I'm sure this will end well, after all we have dessert.

[detective_girly]

It took longer than Dani anticipated to get her partner over to her parents' house. First there was work. To deaths, seemingly connected by a string of robberies, took longer to solve than they should have because they weren't related. Then her mother had some church thing that Dani didn't feel like she should make her cancel. Finally, they were doing this. Her mother had cooked, with Dani's help, and Crews was due over at eight.

Dani wasn't sure her mother understood the point of the evening. When she saw them together it would sink in. They'd be faced with just how Laila Reese was going to react to her not only working with the man who Jack Reese reviled, but sleeping with him. It would make the evening interesting. Hell, maybe her mother would even like him. Weirder things had happened.

Dani didn't wear the dress her partner bought her. That would have been too dressed up. Instead she wore jeans and sort of tunic top that her mother had bought her years before. It was a modern, western twist on the colors from home, not at all something he would have ever seen her in. Her hair was down, already visibly longer than when they'd made the first move away from strictly partners. On the one hand she felt completely comfortable. She was home, in a mode that was familiar. On the other hand...Crews. There was no time he wasn't a wild card.

They hadn't spent every night together since they'd leapt off an emotional bridge, but they'd spent the majority that way. She'd even moved some clothes over. In no way had she gotten used to the house yet, though. She wasn't sure she ever would. Maybe she could talk Crews into letting Ted have it and they could move into something rational. While she was thinking that, Laila had to grab Dani's hand to keep her from spilling hot oil on it. That was the last straw--Dani was kicked out of the kitchen.

Now all she had to do was pace the living room, waiting.

Comments

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

Charlie was right on time, which meant he sat in the car a few moments, looking at the flowers and wine that were sitting in the passenger's seat. He wasn't sure exactly what the protocol was, since the last time he'd been in a serious relationship her parents found out in a completely inappropriate way.

He shook himself, then climbed out of the car. Wine in one hand, flowers in the other, he made his way to the door and rang the bell. Then he stood there, waiting for someone to come rescue him from standing on the stoop.

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

Of all the things for him to do, the very last one she expected was for him to show up with flowers. The wine, maybe, but flowers? She stood there for the longest time, staring at him, as though she had no idea who he was. Only when she heard her mother call out in Farsi from the kitchen, "Is that him already?" did she snap out of it.

She pointed at the flowers. "Those better be for my mother." Then she stepped aside and ushered him inside. She remembered herself at the very last moment and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "She's been cooking for hours."

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

"They are." He kissed her back, then let her lead him back into the kitchen. He set the wine on the counter, then offered the flowers to Dani's mother with a smile. "Mrs. Reese, thank you for having me over."

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

The senior Reese gave a good idea what Dani would look like in a few decades. If Crews was serious about this relationship, he had little to worry about in that regard. Except for an expression of worry she just couldn't shake, Laila sill looked youthful and healthy. She took the flowers with a surprised smile. "Isn't this sweet, thank you." She handed them to Dani. "Put these in water for the table."

Dani rolled her eyes, but did as she was told. Her mother looked Charlie over frankly. "All this time and I started thinking you weren't real."

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

Charlie glanced at Dani, then turned his attention back to her mother. "I assure you that I am very real. We have just been very busy and getting free time has been rough."

He gestured to the wine. "I didn't know what we were having, so I brought a white that I've found goes with everything." He knew that Dani wouldn't be drinking, which is why he only brought one bottle. Later, he would take her out for ice cream to make it up to her.

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

Knowing all about cop schedules, Laila blew that off. She also knew her daughter's intensely private nature. Add in all those other details and she hadn't really expected to know him at all. Her departed husband hadn't been able to say his name without sneering. "Well, it should go just fine with the lamb. And we can talk about how real you are over dinner."

Dani got the flowers in a nice vase, but made no move to put them in the dining room, no way she was leaving them alone.

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

Charlie quirked an eyebrow and glanced at Dani. His look communicated a certain level of suppressed concern. Should I be scared?

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

Dani's response was an absolutely angelic smile. This was all going to be horrendous, she could tell. Of course, it would be so much worse if her father was around. He'd go straight to trying to shoot her partner. Meanwhile, her mother had already started fussing with food. "You two go sit down, I'll bring everything out."

Dani immediately started arguing in Farsi. There was no need for them to be waited on.

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

Now standing between two women speaking in a language he could not understand, he pursed his lips, then took the vase with the flowers. He would just go put those on the table...

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

"Now see what you'd done? Go, go."

Dani was neatly shooed out of the kitchen after him. She grumbled the whole way. She looked at Crews, looking awkward with the vase, and downright growled. "She's going to treat us like kids the whole night."

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

He set the vase down and pulled her into his arms. He gave her a hug and kissed the top of her head. "We'll get by."

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

Dani didn't quite squirm in his arms, but she did prove her mother's point with the way she glanced back at the kitchen. Kissing a lover just wasn't something she did in the dining room. "You say that now. Tell me that again after dinner."

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

He released her with a soft chuckle. "This cannot be worse then some of the places I've eaten. I promise."

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

Dani repeated herself with a groan, just as her mother came in carrying a platter with lamb kebabs and fragrant rice on it. Her father never liked having it served that way, but Dani had insisted. "Mom, you have to promise to actually sit through the whole meal. I'll get up for things."

Laila ignored her in favor of urging Crews to take his seat. The place at the head of the table hadn't been set and Dani moved to the place at the foot, leaving Crews the seat across from her mother. "Dani says you like fruit? I could bring out some oranges?"

Dani groaned again.

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

Charlie sat down with a smile, then shook his head. "No. This looks just fine to start. Maybe we'll have fruit later." He shot Dani a glance and wink, then turned his attention back to Laila. "This smells wonderful. Thank you again for hosting."

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

There was another little battle of wills over who would serve who. In the end, Dani won that one while her mother responded. "It's my pleasure." Her face fell. "I haven't been entertaining nearly as much as I used to. With--" She shrugged. "Not as many people just drop by now."

Dani exhaled slowly as she plated food for Charlie. Fewer people might not be as comforting for her mom, but it kept costs down which was a good thing.

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

Charlie nodded slowly. "Well, perhaps we can do something about that." He gave Dani another wink, then continued addressing her now. "Ted called as I was leaving. He and Olivia will be back in a couple days. And Rachel will be back next week." He had added Rachel to see Laila's reaction as much as anything.

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

As important to Crews as it was to have his family, and that's what they were, back, Dani was kind of dreading it. And she'd been the one to encourage him about bringing Rachel back, too. She watched him rather than her mother, knowing that she could read both reactions pretty well that way. "Please tell me Ted said yes to the new house idea?" Not that it would solve the midnight swim issues once Rachel got back.

She reached for another kebab and commented as casually as she could. "I think I finally realized where I know Rachel from. She used to come here for those mentor the kid picnics Dad hosted." They'd been a family sore spot since he could barely speak to his own daughter. "Maybe two or three times."

Laila gave Crews a funny look. "You know one of Jack's kids?"

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

He nodded to Dani. "He said yes. They'll be at the house for a little while, just while they find a place." Then he turned his attention back to Dani's mother. "I do. She's the daughter of an old friend." A dead friend, a dead family, but that part wasn't important to anyone but him most of the time. Him and Rachel.

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

Laila would have recognized Rachel as one of the sullen ones, but she never knew anything more about her than that. "There were so many of them, all of them so lost." She looked at Dani in confusion. "Ted is the one you told me about? The one who handles all the...money." She lowered her voice like she was saying a bad word. The whole issue of Charlie Crews' money had also been a sore subject. If she knew how much her own husband had stolen and given away, she might not even be able to say the word.

Dani rolled her eyes. "Yes, all that money. He's a little strange."

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

Charlie chuckled softly. The money made people have the most interesting responses and he wondered how much Dani's mom actually knew about where the money had come from. Or was Charlie just a cop that Jack Reese didn't like, who happened to also be rich.

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

Dani's eyes were going to run right out of her head before the meal was over. Of all the parts for her mother to go all cancer quiet about, the money was the least of it. She knew exactly why Crews had his money, about the settlement anyway. Dani still didn't think he understood how big a deal he'd been when the news broke. And he'd been a bigger deal in her house. "Crews owns an orange grove, Mom. His very own orange grove." She glanced at Crews and smiled very slightly. In her mind's eye, she could see the way he'd watched her there.

Laila gave him an odd look, completely missing any expression on her daughter's face. "Do you like oranges that much?"

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

"Not a lot of fresh fruit in prison." He shrugged a little. "Or light. So I own a solar farm, too." He had no idea what else he owned. That was Ted's job. He just knew that he'd picked out the orange grove and the solar farm specifically. "Next time I come over, I'll bring you some from the grove."

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

"Maybe you should give up police work and go into agriculture." Dani flinched, but the words had been said kindly, as a genuine suggestion. Seeing her daughter make that choice had been a fearful thing.

After the initial flinch, Dani laughed. "Would you wear overalls? Because that might be worth it." She had this image of him in overalls and nothing else, with a bottle of moonshine. It was just ridiculous enough for her to imagine it.

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

Charlie just nodded at the suggestion to acknowledge it, then shook his head. "I couldn't give up police work any more than Dani could, I think."