Fic: Crossing the Line
Cal looks around as he sits at an intersection, deciding to go right before pulling up to a park. Gillian looks around before looking at Cal, arching her eyebrow as she sips on her grape slushie.
"What are we doing here?"
"It's a surprise." Cal gets out of the car after turning it off and goes around to Gillian's side as he helps her out. He takes her hand as they walk toward the playground area of the park. A woman sitting on one of the benches smiles as she spots them, walking towards the pair, holding her hand out to Cal.
"Dr. Lightman, it's a pleasure to finally meet you face to face." Cal nods and introduces the woman to Gillian.
"This is my partner Dr. Gillian Foster, Gill this is Mary Fitch."
"Dr. Foster it's pleasure to meet you as well."
"Same here…even though I'm confused as to why we are meeting…"
"You don't know me by my name…just as a case number…specifically 115920…" Confusion then realization then shock registers on Gillian's face before she turns on Cal.
"Why are we here?" The tone to her voice chilled him to the core.
"Dr. Foster, when I changed my mind and decided I wanted Sophie back they told me to expect to fight for her, that even though we were under the time limit many adoptive parents had fought for and won the rights to keep the child. But you just gave her back…at first I thought it was because you didn't want Sophie, but then I realized that you didn't want me not to have her…" Mary looks at Gillian and smiles.
"But because I had Sophie I made an extremely large effort to turn myself around. I went back to college, got a degree, a career…bought a house, a car…I can afford to send Sophie to private daycare…all because you gave me a second chance when you didn't know me. And when Dr. Lightman contacted me a week ago, I was more than happy to agree to meet because I really wanted you to meet Sophie." Mary turns around and calls out her daughter's name before the toddler comes running over, golden curls bouncing on her shoulders. Mary smiles and picks her up, balancing her on her hip.
"Sophie, this is Gillian…Gillian this is Sophie." Sophie giggles and smiles waving at the woman who at one time was slated to be her mom.
"Hai!" Gillian smiles, tears glimmering in her eyes.
"Hi Sophie." Mary smiles and brushes a curl from her daughter's face.
"Soph can you say thank you to Gillian?" Sophie looks down at her mother a look on her face.
"Fo wha?" Mary strokes her daughter's cheek as she looks at her.
"For giving you to mama."
"Oh." Sophie squirms and spins around in her mother's arms.
"Fanks 'illian." Gillian laughs softly and reaches out touching Sophie softly.
"You are very welcome sweet heart."
Cal had spent the whole time standing beside them studying Gillian's face as she interacted with Sophie and her mother, determining whether or not he should tell her the news that needed to be told or to let a professional do it.
After a while Gillian excuses herself and Cal, thanking Mary profusely for allowing them to visit Sophie, giving her her phone number if she ever felt the need to call. Cal puts his hand on Gillian's back and leads her to the car. Gillian stops Cal before they get in the car.
"Why did you drive me two hours to meet the little girl that I tried to adopt with my ex-husband three years ago?!"
"You went to the doctor a week ago…"
"Yeah…what's your point?" Gillian studies Cal's face.
"You're worried…"
"She accidentally faxed your blood work results to my office…" Cal swallows as he reaches into his suit jacket and hands Gillian the paper that had been faxed to his office the week before.
"You're pregnant love."
---
Cal studies Gillian as she talks with her doctor over the phone in his living room. Gillian shoots him a look and he holds his hands up before leaving the room and heading to the kitchen looking for food. Gillian comes in a while later and wraps her arms around his waist from behind as he cooks.
"I didn't know you knew how a stove worked."
"I just choose not to use it most times." Cal turns the burner off and turns around, wrapping his arms around Gillian. She rests her chin on his chest and looks up at him, studying his face.
"I'm pregnant." Cal runs his hands down Gillian's back and nods.
"So I've heard."
"I shouldn't be pregnant Cal…I don't get pregnant…" Cal smirks softly.
"Well apparently you do." Cal leans down to kiss Gillian grunting when she bites his lip before kissing him.
"What are we going to do?"
"Eat dinner and go to bed…and discuss this tomorrow with clear heads. Sound good?" Gillian nods slowly, happy for once that Cal was being the rational one. They both break apart and turn towards the door when they hear it open, Emily coming in and dropping her bag by the door.
"Hey…"
"Hey love, what are you doing here? I thought you were with your mom tonight?"
"I uh…we had a thing so I thought I'd come over here…that's okay right?"
"Yeah yeah, that's fine…you hungry? We were just getting ready to eat." Emily nods quietly.
"Let me go change real quick." Gillian pulls away from Cal and smiles.
"I think that sounds like such a great idea I'm going to go change too." Cal nods slowly.
"Okay. I'll have dinner ready when you get back." Gillian kisses the corner of Cal's mouth before going upstairs behind Emily. She changes into sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt before going to the girl's room and knocking softly.
"Hey…" Emily finishes tugging her shirt down over her stomach before smiling slightly at Gillian.
"Hey…"
"What happened between you and your mom?" Emily's smile falters as she pulls on a sweatshirt as well.
"We had a fight…"
"What did you say to her?" Emily bites her lip and swallows.
"I told her that I didn't want to go back and forth anymore…that I just wanted to live with Dad…"
"Why?"
"She wanted to take me to Chicago! To take me away from Dad without even asking me! And I'm supposed to want to live with her?!" Gillian straightens up as she sees the contempt run across Emily's face.
"You're really beat up about this." Emily shakes her head and swallows hard, burying her face into her shoulder as she hugs herself.
"Believe it or not living with Dad is so much easier than living with her…" Gillian pads into the room and wraps her arms around Emily before kissing her head, the teen sniffling as she wraps her arms around the older woman.
"It's okay Em…"