Hello again, to those still on the journey. Don't be shy btw, let me hear it.

Guest: lol that's an image! I like writing this kind of chapters sometimes, not too much because I always want to move the plot forward, but they are not so bad are they? Ah, the famous two weeks! Honestly, I thought about it, perhaps as a flashback indeed, but even after months I haven't been able to think about a way of doing it.

Now, about this one. First of all, a little warning for sensitive topic of abuse. Then there will be some explanation at the end of it for some context.

Edit: I am travelling for work again so likely no new chapter until Saturday.

Eyes down, arms folded, clenched jaw: the boy was the perfect representation of someone on a defensive stance. Cal could tell there was something big and heavy brewing behind the young man's face, something he needed help with: but as much he wanted to help, first thing first there was a newborn baby to find.

"Did you kill her? Did you kill a little baby…just to stick it to your dad, once and for all?"

The boy's face was telling, the bottled up pain and so much more floating to the surface along with tears. But that wasn't it, Cal could see it and it gave him great relief under the circumstances. LJ had taken his baby sister, no doubt about it, but not with the intention to harm her.

So, Cal asked himself, studying the boy from his seat with piercing eyes. Why did you take her then?

After a few seconds, remembering their conversation up until that point, he realised maybe the answer really was that easy.

"You want to stand up to your dad, all right, you can do better than this. Sit down, son." LJ didn't move, but his quick change of expression told Cal that he had struck gold. "This hurts everyone. This hurts your mum, hurts Kimberly. Sit down, son!" He was more aggressive this time, nearly yelling at him. He didn't like it, if he was right about what was going on there it probably wasn't the best of approaches, and in a way it pained him to see that the switch worked as the boy finally sat down across from him. "Where is she?"

He was angry, not at the boy in front of him but at the situation itself. Well ok, maybe a bit at him too for taking it out on a newborn, but he was doing his best to keep the anger under control.

"You don't know what it's like. To have a dad like him," LJ finally said, his voice cracking a little.

Cal gave a slow nod of understanding, then uncrossed his legs and leaned forward.

"All right, try this one on for size, all right? Three nights a week, minimum, all right, he goes

straight from work to the bar, and when he does stumble home in the middle of the night stinking of booze, right, he's straight in the kitchen, and he's yellin' at your mum, and he–" His hands seemed to have a life of their own, waving and dancing in air the erratically as if channelling his nervous energy in the random gestures rather than his voice. "You know, maybe he's knockin' her about a bit. All right, you can hear all this from where you are. You're-you're hiding in your bedroom. All right, there's nothing you can do about it, but you're just– you're up there, you're laying in bed, and you're waiting. You're waiting because you know what's coming next." His voice faltered for a brief moment, then Cal started looking down, away from the boy, nowhere in particular really. Any of the people working for him would have noticed that, along with the sudden emptiness of his gaze and voice, as if he was talking to himself, lost in a painful monologue. More than anything, any of the people who worked for him would have likely noticed that he was displaying typical signs of recalling memories. "See, there's footsteps on the stairs. All right, and you given up on God, God knows when, but you're laying there, and you're praying-" Cal took a long pause this time, his hand cutting through the air in an empty yet telling gesture. "Make it stop. Please make it stop." He looked at LJ then, the boy looking back at him as if on the verge of tears. "Sounds familiar? Hmm? No?" Waiting for an answer, Cal leaned back on his seat, suddenly focused and sharp again as if nothing of what he had just said mattered. "So your dad didn't actually hit you or your mum." LJ stayed silent, but his face told Cal that he was right. "Well, in that case, you're right. I have absolutely no idea what that's like."

The last words of his long and broken up speech come out like a hiss, a deadly whisper forced out from behind closed teeth. He looked calm, but inside he was everything but. Yet he kept it all under control, focusing his energy and his gaze on LJ who was just about ready to break down.

"Kimberly is at a friends' house," the boy eventually caved. "Her parents are out of town."

Cal nodded slowly, fighting the urge to jump on his feet and run out of the room to share the news. Instead, because it was the right thing to do, he took some time to get the details from LJ and try to make sure he understood his actions might have consequences.

Then he told the boy to wait for him there and stood up, left the office and went looking for Foster. Cal walked around peeking through doors, checking out the lab and the break room, then headed for her office. She wasn't there but by the look of it she had been until recently, leaving a document open on her screen and a still steaming cup of coffee on her desk. Cal frowned, wondering where she could be when they had something so important on their hands, then decided to go back to his office and plan the next steps. He cut through the library attached to his office, stopping just one foot inside when he opened the door and found Gillian there.

She was standing closer to the other door, the one that would take to his office and that was, he noticed then, just a bit open. He hadn't noticed while talking to LJ, he hadn't even checked or paid attention to it when they had started talking, and he looked at Gillian trying to assess who was responsible for that little opening in the door and, consequently, for what it had allowed her to hear. Because it was obvious by the look on her face that she had heard him, that she had not missed his heartfelt monologue to LJ. Then he looked down at her hands and noticed she was holding a few books, seizing them tightly with her fingers, and that answered another question he was yet to ask. Gillian hadn't come to spy on him or eavesdrop, it was ludicrous he had even considered that for a second: she had just come to get some texts she needed and stumbled on his conversation with LJ. At what point exactly Cal didn't know, but clearly she had been there for the climax.

Gillian looked at him with an apologetic expression, begging silent forgiveness for having been there, for having heard, and perhaps for still being there when she could have tried to sneak out and spare him the knowledge that she had heard. Of course, other than the apology Cal could see other things on her face: pain, for him, understanding, sadness and a silent plea not to bottle it all up. One thing he didn't see and was grateful for was pity: he wouldn't have been able to stand that, but Gillian knew better and that was likely why there was no trace of it on her face.

Cal then sighed softly and walked over to her, watching as she took in a deep breath and readied herself for a possible confrontation. He knew she could see it if he would let her, and he made sure that his face told her she didn't have to worry, not to feel guilty or any other way about it. But she was Gillian, she was his friend and on top of that she was a psychologist and she cared about him, and when he came close with the intention to walk past her and go back to LJ she stopped him by putting a hand on his chest. It was a gentle gesture but firm and decisive enough to halt him on his track, enough to make him look down and that open palm and feel the light pressure of it through his shirt.

Enough to give him the warmth of the kind of human touch that was the exact opposite of what he had described to LJ.

Holding his breath, Cal covered her hands with his and left both of them there, closing his eyes, waiting for the soothing sensation to spread from there through his entire body. While he spoke with LJ he had had to keep his emotions in check, to keep it under control not to unleash on the boy more than necessary. In a way, if LJ had really been facing the kind of situation he had described his opening up would have been more meaningful, it would have served a purpose: but in the end Cal had shared something he didn't exactly fancy even thinking about, let alone advertise with strangers, and it was all coming down to him now that he knew someone else, definitely not a stranger, had been listening.

His breath stumbled on his lips for a moment, Cal could feel his body temperature peak and Gillian must have felt it too because she increased the pressure of her hand and stepped a little closer, resting her forehead on his shoulder and breathing slowly and deeply. Cal took the cue from her, following her rhythm until he felt calmer and once again in control. Then he gently took her hand away from his chest and held it as she stepped back again, giving her a small nod with his head and a quick squeeze with his fingers to signal that he was ok.

"I'm gonna go with LJ to get the baby," he said then. "Maybe you can wait with the parents at home. They are going to need some help."

Gillian simply nodded, and once again Cal was grateful she knew him so well to know that other words were not necessary. But she did give him a quick smile, a bit sad but still comforting, then gave his shoulder a brief affectionate squeeze and left the room with the books she had come for, going back to her office to arrange her part of the plan.

So, this was based on they way I personally interpreted the scene, and on the apparent inconsistency in the show with regards to Cal and his father so feel free to disagree but I wanted to explain.

More than once in the first season it was mentioned that naturals like Torres are good at reading people possibly because of abuse they suffered, and even though I know Cal is not a natural and he studied (it nof invented) the science I always felt that there was something there. Then in "React to contact" Cal says something about his father having been a soldier, and in the conversation at the end with Emily he seems to remember him somewhat fondly, at least not with negative feelings: however, in season 3 there was quite a shift and a very different kind of relationship was hinted at, especially in "Funhouse".

I went with that vibe, perhaps because I know that Tim Roth himself has a history of abuse towards him and felt that maybe that was a character trait he introduced himself. And the way I saw this particular scene was that Cal thought LJ was being physically abused by his father and tried to establish a connection and get through to him based on his own personal experience. The scenario he depicted, it seemd to me that it was not something he was just making up but rather something he lived through, he was way too invested as he spoke (great acting from TR there btw). He presented a situation of physical abuse, then says "your dad doesn't actually hit you so you're right, I have no idea what it's like (not to be hit by your own dad)", meaning that he does know what it's like to be actually beaten and therefore implying his father did beat him.

Boy, I hope this makes sense!