The Thin Red Line.

The last weeks had been… taxing, to say the least. The case of the thrice damned (Cindy's opinion) night, had grown out of anyone's control; to such point even Cindy was running ragged.

Club meetings had been reduced to only a professional capacity. No one the wiser, including Jill as far as Cindy could say, to the happenings on the blonde's flat. Not to say it was weighting too much on her mind, she hardly gave it any thought at all.

Cindy's head hit the desk of her little cubicle on 'The Register' with a resounding thud.

Was she to lose her mind over Jill in addition to her heart?

If only she had any time to look for advice, or if only any of her advisors had any time at all; as it was, she had more than twenty minutes trying to reach Lindsay with little success, point at which she took her jacket one destination in mind: The Hall of Justice.

A fruitless mission it was, as not even Jacobi was anywhere in sight. Claire would have been her next target of choice, hadn't she, as did Lindsay, been banned from the morgue and its business unless summoned.

Her editor would have a fit if she didn't bring an update for the afternoon edition, and Lindsay would surely kill her if the general population of San Francisco got hold of this before her.

She hadn't, since El Incidente, intentionally put herself in close quarters with the blonde attorney, making this the first time they'd be in the same room without Claire or Lindsay acting as buffers…

"Jill," She called knocking on the door as she opened it.

"Cindy!" was the blonde's exuberant response as she stood to greet her, "what brings you here on this fine day?"

"I can't get a hold of Lindsay and I think I've got something she might be interested on, besides a deadline to meet." She recited from barely inside the office. "so I thought I could leave it with you…" she gesticulated but didn't finish the sentence.

"Sure," she advanced on the redhead to take the folder from her and Cindy almost jumped out of her skin at the proximity.

"Thanks," she tried to beat a hasty retreat but was stopped when Jill leaned on the door and looked intensely into her eyes. "I do have a deadline, you know? I really should be going…"

"You've been avoiding me this last few weeks and I need to know why," apparently taking her hostage was the tactic of the day for the DDA.

"Oh, have I?" the short reporter frowned trying to feign confusion. And not doing a very good job of it, too.

"I have my own theory about it, but only you can clarify it," she crossed her arms leaning sidewise on the still closed door. Leaving Cindy no choice but to tread deeper in the office, if only for the sake of her sanity.

"Yes well, I've not been actively avoiding you," she clarified, or tried to. "but we've all been so busy, and I do say all, as in you too." She was five seconds away from a full babble meltdown.

"I'm sorry," she let her arms fall to her sides and took two steps in the general direction of her desk, still facing Cindy as her hands went immediately into her pockets, "I'm really sorry," she reinforced the non-sequitur, effectively rooting Cindy to the floor, "I do believe an apology was in order," she added given Cindy's startled expression, "you were being a good friend, I shouldn't have said what I did, and that's why I'm sorry; it is, after all, seriously affecting our friendship, and I don't want that." she paused for emphasis.

"It doesn't matter, Jill, really, it doesn't." Cindy took advantage of said pause to try and dig herself from the discussion. Jill was basically still between her and the door.

"So you don't deny it?" Jill's voice had an odd property to it that Cindy couldn't identify.

"Deny what?" she did try, but the panicked expression and tone were a dead giveaway.

"Look, Cindy, I can't tell you that I love you, I'd be, to some degree, exaggerating, nor can I ask you to involve yourself with the likes of me, I'd be doing you a disservice." She wasn't really not looking at the redhead as she spoke. "But I'd be dishonest if I didn't admit to caring deeply for you and that I am in fact attracted to you, I'm not blind and you're beautiful and charming and even adorable in occasions… well more like most of the time, really." She stopped herself short, realizing she was starting to ramble. She cleared her throat. "I'm telling you this because I know how it feels to care for someone that wouldn't, in appearance, even give you the time of day. I know what it's like to love and not being loved back, and you don't deserve that. But you really deserve more than I can give you, even as I'd give you anything, everything; and more to the point, more than me, fucked-up, commitment-phobic me." she stopped again, got her hands out of her pockets and passed one through her hair, for the first time really showing the anxiety she was surely feeling.

Cindy could barely breath, there were ten thousand mixed signals in that little speech, and she couldn't put enough of it together to formulate a response, any kind of reaction.

A knock on the door and this opened to let Denise in, slightly baffled at the tableau but not caring enough to evacuate and leave them alone.

"Bernhard, my office now." She ordered.

"But…"

"Now." She cut off the blonde's attempts for a reprieve.

"O.k. I'll be right there," she said to Denise's back as she was already on her way.

"Don't mind me." Cindy's squeaky voice made her wince internally, "I'll just leave this here," she left the folder that brought her here in the first place on the desk, "and I'll be on my way." Same as Denise, she didn't wait for a response and left as fast as her legs could take her without outright running, only hearing the faint sound of Jill's office closing a few seconds later.

At the first available opportunity, (i.e. as soon as the case was put to rest), she was so dragging Lindsay to drink herself to a stupor! After all, Jill was definitively right. She was the perfect person to haul someone's drunken ass around!

Authoress' Notes:

This was harder than I though, and I'm still not happy with it. I, now, have no idea of how to approach the next one, not to even mention the ending for which I have only a subject. Still, thanks pprbckwrtr and res cogitans for your support and, apparently, unshakable faith, also: E. Christianna, JCLover2012, FraLez, yellowsmurf6, nowhere89, Alsike and Morning. Meadow thanks for reading.

Nofret.

P.s.Do review please, pretty please (puppy dog eyes and lashes batting) please?