Right-o, ready to move on?

This is where, in my opinion, I started to muffle things up with this one. I may have taken some liberty with regards to the science, bear with me!

Guest: I was nervous about this one, I want to say some things with this arc but I felt I could have done a better job. It might seem unusual for Cal to behave, but things are different now and it's normal he's a bit more considerate.

Now, I know you're all waiting for the other shoe to drop…let's see what happens, shall we?

Cal wasn't surprised that in the few hours he got to sleep the efficient Army machine had made major moves. When they woke him up it took him a while to tune his brain and remember where he was and why, but he was quickly forced into gear when Captain Faulkner came at him with the details of the arranged trip to the village.

There were two separate lists the captain wanted him to check; one was the equipment they needed to bring to the village to film the interviews, and one was the series of safety measures they were going to provide for himself and the troops accompanying him. He had requested both of them himself, but the second was the one he wanted Gillian to vet. It probably wasn't going to account for much, he just about edged her knowledge in the matter to be able to make any kind of assessment, but he figured she was probably going to like knowing how many armed soldiers were going to keep an eye on him.

All sides of the preparation were cleared during a quick call, the both of them having some kind of breakfast and avoiding the elephant in the room until Captain Faulkner came to fetch him. Cal wanted to make a joke about it, but then the officer handed him a helmet and bulletproof vest right under her eyes and he wisely decided not to.

The first day of interviews on the field went a lot better than what they had imagined, yet they didn't come away from it with anything too useful. The villagers were a lot more relaxed but there was still something that Cal couldn't quite grasp, and not surprisingly it was Gillian the one who provided the assist. Not that she spoke the local idiom, but much like the microexpressions he had spent years studying and knew they were universal no matter the ethnicity and culture, Gillian knew that some voice inflections didn't vary. She kept hearing something in the interpreter's voice, some kind of shift between when he was relaying the questions Cal posed and when he was translating the answers. That, combined with the confusion Cal saw more than once on the villager's faces when the translator spoke with them, seemed to be leading to a very uncomfortable conclusion.

They talked about it at length once Cal and the troops were back to the base, going through the recordings over and over again for hours. After all, if they had to tell Captain Faulkner that their translator might have been playing a game of his own they wanted to be damn sure about it.

"Are you telling me that he's lying?"

As predicted, it was a hard sell. Cal couldn't blame him, the man was an honest to God patriot and believed in what he did so the prospect of someone with less than transparent motives was completely foreign to him.

"He's…embellishing some parts, and holding back on others," Cal tried to explain diplomatically.

"With all due respect Dr Lightman, but unless either of you speak Mai-Mai-"

"The speech and voice pattern of a question is pretty much universal, regardless of the language." Gillian cut him off, swift and decisive. "On more than one occasion when repeating Lightman's questions his voice doesn't have the right inclination, and the person reacted- Cal?"

"I've got you, love." Cal immediately picked up, replaying part of the video as she spoke.

"Thanks," she said with a brief smile, then it was quickly all business again. "Every time he did that the villager reacted with surprise." She didn't need to be in the same room with Cal to know that he was playing the images in the best way to showcase what she was talking about. "And then fear as they replied."

Cal diligently operated the video back and forth, selecting a perfect example of what she was talking about. It had taken them hours and countless rewind-stop-play to be sure about what they were seeing, and now it was as clear as day. It wasn't happening all the time, which was why it had taken them a while to catch on to it, but there was definitely something fishy going on.

Thousands of miles away, Gillian had to frustratingly sit in front of the monitor and hope that Cal's explanation would get through to Faulkner, every now then rolling her eyes at the officer's opposition and exchanging knowing looks with Torres. The younger woman was positive that Lightman was going to resort to insults soon if the soldier didn't start to see it, but Gillian was confident that he knew that escalating was not the answer. Pleased, she smiled when Cal started to appeal to the officer's commitment in resolving the situation in the most transparent way, gently cornering him with reasoning he could understand. If he really wanted to do everything he could to investigate the incident impartially, all he had to do was to get another translator, to replace the one they had or work side by side.

"Think of it as a medical consult," Cal pushed. "You're only asking for a second opinion."

The metaphor seemed to work, Gillian could see the words making their way to the officer's mind by the way his face changed. Cal bit at his bottom lip, slightly holding his breath and finally letting go when Faulkner nodded and said he was going to look into it.

"He means well," Gillian noted once the officer was gone, hearing and seeing the moan of frustration Cal let go once he was alone in the room.

"I know, I know," he huffed. "He's really going out of his way to arrange things the best he can."

"I noticed that."

Cal smirked when she said that and sat at the table to look at her better. It was quite the competition between the two of them on who was the most tired, but she had the clear advantage of always looking spectacular no matter what. On the other hand, to Gillian the sun of the desert was doing wonders to his features and they both studied each other in silence for a bit. Not for the first time they thought they must have looked ridiculous, two love-struck individuals making such a big deal out of being apart for a few days, but they couldn't help the way they felt. They hadn't spent a single day apart since they had gotten back together, they had been living at Cal's place for a few weeks and it was absolute bliss, their working relationship was firing on all cylinders and people around them had finally stopped making a big deal out of any of it.

Of course, there were still things here and there that got to them and made them work for it, but it was comforting most of the time. A bit like at that moment, as Cal easily picked up the note of relief in Gillian's statement. She might not have had a full understanding of what the situation out there had been, but certainly what she had seen was reassuring enough that he could be in the middle of it and still be somewhat safe.

"Emily called today," Gillian announced, and he immediately groaned. "Tell me about it, I'm the one who got to deal with it!"

"Sorry love, I tried to call her but she didn't pick up."

"It's ok, don't worry about it." Cal smirked, appreciating the effort but knowing that it must have been a difficult conversation. "Why don't you try to get some rest before Faulkner sorts things out?"

"The man is way too efficient, it would probably only take a couple of hours." He waved his hand at her and shrugged. "Besides, if you won't it only seems appropriate that I don't either."

He was clearly hinting at the fact that she wasn't exactly keeping regular sleeping patterns, and that she was pretty much camping in his office when not on duty, but he wasn't going to push the matter. She was doing what made her feel comfortable, keeping an eye on him the best she could, and he had no intention to question it. When she had gone off her solo adventure in Colombia he had never left the office either after all, and there was a part of him that shamelessly enjoyed being so missed and looked after from a distance.

They spoke about the case for a while then, trying to establish if there was anything that they could salvage from the interviews they had and asking Torres to pitch in. She was more fresh, a touch more detached, and of course being a natural she had valuable insights.

They were still going at it about one hour and a half later, when Captain Faulkner came back accompanied by Major Miles and bringing two pieces of news. One was that he had spoken with the elders at the village and they were going to find their own translator to even things out, and by the look of it securing that with his own superiors had been a struggle. The second update, beyond his control, was that they had been contacted by the son and brother of the two victims.

Immediately, led no longer by the Captain but by the Major, the impromptu debate moved to what to do with that last information. The man was a police officer in Mogadishu, he had been notified of the death of his family members and was travelling there to find out what had happened. Seen as they were still trying to establish that, Major Miles had caught him up on what they had been doing so far but any decision or further plan had been postponed until his arrival.

One thing they knew for sure and all agreed on was that another trip to the village was going to be needed.

Asad Habib was due to arrive the morning after, local time, which left Cal and Captain Faulkner hours to prepare. As much as Gillian wanted to be part of that process, being up and running covering two very distant time zones was starting to get to her, and she had seen the day before that aside from personal gratification she didn't get much out of chit chats about humvees, forces deployment and rules of engagements. However, with words like those going through her mind, sleeping was hard to come by and far from relaxing when it eventually came.

She woke up confused and lost, needing some time to establish where she was and even more to pinpoint what time of the day, or night, it was. More than anything, she woke up afraid, wrapped up in a sense of dread brought on by extremely unpleasant dreams. Gillian Foster was by no means the kind of person who would let something like a dream affect her, not under normal circumstances. But the situation was far from normal, and she had been worried about Cal enough already before he even left not to factor in how the dreams she'd had made her feel.

On the back of all that, waking up and getting ready to see him wander in a dangerous remote village in the middle of nowhere, again, put an even bigger strain on her. For that reason, when Habib arrived with his cousin and Cal suggested that they spoke with him before heading off to the village, Gillian felt extremely grateful. It made sense, of course: they knew nothing about the man, and some due diligence about his motives for being there was more than called for.

Why he did that, Gillian didn't know for sure, but after a few minutes talking to him she started to think he might have seen something because there were a few red flags going up in her mind too. Not so much from Habid: he spoke good English and that resolved many of the translation issues they've encountered up until that point, and the grief for the loss of his family seemed genuine. But his cousin seemed to be extremely uneasy, fidgeting and looking at any person in a military uniform coming close to him as if a simple gaze coming his way could physically hurt him.

"That's weird," Loker muttered after a while, his eyes glued to the screen showing Habib's cousin. "I don't like it."

"Yeah, me neither," Gillian sighed, biting at her bottom lip and seizing her hands around the coffee mug, struggling to contain her agitation.

She had to, at least until the conversation was over and Major Miles popped into the room to inform them that the convoy was ready to take them to the village.

"Cal," she called out then, when the others started to leave the room.

Cal stopped and waited for the others to go, then once alone looked straight at her with a solemn nod.

"I know, something's off with that one," he immediately stated, much to her relief. "I'll tell Captain Faulkner to make up some reasons to leave him behind."

"Do you think he will just agree to stay on base?" Loker asked. "I mean, if he's up to something-"

"Then he would insist on coming, which would definitely have the opposite effect," Cal interjected, then huffed and straddled his beard. "Listen, after all moving people to go to the village is not exactly like loading kids on a school bus. Once you factor in the soldiers we need, the equipment and everything else his presence is not essential anyway. It won't be hard to explain Faulkner, especially if I tell him something might go down if he tags along."

The last part of his statement was true, and also terrifying for Gillian on the back of the night she'd just heard. She shuddered as he spoke, images of the convoy travelling to the village being disrupted by God knows what.

"Foster?"

When he called her name, Gillian realised that she must have tuned off for a moment because he sounded like he had asked her something and she didn't know what it was. Then she blinked and took in a sharp breath, trying to calm down, looking at him with a silent request to repeat.

"Would you mind keeping talking to him in the meantime? It should take about 1 hour to get to the village and set up, there's something there and you might see what is it before we get there."

"Yes, of course. Make sure Captain Faulkner keeps this line open for me."

"Will do," Cal nodded and then leaned closer to the monitor. "Are you ok, Gill?"

"Yes, just tired," she tried to smile at him, not her best attempt. "Tell you the truth Cal, I'm not sure what time it is anymore."

"I'll go get you a refill," Loker offered then, standing up and motioning to take the empty mug from her hands.

Gillian passed it over and thanked him, watching with a touch of embarrassment as the young man left the lab. Oh yes, she needed coffee to function more than anything else at that point, but she knew that much like Cal had, he had noticed something was off with her. He wasn't going to bring it up and investigate himself, but he was certainly going to leave Lightman the time and space to do so.

"I'm ok Cal," she beat him to it. "I'm just tired."

"I want to believe you, love, but if even Loker noticed it must be a little more than that."

Gillian rolled her eyes at his commitment to take a diss at Loker no matter what, but then sighed and leaned closer to the screen.

"I don't like this development," she explained then. "Yesterday when you were out there things seemed under control, we made progress one way or the other. This changes everything and I'm not sure they understand just how much. I am starting to think that they are so preoccupied with transparency in the investigation that

"That's what I'm here for, Gill."

"I know Cal, I just-" I wish you weren't, she wanted to say, but stopped herself and instead closed her eyes and shook her head. When she reopened them however she didn't feel like looking at him, mostly because she didn't want him to look at her.

Even without a good view of her face, Cal could feel in her voice how much that was weighing on her. Yes she was tired, but she was also tense and looked exactly the same as the day before he had left. Worried about him, uncomfortable with being so far away from him and looking at all that through a screen: he had felt pretty much the same when she had gone off to Colombia, with the added factor that he hadn't even had a saying in it until it had been all over. But that wasn't about the past, nor about comparing experiences; that was about the woman who loved him feeling like she could lose him at any moment.

And about her being so overwhelmed to go to inimaginable lengths.

"What if you speak to the cousin?" She asked then, well aware of the implications of her suggestion. "He's the one showing signs of deception after all-"

"Gillian-"

"If he's hiding something you can see it before they get out there, save everyboys some trouble."

"I'm pretty sure they are paying for me to be out there, love."

"You can still watch from the base. If I can do it from here I'm sure you can-"

The third time it wasn't Cal's attempt that stopped her, but Captain Faulkner coming back into the room announcing that they were ready to go. Gillian had more arguments to fire, Cal could tell by the look on her face, but she must have known as much as he did that they were weak ones and she held back. Obviously, Captain Faulkner was oblivious to their silent interaction and more so to what they had been talking about before his arrival, and urged Cal to suit up and get ready to leave. Gillian could see that Cal wanted to tell something to the officer, possibly about keeping the cousin on base and why, but the Captain left again before he had the chance to do so, busy with the last preparation and probably about another million things.

Alone again, Cal clenched his jaw and put his hands on his pockets, looking like the human representation of the concept of 'between a rock and a hard place". From the lab in D.C, through the screen Gillian could hear voices and noises in the background that spoke of urgency and she easily imagined Cal was buying himself time he really didn't have.

"Be careful, Cal?" She asked then, relieving him from parting duties. "Ok?"

Cal was about to answer when a soldier came into the room, carrying the same protective gear he had been given the day before. Cal bit at his bottom lip with frustration - worst timing ever - and just about had the time to nod at her before the soldier rushed him out of the room.