Lindsay glanced up at the sign of the restaurant, 'Amore' dimly lit in red, and she smiled. Upon walking into the restaurant she felt a wave of flashbacks. Danny had taken her here when they had dinner to celebrate her promotion, then again for their first official date. Most recently, he had taken her there for a surprise birthday dinner. Amore had that feel, it was meant for lovers. Being decorated with romantic deep purple wallpaper, with candles glowing on each table – casting a beautiful glow onto the silver photo frames and the maroon tablecloths. Lindsay found their normal table, sat quite near the window and opposite a wall trail of roses. She had been asked meet Danny there, he said we need to "talk".
"Hey" She greeted him as he walked in, leaning in for a kiss as he sat down but he blanked the obvious request, "I, uh, ordered you a beer, should be here soon"
Lindsay knew Danny didn't particularly like the small talk but after he didn't kiss her she felt she had to do something to try to make this uncomfortable atmosphere between them go.
"Thanks"
More silence passed. Danny's beer arrived, and he drunk some of that for a while. All the time Lindsay did not take her eyes off him. The CSI in her was on overdrive right now.
"Danny" She took the lead, breaking the silence, "What's happened to us?"
Everything about her showed concern. Normally, she would put on a smile, and he would do the same. They used to get through the days like that. Smile here, kiss there. Keeping up the show for their colleagues. After the time he spent chasing her, and their epic romance when the mob could have killed him, they felt it was too hot a topic to just break up.
"We used to spend so much time together, and I mean proper time outside of work. Every night I'd be round yours, normally having some fun under the covers. Now what do we do? We watch TV in bed. If that. We used to sit in this very restaurant, and talk about our future together, we'd never stop talking about it, now we hardly ever talk at all."
Danny just nodded all the time she was talking. Considering it was him who initiated the 'talk' she was doing an awful lot of talking.
"Do you remember that holiday we went on a while ago? I mentioned to you once that I wanted to go to France, then the next day you had be at the airport and we were on our way. I wish we could just do that again, but this baggage we've got would ruin it for us"
"Linds, I dunno" He began in this newly adopted monotonous voice.
"-What to say" She interrupted "I know, I've heard this all before. Maybe you will know what to say when I've finished" This time she was firm. Her voice had changed from the soft tone he was used to. "Danny, I used to be your world; that's not just me being bigheaded either, you told me that soon after we first got together. 'Montana, you're my everything' were your exact words. The reason I remember them is because you've not said anything like them ever since. I want the Danny who flew out to meet me in Montana. When you flew out there, you knew I would be walking a tightrope, but you were still there to catch me. Now you need someone, and I would love to be there for you. Why can't you love me like you used to love me"
Her voice cracked, this talk had possibly been one of the hardest she had ever had to endure, but she was determined to finish what she was saying.
"When you used to love me"
A few tears ran down her cheek. She felt Danny didn't have to do much, just let her back in. it seemed as though he had put up walls. Looking at him, analysing his face, she saw nothing. There was not even a flicker of emotion. Danny was extremely good at hiding what he was feeling normally, but this was not even a façade. He really felt nothing.
"Linds" He waited a few seconds, trying to gather his words, "I have been wanting to tell you this for a while now, and now seems like the perfect time. You're right, when Ruben died, I did need someone to go to, and a I found that person somewhere else. I still love you, but not in the way I used to, the way you want me to. Someday, you're going to wake up and realise 'he doesn't deserve me', and by then, I would have lost you anyway. You need to be with someone who can treat you like a princess, and who does remember your birthdays; not someone who needs to go to someone else to find comfort"
"Danny, please, spit it out. I can't take not knowing whether you're going to finish with me", She pleaded, looking him deep in the eyes.
"I'm sorry. We're done. I've got something good going with Rikki"
Danny didn't even have the heart to look her in the eyes when he was breaking up with her, nor when he got up from his chair and left the restaurant. Lindsay just looked on, the best thing in her life since she moved to New York had just walked out on her, and she wanted to shoot both him and Rikki.
Sometime before going back to the lab and leaving the restaurant, she started her revenge plot.