DISCLAIMER: Women's Murder Club and its characters are the property of James Patterson, 20th Century Fox Television and ABC. No infringement intended.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
FEEDBACK: To Demeter94[at]yahoo.de
No One Needs To Know Right Now
By Demeter
There were times in life when eidetic memory could be incredibly helpful. Like this morning, when The Kiss and the moments leading up to it played on Cindy's mind in an endless loop. She was thrilled, and happy, but one night and one morning had passed, and they still hadn't talked about it.
Rationally, Cindy could understand that Lindsay would need some time, to process, to hopefully come to the same conclusion that this step had been a very good idea. However, the women sitting next to her, in the passenger's seat, didn't seem particularly distressed or even pensive. On the contrary, her attention was focused. On Cindy.
"You're looking at me. Why?" Cindy hadn't meant for it to sound so irritated, but she was nervous, just a little scared.
Lindsay seemed amused by that. "I like looking at you," she offered, no mocking or second-guessing in her tone. However, it wasn't that easy. If they had to have this conversation right now, just barely an hour out of town, then so be it. Cindy found that this couldn't wait. She just couldn't spend another three weeks wondering.
"You kissed me! And now what, are we ever gonna mention it again?"
"You missed the exit," Lindsay said evenly, and this was so much of a non-sequitur that Cindy had to ask herself if she was hallucinating..
"What?"
"You missed the exit," Lindsay repeated. "Not that it matters. And yes, I was hoping we'd mention it again, but I thought the police station wasn't the right place."
Evasive tactics, Cindy noted. They hadn't been at the police station all night. What did it mean? "See, I can understand if you're going to some kind of crisis," she blurted out. "I know it's not easy—"
"Whoa, hold on." Lindsay chuckled, shaking her head. "I'm not going through a crisis. I know what I'm doing."
Cindy's relief was immeasurable even against the the mild offense that Lindsay didn't seem to take her concerns too seriously. So what was this, what were they? A summer flirt?
"You didn't say anything either," Lindsay said softly.
That's because it's always been my heart on the line, in a very realistic danger of breaking into a million pieces? Unwittingly, Cindy smiled. These might be baby steps, but they were leading somewhere, as it seemed. Funny, that missed exit. They had left the map, the plans awhile ago. Slowly, she was starting to understand that this journey couldn't be measured simply by museum visits and impressive nature photographs, that it was a journey inside just as much. "I do now."
"Okay. Can we stop here?"
It took Cindy a moment to realize that Lindsay's request was meant literally.
"I don't know..."
"Please. No one's gonna mind if you park there just a few minutes."
Cindy might have vaguely hoped that the moment the car came to a halt, Lindsay would lean over and kiss her again, and this time she would actually hold on to her, no reservations, and then it happened exactly that way. Lindsay's hand was warm on the side of her face, fingers sinking into her hair, their kiss deep and passionate.
"Do you still think I'm going through a crisis?" Lindsay whispered. She seemed eager to prove her point that she wasn't. Fingertips brushed soflty over the skin of Cindy's belly where her shirt was riding up a little due to exposure to too much heat in the washing machine. Though the caress seemed rather innocent, it caused shivers down her spine, her imagination to go haywire. They were still parked on the side of the road.
"Okay." Her voice sounded breathless. "I take that back. What do you want to do?"
The past few minutes had made Cindy a lot less careless about asking suggestive questions.
"It doesn't look like we're going to do a lot of sightseeing today, so... Maybe we could find a beautiful place somewhere." Lindsay looked down at her hands, but in the brief moment before, Cindy had read all the implied questions in her face.
"Are you sure?" She had to ask. Seconds ticked by, the only sound the constant rhythm of the rain against the roof of the car. The sky had been clouding over, dark grey swallowing up the early rays of sun.
"Gee, Thomas, how many more times are you gonna ask me that?"
All of a sudden, Cindy couldn't stop laughing. Maybe it was true that there came a little craziness with being in love. She'd foolishly prided herself in making Lindsay give up routine, but the truth was, they'd both been taking a trip into the unknown. If Lindsay was out of her league being far from any deadlines and responsibility, so was Cindy.
"You're still going to call me by my last name after we...?"
Lindsay leaned back in her seat with a somewhat smug, self-satisfied smile. "I suppose you're going to find out."
Cindy couldn't wait.
Later, she was studying Lindsay's profile as Lindsay stood by the window, leaning against the sill. Cindy was somewhat torn between silent admiration and the premonition that last minute doubts were about to come up. Not hers, of course. She'd been waiting so long for this moment.
"I care about you," Lindsay said as she turned to her. The tone her voice, more fear than affection, was breaking Cindy's heart. "But you have to know what you're in for. I screwed up before... And I'm scared that I—"
"No." With three steps, Cindy had closed the distance between them and stopped Lindsay's words with a kiss. There was no way she'd let Tom Hogan or any memories of him into the room with them. "You'll be fine. We'll be fine. More than that. We'll be great."
Lindsay smiled, her eyes bright, but she didn't suggest otherwise.
And then it was easy, kisses, touches, curious hands exploring, clothes tossed aside, until they stumbled onto the bed behind them.
It was easy, because they were meant to be.
The End