Case Nine: Pushing
If there was one thing Dani couldn't take, it was when people kept on begging other people to do something they really didn't want to; when they kept on, annoyingly, telling them to do it, when they had made it perfectly clear that they wouldn't; when they kept on pushing and pushing, and wouldn't stop.
She hated that.
So it was her luck, wasn't it, that she was stuck with a partner who was exactly that kind of a person.
Many things could be said about Charlie Crews, and Dani knew she had undoubtedly said a bunch of them, but this thing was probably the worst (she probably said that about all of the things, but this time she meant it… she thought). The problem was that, almost no matter where they went together, he always pushed her to say or do weird things.
Sometimes he didn't even know that he had made her do them.
The worst part of it was just that even if she didn't want to do those things, like really didn't want to, she still went ahead and did them, and she often applauded him afterwards because it was nice of him to push her.
She couldn't help but love him for it.
"Hey Dani, did you want to put that bottle down and come back to my place?"
Dani turned her head to the side and gave him a skeptical look; no need for him to tell her that she shouldn't be drinking, she knew that already; she just had a really bad day and argument and she needed release, even if just for once. She tightened her grip on the bottle and turned her head back to stare straight forward, taking another sip of the bottle.
"Reese?"
His voice sounded so annoying, yet… yet gentle. Grr, she hated that.
Charlie Crews wasn't a man who gave up, she had learned that, "Reese? Do you want me to tell Tidwell that you've been drinking? That's not good, Dani, you could lose your position in the force."
Dani did her best to ignore his one-man conversation and took another sip of her beer; never had she needed it more than now (hey, didn't she say that every time, too?).
"Reese."
This time, his voice was stern, and Dani knew that she had to respond to him somehow so she quickly downed her beer, placed the bottle on the table and turned her head to look at him again. His eyes were kind and it took her aback for a second, until she remembered that this was Charlie Crews, and that nothing was predictable with him.
She sighed and slowly whispered, "What?"
"You shouldn't be drinking."
"I'm not drinking."
"No, not right now you're not." He paused and raised a cocky eyebrow, "But before you were drinking, and since you're still at the bar, I think it's safe to say that you're going to drink more. Therefore it is okay to say that you're drinking even if you're not, right the moment the sentence is said, actually downing one."
Dani didn't know how to respond to that. To be honest, she hadn't quite gotten the essence of it.
"So I think that you should come with me to my house." Charlie finished roughly, with a huge smile nonetheless.
Dani shook her head, "I'm not coming with you, Crews, I don't wanna. I wanna stay here this night and-"
He interrupted her, "-and drink!" he squeezed his eyes together in pretend-suspicion, "Aha!"
"Crews, seriously…" Dani slurred, not really knowing how she was going to defend herself; she just started to say something, but she had no idea how to end it.
"Just come with me, Reese."
"No."
"Come on."
"No."
She was starting to really get annoyed with him. He knew where her buttons sat, and he kept on pushing them right now.
"You're coming with me, Dani."
Before she knew what had happened, he grabbed her arm tightly and pulled her off of the barstool she was sitting at. She was about to object, but the look in his eyes told her otherwise, and as he threw some money at the bar, she felt defeated.
He lead her out of there, and she didn't dare to open her mouth to say anything; she did just as he told her, and let him get her into the passenger's seat of his car (for once she didn't object and say she'd drive). She stared straight out of the window as he started the engine and drove out of there.
Once again, he had gotten her to do something she really didn't want to do… how come she still loved him?
Wrong thing number nine: He is incredibly annoying and he knows how to push my buttons and yet I can't help but love him for it.
That was one of the many questions Dani Reese asked herself that evening when she sat by her desk, pen and paper at hand. She was going to make a list. A list of all the wrongs, just to see it clearer…
Fuck, it would have been much easier if Charlie Crews wasn't Charlie Crews and she wasn't Dani Reese.
Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it!
Here was another chapter (: I hope you enjoyed this one, too. There's not many left. Thank you for the reviews, and please drop off another comment?
I hope you all got well into the new year??
Disclaimer; I don't own Life.