It happened that an angel came down from the sky and helped me out with this.
Astrelita, If you are reading this chapter even here you have to know I'll never stop thanking you.

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I Didn't Plan This.

Surely there is another explanation, but her common sense tells her that she still has to do this.
So, along the road from home, Tidwell's home, to the Police Station, Dani stops at the drugstore and buys it.

Half an hour later she's at the Station, in the woman's bathroom, and two pink lines are staring at her from the pregnancy test she's just done.

Positive.

There must be an error.
Her thoughts go to the drawer of her desk were she put the box with the second test. As soon as possible she'll do it again and it'll be negative. Definitely. And if it had been positive too, she'd have bought another box of pregnancy test.
And she'll keep buying them until she gets a negative one.
That's a good plan.

She cannot be pregnant.

Well, technically she could, according to the theory of bees and flowers, but she's on the pill and she has never forgotten one.
Or has she?

xxx xxx xxx

Crews is waiting for Tidwell in the conference room.
On the board in front of him is a map of the city and some pictures: a young woman and an older man lying face down in a pool of blood, a knife, a tattoo and a mug shot of a young man.

Tidwell storms inside the room.
"Detectives, hit me!"
Then takes a second look and stares at Crews. "Where's your partner?"

"It's funny," smiles Crews "I was about to ask you the same question!"

Tidwell frowns and tilts his head. He opens his mouth, but before he could say anything, Dani enters the room and pins another picture on the board.

"Mafalda Winterspoon."
A woman in her fifties stares back from the photo at the two Detectives and at their puzzled Captain.
"Guess what?-" Dani asks rhetorically, looking at Crews "-this woman happens to be the ex-partner of this-" she points her index finger to the picture of the two murdered people

"-man…" Crews finishes her sentence.

"No. " Dani grins mysteriously "Woman." she fixes her eyes in Charlie's ones, raising an eyebrow.

Tidwell has stared at Dani during all her exchange with Crews, noticing she has intentionally avoided looking at him.
Oh god. What has he done to her this time?
He inspects his last hours with Dani.
She was perfectly happy yesterday when they had dinner at the Italian restaurant.
She was perfectly happy later in the evening in his living room while she was riding him on the couch. And he was perfectly happy too, of course.
And she was perfectly happy this morning when she left his apartment after they had made love for the third time in a row that night.
Something must have happened between this morning and now.
How come he's able to upset her even when he's not with her at all?

Crews looks at the Captain. Reese looks at Crews looking at him.

You're the Captain: say something.
"Good work. Go and find out what this woman has to say about these two." Tidwell points his hand toward the photo on the board.

Reese and Crews turns on their heels, heading towards the door.

"Detective, wait a minute."

The two of them turn their heads simultaneously: Crews looking straight into Tidwell's eyes, Reese staring at a certain point over Tidwell's left shoulder.

"I think he's talking to you…" Charlie whispers toward Dani.

She rolls her eyes in a "thanks-for-pointing-out-the-obvious" way, and crosses her arms, waiting. Her eyes never leave Tidwell's shoulder.

"I hope you're not going to kiss me." she bursts out after Charlie has left the room.

Tidwell ignores her dig and tilts his head, trying to enter into her visual field.

Finally their eyes meet.

"What?" she offers.

"You know, I was about to ask you the same question." He puts his hands on his hips, waiting.

Dani blinks once. Then decides it's better to hold the reins.
"Listen. There's a certain job that's waiting for me outside. The "find-out-the-murderer" kind of job, and my partner and I haven't much time to do that, so-" she tilts her head closing briefly the eyes and heads for the door walking backwards "-I think you don't really want to keep me here right now."
She storms out of the room before he could protest.

Tidwell gapes.

xxx xxx xxx

"You seem pale. No. You are pale-" Crews establishes after having stared at her for a while.

Dani clenches her fingers on the steering wheel saying nothing.

"-'Coz if I say 'you seem' I express an opinion, while if I say 'you are' I express a matter of fact. And you are pale. Definitely. Reese, are you right?"

"I was feeling better before you started blathering things with no meaning in them, thank you."

"'Better', but not well, so that means you're not right."

Reese rolls her eyes while Crews is giving her his best Zen-smile.

"When I arrived at the Station this morning I saw your jacket on your chair but you weren't there. I thought you were with Tidwell, you know, doing things that a girl usually does with her boyfriend, like-"

"-Crews!"

He raises his hand in an apologizing gesture, skipping the description of what two clandestine lovers can do when they're at work, and continues "But then Tidwell asked me about you in the conference room, so I-"

"-Crews!" Dani sharply interrupts his flood of words "Just come to the point, for god's sake! This isn't the right day to be annoying."

Hearing no reply, she turns his head and meets his glance.

Crews was studying her with those blue eyes of his.

"I…I'm sorry." She concedes.

"See?" Charlie starts to say "I don't need to fight to prove I'm right. You're not well, physically and emotionally, I'd say."

Dani gapes and blinks twice, but then she purses her mouths, taking her self-control again.
"Crews. Do you remember when you start to act like you're on another planet and I ask you to come back and keep doing your work?"

"Hmmmyes…"

"Okay. Now I'm trying to do my work. So please stop asking me if I'm right. I only want to do my work."

Charlie nods yes.
"Got it. You're not well but you don't want to think about it."

Dani rolls her eyes once again but doesn't reply.

TBC