Change of Heart
Chapter 2: Three's a Crowd
After a few minutes of peaceful silence, she glanced his way. "Thanks Flack." She said finally, not really knowing what else to say.
He made a dismissive face and gave her a shrug. "Not a problem. I'm just sorry about Messer." He told her, offering her a small smile.
She smiled a little. "Can we… Not talk about Danny for a bit? I'd like the last few minutes before work to be Danny-free." She confessed with a slight chuckle. It was good to laugh, it felt cathartic.
He started to chuckle but the noise died in his throat. "Um, Linds…" He trailed off, pointing to someone slightly off in the distance. Danny. He was leaning against the building, head resting on the hard stone.
Flack stopped short. "Damn it." He muttered, shaking his head.
She turned to look at him, treating him to a questioning glance. "We had plans this morning to get coffee. He texted me yesterday telling me he'd be back today and asked if I wanted to grab a bite and some coffee." He explained, feeling a little bad for standing his friend up, but not as bad as he probably should. Probably because he's an ass.
"Oh… Flack, I'm sorry. You should have said something." She replied, instantly feeling bad about eating into his time with his friends, no matter who they were.
"Don't worry about it. He's not the best breakfast companion anyways." He confessed, keeping his eyes ahead of him.
"I'll just go in the back." She said as they approached Danny, who didn't appear to have noticed them yet.
She made a move to break left but a strong hand wrapped around her upper arm. "Don't. Don't let him affect you like this. Don't change. Just keep going. The best thing you can do for yourself at this very moment is not let him get to you." Don told, having spun her to face him. His tone was low and serious. He meant what he was saying.
She took a calming breath slowly nodded her head. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction. She'd keep going, hold her head high. Danny Messer wasn't going to spend one night with her and turn her world upside down. She wouldn't allow it.
He released her arm. She smoothed her hands down her outfit, brushing off the invisible lint. He watched her square her shoulders and exhale soundly.
Once she appeared to be ready, they resumed their walk. It wasn't but a few moments later that they came upon Danny. She knew they wouldn't be able to just walk by him, but he picked his up off the cool concrete and came face to face with Flack and Lindsay before either of them could even say anything.
To say he hadn't been expecting to see the two of them together would have been quite an understatement. "Morning." He choked out awkwardly.
"Morning." They replied in unison. They all stood there a moment longer, the awkward silence felt overwhelmingly obvious.
"Hey, man, I forgot about breakfast. I ate on the way." Flack told Danny as the three of them started to the building, Flack wisely placing himself between Danny and Lindsay.
"No prob. I'll just grab something from the break room." Danny said as he started to grab the door to hold it open for Lindsay.
Flack was a bit closer and a bit quicker and he got a hold of the door first, swinging it open for her. She smiled her appreciation and stepped through. Danny came up to him, an irate expression on his face.
"Hey, don't look at me that way. I'm not the one who dumped her." Flack hissed at the smaller man.
"When...?" Danny trailed off, now confused as to how Flack already knew he'd broken it off with Lindsay.
"Later." Don returned as he made his way through the door to catch up with Lindsay, leaving Danny to lag behind, a bit confused.
The elevator ride was quiet, all three of them at a loss for words. It was Lindsay could do to keep from fidgeting. She was in the far right corner of the elevator, Flack was in the other, and Danny stood a foot or so in front of them, towards the middle.
Flack glanced her way. Her hands were gripping the side rails tight enough to turn her slender fingers white. Her face was a little flushed and she seemed to forget to breathe every so often.
He kept one eye on Danny as she slid his left hand over to her right one and gently began prying her fingers off the rail.
After a moment, she got what he was going. She looked up at him. He mouthed the word 'breathe' at her as she slowly released her other hand. She closed her eyes for a moment and focused on breathing normally.
Then, as if to answer her unspoken prayer, the elevator dinged at the 16th floor. Danny stepped off first, and made a beeline for the kitchen.
"You did good Monroe." Flack told her as she stepped off after collecting herself.
"Thanks. And again, thanks for your help." She said, resting a hand briefly on his bicep, not surprised to find hard muscle underneath his suit.
"Stop thankin' me. But I gotta go, briefing with Mac." He told her, holding up a case file and flashed her a grin as she headed to the locker room.
He delivered the case file and answered a few follow up questions and headed out, needing a second cup of coffee.
He strode casually into the break room, not noticing Danny's lanky frame sprawled out on the couch in the far corner.
Flack quickly poured a cup of black coffee and took a sip. Just as he set it down, Danny spoke up.
"How did you know?" Came his voice from the corner, startling the hell out of Don.
Flack turned to his friend and leaned up against the counter, folding his arms in front of him.
"She told me." He returned evenly, holding Danny's eye contact.
Danny sat up. "When? Did she call you?" He questioned, more curious than anything else.
Don did his best to keep from showing his frustration with his friend. Guess he doesn't realize he lost the right to ask questions when he dumped her.
"No, she wouldn't do that. I ran into her this morning on the way in. She looked upset. So I bought her coffee and a donut and she told me you broke up with her." Flack told him, bringing his coffee to his lips.
"What did you say?" Danny asked, all of a sudden feeling a strong need to know what the conversation entailed. Not to mention the small part of him that was unhappy that his best friend was buying his ex-girlfriend breakfast.
"God, what is this, high school? Do you have a note you want me to pass along too? You do realize you don't really have the right to ask questions, right?" Flack shot back, exasperated.
Danny sat there, not speaking because he knew that despite how pissed off Flack was, he would tell him eventually, mostly because Flack never keep these kinds of things to himself, especially when it involved teaching Danny a lesson. Not that I ever bother to take anything from it…
"I told her I should have warned her and I was sorry. She told me I wasn't responsible. I said it probably would never have worked between the two of you, she agreed and that was that. End of that conversation and hopefully the end of this one." Flack said, hoping to make his exit.
"What? You warned her? You didn't think it would work out? Neither did she? Wait…" Danny called, jumping off the couch and following.
Flack rolled his eyes to the ceiling and cursed under his breath. "Look, the bottom line is you just can't deal with a girl like her. That's fine man, not a big deal. She gets it. We all get it. Can I go now?" the detective asked, hoping Danny was done interrogating him.
Danny nodded absently as he digested Flack's words. Even though he knew Flack was right, and despite the fact that he'd basically told Lindsay exactly what the homicide detective had just told him, he couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't like hearing it. Not that he had right to feel that way, given what he'd done less than 24 hours earlier.
If I can't handle her… Why do I feel like I made a big mistake?
And that's chapter 2 ladies. I hope you're enjoying it!