Dark Eyes and Hot Tears

Charlie sat, somewhat ill at ease, on the Reese family couch watching mother and daughter talking in subdued tones at the kitchen table. The resemblance very evident in their mirrored features and gestures. Mrs Reese, or Roya as she insisted he call her, was a gracious and quiet woman with a visible inner strength, a strength his partner shared. Any woman who could stay married to Jack Reese for thirty years had to be tough and resilient.

He could tell the exact moment Dani told her mother Jack was safe, although he could not hear the words nor could he have understood the language even if their conversation was audible. Dani held her mother's hand, stood up and hugged her. Dani's smile for her mother was one that Charlie had never seen from his partner. It was a little girl's smile; a smile of wonder and love that had everything to do with family, genuine affection and comfort. It fascinated him and it dawned on him that it was very like the one on the little dark haired girl in his dream.

Now and then he caught snippets of their quiet conversation. Occasionally Roya's eyes would stray over Dani's shoulder and lock onto him. In those moments when Roya Reese cast her dark eyes his way, he could see the questions in them. Who was this man who came into her home holding her daughter's hand? What did that mean for Dani who was such a guarded person?

Dani's mother's eyes wore traditional Persian coal liner that accentuated her long lashes and emphasized the darkness Charlie already knew a man could drown in. In them he sensed intelligence and great devotion, but also cautiousness and gravitas. She would not be won over with a winsome smile and jokes; this was a serious woman on whom he needed to make a profound and solid impression.

It was also clear the women were close. Closeness was something he did not sense between Dani and her father. Concern yes, affection possibly…from Dani towards her father, but closeness – no. Yet both women were clearly concerned about the grim, mean old man. Why do women love us even when we don't deserve it – he thought, as Dani rose from the table. He watched as she turned her back on her mother, flipped open her cell phone and disappeared from his view.

Roya was clearly accustomed to her daughter's work behaviors because she did not give her so much as an annoyed glance. Instead the woman took the opportunity to focus her undivided attention on the lanky red haired man sitting in her living room. Charlie felt a bit like an animal being inspected at the State Fair. He firmly held her eyes and smiled one of his lower wattage grins. She did not return his smile, but her eyes widened slightly, intimating some sort of effect - whether for good or ill he could not tell.

Dani snapped the phone shut and announced they had to go, but excused herself to use the restroom before they left. It was then that Roya rose from her kitchen table and entered the living room. He began to rise as she approached and she warned him off in much the same way Dani would with a slight shake of her head, "Don't get up, please."

"Forgive me, Mr. Crews, in my excitement over the news of my husband, I failed to even offer you something to drink," she demurred. She was an intelligent and guarded woman, much like his partner he realized. Roya held her cards very close to the vest.

"I'm fine, just happy for you both," he offered. She cocked her head to the side, like Dani would, skeptically, as if to say, "are you now?"

"I'm wondering," she began as he sank back into the couch, "what are you to my daughter Mr. Crews?"

So Dani's timing and go for throat interrogation style also came courtesy of her mother, Charlie thought. She'd let him relax slightly and then asked a direct question to unbalance him. But Charlie Crews hadn't survived twelve years inside by showing fear to an opponent and that's what she was right now. Assessing him, prodding him, probing him for weaknesses and intentions, protecting her daughter - the only family she had left.

He sat forward on the couch, leaned slightly over his knees and lowered his voice so that what he said was just between them. "I'm Dani's partner, but you already know that." He paused for just a moment waiting for her eyes to return to his, "And I'm the man who's going to marry your daughter," he said with a twinkle in his eye and a confident air. "But she's not ready for that yet, so let's just keep that between us, okay?" he finished with a wink.

Dani's mother snorted a short laugh at his display of confidence just as her daughter emerged from the bathroom, prompting Dani to look hard at her partner with raised inquisitive brows. He smiled enigmatically, shook his head and shrugged.

"We got a call," Dani announced to the group at large, intending to hurry their departure. Roya hugged Dani tightly and held her for a moment, whispering in her ear before releasing her. Dani smiled a small, but true smile for her mother and turned to join her partner who remained seated on the couch.

The look she gave him was one that seemed to intimate she was deciding something that affected both their futures at that very instant. She walked to him and put her hand into his and pulled him into a standing position from the couch. She had barely introduced him on arrival, being too concerned about her mother, now she took her time.

"Mom, this is Charlie Crews. He's my…." She stopped and considered him, them, again and reassessed.

"Your what?" her mother inquired with a smile behind her own dark eyes.

For a moment he was worried, then she smiled; his smile, the one she showed to no one else. "That's it…. just mine," Dani said.

"Well, it is indeed an honor to meet a man in whom my daughter places her trust," Roya said, with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Her look said 'Hurt my child and you'll die a slow and painful death, I don't care who you are'. Charlie saw the grittiness of Jack Reese in his small, slight wife. She was certainly no pushover.

"I'm sure we'll meet again 'inshallah'," Charlie said, returning his own tight grin. He hoped his look conveyed 'I'm not afraid of you and no one is going to warn me off this woman', as he pointedly put his arm around Dani and steered her toward the door.

It began to rain as they left, but nothing could dampen his spirits on this day. Dani Reese had just proclaimed him "hers" and her laying claim to him was not something Charlie expected. Most of their early relationship was a bit one sided; she was there but watchful, not quite trusting him as he trusted her. But their trial period was over, she'd decided he was a "keeper" and it made him immensely happy to be hers.

Roya stood at the window watching them leave. She noticed that her daughter neither shrugged off nor offered any objection to Charlie Crews' show of protectiveness and ownership. It was intriguing that her usually restrained and cautious child allowed this man to treat her in such a way. Not that anything the tall man had done was inappropriate for a suitor, Roya was simply acknowledging what a big step it was for Dani.

Crews' confidence was not overplayed, Dani was quite serious about him and she had not been serious about a man in a very long time. Roya recalled the painful time after her last disastrous love affair, since when her daughter seemed determined to never become attached to anyone or anything ever again. And yet, here, with this man, she willingly gave up some measure of control.

Dani brought him with her to talk about the return of Jack Reese. This spoke of trust, something Roya was not sure her daughter had in anyone anymore. Charlie Crews was a determined man and not afraid - it appeared - of anyone or anything.

Roya knew it had been Crews who wrested her daughter away from Roman Nevikov, although Dani rarely spoke of it and his commitment to Dani was strong. But she sensed something deeper in the tall, red haired man with the bright smile and pale skin. He was dangerous she feared. There was something taut about his manner, his actions were fluid, but underneath something dark lurked and Roya knew about darkness in men from her absent husband.

As she watched them walk to their car, Roya's thoughts returned to Jack Reese, long gone but never forgotten and never truly given up for dead. The fury she felt was contained until her daughter left and it was then she began to cry hot tears. She was elated he was alive, but her eyes narrowed as she thought of how much she would make him pay when he came home.

"What did you do?" Dani asked, as soon as the front door shut behind them.

Charlie gave her his best 'who me' look.

"And since when do you speak Farsi?" Dani questioned.

"Lot of Muslims in the prison system," he offered, grinning. "Can't help but pick up a few things here and there." Dani continued to eye him suspiciously.

"Hey," he tipped his chin up at her over the roof of their car, "what'd she say about me?"

It was Dani's turn to grin, which turned slightly fiendish as she replied. "She told me to watch out. Said Irishmen are nothing but trouble." Making specific reference to Jack Reese and Crews.

"It's the hair," he offered in his own defense as he sunk into the passenger seat. "I'm not Irish, it's Welsh or English, but definitely not Irish."

"Yes, it's the hair, but you…." Dani smiled, "are trouble in any language."

Her hand strayed across the divide to lightly stroke his. He turned his palm over and watched as she flattened her palm against his and wove her fingers through his. He closed his hand squeezing their link lightly, before relaxing and releasing her to drive. He recognized the uniqueness of her gesture, Dani had reached out to him and it had nothing to do with sex. Her gesture was intimate; it evidenced their ever-deepening connection. Her trust in him remained unshaken. This was just physical proof their link, which grew ever more fixed and definite. Things were changing, Charlie realized and he was watching it happen.

Perhaps it would not take as long as he thought for his partner to arrive at the conclusion he already had – they belonged together. Then what he promised her mother would become real as he hoped.

"So, what's the call?" he said effectively changing the subject and taking them out of this moment and into the next, as slow, fat raindrops began to fall across the city and the both the sky and their day darkened.