Title: "Downtime"
Spoilers: Up to ep. 1.06 "Powerless"
Summary: With her home now a crime scene, Dani needs to spend the night somewhere else. Charlie comes to her rescue.
Category: Crews/Reese friendship
Notes: Set in between the scenes in "Powerless" where Stark confesses his lie to Crews and Reese speaks at the AA meeting.
After reassuring Bobby, Charlie looked back at the ambulance to see how Reese was doing. She was still sitting up on the stretcher as the paramedics examined her. The Lieutenant was talking to her in low tones, but whatever she was saying had gotten his partner agitated. Charlie stepped closer as Reese fiercely shook her head.
"No!" the brunette suddenly yelled. "You can't call them, LT. Promise me. If my dad finds out. . ." Another tear slipped down her cheek. "I won't let them see me like this."
"Dani, you know I'd let you stay with me, but I'm going to be busy personally booking this scumbag Larson myself, and my husband's working the nightshift tonight. The paramedics say you don't need to be hospitalized, and your house is now officially a crime scene, so unless you have someone else you can call, I'm getting your parents down here to take you back to their house for the night."
"She can stay with me," Crews suddenly volunteered. His offer earned him a look of surprise from the Lieutenant, while Reese merely glanced up at him, waiting to hear more.
The red-haired detective explained to his boss, "Look, I have a spare room . . . or rooms," he amended, visualizing the interior layout of his mansion. "It's just for the night. I can call a cab to take us to my house, let her sleep it off there." He looked from Davis to Reese. "It's either that, or your parents' house," he told his partner.
Reese slowly nodded in compliance, making Charlie smile at her.
Davis looked from Crews to Reese and back. "Fine," she said tersely. "She can go with you. But you'd better be careful, Crews."
"Or?" he asked.
"Or I'll be the one feeding you to my dog." Punctuating her threat with a frosty glare, the Lieutenant headed toward her parked car to go back to the station.
"See you around, Lieutenant," Reese called out.
Davis raised a hand into the air in acknowledgment that she had heard Dani's goodbye, but she kept walking to her car without turning around.
Crews glanced back at Reese and then pulled out his cell phone to call a cab.
After hanging up with the cab company, his phone signaled him that he had new voice mail messages. He checked them and found they were all from Ted, asking where he was and why he couldn't get through to him. Charlie sighed, knowing the reason why Ted hadn't been able to reach him on his cell. He had been using it to listen in on Reese's conversation with Larson in her home, and then he had turned it off when he had prepared to break in and distract Larson long enough for Reese to subdue him.
"She doesn't really have a dog, you know," Dani's voice suddenly broke into his thoughts. She shifted on the ambulance stretcher so that her lower legs dangled off the end. "She has cats. Two of 'em. Their names are Fluffy and Scratchy."
Charlie smiled at this unexpected information about his superior officer. "Is that right?" he said.
Before he could learn more about the Lieutenant's cats, the taxi pulled up to Reese's house, and Charlie helped Dani off the stretcher, nodding his thanks to the paramedics for waiting.
He let Reese climb into the backseat first, then got in himself. He gave the driver his address and leaned back against the leather interior, glancing at his partner as she slumped down with her head resting on his shoulder.
He had been scared tonight. Reese had said over the phone that Larson was holding her at gunpoint in her house. When he had heard the gun go off just before SWAT had broken down the front door, he had thought the worst. But while moving through her house, Crews had noticed a bullet hole in the living room floor, and then relief had flooded him when he had seen Reese holding the gun on an unconscious Larson.
The detectives arrived at Crews' house, and he paid the cab driver his fare. He got out of the taxi, then pulled the still sleeping Dani out, lifting her small frame into his arms.
Kicking the cab door shut, Crews felt a moment of pride at having closed it without the use of his hands. He then looked at his front door and realized he would have a difficult time getting his house keys out of his pocket if he was carrying Reese in his arms. Heaving a sigh, he squared his shoulders and hoped Ted wouldn't be too annoyed with him in the morning.
He walked to his front door and repeatedly pressed the doorbell with his elbow until he heard running footsteps from inside and the sound of the door being unlocked.
Ted threw open the door, wearing only an undershirt and boxers. He was clutching the handle of a cooking pan in one hand, presumably to use as a weapon.
Charlie walked by him and into the house, saying in greeting, "Hey, Ted. Nice pan. Did you get that today?"
"Ch—Charlie?" Earley stuttered. "Wh—where have you been? I left you five voice messages on your phone!"
"Actually, it was more like ten," his friend corrected, heading for the stairs with Reese.
Ted squinted as he focused on the face of the sleeping woman in Charlie's arms. "Isn't that your partner?" he asked. "Why is she here?"
"I'll explain in the morning, Ted," Crews called back as he ascended the spiral staircase.
Picking the room that was the furthest away from his conspiracy wall room, Charlie set Dani down on the bed. He pulled her shoes off and put them on the floor, and then removed her gun and badge from her belt, setting them neatly aside on a bedside table. He got a spare blanket out from the guest closet and covered his partner with it. Afterwards, he took a moment to study the situation, tilting his head to one side as he considered what else he should do. He then went into the bathroom and retrieved the wastebasket, which he set on the floor near Reese's head.
Smiling to himself in satisfaction, he left the room and quietly closed the door behind him. He then locked the door to the room that housed his conspiracy wall as an extra precaution. He would have to get up early, just to make sure Reese didn't go investigating and try to jimmy the lock or force her way into the room to see what was behind the door, but he didn't mind the lack of sleep it would cause him. He would do what was necessary to prevent his investigation into his own case from being found out.
The next morning, Charlie came downstairs to find Ted waiting for him in the kitchen.
"So do you want to tell me what happened last night?" Earley asked.
Crews sighed. "Someone invaded Reese's home. He knew her from AA, and he forced her to drink a large amount of alcohol at gunpoint. He had committed a rape before, and could have done the same thing to her, but she got him to keep talking until we got to her house. The reason you couldn't reach me on my phone was because Reese had dialed my number to alert us to what was going on at her house. I later turned my phone off when we were getting ready to go in and get the guy. She didn't want to stay at her parents' and have them see her off the wagon like that, so I offered to let her stay here. She fell asleep during the cab ride here."
Ted released the breath he had been holding in a sharp exhale when the other man finished talking. "Jeez, Charlie, I had no idea." He shook his head sadly. "That poor girl."
The faint sound of a flushing toilet from upstairs made Crews look up at the ceiling. "I'd better go check on her. But she can't know I told you anything, Ted."
"Oh, well, of course. Not a word," the ex-CEO promised.
Charlie ran upstairs and met Dani in the hallway just as she was exiting her room.
"Hi there," he said, a little breathless from his run. "How are you feeling?"
She gave him a look that told him the answer should be obvious. "You got any aspirin?" she asked in a somewhat raspy voice. "And some water?"
"Sure. It's downstairs." He began leading the way to the staircase, glancing back every so often to make sure she was following him. She walked slowly, putting her hand on the wall for support, and at the top of the stairs, Crews hesitated.
"Do you want some help going down?" he asked.
"I can do it myself," she assured him, and he once again heard the toughness in her voice that had told him of her difficult climb up the LAPD ranks.
Nodding at her answer, he began going down the stairs. Behind him, Reese looked down at the winding spiral form of the staircase, and had to fight a wave of dizziness. Clutching fiercely at the handrail, she began her own descent.
When she reached the bottom and stepped onto the floor, she breathed a sigh of relief, only to look up and find Charlie watching her.
"Kitchen's this way," he said softly, before walking away.
She followed, struggling with her feelings. On the one hand, she was grateful to Crews for letting her spend the night here instead of at her parents' house, but now that enough alcohol had left her system for her to think more clearly, she was afraid he saw her as weak and vulnerable.
She knew what Larson could have done to her in her house. Hell, in a dangerous instance of reverse psychology, she had even urged him to kill her. But what tore her up almost as bad as having had her life threatened was the memory of going to her front door and seeing all those people staring back at her with pity and sorrow in their eyes. People she worked with and had to face each day, from the Lieutenant to that obnoxious Stark, had heard about her personal, private demons. What did they think of her?
She lifted her eyes to stare at the head of red hair that belonged to the man in front of her.
What did Crews think of her?
Entering the kitchen, she saw Ted standing at the island. She nodded to him in greeting, and though he smiled warmly enough, he looked back at her with sympathy in his eyes, igniting her anger.
"Here's your aspirin," Charlie announced, setting a bottle of pills and a glass of water on the island in front of her.
Instead of taking the medicine, Reese pulled him aside and out of Ted's earshot.
"You told him?" Dani accusingly hissed.
Charlie glanced at Ted, then looked back at his partner.
"He didn't even say anything to you!"
"He didn't need to say anything to me. I could tell just by looking at him."
"Look, he wanted to know why he couldn't reach me on my cell phone last night. I had to tell him the truth."
"Great! So now someone else knows how weak and pathetic I am, right?"
"What are you talking about?"
She closed her eyes against the sudden tears that had gathered there.
"Nothing. I gotta go."
She walked away from him, heading for the front door.
"Reese, wait. What about your aspirin?" he called out.
"Don't need it anymore," she called back, gritting her teeth against the lie.
Closing the door behind her, Reese managed to get a few steps away from Charlie's mansion before the events of last night and her current feelings overwhelmed her.
Sitting down on the front step, she started to cry, silently at first, and then with more noise and intensity as sobs wracked her body. She tried to muffle the sounds of her crying by covering her mouth with her hands, but after a few minutes, she heard the sound of the front door opening, and the next thing she knew, Crews was sitting beside her, holding out a box of tissues.
She took some of them, wiping her eyes and nose. All the while, she hated herself for showing such a display of weakness. She refused to look at her partner as she cleaned herself up.
"I don't think you're weak and pathetic," Crews said quietly, setting down the box of tissues beside him. "In fact, I think you're exactly the opposite. You're a fighter, Reese. You couldn't have gotten to where you are today if you didn't have tremendous strength. You pulled yourself up from the bottom, from when you were lying in that pool of filth and you thought to yourself, 'You were so sick you just wanted to get up and get well.' You did that, Reese. You got clean, and you survived what happened to you."
"But…everyone knows now," she said softly. "They all know what I did when I was hooked, how…how badly I behaved."
"We've all done things we're ashamed of," he said, thinking of Cudahy. "But we try to move on from them and go forward. It's the only thing we can do. Sometimes, it's the only bit of power we have."
She glanced at him as he said the last sentence, but Crews was looking out at the landscape, and not at her.
After a moment, she rose to her feet, and he followed her movement so that they stood facing each other.
Clearing her throat, she said, "Thanks for letting me stay the night."
"Happy to do it. You want me to give you a ride anywhere?"
"No, I'll call a cab."
"Ok."
A beat passed, and then Crews impulsively leaned forward and hugged her.
"I'm glad you're all right, Reese," he said.
Instead of pushing him away this time, she chuckled, and somewhat awkwardly patted him on the back.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say I'm 'all right,' but, you know, I'm gonna work the program. For real this time," she replied. "So I might make it there."
He released her from the hug and put his hands on her shoulders before giving an emphatic nod. "You'll make it. I have faith in you."
She rolled her eyes at his optimism. "As if I didn't already have a headache," she muttered, brushing his hands off her so she could walk away.
Reese was only able to take a step, though, before she heard the front door open again.
"Uh, would you like to have a cup of coffee before you leave?" Ted called out to her.
"And don't forget your aspirin," Charlie added brightly.
Dani hesitated, wondering if the promise of coffee and painkillers was worth spending more time with Crews. She then smirked to herself, already knowing the answer, even though she would never admit it to him.
Putting a frown on her face, she turned back to the two waiting men and stalked back to the house, saying, "This is only because I have a hangover, ok?"
"Um, ok," Ted said hesitantly, watching Dani breeze by him. "Er, we haven't been properly introduced…" he began pointing out to her as he too went back inside.
Charlie was the last to go in, smiling to himself as he felt the sun's warmth on his face. He thought of Reese's excuse for joining them for coffee, and his smile broadened.
"She didn't really mean that," he said knowingly to himself. Taking a deep breath of fresh air and then letting it out, he picked up the box of tissues from his front step and headed inside the house, closing the front door behind him.