On Lindsay's Doubts
(spoilers up to and including season three finale, Snow Day)
Don stood outside Mac's office, which was currently occupied by a frazzled-looking Stella as she searched the desk. It was a far cry from how efficient and calm her conduct was only 10 minutes earlier, when confronted with Gerard after her return from the hospital.
flashback
"I want to know where the hell Taylor is! How he could just disappear at a time like this!"
"Detective Taylor left for a long overdue vacation. In the meantime, I'm in charge."
"You think I'm gonna accept this for an answer?" he sneered, "a bomb exploded in New York's crime lab! Taylor above all people should know the implications of that!"
"We all do," Stella answered evenly, "and any questions you have I can answer, since I helped rig that bomb up to trap one of the perps."
"You-are you serious?" he asked, with barely controlled rage. Stella nodded.
"Are you out of your mind! Do you know the panic you have caused!"
"I know that my team and I have a major crime scene to tackle. And that if you want the lab to start running again, and for all its employees to be able to get back to their jobs as soon as possible, you have to let me do mine. I'll be sure to give you, and Chief Sinclair," she added pointedly, "a complete briefing on the situation after we're done."
"You'll do that. But before anything, have someone send me a copy of Mac's vacation notice. Pronto!"
end flashback
Gazing at Stella now, Flack wondered if that's what she was looking for; Mac's vacation slip. Don was pretty sure the lab's head hadn't had time to fill one out. After all, as far as he knew, the vacation hadn't been pre-planned.
He knocked on the glass door. Stella looked up from where she was rummaging in one of the drawers, and gestured him inside. Don stood silent for a while, not sure of what to say, as Stella continued her search.
"Gerard's not that bad," Flack he finally stated, "he's just covering his ass so that he won't get grilled by Sinclair."
"I can handle Gerard. And Sinclair," Stella answered, not looking up. Flack felt a bit foolish. It had been a while since he'd been alone with Stella. Not since she told him about meeting his dad at Steve's. But at the moment, feeling like he was in a good place, in his life now, he couldn't remember why he had felt like he wanted to hold a grudge. He knew that he had been distant, hadn't had a decent conversation with Stella for several days. He was trying to let her know that he was fine now, that they were okay. She'd see that if only she'd look up from that desk. I'm trying to be the good guy, here!
"Aha!" she cried suddenly, interrupting his thoughts. Triumphantly pulling out a paper from the last drawer in the desk, she started writing on it. The young detective moved closer to the desk and saw that it was a leave of absence request form. It had already been signed by Mac, and Stella was filling out the rest of it.
"I thought you didn't know he had a vacation planned," Flack commented, watching her write down the previous day's date in the slot to indicate when the vacation started.
"I didn't. But he and I both have one of these in our desks. Just in case of sudden burn out or an emergency. You didn't really think he'd just take off without filling out the paperwork did you?" She chuckled, "Or at least, without being sure that someone would take care of it for him."
"I guess it hadn't crossed my mind," Flack mused, eyebrows drawn up, impressed with the deal between his two superiors'. "So how come you're writing yesterday's date when he took off today?"
"Because then I can tell the brass that he was supposed to have started his vacation yesterday, but delayed it so he can supervise the collection and storage of the drug evidence."
"Not only acquitting him of taking off without notice, but also putting him in their good graces," he surmised, keeping his tone light. However, Stella though it had a hint of disapproval.
"Flack, you know this won't get him in 'their good graces'. All it'll do is make them yell at him a bit less when he gets back."
"I didn't say anything," he defended. Stella glanced at him. A week ago, she might have said more, but considering that at this point she wasn't sure of where she stood with her young friend, she dropped the subject. Completing the form, she stood up, taking the paper with her.
"Now, all I need to do is drop this at Human Resources. When the employees get back, I'll make sure this is the first request they process. Did you need something?"
"Just wanted to ask how Danny and Adam are doing. I didn't get a chance earlier, what with Gerard blowing a gasket."
"They're both pretty beat up, but they're doing fine, considering. The doctors are keeping them a couple of days for 'observation' but in reality, it's just to make sure Danny has at least one nights' rest. He's already bored and wants to come back to work. They're releasing him tomorrow. Adam might take a bit longer. His nose was broken and might need corrective surgery," she added sadly.
"Ouch. That really sucks."
"Yeah. So see you later," she said, eager to drop the slip off as soon as possible. She had a lot more work to do.
"Wait, I also need to take your statement," Flack stopped her, "on the attempted heist on the drugs in the lab."
"Oh, shit. Can we do it later Flack?"
"Course," he assured her, not failing to notice how easily the curse escaped her lips. She's a lot more stressed than she's letting on. But then, who wouldn't be.
"Thanks. I need to organize the taping off of the crime scene and brief the rest of the CSI's. And I don't want anyone other than my team in the building until the drug evidence is processed, again, and transferred into our back-up vault. It's not as secure as the one they broke into, but it'll have to do for now. That has to be done ASAP." She didn't need to add that because Danny and Adam were in the hospital, ASAP was not as soon as she would have liked. "At the moment, the whole building is taped off, but in the interest of time I want to start cleaning up the sections of the lab that aren't off limits, but that's only after the drugs are secured, and of course, after we've established which parts of the building aren't vital to the crime scene."
"Well, my team's on stand by. I told them to keep the crowd out and to help out with anything you need. I also called Angell to give us a hand."
"I know. She's already called to let me know she'd arrived. I gave her a list of names of personnel to let inside to start processing."
"That was fast. Let me know when you can give me your statement. I'll call Mac later to get his. Hopefully we can get it done before his flight. When is it by the way?"
"Tomorrow night."
"I'll call him in the morning; see if he can meet me. For now, I'll start with Hawkes."
"You can find him in the basement at the morgue. He's briefing Sid on an impromptu autopsy he did on one of the perps. Oh, and he'll want to know how Danny and Adam are doing, so can you fill him in?" She was already walking away, when Don said "Sure." He didn't' think she heard him though, as preoccupied as she was. Looks like his apology would have to wait until the after the lab was back on its feet. Or it might be better if he just took her out to dinner; it would let her know they were still friends without having to awkwardly open the detested subject again.
The elevator was out of commission because of the drugs that remained inside during the attempted robbery. So Flack had to take the stairs. On his way to the basement, he ran into Lindsay, who was on her way up to the lab.
"Hi," she greeted him.
"Back from the hospital?"
"Yeah, Danny's been sedated."
"Good he needs his rest. If you're looking for Stella, she's at Human Resources. You should probably wait at her office though. She wants to brief you." Flack told her, as he continued going down.
"Hey, Flack," she called him back.
"Yeah?" he answered warily. Besides work, he never had much to say to Lindsay. Danny always told him that she had a lot in common with Flack, and they could be friends, but Don hadn't gotten to know her more to find out if this was true. Although his buddy had invited him to hang out with them a couple of times but Don had declined, thinking that if he had a girlfriend, he'd want to spend as much time with her "alone" as he could. As it was, besides the fact that she was a good CSI and that she was his best friend's crush, Flack didn't really know anything about her. And because they worked together, and because he was Danny's best friend, he hadn't wanted anything to do with their romance. It was a strategy to avoid any awkwardness which would manifest if the relationship didn't last, which, in Danny's case, was a likely possibility. And considering what Flack surmised about Lindsay's personality that day, he now saw that as even more of a probability.
Her indifference to Danny's near death experience hadn't endeared her to Flack.
He tried to be fair. He reminded himself that not all people reacted to fear the same way. But the problem wasn't the nature of her reaction. Her lack of reaction, first to the situation, then to Danny's injuries was what boggled Flack's mind. It didn't look like she even cared about him much. If she was my girlfriend, I'd have serious concerns, and I'm no where near as insecure as Danny can be.
Looking at the nervous Lindsay, he wondered if she was good for his emotional friend. He always felt that, as sensitive as Danny was, he'd need someone with very sympathetic character to be truly happy in a relationship. Sympathetic isn't the word I'd use to describe her, he thought, unable to get her strange demeanor out of his mind. Danny needs someone very caring, someone who can give him the assurances he needs; someone with a lot of understanding. A picture of Stella popped into Flack's head. Someone else.
Looking at Lindsay's brown eyes, that were at the moment darting nervously, he resolved to keep his thoughts to himself. It's none of my business anyway. He always felt very strongly about this. You do not tell, or even hint, to your friend that you don't like his girlfriend. It's a big no-no. Don cleared his mind, and saw the still silent Lindsay in front of him. He thought that she might have seen how distracted he was, and that was why she was taking so long to say was on her mind. He hoped he hadn't been glaring at her during his musings. Forcing a smile on his face, he prompted her.
"You needed something?"
"Yeah, I wanted to
ask you a question."
Must be pretty embarrassing and that's
why it's taking her so long to spit it out.
"Shoot."
"It's about Danny, I mean, you know him better than anyone right? You're best friends."
"Since the day he joined NYPD," God I hope she's not worried about his family's connections. That would be awkward, trying to convince her he's clean.
"God, this is hard…umm, what's his relationship with Stella?"
"What?" This was not what Flack had expected.
"Were they ever…you know?" Flack knew exactly what she meant, and he was not amused.
"Dating? What makes you think that?"
"I don't! It's just that, they seem very close. I was just wondering if it's just because they're good friends or if there might have been something more before."
"Lindsay, you've been here long enough to know that this is a tightly knit group. Danny, Stella, and Mac have all been working together for a long time. You can't get these weird thoughts just cause 'they seem very close'," he quoted with his fingers.
"Someone told me they saw Danny kiss Stella in the lab once."
"So what? Stella kisses everybody," ignoring the memory that flashed in his mind.
"He kissed her," Lindsay stressed.
"Could just be a rumor," Don lied, wanting to end this horrific conversation.
"I don't think so. When she came to visit him in the hospital, there was a connection between them. There were so intimate, almost like," Lindsay blushed, "like lovers."
Flack felt his temper flare up. This has gone far enough.
"Look Lindsay, this really has nothing to do with me. If you're so worried why don't you talk to Danny? Ask him?" She crossed her arms, holding them close to her as if she was cold.
"I'm not really good at this kind of thing."
"Well, that's obvious. Then let it go. I don't know what you want from me, but let me tell you this: he's never been in a relationship with her, not that I know of anyway, and like you said, I'd know. They're just very good friends. Another thing; Danny would never cheat on you. He's not that kind of person and if you don't know that yet, then you're the one with a problem."
"I never said I thought he was cheating, I now he's not like that," Lindsay defended, "I just want to know if there was something between them."
"Well, there's not. Besides, what relationships he had in the past shouldn't concern you. He's dating you now. Isn't that what counts?" And with a reproving stare, Flack stalked off. Hearing Lindsay's concerns brought his back to life. What did she see at the hospital that made her think those two used to be a couple? But he didn't have time to ponder that, he had to follow up with Hawkes. Hopefully, the Doc has aspirin.
Authors Notes: (vague season 4 spoilers here so read at your own risk)
Hi people! Those who have seen season 4 might guess why I wanted to wait till after it season was over to start posting again. Believe it or not, the outline for the whole story has been set since last summer, before I even started posting on this site, but I've been so reluctant to go through with it (especially Lindsay's storyline) because I didn't want it to conflict with the actual show. It's very important for me that the story be as canon as possible; so much that it could be considered part of the series. Ever since the amazing season 3 finale, I thought that the writers were setting something up with regards to the Danny/Lindsay ship. But I wanted to wait and make sure my theory was correct. While we don't know what's going to happen in season 5, I'm not worried, because season 4 works for the storyline I have so far, and I can always incorporate new stuff, like I'm trying to do now for the upcoming chapters and season 4.
This was a very VERY hard chapter to write. Lots of stuff is going on and I tried so hard to keep everyone in character. Some might disagree with 'my' Flack and his thoughts on the situation, but I honestly wrote this based on the so very little hints we've gotten from him during his reaction to Lindsay in season 3 and a few of the later episodes of season 4. I guess it might not be enough to say, in canon, that Flack doesn't like Lindsay, but we haven't had a lot of evidence to support that he likes her either. I don't know if it's the way the actress plays her, but Lindsay always seemed emotionally distant to me and season 4 only reinforced this idea, so I plan on fully exploring this idea. Hopefully, by the time I'm done, I'll have more insight to her character.