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.
Teenage Vow In A Parking Lot
By TexasWatermelon
This was typical. Leave it to Cindy Thomas to get stuck walking through a creepy, deserted parking garage in the dark hours of the night. Seriously, could there be a more cliché scene than this one: pretty young girl, defenseless and nervous, checking over her shoulder at every tiny noise to make sure she wasn't getting hijacked by the spawn of prisoners again. Cindy couldn't help the fact that she was paranoid. And really, if anyone was going to end up in a situation like this, it would be her.
The fact that she was in the SFPD parking garage was no great comfort. Sure there were cameras, but by the time anyone realized she was there, all the monitors would show would be Cindy lying in a pool of her own blood. And then Lindsay would really kill her for distracting her from her current case to have to try to catch whoever it was that murdered her.
Cindy dug in her purse for her car keys, cursing herself for buying the oversized knap sack that she just had to have because it was forest green and white and so her. It was one of the ones without any actual pockets though, something she told herself wouldn't be an issue until she needed something and it happened to end up at the very bottom of the endless mess of crap in her purse, most of it consisting of stuff she never remembered putting there in the first place.
There was a faint noise behind her, and Cindy jumped a little, head whipping around to check behind her again. She didn't see anything, but as soon as she turned back around, she heard a stone skidding across the pavement somewhere. If it was possible, she picked up her pace, trying her best to ignore the footsteps that were growing increasingly louder.
And then, it all came to a head as a hand grabbed her shoulder and she spun around, pepper spray in hand. Lindsay jumped back, hands in the air, eyes wide. Cindy sighed when she realized who it was and let her guard down.
"Jesus Christ Cindy!" Lindsay exclaimed, her expression of surprise quickly replaced by one of annoyance.
"Sorry!" Cindy apologized sheepishly. "But seriously, why would you sneak up on someone like that? Don't you watch movies at all?"
"I wasn't sneaking. I was coming to give you your glasses. You forgot them," Lindsay explained, glaring slightly.
"Oh," Cindy deflated. "Well, sorry."
"Can you put that away, please?" Lindsay asked, eyeing the spray that Cindy was still clutching warily. The redhead looked at it.
"What if someone tries to mug us?" she asked worriedly. Lindsay looked at her blankly.
"First of all, I think you're in the wrong parking garage if you expect to get mugged. Second of all, I'm pretty sure I've got us covered," she said, lifting her shirt a little to reveal the gleaming black handle of her pistol. Cindy rolled her eyes, but put the canister away anyway.
"Uh, Lindsay?" she said after a few seconds. "Those aren't my glasses."
"Huh?" Lindsay asked distractedly. Cindy gestured to the small pair of glasses in the inspector's hand. Lindsay followed her gaze. "Oh. They're not?" Cindy shook her head. "Oh."
"Aren't they yours?" Cindy asked suspiciously. Lindsay tried to cover the guilty look, inwardly cursing the reporter for her ridiculous observations.
"No," she said lamely.
"You came to check on me, didn't you?" Cindy continued, face lighting up with a smile.
"No!" Lindsay protested.
"Aw, Lindsay that's so sweet of you."
"It's not sweet," the inspector glared. "It's just… after the last time you got held hostage, I want to make sure it doesn't happen again. And you have a tendency to get yourself into trouble." Despite the cover up, Cindy was smiling at her knowingly. "Stop it. It's not sweet."
"If you insist," Cindy replied, linking arms with Lindsay and walking over to Maggie who was only a few yards away at this point. "I think I'll be safe from here," she said when they reached the car. "Thank you." Lindsay was looking down at her feet.
"It's not sweet," she muttered. Cindy grinned and reached up on her toes to give Lindsay a small peck just on the corner of the mouth. Lindsay looked down at her, unable to hide her surprise.
"It may have been a little sweet," she acquiesced quietly. Cindy chuckled and opened her door.
"See you tomorrow, Linds." With that, she climbed into her car and started the engine, driving off with a little wave. Lindsay just watched after her, shaking her head slightly.
The End