Cindy put one hand to her forehead and groped around the nightstand for her phone. She didn't plan on answering it, she just wanted to shut it up. She finally snagged it and ignored the call and then put it on silent. She rolled over on the bed and the previous night came flooding back to her as she saw Arik sound asleep. She quickly assessed her situation. She moved out of the bed as quickly as she could and gathered her clothes, pulling on each item as she found it. She then grabbed her phone and wallet and made her way out of the apartment. She was about to call Jill for a ride when her screen lit up. "I was just about to call you."
"Where the hell are you? Lindsay is pacing my office." Jill said.
"Can you get away and meet me at the Starbucks at 455 Market?" Cindy asked, walking towards the coffee shop. She figured in the time it took her to walk there, Jill could get rid of Lindsay and drive there. "Don't bring Lindsay with you." She added.
"I'll be there in, like, twenty minutes." Jill said, disconnecting. Cindy continued the walk to the Starbucks and she went in and got a drink while she waited for Jill. A few minutes later, Jill came in the shop, followed by Claire. They headed over to Cindy as they spotted her. "Didn't say I couldn't bring her. Okay, so technically, she invited herself when I tried to pawn Lindsay off on her. We got Jacobi to babysit her. Now what the hell is going on?" Cindy motioned them to sit down at the table. As soon as they were seated, she took a deep breath.
"I think I fucked up, but I am not going to say how, just that I think I did. Actually, I am pretty sure I did. So, basically, what I want to ask you is if you can possibly go to Lindsay's and get my things for me? Like, I can just sit in the car and hide and you can go in and grab them? Please?"
"What is going on?" Claire asked. "Does this have to do with Arik?"
"You make that question sound like I am going back to him. Which I am not, by the way. It's just, I think being with Lindsay is a mistake." She whispered.
"I will take you back to Lindsay's, but I will not help you get out of there without explaining things to her." Jill said. Cindy rolled her eyes. "Go get in my car. Now." Jill said, looking at the redhead. Cindy got up and trudged out to the blue car. She got into the backseat and Jill and Claire got in the vehicle. Jill flipped her phone open. "Yeah. Got her. We'll meet you at your place." She hung up and looked in the mirror at Cindy. "She isn't pissed, you know. She was worried about you." As they pulled up to the curb and Jill shut the car off, Claire kept a hold on Cindy's arm. At the door she passed her off to Lindsay and seemed to almost disappear as Lindsay pulled Cindy into the house.
"Where the hell did you go all night?" She demanded, tears in her eyes. Cindy didn't exactly know how to answer, so she kept her mouth shut. "I can understand walking out in anger, because believe me, I have done it, but normally you come back at some point. You don't stay out all night and then don't answer your phone when it rings. For Chrissake Cindy! I thought there may be a chance I was going to have to be looking for you at a crime scene, and not as a reporter! Arik is still out there! For all I knew, he could have come up to you and dragged you off somewhere!" She looked at Cindy, who was turning a deep shade of red as tears fell down her face. Lindsay dropped to her knees in front of her on the couch. "Honey, I care about you! Don't you get that? I mean, I know two fights in two days in the first two days of the relationship is most definitely a rocky start, but you have to give me a chance. This is new to me. I love you and I am going to worry. We are going to fight, but you know something? I don't want you to feel like you have to run off somewhere for the night because of it. I am completely willing to be shoved to the couch for the night if I mess up." She gently kissed Cindy on the forehead and continued to hold the woman's hands. "Say something."
"I'm sorry. I went to a friends house. I didn't want to come back here as drunk as I was. So I called a friend and he came and got me and I crashed on his couch. Then I had Jill, and apparently Claire, meet me at a Starbucks and they gave me a ride back here. Now, I am going to sit here and put the finishing touches on an article, okay? I am guessing you have a job to do, so why don't you go do it and we can talk more tonight." She said, pulling away from Lindsay. She didn't want to become distanced, but until she could have some time alone to process everything, she didn't want to be near anymore. Lindsay nodded and kissed her before leaving her alone with the dog. She found her laptop and took a couple of hours to completely finish off an article and once it was sent to her editor, she turned the laptop off and made her way to the bedroom. She shed her clothes, resisting the urge to throw them in the trash, and found clean undergarments and one of Lindsay's SFPD shirts and started the shower. Once she felt clean, she crawled into the bed and hugged Martha close as she cried herself to sleep. Hours later, the front door opening made her sit straight up, cause a small jolt of pain in her ribs. Her heartbeat slowed down when she realized it was only Lindsay. She looked at the clock, realizing she had been asleep for almost nine hours. She laid back down as Lindsay came in the room.
"Hey, did I wake you up?"
"Yeah." Cindy said, watching her carefully. She grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a shirt and disappeared into the bathroom for a few minutes. When she emerged, she set her badge, gun and phone on the nightstand and crawled into the bed and pulled Cindy to her. "Hard day?"
"I just want to lay here in silence and hold you, okay?" Lindsay whispered, her voice strained. "It was a bad day."