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New Moon
By Demeter

 

"Can you see it now?" Adelle asks, satisfaction practically oozing from her voice. "Even if you could just take them out of here, what would you do with them? They have special needs that you don't have the slightest idea about it."

Lindsay doesn't argue, taking comfort in the certainty that she knows a lot better what Cindy needs than this soulless, cold-hearted bitch. It doesn't matter if life made her that way at some point. Making someone else suffer is always a choice, and DeWitt has been choosing it over and over again.

"See, Ms. DeWitt, I think you might be mistaken there." Ashe has still cradled Cindy to him and Lindsay isn't quite sure who of them, Ashe or DeWitt, she hates more at the moment, but still, his statement makes her stop and wonder. Echo said there would be someone on the inside who would help them turn the tables. Ashe? Lindsay can hardly believe it, but he obviously is familiar with this house.

Brenda, her friend from the LA Homicide Department had been her back up plan, but it's not the only one. The past few months, Lindsay has been desperate but not suicidal.

DeWitt shoots Ashe and irritated look. "Get security now, will you?"

"That won't be nessecary," Ashe says calmly. "The situation is very much under control."

Lindsay wishes he'd stop touching Cindy, but she doesn't think she could stand to hear her cry like this again. One way or another, this will be over soon.

"You think?" DeWitt asks icily.

"He's right." Echo comes inside, behind her, the pair of actives Lindsay has already met tonight. "You enjoyed seeing us walking out of here, when you knew you'd only had to pull a few strings and have us right back, didn't you? We'll be leaving for real tonight."

"Where would you go, Echo?"

"As far as I can possibly go from you – Mom."

The look of shock is so profound on Adelle's face that Lindsay almost sympathizes with the woman but one look at Cindy who still clings to Ashe fearfully, makes her reconsider.

"Do you still want to pretend that you saved me? You couldn't do it. No one could do it but myself."

Lindsay has spent enough time in her life around homicidal and suicidal people, and she has learned to identify and separate the two. When Adelle reaches inside the drawer and turns the gun that is inside of there on herself, she is quick enough to grab the womans wrist and wrench her hand away.

The shot goes into the ceiling, glass raining down.

"No way," Lindsay snaps at her. "You won't get away this easily."

When the head of security arrives, it's merely to tell them that the FBI is outside. The look that passes between Echo and the man tells her all she needs to know about who the person on their side has been all along. There has been more than one undercover cop in the Dollhouse.

Distantly, she is aware of Adelle addressing someone with disbelief, "You, too?"

"I wouldn't have missed this for nothing in the world," the woman with the very clear, deep eyes says.

Lindsay tunes out the sights and sounds around her except for the image of Cindy, nearly asleep in the arms of a man she despises.

They are not safe yet.

The End

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