Title: Blind Date
Author: DancingStar
Crossover: PSI Factor/ Sue Thomas FB Eye
Pairing: Connor/ Lindsay, Jack/ Sue
Category: Romance, AU
Rating: 12
Summaries: Lindsay decides to travel to New York City where she wants to meet a man she has never seen before. Too bad just now she´s meeting Connor, her old friend from school, again
Comments: Again, this is a FF which is not about the OSIR or FBI. I hope you like it anyway! This FanFiction is my last story before I travel to Las Vegas in August and I´m really looking forward!
My next FF will be published on August 20th 2011. Until then I wish you a nice, warm and perfect summer! Enjoy and see you soon!
Blind Date
"Would you accompany me to New York City?", Lindsay Donner asked her best friend Sue Thomas while the two women and Sue's hearing dog Levi set off to a small lake on a hot summer day. The two knew each other since Lindsay and her parents moved into the adjoining house when Lindsay was four years old: Her former little dog had run away, so the four year old girl climbed over the neighbors´ fence and asked the blonde girl who was playing with a doll, if she had seen her dog. When the girl replied, little Lindsay wondered how strange she was talking. Afterwards she asked her Mom if something was wrong with Sue. Her mother had been talking to Mrs. Thomas previously and so she explained to her daughter Sue wasn´t able to hear her because she had lost her sense of hearing at the age of eighteen months and at the moment she was learning how to read lips. Her mother also explained because of that Sue knew what she said. Next day, little Lindsay climbed over the fence when she saw Sue playing in the garden. She asked if they should play together and Sue nodded. From then on they were best friends: Sue taught her sign language and Lindsay helped her in school (although Sue didn´t need it) or she was talking to other people on the phone for Sue if no teletypewriter was available. Even today, 26 years after they first met they were inseparable. Sue lived with her parents, who were worried their daughter wouldn´t make it alone. Lindsay also lived still in the house where she grew up, after her parents had died five years ago.
Like many days of their childhood they wanted to spend the day at a small lake. "Why do you want to travel to New York City?", Sue asked while Levi jumped on the back seat of Lindsay's car.
"I´m having a blind date with a man I got to know one year ago on the Internet. We´re in contact with e-mails and I like him very much. He understands me. Therefore we finally decided to meet each other... By the way a blind date is a date when you never saw the other person before, not even in photos."
"I know what a blind date is," Sue said while her best friend drove off, "I can´t believe you want to meet someone you've never seen before. What will you do if you don´t like him?"
"That´s why you´re coming with me: You´re helping me to end the date as soon as possible in this case... Come on, Sue. Aren´t you sometimes tired of how terribly boring life in this sleepy little town is?" The city in which they lived, didn´t offer many attractions. One of the few, boring activities was to spend the summer holidays at the lake. A summer without swimming and ice cream was impossible, even in their little hometown in Ohio.
"No, I like to be here... I´ve never been to New York before."
"Me too, but if it helps, my date doesn´t live New York, too. We have chosen this place by chance as a meeting place."
Sue thought for a moment. She didn´t like the way Lindsay was talking about her date. It sounded as if her best friend didn´t even know the name of her admirer and Sue had to ask: "What´s his name?"
"I don´t know," Lindsay replied and she knew what the next question of her friend was, "We´ll meet at a restaurant in New York and we recognize each other when we both wear a red rose."
"Sounds very cheesy," Sue said, "Did you know Connor is back in town?" She didn´t know why she told Lindsay that her cousin was in town again. Perhaps she hoped then Lindsay changed her mind and didn´t travel to New York. "You´ re wrong: I´m going to travel to New York!," Lindsay said firmly. She steered her car on a highway.
"I was just thinking you'd like to know he's back here. He´s working as a journalist and I know what you want to say now: It´s not true that all journalists are alcoholics."
"I haven´t seen Connor for 14 years." When Lindsay and Connor met for the last time they were 16 years old. At the age of 10 years, Connor moved away with his parents, but he was literally forced to spend the summer holidays with his grandmother, who still lived here. When he came to visit his grandmother for several weeks a year he still met his cousin Sue and her best friend Lindsay. For Lindsay, it was difficult when Connor moved away. She looked forward every year when he came back in the summer holidays. When the old Grandmother Doyle died, Connor and Lindsay were 16 back then, the visits in the summer holidays stopped and since then Lindsay hadn´t met Connor again.
"I met him two months ago at cousin Anya´s wedding", Sue remembered, "And he asked for you by the way."
"What did you tell him?"
"I told him you´re very pretty, still single and you´d like to see him."
"Are you insane!" Lindsay protested, "Surely, he´s already married and has a few kids and..."
"Lindsay, he said he´d like to see you, too, and by the way he isn´t married."
"What about New York?" Lindsay asked now. She slowed she car at the lake.
"Forget New York! You never saw your acquaintance from the Internet before. I´m sure he won´t be angry if you change your mind."
They spent the whole hot summer day at the lake and when they returned in the evening, Lindsay remarked they would not make it back home if she didn´t refuel. So Lindsay stopped at a gas station, filled up the tank and then made their way to the cashier.
"I know the car," Sue noticed, when Lindsay took her wallet from the car. Sue pointed to an old Ford, who was standing a little aloof.
"Maybe you saw a similar car when it was towed to the junkyard. The car looks pretty bad." Lindsay went to the little house to pay for the gasoline without Sue. The cashier was busy at the moment with telling to a person where the Clarkson Street was located. "I´ m sure I haven't lost my way," the man said, "But my navigator wasn´t able to find the Clarkson Street..."
"The Clarkson Street, doesn´t exist anymore since five years," said Lindsay, who had heard the conversation, "It´s now called Fenway Avenue."
The cashier and the man turned around to her. Lindsay gasped: She recognized him immediately. After Sue had told her this morning he was back in town, Lindsay had imagined, how he now might look like and it was very close to the picture she had about him. He looked even better than she had imagined. "Connor?", she asked and he nodded. Now she realized how she knew the old Ford: That was the car in which Grandmother Doyle´s was used to drive through the streets before she died. Meanwhile, the car was definitely a classic.
"Lindsay?", now the dark-haired man recognized her, too, "My goodness, you look fantastic. You are..."
"...Grown up?", she added with a smile before they hugged each other. She was a little embarrassed that she met him just now: She just returned from swimming and her wet hair hung over her shoulders, but she was glad to see him again.
"I' haven´t seen you for so long," he said, when they separated from each other a little. She noticed his hand was still on her waist and she was standing directly in front of him. Through the fabric of her long, colorful summer dress, she could feel its heat. His touch caused a pleasant tingling in her.
"Sue told you are back in town but I didn´t expect to meet you here", she confessed, "Oh, I understand. It was Sue´s idea you meet me here."
"What do you mean?", Connor asked confused, "Sue is here?"
"She's waiting outside in the car. We spent the day at the lake... Now tell me, how are you?"
"Would you pay now, please?", asked the cashier impatiently and Lindsay apologized. She paid for the gasoline and then Connor and Lindsay left the gas station together.
Connor asked her if she had plans for tonight and if she wanted to tell him during dinner how she had spent the last years. He was sure she had lots of stories to tell and he was very happy when Lindsay actually agreed. For a second she had forgotten she wanted to travel to New York.
It was already very late at night, when Lindsay threw tiny pebbles against the window of her best friend. The crickets were chirping and some fireflies flew through the garden. "Sue!", Lindsay whispered, "SUE!"
But then it occurred to her that Sue would not hear her. Furious, she stamped her foot.
"Levi? Levi!," she called now. A few seconds later she saw how in Sue's room the light switched. Sue came to the window and opened it. "What's going on?", Sue asked softly. She wondered what had happened, because Lindsay appeared at her home at that time and she hoped Lindsay's date with Connor was well.
"Pack your things!", Lindsay said to her then she sent it to her in sign language. "We´ll travel to New York."
"We?"
Sue watched how Lindsay walked back and forth annoyed. Now, Lindsay ironically asked in sign language, if she shall come up and maybe help her, but Sue frantically shook her head and reached for a bag which lay under her bed. She stuffed a pair of jeans, three shirts, shoes and some underwear in her bag. In the bathroom next door she got her toilet bag, which she also stuffed in the bag. Then she got dressed, grabbed a sweater and with Levi she slipped out on the dark hallway. Sue felt like an intruder in the house of her parents while she and her dog, crept down the stairs. When she felt how a step creaked under her feet, she stopped until she was sure that her parents were still sleeping. Sue was relieved when she closed the door behind her and then with the bag in her hand and Levi on her side she ran to the car which was waiting with started engine in front of the house. She had no time to stow the bag in the trunk: Sue and Levi literally jumped on the backseat of the car. The vehicle began to move and Sue was amazed that Lindsay wasn´t driving, but her cousin. "Connor, what are you doing here?"
"I´ll accompany you to New York City. While we had dinner Lindsay told me you also want to go there. Therefore, Lindsay decided we hit the road immediately and I will take you with me."
"How long does it take?"
"Don´t worry," Connor answered and because of in the darkness Sue could not see it, Lindsay sent in sign language, "We´ll stop in a motel in the next town. Tomorrow morning we´ll drive on and almost 8 hours later we´ll arrive in New York."
"I should call my parents," Sue began to search in her bag, but she couldn´t find her cell phone. "Oh no, I forgot my cell phone at home," she said.
"We are looking for a phone booth or tomorrow we will call at home from the motel," Lindsay suggested. The ride to the nearest motel took about twenty minutes. When the car stopped in the parking lot and they got out Sue wanted to know if it wouldn´t be wiser to call at home immediately. She feared her parents would probably call the police when they realized she had disappeared.
Lindsay told her she didn´t want to wake Sue´s parents and it was certainly okay when they called tomorrow. For the night each of them moved into a small room in a motel off the highway.
Next morning they set out after breakfast. Sue noticed Lindsay hadn´t called at home and when they were already in the car Lindsay told her, she had forgotten. This was not true, however, the further they were away from home, the better it was for Sue, Lindsay thought. She and Sue had left their hometown for the last time when they visited college and she could do very well without Sue's overprotective parents, which would certainly spare no effort to prevent them from their trip to New York.
"How was your date?," Sue asked in sign language by her best friend. In Connor's presence they shouldn´t talk about the date, that was not very polite.
"Very nice," Lindsay answered, also in sign language and a smile crossed her face.
"Why we drive to New York?", Sue returned. Levi was sitting next to her on the back seat and hackling because of the hot temperatures.
"I can´t decide."
Sue knew exactly what she meant: either her Internet acquaintance or Connor. This was typical.
They finished their conversation and when they reached the border of Ohio, Sue rolled down the window. It was boiling hot in the car. Why was her cousin still driving Grandmother Doyle´s old car? She told him he should better buy a new car with air conditioning. The hot air danced across the street when Lindsay saw smoke rising in the distance. Then she saw a car which was standing at the roadside.
"There´s a man walking on the street," Lindsay sat up in the passenger seat. The man was reasonable when he crossed the road because the hood of his car was opened and was ablaze. Sue saw the car had a license plate from Wisconsin, when they slowly drove past it. The man raised his hands disappointed when he realized they´d pass by without helping him.
"He also wants to travel to New York," Sue told them.
"How do you know...?", Connor began then he apologized. He had forgotten for a moment.
"We should take him with us," Lindsay suggested suddenly.
"We should what?", Connor asked and stepped on the brake. The tires of the old Ford squeaked.
"At least we should help him to extinguish the fire. That's what kind, decent people do."
"And what if he has a gun and shoots me as soon as I get out?", asked Connor back.
"Someday you have to die, anyway," Lindsay replied and Connor and Sue looked at her in horror. They weren´t sure if Lindsay had just said this.
Connor gave in, put the car in reverse and then stopped the old Ford in safer distance from the burning, black Land Rover on the roadside. He got out, slamming the door behind him and went to the strange man who was sitting now on his suitcase.
"I'm Connor," he introduced, "Can I help?"
"I'm Jack, Hi... I already called the fire department and... ", now he saw like a red fire engine raced over a hill at the other end of the road. The firemen extinguished the burning car quickly, but also told him he wasn´t able to drive further with this car. Jack wondered what he should do now and he noticed the two blondes, who now got out and stood behind Connor's old Ford. A Golden Retriever was sitting next to their feet.
"Are these your girlfriends?"
"No. We are just traveling to New York together."
"I want to travel to New York, too. I mean: Before my engine exploded" Jack said, "Would you mind if I travel with you? I take part in the fuel costs..."
"You don´t need to persuade me," Connor replied, "The two girls already did."
Jack followed him to the car and pulled his suitcase behind him. "I'm Jack, hi," he said to Lindsay and Sue when he met them. He stroked Levis head and then they stowed his bag in the trunk.
The interior of the old Ford was now even more heated, but Jack didn´t feel in the position to complain about the lack of air conditioning, when he sat next to Sue and Levi on the back seat.
They were for an hour on the road and Connor had been questioned Jack why he had to New York City. Jack reported he had never been in New York and he always wanted to see the city. Therefore, he had decided to travel and spend his vacation there. He hadn´t expected his car would go catch fire. Jack reported he was a lawyer and Connor and Lindsay were also talking about their jobs. Jack noticed that Sue had been quiet for a while, but she stared thoughtfully out the window. It looked as if she was concerned about something. Even if she was worried she was very pretty, Jack thought.
"Sue, Is everything all right?", Jack wanted to know, but she didn´t answer. Instead, she continued to stare outside the window.
"She´s concerned, because her parents don´t know we´ve set out to New York," Lindsay answered, "Her parents are very caring, especially when it´s about Sue."
Jack didn´t understand and in the rearview mirror Lindsay could see the confusion in his face. "She's deaf," now Lindsay explained, "If you want to talk to her, she must be able to see you. Sue is very good in lip reading... Treat her like anyone else. That's what Sue wants", Lindsay was watching how Jack nodded and he seemed to think about what he could, so he got her attention. He gently grabbed her arm and she actually turned around to him.
"I wanted to know if everything is all right," he confessed, "You look worried."
"It's very nice you´re asking," Sue replied, "I forgot my cell phone at home but I should call my parents."
"Your friends are with you..."
"Actually, I'm her cousin", Connor told, "Lindsay is Sue's best friend."
"Well, your best friend and your friendly cousin are accompanying you..."
"I hate my cousin, to be true", Sue said but she didn´t mean it like that, "In school, he once pulled some of my hair out and told he´d sell it in supermarkets."
"Back then I was eight years old!", Connor yelled indignantly, looking in the rearview mirror.
"But you were VERY mean to us," now even Lindsay agreed.
While she was talking, Connor drove past a small service area, where a restaurant was.
"STOP IMMEDIATELY!", Sue exclaimed excitedly and because Connor didn´t know what had happened, he pushed the brakes as quickly as possible. Sue got out. Levi followed her.
"Wait for me!", Lindsay yelled, who also got out. Connor drove the car to the curb and he and Jack also got out, they opened doors to vent the car.
"Where do they go?", asked Jack while he watched how Sue and Lindsay were squeezed together in an old phone booth.
"Calling Sue's parents," Connor answered, "The two left home at night and Sue´s parents have no idea she´s where she is."
Inside the phone booth, Sue told her mother she, Lindsay and Connor were traveling to New York City. She didn´t tell them about Jack because she knew her mother was alarmed unnecessarily if she learned they had picked up a hitchhiker.
Sue´s Mom explained how shocked she was about this trip and they should return on the spot. "Lindsay, how can you allow Sue is coming with you?", Sue's mother shouted on the phone and Lindsay heard her screaming in anger and sorrow. She would have liked to say she and Sue had talked about the trip and Sue tried to stop her but then her friend came along voluntarily. But Lindsay said nothing: Instead, she hung up the phone and Sue asked what her mother had said.
Lindsay smiled, "She hopes we´re having fun."
Together they left the phone booth. When they returned to the car, Jack asked if everything was all right and Sue nodded. She finally had no idea how abusive her mother had been on the phone.
After another hour of driving the car stopped on a road. Before them were also cars and when Lindsay turned around she saw vehicles stopped already behind them on the road.
"What happened?", she wanted to know and a man who walked beside the car heard her question.
"On the road in front of us there has been a major accident. Forty vehicles are involved. The police are expecting the road will be released in the evening", said the man and Lindsay swore softly. So tonight they wouldn´t reach New York City.
"Oh great," Sue muttered when Lindsay told her what had happened. Sue didn´t notice Jack looked at Levi searchingly. He touched her arm to get her attention: "We should take Levi for a walk. What do you think?", he suggested.
"What, if the jam dissolves while we´re taking the dog for a walk?", she asked.
"That won´t happen," Lindsay said, again with a sunny smile on her face, "Come on, have fun. If the jam dissolves, Connor and I will wait for you. I promise."
Lindsay was relieved when Sue and Jack took Levi for a walk. She had the opportunity to talk to Connor alone. During their date last night she hadn´t dared to question him about a few things. Finally, they haven´t seen each other for 14 years and even if Sue had told her Connor wasn´t married, she wasn´t allowed to assume there was no one special in his life...
Lindsay also got out and sat next to Connor, who was standing in front of the car and leaned at the car´s radiator. "It's pretty hot today," Lindsay said, "You could roast eggs on the hood of your car... You know, new cars have air conditioning... Why are you still driving Grandmother Doyle's old car?"
Connor looked at her and he didn´t believe it was the only thing what worried her.
"It's the only thing which still reminds me of my grandmother", he confessed, "I like the car. He has a certain charm." His grandmother´s house had been sold after her death.
"Why didn´t you come back earlier? I missed you."
"I was busy at work. As a journalist I'm always traveling."
"Is there someone who is close to you?"
"No," the answer came immediately, "There is currently no one who is worth to be mentioned." When Lindsay heard that, she nodded. Connor couldn´t figure out if she nodded understandingly or disappointed. So he added a slight "There is nobody who is worth mentioning, except from you". Then he smiled and got back into the car.
I've been spending all my time
Just thinking about ya
I don't know where to
I think I'm fallin' for you
I've been waiting all my life
And now I found ya
I don't know where to
I think I'm fallin' for you
I'm fallin' for you
As I'm standing here
And you hold my hand
Pull me towards you
And we start to dance
All around us
I see nobody
Here in silence
It's just you and me ("Fallin´ for you" by Colbie Cailat)
They had to wait until the evening, until the police released the road again. In the almost unbearable heat of summer they had used up their water resources and because they had actually expected to stop in a restaurant during the day they had no food with them. Lindsay and Sue complained they were hungry and Connor stopped at a small-lit dinner at a rest stop. Sue giggled when she got out at the little diner and saw an attached sign which offered parking areas for UFOs. Even Jack was amused: He was expecting such a restaurant in Nevada, but not in Pennsylvania.
At this daytime they were the only guests at the restaurant and chose a table by the window. They were watching outside where a summer storm was raging: Suddenly it was rainy and windy and it was also lightning and rumbling. Raindrops where knocking against the window.
"Where do we stay now?", Lindsay asked while she ate a so-called Alien Burger. They hadn´t expected they had to spend another night in a motel. "If I have to pay more money for a motel room I can´t afford the hotel in New York," Sue said. She poked helplessly in her salad. Her account was already overdrawn.
A waitress of the small restaurants told them there was a small, cheap motel behind the restaurant and advised them to spend the night there.
So this evening they moved into their motel rooms on the first floor. Sue and Lindsay shared a room to save money and Connor and Jack were roommates, too.
Sue was sitting on the bed and watching TV. She switched randomly from one channel to another. The TV had only 15 working channels. That was all they could expect for the low room rates. The interior of the motel looked old and the TV itself probably came from the 70s.
Lindsay was next door in the small bathroom that belonged to their accommodation, a twin room, and took a shower. She thought of what Connor had said to her. There was no one to be mentioned in his life, except for her. Gladly would she have asked him what he meant and she wanted to tell him how much she had missed him and how she was frustrated she hadn´t done it. She hadn´t seen him for 14 years, but she had to admit he lost nothing of the charisma he had back then. Lindsay wondered how it was to be with him now. How it was when he put his arms around her and kissed her. "Don´t even think about it. That´s unfair to New York", she ordered her reflection in the mirror, grabbed a hair clip and arranged her wet, blonde hair into a ponytail. Then she got dressed and looked at her reflection again. All this would be much easier, if Connor wasn´t so overwhelming handsome, charming, attractive and...
Lindsay suddenly heard a knock on the door. Levi also barked and a little later Sue opened the door and Connor and Jack entered the room. Jack joked about the fact their room looked just as shabby as his and Connors room and they asked if their shower was out of order, too.
"No, the shower is in order. I´m not sure how long the water is still adequate", Lindsay said. She was standing in the doorway to the bathroom.
"Our shower seems to be broken. I already told the ladies on the reception desk, but they don´t send the caretaker before tomorrow..."
"I doubt if they´ll ever send someone," Lindsay said and sat next to Sue on the bed, "If you don´t mind, you can use our bathroom."
"Thanks," Connor smiled, "I knew I can rely on you." His smile irritated her a moment, her heart skipped a beat.
"The thunder storm is over", Jack told, "Sue, would you take a walk with me and Levi?", he suggested and Sue didn´t mind. A walk was better than 15 uninteresting television programs. Lindsay liked that Jack was apparently attracted to Sue you. There weren´t many men who were seriously interested in her because of her deafness and that´s why she became very cautious. The euphoria when someone asked for a date was gone after she realized sometimes it was just like a test.
Levi jumped excitedly to the door, when Sue took his leash. While Sue noticed how fresh and rainy the air now smelled, they crossed the back yard of the motel which was only lit by the light of a huge pink advertising panel and the full moon.
Jack would then have no problems to talk to her because she was able to see him very well. "Lindsay told me, this is your first trip after a long time", he began the conversation.
"Yes, it was her idea," Sue agreed, "She met someone on the Internet and she wants to meet him now in New York. It´s a blind date... Please don´t tell anyone. Connor doesn´t know."
"She should tell him soon," was Jack's opinion, "He´ll certainly not be happy if he learns about it when we arrived in New York."
"What do you mean?"
"I think Connor likes Lindsay very much. Don´t tell me you haven´t already noticed..."
"Yes, I did. The two would never admit, but they were even in love with each other when they were teenager."
"What about you?", Jack asked when they now walked along a small river.
"I'm not in love with Lindsay nor Connor," she giggled.
Suddenly Jack stopped. "Actually, I wanted to ask if you´re having a boyfriend..."
"No."
"Then I have quite good chances", when he past her he gave her a gentle nudge and asked for a contest: Jack picked up two little stones from the ground and she should throw it into the river as far as she could. "What's my reward if I win?", she asked and took the stone.
"You can have my breakfast, 100 white tulips or whatever you want." She already had his admiration and affection, Jack thought.
He threw the first stone and the stone splashed in the water in the middle of the river. Next, Sue threw her stone and she noted right away she won, Jack had lost the game and he didn´t look happy about it. Levi barked in agreement.
"I don´t know yet what I choose as a reward," Sue said proudly, "If I know something, I´ll tell you on the spot." She laughed and it was more a reflex when she held out her hand for Jack so that he went back to the motel with her and Levi. Sue was amazed he actually grabbed her hand and they went together to the motel. That was strange, she though: She knew Jack since a few hours but he had something she couldn´t resist. It was difficult to find out what exactly were his intentions.
They reached the parking lot of the motel and before they went up the stairs to the first floor, Sue held him back. "Remember on what I´ve told you," she asked him, "Connor doesn´t know about Lindsay's Internet friend."
"...This is a little late, don´t you think?", Jack suddenly heard Connors voice.
"I'm afraid she already told him," Jack wanted to go up the stairs, but Sue held him back again: "Why? Did he say something?" Jack remembered she couldn´t hear and so he repeated Connors words for her. They stirred up the stairs to their rooms and watched how Connor was walking around excited in Lindsay's and Sue's room. His face looked very angry. "Why haven´t you told me you are not interested?", he grumbled and Sue wondered what had probably happened while she and Jack were walking.
Connor left the room angry and slammed the old wooden door behind him. "I´ll talk to him," Jack promised and also left the seedy motel room now. Sue and Lindsay were alone.
"Please don´t ask what happened," Tears welled up in Lindsay's eyes as she sat on the bed, "I told him the real reason why I want to go to New York." She buried her face in her hands.
"I didn´t understand," Sue said and sat down beside her. Because Lindsay hid her face, she wasn´t able to see what she said.
"I told him why I want to go to New York," Lindsay repeated and began to weep and sob, "I told him about my blind date and he said he was disappointed… Sue, I guess he hates me."
"No, it´s not true," Sue put an arm comforting around her best friend, "Do you remember Connor and you were already inseparable when you were children?"
"Yes, I remember that."
"When you went to college, he also applied there but he missed the deadline and had to go to another college. And do you remember when we talked in school about how our dream man should be. When you said the man of your dreams had to like horses, Connor was talking to you just about horses after class on the way home."
"I remember that, too," she admitted, "That was very sweet."
"You know, I think he loves you. I can see... Maybe you should talk to Connor. You both are the most important people to me and I want you to be happy."
Lindsay thought about Sue's words and nodded. Her friend was right. So she got up and followed Connor, who was now standing on the balcony of his room. She asked Jack if he would leave them alone for a while and so Jack left the room.
She came to him and also leaned on the balcony´s railing. Connor didn´t speak a word to her, he stared into the empty back yard of the motel where the guests had parked their cars. "I haven´t told you I want to meet someone in New York, from who I think he would be the perfect partner for me. I'm sorry I wasn´t honestly to you", she apologized and heard how Connor took a deep breath.
"How would you react if I do this to you?"
"If... If you react like what?"
"I love you, Lindsay. I love you for so long, long time before I moved away with my family and I have never stopped. Meeting you again, showed me what I miss and what I want. It´s not fair you treat me like that", Connor left the balcony and entered the motel room. He was angry and didn´t notice how confused Lindsay was.
"I'm going to travel back home," he said, "I´ll give my car keys to Sue and I travel back by bus or train."
"Don´t do that", he could hear Lindsay's voice suddenly far behind: she had entered the motel room, too, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Please stay."
"Don´t ask me to stay, I..." He got no further, because suddenly she pulled him close and kissed him. He was surprised and he didn´t know how to react. When her lips once again touched his, he wrapped his arms around her and returned the kiss.
"I don´t want to travel to New York anymore," she murmured, "I want you." She didn´t feel able to interrupt the wonderful kiss. She wanted more, a lot more of him. She had sometimes wondered what could have happened if Connor hadn´t moved away 14 years ago. Perhaps they would become a couple and it could be just as now.
"We can´t," Connor whispered amused, "Jack also lives in this room."
She nodded. Lindsay had almost forgotten.
"It´s a shame I can´t spend the night with you," he told her, "But you're the reason why I stay and don´t travel back to Ohio earlier."
He saw how relieved she was. Connor took her to the door and kissed her again. He noticed Jack wasn´t waiting out here, as he had actually expected. "Where's Jack?", he asked.
"I don´t know," Lindsay smiled, "I told him he should leave us alone for a while. What he does in that time, I have no idea." She could see how he thought and he finally grabbed her hands, pulled her into the room again and told her they urgently needed to talk to each other.
Jack sat all night on the foot of the stairs and waited. He didn´t know for what, but he suspected he was waiting for Connor, who would tell him he had talked Lindsay.
He was surprised when Sue came to him after half an hour, sat down next to him, wrapped her arms around him and leaned her head on his shoulder. Levi also sat next to him.
"Is everything all right?", he asked and she nodded. They stayed together, sitting on the stairs, until the morning came. They would catch up the missed sleep in the car when they covered the rest distance to New York.
Sue was a bit asleep when someone touched her shoulder and woke her. It was Lindsay. She looked more relaxed and happier than yesterday.
"Will you come for breakfast?", Lindsay asked, "We´ll leave in one hour." The weather was perfect today, sunny and warm.
"We drive it to New York?", Sue asked. She was still a little tired and didn´t notice she held Jack's hand and was nestling on his shoulder. He also woke up slowly.
"Connor has professional reasons for traveling to New York, remember... And Jack wanted to spent his holiday in New York", she recalled. She didn´t want to drive to New York anymore and meet her Internet friend: rather, she wanted to be with Connor and when he had complied with his obligations, he wanted to show her the city.
"Come on, you two!," repeated Lindsay. Sue and Jack got up slowly form the stairs and Jack realized this was a very uncomfortable place to sleep. He grabbed Sue's hand when she wanted to leave and pulled her to him. At that moment a tall, strong man pushed both to the side. They noticed immediately the alcohol breath which came out of his mouth. Levi barked and the man took out his foot and pushed the dog away rudely.
"Hey," Jack called, the man threw his half-empty wine bottle angry on the stairs and wanted to punch against Sue. Jack stood between them he received the punch of the man and fell to the ground. While the drunken man walked up the stairs a very worried Sue helped Jack to get up. Lindsay returned from the front desk and she had seen what happened. She hurried to get to Jack and Sue. "Are you hurt?", she asked,
Jack sniffed and touched his face.
"No," he said, "I'm not hurt very bad... I once broke my nose and I know how it feels."
"That was very brave. I've never met a man who risked breaking his nose for me", Sue admitted, "I think I now know what´s my reward for the pebble-competition last night", she told him, placed her hands gently on his cheeks and kissed him carefully. Jack was surprised so he couldn´t return her kiss in time and he looked amazed when she released him. She and Lindsay wanted to pick up Connor and then they wanted to have breakfast.
"I can hear the bells," Lindsay sang when they walked together up the stairs and Sue gave her a horrified pat on the arm.
Their time in New York was amazing and wonderful: Jack and Connor showed them the interesting places of the city before they drove back to Ohio together. They reached the small town where they lived very late at night. Today it was even warm at night, when Connor's old Ford stopped in front of Lindsay's house. They wanted to say goodbye to each other here. If the car stopped in front of the house of the Thomas family, it wouldn´t take long until they were noticed by Sue's parents.
"How long will you leave town?", Lindsay asked anxiously and threw her arms around Connor, after she had left the car.
"I´ll come back as soon as possible", he put his arms around her," I won´t let you go again, Lindsay. The last 14 years were a waste of time without you."
When Sue got out of the car and reached her hand for Jack, she looked worried at her parents' house. In the kitchen light was switched on, but she was sure they couldn´t be seen from there. "I don´t want you to leave me," she said and Jack turned around to her a little surprised. It was not his intention to say goodbye after he they spent such a fantastic time in New York. For example they had been walking together in Central Park, where he kissed her lovingly. He was convinced it wasn´t only a great kiss for her. Jack never felt something beautiful and unique like this before and he knew she was special. Suddenly he was thinking about things he never thought about before. "I know how you feel," Jack grabbed her hands, "I can´t and I won´t let you go." His promise to come back to her filled her with an indescribable feeling of happiness.
He let go her hands, stroked her cheek and then he kissed her as softly as he could. He almost felt how she melted away in his kiss and her heart beat summersaults. "I love you," she whispered and returned his kiss.
They didn´t note how the front door at the house of the Thomas family opened and Sue's parents came out on the porch. First and foremost they had to make sure that Sue came back from New York in perfect health and when they saw her in this man´s arms, Sue's mother wanted to run to them. Her father held his wife by the arm. "Stay," he whispered, "She looks very happy... You were worried for no reason."
"I can´t believe what you say!"
"She would have never met him in our town. When Lindsay called us, you said you hate her. In this case you should be grateful. Maybe Sue should travel more often to New York with Lindsay. After all, our daughter found someone she loves. I think he will make her very happy."
Fin