Disclaimer: Still belong to CBS.
Author's note: This is part 4 of my series, enjoy. Spoilers for Heroes
Side Note: To dispel any negative thoughts I want to state for the record that I was very much a fan of Aiden Burn but I am also a fan of Lindsay. I was always hoping to see the two of them meet but sadly that will not happen now.
Parallel Lives
By
Rogue Amazon Boo
Lindsay Monroe had experienced some very surreal moments in the short time she had lived in New York, but this, well she figured Plutarch would have had a field day with this. She leaned back in her chair and listened as Danny told another story and at the end she held her beer aloft with everyone else.
She studied her co-workers faces as they toasted. It was perhaps the most deeply heartfelt and saddest toast that she had ever had the pleasure to participate in.
It was to Aiden Burn.
The toast done her co-workers, her friends, lowered their glasses and Danny launched into another story about the young woman that they had all admired.
The young woman she had replaced.
Lindsay had the strangest sensation right then of being a part of them and at the same time, not a part of them. She was quiet, observing, and she could see Aiden's face in her minds eye. She found that she wanted to absorb everything they were saying about the young woman and internalize it, make it a part of her as well.
She had been beautiful and Lindsay consoled herself with the fact that she had played a small part in collecting the evidence to send her killer to jail. She knew though that they never would have gotten to Pratt if it hadn't been for Aiden and the clue she left.
Lindsay couldn't imagine the kind of courage that had taken. She wondered if she would have been able to stare her own death in the face like that and still have the presence of mind to leave something behind to catch the bastard who killed her.
It had been a horrible death too. Pratt had beaten her bloody in the back of that stolen Cadillac and then he had burned her body. The fact that Pratt had been able to kill such a remarkable and vital woman left Lindsay nauseous and cold.
She also felt a sense of regret that she had never been able to meet Aiden, to speak with her, because as she listened she felt that she really would have liked her.
This wasn't the first time she had felt a kinship with the young woman. She had her own little obsession with D.J. Pratt, although it hadn't been nearly as evolved as Aiden's had been. She was also still nursing her obsession over Sara Butler.
She would give almost anything to know why Vackner had done it and those ghosts haunted her. How much worse must have Aiden's ghost been that she had hunted Pratt for nearly eight months?
As she looked around at her co-workers who were all making a brave attempt at laughing to keep from crying, she wondered how many ghosts they carried. They were all more experienced CSIs and although she had seen her share of horrors she hadn't carried near as many with her as she did now.
She found that she was really starting to care about all of them very much and she admired their dedication. She remembered Stella's face when they were processing the car. She would have torn that Cadillac down to microscopic pieces to find evidence to nail Aiden's killer.
Lindsay felt cheated that she couldn't meet the woman who could evoke that kind of loyalty and righteous anger in the older CSI. It had truly been a sight to behold.
Danny had launched into yet another story, this one about a case they had worked together in Central Park involving a dead living statue, but before he could really get started Mac and Hawkes waved him off. They both had to be getting home and Mac promised that he would let everyone know once the arrangements had been made for Aiden's memorial service.
Danny seemed disappointed but he toughed it out with a grin. Flack's beeper went off a few minutes later and he also had to go. He ended up taking Stella with him. That left only her and Danny. He had gone quiet and she could tell that he was thinking about Aiden but this time it was in death and not life.
Making a decision she downed the last of her beer and grabbed his hand. His head jerked because she had startled him and he met her gaze with a question in his eyes.
"Come on. Let's go for a walk," she said and tugged on his hand. He frowned but nodded and allowed her to pulling him from the table and outside. They started off down the street both lost in their own thoughts and comfortable with the silence that had fallen. It made them feel peaceful, which was something that neither of them had felt for a while now. It was Danny who broke that peace.
"You were awful quiet back there Montana," he said, and it was as good as a question. She shrugged her shoulders and hugged herself, suddenly feeling cold.
"It seemed more important to listen," she said. He shot her a puzzled look.
"How's that?" She stopped and turned to face him, her eyes boring in to his.
"Working this case I found that I really was profoundly sorry that I never got to meet her. Listening to you all talk about her, well it sort of felt like a connection and I wanted that."
She turned back around and started walking again and in a few minutes Danny caught up with her. He fell back into step with her.
"You would' a liked her," he whispered and Lindsay gave a small laugh.
"You sound just like Stella." He smirked and then grew sober again.
"She would' a liked you. She even sorta wanted to meet ya," he said and she stopped him with a light touch on his arm.
"You talked about me?" He nodded and started walking again, this time she fell into step beside him.
"Me and Aiden, we talked about almost everything. She was a good friend, Montana. I just don't know why she didn't…"
He couldn't continue but Lindsay already knew what he wanted to say. He was wondering why Aiden had never said anything to him about her private investigation of Pratt. She could also tell that he was blaming himself for not knowing and torturing himself with the what ifs. He would need to talk about that sometime soon but Lindsay knew that he couldn't handle opening such a wound right now.
"Tell me some more stories about her," she requested. Her request seemed to do the trick and allowed him to pull away from the overwhelming guilt, at least for a little while.
"There was this one time…" He started and kept up a steady stream of conversation. One story led to another and then another and soon they were sitting outside of an all night coffee shop drinking lattes.
She let him talk and listened intently, allowing Aiden Burn's life to blend and meld with her own. She would never be able to know the young lady whose place she had taken but thanks to Danny she would at least have some memories. She also wanted to help Danny and she knew that he needed to talk right now. He needed to remember his best friend the way she had been in life and Lindsay would listen to him talk all night if needs be.
She may not have been Aiden's friend, or even her co-worker but that didn't stop Lindsay from feeling connected to the young woman. She had a feeling that this was one of the mysteries of New York. It was a city of ghosts that never forgot and she knew that from the moment she started working on the evidence that Aiden's would forever march with her, despite the fact that they were as different as two women could be.
That was the beauty of parallels and that was the curse.
Fin