Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with the television show "Lie to Me" and I won't pretend to.

Author's Note: I was planning a different fanfiction...but this one just popped out of my head and screamed, "write me!" So, I did. :P I thought there needed to be more Loker stories and I wanted to add to the small pool of them. :) I really hope you like it (as I always do)! Sorry, it's a short chapter because this is just how I wanted to open the story; cut me some slack! Reviews please! I really appreciate them. :)

"Isn't it great that Lightman sends us looking for this guy?" Loker snorted as he stepped over large scraps of junk metal.

"Get over it." Ria mumbled as she stared up at the abandoned brick building. Their lead was supposedly a man that lived on the streets. He was spotted most often at the building they were now stumbling over trash and debris to get to. Rumor was, he was more than talented at making bombs, but it was hard for Eli and Ria to take it seriously. A homeless guy making bombs? When they first heard it, their lips pulled up in a sly smirk; but that little gesture convinced Lightman to send them to the messy, abandoned building.

"I just got these new slacks..." Ria sighed to herself.

"Get over it." Eli teased and a warm chuckle followed. "Maybe you can bill Lightman for the dry cleaning." Ria smiled slightly as she carefully stepped over crumbled bricks.

Finally, they reached the building and ventured through the open door. It was empty inside and each room they wandered into had brick walls and concrete floors.

"Hello? Mr. Jacobson?" Ria called out as they stepped into a third empty room. She and Eli stepped further into the room, combing the area with their eyes.

Slam! The door closed behind them and the there was click as the lock turned. Eli and Ria paused as the realization of the circumstances sunk in. Were they just locked into some creepy building?

"Ugh! Please tell me this isn't happening right now!" Eli growled.

"This isn't happening right now." Ria replied obediently. Eli shot her an amused glare, despite the situation. She made her way back to the door and tried to heave it open.

"It's locked. Great. How are we going to get out of here?" Eli huffed, looking around him for a way out.

"You are not helping." Ria muttered, glancing around for something to use as a tool. Eli was quiet and she allowed herself a sigh of relief.

"We have a problem, Torres..." he said quietly, staring up at the high ceiling. She adjusted her body to get a glimpse of what Eli was referring to. A small red light flickered on a contraption strapped to the ceiling with black duct tape. Below the light, she recognized a glowing, green rectangle; it was probably some sort of screen. Ria gaped at it, knowing exactly what it was. The wires and the other pieces of the appearance had been something she'd seen in several shows and movies: a bomb.

"I think Jacobson just played us...." Loker mumbled, still staring at the device. Unlike her partner, Torres kept her distance. A small beep sounded and Eli's eyebrows shot up, turning to Ria.

"Get down!" he shouted, just as the explosive ignited.

"That was sort of mean of you to send those two to get Jacobson." Gillian observed, stuffing some Chinese take-out into her mouth.

"They weren't taking this case seriously!" Cal defended, his voice high-pitched, but a broad grin was across his face.

"But that building is practically out in the middle of nowhere!" Gillian pointed out, digging into the take-out box. It was one of those special days where they ate lunch together, and, as usual, Gillian tried to teach him compassion during their meal.

"Well, love, what's going to happen to them?" Cal asked rhetorically, staring at his own Chinese food. Gillian rolled her eyes and shook her head, not sure if it was possible to get him to understand the basics of kindness.

"You do know that Torres just got those slacks, right? They're going to get dirty!"

Cal shrugged. Gillian sighed.

"Besides, what if Jacobson isn't there at all?" she inquired, putting more chow mein into her mouth.

"I told them not to come back unless they have that bloody bomb-maker!" he explained, harshly setting his Chinese box on his desk. He ripped open the plastic surrounding his fortune cookie angrily. Glaring at a smiling Gillian, he cracked open the cookie and pulled out the paper.

"'Reach out more to others this week...'" Cal read, then glanced up at Gillian. "Did you plant this?"

"No!" she giggled, obviously surprised. She grabbed her own cookie and retrieved it from the plastic. She stared at Cal with a smirk, then cracked hers open.

"'Listen to your instincts.'" she relayed with a grin. "You know, these are never really fortunes, they're more like commandments." Cal smiled at the fact and took a deep sigh.

"I suppose a homeless bomb-maker is pretty funny." he admitted, straying from the topic.

Ria slowly picked herself up from the rubble, her sore muscles whining. Thank heavens she survived it; it was one of the most frightening experiences of her life. Chunks of the building started falling after the explosion and she couldn't even guess how she was able to dodge the main pieces when she hadn't moved at all. She only had tiny cuts from where little pebbles and grains of metal bit into her flesh and her ears were still ringing, making her dizzy. She was a little disoriented...all the sounds were muffled and her body wasn't quite steady. Ria continued to push herself into an upright position and immediately began looking for Eli. He didn't just pop up like she did, so she climbed over the rubble as she searched more thoroughly. It didn't occur to her that he could be dead; it just wouldn't happen. Loker wouldn't die, he couldn't do that to Ria. Lightman was her mentor, but Eli was her friend and he made her laugh when Lightman made her want to cry. He even made her laugh when he was irritating her; he had that gift. If he died right here, right now, when she needed someone to make her laugh, who would be there for her?

Eli just couldn't die right now.

But, then, what happened to him? The last expression he wore on his face was tattooed into her mind and she couldn't stop thinking about it. He was afraid and worried for her. He placed her safety before his own. Then again, Eli was nice when it really mattered. Sure, he was a tease and he always would be, but his selfishness and pride was only a pretense. He had integrity and he accepted defeat; plus, he wasn't really too good for anything. For the Christmas party, Lightman had given Loker a paper snowflake for the secret Santa gift. Instead of complaining, Eli proudly hung it on the tree, happy his boss had returned from danger unscathed. Eli Loker was like coffee in the morning, or those moments when your favorite song played on the radio. He was the pick-me-up, the little burst of energy to keep you going.

With all the problems Torres had brought to him over the year and a half of her employment, and with all the patience he had, she almost felt guilty expressing her annoyance with some of the things he'd done. But, somewhere he was under this rubble...

She choked back her emotions as her search started to become frantic. It wasn't a small room, yet, it wasn't exceedingly large either. She was going to find Eli...alive and whole.

The buzzing in her ears had finally died down and she tried to listen for any sign of her partner.

"Eli?" she called, waiting for an answer.

"Tor...res....?" replied a weak voice that was nearly at a whisper. If he had been any quieter, her recovering ears wouldn't have heard it at all. Quickly, she trekked to where she heard the voice, overcome with joy to know he was still alive. Still, it didn't eliminate her worry.

She gasped as she clapped eyes on Eli.