Away and Apart
Time Frame = Takes place six months after the events depicted in Season Two Finale "One".
Overview = Crews simply vanishes and Reese is left to deal with his absence and what that means to her. She doesn't do well….
Tidwell's POV….
Dani Reese was a woman on a mission and had been for every moment of every hour of every day for the six months since Charlie Crews walked out of his interview with IAD and vanished. Her fury was buried in a blinding work ethic. She set a crippling pace; so much so that anyone unlucky enough to be notionally assigned to her as a "partner" never lasted more than a week. They quit under the strain of her dark mood and punishing pace. She was a force of nature; closing cases, eliciting confessions from the toughest of hard cases, and never speaking to anyone not required for the job. It drove potential partners away as effectively as the plague.
Everyone knew Reese had no partner but Crews.
But the one who felt this most profoundly was her former lover and Captain, Kevin Tidwell. He watched her under cloaked eyes from his desk, as she worked endlessly, seemingly fueled only by hate and coffee, with occasional forays into things so dangerous adrenaline burned though her veins like there was gasoline feeding it. She was always small, but now she was thin, lean and taut like a coiled spring; one that no one dared trigger.
Even her paperwork was angry, she banged the keyboard with entirely too much force and her handwriting tore into the paper in hard, heavy strokes, like the letters were being ripped from her heart. Since that fateful day when she escaped death and her life should have begun anew she seemed to sink into an abyss of despair. The only tool she had to fight back with was rage and her rumored ferocity, which he'd heard about but had never experienced until now.
He remembered the exact moment he'd known it was over between them like it was yesterday, although it had been months ago. He was among the throng of people with LAPD who descended upon that orange grove in the moments after Crews snuffed out Roman's life and miraculously walked away from certain death. Tidwell was joyous, happy beyond words, until he saw the way Dani Reese looked at him and the way she looked at Crews. Tidwell knew the look she reserved for her partner, it was adoration; it was love.
In that instant he flashed back to their first case together, when he came out west to the land of fun and sun meeting for the first time, the quirky, unhinged Detective Crews and his diminutive tightlipped, but attractive partner. They were a good team, evenly matched in ability if on opposite ends of the spectrum in mood, appearance and countenance.
Their match seemed unbalanced at first, until he looked harder. It was then he saw the intensity present in both of them in equal measure. As they found the young bride to be in a box on the beach, the protectiveness Reese extended to her partner and her devotion to him became evident. But then Kevin Tidwell hadn't appreciated the depth of their bond. Perhaps neither had they.
Tidwell even commented how lucky Crews was to have someone like her in his life. And she didn't correct him, which at the time he hadn't thought was important, but in hindsight was very telling. He realized it was true then and it remained true today. She was in his life and Crews in hers. They had been together since the start; they were together still. He was an interloper, an intruder, a dalliance, and a distraction. Crews was a constant, a confidant, her anchor and now the savior of a woman who did not need saving.
He looked out across the squad room, where most of the desks were dark and empty, their occupants long gone - home to their families and friends. Only he and she remained, but they were worlds away. When he extinguished his desk lamp, retrieved his jacket and walked through the bay, she didn't look up, she didn't blink; it was as if he did not exist and then he realized he didn't – not to her. No one did – except Crews.
Their break up hadn't taken long. Really it happened in that look, but he had to have more. So as they marshaled Crews away to be grilled by IAD and shepherded Reese away to the hospital, he made his choice with his heart. He followed her, abandoning Crews to the wolves, and she never forgave him.
"You left him alone?" she'd barked, her voice hoarse and crackling with emotion. She was dangerously close to tears and Dani Reese was a woman who did not cry. "With them? You know what they'll do to him?" her hoarse whisper was heartbreaking.
"He's a grown man, he can handle those IAD types," he brushed aside her concern. Big mistake. Even as he began his weak protest, he watched her turn cold. Her dark eyes nearly black, narrowed until they drilled into him. "You need to stay here and let the docs look after you," he said cautiously.
"You get me out of here now," she demanded.
But he couldn't, he wouldn't and that more than anything drove a stake through the heart of their relationship. To him it was serious, but to Dani it was not - he now realized. To her it was just sex. Her heart belonged to her long, tall, quixotic partner, even if she didn't know it, even if she wouldn't admit it.
Even when they finally gave her enough tranquilizers to put down a horse, still she fought to get to him. In her whispered mumblings and thrashings only one word was clear - his name. She called to him in her sleep, in her distress, when life turned darkest there was only one name on her lips and it was "Crews."
Tidwell surrendered in disgust and left the hospital well after visiting hours only to find a bleary eyed Charlie Crews haunting the well lit hallways, in the same suit he'd worn for two days. There was a tension in Crews beyond meeting with IAD.
"Captain," the tall man said tersely in greeting, as he ran a hand through his short red hair and issued a ragged sigh. "How is she?"
"See for yourself Crews," Tidwell retorted, angrily brushing past him.
Crews grabbed him by the arm with an iron grip and his tone was biting and serious. "Did something happen? Did he hurt her?"
He pointedly looked down and felt the clawing grip of the Detective's nails digging into his arm relax slightly.
"No," he shook his head. "Nevikov didn't touch her – not like that. Other than to rough her up," he offered, allaying Charlie's worst fears. The concern in Crews eyes was apparent and it struck Tidwell that the man did not deserve his anger, but there was nowhere else he could direct it. "But you know Dani, she's stubborn and fighting them every step of the way." Crews released him and looked down in obvious relief.
"Ok, then I should go," Crews said, more to himself than to Tidwell.
"No, you should go see her," he offered, unable to keep Dani from what she obviously wanted no matter how badly it hurt him.
Crews agreed again more to himself than to his Captain. "Yeah, I should go see her. Need to see her, see that she's okay, that's right, that's good." He seemed unaware he was babbling to himself. Tidwell was unsure if Dani had that effect on all men or if this was just another of Crews strange behaviors.
"How'd it go with IAD?" he changed the subject hoping to settle the man down and get his mind focused on something other than the small, tough woman they both loved.
"Huh?" the red head responded with a true deer in the headlights look. Maybe he'd been up too long, Tidwell realized. "What? Oh…the rat squad," Crews responded as he made the connection and his expression changed. He answered grimly, "I think I may have to consider another line of work."
"Yeah, but she's worth it right?" Tidwell joked with him.
Crews eyed him skeptically at first and then his look softened as an unspoken message passed between them. Tidwell acquiesced and Charlie accepted without a word being spoken, then Crews said what they both knew, "She is."