Chapter Two – A Friend In Need

Flack opened the precinct door for her, and the door to his car. It didn't seem out of place to her. It was in his nature to be polite.

As soon as he sat down in the car and closed his door, she let out a sigh and began massaging her temples.

"You OK?" he hadn't started the car. He recognized if she were holding it all in, once out of the station and the street, this might be where the dam burst.

She bit her lip and looked at him.

"Yeah." She turned away and looked forward. He waited another minute, giving her the chance to talk if she wanted or needed to. When she didn't, he started the ignition and backed out.

"Flack, I have to make some calls, arrange flights, all that." She seemed concerned about it.

He nodded "Ok Monroe, do what you need to do."

"I don't want to be rude. I'm sorry." She said squinting.

"Rude to me?" He didn't understand.

She nodded, then realized he was driving and not looking at her. "Well, Yes. You're being so kind to drive me home. And I appreciate it, I'm sorry I don't mean to be rude, but I want to try to take advantage of the time difference and see if I can catch some people before they go home for the day."

He couldn't help but smile slightly at her courtesy. "Its OK Monroe. I mean it, do whatever you need to do."

She reached into her purse and pulled out her Treo. He noticed she knew right where it was, and made no effort to extract it. He remembered his Grandmother telling his sister that a lady will know the whereabouts of the contents of her bag, and not fumble through it.

She dialed a number and waited. "Chief Michaelson please. Lindsay Monroe."

Flack was trying to afford her some privacy but he heard every word.

"Hi Chief." Pause. "Thank you sir. Can you tell me if my sisters have also been informed?" Pause and a deep sigh. "Chief I need to ask you two favors. One, please don't allow my sisters to ID the body. I am on my way and will do it as soon as I am home. They don't need to go through that." Pause. "Thank you sir. Second," She breathed in deeply. "Sir you know the nature of my job and where I do it. There have been threats. Of course I can't tell now if they are related, but I would like to ask you as a personal favor, that until we can conclusively determine otherwise you consider my sisters at risk and perhaps add their homes to your normal patrols. Just let them and anyone else who may be paying attention know that the police have their eyes on my sisters." Pause. "Thank you sir. I understand it is out of protocol and my family deeply appreciates it." Pause. Flack knew of no such threats to Monroe's family. At first he was suspicious of what Monroe was up to, and why these lies. But then he put himself in her shoes, and thought he would likely go to similar measures if he were hundreds of miles away from his loved ones whom he feared might be in danger. "That is my next call, I don't know yet. But I will leave a message with dispatch as soon as my flights are booked." Pause. "Thank you again sir." And she took the phone away from her ear and punched the screen. She took another deep breath. Flack didn't say anything, he said she could do what he needed to do, and in his mind, part of that bargain was not interrogating her.

"Flack, I have to book flights, is it OK if I put the phone on speaker? I will need to write things down."

Again the courtesy. "Of course Monroe."

She dialed a number. She was smooth about it really, she identified herself to the travel agent as a NYC Detective and that she needed to fly to Bozeman Montana as soon as possible as there was a death in the family. The agent found her a flight, with plenty of seats, not a lot of traffic to Bozeman. She quoted her an outrageous fare, Lindsay inhaled deeply, but the agent continued that given her service to the city she got a certain discount and then subtracted that from a bereavement fare and it came out to just a few hundred dollars. Flack heard it all. He knew she was staying there only three days, her flight numbers, and seat assignments. She reserved her flights and a car, no, no hotel. Thanks.

As she promised she called dispatch back. She seemed to be considering something. She flipped her phone over and over in her hand.

"Do you have siblings Flack?" She turned to him.

"I do. One older sister. She's on the force. Detective in the one three in Queens, where her husband and his family live" He gave her a quick glance to meet her eyes in answering the question.

"I have two. One older, one younger." She seemed to slump slightly forward. "Both can be trying." She quickly raised her eyebrows.

Flack gave her a small grin. "I hear you."

"I'm working up the strength…here goes."

She called up a number from her phone speed dial and held the phone to her ear.

"Hi its me." Long pause. "Holly, I'll be home tomorrow afternoon." Long pause. "Have you made any arrangements?" Long pause. "No of course, I totally understand. Of course I can take care of it." Long pause "No, no Holly. Leave that to me. I can do that too." Long pause. "Holly, I know you need to cry, and I'm sorry to cut you off but I need to call Kit too." Her tone was soft but Flack could tell she was losing patience. She had lost her father too. Long pause. "Holly, I will see you tomorrow. Is Tyler there? May I speak to him." Her whole demeanor changed. "Hi Ty-bo, its Auntie Lindsay." Short Pause, Lindsay's breath caught as she suppressed a sob "I know Papa went up in the sky. He'll be able to watch over all of us from there. How do you feel about that little man, are you OK?" Pause. "Yes honey Mommy's sad, but you are Papa's Grandboy, and he would want you to be OK too. So if Mommy's sad and its hard for you, you go to your room and think about a happy time with Papa. Fishing, or with the horses. Or that time he taught you to rope. You remember how much Papa wanted you to smile." Pause and Lindsay seemed to giggle. "Yeah, he told me about the time he fell in that mud. You think of Papa like that, laughing and covered in mud. OK sweetie?" Pause. "Listen Ty, Auntie's going a plane and I will see you soon. Save a big big hug for me." Pause. "Oh, no honey, I don't need to talk to Mommy again. Good night my angel. Love you." And she tapped the screen again. "One down." she whispered under her breath.

"My nephew's five." She said to Flack. "Are you an Uncle?"

"I am, two nieces." He said smiling to himself with pride in the little girls he adored.

"Do you get to see them much?" She asked, slightly envious figuring that answer was yes.

"Couple times a month. You know how it goes, time with the nieces also means time with their parents, which I can only take in small doses."

Lindsay laughed. She smiled. She liked Flack. He was a decent man, he was easy to talk to. Not like Messer where everything was a challenge, a joke, usually at her expense. She always had to be on her toes with Messer, with Flack should could just be.

"I knew what to expect with the last call. My older sister, she is a wreck, which is predictable. She doesn't have terrific coping skills. The next, my younger sister. She could be drunk, angry, this could all be my fault, she could be a wreck too..." she trailed off.

"I'm sorry Monroe. None of those sound like anything you need right now. Can you just wait for her to call you?"

"No, I want to check on her. I want to know where she is and that she's safe, and I want to make sure she knows I will take care of things….I just…" She laughed a little, "maybe I will get voicemail." She took a deep breath and dialed.

"Kit, it's Lindsay. How are you doing?" Long pause, Flack could hear a raised voice through the phone. When he stopped at a red light, Lindsay held up two fingers and mouthed to him "Drunk, AND my fault." He smiled.

"I know Kit." Long Pause. "Kit I had no way of being able to tell that." Long pause. "Kit, Kit. Where exactly are you?" Pause. "Is Paulie there?" Pause, more yelling on the other end. "Ok I know Kit. But can I talk to Paulie?" Yelling on the other end, then "Paulie, Its Lindsay." Pause. "Thank you Paulie. Is she as bad as she sounds?" Pause. "I know you would anyway, but would you mind just seeing that she stays out of trouble and gets home safe." Pause and Lindsay furrowed her brow. "Yeah, I thought of it too. I squared it with Michaelson, Bernie and Cecile are going to add their addresses to their routes. But it wouldn't make me sleep any worse to know you were there with her." Pause. "I know." She said softly. "I'll see you tomorrow." Pause. "No, not yet. I'm doing that next and will let you know." She put the phone down.

"That wasn't as bad as it could have been." She raised her eyebrows and looked at Flack. The truth was, being in this mode, taking care of everyone and everything was what she needed or she might be just like Holly.

They approached her building. He found a spot parked, and got out to open her door, but she already was half out when he got there, so he just took her hand and finished helping her out, as a doorman at a five star hotel would do.

"Lindsay." Flack retained her hand. "Is there anything I can do to help you? Calls I can make too? I didn't meant to listen, but this sounds like it all on your shoulders."

She gave him a tight-lipped smile and seemed to relax a bit. "Flack. So much of me wants to say no. Its not my nature to impose on someone like that. But right now, the thought of going upstairs by myself and working through the rest of these details, actually makes me a little queasy." She paused. She took her hand back and wrung it with the other. She just liked having him around. "If you really don't mind, and it wouldn't be keeping you from something else. It would somehow be easier even if you just sat upstairs with me while I make the calls."

He smiled "No problem. I got no where to be" He puts his arm around her shoulder and turned her to the building as if also physically offering his support.

Her apartment wasn't what he expected. It wasn't a warm and country haven. It was Earth-toned and calm. It wasn't quite stark, but it was impersonal. You could tell she wasn't attached to items. There was no bric-a-brac, no knick-knacks. No ceramic cats or dolls, souvenirs from trips. He scanned the walls and ledges looking for pictures to put faces to Holly, Tyler and Kit. He found none and that surprised him, intrigued him really. So he looked around even more intently. First she called the coroner to get details on the autopsy, she sat at her table and took detailed notes on what he said. She found out when she could identify and have the body released. Then she called the funeral home. She was subtle and smooth. If he didn't know she already knew when she was leaving town, you wouldn't have been able to tell she was getting in and out as soon as possible.

Flack noticed another void in the apartment. When she seemed to be in a break between calls, he asked "You don't have a TV Monroe?" He was sitting on her couch, thumbing through one of the many forensics textbooks she owned, his throbbing right leg elevated on her coffee table.

She laughed, "No. I just didn't bring one with me from Montana. And then when I got here, well, you walked up those three stories yourself, can you imagine me lugging a TV up them?" She smiled at him. "Do you want a drink, or something. I'm sorry, I'm a terrible hostess."

He stood up and walked to where she was. "No. No. It seems like you're close to being wrapped up. And I should be going." What he didn't say was that he had already missed a couple of dosages of pain meds, and one of the antibiotics. "But Monroe," he took a pen and wrote his mobile and home phone numbers in her notebook. "Please call me if there's anything I can do. Or if you need a friend to listen. Or if your sisters drive you crazy and you want me to look up the extradition rules on Montana to New York for assault." She laughed, he put his hands on both her elbows and bent at the knees so his eyes were level with hers. He smiled "I mean it, for anything, call me."

He pulled her into another embrace. This time she didn't feel out of place in his arms. He felt like strength and she needed strength now. She made no move to leave his embrace and he didn't pull back for several minutes. He kissed the top of her head. "Good night Monroe."

When he let her go, she let one of her hands catch one of his. And they walked to her apartment door like that, holding hands. Flack felt his blood run warmer with her touch, but he tried to ignore it. Lindsay felt the panic subside with his touch, but she wouldn't admit it.

She furrowed her brow, "Flack, thank you. Thank you for everything tonight. I know you have your own things happening right now. But thank you for being my friend. Especially tonight."

He squeezed her hand and looked at her intently, "Its my pleasure."

He went home to catch up on his meds. She packed and fixated on the images in the files. He got a few hours of sleep, sleep haunted with images of Monroe, hurt, sad, alone. She got none.

In the morning., Lindsay dragged her bags and herself through the airport. When she got to her gate, sitting there, feet on his luggage, half dosing in the airport chair was Flack.