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Entry tags:
Know That I 5/11
Title: Know That I
Disclaimer: Not my characters – except for one or two. The rest of the ladies and gentleman contained herein belong to entities with a higher pay grade. Thanks for allowing li’l ole me to play; I promise to return them as I found them…just like the tools I borrowed from dad when I was a kid. Also, this is unbeta’d so…mistakes are really all me. Sorry about that.
Fandom: Women’s Murder Club – TV show only.
Pairing: Lindsay/Cindy, Jill/OC.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: An old college friend of Cindy’s moves to town and shakes things up.
Ch. 5 – Disgraceful, Crazy, Absentminded
Jill stepped from the cab and into the cool San Francisco night. The front of Ate-7, Ate-9 stood before her and she shook her head. The restaurant had opened up in mid-oh-nine and had slowly become one of the ‘it’ places to eat in San Francisco. A smile spread over Jill’s face as she remembered the last time a date had tried to bring her here.
The attempt was a miserable failure, the lawyer, whose name Jill couldn’t remember, had thought he’d be able to flash those too pearly whites and a little cash to get them a table. Teasing him afterwards was the highlight of the date that ended when Jill’s back up, Claire, had called with an ‘emergency’.
If her date tonight pulled this off…
Jill shook her head.
Her date wasn’t going to pull this off. You had to make reservations at least three weeks in advance for a weeknight, add another two for the weekend. Considering their plans had only been confirmed right before lunch, Jill figured she was at least in for some quality mocking.
Stepping forward, a hostess pulled the front door open and ushered her in. The lawyer took a moment to take the place in. It was wall to wall people from what she could see. The chatter was surprisingly quiet. Off to her left, the bar was just as busy. The décor hadn’t changed much, the walls were left bare, and the rough red brick enhanced the contrasting furniture and lighting. Most of the restaurant was lit up with candles and low wattage fixtures. The tables were intimate and spaced well enough apart that conversation could be held privately. High-backed, rich, brown leather booths lined the walls.
Most places that ended up being in the top five places to eat in San Francisco usually ended up having elitist clientele and a menu to overpriced for anyone under six-figures a year to afford. The place she found herself seemed to have a broader customer base and she was happy to see it.
“Yeah,” she spoke quietly to herself, “this is gonna be interesting.”
She scanned the faces of the people at the bar off to her left, looking for her date when she felt a tap on her left shoulder.
“You should keep a better eye on your surroundings,” MacKenzie chided, blue eyes twinkling from the light cast by the chandelier. The younger woman wiggled her eyebrows and grinned. “I was sitting right by the door when you came in.”
“Ah,” Jill finally managed to get a word in. She stepped back a little and took in her date’s attire, a thin white top that was hidden by a form fitting green leather jacket, jeans that looked to have been painted on, and, Jill smirked, a pair of sensible peep-toe flats. While Jill was busy checking out her date, MacKenzie was openly staring at the form fitting cream colored dress Jill had on. The fabric fell in just the right way across the lawyer’s frame sparking the darker woman’s imagination.
“You look stunning,” Mac admitted easily, silently patting herself on the back for remembering how to speak. “Why don’t I take your jacket and check it, then we can get a table?” she offered already moving to help Jill out of her coat.
Not wanting to hurt Mac’s feelings about the likelihood of them getting a seat tonight, she allowed her jacket to slip from her shoulders and offered her purse as well, making sure to keep her phone in her hand just in case.
She watched Mac slip her own coat free and hand it over to the attendant while Jill’s jaw dropped. The top her date was wearing had a deep v-cut along the back left shoulder, the point of the exposed fabric ending at the waist of her date’s jeans. Creamy light brown skin was exposed as Jill’s mouth grew tacky.
She watched Mac slip the ticket for the checked items in the back pocket of her jeans before spinning back towards herself and the maître d’. The smile the younger woman sent her was charming and warm. Jill knew that she’d have her work cut out for her if Mac ever switched careers and took up as a defense attorney. That smile would have jurors eating out of the palm of her hand.
“Hi,” Mac greeted again and placed a hand at the small of her back. The heat radiated through the silk of her dress causing a line of goose bumps across the area of skin.
“Hi back,” Jill returned coyly. “Shall we?”
“We should. The last I ate was a sandwich around eleven.” Mac guided them to the podium and said, “Hi, I should have a table reserved for two under St. Hill.”
The maître d’s small smile blossomed and she nodded enthusiastically. “Of course. Ms. St. Hill. We’ve been expecting you. If you and your date would like to follow me, please?”
Jill held back the surprise and instead allowed herself to be led by the hand still pressed against her towards the back of the restaurant. They by-passed most of the patrons and were led to a set of rooms set back across from the kitchen. “Right this way,” the woman motioned them through the middle archway. They passed the threshold and around a small, waist-high wall. The room opened up to a private dining area with seating for two. A silver bucket set off to the side of the small, cloth covered table top.
“Thank you,” Mac said shaking hands with the woman before turning to Jill and holding out a chair for her. “And here you are.” Mac shot a wink to a blushing Jill who quietly took the seat being offered.
“A bit much for a first date?” Jill chided as she looked around the room.
“Second,” Mac corrected taking the seat across from the attorney.
“How so?” Jill wondered, trying to figure out when she’d missed the first.
“The first night we met,” Mac reminded her. “You and I were the only ones left and if I remember correctly, it was date like. I even walked you home.”
“But you turned me down when I invited you up. That wasn’t a date,” Jill insisted. She had wanted MacKenzie to follow her upstairs, but the woman seemed to have a different idea.
“I left you with a kiss on the cheek and a promise to call you, totally the first date.” Mac’s smile was smug and playful.
“I still say this is the first date and it is, you have to admit, a bit much for a first,” she held up her finger at the protest forming on the other woman’s lips, “or a second date. How did you manage this? Reservations are impossible for the amount of time you had to work with.”
Laughing, Mac shrugged. “And if I don’t tell you, will I get in trouble?”
“I’m an officer of the court, I’m sure I can pull some strings to get you to talk,” Jill teased.
Licking her lips, Mac nodded. “I’m sure Ins. Boxer would like an excuse.”
Jill’s eyebrows rose in acknowledgement. “Caught on to that, did you?”
“I did. I’m not super worried.” At the look the attorney was giving her, Mac relented, “Okay, I’m slightly worried, upsetting the law when you’ve barely been in town a week is never a good idea.”
“Very true,” Jill agreed. “So tell me, how?”
Rolling her eyes, Mac sighed. “Fine. I know the executive chef and she owes me a favor or two.”
Immediately drawing to a conclusion, Jill couldn’t help ribbing her date, “Asking an ex for a favor on a date with someone new is bad from, St. Hill.”
Mac’s face immediately soured. “Ex?”
“Who else could you possibly know in the area?” Jill reasoned. “Besides Cindy that is.”
“Oh,” Mac realized, “Yes, well, actually…” Mac was interrupted by a slight cough from the entryway.
Turning back towards the sound, a woman in white chef pants and black smock stood with her hands on her hips. Older, with salt and pepper hair pulled back in a bun and an amused smile looked them over.
“I thought you were not working tonight?” Mac questioned coolly.
A thin brow arced up at the tone and the woman finally spoke, “MacKenzie Martin St. Hill, you may be grown, but watch your tone.” A finger was pointed at Jill’s date for emphasis, additionally confusing the blonde. “And furthermore, you’re being rude; introduce me to your date so I can get back to preparing your food.”
MacKenzie drew in a steadying breath. “Jill, I’d like you to meet the woman that helped secure our reservation tonight, Darlene St. Hill, my mother. Mom, this is Jill Bernhardt.”
Jill’s eyes grew large as she swiveled her head back around to her date. MacKenzie offered an apologetic smile and explained, “She wasn’t supposed to be here, but…”
“I’m nosy and I haven’t seen my first born for longer than I care to admit.” The chef stepped forward and offered a hand in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Jill took the offered hand and shook gently.
“You should really be going, mom,” Mac stressed the word ‘mom’ and made shooing motions with her hands.
“Fine,” the woman agreed. “I just came to say hello and embarrass my daughter. I’ll have your waiter start bringing in your food shortly. Jill,” the woman looked pointedly at the attorney, “it was lovely to meet you. Please enjoy the rest of your date and if she’s anything less than respectful and gracious, please come and find me.”
Jill couldn’t help the smile and her instantaneous like of MacKenzie’s mom. Their smiles were carbon copies of the other. “It’s clear where Mac gets her charm.”
“Such as it is,” Darlene dug playfully.
“She can be quite charming,” Jill defended automatically. “Thank you though. This is wonderful,” she indicated the room they were in.
“No trouble at all. Have a good evening ladies. MacKenzie, I expect at least a phone call before the weekend.” Darlene warned before exiting.
Jill faced her date in just enough time to witness the eye roll. “I think you owe me more of an explanation, MacKenzie Martin St. Hill.”
Mac groaned and let her head fall forward.
The Hall’s Forensic Unit was in a word, empty. The two occupants sat on stools, one was hunched over a microscope and the other spun around lazily. Lindsay pushed herself to the left and twirled on the seat until her knees gently bumped the cabinet behind her. Using the momentum from the impact, she pushed herself off and in the other direction.
“You know,” Claire spoke up as she looked at her friend, “you’re worse than my boys.”
“Pfft, I’m bored,” Lindsay groused, but stopped herself from spinning in the other direction.
“If you like, I can trade you. You can stay here and try to fix the mess Okada made of the samples from your O.D. and I can head home?” Claire’s lips pinched together and waited on the shake of the head she knew to be headed her way.
“Ed mad?” Lindsay ventured, feeling for her friend. She knew all too well what the job could do to a relationship. Her marriage a prime example, but even that, as bad as it got towards then, was never as bad as some of the less serious relationships she’d had since then. It always boiled down to not having the time or the energy some days to put the effort sustaining any type of partnership took. She and Cindy were doing well, and that was largely due to the near inexhaustible patience Cindy seemed to have for her.
“Understatement of the decade, dear.” Claire sighed and sat up a little straighter, stretching the stiff muscles along her back. She winced as her latissimus dorsi contracted and burned. Pushing through the contraction, she arched back and groaned. “We made a deal that I’d be home before midnight.”
Looking at her watch, she still had two hours to make good on the promise, but she still had another hour of tests to run and then analyze the results. If she was lucky, she saw herself getting home closer to one. “Tox screen is almost done, but I need to make sure the LIBS is finished and LA-ICP-MS runs smoothly. Okada nearly broke the machine.”
“Ah, and what does the alphabet soup stand for again?” Lindsay asked knowing that she’d probably been told a half dozen times, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember.
“LIBS is for the laser induced breakdown spectroscopy and the other stands for laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Do you really want me to explain how they work?” Claire smirked, as she already saw the slight glaze sliding over her friend’s dark brown eyes.
Lindsay just shook her head. “I think I already asked too many questions.”
Nodding, Claire just smoothed back her hair. “Did you ever manage to talk to Cindy,” Claire tried for a topic change. By the dark look that passed over Lindsay’s face, she assumed that her attempt flopped.
“Yes,” the inspector replied not bothering to offer anything more.
“And…” Claire pressed. It wasn’t something she did a lot of with Lindsay. Half the battle with getting the detective to talk was knowing when to press and when to back off. She was skirting a line that she wasn’t sure she should at the hour they found themselves, but she also figured that it couldn’t hurt to have one more person upset with her. It gave her a chance to take her mind of her own problems.
“And what?” Lindsay snapped back.
“Did you talk about this morning? MacKenzie?”
Lindsay rolled her eyes and decided to bite the bullet. “She was there when I got home. We touched on MacKenzie and this morning, but I left after we started arguing about her moving in…again.”
“She’s still not sold on you two consolidating households.” Claire surmised.
“Yeah,” Lindsay huffed. “She thinks it’s too soon. How does that work? I’m there. I want to live with her.”
“You don’t think she doesn’t?” Claire wondered aloud.
“If she wanted to live together, she would already have her stuff at my place. We wouldn’t be arguing and I wouldn’t be here.” Lindsay’s arms folded across her chest as she leant back against the counter.
Claire watched her left foot beat against a leg of her stool. “Have you stopped to consider that it isn’t a matter of want?” Claire watched Lindsay’s brows knit together.
“What’s that supposed to mean, Claire?” the inspector asked predictably.
Claire bit back the smirk. Sometimes her girl was more predictable than her kids. “Okay, just off the top of my head, have you bothered asking if she wants to leave her apartment? Maybe she likes it there better…”
“My place is bigger and the neighborhood’s better,” Lindsay retorted.
“So? Do you think that actually matters to her? For another thing, what about how she feels about it? What exactly has she said when she’s told you no?” Claire slipped from the stool and made her way over to her friend to sit down on one of the empty seats next to her.
“She…verbatim, ‘it’s too soon’. That’s all I get from her.” Lindsay’s hands went up in the air for a brief frustrating second before thumping back down on jean covered thighs. “What the hell does that even mean?”
“I think,” Claire said delicately, “that it means she doesn’t think you two are ready to live together yet. Given your reactions as of late, I think Skipper’s right on the money with this, Linds. Your fit of jealousy over MacKenzie hasn’t gone unnoticed by anyone.”
“I’m…” Lindsay started to protest, but looking at Claire caused the inspector’s mouth to clap shut. “Ugh…boys are so much easier to figure out!”
Claire snickered. “Because you were so much happier dating men?”
“I…well, I…,” Lindsay stammered.
“Give it up, Linds. That redhead of ours is the best thing to happen to you in a good long while.” Claire patted Lindsay’s knee and relaxed a little when her friend’s lips twitched up in acknowledgement. “Hmm, which reminds me, do you know who Jill had a date with tonight?”
Lindsay’s eyebrows rose at the news and she shook her head.
In the far corner of the lab, a machine beeped, drawing the attention of the two women. Claire hopped up from her seat and went over the LIBS machine to grab the print out from the test run on their OD victim’s blood. Her lips pursed as the results started to make sense. “Well, we may not know who she’s out and about with, but at least we can take satisfaction in interrupting it.”
“I’m sorry,” Jill apologized. “I just don’t see it.” She heard what Mac was saying but for the life of her she couldn’t get the images to merge.
“Do you really think I’d lie about something like this?” Mac asked. “Trust me, it’s not something I’m proud of, but you asked. And my policy is firm, if you don’t want to know, then don’t ask and if you do ask, do not blame me or get angry that I gave you the answer.”
Jill grinned, leaned back in her chair and studied her date. “Nope. I’m not buying into it.” Her eyes narrowed at the twinkle in the blue-green eyes staring back at her. “You’re leaving something out. What?”
She watched MacKenzie bit the bottom right corner of her lip before the woman spoke up, “You’re good.”
Giggling, Jill blew across her nails and pretended to shine them across her shoulder. “It’s why they pay me the big bucks. Seriously, though, I just can’t picture you the quiet, introverted type. I don’t care how old you were. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Rolling her eyes, Mac persisted, “I really was. I kept it low key, under the radar. We’re talking mid-nineties, Ellen hadn’t come out and I was gay, like super, homo of the first order, gay. Add that to being in a private school with mostly white kids that had more money than they knew what to do with, I was more than happy to just blend in as much as possible.”
“Awe,” Jill teased, “poor baby.” Her teasing earned a throaty chuckle from her date and she had to ask, “So what happened?”
“College. A Gay-Straight Alliance meeting and alcohol,” surmised the woman. “I sort of…busted out. It was good, too. Questioning bi-curious girls, lots of hops and a killer smile.” Mac wiggled her eyebrows and flashed the grin Jill had already become smitten with.
“They didn’t stand a chance,” Jill stated. “Should I bother asking?” She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know, but she doubt Mac had a romantic history as colorful as her own.
Mac shook her head. “I’m sure it will violate some dating rule I’m not accustomed to.”
“Hmm.” Jill’s left eye squinted across the table and her lips pursed. “More of the one night stand type of girl?”
Mac shrugged. “I’ve had a few.” She sobered slightly and met Jill’s gaze directly. “Shall I ask about you?”
The question left Jill’s cheeks a light shade of pink and she shook her head. “I’m playing the age card here. I have excuses and valid, sound logic for everything.” Jill winked. “Although, those few you mentioned, is that why you wanted to wait before telling Cindy about us?”
“Oh, a little presumptuous of you, Ms. Bernarhardt. I don’t think we’ve reached an ‘us’ stage, but if we were there, then I’d insist that Cindy know.” She slid her chair easily around the table, playfully bumping shoulders with the attorney before gathering her hand and threading their fingers together. “My request was multipurpose, I wanted to see how ‘we’ were without that group you have influencing anything,” Mac paused and brought Jill’s hand up to brush her lips across her knuckles, “Dating or figuring out if you should date is hard enough without friends being nosy.” Mac let her teeth graze the tip of Jill’s index finger, “and I’m not sure Lindsay won’t try to shoot me when we do tell her.”
Throughout Mac’s explanation, the attention Jill should have been focusing on the words was lost somewhere between the feather light kiss across her knuckles and the gentle graze of the younger woman’s teeth. “Uh,” is what she managed. As she worked her jaw to say something more intelligent, she saw the display of her phone light up.
She groaned and reached with her freehand to answer it, “Bernarhardt.”
“Hey, Claire and I need you down at the Hall,” Lindsay responded.
“Now?” Jill whined, shooting an apologetic look to Mac.
“Yeah, Cindy’s on her way,” Lindsay said and Jill knew she was sunk.
“Okay, I’ll be there shortly.”
She tried to hang up, but Lindsay’s question threw her, “So, how far along are you on your date?”
Jill’s eyes fluttered shut, untangled her left hand and covered the bottom half of the phone with it before looking to Mac and saying quietly, “I need to meet the girls.” She let the statement linger for a brief second, hoping Mac caught on to her meeting. The slight nod was all she needed before she turned her attention back to her friend, “It’s…well,” she bit her lip and cast a quick glance to MacKenzie before going for it, “one of the best I’ve ever been on.”
“Sorry,” Lindsay said sincerely.
“It’s okay.” Jill looked down at the hand that was placed on her knee and felt the soft pressure being offered in reassurance. “I’m sure I’ll have more to come. I’ll see you and the girls soon.”
“Okay,” Lindsay said before disconnecting.
Jill ended the call and dropped her phone on the table top. “So, about telling the girls…?”
Mac nodded. “No time like the present?”
Jill nodded thankfully and they stood together. “Do you need to do anything before we leave and you know you don’t have to come right?”
Mac offered Jill her hand and led them out into the less crowded restaurant. “The bill is being taken care of and I know I don’t, but I want to if you’re sure.”
Jill squeezed the hand linked with her own and nodded.
“Well then, I suggest we get our coats, a cab and hope that Lindsay’s being less bitchtastic when she finds out I want to date her best friend.” Mac untangled their hands to fish the claim ticket from her back pocket to hand to the attendant. The young man servicing the coat check room was quick and Jill had already had the doorman flag down a cab for them by the time Mac was helping her into her coat.
Sliding hers on, Mac then slipped into the cab behind the blonde. “Are you ready to go make hoopla together?”
Jill shrugged as she gave the driver the address of the Hall. “If you want, we can swing by S.W.A.T. and get you a bullet proof vest,” Jill joked.
Next>>>
Disclaimer: Not my characters – except for one or two. The rest of the ladies and gentleman contained herein belong to entities with a higher pay grade. Thanks for allowing li’l ole me to play; I promise to return them as I found them…just like the tools I borrowed from dad when I was a kid. Also, this is unbeta’d so…mistakes are really all me. Sorry about that.
Fandom: Women’s Murder Club – TV show only.
Pairing: Lindsay/Cindy, Jill/OC.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: An old college friend of Cindy’s moves to town and shakes things up.
Jill stepped from the cab and into the cool San Francisco night. The front of Ate-7, Ate-9 stood before her and she shook her head. The restaurant had opened up in mid-oh-nine and had slowly become one of the ‘it’ places to eat in San Francisco. A smile spread over Jill’s face as she remembered the last time a date had tried to bring her here.
The attempt was a miserable failure, the lawyer, whose name Jill couldn’t remember, had thought he’d be able to flash those too pearly whites and a little cash to get them a table. Teasing him afterwards was the highlight of the date that ended when Jill’s back up, Claire, had called with an ‘emergency’.
If her date tonight pulled this off…
Jill shook her head.
Her date wasn’t going to pull this off. You had to make reservations at least three weeks in advance for a weeknight, add another two for the weekend. Considering their plans had only been confirmed right before lunch, Jill figured she was at least in for some quality mocking.
Stepping forward, a hostess pulled the front door open and ushered her in. The lawyer took a moment to take the place in. It was wall to wall people from what she could see. The chatter was surprisingly quiet. Off to her left, the bar was just as busy. The décor hadn’t changed much, the walls were left bare, and the rough red brick enhanced the contrasting furniture and lighting. Most of the restaurant was lit up with candles and low wattage fixtures. The tables were intimate and spaced well enough apart that conversation could be held privately. High-backed, rich, brown leather booths lined the walls.
Most places that ended up being in the top five places to eat in San Francisco usually ended up having elitist clientele and a menu to overpriced for anyone under six-figures a year to afford. The place she found herself seemed to have a broader customer base and she was happy to see it.
“Yeah,” she spoke quietly to herself, “this is gonna be interesting.”
She scanned the faces of the people at the bar off to her left, looking for her date when she felt a tap on her left shoulder.
“You should keep a better eye on your surroundings,” MacKenzie chided, blue eyes twinkling from the light cast by the chandelier. The younger woman wiggled her eyebrows and grinned. “I was sitting right by the door when you came in.”
“Ah,” Jill finally managed to get a word in. She stepped back a little and took in her date’s attire, a thin white top that was hidden by a form fitting green leather jacket, jeans that looked to have been painted on, and, Jill smirked, a pair of sensible peep-toe flats. While Jill was busy checking out her date, MacKenzie was openly staring at the form fitting cream colored dress Jill had on. The fabric fell in just the right way across the lawyer’s frame sparking the darker woman’s imagination.
“You look stunning,” Mac admitted easily, silently patting herself on the back for remembering how to speak. “Why don’t I take your jacket and check it, then we can get a table?” she offered already moving to help Jill out of her coat.
Not wanting to hurt Mac’s feelings about the likelihood of them getting a seat tonight, she allowed her jacket to slip from her shoulders and offered her purse as well, making sure to keep her phone in her hand just in case.
She watched Mac slip her own coat free and hand it over to the attendant while Jill’s jaw dropped. The top her date was wearing had a deep v-cut along the back left shoulder, the point of the exposed fabric ending at the waist of her date’s jeans. Creamy light brown skin was exposed as Jill’s mouth grew tacky.
She watched Mac slip the ticket for the checked items in the back pocket of her jeans before spinning back towards herself and the maître d’. The smile the younger woman sent her was charming and warm. Jill knew that she’d have her work cut out for her if Mac ever switched careers and took up as a defense attorney. That smile would have jurors eating out of the palm of her hand.
“Hi,” Mac greeted again and placed a hand at the small of her back. The heat radiated through the silk of her dress causing a line of goose bumps across the area of skin.
“Hi back,” Jill returned coyly. “Shall we?”
“We should. The last I ate was a sandwich around eleven.” Mac guided them to the podium and said, “Hi, I should have a table reserved for two under St. Hill.”
The maître d’s small smile blossomed and she nodded enthusiastically. “Of course. Ms. St. Hill. We’ve been expecting you. If you and your date would like to follow me, please?”
Jill held back the surprise and instead allowed herself to be led by the hand still pressed against her towards the back of the restaurant. They by-passed most of the patrons and were led to a set of rooms set back across from the kitchen. “Right this way,” the woman motioned them through the middle archway. They passed the threshold and around a small, waist-high wall. The room opened up to a private dining area with seating for two. A silver bucket set off to the side of the small, cloth covered table top.
“Thank you,” Mac said shaking hands with the woman before turning to Jill and holding out a chair for her. “And here you are.” Mac shot a wink to a blushing Jill who quietly took the seat being offered.
“A bit much for a first date?” Jill chided as she looked around the room.
“Second,” Mac corrected taking the seat across from the attorney.
“How so?” Jill wondered, trying to figure out when she’d missed the first.
“The first night we met,” Mac reminded her. “You and I were the only ones left and if I remember correctly, it was date like. I even walked you home.”
“But you turned me down when I invited you up. That wasn’t a date,” Jill insisted. She had wanted MacKenzie to follow her upstairs, but the woman seemed to have a different idea.
“I left you with a kiss on the cheek and a promise to call you, totally the first date.” Mac’s smile was smug and playful.
“I still say this is the first date and it is, you have to admit, a bit much for a first,” she held up her finger at the protest forming on the other woman’s lips, “or a second date. How did you manage this? Reservations are impossible for the amount of time you had to work with.”
Laughing, Mac shrugged. “And if I don’t tell you, will I get in trouble?”
“I’m an officer of the court, I’m sure I can pull some strings to get you to talk,” Jill teased.
Licking her lips, Mac nodded. “I’m sure Ins. Boxer would like an excuse.”
Jill’s eyebrows rose in acknowledgement. “Caught on to that, did you?”
“I did. I’m not super worried.” At the look the attorney was giving her, Mac relented, “Okay, I’m slightly worried, upsetting the law when you’ve barely been in town a week is never a good idea.”
“Very true,” Jill agreed. “So tell me, how?”
Rolling her eyes, Mac sighed. “Fine. I know the executive chef and she owes me a favor or two.”
Immediately drawing to a conclusion, Jill couldn’t help ribbing her date, “Asking an ex for a favor on a date with someone new is bad from, St. Hill.”
Mac’s face immediately soured. “Ex?”
“Who else could you possibly know in the area?” Jill reasoned. “Besides Cindy that is.”
“Oh,” Mac realized, “Yes, well, actually…” Mac was interrupted by a slight cough from the entryway.
Turning back towards the sound, a woman in white chef pants and black smock stood with her hands on her hips. Older, with salt and pepper hair pulled back in a bun and an amused smile looked them over.
“I thought you were not working tonight?” Mac questioned coolly.
A thin brow arced up at the tone and the woman finally spoke, “MacKenzie Martin St. Hill, you may be grown, but watch your tone.” A finger was pointed at Jill’s date for emphasis, additionally confusing the blonde. “And furthermore, you’re being rude; introduce me to your date so I can get back to preparing your food.”
MacKenzie drew in a steadying breath. “Jill, I’d like you to meet the woman that helped secure our reservation tonight, Darlene St. Hill, my mother. Mom, this is Jill Bernhardt.”
Jill’s eyes grew large as she swiveled her head back around to her date. MacKenzie offered an apologetic smile and explained, “She wasn’t supposed to be here, but…”
“I’m nosy and I haven’t seen my first born for longer than I care to admit.” The chef stepped forward and offered a hand in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Jill took the offered hand and shook gently.
“You should really be going, mom,” Mac stressed the word ‘mom’ and made shooing motions with her hands.
“Fine,” the woman agreed. “I just came to say hello and embarrass my daughter. I’ll have your waiter start bringing in your food shortly. Jill,” the woman looked pointedly at the attorney, “it was lovely to meet you. Please enjoy the rest of your date and if she’s anything less than respectful and gracious, please come and find me.”
Jill couldn’t help the smile and her instantaneous like of MacKenzie’s mom. Their smiles were carbon copies of the other. “It’s clear where Mac gets her charm.”
“Such as it is,” Darlene dug playfully.
“She can be quite charming,” Jill defended automatically. “Thank you though. This is wonderful,” she indicated the room they were in.
“No trouble at all. Have a good evening ladies. MacKenzie, I expect at least a phone call before the weekend.” Darlene warned before exiting.
Jill faced her date in just enough time to witness the eye roll. “I think you owe me more of an explanation, MacKenzie Martin St. Hill.”
Mac groaned and let her head fall forward.
The Hall’s Forensic Unit was in a word, empty. The two occupants sat on stools, one was hunched over a microscope and the other spun around lazily. Lindsay pushed herself to the left and twirled on the seat until her knees gently bumped the cabinet behind her. Using the momentum from the impact, she pushed herself off and in the other direction.
“You know,” Claire spoke up as she looked at her friend, “you’re worse than my boys.”
“Pfft, I’m bored,” Lindsay groused, but stopped herself from spinning in the other direction.
“If you like, I can trade you. You can stay here and try to fix the mess Okada made of the samples from your O.D. and I can head home?” Claire’s lips pinched together and waited on the shake of the head she knew to be headed her way.
“Ed mad?” Lindsay ventured, feeling for her friend. She knew all too well what the job could do to a relationship. Her marriage a prime example, but even that, as bad as it got towards then, was never as bad as some of the less serious relationships she’d had since then. It always boiled down to not having the time or the energy some days to put the effort sustaining any type of partnership took. She and Cindy were doing well, and that was largely due to the near inexhaustible patience Cindy seemed to have for her.
“Understatement of the decade, dear.” Claire sighed and sat up a little straighter, stretching the stiff muscles along her back. She winced as her latissimus dorsi contracted and burned. Pushing through the contraction, she arched back and groaned. “We made a deal that I’d be home before midnight.”
Looking at her watch, she still had two hours to make good on the promise, but she still had another hour of tests to run and then analyze the results. If she was lucky, she saw herself getting home closer to one. “Tox screen is almost done, but I need to make sure the LIBS is finished and LA-ICP-MS runs smoothly. Okada nearly broke the machine.”
“Ah, and what does the alphabet soup stand for again?” Lindsay asked knowing that she’d probably been told a half dozen times, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember.
“LIBS is for the laser induced breakdown spectroscopy and the other stands for laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Do you really want me to explain how they work?” Claire smirked, as she already saw the slight glaze sliding over her friend’s dark brown eyes.
Lindsay just shook her head. “I think I already asked too many questions.”
Nodding, Claire just smoothed back her hair. “Did you ever manage to talk to Cindy,” Claire tried for a topic change. By the dark look that passed over Lindsay’s face, she assumed that her attempt flopped.
“Yes,” the inspector replied not bothering to offer anything more.
“And…” Claire pressed. It wasn’t something she did a lot of with Lindsay. Half the battle with getting the detective to talk was knowing when to press and when to back off. She was skirting a line that she wasn’t sure she should at the hour they found themselves, but she also figured that it couldn’t hurt to have one more person upset with her. It gave her a chance to take her mind of her own problems.
“And what?” Lindsay snapped back.
“Did you talk about this morning? MacKenzie?”
Lindsay rolled her eyes and decided to bite the bullet. “She was there when I got home. We touched on MacKenzie and this morning, but I left after we started arguing about her moving in…again.”
“She’s still not sold on you two consolidating households.” Claire surmised.
“Yeah,” Lindsay huffed. “She thinks it’s too soon. How does that work? I’m there. I want to live with her.”
“You don’t think she doesn’t?” Claire wondered aloud.
“If she wanted to live together, she would already have her stuff at my place. We wouldn’t be arguing and I wouldn’t be here.” Lindsay’s arms folded across her chest as she leant back against the counter.
Claire watched her left foot beat against a leg of her stool. “Have you stopped to consider that it isn’t a matter of want?” Claire watched Lindsay’s brows knit together.
“What’s that supposed to mean, Claire?” the inspector asked predictably.
Claire bit back the smirk. Sometimes her girl was more predictable than her kids. “Okay, just off the top of my head, have you bothered asking if she wants to leave her apartment? Maybe she likes it there better…”
“My place is bigger and the neighborhood’s better,” Lindsay retorted.
“So? Do you think that actually matters to her? For another thing, what about how she feels about it? What exactly has she said when she’s told you no?” Claire slipped from the stool and made her way over to her friend to sit down on one of the empty seats next to her.
“She…verbatim, ‘it’s too soon’. That’s all I get from her.” Lindsay’s hands went up in the air for a brief frustrating second before thumping back down on jean covered thighs. “What the hell does that even mean?”
“I think,” Claire said delicately, “that it means she doesn’t think you two are ready to live together yet. Given your reactions as of late, I think Skipper’s right on the money with this, Linds. Your fit of jealousy over MacKenzie hasn’t gone unnoticed by anyone.”
“I’m…” Lindsay started to protest, but looking at Claire caused the inspector’s mouth to clap shut. “Ugh…boys are so much easier to figure out!”
Claire snickered. “Because you were so much happier dating men?”
“I…well, I…,” Lindsay stammered.
“Give it up, Linds. That redhead of ours is the best thing to happen to you in a good long while.” Claire patted Lindsay’s knee and relaxed a little when her friend’s lips twitched up in acknowledgement. “Hmm, which reminds me, do you know who Jill had a date with tonight?”
Lindsay’s eyebrows rose at the news and she shook her head.
In the far corner of the lab, a machine beeped, drawing the attention of the two women. Claire hopped up from her seat and went over the LIBS machine to grab the print out from the test run on their OD victim’s blood. Her lips pursed as the results started to make sense. “Well, we may not know who she’s out and about with, but at least we can take satisfaction in interrupting it.”
“I’m sorry,” Jill apologized. “I just don’t see it.” She heard what Mac was saying but for the life of her she couldn’t get the images to merge.
“Do you really think I’d lie about something like this?” Mac asked. “Trust me, it’s not something I’m proud of, but you asked. And my policy is firm, if you don’t want to know, then don’t ask and if you do ask, do not blame me or get angry that I gave you the answer.”
Jill grinned, leaned back in her chair and studied her date. “Nope. I’m not buying into it.” Her eyes narrowed at the twinkle in the blue-green eyes staring back at her. “You’re leaving something out. What?”
She watched MacKenzie bit the bottom right corner of her lip before the woman spoke up, “You’re good.”
Giggling, Jill blew across her nails and pretended to shine them across her shoulder. “It’s why they pay me the big bucks. Seriously, though, I just can’t picture you the quiet, introverted type. I don’t care how old you were. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Rolling her eyes, Mac persisted, “I really was. I kept it low key, under the radar. We’re talking mid-nineties, Ellen hadn’t come out and I was gay, like super, homo of the first order, gay. Add that to being in a private school with mostly white kids that had more money than they knew what to do with, I was more than happy to just blend in as much as possible.”
“Awe,” Jill teased, “poor baby.” Her teasing earned a throaty chuckle from her date and she had to ask, “So what happened?”
“College. A Gay-Straight Alliance meeting and alcohol,” surmised the woman. “I sort of…busted out. It was good, too. Questioning bi-curious girls, lots of hops and a killer smile.” Mac wiggled her eyebrows and flashed the grin Jill had already become smitten with.
“They didn’t stand a chance,” Jill stated. “Should I bother asking?” She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know, but she doubt Mac had a romantic history as colorful as her own.
Mac shook her head. “I’m sure it will violate some dating rule I’m not accustomed to.”
“Hmm.” Jill’s left eye squinted across the table and her lips pursed. “More of the one night stand type of girl?”
Mac shrugged. “I’ve had a few.” She sobered slightly and met Jill’s gaze directly. “Shall I ask about you?”
The question left Jill’s cheeks a light shade of pink and she shook her head. “I’m playing the age card here. I have excuses and valid, sound logic for everything.” Jill winked. “Although, those few you mentioned, is that why you wanted to wait before telling Cindy about us?”
“Oh, a little presumptuous of you, Ms. Bernarhardt. I don’t think we’ve reached an ‘us’ stage, but if we were there, then I’d insist that Cindy know.” She slid her chair easily around the table, playfully bumping shoulders with the attorney before gathering her hand and threading their fingers together. “My request was multipurpose, I wanted to see how ‘we’ were without that group you have influencing anything,” Mac paused and brought Jill’s hand up to brush her lips across her knuckles, “Dating or figuring out if you should date is hard enough without friends being nosy.” Mac let her teeth graze the tip of Jill’s index finger, “and I’m not sure Lindsay won’t try to shoot me when we do tell her.”
Throughout Mac’s explanation, the attention Jill should have been focusing on the words was lost somewhere between the feather light kiss across her knuckles and the gentle graze of the younger woman’s teeth. “Uh,” is what she managed. As she worked her jaw to say something more intelligent, she saw the display of her phone light up.
She groaned and reached with her freehand to answer it, “Bernarhardt.”
“Hey, Claire and I need you down at the Hall,” Lindsay responded.
“Now?” Jill whined, shooting an apologetic look to Mac.
“Yeah, Cindy’s on her way,” Lindsay said and Jill knew she was sunk.
“Okay, I’ll be there shortly.”
She tried to hang up, but Lindsay’s question threw her, “So, how far along are you on your date?”
Jill’s eyes fluttered shut, untangled her left hand and covered the bottom half of the phone with it before looking to Mac and saying quietly, “I need to meet the girls.” She let the statement linger for a brief second, hoping Mac caught on to her meeting. The slight nod was all she needed before she turned her attention back to her friend, “It’s…well,” she bit her lip and cast a quick glance to MacKenzie before going for it, “one of the best I’ve ever been on.”
“Sorry,” Lindsay said sincerely.
“It’s okay.” Jill looked down at the hand that was placed on her knee and felt the soft pressure being offered in reassurance. “I’m sure I’ll have more to come. I’ll see you and the girls soon.”
“Okay,” Lindsay said before disconnecting.
Jill ended the call and dropped her phone on the table top. “So, about telling the girls…?”
Mac nodded. “No time like the present?”
Jill nodded thankfully and they stood together. “Do you need to do anything before we leave and you know you don’t have to come right?”
Mac offered Jill her hand and led them out into the less crowded restaurant. “The bill is being taken care of and I know I don’t, but I want to if you’re sure.”
Jill squeezed the hand linked with her own and nodded.
“Well then, I suggest we get our coats, a cab and hope that Lindsay’s being less bitchtastic when she finds out I want to date her best friend.” Mac untangled their hands to fish the claim ticket from her back pocket to hand to the attendant. The young man servicing the coat check room was quick and Jill had already had the doorman flag down a cab for them by the time Mac was helping her into her coat.
Sliding hers on, Mac then slipped into the cab behind the blonde. “Are you ready to go make hoopla together?”
Jill shrugged as she gave the driver the address of the Hall. “If you want, we can swing by S.W.A.T. and get you a bullet proof vest,” Jill joked.
Next>>>
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Waiting for more :)
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Thank you!
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And you go Claire--someone needs to smack Lindsay in the head once in a while. "HER stuff MY place". And where does her stuff go if you get cold feet one day?
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Also, I'm not sure Mac will ever get to the "together having drinks, and laughs, together" stage with the girls. Adding her to the mix messes with dynamic too much for my liking. Her hanging out on occasion and then stealing a member away, totally doable.
Claire's the hero, kinda always has been IMO so...she gets a *high five*.
Thanks!
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and let's be honest, Lindsay rarely behaves herself. We like that about her.