3.
Ted heard Reese's car pull into the garage. He'd been sleeping fitfully, his dreams filled with the grinding sound of locking prison doors. He heard Reese shuffle inside Charlie's house.
He gave-up sleep and thought about making coffee. Reese seemed to like coffee. He entered the house, making as much noise as he can. Ted didn't like people pointing guns at him.
"Hey," Ted said, "You want some-- Oh, my God! What happened to you?"
There was blood on her lips and her shirt looked a little ripped.
"Took down a perp," Reese answered, shrugging out of her jacket. She threw the jacket to the end of the couch and seemed afraid to touch it.
"And he did that?" He pointed to her mouth.
Reese touched her lip gingerly and her expression turned sour. "No. This came from a rookie who can't seem to follow instructions. Tell him to turn left and he goes right."
"Stay there," he ordered and grabbed a bowl, clean towels and antiseptic. He returned and found Reese sitting on the coffee table, sleeves rolled up as she checked her elbow. She smelled like smoke and whiskey. He looked at her jacket and it was soaked.
"It's nothing." Reese said when she saw Ted armed with the bare essentials of a first aid kit.
"Yeah, of course it's nothing and next thing you know you're in the hospital with infection."
She rolled her eyes and took the towel from his hand. Ted watched her dab her lip and looked away. They spent a few seconds in silence with Reese busy cleaning the wound.
"Maybe you should consider that guy's offer about a temporary partner?" This remark earned him a 'Not you too' look. "Just a suggestion."
"Pass the alcohol, please."
He did. "You don't have to do this alone, you know."
"Maybe," she said. "I think you were going to offer me coffee?"
"I can help." He continued.
"You're already helping with the financials."
"I could help more."
Reese looked at him. "No. No you can't. You can't afford another strike and I don't think your roommate would be happy when he finds out you'd been hurt or back in jail."
When, not, if.
Ted sighed. "I'll make us coffee."
#
Ted puttered around the garden when he heard a car pull up the driveway, he moved forward cautiously and saw Reese open the door. "Let's go see your roommate."
Ted had nothing better to do so he put down the shears. He was beginning to suspect Reese was only using him as an excuse to visit Charlie, that's at least what she says when people asked. Ted wished she would stop telling people that. He was beginning to get odd stares from people.
"You been gardening?"
"Nothing else to do."
Reese nodded. "C'mon."
They arrived at the hospital but found they weren't Charlie's only guest.
A blond woman sat beside Charlie, she held his hand and seemed to be crying. Reese turned to him and by expression alone seemed to be asking who the hell the woman was. Ted shrugged in turn.
The woman turned her head and Ted realized who she was. "Jennifer!"
Jennifer Conover wiped tears from her eyes. "Do I... oh, you're Ted Earley."
"Yes." He answered. "Um. How're you? How long have you been here?"
"I just learned what happened to Charlie yesterday," she said, "My... my husband and I were out of the country."
Jennifer's eyes tracked to Reese, who stood just a little behind him and not uttered a single word since they entered the room.
"Oh, sorry, um, Jennifer Conover," He said, moving slightly away, "this is--"
"Jennifer." Reese repeated. Her voice had a tinge of coolness in it. "You're Charlie's ex-wife."
Ted blinked at Reese, this was the first time Ted heard Reese refer to Charlie by his given name and then Reese's words registered.
"I am." Jennifer said, equally cool but she stretched out her hand and Reese took it.
"Dani Reese," Reese said, "Charlie's partner."
Jennifer's tentative smile faltered and there was beginnings of the expression Ted had seen only briefly but memorably, the time Jennifer slapped Charlie but she covered up quickly and regained the smile. "It's good to meet you."
"And you." Reese said, "Mrs. Conover."
Jennifer nodded and turned away, back to Charlie. "I didn't know what to do when I learned what happened to Charlie. It used to be I was Charlie's first call, I remember how I used to worry about receiving that call, always, everyday."
To Ted's horror he saw Jennifer's shoulders start to shake he panicked a little, awkward with the display of emotion and looked to Reese for help but she was no help at all. Reese stared at Jennifer with an implacable, unreadable expression, an expression he'd seen on cops before. As if she'd weighed, judged and found Jennifer guilty of something.
Stark explained it to Ted days later when he turned up on Charlie's doorstep in regular clothes and told Ted that Reese asked Stark to check on Ted while he was off duty.
"Since Charlie got shot Reese has been--"
"A little scary?" Ted provided.
"I was gonna say 'relentless' and 'surly' but that'd work too."
Then he cracked a beer open and threw Ted another can.
"Reese met Jenny?" Stark shook his head. "Damn. Glad I'm not in those shoes anymore."
"What d'you mean?" Ted asked.
Stark gave a little chuckle. "This time last year Reese sort of hated my guts, she wasn't too keen when she thought I didn't back Charlie up but we got things sorted. And that's when she just thought I didn't have Charlie's back--"
'But,' Ted wanted to say, 'you didn't.'
"Hate to see how Reese took to meeting the woman who actually abandoned Charlie."
Jennifer regained her composure and faced them again, worry and fear lining her face. "The doctors said his surgery was a success, they told me... they told me they don't know why he's still in a coma and they said..." She paused and seemed to work around the lump in her throat. Ted felt his hands hang uselessly at his side. "They said if he doesn't wake-up soon... the worse it'll be for him, that he'll never wake-up."
"He'll wake-up." Reese said. They turned and looked at her and Reese repeated in a voice filled with conviction and a tinge of anger, as if she dared them to contest her claim. "He'll wake-up."
#
It was late when they returned to Charlie's house. Ted left the light in the kitchen open just in case they returned from the hospital after dark. Ted didn't like dark places. Things happen in the dark like getting shiv'd in the back.
As soon as Reese opened the door Ted felt something amiss but couldn't put his finger on it until Reese shoved him to the side and drew her gun. And finally Ted knew what it was: he could smell pie. Strawberry pie. Someone was in the house. Sitting on the couch. There was a click and the lamp lit open.
Reese stood between the pillars gun pointed and face set. The light made the planes of her face sharper, dangerous.
"You're trespassing." Reese said to someone Ted didn't see.
"Just like you." The man sitting on the couch said, Ted peered around the corner and saw a bald man in a suit, Special Agent Bodner of the FBI. He had his feet on the coffee table, eating pie. As if he it was the most natural thing in the world, as if he belonged there. Ted felt sick.
"I was invited." Reese returned.
"Oh, really? Was this before or after your partner keeled over with a hole in his chest?"
Ted saw Reese's shoulder rise. "You tell me."
Bodner didn't respond, Reese never took her eyes off Bodner. Ted tried not to breathe aloud, he could feel his heart race and he pressed himself against the wall.
"Pie?" Bodner asked.
"Maybe later."
"You should stop harassing Roman Nevikov, Detective." Bodner said, all conversation, talking shop. "After all the Federal government has him in custody now."
"Yeah, I heard that."
"From Charlie's lawyer friend? But she's stopped returning your calls, how could you know?" There was a sound of the fork scraping the plate. "Anyway, I heard you were looking for me too. Well, darling, here I am."
"Yeah." Reese replied. Reese's voice even was but there was an edge, just an edge of contempt in her voice. "You are."
"What are you going to do now? Ask if I had your partner shot and threaten me like this was some movie?"
"Did you have my partner shot?"
There was a silence Ted peered around the corner again. Bodner was standing now, the unfinished pie on the coffee table. He had his hands on his pockets, sweeping the ends of his suit aside to reveal his gun and FBI badge and he stood like a man totally in control of his environment. Bodner stared at Reese, eyes dark and intense but nothing in Reese's demeanor changed except for the tiny sneer of defiance curling her lip.
"No."
"You got anything to do with my partner's 'rebirth'?"
Agent Bodner chuckled. "He's not really reborn if he doesn't wake-up. By the way, I heard you're running for the Lieutenant's exam, you're very ambitious considering. Judging from your work you got the brains to pull it off." It didn't sound like a compliment to Ted. "It'd be a shame if the IAD found about you banging your captain, I think that'd be one of those things IA frowns upon. It's not like you don't already have a black mark on your record, something to do with an undercover assignment, right?
"I tell you, I knew some folk gone under but reading what you did guess they really should redefine the word. Things you did made what those guys did seem like child's play."
Ted moved a bit to get a view of Reese's profile and the defiant sneer vanished, she looked stricken and without defenses. He'd never seen her so shaken. Ted was suddenly filled with an impulse to intervene. Bodner smirked and Ted made a move forward but Reese started speaking.
"You know what I find curious?" Her voice was steady. She looked steady. In the small space of time when Ted wasn't looking Reese regained her composure. No, it wasn't that, her voice was steady but it was also detached, as if she were thinking out loud, as if the thoughts were just coming to her. "How come the FBI's so interested in two LAPD cops? I'm a junkie, Crews was an ex-con. It's interesting, good gossip around the water cooler but not something the bureau would waste thousands of manhours for. Unless there's something more you're interested in." This time her voice wasn't detached it was interested, curious and sharp and the more interested she was the more the pitch of her voice lowered until it dropped low and smoky like old whiskey, intimate. Like it was only Bodner and Reese in the house and she was enticing the secrets from him. "What is it you're interested in, Agent Bodner? What is it about Crews and me you're so interested in?"
Tension saturated the room and Ted felt the pressure even if he stood off in the corner, hidden in the dark. It felt like something was, should break and soon.
"Stay away from Roman." Bodner finally said, cutting the tension into another interesting shape. "Stay away from me or else I'll go and start making your life even more interesting. Just ask Mr. Earley."
The sound of his name on Bodner's lips was like being hit with electricity and Ted jolted back and cringed.
Reese cocked her gun. "I suggest you leave now before I really do shoot you for trespassing."
Bodner removed his hands from his pocket. "Try the pie, it's really good."
He strolled out, stepping as close to Reese without touching her gun. Reese followed him out, tracking him with her gun. Halfway out of the door Bodner turned. "See you around, Detective," Bodner's eyes swept to him and again that jolt, like being stabbed this time, "and you too Mr. Earley."
#
He didn't sleep that night. He couldn't. Not even with Reese's reassurance. Not even knowing she was close by with a gun.
He can't go back to prison. He just can't. The second time just about killed him and going back inside... Ted looked at the wall, at the photos. He can't do it. Ted owed Charlie his life, more times than he can count but going back would kill him. Ted remembered Agent Bodner in Charlie's house and didn't feel at all safe. Ted went to the kitchen and pulled out the beer Stark brought with him the other day.
And that's how Reese found him, near the pool and working on his fifth beer, head on his hand.
"Are you okay?"
Ted looked up and found Reese looking at him. "I can't go back to prison."
Reese frowned and Ted could see the question forming in her head, she can say so much without really saying anything.
"I can't go back to prison again."
"You're not."
Ted huffed a laugh, just this side of bitter. "That's what Charlie said."
"You can give him hell when he wakes up."
"How are you even sure he'll wake-up?" He demanded and it must be the alcohol in him talking because normally, he wouldn't even dream of picking a fight with a cop, especially with this cop. "The doctors aren't even sure why he's still under! Maybe he doesn't want to wake-up!"
"He's going to wake-up." Reese said, as she stared down at him.
He laughed. "You think so, huh?"
"You're drunk." She told him.
"Three sheets to the wind and I'm not stopping until I pass out." Ted looked at her suspiciously, daring her to try and stop him.
She noticed his look. "What? I'm not going to stop you." She sat down on the other chair. "You want to get smashed? Go for it. I'm not one to talk about drinking."
Ted blinked and winced. "Oh, God. I remember. I'm sorry I--"
"Don't worry about it."
"Maybe I should clean up."
"I'm not going to suddenly lose control and grab all your beer." She said.
"Still--"
Reese stood-up. "If you want to drink 'til you pass out, do me a favor and do it in your room. I don't want to carry you there. Got it?"
#
He was going to die.
That's how it is, Theodore Earley, late of Attercliffe Capital found dead in a room above the garage of one Charles Crews, Esq., Ted imagined his wake would be sparse and gloomy and maybe with only one flower on his coffin with Olivia crying silent tears over what could have been and then there was Charles Crews Sr., probably laughing in the back with a cigar. Bastard.
Ted couldn't quite remember why he thought it was a good idea to wallow his sorrows in alcohol. His head was pounding and his mouth tasted funny, like worms came in to roost and died a horrible death-- that metaphor sent him on his knees doing penance to the porcelain god.
An hour and a half later he dragged himself out of his room and traversed the path to Charlie's house wearing thick dark glasses. He wanted to wear his baseball cap for effect but couldn't find it.
Reese was already in the kitchen drinking coffee and she greeted him with a raised eyebrow. "You look familiar."
Ted had a speech prepared, something like 'I will never drink again' or 'I hate you for your cheery morning look.' Except this was Reese and not Charlie and she never looked cheery in the morning. In the end what came out of his mouth was: "I'm gonna die."
Her mouth quirked upward, briefly, and nodded to a glass and some liquid Ted couldn't identify. "Drink that. Don't smell it and don't even try to taste it just drink it."
Ted looked at it dubiously, "It looks--"
"And don't look at it."
"Hair of dog?"
"And something extra."
Ted took the glass and swished it from side to side for a second. His head hurt like hell, maybe he'll just wait out the-- he saw Reese over the rim of the glass and she had the tiniest bit of smirk. "Well," he took a deep breath and raised the glass at her, "Here goes."
He held his breath as he downed the glass but apparently he has something perverse in him that when people tell him not to do things, he would then be compelled to do the very thing they warned him about. Like don't look down and he does and like now when he was told not to try and taste it and did.
Ted gagged and choked, he wheezed too as the... the thing went down the wrong tube. He wheezed and coughed and coughed until he felt Reese thump him on the back, which, for a small woman, packed a lot and he jerked forward a little then Reese handed him a glass of water. When he was done wheezing he looked at Reese. She looked exasperated.
"What the hell is this?!"
"I think I was pretty clear when I said don't taste it."
"That was horrible!"
"Trust me," Reese reached for her badge and clipped it on her belt, "you'll thank me later."
A few minutes later, after another round of gagging Reese finally gave him coffee to offset the taste. If it were Charlie he'd probably hand him a fruit complete with a Zen anecdote Ted would never completely understand.
"You never call me by name."
Ted had a coffee cup halfway to his lips and stopped. "What?"
She was looking at him thoughtfully. "It's either 'Detective Reese' or 'H-hey'."
"D-do you want me to call you Dani?"
"No."
"Oh."
She sighed. "I don't know."
"How about if I just call you Reese?"
"I think that'll do for now." Reese said. Ted nodded then groaned at the movement Reese collected her things and then she lowered her head, meeting his eyes. "Are you going to be alright?"
Startled, he blinked. "Yes."
"If anything comes up, you call me. Don't do anything stupid."
What stupid thing did she think he'll do?
"And if you get drunk again, I prefer you do it somewhere I don't see, got it?"
"That was really just a one time thing." He explained, "I... just--" Reese was looking at him steadily and then realized what she really meant. It wasn't just for him. "Got it."
Reese nodded but this time she wouldn't meet his eyes. "Thanks."
#
Dr. Vasquez came in the room, Ted has gotten to know the doctor pretty well since he often went on rounds to Charlie's room whenever Ted and Reese came by to visit.
"Will Detective Crews' father be visiting today?" Dr. Vasquez asked after looking through his charts.
"I... I'm not sure." Ted answered, to be frank he'd rather avoid seeing Crews Sr.
"Why?" Reese asked, in her usual position against the wall.
The doctor startled, Ted sympathized. Reese never started conversations; in fact she seemed to avoid all forms of communication if she could. It was awkward the first few times when Ted tried to make small talk until, thankfully, Reese cut him off during one of his awkward, stumbling discussions about the weather and said: "You don't really need to do this. I don't really like talk."
"But Charlie likes to talk." He said, in a sort of astonished way.
"Yeah," she said with a wry smile. "He really does."
"But--"
"Crews talks enough for the both of us." Reese explained then in a quiet voice and not unkind way added: "You're not Crews, you don't need to be."
After that they settled into the quiet although there were still times Ted wondered why he needed to be here in the first place.
Dr. Vasquez shifted his clipboard to another hand and said: "It's really something I should talk about with his family."
Reese stood up. "Talk about what?"
Dr. Vasquez shook his head but Ted saw Reese's gaze sharpened and Ted knew that was the wrong response to Reese's question. "I'm sorry, I really should talk to his family about this."
"Crews-- Charlie is my partner, Ted Earley is his roommate." Reese said. "Ted's been with him since after prison and I'm his partner. We're family."
"But--"
"But," Reese said, voice low and calm, "what, doctor?"
If she'd gone off angry, berating or demanding it wouldn't have worked but all through the exchange Reese had stood, implacable. Driving her point with a smooth kind of calm and relentlessness that Ted's only seen once before.
Ted sucked in a breath. My God, he thought, what it must have been like in the interrogation room when Charlie and Reese worked together.
Dr. Vasquez was a smart man and knew when he was defeated and caved. "Detective Crews has been in a coma for more than four weeks, I think we should start considering the possibility that he's not getting out of the coma soon."
"You think he's not going to wake-up." Reese surmised.
Dr. Vasquez sighed. "Like I've said before, Detective Reese, we're not even sure what's keeping Detective Crews in a coma. If he doesn't wake up soon it's difficult to tell when he will."
Ted knew it was a possibility. He even talked about it with Jennifer when she was here but to hear it from the doctor...
"Okay." Reese said.
"Detective..."Dr. Vasquez started.
"I'm going to take a break." Reese said suddenly and before Dr. Vasquez could say anything she walked out the door. Ted found himself alone with an unconscious Charlie and Dr. Vazquez.
"Mr. Earley," Dr. Vasquez said, "I know it's hard to hear but it really would be the best if Detective Reese and Mr. Crews understand..."
"I'll talk to them." He assured the doctor and wondered when he became the person that held things together, the one people saw as a sensible adult.
#
They didn't talk about it on the way back home. He's known Reese only a short time but Ted knew one thing: You don't force Reese into anything. You don't tell her what to do when she's made up her mind to do one thing, telling her to do something counter to her own plan would only ensure she would do the exact opposite of what you wanted.
It wasn't a definite thing he knew about Dani Reese but it was a feeling and in the little things he observed about her. She was incredibly stubborn and guarded with walls higher than he could hope to climb.
She eased her car into the driveway, Ted opened the door until he realized Reese hadn't shut-off the engine. "Um. Aren't you going to come in?"
Reese glanced at Ted. Ted realized how that might have sounded and quickly added: "I mean it's late and you need some sleep and..."
There was an expression on her face and Ted couldn't identify a flicker of anger, a flicker of something else entirely then it all went away when she let out a breath. "You're right."
About what? Ted wanted to ask but felt like he'd already pushed his luck and didn't.
"I'm going to park the car."
"Do you want me to set-up Charlie's guest room, seriously there's a lot of rooms and some even have honest to God furniture..."
Reese shook her head but she was smiling. "Some other time."
Ted got out of the car. "Okay. Good night, Detective Reese."
She opened her mouth and Ted paused but then she looked away, "Good night, Ted."
Ted watched Reese drive partway to the garage below Ted's room. She never parked in the garage.
TBC