Title: I'll Be Your Safety
Fandom: Life
Pairing: Charlie Crews/Dani Reese, minor Reese/Tidwell in a couple of chapters
Rating: T
Word Count: 3,505/?
Warnings: violence, occasional bad language, discussion of alcoholism, drug addiction. Title taken from "Kiss Me" by Ed Sheeran (which I obviously don't own).
Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise from the show. If I did, it would still be going and Dani and Charlie would be married by now, or at least making out on a regular basis.
Synopsis: "If you say 'you don't have to understand here to be here' I swear, I'll shoot you." She says. Her mask of annoyance and irritation is betrayed by the slight upwards quirk of her lips. He wordlessly tugs back the sheets on the other side of the bed with a careful expression on his face. "I can't sleep either."
A/N: A couple of people left reviews on the last chapter who were worried about Dani lying to Charlie and/or about Charlie's reaction to the whole thing, basically all of that is sort of explained in the next chapter. It was meant to be explained in this one originally, but then apparently the characters had other ideas and wouldn't cooperate. This chapter is basically a set up for the next chapter, and it's (I think) the last one that asks more questions than it answers.
Between them they have two guns (one revolver and one Glock), a flick knife and a patrol officer's badge that's no longer in recognised circulation with the LAPD. All of them belong to Charlie.
The revolver and the officer's badge are both from before he went to prison, and the knife and the Glock both from after he got out. He'd always known The Group would try to get him off the force if they could, though at that stage he'd had no clue what any of it was about, or who most - if any - of them were, so he'd decided to make sure he was protected while he could still get access to that protection under the radar (the Glock isn't his department issue one. That's locked up in an IAD locker somewhere. No, the Glock is one he bought from an old- well, not friend exactly, but a man he'd known in prison, along with the four inch long, wicked sharp flick knife. He didn't need them registered to his name).
The knife is in her pocket and the badge is on his belt for the sake of appearances. The revolver is tucked into the back of Charlie's trousers, the Glock into the back of Dani's jeans. They're both wearing blazers to hide the bulge of the guns - they only need to hide them for a little while. Just long enough to get them past the security at least.
They pull up to Rayborn's house and find the gates open.
"He's not here." Charlie says what they're both thinking. Rayborn isn't the type to leave his security system off unless there's a reason he doesn't care - the only logical reason in this case being that he's gone and he's not planning to return. Dani nods then drives up the drive way any way, wanting to be sure.
The double garage doors are open and the lights are on, with no cars inside. Charlie's phone rings on the dashboard and he answers it with a terse "Crews."
Dani moves to get out of the car, figuring they're going to have to search the house anyway to be sure, when Charlie's hand on her arm stops her.
"All of it?" He asks whoever he's talking to. "Jesus. Okay. Call me if you find anything else."
There's a pause, then he hangs up the phone.
"That was Ted," He says, "Rayborn just drained his accounts - wired pretty much all of it to a couple of accounts in the Cayman Islands."
"Pretty much all of it?" She parrots back and Charlie shrugs.
"The rest of it's probably in cash - for hand to hand bribes and quick payments."
She nods slowly, leaning back in her seat.
"So where the hell would he go?" She asks, drumming her fingers against the steering wheel.
"I don't know," He admits, "But I know someone who might."
"What are you doing up?" Olivia asks, yawning as she steps into the kitchen wrapped up in one of his sweaters, "It's four in the morning."
Ted's eyes are burning where he's been staring at the computer screen intently for the last couple of hours, and the island counter in the middle of the kitchen looks a lot like it did last year after the police search meant Charlie's conspiracy wall ended up being a conspiracy table for a while.
"Just checking something for Charlie." He tells her with a yawn, "You should go back to bed."
She moves across the room and leans down behind him, her hands crossed over his chest and her chin resting on his shoulder. "That doesn't look like just anything." She points out at sight of the loading map on the screen and the mass of open programs displayed on the task bar at the bottom.
"I don't want to get you mixed up in any of this." He tells her nervously as the map loads, displaying two flashing dots. One is red, and moving along the highway. The other is green, and it's stationary in-
"Shit." He mutters under his breath, reaching for his cell phone.
As soon as Charlie answers the phone Ted says, "I spoke to Amanda like you said, and when I showed her what Rayborn had done to his accounts she let me have wireless access to their tracking software. Rayborn is showing up at a hardly used airstrip a little way out of the city, and according to this he's been there for half an hour. You probably don't have much time left to reach him." He tells his friend, simultaneously trying to figure out how to explain any of this to Olivia.
"Are you sure it's him?" Charlie asks down the phone, sounding simultaneously concerned and annoyed - not with Ted, just with the whole situation in general.
Ted hits a few buttons on the keyboard. "Rayborn's cell phone is showing up inside his house, the cell phone I'm tracking is one used by one of his bodyguards."
"It could still be a trap." Charlie reasons, before telling Dani what Ted has already told him.
"Maybe," Ted agrees, "But it's the best I can give you right now."
There's a pause on the other end of the line, then the moving red dot on the screen that's showing Charlie and Dani's whereabouts turns off of the highway and starts heading, much faster, in the direction of the airfield. Ted can hear the two of them talking, their voices hushed and distant.
"Right," Charlie starts, "We've got a plan. Sort of…"
When they pull up onto the tarmac of the airstrip, there's a small, white private plan sitting not a hundred feet from them. At the bottom of the fold down steps stands a no-nonsense looking man with a shaven head and a gun in a holster at his side.
His hand twitches towards it when Dani and Charlie climb out of the car and walk towards him.
"What do you want?" He asks in a thick Eastern-European accent. "This is a private, licensed flight."
Charlie pulls back the side of his jacket to reveal his badge, and the man built like an ox can just manage to see it in the dim light.
"We just want to talk to your employer." He says amiably as they walk closer.
"I'm afraid I can't let you on the plane." He says, and he doesn't sound afraid at all. He sounds smug, and Dani is sick to death of being jerked around, and of being one step behind people like him.
The knife is out of her pocket without her consciously deciding to wield it, and she flicks it open, holding it out in front of herself the same way she saw Crews' do with Manny Umaga during the case that feels like lifetimes ago from where they're at now.
"We don't have time for your bullshit right now. We're going to talk to Rayborn, now, and whether you're alive or dead for that exchange makes no damned difference to me." She spits at him, and the gun is out of his holster immediately.
Charlie doesn't like it when people point guns at Dani.
He pulls his own gun out and points it at the man's head with a grim expression on his face. "You don't want to do that. You're out numbered and out gunned, and if you want to be alive in ten minutes time I suggest you drop that - but it's like she said; it doesn't make any difference to us whether you live or die."
The guy attempts to stare Charlie down.
"We need to leave, Marius." Rayborn's voice calls from inside, "Everything good out there?"
"No problem, Mr. Rayborn." The bodyguard calls back, not even looking over his shoulder.
After another tense few seconds the guy opens his hands and lets the gun fall to the floor with a clatter. It's clearly a calculated move, because the next thing he does is lunge for Dani. Before Charlie can pull the trigger, his wild little tigress slashes the knife blade upwards. The guy cries out and falls back - the cut across his upper torso is too shallow to do any real damage, but deep enough to keep him down for a while.
"Not bad." He tells her with an oddly proud grin, and she flicks the knife closed.
"I'm starting to see why you like it so much." She shrugs, then nods to the doorway of the plane.
"We should hurry this up." She suggests, and he nods his agreement.
When they step into the cabin, if Rayborn is surprised he doesn't show it. Instead he wears an unreadable expression and says, "I know you're obsessed with fruit, kiddo, but what's your stance on Coconuts?"
They've been flying for maybe ten minutes when Rayborn says, "I knew if anyone was going to find me, it would be you two."
"And you weren't worried about getting caught fleeing the country?" Dani asks skeptically, noticing but not commenting on the fact that Charlie has positioned himself behind her - Rayborn as he is, in the air basically by himself is no threat, but whoever's in that cockpit might well be, and as everyone seems to have learnt by now, Charlie doesn't take chances when it comes to Dani. He's not willing to take that risk - or any risk at all, really.
"I'm not fleeing," He says disgustedly, "I prefer to think of it as a high stakes version of hide and seek - and besides, why would I need to worry about getting caught by you two? You're private citizens now." His expression is so sarcastic and all-knowing that she wants to slap him.
"Yeah, no thanks to you." Dani says fiercely, "Why the fuck would you have your minions send me back to narcotics? Did you fall down and bump your head and forget about the time I spent nearly eight months in rehab or are you just getting old?"
"That was nothing to do with me." He defends immediately, "I tried to talk them out of it but the others were worried having you on the force would be a liability right now."
"Because of Charlie." Dani guesses immediately and Rayborn shrugs.
"You two were never supposed to end up so close."
"No, you put us together because you thought you could use me to get to him." Dani parries back, and Charlie fights off the urge to smile - because this is the Dani he knows. This is the Dani he fell in love with - the feisty, take no prisoners, don't-get-in-my-way-or-I'll-fuck-up-your-shit Dani whose anger burns so close to the surface of her skin that you can practically feel the heat when you stand close enough.
Rayborn doesn't dispute her claim, instead he stands and heads over to the drinks cabinet and pours himself two fingers of scotch, tilting the bottle towards the two of them.
"Funny." Dani says narrowing her eyes, "But you're not really in any position to be making jokes right now, Mickey."
He looks amused, "You're on my plane, Dani. You don't even know where we're going."
"We're the ones with the guns." She replies, and Charlie sees her reach back and run her fingers over the handle of the Glock like she's checking it's still there.
"We're on a plane," Rayborn says, shaking his head and leaning against the bar, "If you shoot me you'll kill all of us."
"Good job I've got this then, huh." Dani shrugs, pulling Charlie's knife back out of her pocket and flicking it open. He can where the silver blade is edged with drying blood from when she cut Rayborn's security guard across the chest earlier. Rayborn might be a confident man, but he didn't get to where he is today by being stupid. He nods slowly and holds his hands out in front of himself for a second before lowering them again.
"You don't want to be waving that around, Dani." He tells her, and she bristles at the superiority in his voice.
"I'm not a little kid anymore." She replies scathingly, "I haven't been for a long time now - you do remember why, don't you?"
There's a harsh, grating quality to her voice that doesn't totally mask the raw pain there too. He wants to reach out to her, but he knows she wants - needs - this moment for herself. She hadn't had the opportunity to figure out everything she'd wanted to about her father before he'd died, but here and now, with Rayborn, she might be able to find out once and for all if he's a good guy who's done bad things or a bad guy who's done good things (she's pretty sure it's the latter, but you never know) and she wants to stand on her own two feet for that particular opportunity.
Rayborn's expression darkens, and it seems he and Charlie agree on at least one thing - nobody hurts Dani and lives to tell the tale. No way.
"I took care of him. For you." Rayborn says, his voice as dark as his expression.
"You saved my life." She corrects, a hint of desperation slipping into her voice before she steels herself again. "But now you're pulling it apart. There are things we need to ask you, things we need to know, and if you care about me at all still, I need you to tell me the truth, okay?"
He can't help it. He can't hear her in pain and then not do anything about it. He steps closer to her, and it's apparently the right thing to do because obviously senses him moving closer and takes a half step backwards, so that her back is pressed against his chest, and he sets his right hand on her hip, displaying comfort to her and protective (bordering on possessive) intent to Rayborn.
Rayborn has the grace to look torn before he frustratedly asks, "Why are you so set on dragging up the past? It's not gonna do any good for anyone."
"For you." She corrects him again, "It looks pretty damn good to us."
Rayborn's eyes flick between the two of them, taking in both their physical closeness and their obvious intimacy with one another, the way his hand rests easily on her hip and the way she leans into his body like she trusts him.
"You two, huh?" He observes, and she raises her chin defiantly.
"You're the one who had Davis put us together," She points out, "What did you think would happen?" She tilts her head to the side and fixes him with a steady, fiery glare. "That you'd get Davis to ask me to spy on Charlie? Have me help you get him kicked off of the force?"
"The first part sure," Rayborn replies with a shrug, "But I didn't want him off the force. If I wanted that, he wouldn't have even made it back on when he got out."
Dani huffs a short laugh, shaking her head at him. "Bullshit."
"I'm telling you the truth." Rayborn says sharply, "That's what you wanted, isn't it?"
They're both sizing him up, trying to figure out if they can trust him. Obviously they can't, but they're going to need more from him in order to figure out if they can trust his information.
"Why should we believe you?" Dani asks sharply, but Charlie tilts his head to the side, examining Rayborn and the things they already know.
"Because he still wanted me to take over when he was too old." He says flatly, and Rayborn points at him before dropping his hand back to his side.
"There's hope for you yet, Kiddo." Rayborn offers, and Dani feels Charlie's fingers tighten around her hip. She can't say anything to help in front of Rayborn, but she also doesn't want him to kill him before they can get the answers they need, so she covers his hand with her own, settling her fingers into the canyons between his.
I'm here with you, and I need you here with me; okay, Charlie?
"Let's get something straight, Uncle Mickey," She spits venomously, "You might not be used to this, but you are not the one in control here. We already know what happened with Stacy, and what you did to Peter Jackson but I wanted to be- to be wrong."
They stare at each other for a second, and he wonders what it must feel like to have the person you saw as a hero in childhood turn out to be the monster that stalks your nightmares.
"So I-" She pauses, shaking her head and sighing, "So I asked Charlie to let me talk to you before we turn you in."
"You're really gonna turn me in?" He asks, raising his eyebrows as if he doesn't believe her.
"I'm not like you. My job isn't to judge people. My job is to follow the evidence to the truth, and then turn whatever I find over to the DA. That's it. Doesn't matter what I think, doesn't matter how I feel, doesn't matter who thinks I owe them what. I'm not a fucking vigilante." She insists through gritted teeth, "So you sit your ass down and you tell us what we want to know or this is going to get real ugly real fucking fast."
"You said you already know all my dirty secrets." Rayborn points out with a shrug, though he looks much less settled than he did when they first arrived, "And thanks, but I'll stand."
They stare each other down for a second before the old man sighs and shakes his head. "Come on then. What is it you want to ask me?"
Charlie reaches into his jacket pocket and passes Dani the photo. She steps forward, out of his personal space, and slowly passes it to Rayborn. No one says a word.
Rayborn stares down at the photo with a completely unreadable expression on his face before he shakes his head again, and emits a weak chuckle.
"Of course you two figured it out," He says wryly, tapping the back of the photo against the fingertips on his free hand, "It's you two, how could you miss it? Nothing like those shit-for-brains so-called Detectives they got down there now." He's not really talking to them. He's talking to himself mostly, Charlie and Dani just happen to be there.
"I loved my wife," Rayborn tells them with a tinge of something between sadness and nostalgia in his voice, "But Stacy- she was the one."
Apparently Dani isn't in a charitable mood, because she raises her eyebrows and says; "Yeah? Then why did you kill her?"