Because actual homicide is illegal

[detective_girly]

It was three days before Dani got out of the hospital, mostly because she refused to co-operate with the psych consult until she actually saw Crews. FBI Special Agent Bodnar had to pull the few remaining strings he had to get Crews out of his current round of interrogation, or debrief depending on who you talked to, so she could lay eyes on him. She stared hard at him, measuring every inch, trying to tell how he was holding up. He was in his most guarded mode, however, and there wasn't much there for even her to read. With a hard swallow, she turned away, which drew him across the room to her. He didn't touch her with everyone watching. That simply couldn't happen. Instead he leaned in close as though he was going to kiss her forehead. When he was close enough, he spoke just for her.

"Tell them what they want to hear, Reese. You know how to do that."

She didn't respond with anything more than another swallow, but that was enough for him. He pulled away and was gone before she could adjust to him having been there at all. The next time the shrink came in, she said all the right things--she'd been scared, but she trusted her team. She had no idea why Roman hated Crews so much, but he had that effect on people.

It was Bodnar who picked her up, not Tidwell. She refused to let him do anything for her at all. She knew what he had done, knew that he played a huge part in saving them all, but she wasn't ready to face the conversation that would have to happen. No matter what else went on with her, that was not right any more. Not since Charlie Crews had a plan that consisted of nothing more than getting her out of an SUV.

They went to her place and she asked the FBI agent to keep the engine running. Packing clothes and things took no time at all since she really didn't care what went into the bag. He didn't look at all surprised when she told him their destination. No one else would have understood. No one else had been there.

He didn't stay to see if she got in okay. He already knew the answer to that all too well. Better than she did or than the man inside did. Dani knocked hard on the big door to the huge house and waited to see if her partner would let her in.

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[now_andnow]

Going to her in the hospital had been difficult. Not touching her even harder still. But he knew that she was not playing nice with the good doctors and as long as she didn't play along, she wasn't going to get to leave. As long as she couldn't leave, she couldn't tell him that what he had done was incredibly stupid. And until she could do that, until they could present some semblance of normalcy to themselves, they were both stuck.

So he's gone to her, swallowed his pride, and hers, and forced the reality of what he had done for her away long enough to walk in and give her permission to lie. The knock on his door was the first hint that he had that it had worked.

He padded to the door and opened it, his head canted slightly to the side. When he saw the bag, he looked over her shoulder in time to see Bodnar driving away. Then he stepped back, giving her room to come in. All without a word.

[detective_girly]

It was the first time they'd been alone together in longer than she could remember. Besides phone calls and half those had been conference calls with Tidwell. Now she could feel the heat of him and smell him and no one was there to tell them they couldn't touch. Still, she moved past him without touching, careful not to meet his eyes as she passed.

She tossed the bag at the bottom of the stairs, then crumpled into a heap on a step and swore in clear, short words. They were the most honest words she'd said in days. The feelings weren't directed at anything in particular, it just felt good to say them. "Also? FUCK."

[now_andnow]

He closed the door after she was in, then watched her as she sat down. He even let her get through her round of cursing before saying a single word.

And it seemed horribly anticlimactic when he finally did speak. "Hi."

[detective_girly]

She stared at him for a long beat. Then she stared a little longer. Finally she smiled very faintly. Only he might have been able to read it at all. "Hi."

She sighed. "So, how you been? Anything new?"

[now_andnow]

He answered her smile with his own, then joined her on the step. "Administrative leave, with pay, until someone decides I didn't do anything. So I've been thinking about buying some furniture." It was ridiculously mundane and not really what she'd asked. But it was something. And now he was closer to her.

[detective_girly]

That was exactly what she needed to know. Not talking to Tidwell had the downside of keeping her out of the loop on that. She was in medical leave pretty much until they decided he hadn't done anything.

"They'll never understand what you did."

[now_andnow]

He shrugged. That was most likely true. "Do you understand what I did, Reese?" He was fairly certain that she did, but he suddenly found that he needed her to say it.

[detective_girly]

In the dark, alone in the hospital, she'd been utterly certain of what he did. He'd been willing to give up everything for her. All his chances to find out the truth, his life, to get her out of that car. It wasn't so much the what that was the issue, of course, it was the why. That was so much harder.

"You saved me." She didn't mean just her body. He had to know that. And the saving had happened before she left or she wouldn't have made the choice she did at the FBI.

[now_andnow]

He looked over at her and smiled. "I was just returning the favor." Only then, after she'd said that, did he feel like he could finally touch her. His hand slowly reached over and took hers. Once he had it, he laced his fingers between hers and gave a light squeeze.

[detective_girly]

He couldn't have expected her reaction to that gentle touch. Hell, she didn't. It was happening before she realized what she'd done. And it was over before she'd processed that she'd done it.

His hand closed over hers and she reached with her other, wrapping her arm around his neck for just an instant. She hugged him so hard it made her already sore and overworked shoulder ache. Then she let go and went back to sitting the way she'd been, her hand still in his.

She hadn't said anything, made no noise, she just hugged him. There were words to say, but she wasn't there yet. Not to add that extra.

[now_andnow]

The hug was perhaps not as unexpected to him as it was to her. Just the timing. He made no move until after she had settled again. Then he looked over at her and smiled. "Are you hungry?"

[detective_girly]

"If you feed me fruit, Crews, I will hurt you." She shuddered. "I'm not ready to see oranges." And the hospital hadn't been big on feeding her real food, either. "Something I can chew. And something bad for me to drink." She shuddered again. "Not bad that way, just with more sugar than fiber."

If he wasn't going to question her mad action, she wasn't going to, either.

[now_andnow]

He grinned and stood, pulling her to her feet. "Come on. Cheeseburger and a coke e sound good?" Before they headed to the kitchen, he gave her a proper hug. very gently kissing her hair.

[detective_girly]

She groaned happily. "Manna from hea--" Then he was hugging her and she wasn't at all sure what to do with that. At least she didn't freak out on him and pull away. She stayed still, enjoying the bulk of him against her, then nodded slowly when he pulled back so they could get to the kitchen. "And fries. Do you have fries?"

In typical fashion, she was thinking much more about the fact that he'd kissed her, even on the top of the head, than that they were still holding hands right up until he had to start getting things out of the fridge. She'd even jammed her hands in her pockets to keep from reaching for him, but that wasn't the part she thought about.

[now_andnow]

He didn't really get a chance to answer her about the french fries, as he could see she was a little confused. So, instead of providing a verbal response, he pulled out a bag from the freezer.

When he noticed that she had her hands jammed in her pockets, he decided she needed work. So he put her to task handling the toppings for their burgers and the fries. Of course, once he had her working, he brushed against her often enough to keep her from drifting too far into her head.

[detective_girly]

The intermittent contact didn't really help. She needed something steady, like holding hands. Or hugging. Or curling up in a ball and whimpering. Finally she turned and stared at him. "Ten people could work in this kitchen, Crews, and never touch."

[now_andnow]

He worked for another few moments, then stopped and smiled at her. "But two people can't. I've tried."

[detective_girly]

She did the only possible thing--she threw a slice of pickle at him and went back to her work. The sheer impossibility of the man was so familiar that it helped her relax. He was still Crews, no matter how messed up she was at the moment.

When she was done, she made up two places at the counter and took a seat. From there she could watch him and not get trampled.

[now_andnow]

He dodged the pickle and winked at her, then went back to work finishing the burgers. Once she was seated, he watched her as she watched him, trying not to let his gaze linger uncomfortably long.

Finally, food complete, he joined her, slipping into the seat next to her without a word.

[detective_girly]

She ate like she hadn't eaten in months. It was the first thing that had tasted real in at least a week. She was aware of him, the way she always was, but food came first. After the first burger, she slowed down some, but she made it all the way through a second one before she sat back and groaned.

"Best damn burger I ever ate. If you tell me it was secretly tofu or something, I'll cry."

[now_andnow]

He stifled a laugh and shook his head. "No. It is real meat. Some sort of organic, grass fed beef. Ted would know."

[detective_girly]

She reached over and snagged a bit of meat that had fallen from his sandwich, popping it into her mouth with another happy groan. "You rich people are weird, but this time I'll take it." She smiled at him, openly and easily. "I don't think I ate right the whole time I was gone."

She'd been in the city, but she was still gone from the moment she went to the FBI.

[now_andnow]

"No one around to make you, probably." He grinned, then held his sandwich out to her. "Do you want the rest of this?"

[detective_girly]

She grabbed for another little bit, right off his sandwich, then she sat back with a look of victory. "Nope, I'm good."

The move was pure out flirtation, something she never did with him. He flirted with her all the time, in that casual, thankful to be free way he did, but she never flirted back. She licked her lips. "Tastes better this way, anyhow."

[now_andnow]

He took a last bite himself, then set the remains of the burger back on his plate. "Stolen is better? I'll have to remember that."

He waggled his eyebrows at her for just a moment, then started cleaning up.