DISCLAIMER: Women's Murder Club and its characters are the property of James Patterson, 20th Century Fox Television and ABC. No infringement intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Based on the prompt "A is for Apple." Written for trixter21.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
The Legend of William Tell
By mysensitiveside
Cindy felt like William Tell.
No, that wasn't right. Lindsay was William Tell, and Cindy was his son. Not that Cindy saw Lindsay as a father-figure, or anything. That would be weird.
The point was, Cindy could easily imagine herself in the old Swiss legend, balancing an apple on her head as Lindsay stood by, able to choose whether to shoot the apple and save Cindy herself...or simply kill Cindy and walk off eating the apple.
Cindy really hoped that Lindsay would pick the first option. She was more important to Lindsay than a metaphorical apple, right? Of course, it probably wasn't too good of a sign that they were in the morgue... Well if Lindsay killed her, at least she'd get a quick autopsy.
"So what, you're dating now?" Lindsay demanded, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
Apparently an interrogation was in order before the Cindy vs. Apple decision.
"Well, Linz, that depends. Depends on what your thoughts are on the matter. Because, you know, we do go out on dates and stuff, and we're not seeing anyone else, and I think she's absolutely amazing, but if you're not cool with the term 'dating' then, you know, we don't have to use that wording, exactly. Really, whatever term involves you not killing me... That's the term I'd go with." Cindy swallowed audibly, unable to hold back a cringe as she waited for Lindsay's response.
"So what she thinks doesn't matter, and you're willing to just throw everything away if I say so? Doesn't sound like you actually care about her very much," Lindsay accused.
"Wait, what?" Cindy blinked, confused. Now Lindsay wanted her to say that they were dating? "That's not what I said!"
Before Lindsay got a chance to continue, the door to the morgue swung open as Jill walked in, followed closely behind by Claire.
"Down, girl," Jill called to Lindsay in amusement. "Hate to break it to you, but murder probably wouldn't look too good on your resumé." Turning to Cindy, she went on, "So a little birdie named Claire told me that my girlfriend had gotten herself into a bit of trouble again."
Cindy couldn't help but grin at Jill's use of the word "girlfriend." Their relationship was still relatively new, but in spite of what she'd told Lindsay, she had no plans of giving it up, no matter what anyone said.
Cindy shrugged sheepishly. "We were just talking," she explained, "and somehow dating came up, and I don't know, I must have twitched in the wrong way or something, because then the cop instincts kicked in, and you know how I can't resist the laser-vision for very long, so yeah, I kind of outed us as an 'us.' I'm not sure whether she's just mad that we didn't tell her earlier, or whether I'm not good enough for you, and so she wants to do me bodily harm."
"I'm still standing right here!" Lindsay called out indignantly. Something in her face had softened, though, as she took in the sight of the blonde and redhead standing closely together.
Noticing the change in expression, Claire chuckled. "Aw, your bark's worse than your bite, right Linz?"
"I don't know, Claire," Cindy replied. "I've been thrown in a holding cell a few too many times to fully believe that."
Grinning, Jill merely slung her arm around Cindy's shoulders. "Well hate to disappoint you, Lindsay, but no bodily harm allowed. I'm afraid I've grown quite fond of our Lois Lane, here. My Lois Lane."
Cindy couldn't help but blush, as Jill turned to graze a light but lingering kiss to the redhead's temple.
"So...crisis averted?" Claire asked, turning from the new couple to shoot a pointed look towards Lindsay.
Catching Cindy's eye, Lindsay smiled, nodding her support and wordlessly apologizing for her initial reaction. "How about a trip to Papa Joe's tonight? You can fill us in on all the details," she suggested. With a brief look of panic, Lindsay turned to Jill and continued, "Well, not all the details. I don't need to know about your sex life. Just... No."
Cindy blushed again, as Jill merely smirked. "Good plan, Linz. And we need to get desert, too," Jill declared, ignoring the second part of Lindsay's statement. "For some reason I've been craving their apple tart thing today."
Cindy began to laugh, recalling her earlier thoughts of William Tell and the metaphorical apple. At the puzzled looks of her three friends, Cindy merely smiled, waving off their questions. They already thought she was crazy enough, without spouting off about Swiss legends and imaginary trials against apples.
In any case, it seemed that the Cindy vs. Apple decision had gone in her favor. Spontaneously and without much thought, Cindy turned to Jill and threw her arms around the blonde's neck, surprising the attorney by bringing their lips firmly together in a kiss.
"Sorry," she mumbled as she pulled back, embarrassed by her actions.
But she simply couldn't keep the grin off her face -- because she was dating Jill, and the other club members knew it, and Lindsay hadn't killed her.
Cindy hadn't been looking for a girlfriend when she joined the "club," but standing there, surrounded by the friends she loved and the woman she was falling for, Cindy couldn't ask for anything more.
The End