Southern Comfort (3/?)

Author- Midnight Faith

Spoilers- minor 'Dead End'

Distribution- FF.net, AOH anyone else just ask :)

Pairing- Lilah/Lindsey

Rating- PG-13

Summary- Lindsey makes a discovery

Disclaimer- not mine… yadda, yadda

It was as if the floodgates had opened and there was no holding back the river anymore.

They'd just sat in silence until the bar closed around 2 a.m. Lindsey with his arm around Lilah and her trying to cover up her face with his shoulder to hide that uneasy tears had collected in her eyes and had now proceeded to run down her cheeks.

He noticed, though he pretended not to and held her closer to him.

It was only when they reached her apartment when he feigned to notice her crying for the first time.

"Ssshhh…" he said a little powerlessly, pulling her to him and holding her for a while.

"I'm sorry," she said, flustered, breaking away from him and sitting on her sofa. "I've just had too much to drink and I'm really tired and…"

He sat beside her offering her some comfort.

"Lindsey?" she asked.

He turned to her.

"Can I stay here with you tonight?" she asked, pleadingly.

He swallowed hard.

"You wanna stay here with me? On the sofa?"

She nodded.

"OK…" he drew out. "This is not a good idea."

"No?"

"No."

She looked away from him.

"Right. I'm gonna go to bed and hope I don't remember any of this in the morning." She said, going to stand up.

"You think you can walk in a straight line?" he asked sceptically.

"I don't know." she said before realising she couldn't stand at all.

Lindsey sighed, stood up and looked back down at her.

"If I carry you will you be OK?" he asked her.

She nodded.

Tentatively he scooped her up in his arms and was surprised at how light she was.

He transferred her to the general direction he guessed led to her bedroom.

When they reached her room, he lay her down on the bed and sat down beside her.

"Better?" he asked.

"The room's spinning," she clarified.

"You'll be fine once you get some rest." He said standing so he could half pull the duvet over her.

She smiled up at him gratefully.

"Night," he told her.

"Goodnight."

He turned to go but as he reached the doorway Lilah called him back.

"Lindsey?"

"Yeah?"

"Thankyou," she said.

He briefly contemplated staying, but shook his head slightly and shut the door behind him…

It was early the next morning when he went back to her room carrying a glass of water and two alka seltzers figuring she'd probably need them to stop the pain in her head.

She was still asleep; he wanted to believe, peacefully.

He sat down beside her, just watching her for a few moments.

He was miserably tired not really getting that much sleep. He'd checked on her a few times during the night to make sure she was still breathing and such.

"Lilah," he whispered, near her ear, "wake up."

She stirred slightly and still with her eyes closed said,

"I thought I'd dreamed it."

"What?"

"You. Being here. Everything… I was hoping I had actually."

She opened her eyes but quickly snapped them shut again against the light.

"Oh god, my head…" she trailed off.

"It's OK," he soothed slightly, "I brought you alka seltzers."

"Thanks, she said, half struggling to a sitting position taking the water and the tablets from him.

He watched her swallow them and then bury herself back under the covers again.

He just watched her for a few moments before she said,

"I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"For last night… god you must think I'm so neurotic."

"I don't… I know you didn't really mean any of it and that you just had too much to drink."

She paused for a few seconds before saying awkwardly,

"So I pretty much threw myself at you then?"

"Threw… you couldn't have thrown… crawled maybe…"

"Was I really… smashed… then?"

"Pretty much…"

She covered her face with her hands,

"God, Lindsey, I'm really embarrassed."

"Don't be," he said, brushing her hands away from her face and looking into her eyes, "I've seen people worse than you were,"

"Really?"

"Really."

There were a few more unpleasant minutes of silence.

"So do you have to go into work today?" Lindsey asked quickly.

She sighed.

"Yeah, I do… major clients… we have to be in the office today…" she turned slightly to look at her alarm clock, before saying, "actually I had to be in the office ten minutes ago."

"Oh," he said.

"Can you find something to do today? Is there someone you can go visit or something?" she asked him.

"Probably," he shrugged.

"I'll be home as soon as I can," she said, the guilt at leaving him seeping into her voice.

"Don't rush home on my account," he said a little indifferently.

"Trust me… I'd rather be at home,"

"OK… do rush home then… I'll cook you lunch?" he offered.

She smiled a little cynically.

"You cook?" she said the surprise apparent in her voice.

"Yeah," he said uncomfortably.

She nodded.

"OK…" she said as he headed for the door, "And Lindsey?"

He turned back to her,

"Can you not cook with wine?"

Twenty minutes later, with Lindsey comfortably seated on her sofa, easily flicking between various MTV channels Lilah rushed into her living room, leafing around in her brown, triangular shoulder bag as she did so.

"What have you lost?" he asked, looking up at her.

"Not lost, just checking…" she clarified, "Right got keys," she said resting her bag on the sofa next to him. "See you about one?" she asked him.

"One's perfect," he told her.

"Bye," she said, heading for the door.

"See ya," he said back before noticing a pill bottle that had slipped behind her sofa cushion,

"Hey you dropped your…" he trailed off to himself whilst reading the label, "valium?" he said, concern rushing through his veins…