That Old Rugged Cross
The car slowed to a halt at the stop sign. Dani tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she accelerated again. Charlie sat in the passenger seat, staring out the window. He couldn't get Roman's words out of his head. 'You should ask your partner about the Bank of LA Shootout. You should ask your partner about what happened to all that money.' Charlie chanced a look in Dani's direction and spotted something he hadn't seen before. A gold chain with a cross hung from around her neck.
"Hey Reese," he said.
"Yeah?" she replied, not taking her eyes off the road in front of her.
"What's with the cross?" Charlie asked. Dani didn't answer right away. She subconsciously let one hand come up off the wheel to brush against the cross.
"Let's not make a big deal about this ok?" she replied.
"That woman got to you, didn't she?" he probed.
"Crews, just let it go," Dani said.
"You found your faith, didn't you? You lost it but you found it again," Charlie rambled.
"Crews, I said drop it," she ground out as she made a hard left turn. The car fell silent and Dani was thankful that Charlie had stopped talking. She knew he was trying to be supportive in his bizarre, Zen-like way but it got on her nerves. She let out a slow breath and out of the corner of her eye she saw Charlie look at her expectantly, as if he was waiting for her to speak again.
"Alright, fine. Maybe I'm trying to find it again. I don't know if it was even there to begin with but I'm trying to find it. I don't know, ok," she said.
"How can you find something if you didn't have it to lose in the first place?" Charlie wondered aloud. It wasn't really addressed to Dani. But she answered anyways.
"Don't go all Zen on me. I don't think I can handle that right now. I'm just trying to make sense of all of this. And maybe the cross will help," she sighed.
"I think it will. Because maybe you didn't know you had it and so that way you didn't know you lost it," he agreed. She let out a frustrated groan.
"I said no Zen," she grumbled, pulling up to a stop light. The car idled there for a few minutes, waiting for the light to change. Charlie had fallen silent again and Dani hoped they could get back to the station without him rambling on again. She didn't want to talk about her faith anymore. It made her uncomfortable. It made her feel exposed. The light finally went green and she pressed down on the gas, sending the car zooming forward.
"You know Reese…it's nothing to be ashamed about," Charlie said.
"Crews…do me a favor," Dani said, pulling into the parking lot of the station and looking at him.
"Yeah?" he said.
"Shut up," she ordered and climbed out of the car.