A/N: Two chapters at once. Sorry for the long wait, I've been insanely busy.
Attention
The three of us were silent, Danny had outrage written all across his face, Helen was weeping quietly, and I was using my hand to support my forehead. In the background, I had a chirpy voice going, "Welcome, please have a seat!" and the clatter of cutlery against porcelain plates. The café reverberated with light hearted chatter, and I guess to someone looking in, it must've been pretty odd seeing us, a triangle of silence.
"He raped you?" Danny asked, in a hushed whisper.
Helen nodded, tears cascading down her cheeks. I wished, oh how I wished, I could reach over and pull her into a hug, and forget that she had lied to me. But I couldn't, Mac would threaten to suspend me, saying I was getting too emotionally involved in the case. Sometimes, I really hate my job.
"I'm sorry, but we need you to tell us how." I tried my best to sound cool and calm. However, when Danny cast a look tinged with concern I concluded I had not sounded as collected as I had intended. Helen started sobbing earnestly. I sighed when the noise in the café ceased abruptly and two dozen pairs of eyes bored into our backs. Crap. Everyone's attention was settling on us like a rash.
"Enjoy your food, people!" Danny muttered under his breath and cursed, "Hey, why not we take this outside?"
Helen nodded and followed Danny out of the café, I trailed behind, still aware that the two dozen pairs of eyes were following us out.
"Okay, here's some Kleenex." I watched as Lindsay pulled some out from her pants pocket and handed it to the girl. I recognized the look on her face. It was the same one she got in the mermaid case, the one which hints she's possibly going to go OCD about the case. Helen blew her nose noisily; I diverted my attention to her.
"Everything I told you was true. Except the Ethan part." She sniffled, and her hands twisted at the damp piece of tissue; it reminded me of a Mobius strip. "He brought me wine and pushed me into the couch and raped me. Said I was a slut and sluts were supposed to give him good sex anytime he wants." I looked at Lindsay. Uh oh, no good. "I said something like I'm not a slut and I was not gonna sleep with him just because he wanted to get lucky. He pinned me down and I started crying. He didn't like that. So he slapped me and I tried to push him away. But I couldn't!" Her voice was getting higher and louder and I was thankful the parking lot was empty at that time of the day. "My arms were too heavy and I couldn't move. So I tried to kick him in the balls but I missed and he grew madder."
Lindsay crossed her arms over her chest and I scuffed the ground with one foot. The tissue in Helen's hands was crumbling and she grew more distraught. "Then he started yelling and the next thing I knew I was in intense pain and his fist was up in my…up there. I fainted when he was on top of me. The next morning I woke up and my couch was drenched with blood, and there was a note cello taped to my forehead saying I'll die if I tell anyone. The signed it with 'Love, Thomas'. I…I just got afraid, so I used Ethan's name."
There was a lot more hiccupping when Lindsay spoke and I realized I had been staring at Helen so hard my eyes hurt. "Do you still have the note?"
"I threw it away." She wailed. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be, Helen."
I scratched my head and pondered on my next course of action. I was going to offer to drive her back to campus when she suddenly looked up, "But I haven't taken my trash out yet!"
"You think you can get it for us?"
"Uh yeah," Her tissue dropped and she bent down to pick it up, "But I have class in twenty minutes."
Lindsay smiled a loose smile, "That's alright. We'll drop by your apartment tomorrow morning."
Helen nodded and sighed, turning away from us. "If you get him, can you ask him why?"
"Yes, I promise." What was Lindsay doing! I glared at her, but she didn't notice. If she did, she chose to ignore me as she gave Helen a smile of compassion.
"We'll keep in touch." I said, and let Helen walk the ten minutes back to campus. Once she was out of earshot, I grabbed Lindsay's arm.
What the hell did he think he was doing? "Danny, let go of me!"
He did. "Montana, you're doing it again."
"Don't call me that. What am I doing again?"
"You're getting too emotionally involved, Lindsay." I made the mistake of looking into his eyes. Concern, and something else I couldn't recognize, but it rendered me speechless. "You can't just promise things just because her story's sad and all. You gotta…I dunno, you gotta focus on being more…less sympathetic. I'm not gonna let you ask 'why' to a perp a million times again." He was unraveling me slowly and I had to put a stop to that.
"I won't." If anything, his tenderness towards me despite all my efforts to push him away just made me fall in love with him even more.
Doubt was dancing in his eyes. "Really?"
"Yes, I promise. And I still don't feel like talking to you."
I watched as he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. It was a bad thing to do but I was angry and I felt like hurting him a bit more. "Unlike you, I don't make promises I can't keep." I noted with pleasure as guilt flashed across his features.
I've never really felt love before and when I do, the object of my affection speaks to me like I'm vermin in her eyes. Fine, I had asked for it, didn't mean I liked it though. It seems I have to find a better way to say 'I'm sorry'.
"We haven't eaten yet, let's get something." I suggested. Actually, I was demanding, and was honestly surprised when Lindsay agreed.
She raked a hand through her hair and looked at me, her expression unreadable. "Good, I'm hungry. And I've been eyeing that hamburger since we first set foot here."
I wanted to laugh, but it barely made its way up my throat. "Okay." I followed her into the café, the door chime hit the glass panel and rang merrily into the wind, and grimaced as once again, two dozen pairs of eyes stared as us.
A/N: Do tell me if my characters are wonky. Read and review, please.