I've been trying to let you know
So come close, this is who we are
Come on, you can show yourself
So come close, this is who we are
Come on, you can be yourself again

Cindy opened her eyes and smiled at Lindsay, who was gently running her hand over the small baby bump. "Did you sleep well?" She whispered, moving her hand from her stomach to hold her hand. Cindy nodded. "What time is your doctor's appointment?"

"Three." She said, her voice quiet. It amazed Lindsay how over the past three months the reporter had actually slowed down. She didn't talk as much and she didn't have the urge to go running around. She was taking her doctors advice to heart. Lindsay knew it was only a matter of appointments before the doctor said the dreaded words 'bed rest.' "You going to drive me, or do you have some cop business to do?"

"I don't know yet. If I can get away by two-thirty, then yeah, I will be back here to drive you. If not, I guess you are on your own." She replied, kissing Cindy's forehead. "But I do have to get my butt out of bed and go. You keep off your feet as much as possible. Go park it in front of the TV like you normally do. Got it?"

"Affirmative. Love you."

"Love you too." Lindsay said, kissing her then pulling herself off of the bed as Cindy rolled back onto her side to try and get some more sleep. She rolled over again as she heard the front door close twenty minutes later. She knew sleep wasn't going to hit her so she gently got herself out of bed and decided to scour the kitchen for something to eat. There was a knock on the door, and she cautiously moved to the hallway. Jill, Claire and Jacobi were the only people who actually showed up to check on her, and all three of them were at the Hall. She slowly opened the door and smiled at Arik.

"Hey. Sorry I haven't called you in a few days. Lindsay has been over my shoulder all weekend." She said, stepping aside so he could come in.

"I figured that." He stopped and ran his hand over her stomach. "When do you find out if it is a boy or a girl?"

"In about a month." She said, leading him into the living room. "Were you like, staking the house out waiting for her to leave?"

"Actually, I just stopped by. I was relieved to see that she had left. I didn't want to imagine the chaos that would ensue if she answered the door." He sat on the couch and Cindy placed herself next to him. "How are you?"

"I am doing as good as can be expected. Linz and I both know that sometime in the next two months the doctor is going to throw out the words bed rest. Which means I get to do less than I do now."

"I can always come keep you company during the day." He said, smiling at her.

"Neighbors might mention a strange man coming over every day to Linz, and then she would blow up and come kill you then come kill me." She replied. "Look, I know that you want to be a part of this baby's life, and I want you to as well, but I already know that if I tell that to Lindsay, then she is gonna pull away from me again, and we just started working things out. Maybe it would be best if you don't come around, and I don't call you. I don't want to lose her again because you saw what it did to me last time. I don't want to go through that again." She whispered. Arik was quiet as he looked at her, and then looked around the apartment and noticed that it was obvious Cindy was living here. It looked too organized for just Lindsay. He wrapped his arms around Cindy for a moment then silently left the house.

-----

"Cindy, I want you to meet Jill and myself at the hospital." Claire said, her voice calm. She didn't want to stress out the woman. "Don't ask questions now, and do not worry about it. Just meet us there." She waited for Cindy's confirmation and then disconnected. She grabbed Jill's hand. "How serious is this?" She whispered.

"Luke said she was in pretty bad shape. From the sound of it, when she gets out, she and Cindy get to spend some of the bed rest time together. The drawback is that Linz will be in no shape to protect them if Arik shows up in a rage."

"What set him off? Cindy said he was doing so well."

"Maybe we will have to ask Cindy that." Jill said, looking up as Luke walked over. "Well?"

"She is going to be fine. She has a minor concussion, and a lot of bruises, but she should be all good to go home in a couple days." He said, smiling at them. He walked off and ten minutes later Cindy rushed into the waiting room.

"What the hell?" She asked, catching her breath.

"Arik attacked Linz." Jill said, sitting the redhead down.

"What?" She asked, her voice hollow. "No, he changed. He wouldn't do that. He was fine this morning when I saw him and told..Oh God." She said, putting her head in her hands. Claire knelt in front of her. "He came by this morning. And I told him that it wouldn't be good for him to stick around. Lindsay wouldn't like it if she knew I wanted him to be in his baby's life. He seemed fine when he left. Did I make him do this? Did he think that I was trying to tell him that if Lindsay was out of the way that he could be in.."

"Cindy, you had nothing to do with this. He is a bad person. Bad people don't change. You couldn't have done anything to prevent this." Jill said. She looked up as Luke came back over. He whispered something into her ear and Jill grabbed Cindy's hand. "Come on." She whispered, pulling Cindy along with her down a hallway. She gently pushed open a door and let Cindy enter the room. The redhead choked back tears when she saw Lindsay. She turned around to see Jill standing in the hallway. The blonde woman nodded and then closed the door. Cindy turned back towards Lindsay, who was watching her silently.

"I'm so sorry." She choked out. "I didn't know he would do this to you. If I had, I would.."

"Would have what? What, Cindy? Let him end up hurting you again? Causing you to lose that baby? What?" Lindsay said, her voice calm, not a trace of anger in it. "Come here." She forced herself to sit up as she motioned Cindy over. She sat down on the edge of the bed and the second Lindsay had her arms around her, she broke down crying. "What matters is that you are okay, baby is okay and I will be fine. How was your doctor's appointment?"

She leaned back a little to rearrange herself so she could easily lean against Lindsay. "Good. He had me set another appointment two weeks from now. And one two weeks from that. He said by the second one we should know if it is a boy or a girl. And that should be when he puts me on bed rest." She said, gently holding Lindsay's hand. "When can you come home?"

"Luke said I should be good to go in a couple days. But I need to stay off of my feet for a week or two. It might be longer than that once word gets to Tom what happened. He'll make me stay home longer."

"Is that such a bad thing?" Cindy whispered, turning her head to smile at Lindsay. "It means I actually get to see when you aren't crawling in and out of bed. I might actually get to have a meal with you!" She said, laughing. Lindsay noticed how forced and hollow the laugh sounded.

"Don't blame yourself." She whispered. "Once Jacobi gets his hands on him, Arik won't be a problem. He assaulted a police officer."

"Doesn't that just mean he gets a year? Then he is out. And more pissed than ever?"

"Honey, in a year, he won't know where we are." Lindsay mumbled, kissing the top of Cindy's head. "I have been working on something, but I am going to wait a couple more months before I set anything in stone. Okay? Just trust me. I mean, you trust me, right?"

"Yes." She whispered. "I don't wanna go home alone." She said.

"That is why you are going to go out there and tell Claire that I said you go home with her." Lindsay said. "And I will see you in two days. Got it?"

Cindy gently kissed Lindsay and then left the room. When she emerged into the waiting room, Jill wasn't around, but Claire was sitting in one of the chairs, reading a magazine. "She said I have to go home with you until she is released." Cindy said, standing in front of her.

"Well, then let's swing by your place and get you some clothes and then I will take you home. Then I have to get back to the morgue for a while. But Ed and the boys will be home. So you will be well looked after." Cindy was quiet the whole time between leaving the hospital and arriving at Claire's. She smiled as Nate showed her to the guest bedroom and then left her be. She could vaguely hear Claire explaining everything to Ed and then leaving the house. She sat down on the bed and looked around. There was a knock on the door, and as she said enter, Ed rolled into the room and looked at her.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"As good as can be expected. Really wishing people would stop asking me that though. It gets old real fast." She said, smiling.

"Claire explained the jist of everything to me. Said if this Arik guy showed up, I was to shoot him."

"He doesn't deserve to be shot. He deserves to be hanged." She mumbled. "I hate that somehow everyone has gotten dragged into my personal life. I would have been so content to just, you know, live how I was. Hiding everything. It was working pretty well until Lindsay started asking questions. She's good at that." Cindy laid back on the bed. "Granted, I most likely would be dead by now were that the case."

"Lindsay, Jill and Claire are your friends. That is how and why they are wrapped up in your personal life. It's what friends do. They do it because they care. They understand the danger that they could be in by helping to keep him away from you, and they are just fine with that. And as for Lindsay and her questions, well, she doesn't normally ask that much. I think she took an over-interest with you because she cares about you. A lot."

She lifted her head up and looked at him. "I could so have a hefty battle to contradict that, but I don't have the energy to think." She said.

"I'll let you get some rest." He gently patted her knee and then made his way out of the room. She closed her eyes and tried to hold back the tears. She wanted to talk to Arik, but what she had to say would only make him angry and she didn't want to take the chance of joining Lindsay in the hospital or losing the baby. As she drifted off to sleep, she let her mind fill with thoughts of what Lindsay's plan might be, and whether it involved extreme measures. She wasn't aware of the man standing outside of the window, watching her turn over fitfully in her sleep. An evil smile crossed his lips and he moved away from the house and began walking down the street.

"You had your chance to keep everything right, Cindy. But you messed it up." He said to himself.