Chapter 9

A/N : I like to think that Carina's grown a little bit in the five years of Chuck canon. The Carina we get in Chuck vs The Wookie, would of course have no problem bedding down her team members. By the end of Chuck vs The CAT Squad, she knows she's been naughty and crossed a line with Alex and Morgan, thus I like to think that Daryl and Tessa are safe.

Chapter 9

Prologue – Manhattan Murder Mystery I

November 2011

New York New York

Mid-town Manhattan

54th Precinct

Detective Jackie Curatola was beginning to hate the phone. With two detectives in the house on special assignment, other detectives, including her and Danny were stuck with covering follow up phone calls and reports for the absent detective's old cases.

Danny Reagan stormed out of Sergeant Sidney Gormley's office and slumped in his desk opposite her. "Well, Sergeant Gormley says that we all have to share the pain. If there are no bodies dropping today, we follow up on the old history cases."

"Great" Jackie grumbled. "Not only do I miss out on going to Costa Gravas, but they throw in a free case of eyestrain for me on other people's paperwork."

"Hey" Danny countered. "From what I hear, Costa Gravas is no plumb assignment. Besides, like Linda would ever be okay with me going down to Costa Gravas for a month without her."

"Who said anything about you?" Jackie snarked. "I don't need you to be there in order to indulge in three weeks of surf, sand and hot Latin guys."

Pretending to be offended, Danny asked "You'd really go without me? And stick me with a new partner?"

"Don't think for a second I wouldn't."

"Yeah well your consolation prize is that you get to go through a mountain of follow up reports with me." Danny grinned.

It was 11:25, and Danny's stomach was just beginning to demand that it be attended to when Jackie's phone rang.

"Fifty four detective's squad" Jackie answered. "Detective Curatola speaking"

"Please be a new case" Danny quietly prayed.

" Um… Linda. Hi." Jackie said as a look of confusion spread across her face.

Danny furrowed his brow and spread his hands, silently demanding an explanation. Why was his wife calling Jackie?

"Okay… yeah. Sounds good. Actually… that sounds great." Jackie was now beginning to grin. Again Danny gestured with his hands, impatiently demanding an explanation. "Sure. It's getting to be about that time anyway. …. Well that's great! Yeah good plan, by the way calling me first. Kay, bye." Jackie hung up the phone with a gleeful smile.

"Well, what?" Danny insisted.

"Linda has decided she's taking both of us out to lunch. She called me because she didn't want you telling her that we're too busy."

"We are too busy!"

"We are not too busy." Jackie insisted, gathering up her purse and coat "And I'm getting a free lunch."

"Where we goin'?" Danny wanted to know.

"The café just outside St. Vincent's." Jackie informed, calling over her shoulder, as she was halfway out the door.

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New York New York

Mid-town Manhattan

Doctor Feelgood Café

When Danny and Jackie entered the cafe, he saw that his lovely wife was not alone. Sitting next to her, and chatting with a nervous grin was another woman, slightly younger than she, African American and with sparkly brown eyes. A pair of hospital scrubs was visible under her windbreaker, immediately pegging her as either a doctor or nurse. It was this doctor or nurse who first noticed Jacki and Danny enter, and she rose to greet them.

"Hey, hon" Linda said in pecking her husband in greeting. "St. Vincent said they might be interested in me picking up some shifts, maybe in the spring, certainly next year."

"Of course they are" Danny encouraged. "You're the best nurse they've got."

"Was," Linda grumbled.

"She really was," encouraged Linda's not-yet-introduced friend.

"Danny, Jackie , this is Tessa. That is Doctor Tessa Grant, and she's got a little bit of a relationship issue that I just know we can help her with."

"Whoah-ho." Danny feebly protested. "Relationship issues?"

"Don't worry." Linda reassured. "Jackie and I can do most of the talking"

"Okaaaayyyy" Jackie began guardedly. The divorced detective Curatola certainly didn't think of herself as any kind of relationship specialist… and even with that being so, Danny was even less of a touchy-feely type. Jackie was hoping that not a lot of demands were about to be put on her.

Reading both her and Danny's mind, Linda smiled and shook her head. "Oh, relax we're not about to go on Oprah or anything. I just wanted Tessa to see a real life cop husband who has a real life cop's wife, who not only tolerates, but actually likes his good looking female partner."

Danny furrowed his brow a little, not fully comprehending "I'm sorry, what is this?"

Jackie quickly deciphered the meaning "Ohhhhhh…. You're husband's a cop?" she asked Tessa.

Tessa smiled softly, and shook her head a little. "I feel like such a possessive teenage girl … but yeah. Darryl and I were married about a year ago. He's DEA, and he's been here in New York for about two years. I came up and followed him here. He and I were … well we were college sweethearts … it's only really ever been just us."

"Well that's sweet … but you've already lost us" Danny quipped, "Everyone in the NYPD knows that the DEA aren't real cops"

"Danny …" Linda growled, dramatically leaning back in her chair so she could give her husband an exaggerated kick in the shin under the table.

Tessa laughed a little. "I'm almost embarrassed to call it a problem, but it bugs me just a little. I mean, I know there are female cops and female agents, and of course that's great. I should have no problem with it. I know I work with some cute guy doctors and Darryl's a cool as can be about it. But recently he and the team he's on got assigned to watch this strip joint …"

Danny's face immediately registered alarm. "Uh, Doc. If your hubby is doing undercover work, you should not be talking about it. Not to anyone. It could get dangerous."

"Oh, Jeez" Tessa groaned.

Jackie temporized, mentally predicting which stations Tessa's train of thought would be stopping at. "Don't worry, you haven't told us anything important yet. But don't give out any more details. So there's a DEA team sitting on a strip joint. Fine. Can't be more than two or three hundred of them in the tristate area."

"Yeah," Tessa said. "And it's not the fact that he's in a place like that that's bothering me. My Darryl wouldn't have ten words to say to one of those bimbos. It's that …"

"The women he works with might have to work the room" Jackie finished.

"It's worse than that," Tessa said. "One of the women , this Ang…"

"No names! No names! No names!" Jackie demanded

"Oh right. Well one of the women on his team works behind the bar, and just back in May or June, this new woman joined the team. She actually goes up on stage! " Tessa said in alarm.

"Whoa." Danny said. "That's pretty extreme"

"Yeah…" Jackie said. "Even by my standards."

"So I'm not being crazy about being worried?"

"Oh." Danny said. "Well, I'd never say that you're crazy… but it doesn't mean you've got anything to worry about."

"Let me guess." Jackie chimed in "You're not worried about him getting involved with the strippers on stage, but you are worried about him … what? Bonding with the female agents?"

Tessa sank her head into her hand. "I know I shouldn't think like this. It's ridiculous"

"Hey hey hey" Jackie said. "Don't beat yourself up so much. Partners do get close. "

"See?" Linda said to Tessa "I told you these two would be able to help".

"Partners get close," Jackie began again, "and it's true that in some cases partners actually do get together. So it's not like you're 100% crazy for thinking that it could happen."

"Partners" Linda began cautiously "Do have a special bond. They kind of own at least a small piece of each other that the other's spouse doesn't get to see. In some cases it's a piece that I might not even want to see."

"But…" Danny finally felt comfortable interjecting "It's mostly about standing by each other and having each other's backs. It's not about romantic stuff that most normal boyfriend/girlfriend couples have."

"Case in point," Jackie said "Just last week I went undercover as an escort. We had to get this guy who was killing prostitutes. He was a real bad man – actually a son & mother team – and they needed to be taken down. It turns out they had a thing for Mediterranean looking women with dark hair. So anyway, the job had me dressed up in sexy lingerie. Danny and two other guys were across the hall as my backup, watching me on the monitors. They pretty much had to see me head to toe in that getup."

"But!" Danny interrupted "Romance is definitely not in the air, when it comes to times like that. Jackie's a great looking lady. I'll be the first to admit that. …"

"Oh, will you now?" Linda faux challenged, although her tone of voice illustrated that she was supporting Danny's point.

"Yeah, I will." Danny said, knowingly deflecting Linda's challenge. "But it's also a scary thing to see your partner half naked and vulnerable like that. You're not thinking about how great they look, you're thinking about how bad things can turn, how exposed your partner is if they do. You feel like a guard walking a post, or a runner on the starting blocks, just waiting for a shot to go off, or a weird noise to happen, or for one false little thing to go wrong, for you to swing into action to do something. It's not sexy or exciting, no matter how good looking your partner is. If your husband is anything like me, then seeing his partner on teammate half-naked … or more …isn't going to be a lot of fun. Best case scenario, it's weird, and worst case scenario, it's scary, and he can't wait for her to get clothed and safe."

"And on the other end of things" Jackie added, "no matter how good Agent Provocateur looks on you … or in her case … off of you, it's not about impressing the boys. Not when there's druggies and killers and other kinds of scumbags in the audience who'd kill you if they knew what you really were."

"Of course" came a new voice "if you can multi-task, you can keep your guard up and impress the guys at the same time" . The interruption came from the next table. Turning about, Linda's Danny's Tessa's and Jackie's eyes turned to locate the eavesdropper. The towering woman with reddish brown hair greeted the four with a cheery smile. "Hi" she said, taking her sunglasses off. "Carina Miller. DEA." Locking eye with the correct woman, she continued "You must be Tessa. Darryl's Tessa?"

Tessa's mouth flew open at the surprise intrusion, but her eyes widened in eagerness. Far from being intimidated or uncomfortable, Tessa seemed to be welcoming of this woman she'd clearly heard much about. "Yes that's me. Darryl's my husband."

Jackie regarded the newcomer, but out of the corner of her eye saw that Danny had a thoughtful expression on his face as he looked over the DEA agent.

" I figured. You're just like he described. He talks a lot about you. And if he's mentioned any of the women that he works with he's talked about Jacinda, Angela, or me."

Linda introduced herself, "Hi. Linda Reagan. I used to work with Tessa. That's my husband Danny and his partner Jackie."

"H'llo." Carina wiggling her fingers at the two local cops, then noticing Danny's look. Cocking her head inquisitively, she asked "Do we know each other?"

"I'm thinkin'" Danny said, knitting his brows. "It'll come to me"

"Well, while he works on that …" Carina said, jerking her head towards Danny but turning her gaze to Tessa, "Let me tell you about Daryl on-the-job. He's a great guy, he takes his work seriously, and he's a good team player. Kind of a Boy Scout, and the only downside to that is that he seems really awkward inside a strip joint. Probably the only black guy I've met who I can tell he's blushing in a darkened room – but we're getting him past that. He's a really important part of our team, and we can't do without him. I know –that is, we all know- from the way he talks about you that you being proud of him and what he does is a huge part of what makes him tick."

Tessa seemed pleased to hear her husband described thus, and Carina continued. "Now anybody who knows me knows that I'm no nun … and the rumor mill might have told a story or two about how I like to play with my man-toys. Suffice it to say, your Darryl isn't the kind of guy who strays. He talks about you like you're the center of his world. He actually reminds me of this guy my friend married earlier this year out in California. You're such a big part of him and how he does his job that messing with him would hurt him a lot. So even a cutie like Darryl is off limits to me."

Tessa gave a satisfied grin. "Thanks. That's good to know. I am really proud of him, you know."

"Great." Carina said. "Stay that way. He needs it."

Suddenly, Danny, who hadn't been paying close attention to Carina and Tessa snapped his fingers. "Carina Miller. Blackjack Task Force. Early '04"

Carina's head snapped towards Danny. "Oh woah. Blast from the past. You were on that? I don't remember you, I'm sorry."

"I think I remember your name, but not your face. There were a lot of people on that task force."

"Oh, yeah. Bad time. Glad the good guys won that one." Carina said seriously.

"Yeah, me too. Didn't get to see the end. My unit got called up."

"Well you got to put the heat on the bad guys your own way. The food was just better here, was all." Carina said with cool sweetness. "Anyway, I gotta head back. Darryl and the guys are going to wonder what I'm up too. He doesn't know I'm up here, but I wanted to make a point of meeting someone so important to someone so important to my team. It was nice meeting you, Doc. Bye everyone." With that, Carina donned her sunglasses and was away.

Lunch arrived and was eaten to mostly small-talk, and by the time it was done, Linda's friend was feeling a little better about her new husband with an attractive female partner.

Making their way to their car, Jackie quizzed Danny. "So this Carina gal, you know her?"

"I think it's fairer to say that I knew of her." Danny said, getting to the driver's side door and getting in. "I don't think I ever met her in person, and if I did, there it would have been in a huge conference room that had about a hundred cops and agents. We may have been on the same task force, but we didn't work on the same segment of the task force."

"Blackjack Task Force" Jackie remembered. "I remember when that was going on. I was still working vice. You were in …"

"Narcotics", Danny said as he started the car and slid into traffic. "It took the mayor three weeks and five deaths to decide that he had a problem with a bad batch of H on the streets. But I'll give him credit when due. When he finally got off his butt, and appointed a NYPD/State Police/FBI/DEA task force to take care of it, he went big."

"So you were on the task force from narco … where'd she fit in?" Jackie asked as the car pulled into traffic.

"Whataya mean where she'd fit in? She was one of the DEA agents on the task force."

"No, wise guy. I mean the way reasons why you'd remember her name. You said there were two."

"Wellllllll" Danny said kind of hesitantly.

"Out with it." Jackie said.

"Well, I didn't want to say anything in front of Linda's friend, but there were only two reasons why I would have known her name. She was just a young DEA agent … but she'd already cut her teeth doing foreign work. She still would have been one of the youngest kids on the task force. The guys would have noticed her because she's a looker, yeah … but I think she was connected to some rumors about how the case ended."

"Yeah, huh? Enlighten me." Jackie said.

"Well" Danny said, very deliberately "According to the rumors … once the task force got the Blackack off the streets, and located the source, witnesses were hard to come by when it came time to put a case together against the players. I kinda remembered the name Carina Miller because … again, according to the rumor … she leveraged one or two of the witnesses into agreeing to testify … as in they said they weren't, going too … so she slept with them, had a camera handy, and threatened to let their wife or girlfriend know if they didn't play ball and tell the truth."

"Holy crap!" Jackie said. "Any truth to that?"

Danny shrugged and said "Like I said … only rumors."

"But do you believe it?" Jackie wanted to know.

"Who knows? I got no info on it up or down. And I'm not going to make assumptions, either. All I know was that some guys were very serious about not testifying, and then they were pretty okay with it." Danny said with a shrug.

"Damn." Jacki said, slightly impressed.

"C'mon. Could just as well be a story that the guys told."

Jackie was just about to open her mouth to respond when the radio in the car crackled to life. Sergeant Sidney Gormley's voice grumbled from the waves. "Five-Four Detectives, Pick up."

Jackie picked up the mic. "Five Four, Curatola and Reagan here. On our way back from lunch Sarge."

"Don't bother coming back." Gormley's voice said "You've caught a homicide. 1245 Park Avenue. CSU en route. Straighten your tie for the cameras, Reagan."