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

Author's Note: Goodness, another story... Please tell me if you think it'll be any good. :) By the way, this is not a slash; it's not really my style of writing. I do like to write banter between Cal and Eli. :) Anyway, enjoy!

1. Mouse Trap

"Oi, Loker, you're with me." Dr. Cal Lightman commanded as he slapped the folder back on the desk and headed out of the analysis room.

"Oh, uh, right!" Eli replied, quickly shoving various papers and things into his shoulder bag and swiftly leaving the room to catch up with Lightman. Torres and Foster stared at the door both men had left through, blinking in surprise to the abrupt action.

"Loker seems so loyal." Ria muttered, shaking her head.

"Well, he does try and avoid contention." Foster sighed as she looked through the list of suspect names. "Plus, he's been in this room for days on cases. It's a good thing he's finally getting out for once."

"I guess that's true." Ria mumbled, flipping through pages for any sort of clue as to which direction they should go next. Both the women sat in silence for a few minutes, inspecting each scrap of paper before them and finding no hints as to where else they should look into.

"This isn't getting us anywhere." Gillian sighed.

"Nope."

"Want to grab a bite to eat?"

"I'd love to."

"Let's leave the men to their work."

Gillian smiled as she grabbed her jacket and purse, Ria close behind. They weren't going to stick around if there was nothing for them to do. Besides, they hadn't eaten since breakfast, being forced to work by Lightman's frightening stare.

"They should be here by the time we get back, right?" Torres inquired as they left the lab, passing a few employees as they headed towards the front doors.

"Yes, then we'll see what they found out."

"So, all we're going to do is look at security tapes?" Eli questioned, Cal nodded. "Alright, it's not like it's even the same to what I do at The Lightman Group...just sitting in a chair all day, staring at a screen and burning out my eyes..." the young employee muttered, his voice rich with sarcasm. "Usually I'm alone; at least—"

"As much as I love your excessive rambling, Loker...Shut up." Lightman growled as they headed through the front doors of the art gallery.

The Lightman Group had taken a case where a few pieces of valuable art had been stolen. The only reason the team was brought into the situation was because the owner of the gallery suspected the thief, or thieves, to be of his own faculty. Of course, Cal and his team had interrogated each staff member, but had come up with absolutely nothing. Either, there was an amazingly good liar among the employees, or the culprit was not part of the gallery's personnel. Therefore, the suspect list was only getting longer: it could be just about anyone. For all Cal knew, Eli could've been the one to have enacted the crime, but that was just absurd.

"Ah, I can see this case is getting to you." Eli chuckled. "Can't stand to be beaten in the lying game, huh Lightman?"

"Seriously, Loker: shut up." Cal grumbled.

"Sorry, got it." Eli said casually, holding up his hands as if in defense. The two of them approached a man dressed in security garb, smoothing their faces into professional expressions.

"And you are...?" asked the man.

"I'm Dr. Lightman; I'm working on the case of the stolen artworks." Cal explained, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking up at the man and looking hardly intimidated by the guard's gruff voice. "I want a look at your security tapes."

"I already told my employer there is nothing on them besides empty hallways; I checked them myself. The thieves must've hacked into our security system." the guard replied, sounding offended by Lightman's lack of belief.

"I'd like to take a look myself." Cal said seriously, cocking his head to the side in an expectant manner. "A lot of our job is visual; we might see something you didn't." The guard looked between Eli and Cal with an angry demeanor about him, both lie deception experts taking it as a reaction to their untrusting behavior.

"Fine." the man snarled, turning on his heel and leading Cal and Eli down a hallway. A few minutes into the journey, they met a group of three more security guards, which struck Cal as peculiar. Why so many? Were they upping security until they caught the thief?

"Hey, Buck, who're they?" one of the men called.

"Some guys investigating the case." Buck answered. Cal and Eli studied the three men for their responses.

Frustration. Fear.

Cal and Eli looked at each other: there was something definitely off. They were just trying to decide whether or not they should escape the situation when they stopped abruptly in front of a door, which was—coincidentally—right across the hallway from the other three guards. The two of them decided to go with this shady situation anyway, but continued to shiftily look at the muscular men.

Buck unlocked the sturdy door with a large ring of unusual keys, clenching his jaw. Eli looked at Cal with a fearful look, but Cal ignored it, staring at his task ahead with determination. If the four guards decided to beat them to bloody pulps, Eli would just have to learn how to fight for himself.

"We're going to need your cell phones so they don't affect the electrical equipment." one guard informed them, holding out his hands. Eli gave his boss a doubtful look, yet Cal took out his phone anyway and placed in the man's hand; Loker had no choice but to follow his example. When the matter was done with, Buck gave them an oddly warm smile and gestured towards the innards of the room.

"Go on in, boys." Buck muttered, holding open the door. Cal entered first, then Eli followed, glancing behind him.

"Woah, this is definitely state of the art..." Eli sighed when he was finally able to concentrate on what was before him. "It's kind of a small room though..."

"The whole room is state of the art technology. If anybody comes in here without using the right electronic key," Buck explained, holding up his uniquely shaped key. "the door will lock and the constant air flow in here will stop. Depending on how many guys end up getting stuck in here, it's possible they'll die of suffocation before morning." Eli cringed at the thought, though Cal remained calm and unresponsive to the disturbing information.

Buck grinned mischievously, as did the other guards behind him.

Cal realized what this meant, a sharp stab of dread embedding itself in his stomach.

"No!" he shouted just as the security room door closed with a thwump, trapping Eli and Cal within the sound-proof walls. A small hiss of air conditioning stopped abruptly and both men knew they were in deep trouble.

"Great, I'm going to die with only my boss to look at." Eli sighed. "Torres would've been a much better choice."

"Shut up, you idiot." Cal growled, starting to panic. He glanced around himself to look for any possible way out, or even a safety button for accidents.

There was nothing.

"Honestly, Lightman, we should've seen that coming." Eli sighed. Cal couldn't believe how bloody casual Loker seemed to be about all this. Of course, he was only going by the kid's voice.

"Why don't you shut up and actually—"

"No, talking makes me feel better." Eli said quickly, his voice cracking. Cal looked at the young employee, recognizing the fright in his usually calm eyes.

"Well, help me look for a way out of this ridiculous box." Cal muttered, returning in his knowingly helpless search.

"You know, a healthy man at rest breaths about a quarter of a cubic foot per minute." Eli stated, slowly easing into a desk chair.

"Yeah?" Cal replied absentmindedly as he continued to his inspection of the walls.

"With the two of us, we're breathing half of a cubic foot per minute." Eli said, slouching further in the chair. Cal didn't respond, allowing Eli to continue. "This room is, what...? Eight feet high...maybe eight feet across either way?" Cal continued to stay quiet. "That would be...let's see...sixty-four...five-hundred-twelve cubic feet. That means..." There was silence as Eli tried to mentally solve the mathematic equation.

"We have seventeen hours..." Eli whispered.

"He still refuses to talk about it to this day!" Torres laughed, Gillian joining in heartily. The two women's laugh died to a chuckle as they approached the front desk.

"Hey, has Dr. Lightman or Loker come back yet?" Gillian asked the secretary, smiling broadly.

"Nope, neither one." the young woman answered, looking thoughtful. "But, they might've slipped past me."

"Oh, okay. Thanks." Foster replied, and she and Ria continued their way deeper into The Lightman Group, looking around eagerly for their colleagues.

"Hm, that's odd." Gillian commented as they saw no sign of the two men. Loker's desk was exactly the way he had left it, as was everything else in the analysis room.

"They should've been back by now..." Ria muttered. "We were gone for a good two hours." She stared at the stack of messy papers and folders on Eli's desk, becoming slightly annoyed at his unfinished work.

"Perhaps it's taking much longer than they thought." Gillian assumed, plopping down into a desk chair and shrugging off her jacket. "I mean, Cal is quite thorough in his work."

"True, true..." Ria sighed. "And Loker's not exactly unaccustomed to practicing patience; he can stay there for days, I'm sure."

"Which is what makes the two such an odd team." Foster chuckled. "They're like polar opposites."

"They are polar opposites." Ria corrected, sweeping a hand through Eli's paperwork. "Lightman may be thorough, but he's way impatient." They both chuckled at the thought as Ria continued to glance through the stack of papers on Loker's desk.

"I'll try calling them." Foster concluded, pulling her phone out from her purse. She clicked the speed dial button for Cal's phone and pressed the device to her ear.

"Loker's gonna be here all night..." Ria muttered to herself, moving on to checking the yet-to-be-analyzed videos from lesser cases. She smiled at his misfortune, already thinking up a string of teases for when he came back. He'd be here all night while she was at home, sleeping. How jealous he will be...

"He's not answering." Foster mumbled. "I'll try Loker's phone."

Ria waited as Gillian called her partner, smirking as she proceeded to imagine Eli's envious looks and disheartened sighs. She loved to taunt him, especially since he usually took it so well. To confirm the fact that she didn't hate him, she'd probably bring him coffee in the morning, just so he could get through another one of those Lightman Group days.

"No answer." Foster said thoughtfully, the tone of her voice representing how strange she thought it was. "What are the odds that both of them won't answer their phone? Cal usually answers when I call..."

"Maybe they're some place where they don't get reception." Ria suggested, shrugging at the thought.

"I'll give them another hour, then I will track. them. down." Gillian voiced with conviction, but Ria couldn't take it seriously. She laughed quietly at the compassionate woman's attempt at strict behavior.

"Yeah, right. I'm sure they'll be back in at least two hours." she assured her companion. "If there is anything holding them up, it'll probably be that Lightman beat Loker to death and is desperately trying to find someplace to dispose of the body. They can only remain in each other's company for so long, especially when Lightman is in such a bad mood."

"You're probably right." Gillian chuckled. "I worry too much."