All This Time (Lie To Me)

In Need Of An Explanation

As she walked towards the lobby, she had to remind herself quite a few times to breathe before engaging in conversation with her ex-husband. "Alec." He stood to greet her as she arrived, kissing her lightly on the cheek. "What are you doing here? I thought you moved to Georgia."

"I did. I came back for a business trip and the rest is history." His eyes looked red, almost like he had aged overnight.

"You met someone. Gillian guessed, noticing right away the metal ring on his left hand as they walked towards her office. "Please."

"After we split and divorced, I did nothing but sit in my office taking big cases and doing paperwork. Then one week I had a business trip to attend. To make a long story short, I met a good person that night and we just seemed to hit it off." He seemed slightly uncomfortable telling her all this due to their history, but he continued anyway. "We got married and relocated to D.C. We just found out that Marleyn was pregnant and welcomed our little boy four months ago."

"You always wanted children," Gillian spoke softly, her eyes gleaming because she herself could never give him that. It had been one thing she had longed for, and yet part of it was an open wound that he could have children so easily."

"I know how much you wanted them too. I messed up a lot when we were married--beginning with not wanting to talk about Sophie. She was a big part of our lives when she was taken back." She followed his gaze to the picture that was sitting on her desk. In fact, it was the same picture she had been staring at before she found out Ava was in the conference room waiting to talk to her. "I still think about her sometimes. Anyway, I didn't come to stir up old wounds. I actually came here because I need help finding my wife and son."

"I hate to ask this, but is there any possibility she could gone somewhere without telling you?"

"You're asking me if she just up and left?"

"I'm ruling out if there is any way she could have gone somewhere before I start digging into this."

"No, my wife and I would never go anywhere without telling each other where we were going. It was just something we did with my job. When I came home Friday night, her purse and diaper bag was still sitting on the table. The police said there was no sign of a break-in or her car. The police asked me all sorts of questions and thought I had something to do with their disappearance."

"They're going to suspect you until they're able to rule you out." Gillian tried to reassure him as he sat down on the couch with a heavy sigh. He offered this information impatiently, mostly in worry about his wife and child.

"I'm sorry. I should really take this." He took his ringing phone out of his pocket and retreated to a corner to take it. Gillian was about to step out to give him some privacy when Emily rushed by.

"Emily?"

"Gillian, hey. You haven't seen my dad around, have you?"

"I saw him about ten minutes ago. Why?"

"I'm not sure. He called me when I got out of school and asked me if I could bring his lucky pen and some Tylenol before the book signing. Except his pen wasn't where he said it was. Somehow we had no Tylenol. Mom did manage to find the prescription you bought for him after the accident stuffed in the back of the kitchen drawer."

"His lucky pen. I knew there was something wrong when he walked into my office this morning." She shook her head as Emily handed her the pills from her bag. She opened it to see the bottle was still almost full. Both of them shared a worried look as they quickly made their way to his office.

"Dad?" It took a moment, but his eyes fluttered open as he took in the sight of them both standing in front of him.

"I've seen that look before," Cal muttered, fingers now sprawled over his forehead and covering his eyes. "What did I do now?"

"Tell me what you were thinking when you thought it was a good idea to not take what your doctor prescribed?"

"I put them in the kitchen drawer so I could take some if I needed it."

"If you're going to lie to my face, at least make it sound convincing." Gillian raised her eyebrow, letting him know of her disappointment."

"According to mom, this isn't the first time he's pulled something like this. Mom was telling me his appendix burst right after she had me--wouldn't take his medication and delayed his recovery by four weeks."

"It was the day after you were born." Cal corrected, sitting up with a very tired groan. He grabbed the bottle from Gillian'hand, squinting and blinking like he was wary about what exactly she was giving him. "You're going to have to read the instructions to me."

"Take one capsule every four hours." Gillian recited from memory as he popped the cap open, grabbed one, and held the pill in his hand. "You know this would have been a lot easier if you had just taken these in the first place."

"Except I asked for Tylenol."

"Sorry, we were out." Emily was unsympathetic to her father's request. "Besides, if you had taken what the doctor described, you wouldn't need Tylenol."

"Liar. We had a full bottle the last time I checked. I fully intend to find it when I get home."

"You won't find it. Take your medicine."

"I think it's a good idea if you go home, Cal." Gillian caught his attention with a gentle hum

"You want me to cancel the book signing?"

"I'm going to find some water so you can take that." Emily backed up, finding that Gillian and her dad had some things to discuss so she excused herself from the room.

"I have a case of bottled water next to my bookshelf, you know in my office." He informed his daughter, instead retreating out into the hall and leaving them alone to talk.