Thank you for the reviews! This story is already written, so I should have fairly fast pacing in getting them up! Enjoy!

Pt. 2 of the Everything Series
Title: Existing as Nothing
Rating: M, just to be safe
Characters: Reese (character study), Crews/Reese
Summary: Reese wants everything, Crews wants nothing.
Disclaimer: I in no way own the characters of Charlie Crews, Dani Reese, or any other affiliated with Life. I only borrow them for my selfish acts and intend no harm. Also, the lyrics belong to Buckcherry's fantastic song, "Everything."
A/N: This story came to me first as a fanvid idea (still planning on doing one) but then morphed into a full fledge fic in the planning. It's my first foray into the Life fandom and so I need some critique. But please, smart critique only.

-- Somewhere she is on the streets trying to make things better
-- Praying to God and breathing deep
-- Gotta break this long obsession
-- The look on her face, a waste of time
-- She won't let go, gonna roll the dice
-- Losing her grace, starts to cry

She hated stakeouts.

She hated being in enclosed spaces.

She hated sitting there for hours with nothing to do.

She hated the cravings she got.

She hated him.

She hated the sickly-sweet smell of orange.

She hated the sound of his knife cutting into the fruit.

She hated the sounds he made as he ate.

She hated the sound of him talking.

She hated Zen.

She hated how much she was beginning to not hate him.

She hated stakeouts.

"Crews?"

He stopped his mental wonderings with his mouth long enough to look at her and say, "What? You see him?"

Sighing, she rubbed her brow and fixed her eyes on the entrance to the house they were watching. "No, but if you keep talking, that fruit won't be the only thing in this car being sliced, and I don't care if it's not here, or you, or me!"

His eyes blinked and stared ahead, and then his hand popped into her line of sight, making her jump slightly. "Peace offering?"

Crews was holding a piece of orange in front of her nose. She threw a glance at him and he just shook his hand and nodded to the slice. Rolling her eyes, she grabbed the fruit piece and said, "I thought the orange wasn't here?"

"It's not, but it still tastes good." He had the strange little-boy smile plastered on his face that expanded even further, till it made her wince at the brightness, when he saw her take a bite. "I told you."

She couldn't help the tug at the corner of her mouth. "You do realize that you make no sense to normal humans? Nonsense is all that's ever coming from you."

If possible, his smile got brighter; at this rate, Reese was going to have to open the door and puke soon. "Normal humans don't exist. You and I are not here."

She could have hit him.

Soon, the car was filled with silence as Crews finally finished his orange and settled down. Reese took the opportunity to rest her eyes a bit; she knew he was watching the door and relaxed.

When she felt the car shift as he adjusted his position in the seat, she slit her eyes and studied him. There were few moments when it was quiet around him, Dani was sure that it had to do with anxiety. Perhaps being in one room or a small place for a long time was too much for him, reminding him of a time when he didn't have a choice on whether or not he could leave.

She knew what that felt like, to not have a choice, which was why he was still her partner: why she hadn't ratted him out.

She had never met anyone like Crews: someone as fucked-up as she was. Of course some people saw it in Crews but others thought he was okay now that he had caught the killer who he had gone to jail for. People automatically assumed that made twelve years disappear.

Sighing, she leaned her head against the window as he turned to look at her. Her breath caught in her throat as he held her eyes, which were still half closed. "I think I know what those twelve years felt like."

"To know yourself is to know hell." He had turned his head back to the house. "We both know what hell is, don't we Reese?"

"Yeah, I guess we do, Charlie."

At the sound of his name on her lips, his eyes shot back to hers. "You still have a chance, Dani, to leave hell; to leave it in that motel room back on that dresser."

"And what about you?" She shot back and tried to ignore how weak her voice sounded. So he knew about the coke. Of course, Dani had no idea if she had actually done any, her memories were still hazy, but it didn't change the fact that it was there. Plus, he now knew what she did every Friday night when she got off work and wouldn't be back the next day.

Crews just stared at her with that look that made you feel as though the entire universe could see right through you, and perhaps he could. "I don't know if I can," and then he smiled that sad grin of his, "I haven't had my dance with the devil yet."

She couldn't take anymore. Opening the door, she threw a quick, "Cover for me until I get back."

And with that, she slammed the door shut and started walking down the street.

She felt exhausted and worn out from their conversation, actually no, that wasn't being honest. He wore her out simply by talking. He got under her skin about the simplest things and yet, this time…

This time he had hit his mark, and she knew that he knew. She had danced with the devil that night; the night that she had been at her lowest and just looking for the next hit, never caring that her lover was dead beside her.

She felt raw as she finally collapsed into a bench that stood by itself in someone's yard. She hated him. Pure and simple, she hated him for how right he had always been about her. He read her like an open book.

She felt the tears sting her eyes as she fought them back. Dani knew how this book would end though: face down in some motel bed with the roaches as her friends. And at that image, she broke.

-- I feel her pain when I look in her.

It was close to an hour before she made her way back to the car and settled herself back behind the steering wheel. Crews watched her as she tried to focus her attention back to the house they were suppose to be watching. She dared him to say something as she felt his gaze on her skin and held back the impulse to shudder, yet finally it slid off of her and back onto where hers was pointed.

He didn't say another word until she dropped him back at his house after they were relieved. And as she waited for him to make it up the long walk up to his front door, Dani stared at the little angel still glued to her dashboard.

She hated stakeouts.

-- I wanna be, I want everything
-- I want everything