On the way there, in that fast little Italian car with the throaty sounding engine, her cell rang. She prayed it was him, but God was not kind to her on that day. It was Tidwell.
"Reese," she answered sounding as chipped and spent as she felt.
"Are you with him?" he asked. He didn't have to say who the he was.
"No," she gave him a simple, honest reply.
"But you're with him now aren't you? I mean not with him with him. He's not there at the moment, but you and him are….together now….aren't you?"
"We've always been together," she objected. "He's my partner."
"No," Tidwell snapped. He softened. "LAPD wants you back Dani. You, not him. I want you back," he laid himself out there. "What you told IAD after you two got back from that little detour to Mexico….that isn't all that happened is it? You didn't tell them or me everything – did you?"
"What's everything?" She countered angrily sounding far more Zen than she intended. "You mean like the fact you work for Rayborn?" she snapped. "You mean things like that? Like you sending me to the FBI knowing it was a set up and that all they'd ever asked me about was Crews…." She threatened him with the sum of her actual knowledge; things she'd held back when she gave her bland watered down version of events to IAD. What she couldn't know was how little she actually knew.
"That little girl isn't Crews' daughter," he changed the subject. "She can't be. But she could be yours…" he fished hard.
Empty air greeted him.
"I was there - at Jennifer Connover's funeral. I heard her call you "mommy." Dani, is that little girl your daughter?"
"Yes," she finally stopped lying and just said it.
"Why does Rayborn have her?"
"It's complicated," she tried to not give anymore up than he already knew.
"Are you in trouble?" He sounded hurt and yet hopeful like the man she remembered before things went so horribly wrong.
"I'm better than I've even been, but there's still a long way to go," she didn't truly answer his question.
"Are you coming back to work?"
"Not now," she bit her lip. "Maybe not ever. I have to take care of some things, personal things, private things and when those things are settled I may come back."
"Personal things," he echoed sounding far away, "private things? But things Crews knows about right? Things you share with him, that you didn't – wouldn't share with me?"
She sighed and held the phone under her chin trying to form reply that made sense.
"Why did you send me to the FBI?" she decided with her brain not her heart.
"I thought it would be good for you," he lied.
"Not to get me away from Crews?" she countered.
"No," he yelped. "Did I need to get you away from Crews? I guess so huh? I mean you're obviously with him now," he just let his tongue ramble.
"The Lieutenant your replaced? Karen Davis she was a lifelong friend of my family. She said I was getting too close and then she was replaced….by you. You, who from the day you got here sought me out, pursued me…"
"So there's a law against liking a beautiful woman now?"
"Let me finish," she ordered. "You, who found a way around every rule in the book to date a subordinate and then you sent me somewhere – to the FBI – where all they asked me about was my father and Crews. You were the only one Crews told about Sarah. He let you believe she was his, but that information got back to someone didn't it? It got back to Rayborn. So tell me why I should trust anyone who's on Rayborn's payroll." She poured all of her suspicion and mistrust into a single stream of consciousness and let him have both barrels.
"I don't work for Rayborn, Dani." Tidwell defended. "Okay, I give him a little something once in awhile, but I don't work for him. I work for your father."
"You what?" she yelped. "You can't….he's dead. Roman Nevikov killed him."
"No," Tidwell told her the truth she didn't want to hear. "Nevikov lied to you. Your father is alive. I talked to him yesterday. He got me this job, paid me to protect you, to be close, to keep you out of this mess Crews is in. He didn't pay me to fall for you and he's pissed that you are now…. Well, you are with Crews aren't you?"
"Yes," she released the truth on wings that beat in time with her heart. "Yes, I am."
She was nearing the interstate exit that would take her to meet with Rayborn. She needed to steel herself for that battle, but she was reeling from what Tidwell disclosed and she really needed the strength and stability of her partner. "I have to go," she ended the call, "I have something I need to do."
"But you'll call me after?" Tidwell hoped. "We need to talk."
The phone line was silent as she considered the tasks that lie ahead of her.
"Dani," he said gently, "we need to talk."
"Okay," she relented. "I'll call you, but understand that you will tell me everything. You'll tell me or Crews will make you tell me," her threat was dark and serious. The line went dead.
"Shit," Tidwell said. "This keeps getting worse and worse. Sunny LA…my ass."
The house was eerily silent when he came through the front door dripping sweat and tired beyond description. It was always quiet, but this time it felt empty. "To be empty, is to be empty of something," the Zen saying went. It felt empty of her.
He glanced at the table by the door and then the driveway. He'd come in off the back porch and not noticed his missing car. He wandered to the kitchen and found her note. He felt joy and panic in the same breath.
She loved him and she'd gone alone.
Then under her name and those all-important words on her note; a time was scrawled - 1438 hrs. He glanced at his watch it was 1530 hrs. She'd be there by now. He grabbed his phone and pressed her name. The number displayed and it seemed eons before the line connected. When it did he sighed heavily, his voice was smooth and sure and full of relief, "God, I'm so glad you're there."
"Why thank you Detective, I wasn't certain you missed me at all," Rayborn's mocking reply made his heart drop.
"You have them both," Crews' voice held defeat.
"I have them both," Rayborne confirmed. "I warned you. One way or another, you will come to me, son."