Lie to Me Fic: Eli Loker - Radical Honesty
Written for 1character - Eli Loker
Theme Set Epsilon
Crossposted to lietome_fic
Title: Eli Loker - Radical Honesty
Pairing/Characters: Eli/Ria, Cal, Gillian, Jack, Ava, OCs
Rating: PG13
Spoilers: Seasons 1 and 2
Summary: 50 Prompts - 1 sentence each based on the character Eli Loker
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
#01 - Hood
Eli's home all of five minutes before he realizes he's starving and there's absolutely no food at his place, so he sighs, pulls his hood up tight and heads out into the drizzling rain swearing he won't let his refrigerator get that empty again - even though he's made that same oath dozens of times.
#02 - Buzz
He's got a decent buzz on, but not so drunk as to embarrass himself as a grad student, but the party goes a bit quiet when he proudly tells everyone around him what he's studying and brags that he can always tell when someone's lying.
#03 - Wish
In quiet moments, Eli wishes his grandparents had lived long enough for him to get to know them as more than just an annual birthday card and a kiss on the cheek when he was five.
#04 - Seasons
He tried California, but the weather - as good as it was - was dead boring; Eli prefers the seasons even if that does mean wicked cold winters on the Eastern Seaboard.
#05 - Threat
He's never seen Cal like this, all raging papa bear protective like he'd personally take on anyone who threatened his team, but Eli sees Gillian and realizes she's always known Cal felt that way about his staff even if he didn't ever really show them he cared.
#06 - Portrait
It's meant to be a joke, Eli thinks, and perhaps it is, but Cal laughs his head off and has the oversized, ostentatiously framed portrait of himself mounted behind his desk and points it out to everyone who meets with him until Gillian swears she'll take it back if he doesn't stop.
#07 - Loud
The bar's unbearably loud and Ria's being a pain about waiting longer for Cal to show up when he's clearly blown them off, so Eli makes a point to chat up the pretty blonde that Ria rolled her eyes at, brandishing her phone number with a smirk once Ria admits they've been stood up and can go.
#08 - Energy
Cal wouldn't give a damn, so Eli hands his energy saving suggestions write-up to Gillian, showing how they can keep all the bright lights Cal seems to think they need, but not have to ruin the planet for all those kilowatt hours.
#09 - Purge
When he gets his promotion he gives away every piece of furniture in his apartment, moves to a classier address and treats himself to all new décor that says I'm an executive, not a college student.
#10 - Mouse
Eli's parents never let him have a proper pet as a kid - no dog, no cat, no bird - so when his friend Pete offered him his pet mouse he jumped at the chance, hiding the friendly little white rodent in his bedroom closet successfully for weeks until his mother's scream after dinner one night proved his hiding place had been less than ideal.
#11 - Attic
Eli had been a pensive, thoughtful child - intensely aware of the world around him - and while everyone assumed he was lost in his thoughts up in his attic playroom, what he was most fascinated by were human beings.
#12 - Second Rate
If he's honest with himself he'd have to admit it's the biggest reason he can't seem to leave The Lightman Group - this sinking feeling that if he does he'll spend the rest of his career working at a second rate firm as a second rate version of what he could have been.
#13 - Dash
In school he sucked at the 100 yard dash, but once they put him in cross-country running Eli discovered his real ability lie not in speed, but in stamina.
#14 - Attitude
Gillian and Ria both drew a sharp breath in shock; Eli had never given Cal that kind of attitude face to face.
#15 - Wisdom
She leaves him standing there in the breakroom, stunned; he always followed Cal's star, knowing that's where the brilliance of the Lightman Group lay, but until that moment Eli had totally dismissed the sage wisdom that Gillian brought into the picture.
#16 - Sight
She appears on his rainy day doorstep completely drenched and looks like a wet dog under long stringy dark hair, but Eli takes her in and gives her a warm dry place to sleep until she figures things out, praying Ria doesn't take his head off for not calling to say her baby sister was with him.
#17 - Address
His valedictorian speech was nothing compared to the first time Cal and Gillian let him represent The Lightman Group by speaking at a conference.
#18 - Minute
One minute Ria's just a co-worker and the next they're kissing and Eli's world tilts so far his stomach feels like it's on a roller coaster ride that's only beginning.
#19 - Cotton
Even in college, Eli always prided himself on doing his own laundry and never making his whites turn pink, but he does have a bottom drawer of cotton clothing he shrunk so badly he can't wear them anymore.
#20 - Claw
He watched his former college friends scratch and claw their way up the ladder in Wall Street and Capitol Hill and suddenly he felt oddly virtuous, as if they were the experts in deception and he was the guardian of truth.
#21 - Limit
Eli hits his limit and walks out; no one comes after him for days until Gillian finally knocks on his apartment door knowing apologizing on Cal's behalf isn't enough, but she can always talk Eli into coming back by being her sweet and caring self.
#22 - Unique
Eli learned even as an undergraduate that 'interdisciplinary' often meant that you were the only person to care about a specific topic, but if Cal did before him - and Gillian - then Eli wasn't truly unique in his obsession with the art and science of deception.
#23 - Gravity
He thinks he's being all cool with Ria until the ancient elevator lurches and gravity makes his stomach drop, leaving him pale and shaky while she looks more annoyed than affected - cursing the old machinery as she slams her impatient hand against the lobby button again.
#24 - Yesterday
He rubs his eyes as he reviews the footage one more time; he's lost track of whether it's today, yesterday or tomorrow, but all he knows for sure is if he can't find the flaw in this suspect's deposition an innocent person might wind up in jail.
#25 - Jungle
He tries to explain over the loud noise of fake parrots and monkeys that it's a theme restaurant, but it doesn't matter, Ria's wonderful rich laugh of absurd childish delight is worth the ridiculous cost of the meal.
#26 - Garden
His mother finds him sitting alone in her atrium garden, pensive and sad, and doesn't try to make Eli talk, she just sits with him so he'll know she loves him no matter what.
#27 - Question
It's his first field interview and Eli wants desperately to watch Cal to see how he's doing, but he forces himself to focus on the witness, catching the well disguised hint of disgust when questioning him about the stepson he supposedly loves, which makes him feel like a pro until Cal rips his performance to shreds in the car on the way back to the office.
#28 - Text
Ten minutes after Gillian shoos him away from his late night desk, telling him to go home and get some sleep, Cal texts him to ask where the hell he is and why isn't he at the office, making Eli sigh loudly and turn around to head back in again.
#29 - Plastic
When Eli's mother asks if he needs money he always says no - even when Cal cut him down to an intern and took away his paycheck - but they both pretend that Eli's credit card doesn't get mysterious payments made to it; it's the Loker family style of love.
#30 - Block
He gazed up at the midday sun from where the wind was knocked out of him on the gridiron, seeing only the offered meaty hand of the defensive lineman who'd taken him down; football was so not his sport.
#31 - Escort
It's a work function, but Eli can't help but be proud to be Ria's escort; she looks so stunning in her formal gown it's a tossup between staring at her and risking her smacking him or reveling in the appreciative glances that come their way as they move through the crowd.
#32 - Insult
'Never a kind word' was a phrase that would easily be leveled at Cal, but for all the times he gave Eli an off-handed slight that was delivered thoughtlessly, there were the rare occasions when Cal looked him in the eye and acknowledged he'd done a good job and those moments were what Eli lived for.
#33 - Blood
It hurts him more than he could ever imagine, the sight of Gillian's delicate skin marred by blood, and he realizes if he'd been there he would have probably gotten himself killed fighting them off to save her.
#34 - Gold
In the bottom of a drawer, hidden but not forgotten, lies a diamond and gold ring that had a question attached to it that never got answered.
#35 - Spot
This part of the bar mitzvah's supposed to be a bit more solemn, with Eli doing his reading in Hebrew, but all he wants is to spot his first girlfriend and smile at her to make sure she sees his big moment.
#36 - Melt
It's the worst idea ever and he's had the whole trip back to his apartment to talk himself out of it, but when Ria melts into his arms, pressing her body against his, Eli knows he can't back out now - he wants this, her, too much.
#37 - Guilt
Mornings after are a bitch; Eli can't look at Ria without feeling the guilt rise up inside of him.
#38 - Duel
They argued before, but somehow having slept together makes Ria's arguments with Eli more confrontational than even his promotion.
#39 - Stranger
He doesn't recognize her until his mother greets her in the flower shop and Eli gets a flood of memory all at once: his first girlfriend, whose heart he broke at 13, now looking glowingly beautiful and about 8 months pregnant.
#40 - Wait
Cal tells him to sit tight and wait and as boring as it is, as many hours as it takes, Eli waits.
#41 - Glow
Ria gets a glow about her after a couple of drinks and Eli wants so desperately to revel in that joy, to kiss her face, to have her be glowing and happy about him.
#42 - Action
Gillian pulls him into her office after yet another absurdly late night and tells him frankly that if he's ever going to earn any respect from Cal he can't let the boss walk all over him, he has to take a stand, take action, take the initiative.
#43 - Chain
It's a simple locket on a gold chain, but curiosity makes him pop it open after finding it on his mother's nightstand; it's an old photo of a baby who he's certain is not him or his brother - it's a girl.
#44 - Bitter
He'd show them; he'd go get a job somewhere else, maybe with Jack Rader, and then they'd see how useful he'd been to the group, how they shouldn't have taken him for granted.
#45 - Lock
Cal calls after him as he's striding out the door, telling him to lock up when he leaves, as if Eli isn't the one who ends up locking up the office pretty much every night.
#46 - Order
Jack Rader likes everything in order and while Eli finds that appealing, spending an hour there at Rader's offices nearly puts him to sleep watching the employees yawning their way through the standard steps of applying the 'Rader System'.
#47 - Friends
Eli has friends, people from college and such he joins occasionally for a night out, but he feels separated from them by his ability to read their faces, to tell every lie, so he finds it easier to just hang out at work where he doesn't have to worry about people not realizing what he sees when he looks at them.
#48 - Prison
It's not his first time in a prison, but he's struggling with how protective he feels about Gillian, keeping avid watch and glaring at the men behind bars ogling her whom she walks right past without a care.
#49 - Journal
His therapist made him keep one and while he thought it was a crock, Eli found that the first third of the book contained him railing about what an ass Cal was, the second third questioning what the hell he was doing and the final third answered his questions - it was notations of all the brilliant insights he'd learned by watching Cal, the master, at the helm.
#50 - Zero
On his first try with the microexpressions test he gets a zero so clearly he's not a natural, but that's okay - Eli's ready to work hard; if Cal can learn, so can he.
Theme Set Epsilon
Crossposted to lietome_fic
Title: Eli Loker - Radical Honesty
Pairing/Characters: Eli/Ria, Cal, Gillian, Jack, Ava, OCs
Rating: PG13
Spoilers: Seasons 1 and 2
Summary: 50 Prompts - 1 sentence each based on the character Eli Loker
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
#01 - Hood
Eli's home all of five minutes before he realizes he's starving and there's absolutely no food at his place, so he sighs, pulls his hood up tight and heads out into the drizzling rain swearing he won't let his refrigerator get that empty again - even though he's made that same oath dozens of times.
#02 - Buzz
He's got a decent buzz on, but not so drunk as to embarrass himself as a grad student, but the party goes a bit quiet when he proudly tells everyone around him what he's studying and brags that he can always tell when someone's lying.
#03 - Wish
In quiet moments, Eli wishes his grandparents had lived long enough for him to get to know them as more than just an annual birthday card and a kiss on the cheek when he was five.
#04 - Seasons
He tried California, but the weather - as good as it was - was dead boring; Eli prefers the seasons even if that does mean wicked cold winters on the Eastern Seaboard.
#05 - Threat
He's never seen Cal like this, all raging papa bear protective like he'd personally take on anyone who threatened his team, but Eli sees Gillian and realizes she's always known Cal felt that way about his staff even if he didn't ever really show them he cared.
#06 - Portrait
It's meant to be a joke, Eli thinks, and perhaps it is, but Cal laughs his head off and has the oversized, ostentatiously framed portrait of himself mounted behind his desk and points it out to everyone who meets with him until Gillian swears she'll take it back if he doesn't stop.
#07 - Loud
The bar's unbearably loud and Ria's being a pain about waiting longer for Cal to show up when he's clearly blown them off, so Eli makes a point to chat up the pretty blonde that Ria rolled her eyes at, brandishing her phone number with a smirk once Ria admits they've been stood up and can go.
#08 - Energy
Cal wouldn't give a damn, so Eli hands his energy saving suggestions write-up to Gillian, showing how they can keep all the bright lights Cal seems to think they need, but not have to ruin the planet for all those kilowatt hours.
#09 - Purge
When he gets his promotion he gives away every piece of furniture in his apartment, moves to a classier address and treats himself to all new décor that says I'm an executive, not a college student.
#10 - Mouse
Eli's parents never let him have a proper pet as a kid - no dog, no cat, no bird - so when his friend Pete offered him his pet mouse he jumped at the chance, hiding the friendly little white rodent in his bedroom closet successfully for weeks until his mother's scream after dinner one night proved his hiding place had been less than ideal.
#11 - Attic
Eli had been a pensive, thoughtful child - intensely aware of the world around him - and while everyone assumed he was lost in his thoughts up in his attic playroom, what he was most fascinated by were human beings.
#12 - Second Rate
If he's honest with himself he'd have to admit it's the biggest reason he can't seem to leave The Lightman Group - this sinking feeling that if he does he'll spend the rest of his career working at a second rate firm as a second rate version of what he could have been.
#13 - Dash
In school he sucked at the 100 yard dash, but once they put him in cross-country running Eli discovered his real ability lie not in speed, but in stamina.
#14 - Attitude
Gillian and Ria both drew a sharp breath in shock; Eli had never given Cal that kind of attitude face to face.
#15 - Wisdom
She leaves him standing there in the breakroom, stunned; he always followed Cal's star, knowing that's where the brilliance of the Lightman Group lay, but until that moment Eli had totally dismissed the sage wisdom that Gillian brought into the picture.
#16 - Sight
She appears on his rainy day doorstep completely drenched and looks like a wet dog under long stringy dark hair, but Eli takes her in and gives her a warm dry place to sleep until she figures things out, praying Ria doesn't take his head off for not calling to say her baby sister was with him.
#17 - Address
His valedictorian speech was nothing compared to the first time Cal and Gillian let him represent The Lightman Group by speaking at a conference.
#18 - Minute
One minute Ria's just a co-worker and the next they're kissing and Eli's world tilts so far his stomach feels like it's on a roller coaster ride that's only beginning.
#19 - Cotton
Even in college, Eli always prided himself on doing his own laundry and never making his whites turn pink, but he does have a bottom drawer of cotton clothing he shrunk so badly he can't wear them anymore.
#20 - Claw
He watched his former college friends scratch and claw their way up the ladder in Wall Street and Capitol Hill and suddenly he felt oddly virtuous, as if they were the experts in deception and he was the guardian of truth.
#21 - Limit
Eli hits his limit and walks out; no one comes after him for days until Gillian finally knocks on his apartment door knowing apologizing on Cal's behalf isn't enough, but she can always talk Eli into coming back by being her sweet and caring self.
#22 - Unique
Eli learned even as an undergraduate that 'interdisciplinary' often meant that you were the only person to care about a specific topic, but if Cal did before him - and Gillian - then Eli wasn't truly unique in his obsession with the art and science of deception.
#23 - Gravity
He thinks he's being all cool with Ria until the ancient elevator lurches and gravity makes his stomach drop, leaving him pale and shaky while she looks more annoyed than affected - cursing the old machinery as she slams her impatient hand against the lobby button again.
#24 - Yesterday
He rubs his eyes as he reviews the footage one more time; he's lost track of whether it's today, yesterday or tomorrow, but all he knows for sure is if he can't find the flaw in this suspect's deposition an innocent person might wind up in jail.
#25 - Jungle
He tries to explain over the loud noise of fake parrots and monkeys that it's a theme restaurant, but it doesn't matter, Ria's wonderful rich laugh of absurd childish delight is worth the ridiculous cost of the meal.
#26 - Garden
His mother finds him sitting alone in her atrium garden, pensive and sad, and doesn't try to make Eli talk, she just sits with him so he'll know she loves him no matter what.
#27 - Question
It's his first field interview and Eli wants desperately to watch Cal to see how he's doing, but he forces himself to focus on the witness, catching the well disguised hint of disgust when questioning him about the stepson he supposedly loves, which makes him feel like a pro until Cal rips his performance to shreds in the car on the way back to the office.
#28 - Text
Ten minutes after Gillian shoos him away from his late night desk, telling him to go home and get some sleep, Cal texts him to ask where the hell he is and why isn't he at the office, making Eli sigh loudly and turn around to head back in again.
#29 - Plastic
When Eli's mother asks if he needs money he always says no - even when Cal cut him down to an intern and took away his paycheck - but they both pretend that Eli's credit card doesn't get mysterious payments made to it; it's the Loker family style of love.
#30 - Block
He gazed up at the midday sun from where the wind was knocked out of him on the gridiron, seeing only the offered meaty hand of the defensive lineman who'd taken him down; football was so not his sport.
#31 - Escort
It's a work function, but Eli can't help but be proud to be Ria's escort; she looks so stunning in her formal gown it's a tossup between staring at her and risking her smacking him or reveling in the appreciative glances that come their way as they move through the crowd.
#32 - Insult
'Never a kind word' was a phrase that would easily be leveled at Cal, but for all the times he gave Eli an off-handed slight that was delivered thoughtlessly, there were the rare occasions when Cal looked him in the eye and acknowledged he'd done a good job and those moments were what Eli lived for.
#33 - Blood
It hurts him more than he could ever imagine, the sight of Gillian's delicate skin marred by blood, and he realizes if he'd been there he would have probably gotten himself killed fighting them off to save her.
#34 - Gold
In the bottom of a drawer, hidden but not forgotten, lies a diamond and gold ring that had a question attached to it that never got answered.
#35 - Spot
This part of the bar mitzvah's supposed to be a bit more solemn, with Eli doing his reading in Hebrew, but all he wants is to spot his first girlfriend and smile at her to make sure she sees his big moment.
#36 - Melt
It's the worst idea ever and he's had the whole trip back to his apartment to talk himself out of it, but when Ria melts into his arms, pressing her body against his, Eli knows he can't back out now - he wants this, her, too much.
#37 - Guilt
Mornings after are a bitch; Eli can't look at Ria without feeling the guilt rise up inside of him.
#38 - Duel
They argued before, but somehow having slept together makes Ria's arguments with Eli more confrontational than even his promotion.
#39 - Stranger
He doesn't recognize her until his mother greets her in the flower shop and Eli gets a flood of memory all at once: his first girlfriend, whose heart he broke at 13, now looking glowingly beautiful and about 8 months pregnant.
#40 - Wait
Cal tells him to sit tight and wait and as boring as it is, as many hours as it takes, Eli waits.
#41 - Glow
Ria gets a glow about her after a couple of drinks and Eli wants so desperately to revel in that joy, to kiss her face, to have her be glowing and happy about him.
#42 - Action
Gillian pulls him into her office after yet another absurdly late night and tells him frankly that if he's ever going to earn any respect from Cal he can't let the boss walk all over him, he has to take a stand, take action, take the initiative.
#43 - Chain
It's a simple locket on a gold chain, but curiosity makes him pop it open after finding it on his mother's nightstand; it's an old photo of a baby who he's certain is not him or his brother - it's a girl.
#44 - Bitter
He'd show them; he'd go get a job somewhere else, maybe with Jack Rader, and then they'd see how useful he'd been to the group, how they shouldn't have taken him for granted.
#45 - Lock
Cal calls after him as he's striding out the door, telling him to lock up when he leaves, as if Eli isn't the one who ends up locking up the office pretty much every night.
#46 - Order
Jack Rader likes everything in order and while Eli finds that appealing, spending an hour there at Rader's offices nearly puts him to sleep watching the employees yawning their way through the standard steps of applying the 'Rader System'.
#47 - Friends
Eli has friends, people from college and such he joins occasionally for a night out, but he feels separated from them by his ability to read their faces, to tell every lie, so he finds it easier to just hang out at work where he doesn't have to worry about people not realizing what he sees when he looks at them.
#48 - Prison
It's not his first time in a prison, but he's struggling with how protective he feels about Gillian, keeping avid watch and glaring at the men behind bars ogling her whom she walks right past without a care.
#49 - Journal
His therapist made him keep one and while he thought it was a crock, Eli found that the first third of the book contained him railing about what an ass Cal was, the second third questioning what the hell he was doing and the final third answered his questions - it was notations of all the brilliant insights he'd learned by watching Cal, the master, at the helm.
#50 - Zero
On his first try with the microexpressions test he gets a zero so clearly he's not a natural, but that's okay - Eli's ready to work hard; if Cal can learn, so can he.