"Jill? Can I talk to you?" Cindy asked, sticking her head in the doorway of the woman's office. Jill motioned her forward and she sat down, fidgeting slightly before actually saying anything. "Okay, I know you are not the best person to ask about relationship advice, but I don't know who else to ask. If you were with someone, but they were trying to distance themselves from you, despite telling you they weren't going to, what would you do?"
Jill looked at Cindy silently for a moment. "I honestly have no idea how to answer that, and I am quite shocked that you actually chose to come to me. Why not Claire? She talks better."
"Well, Claire would see right through me. Granted, you could possibly do that as well…" She looked at her hands. "I mean, Lindsay is just being such a brat about things and…" She looked up at Jill, a shocked look on both women's faces. "I wasn't supposed to say that."
"You…You're seeing Linz?"
"Shit. I really was not supposed to let that known."
"You're the one she went out with the other night? The one that caused her to pace my office for a brief moment in time and freak out?"
"Don't tell her you know! We decided, well, Lindsay decided, to keep it quiet since it was really new. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone."
"You let her decide for you?"
Cindy opened her mouth and then shut it again.
"That's what I thought," she replied, standing up from behind her desk. Jill leaned down and looked in the flustered redhead's eyes. "Don't let her jerk you around like that. It may seem small to just say keep the relationship quiet, but it will escalate. Don't let her control you. Think for yourself, and let her know you think for yourself. Prove to her you aren't a child." She left the office, and Cindy knew she was going to talk to Lindsay. Gathering all of her courage, she headed to the elevators, and when she reached the door to the bullpen, Jacobi stopped her.
"Jill dragged Lindsay off. You might want to go check with Claire," he said, looking at her. "What did you do to Lindsay? She's been…different the past couple days."
"Distant?" Cindy offered. Jacobi nodded. "Wasn't me. I had nothing to do with that. Maybe it's because her ex husband is finally remarried?" Before he could respond, she quickly made her way to the morgue. She stopped outside of Claire's office, positive she hadn't been noticed as she saw the two women doing a loose interrogation on Lindsay.
"You told her that she can't tell anyone about you two?" Claire looked at Lindsay with a dumbfounded look on her face.
"She told me that you told her you were going to stop pulling away, but you are still managing to do that. Come to think of it," Jill said, looking at Claire. "You have been pulling away from us too. What gives?"
"Look…"
"No, you look. Cindy loves you. She has ever since she first met you, it's painfully obvious. Telling her that she can't share her news that she found someone who cares about is not only selfish but completely childish!" Claire said, gazing towards the door. Cindy had been spotted, and she knew it. "That is, unless you don't really care about her."
Cindy looked shocked at the fact that Claire had seen her, but wasn't letting Lindsay or Jill know that.
"How can you suggest that I don't care about her?" Lindsay snapped. "I don't need this third degree from you two." She turned to leave and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Cindy. "You see why I didn't want you to tell them?" She pushed past the woman and the redhead moved into the office.
"She didn't confirm that she actually cares," she whispered, sitting on one of the chairs. "Why didn't she confirm that?" Claire sat down on the arm of the chair and placed a hand on Cindy's shoulder.
"Because like she said, it's new. And she will never admit this, but new things scare her. Especially you," Jill said, smiling.
"I scare her? Great."
"What miss not so sensitive over there means, Cindy, is that it's a new chapter in her life. She lets go of Tom, and you enter in. She starts thinking ahead to be how you could be the one for her and that Tom never was. Then she scares herself into pushing you away because the prospect of being happy is completely lost on her."
Cindy looked at Claire for a moment before she stood up. "I have to go." She rushed out of the office and as she neared the elevator she slammed into Lindsay. "I think we need to have a talk," she whispered. Lindsay obediently followed the redhead out of the Hall and down the street to the diner. As they settled in at the end of the counter, Cindy cast a small smile to Lindsay. "So, from what I hear from Claire, you get scared of new things."
"Do we have to talk about this now?"
"Yes," she said. "Please tell me the complete truth on why you think it is necessary to continuously try and push me away."
"Cindy, there are some things that I do that you just wouldn't understand."
"Because I'm young?"
"Because you don't know me. Some things I do Claire doesn't even get. It's how I work and it's how I process things."
"Are you ever going to give me a chance to get to know you? Lindsay, I am sitting here willing to learn every single detail about you and all you want to do is get rid of me. Why is that?"
Lindsay decided to look at the counter instead of at Cindy. After a few minutes of silence, Cindy placed a kiss on Lindsay's cheek.
"Well, when you think of your answer, let me know. You have my number," she said, standing up and leaving the diner.
