Lindsay looked at her phone as it rang again. She hit the ignore call button and tossed it to the other end of the couch. She didn't want to talk to anyone. She wanted to lie on her couch and wallow in her stupidity. She went into the kitchen and got another beer. She was on her fifth, she thought. Might have been seventh. She wasn't counting anymore. She just wanted to forget everything she had said to Cindy. She wanted to show up on her doorstep, and pull the younger woman to her and, as silly as it sounded, kiss her senseless. She laughed aloud at the thought, cause Martha to pick her head up and look at her strange owner. The phone began ringing again and Lindsay flipped it open. "What?!"
"Learn to answer your damn phone!" Jill said, half-yelling. "Cindy is in the hospital. She has some broken ribs and other various new bruises. She has been asking for you since she almost passed out on Claire's front yard. So, even if you are pissed at her, you need to get your ass down here and see her."
"Can't. Been drinking. In no shape to drive or go anywhere. Besides, I stand by what I said. I don't care anymore."
"Stop being a cold-hearted bitch just because you are so determined to believe that she doesn't love you as much as you love her. Claire said she would have gone to you, had you not, in a sense, wiped your hands clean of her. Stop wallowing in your self-pity and sleep off the beer. Then get your ass down here and see her. She needs you."
"She should have thought of that before."
"What is your problem?!"
"Her!"
"That isn't a good enough answer, Linz." Jill was quiet for a moment. "I am going to come over there, and you are going to sit down and talk to me. Understand?"
"Whatever." She ended the call and made sure to put her phone on silent before setting it onto the table. Somewhere near a half an hour, and two more beers later, there was a knock on the door. Lindsay got up and let Jill in and then resumed her spot on the couch, gently scratching Martha's ears. Jill moved the chair so she was across the coffee table from Lindsay.
"Tell me what is going through your mind right now."
"Why would she stay with him if he continuously does this to her? I mean, she seems like she would have enough common sense to get out of there. But no, instead she stays and ends up in the hospital!"
"She is scared of him, Linz. I would be too. From what she has told Claire and myself, he dictates her life, and she lets him just to keep him happy. To keep her safe."
"I can see how well that is working." Lindsay said dryly.
"Shut up." Jill said. "Look, do you want the story of how she ended up on Claire's front lawn, or do you just want to sit here and drown everything?" Lindsay was quiet for a moment before she nodded to Jill to continue. "Apparently, things were going great until they came home and he wanted to have sex. Did you know she made a vow to herself that even if she was living with him, she wouldn't sleep with him? Well, he didn't like that rule anymore and he flipped. She barely made it out of there with her life, Lindsay, and you know what she told us? The whole while all she wanted was to see you running to help her. She cares about you."
"Then does she find it funny that when she blew me off earlier, if basically was the equivalent of her ripping my heart out, dropping it in a bucket of dry ice and water and then decided it would be fun to throw it off of the Golden Gate Bridge?"
"Wonderful analogy." Jill said. "Linz, she doesn't know how you feel about her. You don't exactly ooze it. I mean, I think at some point she has had a suspicion about it, but never anything concrete to prove it. Which might be part of the reason she hasn't left Arik. She is waiting for a safe haven to appear. And if you keep acting like this, that safe haven is never going to appear for her and she won't know what else to do. I know she is a grown woman, but inside, Lindsay, she's lost. Because she is stuck in this relationship with a jackass. Pining for someone she thinks will never come save her."
"How do you know all of this?"
"When you are willing to offer an ear and a shoulder to cry on, you learn a lot. She told me she would rather be spilling everything to you, but that I had to do because you obviously don't care anymore. She said that she was back to being the pesky reporter to you. She has tried to hard over the past eight months to get that image away from her so you would see her as a human. A human with feelings. Claire and I see it, but you are obviously just a little bit too stupid to realize it. So get your shit together, grow up a little bit more, and go tell her how you feel before you lose her completely." Jill stood up and left, leaving Lindsay staring at the opposite wall with tears in her eyes once again. She finally found the energy to stand up and make her way to her bed. She laid on top of the covers and fell into a fitful sleep. Jill was right. She needed to grow up just a little bit more and tell Cindy how she felt. She couldn't lay around crying about it forever, even if she wanted to. When she awoke, the sun was shining right into her eyes. She trudged into the living room and grabbed her phone. After fussing with it to get it to dial Jill, she sat on the couch. "Yeah?"
"She still in the hospital?"
"Yes. Doctor wants to keep her for a couple days to make sure everything checks out." She said. "You going to see her?"
"I guess."
"I'll give Claire the heads up. Cindy wouldn't let her leave last night."
"I will call you later." Lindsay flipped her phone shut and grabbed her keys. She had no idea what she was going to say when she got there, but she had a good drive time to think about it.