Dani sat back in the wheelchair as the ambulance rumbled out of Charlie's orange grove and onto the regular road. Tidwell sat beside her holding her hand.
"Dani, babe, am I glad to see you...you have no idea, I've been going crazy. How are you feeling?" he leant forward and hugged her, rubbing her arm when he withdrew.
Dani closed her eyes briefly and all she could see was orange trees. "I'm pretty tired, I guess.", she replied.
"Where were they holding you? Did they hurt you? Nevikov...he didn't, you know, assault y-."
"Jesus! No! Nothing like that. He slapped me once, that was all. Tied me to a chair in a basement. I had a hood on for most of the time."
The female paramedic, who was also sat in the back of the ambulance witnessing this scene between, apparently, a boss and his employee, shot Tidwell a look that meant that he should allow Dani to rest.
"Bastard." spat Tidwell, ignoring the paramedic. "So what happened? How did Crews get you out?"
Dani gave him the abridged version, that Crews had swapped places with her in Roman's car, that he had armed bodyguards and that Crews had turned up, alone and unscathed in the orange grove where they had found them, not ten minutes afterwards. She deliberately refused to speculate, or to give Tidwell anything more in case Crews was giving a different version of events to his questioners. It helped her that she really didn't know what had happened anyway, she would be interrogating Crews herself just as soon as she could.
"This makes no sense. No sense at all. Why would Nevikov hold you for nine days straight and then let Crews go almost immediately?", Tidwell asked.
"Tidwell, I don't know. Get down to the station and ask Crews yourself, if you want. Can we just drop it for now? I'm just glad to be alive." Dani said, exasperated.
Tidwell nodded, "Sure, babe. I'm sorry. Hey, close your eyes." , he patted the back of her hand.
Dani did not want to sleep but obeyed Tidwell nonetheless, just glad of the silence. Roman wouldn't have let Crews go without a fight, she knew that for sure. She had a bad feeling that Crews had landed himself in deep trouble and couldn't help but think that he had done it for her. All she wanted was to see him again. She replayed the sight of Charlie walking towards her, stony-faced, then walking right past her, telling her to breathe, their hands nearly meeting but not quite, since Roman had barked savagely for them not to touch. She wanted nothing more than to have held his hand. As they watched Roman's SUV drive away, she was haunted by the realization that she never would, that it was too late. That she was realizing something all too late. She couldn't even give that something a name just yet. She didn't dare, it terrified her. It was still too raw, but she recognized it, having known it once a long time ago. It hadn't worked out well then either. There was no plan. He hadn't thought further than the swap, further than saving her. She had felt sick to her stomach. Waves of nausea returned now that she recalled his red head ducking into that car, thinking he was gone forever.
She opened her eyes. Tidwell was still there, staring at her intently.
Crews had wisely evaded any questions on the way back to the office. He was skilled at that. He enthralled his companions by lecturing them on the finer points of orange cultivation instead.
Charlie walked into the bull pen to a standing ovation, word having travelled fast that Reese had been found, which aggravated the FBI agents and the hastily-assembled LAPD panel waiting for him. Asked where Captain Tidwell was, Crews reported that he had accompanied his partner to the hospital. Crews continued that without his boss there, he felt a little vulnerable, especially since the FBI were intent on sitting in on the debrief too. He made a not-so-oblique reference to union regulations and the fact that the last time he had found himself being questioned, it had cost him twelve years of his life and the LAPD tens of millions of dollars, and said he would like to call his attorney, to be on the safe side. They could not object. Crews found himself on the line to one of his old friend Connie's associates, to whom he did not need to introduce himself further than stating his name, who was more than happy to drop everything and come down immediately. If the guy's hourly fee was any indication, Charlie had just secured himself some major league legal representation. This move was both designed to protect Charlie and to buy him some time, to frustrate the group of people assembled in the meeting room next door. Although all this was working out just as he hoped, he couldn't help feel irritated that it would take longer than he wanted, keeping him from getting back to Dani as fast as he would have liked.
Charlie was relieved when the lawyer, Juventino Marquez, and an underling named Penelope strolled up to shake his hand firmly. He was slick, both in demeanour and his efficient manipulation of the law. Charlie briefed Marquez, and they sat before the panel forty five minutes later, with Marquez having objected to the FBI presence at an internal LAPD debrief straight off the bat. The FBI agents left, much to their apparent disgust. Charlie told the panel that he had swapped places with Reese and that there had been a struggle, of which his battered jaw was evidence. Crews admitted to striking Roman in self defence, injuring Nevikov somewhat, at which point weapons were trained on him. Charlie recounted that an argument had erupted between Nevikov and his men. In Russian. Crews reported that it had become heated, their weapons were drawn on each other and that Crews was then ejected from the car without explanation. Crews got no impression that the panel believed him in the slightest but Marquez backed him to the hilt, allowed him to take a few further questions and then made reference to the toll the whole episode have taken on his client, who had single-handedly liberated another LAPD officer without any direction or back up from the force. Marquez scared the hell out of them. The interview was over. It was explained to Crews that there would be an official investigation into the matter and as such, he should forfeit his badge and his gun while the results were pending. They took mugshots of his battered jaw and his knuckles under Marquez's close supervision.
Within ninety minutes, Crews was in the elevator shaking hands with Marquez and Penelope once more.