For JaydenBell. She inspired my muse.
By the way, I know virtually nothing about baseball so if I have mortally offended anyone with the following piece I do apologise. I also have an essay due in tomorrow that is down about 2000 words. I have come to the conclusion that it wont be finished on time. So I've decided to work on this instead.
Stella wasn't one to be often at a lose for words, but Lindsay's admission had left her gaping. She stood stock still as the young CSI passed her and headed down the hallway.
Flack on the other hand, was having a hard time keeping the smile off his face. He was obviously failing in his attempts, as once Stella had glared at Hawkes for laughing, she rounded on him.
"And what exactly, are you smirking at?"
Flack raised his hand to his chest. "Me?" he asked in mock surprise.
Stella brushed past him then, muttering something about 'men'. He glanced after her before turning to Hawkes, the expression on his face clearly reading 'is she for real?'
Hawkes just laughed before following the First Grade Detective from the locker room and down to the waiting SUV.
They had a crime scene to get to.
Lindsay should have known that her reaction to Stella's questioning would only cause the other woman to be more persistent in her attempts to discover Lindsay's mystery man.
Mystery man, Lindsay scoffed to herself as she headed towards the break room for lunch a few days after the encounter. Thankfully, her and Hawkes had been busy with their Hudson floaters for the last few days and she had been able to avoid Stella. The other woman hadn't given up though, and when her own case had been at a stand still, she had been sending Lindsay little text messages asking her about eye colour, job title and shoe size of her beaux. For research purposes only she said.
Lindsay had ignored them all. Which had only made Stella even more determined.
Turning the corner she came upon the break room door, pushing it open and stepping in. Once she realised who was sitting at one of the tables, she quickly tried to retrace her steps before she was noticed. But it wasn't to be.
"Lindsay!" Stella called out, her eyes instantly going wide and smile appearing on her face. This was just the opportunity she had been waiting on all week.
Hawkes and Flack who where sitting with her, looked up and both smiled at Lindsay. One in a friendly manner, the other with a mischievous glint.
Sighing deeply because she knew what was coming, Lindsay walked over to their table and took a seat between Stella and Hawkes, opposite Flack. The blue eyed detective cut his eyes at her briefly before turning his gaze back to his lunch, continuing to wolf it down.
"So," Stella began as Lindsay unpacked her lunch. "Have fun last night?"
"Last night?" Lindsay queried, not rising to Stella's bait. Somehow the older woman had clearly known that she had not been home last night and was trying to find out where she had been.
"Uh huh," Stella nodded.
"I was not out last night," Lindsay insisted before silently adding to herself, 'we stayed in actually'.
"If you'll just tell me who it is, even just a first name, I'll let it go" Stella almost begged, leaning further across the table. "Promise."
"Right. I've had enough," Lindsay said, slamming her hands down on the table. "Flack, tell her where I was last night."
Flack, who had just taken a bite out of his sandwich, promptly choked and Hawkes had to hit him on the back.
With his face rather red face and tears pooling in his eyes, he looked at her.
"Eh, at my place," he offered.
Lindsay turned to Stella triumphantly. "Watching Baseball."
"She right Stella," Flack added, catching on to Lindsay's game. "She even fell asleep on my couch. I still have the drool mark to prove it."
"There," Linsay said triumphantly, turning to Stella after hitting Flack on the shoulder for his comment. "Now, unless you you're going to suggest that I'm sleeping with Flack, can you please let this whole thing go."
Stella looked long and hard at Lindsay, before throwing her head back and letting out a full bodied laugh.
Lindsay, Flack and Hawkes sat silently as Stella laughed herself silly. Every time she managed to calm herself down, she caught a look at one of her colleges faces and she was away again.
"Cheers Stel," Flack said.
"I'm sorry," Stella gasped, wiping tears away from her eyes. "Its just the idea…of the two of you…" and she was off again.
"What's wrong with Flack?" Lindsay asked.
"Yeah," Flack began. "What's wrong with…hey!" he said, turning to Lindsay, who just smiled at him and he couldn't help but smile back.
"You couldn't see the two of them dating?" Hawkes asked Stella, completely missing the look the other two at the table where giving one another.
Stella continued to shake her head, chuckling. "Can you?"
Hawkes shrugged his shoulders before going back to his lunch. Stella closed her eyes for a moment before turning to Lindsay. "Ok," she said. "Fine. Don't tell me."
She stood up, packing up her rubbish before pushing her chair in and heading towards the door. "But I expect to get to know him before the wedding day." And she left, taking with her the comfortable feeling in the room as Flack's jaw dropped and Lindsay took the opportunity to steal a French fry.
He looked sharply at her and she merely winked at him.
"So what did you think about it?" Hawkes asked when Stella had left and silence had fallen at her parting comments.
"Huh?" Flack murmured as he watched Lindsay dip a fry in some sauce and bring it to her lips.
"The game?"
"Oh," Flack said, cutting a quick glance at Lindsay who was busy licking the sauce from her lips. "The play by play action was good."
"Really?" Lindsay said before Hawkes could respond. She swiped another fry. "I thought the homerun was pretty awesome myself."
"Which one?" he asked, looking directly at her, and as their eyes met he knew that they were on the same page. It amazed him that after such a short time together, they where able to know what the other was talking about. Even when the true topic of the conversation was masked by that of Baseball.
She pretended to think about it. "All of them where pretty amazing."
"Yeah? I enjoyed the last one the best. There's something about the last homerun of an evening that really ignites something in you."
She raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought that after the last homerun, they'd be too tired to do anything but go home and sleep."
"Give it a short break and I'm sure they'll be able to get right back into it." He told her.
Lindsay nodded as she contemplated this. "I'll remember to bear that in mind."
Hawkes sat almost unnoticed by either of them. A thoughtful expression on his face.
Probably definitely the end. I have more fics planned.
Watch out for Hunger. That's when Stella finds out for sure.
