A/N: So, this is it, the final chapter. First of all, I suppose that at least some of you probably hoped for a more *heated* chapter to continue the last one. But since I like to leave at least some things to the power of imagination, I took the chance to wrap things up here more emotionally and hope you don't mind. Basically, I took the episode 3x13 Killer App and turned it in some kind of an epilogue to find an appropriate ending for Cal's and Gillian's journey in this story. (The scenes from that episode I had to re-watch in order to quote the lines right broke my Callian heart all over again.)

This Chapter is told alternately from Cal's and Gillian's point of view. Rating for language. What can I say? It's Cal.

It is wonderful to be part of this great fandom. A heartfelt thank you to you all for your support, especially to those of you who took their time and reviewed every chapter.

Disclaimer: I neither own LTM nor the scenes/dialogue taken from 3x13 Killer App I refer to in this chapter.

When his cellphone rings, Cal is more than just a little bit relieved. Seeing, and moreover, hearing Emily and her boyfriend work out together as the lamest excuse for the weirdest foreplay ever makes him want to get out and get out fast. He spots Gillian's number on the display and hopes that her call will be the perfect excuse to do exactly that.

"You have no idea how happy I am you called, Foster."

Ever since they are together – as in actually but very secretly because no one knows about it yet together – Cal teases Gillian by still calling her Foster from time to time. Usually this leads to some friendly banter and he always makes up for it later. Today, though, he knows in a split second that something is wrong, very wrong.

At first, he only hears her fitful breathing, interrupted by uncontrollable sobbing. Cal heard Gillian cry before but not like that. It turns his stomach. What the hell happened? Then she starts to speak and goes on and on to him in a way that is not like her at all. He is only able to make out single words or fragments of a sentence. ...blood... Claire is dead... Cal, please... couldn't help her... It makes his blood run cold.

"Slow down, darling."

Cal is seriously worried about Gillian's physical and mental integrity. Claire, a young woman who was their client, and moreover, very important to Gillian because she treated her as a child, obviously is dead. Gillian is at her place or even was there when she died or was killed. He doesn't know. Her words are too confusing to tell what really happened, a cacophony of terrible possibilities messing with his mind while Cal is running to his car. He stays on the phone with Gillian until he arrives at Claire's address, too afraid to let her hang up and not know what is going on. Only when he parks his car, he ends the call and runs inside. After all, he found out that police and ambulance are on their way or already there. So, at least, he can concentrate on her and doesn't have to deal with that.

He doesn't know what to expect when he spots Gillian at the end of a long corridor. But for sure Cal didn't expect that, not so much blood. It's everywhere. On her shirt, her hands, all over her body. Again, he is running, running as fast as he can. Then he is there, able to touch her, to hold and comfort her, and finally able to stand still. Gillian is crying, her whole body shaking in his arms, as she tells him a short version of what happened, namely that she came over to check on Claire and found her stabbed, bleeding and dying on the floor. What a nightmare. At least the blood isn't hers. As horrible as it is that a woman died tonight, thank God, it wasn't her.

They go through the routine. Gillian has to make a statement, and Cal calls Wallowski even if he knows Gillian won't like it. (Of course, she doesn't. You called her? being her only response.) But she is professional enough to make a statement at the police station and angry enough, beyond her grief, to visit Zach with him afterwards, one of Claire's business partners and a possible suspect, before they eventually drive home, home meaning her house in this case. Cal called Emily to give her a brief overview on what happened and to tell her that he will stay with Gillian overnight.

She shivers, despite his warm jacket she is still wearing, when they get out of the car so that Cal walks straight into Gillian's kitchen to make her some tea. He expects her to go upstairs and take a shower or to join him in the kitchen, depending on whether she wants to be alone right now or not, but all he hears is silence.

"Gillian?"

He looks for her and finds her at the front door. She simply stopped there, didn't go any further. Gillian looks down, her shrugging shoulders the only sign that she is crying because there is no sound at all. This is even worse than the sobbing he heard over the phone. Cal embraces her just like he did when she stood in the corridor, waiting for him. Again, her whole body is shaking, but this time she doesn't pull herself together as she did at the crime scene or police station. This time she allows grief and shock to completely overwhelm her. Most likely because she knows he is there to catch her if she falls in every way.

"She is dead; Claire is dead," is all Gillian says repeatedly as minutes pass by and the darkness from outside slowly creeps into the house.

Cal simply holds her until her shaking decreases and he feels exhaustion take over.

"We've got to get you out of your clothes, luv" he mumbles into her hair.

The tea can wait.

He leads her to the bathroom and – since she basically still doesn't move – takes off her (or rather his) jacket and the bloody shirt. The police took photos of her as well as DNA samples of the blood on her shirt and of her as evidence. Cal more or less rubbed her hands clean earlier, but the rest of the blood is still there. It's on his jacket, too, by now although that doesn't matter. He will throw it away, doesn't need the reminder because this jacket will remind him of what happened no matter how often he will have it cleaned. What really shocks Cal, though, is the amount of blood on Gillian's body as if she is the one who was stabbed. Her shirt apparently was so soaked in blood that her bra and upper body are practically red. Cal swallows. It's not a pretty sight. She wouldn't let him wash out the blood when they were at the crime scene and the police station, just wrapped herself in his jacket and pretended everything was fine as it was.

Cal turns the shower on, adjusting the temperature, while Gillian is taking off the rest of her clothes with shaky hands and stepping into it. He wants to help her to wash the blood away, but she refuses, apparently needing to do it herself as a cathartic exercise. Gillian isn't aware of the fact that this is exactly what Cal wants to do right now for the very same reason. Being a psychologist, she usually knows such kind of things in her sleep, but at this instant she is not a psychologist; she is a traumatized woman. Her needs go first even if it isn't easy for Cal to remain passive. All the more, as he wasn't there to protect her when it happened. So, he just stands there, trying not to move or to make a sound so that Gillian is not distracted because it is all she needs and all he can do. Only when she steps out of the shower without any traces of blood on her body anymore and in his arms that hold the towel out to her, Cal actually believes she survived and is still alive.

It's as if she rinsed the shock off along with the blood. Once, Gillian showered and drunk the hot tea Cal made her, she felt much better. Still a little shaky, but nothing else was to be expected after such a day.

They are lying in bed, their bodies intertwined. They don't always sleep that close together, but tonight it will be the only chance to fall asleep at all; they both know as much. After they have been talking for a while, a comfortable drowsiness surrounds them. Cal protected and comforted her the entire time. Now, his head lies half on her shoulder and half on her chest as if he is the one who needs protection and comfort. Gillian dishevels his hair tenderly, and he sighs contentedly. Cal's body gets heavier, almost uncomfortably heavy in fact, because his muscles go limp. He is drifting off to sleep. Gillian won't push him aside for the world though. The physical proof that he is in her life never felt as good as in this moment.

I called 911, and then I called you.

The moment Gillian looked at Cal when she said that as part of her statement at the police station, she saw it. She simply hadn't been able to see it before, was still shocked and affected by everything that happened, but at least some of her abilities seemed to come back. The way he clenched his teeth, his jaw a sharp line in his face – it wasn't only her who had a bad day. It was equally bad for him. Cal was, and still is, suffering, too. A lot.

She doesn't dare to imagine how this day, let alone this night, would have been for her if they weren't together. Gillian flutters a kiss into Cal's hair and closes her eyes, feeling the gravity of sleep reaching out to her. If this was a test of fate for their relationship, they passed.

A couple of days later, it's over. The case is solved, the murderer caught. Save that it never will be over. In one way or the other, Gillian will always mourn the loss of her friend.

Cal finds her on the couch in her office just after Claire's boyfriend and business partner, Kyle, gave her something from Claire as a memory and left. A necklace. Gillian used to make those with Claire back in the days when Claire was a child and her patient because she wouldn't talk. He sits down close beside her on the couch. It breaks Cal's heart to see how the gift affects Gillian, to see her tears – again. He stopped counting how many times he saw her cry during the last days.

"Come here," he takes her in his arms.

They talk and cuddle a bit. When Cal feels Gillian relax, he lets his thoughts stray. In the course of the investigation, he confronted the suspect, Zach, another time, tried to get to the truth. Soon, their talk turned on sex. There had been three business partners who used to be friends – Claire, Kyle and Zach. One woman, two men, add jealousy and it is never a a good mix. Their discussion got heated, and Zach provoked him. Cal remembers his exact words.

There is a proportional relationship between how crazy a girl is and how slutty she is. You know who's really nuts? Therapists. Your friend Foster must be a real hellcat.

If the situation hadn't been as it was, Cal would have laughed out loud right then and there because even if Gillian definitely isn't nuts, Zach was right. She definitely is, or at least can be in certain situations, a hellcat. Not that he plans on telling someone like Zach about it or anybody else. Ever. The night they had dinner was one of the best nights of his life. Not only because they finally made love and didn't just have sex but because of everything. It's almost eerie how easily everything fell into place. The way he sits beside her now, his arm around her, Cal can immediately recall several situations that match this touch – clean as well as explicit ones. It all melted together that night. A perfect mix. So, yes, Gillian can be a hellcat – in bed and beyond. When she shoved Zach fiercely on the day they visited him together, Cal realized that, and moreover, he realized that there probably will never be a day when he won't learn something new about her.

"I heard what you said to Kyle," he says quietly.

During the investigation, Gillian and Ria talked to Kyle in their office premises. Cal checked the recording. His intention wasn't to control or spy on Gillian. Since she is more than a little emotionally affected, though, he simply didn't want anything to be overlooked. After all, it is Gillian's friend who was killed.

"Huh?"

Obviously, Gillian almost dozed off. She still doesn't sleep through the night, keeps awaking with a start, mortally terrified because of a recurring nightmare that turns out to be the truth once she is awake. Gillian insists on Cal sleeping at home from time to time, arguing that she wants it that way, that she needs to deal with the situation on her own. When Cal saw her interviewing Kyle, though, he became aware that she only pretends and doesn't actually mean it. This is the only thing he hates about loving her. These days, he can practically not read her anymore at all. The little insight he'd had in the past walked out of the door that night some weeks ago when they finally allowed themselves to fall for each other. Only when he watches her from a distance or in a recording, he is able to spot things. Not always, but in this case it was more than obvious what he saw in her face. She was barely able to pull herself together at a certain point of the interview.

"Kyle. You and Ria talked to him," Cal reminds her gently.

"Yeah, I told you about it. Why? What did you hear?" Gillian looks at him, frowning. Then it dawns on her. "Did you watch the recording?" She doesn't seem to be angry about it, apparently understands why he did it.

At first, Kyle denied that he'd had a relationship with Claire, had slept with her. They had told no one about it. No wonder it got to Gillian. Claire's and Kyle's situation had been pretty similar to theirs. Business partners. Friends. Lovers in secret.

Guess she just didn't mean that much to you, Gillian confronted Kyle when he wouldn't admit his love for Claire.

Her verbal provocation fit the case. It was her facial expression that blew Cal away. Contempt. Pain. It wasn't only directed at Kyle. Part of it was directed at herself and thereby at him. They had talked about in between. If and when they would disclose their secret. They want to; that much is clear to them. They are just waiting for the right moment. Or at least were. It hadn't been important. Somehow, the secretiveness had made it all even more exciting. Waking up together but driving to work separately. Fleeting, yet passionate, kisses in their offices or in the elevator. It had been okay. Fun. Until now. Until death changed her point of view. Gillian needs him constantly not only when he is able to sneak away from his daughter without raising suspicion. When she told him she wanted it that way, the implication was that they had no other choice, had to do it because they didn't tell anyone about them as yet. It is just like her not to say anything explicitly, not do demand anything. Most likely she expects him to see it, to act upon it. It is clear that they will tell his daughter first, the fact that it is his daughter and not hers making it his decision in her book. In situations like these, Cal hates it even more that Gillian is his blind spot. He should have seen it, but he couldn't.

"Yeah, watched the whole interview," Cal answers her question. "Got to you that Kyle refused to admit he had a relationship with Claire."

He feels her tense up, but she is too tired to argue. What would be the point of that, anyway?

"You know it's not true, Gill, right? When it comes to you and me, I won't deny anything. You mean everything to me. But," he stresses, "you have to tell me when something is bothering you because the few things I was able to see in your face... no longer there. At least not when we're together. It's the price I pay for being with you. Not that I mind. But I don't have the time to videotape you all day and watch it later to read you. Rather spend my time with you. So, just tell me, aye?"

She smiles with restraint, her voice filled with more un-cried tears, "Okay."

Gillian rests her head against his chest. She knows Cal loves her. He told her often enough. At least he hopes so. And she told him. There should be no doubts. Then again, it's all still fresh and fragile. In this regard, they are no different from other couples.

"I was repulsed by our stupid decision to keep it all a secret," Gillian says in a strained voice. "Claire is...," she clears her throat. "Claire is dead, and here we are, happy and not telling anybody. How stupid is that considering how fast you can lose everything?"

She is right. What a waste of time to make a fuss about such simple things when a knife can change everything within seconds. But Cal also knows there is more that bothers Gillian. Her hand clutches at his shirt; he covers it with his.

"I didn't know that you weren't able to see what was bothering me; I thought it was so obvious that even if I am your blind spot, there was no way you could have overlooked that." Gillian takes a deep breath. "I need you, Cal," she whispers, an admission like this not passing her lips easily. "I want you to spend time with Emily, but at the moment I can't stand to be alone, especially at night, no matter how weak and depended that sounds."

She sits up to look at him. Cal reaches out his hand and caresses her lower jaw.

He is mad as hell at himself. It wasn't many nights they spent separately, but Cal is dead certain Gillian had nightmares and woke up to find herself all alone because recently she has been having nightmares every night. Emily is visiting some friends the next couple of days so that he can stay with Gillian until Emily comes back and then tell her immediately. Unleash the secret, in a way.

"Don't be angry with yourself," Gillian says, patting his chest.

Cal is surprised. She saw that? He actually hoped her abilities were as restricted as his due to their new closeness.

"Is it bad that I still can read you? At least to some extent," she adds.

Bloody hell. She can even read his silence. That is an imbalance he definitely doesn't like, an unfair competition. Well, bollocks to that. Looks like he has to live with it. He can do something else though.

"I'll be there the next time you wake up in the middle of the night," Cal promises and sees the look in Gillian's eyes soften, practically willing him to read her and see it. Relief and love.

"And I'll tell Emily as soon as she's back home, shout it from the rooftops so that everybody knows I am with this smart, funny, beautiful woman," Cal doesn't know whether Gillian recognizes the words Ria said to Kyle describing Claire during the interview. They made him think of Gillian the moment he heard them.

Gillian doesn't say anything to that. Instead, she rests her head against Cal's chest once more and puts her arms around him so that they are even closer together. Their hugs always crossed the line from friendly to more. This embrace, though, doesn't leave much room for speculation in case someone goes by and sees them through the open door. So, albeit it is not verbal, this is Gillian's reply. If someone goes by and wonders at the quality of our relationship, you can start right now.

When Cal comes over a couple of days later, he is nervous and agitated. It is the evening before Emily is supposed to be heading home. They agreed to have an uncomplicated fast food dinner at Gillian's house after a long day at work. Hence, Gillian blames the fact that Cal is so wired on their workload.

"I told Emily," he casually states while they are piling food onto their plates.

"Told Emily what?" Gillian asks unsuspectingly.

"About us."

Gillian gasps for air and stops in the middle of the movement. Come again? But she recovers herself quickly, so many questions already bubbling up in her throat.

"You did? But you wanted to wait until Emily is back home. What did she say? How did she react?"

No wonder Cal is so nervous and agitated. As she is now.

"Well, she practically asked for it. No, not practically. She asked me if I love you, like really love you."

Gillian can't help but smile. This definitely sounds like Emily. Trust her to hit home.

Cal tells her that he said yes, that Emily then asked what he was waiting for and that he was so taken by surprise that he stalled her by instinct first and told her that he had no answer for that one until he gathered his courage just seconds later and told her everything. Emily is his daughter, after all, and entitled to the truth. Aside from that, he had a promise to keep.

When he is finished, they just stand there, looking at each other. Gillian doesn't know about Cal, but nervous and agitated just got replaced by giddy with excitement. Gillian claps her hands.

"Wow," she says. "That's good, right? So, it's okay for her? When will she be back?" She fiddles with the folding boxboard and only realizes it when Cal takes it out of her hands. Breathe in, breathe out. She has to calm down. "What now? Where do we go from here?" More questions, more excitement.

Gillian is aware that she is overreacting. As if she didn't know Emily and never spent time with her before. Cal talked with Emily about his love for Gillian. That Emily and Gillian love each other is a given. Has been for years now, ever since Emily was a child. But she isn't able to think clearly at the moment, impatiently waiting for Cal's answers.

Cal picks his cell phone up and sends a text message to someone.

"What are you doing?" Gillian is irritated.

"We can't eat all this alone." He points at the food he brought, and she can tell that he is trying to string her along on purpose. When Cal smiles at her lovingly, though, his efforts to hide his happiness to no avail, a realization starts to dawn on her.

"Is Emily already back? Did you just text her? Where is she?" Again, she is firing questions at him even if he still answered none. It is driving her crazy. "Cal... I'm talking to you."

By now, Gillian is almost certain that the conversation between Cal and Emily took place face-to-face at his house and not over the phone as she thought at first. His grin gets broader; the look in his eyes confirms her assumption just when there's a knock at the front door. Gillian is in for another surprise.

"She's already here? Did you make her wait outside? It's freezing, Cal. She will catch a cold."

She heads to the door. Emily will be, indeed, standing outside when she opens it. What Gillian doesn't know is that Cal already sees in his mind's eye what will happen before it actually takes place. Their smiles. Their loving hug. The moment he was waiting for.

Later, when they had dinner together and Emily fell asleep on the couch, Gillian will realize why Cal seemed to be so oblivious to her questions. What now? Where do we go from here? There is no need to worry. They are already on their way.

In retrospect, they should have known better, could have spared themselves a lot of painful experiences. Then again, perhaps it was meant to happen that way, perhaps it was the only way it could happen at all.

The end