Okay, sorry if this is garbled, but it is 1:20am and I'm desperate to get this out of my head and onto paper – sort of.
Lindsay stood there for a second before her brain kicked. "Flack's sister?" she looked back a the approaching girl, thankful that she'd whispered to Stella.
The woman had long, slightly wavy hair in a rich shade of brown, falling to her middle back in a messy sheet, giving the impression that she'd not had time to brush it. Her hair framed a pair of bright green eyes, a small nose and full lips, slightly parted in worry. Lindsay took in her body, slim and toned, that of a very active person. Tall, but not as tall as Flack, Lindsay couldn't find any resemblance between her and the man lying in the room behind them.
"That's right. She's adopted, in case you're wondering where the similarities are. Flack's parents couldn't have any more children, so they adopted her so he could have a sister." Stella smiled inwardly at Lindsay's reaction, remembering the first time her and Carly had met. The brunette may look calm now, but Stella knew that she was passionate, with a fiery temper not doubt inherited from her Italian birth parents.
As the girl – Flack's sister, Lindsay reminded herself – drew near, she smiled warmly at Stella, and gave her a hug.
"Stell! How are you? Long time, no see isn't it!" she released Stella and turned to Lindsay, taking something out of her pocket as she did so. She looked at the piece of paper, then at Lindsay.
"You must be Lindsay, my brothers girlfriend. I'm Carly, his sister." She showed her the piece of paper, in fact a photograph. It was of Lindsay and Flack, taken about two months ago. They were at a fun fair, laughing together. The same photo was standing on Lindsay's bedside table, a perfect reminder of why she loved him.
"Yes, but how did you… I mean, he's never mentioned you. Oh, I don't mean… well…" she was flustered, undone by this sudden entrance of a sister. Lindsay hated being flustered.
"Don't worry, I'm not offended – or surprised. Flack and I haven't spoken for two years now. No, I tell a lie, the last time we spoke was when he sent this picture to me. Before that it was two years though. I work in Chicago, at the CSI lab there."
"You're a CSI? Flack told me all of his family were cops." Stella slipped away, knowing Lindsay would want to talk to Carly for a while. She rang Mac, who promised to send someone down to watch Flack so she could go home.
"That's why me and Flack haven't spoken for two years. I broke the tradition, you see. He also didn't want his only sister to do a dangerous job, even though his is more dangerous. Men!"
"That sounds like him." Lindsay smiled, and then asked Carly: "why do you call him Flack? Isn't his first name Don?"
Carly smiled, motioning to her new friend to sit down on one of the chairs that lined the corridor as she proceeded to tell her about fifth grade, Jennie Baker and Flack wanting to sound grown up, something he thought the name 'Don' didn't do well.
After half an hour, Lindsay yawned again, this time hearing her jaw crack loudly from the strain. She grinned ruefully at Carly, and stood up.
"I should get going. I need to shower, eat and sleep. In that order, according to Stella." Looking round for the older woman, she realised she'd slipped away. "Where did she go, by the way?"
"I'm here." Said Stella, walking back through the double door from the main corridor. She carried a new cup of steaming coffee, and handed it to Lindsay. "Here, to get you home. Carly, why don't you carry on in to see Flack. I'm surprised you've waited this long."
"He's managed for two years without me watching over him, Stella. I'm sure he can manage two more minutes without his baby sister." She hugged Lindsay, then Stella, then pushed open the door to her brothers room.
Just as it swung shut after her, Mac walked in, followed by Danny.
"Hey, Stella, Montana. How's he doin'?" Danny's accent was stronger tonight, testament to the worry he felt for his best friend. Stella smiled sympathetically.
"He's good. No change from earlier. Which one of you is here to stay with him?"
"Danny is. I'm here to take you home." Mac looked at Stella, then carried on. "I figured with the four cups of my coffee you drank, you'd be to wired to drive yourself home."
"And what makes you think you are? You drank just as many as me." she retorted, smiling at her boss.
"I'm used to coffee that strong. You aren't." he smiled back, moving aside so Danny could get past to the door of Flack's room.
"Everyone, just go already. I'm the only awake on here, and I'm telling you to go. Now!" Danny smiled at them all and went in. Hearing the door shut, Stella whipped round.
"Oh no!"
"What is it?" Mac and Lindsay asked together.
"Carly arrived about forty minutes ago, and she's in there now!" this was to Mac, who immediately caught on.
"Danny!" they went to the window looking into Flacks room, just in time to see Carly look up from her chair by her brother bedside and see Danny.
"Why is it bad that Danny and Carly are in the same room?" Lindsay inquired, curious about Mac and Stella's reactions.
Stella answered her, still keeping an eye on the two people in the small hospital room.
"Because the last time she was her, Danny called Flack a second rate cop, and she hit him so hard he needed stitches."
