Stella walked into the locker room to see Lindsay staring vacantly into her locker.
"Hey there, Linds. Everything okay?" Stella asked, her mothering tendencies showing through in her tone. "You look a little, stressed?"
"Tired is all. I'm finishing a double. I just want to go home – wherever that is." Lindsay replied.
Stella nodded her head knowingly. She was amazed that Lindsay had been coming to work at all, with everything that had been going on. It had been five long days since Flack had yelled at Stella to get Lindsay out of his room. Stella knew that Lindsay had tried to talk to him about things, but he wouldn't listen. It seemed to Stella that she had finally gotten through to him and explained what had been going on with Lindsay, but hearing the truth didn't seem to faze Flack. He simply felt that Lindsay was better off without him. Stella wished that he could see how wrong he was.
"You still staying at Danny's?" Stella asked without trying to hide her curiosity.
"Yeah, but I'm planning on going back to my place this afternoon just as soon as I finish up here." Lindsay said with a sigh. To be honest, she didn't really want to go home. While Danny's couch wasn't exactly what she considered comfortable, her apartment just reminded her constantly of Don and what she didn't have.
"Where is Danny, anyway? I haven't seen him today." Stella asked.
"He's not on until tonight." Lindsay replied. She felt a small pang of guilt that she knew Danny's schedule and whereabouts, but hadn't spoken to Don in a few days. Then again, Flack wanted nothing to do with her and Danny was always there.
Stella nodded again, finished up in her locker and made her way back into the lab, leaving Lindsay standing alone, again, with her thoughts of what to do and where to sleep.
Danny had decided to make the most of his afternoon off. He did some laundry, ran to the store to pick up some food and then decided to go where he was sure that he wasn't welcome.
Danny walked into Flack's room. Things seemed different. There weren't as many tubes and wires. Flack had gotten a lot of color back and looked better. Danny noticed a woman's coat and bag in the chair. Not recognizing them, he assumed they belonged to Flack's mother. Flack was sitting comfortably in some of his own clothes, looking much more comfortable and human.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Danny asked as he popped his head through the door. He nodded towards the stack of papers and pamphlets sitting on the foot of Flack's bed. Danny already knew, but he wanted Flack to confirm that they were discharge papers.
"I can leave." Flack said quietly.
"Can I come in?" Danny asked hesitantly.
Flack simply shrugged his shoulders and turned up one corner of his mouth. Danny walked in and stood near the edge of Flack's bed. He shifted his weight from one foot to another, finally settling on rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. There was an unsettling silence between the two men. Neither knowing quite what to say.
"How is everyone?" Flack asked. The word everyone was loaded with meaning.
"The gang's fine." Danny replied. "You know… Mac's working long hours; Stella's nagging him to go home. I think Adam actually had a date the other night." Danny chuckled at the thought of Adam on a date, and so did Flack. Danny took a deep breath before going on. "Lindsay's okay. She's not great, but she's okay. She's working a lot. It's like she thinks that the more she works the less time she'll have to remember that you're not around."
Flack closed his eyes and sighed with Danny's words. When Flack didn't say anything, Danny stretched his neck nervously and kept talking. "She misses you. You know that, right? Look man, I really screwed things up here. I screwed things up between you and Lindsay and you and me. I wish I knew what to do to fix it."
"Don't worry about it." Flack said nonchalantly. If Danny hadn't heard the first part of their conversation he'd think that Flack was talking to someone who had just bumped into him on the street. Flack's tone was cool and casual. Danny and Flack settled back into an uneasy silence. Danny didn't know what else to say and Flack obviously didn't want to say anything else.
"When you going home?" Danny said, breaking the silence.
"Tonight."
"You going back to your place?" Danny asked with a furrowed brow. He was wondering if Lindsay knew about this and whether or not she was planning on staying in their apartment.
"No. I gotta go where someone will be around to check on me. Tell Lindsay that she can stay in the apartment. I'm going home to my parent's house for a while. Being released into their care." Flack muttered.
"Whoa, man. You're making a big mistake. Lindsay loves you and you're throwing away one of the best things to ever happen to you." Danny countered. It was as if he didn't even know Flack anymore. The man sitting in front of him was thin, weak and seemed defeated. Danny stared up at the ceiling, blinking a few times, and then leveled his gaze back on Flack. "Dude. I know that I can't argue with you when you get like this. I know… your mind's made up." Danny turned to walk out of Flack's room. When he got to the door he turned around with one final question. "Tell me this. You do know that when you heard what Lindsay said, or what you thought she said, that she was talking about me, right? I was the one who was suffocating her? I was the one making her run away? You know it was me and not you, right?"
"Yeah. Stella told me." Flack said with a sigh. "Doesn't matter, though. I'm no good for her. She needs someone who can be there."
Flack turned his head dejected away from Danny and stared out of the window. Danny took that as his cue to leave, leaving Flack alone – thinking about leaving the hospital and going home.