(no subject)

[detective_girly]

Dani stood outside the low, wide church, dark eyes half closed behind the sunglasses her partner had given her in a crowded mall, and considered her options. Inside that church, down in the basement as they always seemed to be, an NA meeting was starting in ten minutes. She had enough time to go down, get coffee and find a seat in the back. She’d be noticed because the meeting leader knew her, but no one would press her to participate.

Or, if she turned around and walked two blocks, there was a little bar where she could have a couple drinks. She wasn’t in a place where she could binge herself drunk, but there was the distinct possibility she would binge on anonymous sex because that was just how she rolled when she was feeling trapped. Two men were watching her every move, their eyes filled with concern. They weren’t waiting for her to fail, the way other eyes had watched her over the years, but it still wore on her nerves.

She’d been back to work a week after a week off to heal and be questioned about the events that led up to her being kidnapped. Crews, who had a hell of a lot more questions to answer, had only been back two days, but she was already tired of it all. Two sessions with the police shrink hadn’t done a bit of good because all that guy could ask about was the physical reality of being taken and held. Nothing was said about the case behind it. She wasn’t about to talk about her father or what she knew him to be guilty of. Rayborn hadn’t cracked about the Gang, as she’d started to think about her father’s fellow criminal cops.

There was one other option besides a meeting or drunken, meaningless sex. There was one other place she could go where maybe she could find the kind of grounding a meeting was supposed to give her. What she didn’t need was more sober people telling drunk stories. She’d also done enough trying to forget or avoid in her life. What Dani Reese needed now was answers to all the questions she’d been afraid to ask.

Groaning thickly, she turned on her heel and headed back to her car. Of the options she’d considered, this was the really dumb one. Pursuing this had gotten her tied up by a now dead Russian. Continuing on could end her life, much less the career she’d worked so hard to get back. Given how quickly she’d chosen not to go into the meeting, though, not going forward with it could be disastrous to her sobriety. In the end, she realized she had to know the whole truth. People were still dying because the responsible parties hadn’t been brought to justice. And that was what she did. She brought people to justice.

When she stepped up to the front door, she had another long moment behind her shades where she considered her choices. This was her last chance to find some nameless man to fuck. All she had to do was turn around and get back in her car. Before she could even complete that thought, she pounded her fist against the doorbell and took a step back to wait and see if Charlie Crews would grant her access to his house and to his secrets.

Comments

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

He wanted to be at work. He should have been at work. But this was how Reese's day off had fallen, so he was at home.

The sound of the doorbell roused him from his thoughts and he stood up from where he sat at the kitchen island. Ted was still in Spain, or somewhere else in Europe and Rachael hadn't made it back yet from her exile, so he was alone. And not expecting anyone.

He opened the door and stared at her for a moment. "What's up?"

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The fact that he stared at her rather than smiling or even scowling made her stomach flip. She should have picked up a married man. Tidwell would have forgiven her. Maybe. Not that things were that great with them at the moment. Too many questions for her to know how to be with him.

"I want in." She frowned, realizing how that sounded. "Not inside.... Well, that, too, but I want fully in on the case." She didn't bother saying what case.

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Then he did smile as he stepped back and ushered her in. "Then you'll need to come inside. Unless you want to stand on the porch. You can. If you want."

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She rolled her eyes at him, the gesture so familiar that she didn't even realize she was doing it any more. Walking past him, she looked around the entry to his mansion and shook her head. She'd been there enough to be vaguely familiar with the downstairs, but it still didn't seem real. Cops didn't live like this.

Not clean ones. "You can't hold out on me anymore, Crews."

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"You're right. I can't." He closed the door behind her and passed her to head back into the kitchen. "You aren't safe not knowing. That is clear. Would you like something to eat? Drink?"

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She wanted something to drink so badly she almost answered Vodka. Instead she followed behind him, head down. "Not hungry." She tried that again. "No, thanks, I'm fine."

She wasn't fine. She could feel herself tensing up being around him. He'd said yes, he'd share, but so far he didn't have the best track record with that. "I get why you did it."

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He got himself a glass and poured some juice before heading out of the kitchen. "But that's not enough. I know. Come with me."

He lead her upstairs and down the hall to his bedroom. After a sip from the glass, he set it on the nightstand, then took the key to the closet.

Inserting the key into the lock, he looked at her again. "Are you sure? We can't go back from here."

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Since Dani had no idea about his little secret world, she hesitated at the door to his bedroom. She wasn't watching him as he moved around the room. Her whole focus was on the bed where she was certain she could forget about everything else he might show her. She blinked hard at his question, forcing herself to switch gears. "It's a little late to ask that question."

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With her response, he unlocked and opened the door. "Come on." He went into the closet, trusting her to follow him.

When he came to the end of the huge walk-in, he stood in front of his wall. It was completely up to date, including the death of Roman.

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

She got all the way in and stopped cold. Seeing Roman's face made her stomach turn over, but seeing her father and herself up there was more than she could take in one go. Her eyes closed for a long moment before she could step further into the room and really examine his wall. She had to breath slowly, consciously, or she was going to pass out.

The longer she looked, the angrier she got. She'd long since figured out her father was deeply involved, for instance, but seeing it up there was different. This was what cops did, they laid it all out there, and he was right in the middle of it all. "Fuck."

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

He stepped back a little and just watched her. Despite photographic evidence to the contrary, he knew that she was not involved in any of it. What had happened to her was proof enough of that. But her reaction was important. He didn't think she would turn him in, but he wasn't sure if she was really ready to help him, either.

So he watched. And waited.

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It took another long moment to drink it all in and fully turn on her cop brain. She started following individual lines of inquiry, seeing the connections he'd made and the conclusions he'd drawn. Question after question formed in her mind, but she didn't voice any of them until she was sure she'd seen everything. Finally she went back to the shot of a police funeral. "They all look familiar."

His going to prison had only been the tip of the iceberg. This wasn't about helping him. It was about solving a case, or so she told herself. In truth, it was about helping both of them.

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"I would imagine that every one of those men had been to your house at some point. Things like this don't happen between strangers. These men were all close." He thought a moment. "These men are still close."

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She nodded slowly, her eyes narrowing as she studied the picture. She did know them even if she didn't remember all the names. What she remembered were conversations that ended when she walked in and her father ordering her out. "One of them knows where he is." Finding her father would be a mixed blessing because there was no way she could let him get away with everything he'd been part of. "He knows where at least one of them is. Maybe all of them."

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With those words, he knew she was in, even if she still wasn't sure. It was a mystery and that is what they did, they solved mysteries.

"Yes."

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She glanced back at him, fully able to hear his decision in his voice. They knew each other much too well by now for her to miss that. He must have heard something in her that cleared that all up for him. Returning her attention to the wall, she frowned again. "Davis would know some of them. Maybe. Know things she might not know she did."

But their former CO had showed she would back Jack Reese much further than she should. And she didn't have the best track record of making the right choices. "Hell, my mother might know something."

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

Charlie had no doubt that her mother knew stuff, certainly stuff that she did not know she knew. Davis likely did as well, but that was a nonstarter for the time being.

"I suspect you are correct." He nodded toward the wall again. "Do you want to keep looking, or talk?"

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

She blinked hard and turned to face him, failing at clearing her face of emotion before he could see her. Confusion, anger, and determination all showed through. "I'll take that drink now. Somewhere other than here."

Before he could respond, she strode past him and all the way out of the bedroom. She needed some distance to be able to hold a rational conversation for very long.

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

Judging from the emotion on her face, he knew that drink would not be a soft one. Following her out, he locked the door behind him and grabbed his glass of juice.

He caught up with her on the stairs and trailed her down and into the kitchen. He pulled a beer out and offered it to her as he sat back down at the island.

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

Dani licked her lips at the sight of the beer. She knew Crews was only giving her permission for the feelings that surrounded her urge to drink, not actually encouraging her to get drunk, but if she started now she might not stop. Even with him there. So she let him hand her the cold bottle, but she didn't take a sip.

She held onto it for a long beat, then set it down on the counter and sat with him. "Who else is in? You're friend Ted? Stark?" She looked at the beer again, longingly, "Tidwell?" She only asked about him because he had to know something now that he'd been part of her rescue. She doubted it was very much, though, for his own sake.

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

He watched her with the beer and smiled. He was proud of her for not even taking the sip and after she asked her question, he got up to get her something a little less tempting.

"Ted. Bobby might have some clue, but not the specifics." He set a glass of juice in from of her and took the beer. The undrunk bottle went into the sink, then he sat back down across from her. "The fewer people involved the better."

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

She gave him a tight look when he switched the drinks out. If that had been a test of some kind, they would be talking about it later. Either way, she was proud of herself, too, and she took a sip of the juice with a grateful sigh.

His friend Ted, who she still didn't quite get, was out of the country. While on parole. And, now that she thought about it, had probably gone back in because of all this. That was unsettling. Stark... As far as she was concerned Stark should have been in on it from the beginning and she said so. "We could use Stark. And he owes you."

Tidwell, now, that was a different question all together. "Having a Captain who can say he's in the dark is probably a good idea." But probably not so much so for her relationship with him.

[now-andnow.livejournal.com]

The beer had not, at all, been a test. He had figured out, a while ago, that she occasionally partook of beer and that if she knew it would be regulated, she might need one. Of course, if she was proud of herself, good.

"Booby does owe me, yes. He owes me for 12 years." He gave her a slight grunt, then hid behind his own glass for a moment.

Then he turned his gaze fully onto her. "The question is, will he stay in the dark?

[detective-girly.livejournal.com]

It surprised her some to hear him admit any resentment towards Stark. He didn't let that show. She'd been very clear about her own disgust at Stark's behavior, even if she understood it. Reasonable didn't mean right.

She exhaled slowly. So far as she knew, Tidwell had put up a firewall between Crews and himself during the search for her. It had been the reasonable and right call. How long he'd be able to do that, she didn't know. "Maybe. He understands the why of it. And now..." When it had just been Crews and his justice, or vendetta, he'd stayed clear. Now that Dani was part of it. "I can tell him I want him to stay that way, but he doesn't always listen so well."

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At the thought of her appealing to Tidwell in any sort of personal way, while not unexpected given their circumstances, he tensed slightly. Then he shook it off and looked away, finding the most interesting point on the wall just to the right and behind her to look at.

"No, he doesn't."