The girls were gathered around Lindsey's living room, looking at her worriedly. Cindy and Jill sat side by side on the arms of the armchair, while Claire sat at one edge of the couch. Lindsey was curled on her side, her arms wrapped around Martha.

"Sweetie,"Claire rubbed her leg, "you need to talk to us. Tell us what happened."

Lindsey didn't speak, she just shook her head and stroked her dog. Claire's hand made small circles on her calf. The women sat in silence for a while, the tension building as Lindsey's breathing became more ragged. She started sobbing into Martha's fur.

Jill reached out and grabbed Cindy's hand in her own. Claire stopped rubbing Lindsey's leg. "That's enough now. You have to pull yourself together and tell us what's going on. You can not let this... whatever it is... beat you. Now stand up, and be the Inspector you can be."

Lindsey sobbed a final time, and lifted her head, "I screwed up." It was a whisper, barely loud enough for Claire to hear.

The women all looked at each other, worried looks on all of their faces. Claire's eyes flicked down to Jill and Cindy's clasped hands, a questioning look thrown at the two of them, before turning her attention back to Lindsey.

"Okay girly, you need to tell me what happened. Right now. You talk to me, right now." Claire's no nonsense voice could melt the resolve of even the hardest criminal.

Lindsey sat up, her face covered in tears and red. "I screwed up. I slept with him."

The silence was deafening. No one breathed, batted an eyelash or reacted in any way. Lindsey rolled her eyes.

"This morning, Jacobi called to talk to him, and after he talked to Tom, I was kicked out. He told me to just get out and not come back."

Cindy opened and closed her mouth, trying to figure out to say. She looked to Jill, stunned as ever. It was Claire who broke the silence. "You did what?"

Lindsey's head turned Claire. "I slept with him. Or rather, he slept with me. I'm not really sure how it happened."

"Again. You slept with Tom again?" Claire was in shock, and forgot herself. "Are you insane?"

Jill and Cindy were having a completely silent conversation between themselves while Claire and Lindsey's escalated in volume.

"Lindsey, the man lost his wife a month ago! We still don't have any solid evidence to convict Jacob Willis, and you two have been playing house?" Claire was standing up now, hands on her hips, and furious.

Lindsey put her hands on her knees and pushed herself to standing. "What do you want me to say? I said I screwed it up! Jacobi is furious at me, I probably screwed up the whole case at this point."

Jill and Cindy silently stood up and tried to sneak out of the living room. Claire continued lecturing while Lindsey kept blaming herself.

Lindsey's bedroom was quiet, and with the door closed, a perfect place to talk quietly. Cindy sat on the edge of the bed and put her hands in her lap. "Wow. This is --,"

"Yeah." Jill sat down beside Cindy.

"What do we do? We can't really tell them right now. It would just be... wrong."

Jill smiled, "What's to tell? It's not like we are hiding it. Besides, Claire already knows, she's practically psychic when it comes to this stuff."

Cindy nodded and ran her fingertips down the length of Jill's bare arm. "It's okay. I just won't talk about anything. We both know I'm a horrible liar."

Jill leaned over and kissed Cindy on the cheek. "It's okay. Just try to keep that pretty mouth of yours shut around them until this all blows over. Lindsey and Tom are kind of a complicated messy romantic ... thing."

Cindy smiled and pulled Jill into her arms. "Well then, how about we let Lindsey and Claire sort it out while we take a few minutes to just relax."

The fell back onto Lindsey's bedspread, giggling.