When Gillian came in she actually looked a little pale. Cal jumped up from his seat, concerned. She gave him a ghostly smile as he reached her and pulled her into a hug. He held her for a moment, then gave a tight squeeze and shifted back a little to see her face. Her bag slipped from her shoulder into the crook of her arm and it banged against Cal's leg. He shifted his hand out of the way to allow her to straighten her arm. The strap of her bag slid to her hand.

"Well?" Cal took her by the elbow and guided her to the couch, the love seat, so he could sit nice and close and kind of, enclose them in together. "Everythin' all right?"

"Where are the boys?"

"Down the block, playin' with the new neighba."

"Ok," Gillian pulled her bag to her lap and produced a white envelope. She passed it over to Cal and he wasn't sure what to expect. He wondered if he should be looking. This was her mother's money. Though to be fair, even he and Gillian had pretty much dispensed with their separate accounts at this point. As the years went by, what was his was more and more what was hers.

Cal opened the unsealed envelope and pulled out the letter. He unfolded it and quickly scanned down the page and when he saw the numerical amount left to Gillian as her inheritance his eyes actually bulged. "Good lord," he uttered.

"I know," Gillian murmured.

Cal looked up at her, slightly incredulous. "Are you kiddin' me?"

"No," Gillian shook her head. "The money's already been put into our account."

Cal folded up the letter again and put it back in its envelope to give himself time to think things through. Gillian had had a call from the lawyer dealing with her late mother's estate. Her will had been read. The last thing to do was divvy up the assets. Gillian and Matthew had got the house and the car, and were still deciding what to do with the house; the car had already been sold. Cal voted for keeping the property; could be a sound investment. But now there was this. He didn't know what to say first. Too many burning questions.

Gillian took the envelope and put it back into her bag. She put the bag on the floor and then she turned back to her husband, folding her hands in her lap, expectant. Cal watched her for a moment. There seemed to be more colour to her skin. "So," Cal started.

"I don't know," Gillian responded but that didn't answer his unasked question. Any one of them to be honest. Gillian frowned suddenly. "Wait, what?" She gave him earnest blue eyes, realising she didn't know what he was asking.

"That's... quite a considerable amount," Cal pointed out.

"Yes," Gillian agreed.

"From your fartha?"

"I'd say most of it is yes."

"Right," Cal nodded. David had had a business and after his death, well Cal didn't know all the details, but he knew his half of it had been sold. That was probably where Dana had got the money. Because she had never been anything but a housewife her whole life. "What are you gonna do with it?"

"I don't know," Gillian winced and seemed to deflate. She fell against Cal and he brought up his arms again to hold her. So that was what was on her mind.

"Could invest it," Cal responded sagely. "Buy anotha house. Would set you up with a passive income."

Gillian pulled back to look him in the eye. "Us. It could give us a passive income."

Cal didn't answer. He didn't want to assume. Actually, he wasn't sure he was comfortable with just being given a large sum of money from his in-laws. Nothing had ever been handed to him on a plate and he was certainly not accustomed to having something that was not really his.

"Boys' college fund," Cal countered. They were, after all, directly related to Dana and David. That eased the tightness in Cal's chest. "We don't have to talk about this," he added quickly. It seemed wrong to quickly decide how to divide the money.

"But I do want to talk. About this. If that's ok? I don't know what to do with the money," Gillian admitted stiltedly. "And it's a lot. It's not just, we shouldn't just... spend it on TV's or cars."

"No, right, agree with that."

Gillian nodded firmly and moved again to lean against him. "We could invest it in the Group."

"Sure, yeah," because that wasn't an entirely stupid idea. Not that the Lightman Group needed a cash injection, because it was viable just as it was, successful even. To be honest, they'd probably struggle to find ways to even spend the money at the Group.

"Or start a portfolio or somethin'," Cal went on. "I dunno luv. I'm not good with money rememba? That's your thing luv."

Gillian's hand smoothed along Cal's thigh in a comforting gesture. "You do just fine," she told him absently. "But sure, investments. I haven't done that before either."

"You can pay a guy to do that kind of thing for you," Cal pointed out.

"Well there is that."

Cal relaxed a little, further into the couch. Good. Well that felt a bit more settled then. "Not that you have to make a decision right now."

"We," Gillian corrected gain. "We don't have to make a decision right now."

"It's your parent's money."

"And you're my husband. If I die you'll end up with the money anyway."

"Take that back," Cal demanded a little bit more sharply than he intended. He meant it as a joke but actually, the thought of her dying, that cut him, that... he didn't even want to think about that.

Gillian avoided his eye. "We're family aren't we?" She asked softly. "The money is the kids' as well."

"Well then... we should do somethin' with the money as a family."

Gillian looked up at him again. She was quiet for a moment and then she said, "Like a vacation?"

"Yeah sure," Cal gave a slight nod. "We've not had a family holiday right?"

"No we've started planning them," Gillian mused. She must have seen something on Cal's face because she added, "Remember? Before your... accident." She hesitated. "Before Owen was even conceived."

Cal searched his memory quickly but came up blank. He shook his head slightly. "Sorry. Where were we headed?"

"We hadn't actually got that far. Just set aside the date and... We were going to do something fun with Lewis."

"Lewis has a birthday comin' up," Cal pointed out.

"And it's nearly summer. The weather would be beautiful," Gillian added.

"Now that sounds like plan."

Gillian smiled. "Ok. So where?"