Tommy pulls up in front of a gorgeous townhouse, and Lindy automatically reaches for her seatbelt, then pauses.
"Should I wait here?"
He shrugs.
"It's up to you. I shouldn't be long, but sometimes she gets chatty. You'd probably like her, actually." He looks a little uncomfortable at the thought. Decided, Lindy unbuckles her seatbelt, and Tommy does the same. She marvels at the garden as they pass through it. How anyone has the time to maintain something like this she has no idea. It suddenly occurs to her that whoever lives here probably pays someone else to do that.
"Is Ida rich?" She asks abruptly. Tommy frowns at her.
"You could say that. She's a model. She does okay for herself."
Thrown, Lindy barely has a minute to prepare herself when the door swings open, revealing a knockout blonde with green eyes. Those eyes land on Lindy, and her mouth opens in surprise.
"Hi." Ida smiles uncertainly. Her gaze shifts back to Tommy. "Hey Tomtom. Who's this?" She gestures at Lindy without looking at her. Tommy does though, and Lindy mouths Tomtom? He grimaces, then turns back to Ida.
"Hey, Ida. This is Lindy."
Her stunning features slide into comprehension.
"Ben's Lindy?" There's an awkward silence. Lindy takes the familiar punch of pain with a wince.
"Um." The words not anymore sit on her tongue, but she can't force them out. Ida seems to realize what she's done, and her face softens.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"
"It's okay." Lindy says. It's not, but it will be eventually. Tommy glances over at her, the concern written all over his face. She gives him a small smile, one she doesn't feel. He smiles back, and suddenly her own is a little more genuine.
"Where's Boris?" Tommy asks, turning back to Ida. She whistles, and the sound of paws on hardwood taps it way toward the door. Suddenly, a huge furry head is pushing Ida out of the way and Tommy crouches down to meet it. "Hey, buddy!" Boris nuzzles him, the sounds coming from both boys ones of contentment. Lindy's smile widens. She's used to Tommy in cop mode, protecting her, bossing her around. As she watches him like this, soft and happy, something shifts inside her. It's as though for weeks she's seen him one of two ways. Either he's the police, which makes him an ally in the barest sense of the word, or he's just someone else who lost Ben. That's how she sees him.
It's been impossible after everything they've been through for her not to develop an affection for Tommy. She cares about him, worries about him. After today she can admit that he's more to her than a cop or a reminder of Ben.
Ida hands over some things that Lindy assumes are for Boris, and she and Tommy get lost in chit-chat. Feeling a little out of place, Lindy bends down, scrubbing Boris firmly behind the ears. He lets out a happy snuffle and presses his head against her leg. Charmed, she lets out a bubble of laughter. Tommy and Ida pause their conversation to look at her. She blushes.
"Sorry." She's never been big on dogs, mostly because always she moved around too much to entertain the idea of taking care of one. Standing here, with a big ball of fur rubbing happily against her knee, she's starting to see the appeal.
"We should go." Tommy murmurs, still staring at her. There's something about his expression, that softness that Lindy saw earlier, that makes it hard to look away. She just nods.
"I'll call you when I'm back." Ida says, waving them off, and Lindy wanders back towards the car. She pauses at the door, remembering the time she dated a guy who always put his dog in the front seat. But Tommy passes her, pulling the back door open, and Boris jumps in with ease. Tommy notices her watching them, and he raises an eyebrow as he pulls his own door open.
"What?"
"Nothing. He's just…big." She shrugs. A shadow crosses his face, and he frowns.
"Do you have a thing about dogs? I probably should have asked." He looks worried, and that touches her in a way she wasn't expecting. This whole day has taken her by surprise. She had never thought about how little she knew Tommy until now, and she finds that her interest is more than polite curiosity. She wants to know him. She slides onto her seat, shaking her head as he does the same.
"No, it's fine. I just can't believe I didn't know you had a dog." It's true. Watching them together only makes her realize that this is a big piece of his life she's never seen. It's strange, with all the time they've spent together, that she doesn't actually know anything about him. Ben never talked about him when they were together, mostly because back then Lindy knew him as Detective Calligan, and that would have blown a hole in Ben's cover.
Tommy looks thoughtful.
"I guess it just never came up."
They sit in comfortable silence aside from Boris chiming in every once in a while from the backseat. By the time they arrive at Lindy's building their prior late night is beginning to take its toll. She yawns as she makes her way up the steps, pausing when she hears Tommy's footsteps behind her.
"You don't have to come with me." She calls over her shoulder, but he keeps coming. Rolling her eyes, she continues up the stairs to her door, stopping outside to dig for her key. By the time she finds it Tommy has caught up, and he's right on her heels as she pushes the door open.
The second she steps foot inside, Lindy knows something is wrong. She turns to Tommy.
"Do you smell that?"
He nods.
"Paint."
Wondering if Sophia came back early to do some redecorating, Lindy heads for her bedroom. Tommy grabs her arm, and she looks back at him.
"How about you let me go first."
Lindy nods, and he steps in front of her. She follows him in, walking straight into him when he stops abruptly in the doorway to her bedroom.
"Wha-"
"Go wait in the living room." His voice is flat, commanding. From the lack of emotion on his voice Lindy senses that whatever he's seen isn't an immediate threat. Still, she needs to know. She tries to push past him, but his hand shoots out, holding her back. "Lindy-" But she's already slipped under his arm, and as she straightens up she sees exactly what he was trying to hide.
Black paint is smeared across her wall, the letters clear despite the drips running through them. The smell of paint is stronger here, and between that and the words staring back at her Lindy begins to feel lightheaded. She blinks, but the message is still there.
She's mine.
Lindy glances back at Tommy, his hand still on her wrist. His grip tightens as he watches her, then he lets go.
"He was here." Her voice is steady, and for that she's grateful.
"Well, we already knew that, right?" Tommy says slowly, eyes still trained carefully on her face. He's watching her like she's about to break. She hates it.
"But he was here again, after you were. This happened today, after you came to get my stuff." She's thinking out loud, fighting the urge to walk over and run her fingers through the paint, smearing the threat into something unrecognizable. It won't change anything, but still. She can't look at it anymore. She walks to her closet, pulling out the luggage set her ex-boyfriend had bought her as a joke. You'll be on the run someday. It's good to be prepared. Her hands shake as she fills it with clothes, shoes. One by one she packs things away, knowing that they won't be coming back here, not ever. Enough is enough. The hand on her shoulder sends her pulse racing, and she spins around. Tommy hesitates, then grabs her by the shoulders.
"Lindy." She's never heard him like this, voice gentle and sincere. It soothes her, and she takes a deep breath. No one's ever said her name quite like that, like it means something. Like she means something. She tries to pull herself together.
"I'm fine. I just need to finish packing."
He looks skeptical.
"This is a crime scene. Look, just take your suitcase and go wait in the living room. I'll be out in a minute, I've got to call Yeager. You can finish packing after someone comes out to look at this." He's back to business, Lindy can tell, and she finds herself missing that momentary softness. He's not a cold guy, but sometimes she feels like he's afraid to blur the lines of professionalism. Lindy can't blame him for not wanting to get close to her. She hasn't exactly been a good luck charm for the last few guys she dated. The thought sends a shot of ice through her system, even the vaguest thought of Tommy ending up like Ben freezing her from the inside out. She tries to shake off the feeling.
"Fine." She zips the suitcase even though it's barely half full, and carries it out to the couch without a backwards glance. She stares at her couch, not wanting to sit down. Suddenly everything here feels contaminated, violated. It should be a familiar feeling by now, but it still shakes her, still repulses her. She wants to shower, she wants to leave, she wants to find this son of a bitch and light his entire life on fire. But mostly she wants someone to be there. Ever since Ben died Sophia has been simultaneously distant and suffocating. George always comes through for her when she needs a hacker, but he has yet to really be dragged into this mess and for his sake Lindy wants to keep it that way. She's beginning to realize that the body count surrounding her makes for a very lonely life. Just as she thinks it Tommy steps into the hallway, his eyes sweeping the room until they find her. At least she has Tommy. Sort of.
"Yeager will be here in a few minutes. He just has to check for anything the killer might have left behind." He tells her, then frowns as she continues to stand there.
"There won't be anything." She knows this. They both do. Whoever the flirtual killer is, they're too smart to do something as careless as leave evidence behind. She knows cops have protocols for this kind of thing, and it's one of the reasons she usually refuses to work with them. Tommy just sighs.
"Yeah, I know. Look, do you want to sit down? Can I get you a drink or something?"
"No, its-I'm fine." She's not. She doesn't want to sit down, she wants to scream. The anger that someone could have stolen her life from her like this begins to surface, and she turns away to keep him from seeing it. He would only worry more. She can feel her grip on her emotions starting to slide.
"Lindy-"
"I don't want to sit down, Tommy." She twirls back to face him, struggling to keep her voice even. "I don't want to touch anything. I don't want to drink anything. This is my apartment, and all I can think about is that he's been here. Did he sit here?" She asks, shoving roughly at the couch. "Did he look at these?" She picks up one of the framed photos of her and Sophia at the beach and tosses it to him. He catches it, looking wary. "He keeps taking things from me. Ben, my independence, my friends, my reputation. I didn't even know it was possible to take somebody's home away, but he did. This place is ruined now, it doesn't belong to me anymore." The anger ebbs slowly away, leaving a vast emptiness in its wake. "I don't have a place that's mine. I don't have a…" She almost says person, but he's already looking so sorry for her that she can't do it. This isn't what she wanted, she doesn't need his pity. She just needs her life back.
A knock on the door breaks the tension that hangs between them, and Tommy calls for the visitor to let themselves in. Yeager walks in, hesitating at the energy still hanging in the air.
"Am I interrupting something?" He looks confused. Tommy glances back at Lindy, then shakes his head.
"No. I'll show you what you're looking at." He ushers Yeager down the hall, leaving Lindy to collect herself. She groans. I'm not a victim. I can't afford to be. Putting the photo back in it's place, she leans against the wall, hoping Yeager is fast at whatever it is that he does. As she stands there the adrenaline begins to wear off, and the fatigue from earlier starts to set back in. By the time the two detectives come to get her, she's almost asleep on her feet.
"Hey. You okay?"
She blinks, Tommy's face coming into focus in front of her.
"Yeah." She yawns. "You done?" He nods. Picking up her suitcase, she drags it back down the hall. It takes most of her remaining energy to force herself back into the bedroom, commanding herself not to close her eyes when the ugly black script on the wall comes into view. She turns her back to it, grabbing whatever she can get her hands on. She fills the first suitcase, and the second. When she turns around to grab the sweater she'd tossed onto the bed she catches sight of Tommy eyeing the luggage suspiciously.
"Don't worry, I'm not moving in permanently. But I might as well get this stuff packed up while I'm here." She says, grabbing another pair of heels and trying to wedge them into the suitcase. The lid flips closed easily, but when she tugs at the zipper nothing happens. Sighing, she tries again, but no luck. "A little help?" She asks. He walks over, and suddenly he's lifting her into the air. "What are you-"
"I'm helping." He says, smirking. He sets her down on top of the suitcase, and under her weight he pulls the zipper closed easily. Stepping back, he raises an eyebrow. She forces a smile, but it's heavy on her face, and it falls after a second or two. Seeming to pick up on the mood, Tommy grabs both her suitcases by the handles. "Is this it?" She nods. He lifts them off the ground with a grunt, and Lindy tries not to notice the way it makes the muscles in his forearms stand out. She follows him, and they come out into an empty apartment.
"Where's Yeager?"
"Gone. We're done here."
"Yeah." Lindy agrees, knowing she means something different. She glances around, trying not to let the image of an intruder taint all the memories she's made here. It's a goodbye, but she's starting to get good at those.
"Ready to go?" He's looking at her again, like she's fragile. Like she hasn't spent the past few weeks losing lovers and being watched. Like she's a victim. I'm not. I'm not, I'm not, I'm- "Lindy?" he pulls her out of her head.
"Yeah." She says again. "Yeah, I'm good. She walks to the door, glancing backward. She'll have to come back to get the rest of her things, but she doesn't live here anymore. For some reason she finds it freeing. Ever since Ben was killed she's felt that presence here, like a shadow. Maybe it's time to move on.
Lindy wakes up in a very strong, very warm pair of arms. She opens one eye and catches a glimpse of a familiar stubbled chin and a slice of night sky. Still exhausted, she lets her eye fall closed again, leaning her head against Tommy's chest.
"You're not the brawny paper towel guy." She mumbles into his shirt. She can feel the vibrations of his laughter against her cheek.
"Is that who all those noises were for? I thought you'd at least be dreaming about someone three-dimensional." Even his voice reverberates through her as he speaks, and she finds it's not an unpleasant sensation.
"I wasn't making noises." She protests, her argument weakened a little by the slur in her words. She hadn't realized just how tired she was until now. Her dad used to say that she could stay awake for days, but the second she was somewhere she felt safe she would curl up and sleep for just as long. Safe is as good a word as any to describe how she feels now, the gentle sway of Tommy's steps lulling her back to sleep. There's a click as he opens his front door, and the sound of Boris hurrying over to meet them. "My bags." She manages to get the words out, and to make them relatively clear.
"I brought them in with Boris. I went back for you." She likes the way that sounds, although she doesn't know why. I went back for you. Forcing her eyes open, Lindy spots her suitcases leaning against the wall.
"Couch." She points weakly, but he snorts, already moving towards the bedroom.
"Nice try. The furniture for the spare room will come tomorrow, but until then you're sleeping here." He sets her down gently, she curls up as the cold air rushes in to replace his arms. She reaches down to grab the comforter, cold from shock and from fatigue. Something tugs on her foot, and she looks down to see Tommy pulling off her boots. The smile that stretches across her lips feels sweet, and for the first time since her apartment a little peace comes back to her.
As she presses her face into the pillow, Tommy tucking her in like a toddler, Lindy decides her father was wrong. It's not safety that lets sleep creep into her veins now, dulling the world as her eyes flutter shut. It's home. And somehow here, in a place she doesn't really belong at all, she's found home for the first time in years.
A/N: Okay, so there's that. I hope you guys are still with me, and that you're still enjoying this. I have a lot more ideas for the next couple chapters, and I'm eager to get them up. However; I have a seriously heavy two weeks coming up in school, and that will probably mean no more updates for a week or so. It's possible I'll blow off studying entirely and continue to update every few days, but this is a heads up. I promise I, and the story, will be back in about a week. Until then please read, review, and I'll see you after the next episode airs!
