In the hospital cafeteria Claire sat finishing her coffee as Lindsay pushed the remnants of her breakfast around on her plate.

"Are you okay?" Claire finally asked, although she already knew the answer she would be given.

"Fine." Lindsay responded unconvincingly.

"Pete is only here another day and a half, why don't you go spend time with him. I can sit with Cindy if it will make you feel better."

"He left for LA this morning."

"Why? I thought he was here till Sunday night."

"Cindy kicked me out last night so I went home to talk to him. I told him to go. I didn't think it was fair for him to be stuck at my place, while I'm here." Lindsay looked up to meet Claire's gaze. "What?" She asked defensively while Claire sat silently studying her.

"It is a bit curious that he flies half way around the world to see you and you tell him to leave."

"He came for his meeting." Lindsay said in her own defense

Claire took note of of the redness in her friend's eyes. "Honey you look really tired. Why don't you just go home for a while and get some rest." She suggested, her motherly concern kicking in.

Lindsay dropped her gaze back to her coffee. "We could have both..."

"I know," Claire cut in, not wanting to think about how different things could be. "I'm sure she doesn't want you feeling guilty about this."

"I left last time." Lindsay added in a mere whisper. She didn't just feel guilty about this, she still felt a lot of guilt over Cindy's shooting six months ago. Logically she knew that she couldn't have stopped it, but that didn't stop her from continually coming up with 'what if' scenarios that might have prevented it. And if she wanted to be truly honest with herself, which she rarely did, she would admit that most of her guilt stemmed from the fact that while Cindy laid in the hospital she went on a date. The shooting made her confront emotions that scared her and she that wasn't ready to deal with so she went and hid behind Pete.

"That's what this is about?" Claire reached out and covered Lindsay's hands with her own. "It's been months since Cindy got shot. I thought you had moved past it."

"Apparently not." Lindsay admitted reluctantly.

"Lindsay, when are you..." Claire's question was interrupted by Jill joining the table.

"What are you doing down here? Is Cindy okay." Lindsay asked worriedly.

"She's fine." Jill assured her. "She kicked me so she could get some rest."

Lindsay released a sigh of relief. "I should probably get back up there."

"She told me to take you home." Jill informed her.

"What? Why?"

"Oh, I don't know. Something about your boyfriend who flew around the world for you." Jill answered sarcastically.

"He left for LA this morning." Claire clued Jill in, and the two shared a knowing glance.

"Why?" Jill asked turning her gaze to Lindsay.

"It's not important." Lindsay announced trying to put an end to the conversation.

Unfortunately her friends weren't willing to let it drop. "Is he coming back?" Jill asked.

Lindsay took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair, "I told him that the long distance thing wasn't working." She crossed her arms and waited for the barrage of questions. "You aren't going to say anything?" she prompted when the questions didn't come.

"Sorry," Claire began, "I thought it was going so well. The last few weeks, all the late night calls."

"There weren't any." Lindsay admitted slowly.

"Any what?" Jill asked

"Phone calls. I just said that so I could have some time to myself." Lindsay paused, not wanting to make eye contact. "I needed to figure out a few things."

"Would you please just tell her already." Jill exploded.

Lindsay just stared at her in shock.

"Jill, let them work it out." Claire tried to calm them before the situation got out of control.

Lindsay looked between her two best friends, "what are you talking about?" she muttered.

"Oh get off it." Jill wasn't buying Lindsay's innocent act. "We know how you feel about Cindy, and I happen to know that she's crazy about you."

"She is?" Lindsay asked hopefully as she felt her heart kick in her chest.

"You two are driving me nuts." Jill said as she threw up her hands. She took a deep breath and turned to fully face Lindsay, "don't get mad, but I told her that you were attracted to her too." The statement drew a glare but Jill continued. "She actually tried to use the hero-worship line on me."

That thought brought a smile to Lindsay's face. She used to brush off Cindy's attention toward her as just that but she now recognized that it was more than that, for both of them. When she caught her friends staring at her knowingly Lindsay looked down at the table, "I just don't want to mess up the friendship we have."

"How do you know it won't be better?" Claire asked.

Lindsay looked up sadly, "my past track record."

Jill expelled a frustrated sigh. "You two are just alike. I just had to listen to her explain to me why she's not good enough for you."

Lindsay scoffed at that idea.

"She doesn't really think that does she?" Claire asked seriously.

"Yes she does. She thinks Pete would be better for you." Jill relaxed and took Lindsay's hand. "But you don't love him do you?" she asked sincerely.

"No." She admitted adamantly. "At first I thought I could and then I figured that I couldn't possibly mess it up with him on the other side of the world."

"So then instead of having an ever present boyfriend to focus your attention on, and since you no longer had to worry about my blind date attempts you were actually free to spend more time with Cindy. And it scared you. Which is why you spent the last three weeks on pretend phone calls." Jill summarized.

Lindsay stared at her for a moment before responding, "I plead the fifth."

"Just go talk to her. You aren't going to resolve anything until you are honest with each other." Claire suggested.

Lindsay looked at her encouraging friends. "Are you sure you're okay with this?" she begged for assurances while her courage slowly increased. "I wouldn't want to mess up the 'club'." she smiled.

"We just want you to be happy. And I think she can do that for you." Claire assured her.

I just hope I can do that for her, Lindsay thought to herself as she rose slowly from the table.

Jill watched as Lindsay left the cafeteria then turned back to catch Claire staring at her. "What? They needed a push."