Fic: Brick Walls (4/?) (WMC)

[mysensitiveside]

Title: Brick Walls
Fandom: WMC
Pairing: Jill/Cindy
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,218
Disclaimer: Alas, characters aren’t mine.
Warning/Spoilers: Takes place post-finale.
Summary: The latest crime scene turns personal for Cindy.

I know, I know... I've been remarkably horrible about updating this fic. I'm soooo sorry! But lack of time and lack of a muse have gotten in the way.

Here are the previous parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

And without further ado...

Part 4

Cindy woke up with a light groan. Disoriented at first, she quickly realized that she was lying on her side, on the floor. She didn’t feel hung-over, though, so wasn’t really sure what she was doing there.

She glanced down at her watch and then reached up to rub at her dry eyes, regretting whatever had made her forget to remove her contacts the night before. It was only when she began to stretch out her stiff muscles, though, that she even realized that there was a soft hand splayed across her hip and a warm body lying behind her.

Looking over her shoulder, Cindy narrowed her eyes in confusion. Jill?

Suddenly, she remembered, and she felt her heart thump rapidly in response.

Oh. Jill.

Cindy had kissed Jill. Crap.

Inching carefully out from under Jill’s touch, Cindy made her way quietly into the kitchen before turning back to watch her sleeping friend.

This hadn’t been how she’d imagined her first kiss with Jill might be. Because she had imagined it, no matter how much she told herself that she shouldn’t; that it would never happen. But she’d thought about whether it might be sweet and gentle, only to decide that with someone like Jill, there was probably a greater chance of it ending up along the lines of light and meaningless. Maybe teasing. Maybe drunken. Maybe -- just maybe -- heartfelt on both ends (her own end, she could count on; Jill’s, not so much). It would definitely be sexy, though. In Cindy’s imagination, at least, kissing Jill could never be anything but toe-curling sexy.

In Cindy’s imagination, it had never occurred to her that their first kiss would be forced, sloppy, rushed, and wet with tears. It didn’t exactly go along with her plan of wooing the blonde with such an amazing first kiss that Jill would immediately decide that they should start dating.

Sighing, Cindy quietly slipped back by Jill and into the living room, grabbing a blanket off the back of the couch. She settled the blanket over Jill’s body and barely resisted the urge to brush the blonde bangs out of Jill’s eyes before turning to go make coffee and get some breakfast. She still had some time before she’d need to wake Jill for work.

She was about to pour some milk in her cereal when Jill’s phone, lying abandoned on the kitchen counter, began to ring. A glance down at the screen revealed the caller to be Claire, and after a bit of hesitation, Cindy reached to answer the phone.

“Good morning, this is Jill Bernhardt’s phone,” she announced.

There was a brief pause, and then Claire’s voice came over the line, asking, “Cindy?”

“Yeah. Hi, Claire. I’m awake, and Jill isn’t, and the phone was right there, so I just sort of decided to answer it, but maybe I shouldn’t have, and I could have just let your call go to voicemail or something, but it’s too late to change anything about that now anyway, so-”

“Cindy, it’s fine that you answered Jill’s phone,” Claire interrupted Cindy’s rambling, a hint of a smile audible in her voice. “So how are you feeling, sweetheart?” she continued softly.

Cindy sighed. “I’m okay. Well, not ‘okay’ exactly, but better than before, at least. Jill... Jill helped me get some of the big emotions out, so now I can actually focus again.”

The sound of light footsteps alerted her that the blonde in question was awake, and sure enough, Cindy turned around to find Jill blinking sleepily at her, the blanket still wrapped tightly around her shoulders.

Cindy smiled hesitantly and willed herself not to blush. Turning her attention back to the phone, she muttered, “Hey, Claire? Jill’s up, so I’m going to pass the phone off to her. Since it is, you know, her phone, after all. I’ll let her tell you about Lydia.”

With that, she thrust the phone towards Jill, who, obviously not fully awake yet, simply stared at it for a moment before taking it into her hand.

“I don’t know if I can talk through everything all over again,” Cindy explained, her voice causing Jill’s sleepy gaze to shift upwards from the phone. “Will you do it for me?”

Cindy swallowed, unable to look away as clear blue eyes met hers. Jill’s short blonde hair, rumpled with sleep, stuck out in a few different directions, and Cindy felt her breath hitch at the ridiculously adorable image of the attorney.

After a seemingly endless moment, Jill rubbed her eyes, apparently trying to wipe the sleep away, before releasing a yawn as she nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah, sure thing,” she replied.

“Great.” Her cereal momentarily forgotten, Cindy turned to walk out of the room, not really wanting to be in such close proximity as Jill recounted what she knew about Lydia. She paused, though, when a sudden thought struck her. Would Jill mention the whole ex-girlfriend thing? Cindy definitely planned to come out to her other friends sooner rather than later at this point, but she wasn’t sure that she was ready for it to happen right this moment, or for it to come from Jill’s mouth instead of her own.

She stood frozen in the doorway, listening to Jill’s end of the conversation.

“Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t call back yesterday. I got caught up with things here,” Jill was saying. “Well at this point, you’ve talked to her more than I have this morning, so I don’t really know. I think you’re right, though. ... I hope so. ... Yeah. ... Okay, so Lydia Baker. She’s an old friend of Cindy’s from high school. Got involved in some serious drugs during college. As far as Cindy knew, she’d gotten clean, though. Had gone through rehab and had been living in Seattle.”

Cindy exhaled. Jill had said the perfect amount, relating the important details without letting slip that certain piece of information which Cindy was happy to keep secret for the time being.

She turned back around to see Jill glance down at her watch before looking up again to lock eyes on Cindy as she continued, “In an hour? Sure, I can do that. ... Okay, I will. ... Yeah, see you then. Bye.”

Silence filled the room once Jill hung up the phone, before they both started speaking at once.

“About last night...”

“How are you...”

Laughing, Jill indicated for Cindy to go first.

With a deep breath, Cindy tried again. “I just...wanted to thank you. For putting up with me last night.”

“Hey, it’s no problem. Really. I’m just glad I could be there for you,” the blonde answered as she took a step forward and reached out to gently brush a hand up and down Cindy’s arm.

Suddenly more nervous than before, Cindy rubbed at the back of her neck, trying not to fidget any more than that.

“And about, um... Well, about how it ended...” Cindy trailed off, unsure how to finish her sentence.

Jill waved off Cindy’s concern. “Don’t worry about it. It was an emotional night for you; you needed some comfort, and I happened to be there. I totally understand.”

Cindy nodded. Right. That was a good explanation. It made sense. She’d go with that one. Because that was definitely a better explanation than ‘Oh my God, I have a major crush on you, but I’ve been too afraid to make a move, because making a move would obviously be a completely moronic thing to do, but I was sad and vulnerable, and you were perfect, and I just couldn’t stop myself.’

Yep, Jill’s explanation was absolutely a better one than that.

“Besides,” the attorney continued with a smirk, “it’s not every day that I have gorgeous women suddenly kissing the hell out of me, so I really can’t complain.” Jill winked, apparently only gaining amusement as Cindy’s face instantly flushed with embarrassment.

The redhead felt her heart skip a beat (Jill thinks I’m gorgeous? She’s probably just being nice to make me feel better.), but decided that it was about time to change the subject. “Yeah. I’m really sorry about that. But anyway, what’s in an hour?” At Jill’s initially confused expression, Cindy prompted, “With Claire?”

“Oh, right. It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” Jill shrugged nonchalantly.

“Nothing?” Cindy scoffed. “If it was nothing, then you would just tell me about it. So that means that it is something, but you just don’t want to tell me. You know I’m going to find out anyway, right? So you might as well just tell me now.”

Cindy gave her best ‘I’m intimidating’ look, but the attempt only made Jill grin affectionately. “Sorry babe, but I think Lindsay’s got a monopoly on the laser vision. Just not quite the same effect when it comes from you.”

“Are you meeting together to talk about the case?” Cindy probed, figuring she’d try to fish around until she figured something out.

Jill remained quiet, eyeing her with a mixture of contemplation and sympathy. Cindy didn’t want Jill’s sympathy.

“Are you meeting to decide what to get me for my birthday?”

This time Cindy received a smile to accompany the blue-eyed stare.

Undaunted by the continued silence, Cindy pressed on, “Are you getting together to discuss whether or not I’m mentally unstable after my little emotional breakdown thing?”

That one got a response. “What? Cindy, no, that’s ridiculous.” Sighing, Jill finally relented. “You’re right, though; you will find out eventually, so I may as well just spill. And look, none of us expect you to come, okay? But Claire’s done the autopsy.”

Cindy blanched, as Jill looked down towards the floor. Inwardly freaking out about Jill had managed to distract Cindy relatively well from the reason why she had needed Jill’s comfort in the first place.

Lydia was dead. And Claire knew why.

“I’m coming with you.” Cindy was proud of her ability to keep her voice steady.

Jill looked back up at her sharply. “You’re coming? Cindy, I really don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“I need to be there. I’m obviously not going to cover the story, but I need to be part of this case.” Cindy paused, taking in a deep breath. “I loved her, Jill, and I need to know who did this to her.”

Jill simply watched her intently at first, and it took all Cindy’s control to look squarely back at her friend, refusing to squirm under the scrutiny.

Apparently satisfied with something, Jill finally looked away first, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. “Okay. But if you start to feel uncomfortable or freaked out, or whatever... Anything. You just give me a look and I will leave with you, right away. No questions asked. Okay? None of us will think any less of you for wanting to get out of there. Hell, I still think you’re kind of crazy for wanting to be there in the first place, so you’d just be convincing me that you’re normal. So you can come, but you have to promise me that you won’t stay just because you feel like you should -- just one look and we’re out of there. Deal?”

Cindy smiled, touched by Jill’s concern. Still, she felt the need to point out, “Well, it’s not like you’ve got much to go with, in terms of bargaining. I mean, as much as you guys like to joke that I’m only twelve, you can’t exactly forbid me from entering the morgue. But yeah, I promise.”

There was a lighthearted twinkle in Jill’s eye as she replied with a wink, “Oh, I don’t know. If I really wanted to keep you out of there, I bet I could convince Lindsay to arrest you for something or other.”

“The sad part is that you’re probably right,” Cindy laughed. “But okay, then. If we don’t want to be late, I should probably change out of pj’s, and you should get out of yesterday’s clothes.”

Jill looked down at herself, as if she’d already forgotten about falling asleep on their dining room floor, still dressed in her day-off outfit of jeans and a t-shirt. “Right, good plan,” she agreed, turning to head towards her bedroom.

“And remember,” Cindy called after her, “I can get ready faster than you, so no trying to sneak out the door before me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jill waved a loose hand behind her as she continued out of the room. “Watch out, maybe I’ll beat you one of these days! And I get the shower first!”

With a deep breath, Cindy turned away as well. It was going to be long day, she could just tell.

TBC

Another A/N: Okay, so clearly, I fail at the whole updating-in-a-timely-manner kind of thing. So, for any of you who care, I’m going to offer two options for how I should move this forward. A) I can keep just posting chapters when I finish them, or B) I can wait until I finish the whole thing, and then post the remaining parts in quick succession (I still don’t know exactly where I’m going with this, but it’ll be at least another two parts).

So if you have an opinion about it, let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading! :)