Charlie's Angel - Chapter 4
She was finally asleep; her fitfulness giving way to a relaxed, peaceful slumber. He watched her features free of frowns, scowls, arched eyebrows and Reese's patented menacing looks. Charlie meant to remind her that he no longer felt her looks "menacing", having long ago figured out his fierce little partner far from having a heart of ice, was something of a soft touch. She just hid it beneath a thick layer of skepticism and walls that made Pelican Bay look like a country club. Dani kept the world out with her own personal prison made of walls no one could scale.
The doorbell rang and Charlie leapt off the couch to keep whoever it was from ringing again and waking his partner slumbering in the next room. He yanked open the door to find Kevin Tidwell on the doorstep, leaning into the door frame, like he expected to kiss his little 5'1" brunette girlfriend when she opened the door. It made for quite the awkward moment.
"Captain…." Charlie drew the title out like a question. "I don't know how to break this to you, I'm flattered, but I'm actually into girls – really, really, really into girls," he bantered, trying to turn what was going to be ugly - lighter.
"Crews…wanna explain what you are doing in my girlfriend's house at this time of night?" Tidwell said snidely.
"Funny you should ask," Crews began, "I was gonna ask you what you were doing at my partner's house at this time of night Captain," he challenged.
Where's Dani?" Tidwell said, pushing past Crews into the house.
"C'mere, let me show you," Charlie whispered and put his finger to his lips to quiet the tone of Tidwell's voice. He led the way to Dani's bedroom, where she slept quietly. Charlie softly rested on the bed at Dani's side and lightly used his fingertips to brush back her dark hair from her cheek, exposing the ugly bruise that covered her cheekbone.
Dani stirred slightly, her eyelid's fluttering as she reached for him with her voice, "Crews?"
"Shhhh, honey. Go back to sleep," he said very quietly and leaned in to place a chaste kiss on her temple. Tidwell's eyes darkened at the intimacy of Crews' gesture.
They left the bedroom and an uncomfortable silence descended upon them.
Charlie cleared his throat and asked what he wanted to know. "You wanna explain to me how she got that bruise?"
"Where the hell do you get off Crews? That's my girlfriend in there and you got no business here. I don't know what it is that you think you know, but you need to just back off," Tidwell said angrily.
"What I think I know is this…." Crews began slowly with his voice low and tone dangerous, "most women are abused by their domestic partners."
"Okay, look that's insulting on a number of levels," Tidwell hissed at him "First, domestic partner? Come' on Crews what the hell? Two, do I seem like the kinda guy that needs to abuse women? And "C", what the hell are you doing here?" he finished in a raised voice.
"You know what's wrong with that response Captain?" Crews began in the tone he used exclusively with perps, "one point only…. you have yet to deny that you hit my partner," Charlie said drawing himself up to emphasis the height difference between them.
The argument was interrupted by one very pissed off and slightly disoriented Dani Reese. They both noticed her at once and stepped apart. "You" she pointed at Tidwell "out" and "you.." she said narrowing her eyes at Charlie, "kitchen, now."
"But…." Both men started nearly simultaneously and then threw each other a dark look at the synchronicity of their speech. Dani just scowled at both. Tidwell sighed heavily and slammed her door on the way out. Charlie followed Dani into her kitchen, where he found her filling a glass with tap water.
"Why does my mouth feel like cotton?" she asked without turning around.
"Reese….I…."
She turned to face him and Charlie was overwhelmed by the impulse to gather her into his arms, enough so that he physically shook the feeling off like a dog with an itch.
"What is wrong with you?" she scowled at his actions. "Do you always have to act like a freak?" she glared "Are you going to answer me?"
Charlie stared, but said nothing, prompting Reese to query him again with raised brows and her own dark stare. He swallowed hard and decided to take the safest way out "No. No I don't think I will."
"Fine. Then get out," Dani ordered.
"Sorry, partner. No can do. Doc said possible head injury and you can't be left alone," he smiled tightly, knowing it was not going to please her.
"You don't know that I have a head injury," she argued.
"You don't know that you don't," he countered.
"You never would have let him drug me if you thought I had a concussion, Crews," she countered her wits returning.
"I'm not leaving you," he said solidly, adding a smile to soften his intransigence. They locked eyes, but she blinked first.
Charlie crossed the room to her and kissed her gently on the forehead. "Go back to bed, honey."
She started to tell him no, not to call her that and a host of other complaints, but he stopped them all with a finger to her lips and a deep look into her eyes – a gaze that forced her to look away. Crews had a way of looking into her so deeply Dani felt he could see her soul and that frightened her more than losing an argument to him. She took her glass of water and retreated to her bedroom.
Charlie slipped off his shoes, removed his loosened tie, hung his jacket over the back of a kitchen chair and got comfortable on his partner's couch.
It was early morning when she crept into the room so quietly he didn't hear her. She sat next to him and her scent woke him. "Reese," he said sleepily.
"Why are you here, Crews?" she said softly.
"I…. uh….. You're my…"his mouth snapped shut as his ineffectual answers just sounded stupid. Her hand on his chest made him look down, she leaned closer, her dark hair obscuring her face, until she looked up at him again.
"Why are you here, Crews?" she asked again – closer now, much closer. How'd she get that close that fast? He wondered, as he reached to tuck her hair behind her ear and grazing her cheek with his thumb in the process.
This time when he refocused on her, she was whispering across his lips, "Charlie, why are you here?" His senses were in overload, his heart pounding as he reached for her with his lips. Her name left his lips as a sigh, "Reese," and just as their lips met – Charlie woke up.
He blinked several times and twisted his head as a confused look crossed his usually imperturbable features. He was certain she had just been there; he could taste her lips, smell her shampoo, feel the warmth of her hand over his heart, but as he looked around, he found Dani Reese sitting solidly in an armchair across the room from him sipping coffee and eying him with a sly smile.
"Reese?" he said.
"You said that already," she demurred, clearly enjoying his discomfort.
"Crews" she sighed, climbed to her feet, snagging another cup of coffee and handing it to him "I'm going to shower – you should too. Go home. We have to be at work in an hour."
Charlie shook his head and looked from her to the coffee and back. He still could not get past the feeling of Dani close to him. He was still wondering why he dreamt about kissing his partner, it was just a dream, right? But why?
"Go on," she coached. "Go home, Crews."
All the way home Charlie tried really hard not to think about Reese in the shower, but he failed miserably. He flashed back to the shower in that crack house on their first case together, when she'd been coated in drugs and panicky.
Charlie had never sensed Reese out of control before or since, but that day her fragility touched a nerve in him. He wanted to shield her. He wanted to protect her. He wanted… Charlie knew what he wanted, he wanted Reese and that was what his dream was telling him.