Crashing Down

Chapter Three

He saw Gillian going down and rushed forward to catch her, gently laying her on the ground.
Everyone else seemed frozen in shock. There was no way he was standing there in the Cube, he was dead.
Emily was the first one to react.
"Dad!" She screamed and jumped over Gillian, tackling him to the floor.
He wrapped his arms around his daughter as she started crying.
"What? When? How?"
"I promise I'll explain everything."

Gillian opened her eyes and found herself on the couch in Cal's office. Whoever had put her here was downright cruel, especially on today of all days.
"Back to the land of the living I see."
She shot up. That was his voice, Cal's voice.
Suddenly she remembered. The Cube, fainting.
He was sitting at his desk. But he no longer had a beard, his hair was shorter, and his eyes were back to their normal color.
"You haven't gone insane, love. I'm alive, I swear. You just blacked out for a couple hours. Got myself taken care of in that period of time.
"This isn't possible. I'm hallucinating."
"No, you're not. I'm very much alive."
The office door burst open and in came Zoe.
"Cal Lightman, you have some serious explaining to do!" She exclaimed as she slapped him across the cheek.
"I deserve that." He said quietly.
"You're lucky I'm missed you, you bastard."
She pulled him into a hug, taking him by surprise.
"I missed you too, Zo."
"I have to go." Gillian said suddenly, slowly standing up and leaving the office.
"So how did they take it?"
"Emily took me to the floor, Gillian fainted. And now she's left."
"You can't blame her for her reaction, can you? We've all thought you were dead for the last seven years. There was no coming back from that. It's a huge shock for her to see you standing here again when she thought it was impossible."
He eyed her suspiciously. "I die, and suddenly you two are best friends. The bloody world is ending."
"The world is not ending. And Gillian is actually very nice."
"I told you that for eight years. What changed?"
"You weren't here. So I retired and now I help her with Isabella."
"Like I said, the world is ending."

"Loker!" Cal called.
"Yes?" Eli and Ria both came into the office.
"Sorry, I forgot you two were married. Have either of you seen Gillian?"
"She went into her office when she came out of here an hour ago. Zoe went in there about ten minutes ago. They're both still in there."
Cal stood up and walked to the door.
"Why you two both look lost in here?"
"Gillian never allowed anyone outside of herself, Emily, and Isabella in here."
"You mean to tell me that only three people have been in this office in seven years?"
"Yeah. It's kind of Gillian's sanctuary."
Cal pushed past them without another word.
He went into Gillian's office and shut the door behind him.
Zoe looked up and Gillian froze.
"You've got to breathe, Gill. You're going to pass out again if you keep this up."
Startled, Gillian spun around, hand over her heart. Spotting Cal, she closed her eyes, trying to steady her breath despite her lungs refusal to listen. This wasn't happening. He wasn't here, he couldn't be. He wouldn't have done that, wouldn't put her through that. In that moment, she wished with everything she could that it was a godforsaken hallucination, hoped he was dead and that she had finally broken down after all these years. It was an appalling thing to want, she knew, but she wasn't sure she could withstand a blow of that magnitude, not sure she had that much fight left in her. And exactly what was she supposed to tell Isabella? That Daddy had come back after all this time?
Cal walked over and placed a hand on Gillian's shoulder.
"Gill-" He began but was interrupted by Gillian.
"Take your hand off of me before I rip it off and beat you to death with it."
He removed his hand.
"Gill-"
"Cal, I can't do this right now!"
"You can't do what?"
"Any of this! I can't! All I've wanted for the last seven years for you to be here with me but now that you actually are I can't tell if I'm actually happy or not because I'm pissed at you! I'm pissed at you for putting me through that! For making me raise our baby on my own! For leaving me!"
"I did it to keep you safe. And by the time I could come back, I thought you'd already moved on!"
"Yeah, you were dead to me. But never once in that time did I move on, there was no one else. There was never going to be anyone else. But, yeah, it would have been reasonable for me, but for you I – I wasn't. I wasn't, I was still here and you knew. You knew I was. I trusted you."
"Well then you can't exactly blame me, can you? It was your mistake."
"Go away, Cal!"
"I'm sorry I died."
"Sorry...sorry? You can die again. See if I care!"
Gillian's hands flew to her mouth as soon as the words were out.
"I didn't-"
"Maybe it happened at a good time. Stopped us from making a mistake."
As soon as he said it, he wanted to take it back. That was the last thing he thought.
"Yeah, maybe!" Gillian screamed, pulling the ring off of her left hand and throwing at him, feeling slightly satisfied when it hit him in the eye.
She grabbed her purse and walked out of the office.
A hand contacted with the back of his head. Spinning around, Cal was eager to see who'd had plucked up the courage to confront him. He knew he deserved it and much worse, but no one had ever been gutsy enough to really truly stand up to him except Gillian. This act of courage was a rare sight.
"You have a piss poor way of trying to make things right, you know that."
Zoe. Damn, he'd forgotten she was in here. Apparently, he'd underestimated the bond she'd forged with Gillian over the years.
"Yeah, I know."
"You proposed to her and then you died. Or so we thought you did. It's what has kept her going for the last seven years. It was all she was ever going to get and you just said it shouldn't have happened."
They were interrupted by Ben knocking on the door.
"Lightman, glad you're back and all but the FBI still wants you for questioning."
"For what?"
"Connections to wanted terrorists and drug lords."
"I'll make this short. Doyle found me, he got some French guy to plant those bombs, and who the hell did you think gave you that anonymous tip?"
"That was you?" Ben asked incredulously.
"Course it was. What did you think four years ago, that when Prosser turned up I'd just stay where I was?"
"Well you said you wouldn't come back!"
"I told her to stop looking."
"Excuse me." Zoe said, interrupting them. "You mean to tell me that you knew he was alive the whole time?"
"I'm the one that transported him to Colorado."
"Oh my god. I can't believe this." Zoe said, walking out. "You can explain this later. But you better go fix this first."
Ben looked at Cal.
"Fix what? Did you have something to do with Foster rushing out of here in tears a few minutes ago?"
"I had everything to with that."