Disclaimer: I do not own "Lie to Me." But I do own Liam Loker. :)

Author's Note: Okay, here's a new story. I thought I'd try and create Eli's brother and make a tale out of him. :) Hope it works out...please read. :D

Liam Loker walked into The Lightman Group. He walked with his usual confident swagger, despite the fact that his brother was favored more by his parents than him and that his life wasn't anything a person would idolize. Liam ignored the fact that the family, extended included, saw his visits as bad news and ill fortune and instead of seeing everything his brother had as something to envy, he saw it all as an opportunity. Today he was smiling as he approached the receptionist, his bad boy demeanor oddly charming the young woman.

"Is Eli Loker in?" he asked in a smooth voice, entrancing her as she stared up at him in surprise, like she had never seen a man before.

"Y-yes, he's in the analysis room. It's that door right over there." she answered, pointing in the correct direction without moving her eyes off of him. She knew he was not the type of guy she should pursue, but looking wouldn't hurt anything.

"Thanks." he muttered and headed away from the desk. He stopped in front of the door to the analysis room and peeked inside, smirking as he saw his little brother slaving away on the computer. Sure, Eli went to MIT and his parents praised him endlessly for it; but, Liam thought it looked like the most boring job ever. Who would want to waste time in college and then spend their lives typing and doing computer things? It didn't matter what his brother did, to be honest; he only cared if the job made Eli money. The kind of money that could get Liam out of bigger jams than other family members could provide for.

He opened the door with a dazzling grin.

"Still wearing plaid collar shirts with sweater vests, huh? I'd say you're a nerdy lumberjack."

Eli froze and turned slowly to look at his brother.

"Liam." he sighed. "What do I owe this unpleasant pleasure?"

"Hey, can't a guy visit his baby brother?" Liam asked, sitting on the top of Eli's desk.

"Don't…do that." Eli ordered, irritation starting to settle in. "You can't just sit on my desk."

"Well, I am." Liam stated, scooting further into the surface. "Hey, do you have any money I can borrow?" Eli eyed him suspiciously, tracing Liam's innocent smile with distaste.

"How much are we talking about here? A few bucks for a bus ticket to get out of my life? Or are we talking about a few quarters to call an old girlfriend to pick you up?" Eli inquired without a flinch. He gazed up at his sibling with a look of dread as he waited for what came next.

"I'm thinking more along the lines of twenty-thousand to pay off a debt." Liam replied casually, shrugging.

"What? No! No way. I don't have that kind of money." Eli refused immediately, shaking his head rapidly. "Get a job and earn it fairly like most people."

"Yeah…about that. I already told the boys you had the money. So…you're gonna have to pay up." Liam replied, examining his nails with an unbothered expression. Eli was shocked and his mouth hung open while he sluggishly processed the information. Liam leaned forward and looked straight into his brother's eyes.

"I know you have the money, bro. I know you and I know that you save away a good amount of green just in case." Liam whispered. Eli's face worked through several expressions: anger, fear, sorrow, panic.

"I'm going to die." he gasped, standing up from his chair and pacing with a hand through his wavy hair. "Holy crap, I can't breathe." Eli's lungs pumped for air as the stress and horror slipped through his body. "I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe."

"Hey, buddy, just get me the money and I'll be out of here." Liam explained, a humored smirk on his face while he watched his brother wrangle his hyperventilating.

"No, you don't understand, Liam. I. Don't. Have. The. Money!" Eli shouted, his hands wound in his hair as he realized his brother set up his doom.

"What are you talking about? You graduated from MIT, remember? You work for the best lie detection thingy of, like, anywhere." Liam scoffed, failing to see the problem.

"That doesn't matter! For awhile I've been an unpaid intern, you son of a-!" Eli yelled, holding his hands in front of him in an exemplary strangle hold. He stopped mid sentence to calm down, breathing deeply and closing his eyes. "I am living off of my savings, you idiot." Liam pondered what this meant and he was starting to feel something like guilt and fear for his younger brother.

"How much money do you have left in there?" he asked, somewhat quietly. Eli sighed and threw up his hands.

"I've only got about five grand." Eli answered, hysteria creeping into face.

"Then you have five grand to cough up." Liam replied nonchalantly. Eli looked at him with a death glare.

"I am going…to kill you!" Eli shouted, grabbing his brother by the collar.

Ria walked down the hall wearily. For some reason, it was just one of those days where she was tired and dragging all day. She glanced to look into the analysis room, just to see if Eli was still in there. Ria continued walking…

Then stopped and backed up.

Eli—the calm, contention-avoiding researcher she remembered—was angrily holding a man by the collar of his shirt, looking as if he was shouting very filthy profanities with as much vigor as he could possibly muster. She couldn't get past how much the two men looked alike, only one looked like he could pack a gun while Eli looked like the peaceful guy he was.

"Um…Heidi?" Ria asked as she neared the receptionist.

"Yes?"

"Does Eli have a visitor today?" she continued, glancing behind her as if she expected one of the two to burst out of the door at any second.

"Oh, yeah! I think it might be his brother, or at least some family; they have the same last name. Isn't he gorgeous?" Heidi squealed, putting her face in her hands and leaning her elbows on the desk.

"His brother? Really?" Ria whispered, meandering away again and towards the analysis room. She observed the two through the window, staring as Eli turned away with a hand over his face and another on his hip. His brother watched him with uninterested eyes, adjusting his shirt and smoothing out the sleeves of his jacket. Eli turned around again, staring at his sibling with extreme rage as his lips pursed in his fury. One of his hands was held up, shaking his index finger at the other man while he glared with poisonous eyes. Ria never imagined Eli to be one to shout, but his statement was projected so loudly that the words were heard clearly through the door.

"I loathe you, Liam!" he yelled, catching the other man by surprise. Ria took a deep breath as she pushed the door open and prepared herself from stopping a murder. If Eli was this mad, he was seriously pissed.

"Oh, come on, E. You have never hated me in your whole life." Liam chuckled, acting as if Ria wasn't even there.

"Don't call me 'E!' It's Eli and I seriously wish I was born into a different family right now!" Eli argued. "One that didn't set me up for freakin' death traps! When I'm dead, you can be the one to tell mom and dad that you finally killed me this time!"

"I have never put you in any sort of danger that would kill you, E. Stop over exaggerating." Liam replied with a grin.

"Oh really?" Eli challenged, stepping closer to his brother menacingly. "How about that one time you dared me to climb over the fence into old man Thomas's junkyard?"

"Don't be stupid; you're alive, aren'tchya?"

"He was practically blind! He thought I was a raccoon and he shot at me!"

Ria found herself watching the argument with intense curiosity.

"Maybe he thought you'd make a great hat." Liam joked, laughing a little.

"That is not funny! Or how about the time you pushed me into the pool just to see what would happen?"

"Well, hey, you should've learned how to doggy paddle automatically."

"I was four and it was a twelve-foot deep pool! Then there was the time that you convinced me to sword fight with real knives; or the time you duct taped me to a long board and rolled me down that steep hill, right into the gravel; and when you used me for target practice when you tried to shoot an apple off my head with a bb gun; the time you told me to gun it on a dirt bike and I crashed; the time we stood in the snow in only boxers as part of a competition; then that one time—"

"Okay, I got it." Liam grumbled. "But you thought all those things were fun, don't tell me you didn't." He got a mischievous smile on his face.

"Because you were my older brother! I trusted you! Then I got smart and I stayed away from you and your adrenaline rushes. I'm not about to jump into them again." Eli growled. "I have something good going for me and you had to come and ruin it!"

"Um, Eli, what makes you think your brother's going to kill you?" Ria asked, looking between the two brothers. Liam looked her up and down and gave her a suave smile with a heart-melting look in his eyes while Eli's head snapped in her direction. Obviously, neither of them noticed her there before.

"It's nothing." Eli mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets casually.

"Hey, beautiful." Liam flirted, grinning to show his straight, white teeth. "I'm Eli's older brother, Liam."

"Yeah, I figured." she sighed.

"Don't you dare hit on Ria; she's not a plaything." Eli spat in Liam's direction.

"What? Is she yours?" Liam replied and Ria watched Eli's hands clench into fists. Now she knew what really irked him into killer rage.

"No, but she doesn't deserve your offensive behavior." Eli told him as his face turned a shade of red.

"Look, E. Get me the money and I'll make this all go away." Liam promised, looking sincere.

"I can't-!" Eli took a deep breath. "I can't just…I can't give you the money I don't have." Eli fell back into his chair looking defeated and tired.

"Seriously? You don't have the money?" Liam asked, still unable to process what his brother meant.

"I don't have what you want, Liam. You don't even bother to know what's going on in my life, but I don't always have money to just toss around. I get in problems of my own and I can't handle yours too." Eli sighed, burying his face in his hands. "Sometimes you have to realize that you can't always wriggle out of a spot by depending on someone else."

Liam examined his brother for a moment, trying to remember a time when he'd seen Eli so distraught. Probably not since Sparks, their childhood dog, had died. Maybe he really had screwed something up this time. No, he screwed something up a long time ago. There was a time when he used to ruffle Eli's brunette waves playfully in brotherly affection; now, his sibling would stab him before he even tried it again. Besides, everything he did for his brother now wasn't out of brotherly affection, but more out of selfish survival and wanting. He used the excuse that because their family, they would take care of him, yet he didn't look at it the other way around. Liam knew he wouldn't think twice before he refused helping Eli or any of his family. It was smart of his younger brother to avoid him and reject him as an option for any sort of help; he would only get turned away with a broken heart and dying trust.

Liam never realized how much he missed having his brother back.

How much he missed having positive and personal conversations with his younger sibling…or anybody, really.

Watching Eli wind his hands painfully in his hair struck something within Liam that he knew would be forgotten the next morning. He had a habit of being a jerk and a moocher and it was extremely hard for him to change. But he had just led his baby brother into danger again.

He was pushing Eli into that twelve-foot pool again.

This time, he might actually drown.