can you stop talking with your mouth full now, please?"

Cal rolled his eyes. "Wow, you're really on a roll today, love," he said. "I think I like this side of you. Confident and assertive and all that. I haven't seen it in ages. Not since just after your divorce came through."

"Well, I'm perfectly capable of asserting myself when I need to," Gill informed Cal. "I'd prefer that people do the right thing because they respect me, though," she said, looking at him pointedly. He knew he was behaving poorly. "I don't like having to be like this, I remind myself of Zoe. Nobody wants to be around a bitch, Cal, but if that's what it takes to get the job done..."

"Oi, Zoe was not a bitch," Cal defended her. When Gill raised an eyebrow he gave in. "Okay, so she could be a bit... prickly."

"That could be the understatement of the century, but I'll let it slide," Gill replied.

"Look, whatever you said or did to Loker seems to 'ave worked. I've never seen anyone looking so thoroughly chastised and repentant. What'd you do?"

"I put him back on his old salary effective immediately, with a 10% increase for inflation and performance-based pay, and cut my own research budget to allocate extra funding to his research projects for the next 12 months," Gill stated matter-of-factly.

"Are you out of your bleedin' mind?!" Cal asked. "He goes around treating you like dirt, and you reward him?"

"Have you ever heard of the phrase 'killing someone with kindness', Cal?" Gill asked. She knew he had. "I don't have to be harsh to get results. You said yourself he looked like he regretted his actions. My methods are just different to yours."

Cal tilted his head to the side and studied Gill, his mouth open slightly.

"Don't look at me like that," she told him. "I'm not a bad person. 99.9% of the time I'm the sweet, friendly Gill that you fell in love with," she said. "But if you mess with me there are going to be consequences, and I will win."

Cal rested his chin on his hand and continued to look at Gill, amazed. She didn't break eye contact or make a sound, holding strong. There was something about this side of her.... After a minute or two Cal lifted his chin up off his hand and smiled proudly at her. "Fancy a shag, love?" he asked.

Gill rolled her eyes then shook her head and smiled, amused. "Don't you have work to do?"

"Probably," Cal replied, standing up and walking towards the door. He stopped when he got there, turning to face Gill. "You were right," he said. "From the looks of things this morning you did a much better job at dealing with Loker than I did. Sorry, love. Well done," Cal told her before slipping out of Gill's office.

Gill sat and stared at the door. Not only had Cal told her she'd done well, he'd admitted he was wrong. Cal Lightman never did that! His words of defeat had left her stunned.