A/N: My second fic ever. Although I'm not completely happy with how it turned out, I didn't want this idea to go to waste, so here it is. I had a lot of difficulty writing Cal but practice is going to make perfect (some day). Any tips are welcome. Obvioulsly this show is not mine.


"Why did you do that"! Emily yelled as soon as her father entered their house. "Well, hello to you too, darling" Cal replied. "Why did I do what? And not that I'm complaining but I thought you weren't leaving University to visit here until Thanksgiving".
"I had some unexpected free time and thought a surprise visit would be nice. I came by the office to say hello, but you were busy…" Emily looked at him accusingly.

This clarified things for Cal. He cursed under his breath. He was not going to discuss this with his daughter. "Why dad, why would you do that to her"? she asked, her voice barely under control, anger and sadness clearly detectable. "I'm not going to discuss this with you, Em" he replied in a stern voice, hoping this would be the end of the conversation. He walked towards the kitchen and put the grocery bags he was still carrying on the counter. He took a few seconds to compose himself and give Emily time to drop this (not bloody likely) before he went back to the living room saying in a fake happy voice "so, where's my hug"?

Emily was still standing in the same spot he'd left her in. In response to his question she folded her arms across in front of her chest and looked at him furiously. "You are going to talk to me about this. You told me that you love her, really love her! And now, I'm back after a few months and I see you screaming at her".
"We were having an argument" Cal interrupted. "No, you weren't. It was just you yelling at her. Throwing all kinds of nasty things at her that she could never have deserved".

"I'm not going to explain myself to you Em" Cal answered, voice raised slightly in anger. "You're not, are you? So, what am I supposed to think huh? You love her but you treat her like crap, like she is the worst person in the world. Is that what I can expect? When you're finished driving her away is it going to be me next who gets that sort of treatment"? Emily's voice almost reached hysterical properties and she was on the verge of tears now.

Cal was stunned. "No Em, I would never do that to you. You're my daughter. I love you" he trailed of. His face displayed shock and his whole body seemed to deflate as he realised the conclusions his daughter had drawn from witnessing his fight with Gillian combined with the confession from a few months ago. He cursed again and looked apologetically at his daughter. "Come on Em, you know I would never do that to you. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry luv, for making you think that I would". Emily sniffed, trying to hold back her tears. "Come here" Cal said opening his arms. Emily stood in her place, rocketing back and forth. Then she stepped hesitantly in his embrace. The few tears she couldn't hold back were caught in his jacket when he folded his arms around her.

They stood like that for a few minutes before Emily calmed down and broke away from the hug saying: "I just don't understand. What happened to make you be like that"? Cal thought about deflecting the question, but realized Emily needed some kind of explanation. "Nothing really. It's stupid, but I can't seem to stop myself. I haven't told her how I really feel. And now it's too late. She's seeing someone and I just can't have her so close to me if I know she's happy with someone else. It hurts too much to see what I missed out on. I need her to back off, but I don't know how to talk to her about all of that so I, well, you saw my solution".

Emily looked at her father in utter confusion. "Wait, she told you she is dating someone"? "No, not exactly but a few weeks ago she went on an unscheduled long weekend to the beach. She came back all relaxed and happy" Cal said, almost sounding disgusted. "She won't tell me anything about this trip, so obviously she went there with some guy". Cal looked at his daughter. Her face had turned red and she avoided looking directly in his eyes. "didn't she"? he questioned, scrutinizing his daughters face.

Emily averted her eyes saying softly: "She came to visit me, dad. I was having some difficulties adjusting to University. I needed to talk to someone objective about it, so I called Gillian. She asked me if I wanted her to come over. I said no, but she could, of course, hear that that wasn't the (whole) truth. She took the first flight she could and stayed the entire weekend. I asked her not to tell you, which I shouldn't have done. I should have known you would lose your head, but I didn't want you to think I couldn't handle being on my own. And I didn't want you to come storming into my dorm room or classes or something. Besides after we talked about it, I felt much better. I've been doing great lately. Actually, part of why I'm here is to thank her".

Cal looked at Emily. "She came to see you?" he said disbelievingly. Emily nodded her head. He couldn't see any sign of deception on his daughter. "I'm such an idiot". Emily nodded her head again, this time more vigorously. "You have to fix this, dad". "I don't know if I can. I mean, how am I supposed to make this up to her"?
"You've got to tell her the truth. Just explain why you behaved like that. She knows you. She's your best friend. I'm sure she'll understand". Emily tried to say all this convincingly. She barely managed to repress a shoulder shrug, but her tone of voice betrayed her. "Come on dad, it will be fine. We'll talk to her tomorrow". "We"? "Well, you talk. I'm going with you to make sure you do". She left no room for argument by moving to the kitchen, saying: "what's for dinner"?

They made dinner together, ate in silence and afterwards talked and watched a movie. They enjoyed spending this time together, but both were nervous and went to bed early. Cal tossed and turned for half the night. When he finally got to sleep, he was awoken by Emily bursting into his room. This effectively startled him awake. "Em! What the hell. It's 7AM". "You have to get ready. We must be early. Gill is always early, and we have to drive by the coffeeshop to get her some coffee and pastries. At the mention of Gillian's name, Cal felt the nervousness from the previous night return. He got up, showered and met an impatient Emily in the kitchen who threw him the car keys.


They arrived in the office, hands full with coffee and pastries handpicked by Emily. They were talking animatedly, walking towards Cal's office when he suddenly stopped. Emily almost bumped into him. She looked up and saw what had made her father stop. Gillian was already in the office. Although it seemed more like she hadn't left last night. She was lying on the couch wearing the same clothes she had on yesterday. A folder was balancing on her stomach. It looked like she fell asleep working on something. Emily looked at her father whom she had never seen this nervous. "Go" she said, giving him a gentle push towards the door.

She held open the door for him so he could walk in without dropping either the coffee or the pastries. She really wanted to come in too, to actually hear him say he was sorry, but she knew it wasn't her place. She closed the door behind him and decided that spying through the glass windows would be allowed. She saw her dad walk up to the couch. He sat down on the table across from it and softly shook Gillian's shoulder. She didn't respond. He bended down stroking her hair and planted a kiss on her forehead whispering: "Gill, Gillian, wake up".

Gillian awoke slowly, a confused look passed over her face when she opened her eyes and registered that she was still at the office. She smelled coffee and was surprised to see Cal sitting on the coffee table near her. She moved to sit up, making the folder fall to the ground. She picked it up from the floor feeling Cal's fingers stroke the back of her hand as he reached down at the same time. She sat up straight. Now that she was seated, they sat across from each other, knees almost touching.

"Morning, luv" Cal said softly, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice. Based on the reaction Gillian was giving him, he only partly succeeded. "Good morning, Cal" Gillian replied. She eyed him questioningly. Gillian noted that he looked incredibly uncomfortable. It wasn't just in his voice, his body language screamed nervousness at her. After a minute or so she couldn't take it anymore and asked: "What are you doing here so early"? He looked her in the eye. She could see signs of an internal struggle there. She expected him to go on the defensive. Deflecting the question by asking her why she was still here, but to her surprise he averted his eyes and said: "I came to apologize. Brought you coffee and breakfast". He handed her one of the coffees and the bag of pastries, quickly darting a glance at her face. He continued: "I want to explain why I've been such an ass lately. I don't really know how though, because it's going to sound so stupid, but you deserve to know. I'm so sorry, Gill. I was jealous and hurt and I couldn't handle you so close to me, when I thought you were happy with another man".

Gillian looked utterly confused and on the point of interrupting, but Cal just ploughed through. "I love you Gill. I've been in love with you for a long time now, but I didn't know how to tell you. I was scared. For our friendship, of me hurting you, of you not wanting this, of everything really. I've never felt like that. I tried to show you my feelings, you know, but that didn't work and then after you came back from that weekend all happy, I knew, I knew you had found someone to make you happy and you deserve that. But it hurt so much, and I couldn't handle that, and I couldn't tell you, because that would be unfair and I, well, I behaved like an idiot and I'm really sorry Gill". "So, why tell me now? For all you know I'm still dating that guy". Cal looked up at her. She held his gaze. "Emily told me last night, that you visited her that weekend" he answered ashamed. "I should have apologized regardless, and I would like to be the person that would've, but we both know I'm not".

Gillian was completely overwhelmed. Lately she had begun to suspect that Cal felt the same way about her as she did about him, but she could never have expected the depth of his feelings. The fact that he had hardly looked at her during his 'confession' signalled to her that he was genuinely afraid of her reaction. She had never seen him, not looking, not studying someone's face when talking to them. Yes, she was overwhelmed but if Cal would have looked at her, he would've seen how happy the things he was saying were making her. But the anger and hurt she had felt yesterday weren't erased so easily. This made her ask him; why now. She wanted to see him squirm a little. Seeing how ashamed he was, how bad he felt about everything made her heart melt though. "Cal" she said. No reaction. "Cal, you really are going to want to look at my face when I tell you this". He looked at her then. She smiled, which made him relax a little. "I understand Cal. I have been in love with you for a long time too. And it also scared the crap out of me". She laughed at his facial expression, when she cursed. She hardly ever did that, but she had no better way to describe the feeling. "We have so much to lose, but I think that saying nothing is making us lose just as much. I think it's time we try for truth and happiness".

They looked at each other, taking in everything they had just heard and everything that they could see on the other's face. They ended up grinning at each other like teenagers in love. Cal cautiously leaned forward, studying Gillian's face for a sign to stop. He was on the verge of kissing her when suddenly her head jerked up. "What's Emily doing here"? she asked surprised. Cal turned around quickly. He could just see Emily's head ducking out of view. Silently he cursed Emily before saying: "she flew in yesterday to visit. She wants to thank you for being there that weekend. She saw us yesterday and she came with me today to make sure I apologized and didn't chicken out of telling you the truth". If Gillian didn't know better, she would have said Cal was blushing. She smiled at him but then turned serious. "Cal just promise me, if something is bothering you in the future, just talk to me, preferably without needing your daughter as insurance for actually going through with it. This pushing me away thing, that can't happen again. First, it's not going to work, I'm not leaving you and second, it hurts, both of us". She saw a flicker of doubt pass over his face when she said she wasn't leaving. "I mean it Cal, I'm not going to leave. You can see I'm telling the truth and it's not as if I don't know what I'm signing up for, right". "Yeah, if you haven't run by know, I'm really stuck with you aren't I"? Gillian nodded. "I promise Gill, next time I get spooked, I will use my words". "Good, so we can stop talking then"? The smile that went with these words could only be described as brilliant.

Emily peeked her head around the corner once more. What she saw made her incredibly happy. She almost squealed in delight. She left them alone for a few more minutes before interrupting. "You should really get a room, before Loker and Torres arrive". Gillian and Cal let go of each other. Emily walked towards them and hugged them both fiercely. "I'm so glad you guys worked this out! Will you come to dinner tonight Gill? I still want to thank you for coming to help me". "You don't need to thank me Em, but I'll gladly come to dinner". All three of them stood together talking happily for a few more minutes after which they decided they should better start working. They said goodbye to Emily, promising to be home early for dinner. Then they looked around and when there was no sign of Loker or Torres, Cal gave Gillian a last kiss before going back to his office, a huge smile plastered on his face.