A/N - Warning: this fluffy Callian donut has been decorated with poisoned Dave sprinkles. Eat at your own risk! But remember: it's the Cal version of the story, so just let the angsty poison run its course...you'll be fine around chapter 7, which, according to my super fancy concrete plan (read: i'm wingin' it), will be the last chapter.

Cal woke first the next morning. He laid on his side and watched Gillian open her eyes when her phone alarm went off for a second time. When she felt the ache of staying up too late, and of making love for a little too long, she closed her eyes again and wished for three more hours in bed.

"Shit." she groaned. The price of belated make-up sex.

"I love waking up next to you." Cal said quietly. She blinked and smiled very softly. "You swear like a sailor when you're sleepy." he explained. She chuckled, almost silently, and rewarded him with another.

"Fuck." she whispered, and her tone was quite suggestive.

"Don't mind if I do." Cal said happily, moving over her and kissing her neck as if it were really an option. Gillian grinned and hugged his body. She loved waking up next to him, too. Especially when it was like this. His hands were everywhere, but she hesitated. Cal sensed her resistance to his playful pawing, but he didn't let it stop him.

"We could go in late." Cal murmured his suggestion against her skin.

On her back, she stared at the ceiling, smiling as she felt his tongue sneak out to join the kisses. "Again?" she replied. "People are already beginning to suspect."

"They know who signs the paychecks. We don't have to tell them anything we don't want to."

"...Do you want to?"

Cal paused the devouring of Gillian's neck and lifted his head so he could look at her. All this time he'd been wanting to shout it from the rooftop, but for some reason it made him feel funny when the idea came from her.

"That's twice you've asked me now, in two days." he pointed out.

"I must be serious about it." she replied.

Cal leaned on his elbow, not on top of her but not abandoning her completely either. His hand still rested on her waist, on her hip bone, fingers sneaking under the hem of her shirt so he could feel the warm skin there.

"Alright..." he said slowly, thinking of all the ways they could announce their relationship. "We could shag in the Cube, put it on the live feed. It could be the new viral marketing campaign for the Lightman Group. Oh! And it could double as a test - which one of us is faking our orgasm?"

Gillian smirked at the salacious eyebrow raise that accompanied his last idea. "Neither." she said, as she put her arms around his neck.

"Clever girl..." Cal murmured, moving closer, covering her with his body again. He kissed her lips. "That's why you're in charge, and they're not allowed to ask questions."

He kissed her lips again, and then her jaw line, and then her neck. He couldn't help but sense a bit of sarcasm in her chuckling laughter. "I'm only in charge when you want a quickie." she said, voice changed now that he was pulling the top of her t-shirt down, kissing and licking her collarbone. The pitch of her voice was low, and he knew the quickie was already being offered. He began to take off her clothes, and she didn't resist.

"Yeah?" Cal said quietly. Gillian began to undress him too, starting with his t-shirt.

"Yeah." she said quietly, and she let him have his quickie. It was either that, or have eye sex all day at the office. It was safer for their cover to have it now.

Another work day passed, not as pleasant as the previous one, but still nothing they could complain about. Neither of them breathed a word of their relationship to anyone, and that was just fine. It wasn't the right time, and Gillian wondered if it ever would be. Maybe they'd end up shagging in the Cube after all.

They didn't know it, but Ria was beginning to notice a change in their behavior. Her first hint was that Cal didn't seem as focused as he usually did. She didn't know why - she had no way of knowing he'd been emotionally completed for the first time in his life - but he also seemed less frustrated. Ria told herself it was the light caseload and tried not to think about it anymore. He always noticed when she stared at him too long.

They were standing very close to one another in front of Cal's desk when Emily walked into Cal's office at the end of the day. Gillian noticed Emily's entrance right away, and tried to distance herself from Cal.

"I'll see you there." she said quietly, on her way out.

Cal leaned in to kiss Gillian, and she all but recoiled. An awkward moment ensued, but the Lightmans tried to put her at ease.

"She knows, Gill." Cal teased her. "We've had sleepovers."

"I know," said Gillian, glancing at Emily from the corner of her eye. "It's just..."

"It's cool." Emily assured her, as laid back as she could make herself sound. "I am not uncomfortable in the least. I love you two together. You're pretty much the cutest couple ever."

"Our number one fan." said Cal, still looking at Gillian as he gestured toward his daughter. Gillian smiled deeply, grateful and sheepish, at Emily, as she placed a hand lightly on Cal's chest.

"I'll see you soon." she said to Cal.

As she walked out, Emily reached out to her, making a soft sound. "Hug." she said simply. Gillian was more than happy to oblige. With another sheepish smile, this one so deep it made Cal's heart ache, Gillian put her arms around his daughter, and his daughter hugged her back.

"We will miss you tonight." Gillian insisted as she released her. Emily smiled, at her comment and at the way Gillian gave her forearm a light squeeze before she went. Cal and Emily watched her go, and Emily turned to her father before the telltale look on his face had time to fade.

"You're a very lucky man." Emily teased him.

"I'm reminded every day." Cal replied. He walked back around his desk to sit down.

"Things seem...better." said Emily, taking aimless steps as her father wrapped up his work for the day. "Than last week."

Cal looked at her, surprised that she'd noticed. He thought they hid it so well.

"You know," Emily continued casually, as subtle as a sneeze. "If you didn't have to drive me to Mom's house, you could just go home with Gillian now. You should really just give me my car keys back."

"You want your keys?" Cal asked her, much better at feigning innocence than his darling daughter. "Of course," he said. "No problem. Just hand over the phone."

"This isn't about me, Dad. This is about Gillian."

"She'll be there waiting for me when I get home, Em. But you'll run someone over if I give you the keys when you still have a texting machine in your hands."

"That's not funny."

"Precisely my point, dear."

"Did you just call me a deer?" Emily asked, eyes narrowing.

"What if I did?"

"I was just trying to change the subject."

"Yeah, I noticed."

Outside Cal's office, Gillian was looking through her purse for her own car keys, using that as an excuse to linger. She loved listening to them together, and she almost wished Emily was staying with them tonight.

Almost. Things were a lot better than last week and, as a way to keep celebrating, they were going to open another bottle of wine, and take the night very slow.

That was the plan, anyway. Gillian was lost in those thoughts on her way to her car. Cal wasn't the only one who'd lost a bit of focus. She wasn't aware of the presence next to her vehicle until she was very close. In her peripheral vision she sensed more than saw the figure standing on the opposite side of the car, his hands in his pockets as he stood and waited for her to notice. Her heart almost burst from a rush of adrenaline, and her entire body tensed until she realized who it was. He watched her brain process something it couldn't quite believe, and he smiled faintly, patiently - lovingly - as she worked through the impossible details.

Dave Burns, in the Lightman Group parking lot. Dave Burns in DC. Dave Burns anywhere near Gillian Foster, after everything that had happened and all the time she's spent trying to forget.

"I'm sorry to come to you like this." he said.

His voice, after not hearing it for so long, gave her shivers all the way down her spine.

"But I had to see you."

Cal brought Emily to Zoe's. He stayed in the car, watched her go up the walk, and waited. Cal knew Zoe would take it personally that he'd failed to at least say hello, but he didn't care. It was a two-fold waste of time, with Gillian waiting at home for him and Zoe's new live-in boyfriend lurking somewhere in the house. Emily turned and waved before she finished unlocking the door. Cal waved back, and took off toward his home.

When he arrived there, an unfortunately familiar feeling began to nag at him immediately. Gillian's car was nowhere to be seen. Worst case scenarios began to pile up in his mind. They came as fast as his skeptical side could sweep them away. Who have you pissed off lately? was his first question, even before Where else could she be?

He texted her as he walked in. She should have beaten him home by at least an hour.

Should I be worried?

She knew what to reply with if something was wrong, and how to respond if everything was all right. Maybe she'd gone to the store, to get something for dinner? Cal laid down on his couch and held his phone to his chest, waiting. Moments later, the phone buzzed. The moment of truth.

I'm not at Starbucks -

That was the code. She was fine, but the rest that followed didn't make any sense to him.

- I can't come over right now. I'll talk to you in the morning.

"Like hell..." Cal muttered as he finished reading it. He called her immediately, daring her to dismiss him directly. She answered after the first ring.

"Cal." she said.

"Where are you?" he asked flatly, all business and no fucking around.

"I'm still in the parking lot at work."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Gillian said, sounding very perturbed, almost resigned, as if she'd known this conversation was inevitable and she wasn't ready to have it yet. "I just..."

A few painful seconds of being left in the dark felt like eternity. They weren't supposed to have secrets anymore. Two seconds' hesitation and Cal felt like he was alone in the universe.

"Gillian." Cal said, cradling her with his tone and surprising himself with how soft it was. He should have been angry, but she had that power over him. He heard a car door open, as Gillian exited her vehicle, and he heard the car door close and heels on pavement as she took a few steps away. He was afraid of what it would mean if she'd been sitting there alone that whole time, but more afraid of who would be in there with her if she was not alone. He never would have guessed the truth. He needed her to tell him.

"Dave came to see me." she said abruptly, her voice reaching out to slap him through the phone.

Stunned silent, Cal had no reply. Gillian had nothing yet to add, so she let the silence grow. Eventually Cal felt the need to say something, if only to keep her on the line.

"You're going to have to repeat that." he said. "In a language I'll understand."

Gillian took a deep breath. She hadn't quite processed the information herself. "Remember the news vans in front of the courthouse?" she asked.

"He's in town for the circus?"

"He's right in the middle of it."

"He's testifying." Cal guessed correctly.

"Yes." she said, knowing he could fill in most of the blanks himself. He proved it by not asking any more questions. Not about Dave. Their thin ice was cracking and the universe had just dropped a semi onto its surface.

"I need to see you, Gill. Please. Come home."

She had to close her eyes and steel herself against that plea. He was asking her to choose. Just like that.

"He can't meet during the day." said Gillian, rationalizing like the professional she was. "He doesn't know if he'll be able to sneak out again. I need to have this talk with him now."

A million reasons why she didn't need to have any talks with him at all rushed into Cal's mouth but he couldn't choose just one, not quick enough. It allowed for another moment of awkward silence over the phone, after which Gillian softly added, "We're just talking, Cal."

It knocked the wind out of him. Why did she have to put it that way?

Dave sat in the passenger seat of Gillian's car, watching and waiting, reading her lips when he could see her in profile, and wondering when her back was turned. After a few minutes of what looked like earnest pleading, she lowered the phone and ended the call. She had to take a moment before getting back into the car. She closed the driver side door behind her and leaned back in her seat, staring straight ahead and out into the night. She was stuck now. She wasn't supposed to be there. Dave wasn't supposed to be there. It wasn't supposed to happen like this, but she couldn't just leave.

All the reunions she'd imagined had been so perfect and tender. But, back when she'd allowed herself to imagine them, she hadn't been with Cal. What she had with Cal was still fragile, and she realized now how in denial she'd been about that. She'd made a choice, when Cal begged her to come home and she'd said no. She still had unfinished business, something unresolved in her life that didn't - couldn't - involve Cal. She knew this could be her only chance to resolve it, but Dave wasn't making it easy either. He was different, not quite the way she remembered him. There was an edge to him that he hadn't given her access to before. Confrontation. He should have been happier to see her.

"He calls you after work now?" Dave asked, suggestive, as if he didn't already know. He wanted to hear her say it. He wanted her to tell him, so he could see how much it troubled her, if at all, to say it to him out loud.

"You don't get to ask those questions anymore." she said, picking up their serious conversation where they'd left off, when she received Cal's phone call. Dave was acting as if they were still supposed to be together. As if she was supposed to have waited for him that whole time. The most frustrating part was that she almost had. She'd been living her life like a ghost, until the passion she found with Cal brought her back to life. And now that she'd finally decided to move on, like magic Dave appeared. As if he'd been waiting for the absolute worst moment - when everything finally seemed perfect with Cal.

Cal spent the night on his couch, eyes wide open and imagination going places he'd tried so hard to forget. He left his phone there on his chest, but he made no attempts to call her back. She'd made up her mind, and she'd asked him for this. She'd asked him to remember what she'd gone through, and to recognize how much she needed closure on this past affair.
Closure on the past.

The past.

Cal spent the night awake, worrying about Gillian's safety and wondering what their future could be if one conversation didn't resolve the past the way she wanted it to.

I'm over him. her voice echoed.

Then why are you sitting huddled in a car with the stupid bastard, instead of at home with me? he wanted to yell, but the phone was on his chest, and the line was closed. He wouldn't see her until the morning. He wasn't sure if he'd survive wondering that long.

To be continued.

It's going to get worse before it gets better...