Tangled Webs
Chapter 9
Rating: R
The Crossing Jordan characters totally aren't mine ~ they belong to Tim Kring and Tailwind Productions.
Kaidlyn and her mom are my own creations and therefore they're mine.
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Author's note: Although I first introduced Kaidlyn in "Endgame," she subsequently appeared in person in "That Night" and in name in "Running." The timeline here basically follows after "That Night" and before "Endgame" though there will be some overlap and inconsistencies with "Endgame" ~ but since that one's so far from show canon now, we can just pretend, for the sake of this story, that it doesn't exist. :0)
Credit (or blame) for the extension of this goes to jmkw, the newmoo, bevan and a couple of other people who encouraged me to bring an aspect of a role play group into this story…
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The next morning, at the precinct. . .
Detective Lois Carver looked up as she heard a knock on her door. When she saw Eddie Winslow standing in the doorframe, she motioned him in. "Morning, Eddie. What can I do for you today?"
Eddie smiled and motioned to a chair, asking if he could take a seat. When Lois nodded, he sat and took a deep breath. "Lois, you've met my intern, right? Kaidlyn Reilly?"
"Yeah. She seems like a real sweet girl. And I've heard she's smart as a whip."
"From what I've seen, you're right on both counts." He paused. "But. . .I've run into a bit of a dilemma."
"What's that?" Lois tried not to raise an eyebrow, but she felt it arching anyway. She'd seen the girl around the precinct, and hoped this wasn't going where she thought it was.
"Some things have come up lately that make it seem like she'd probably be better off with a female supervisor," Eddie stated it as bluntly as he could.
"Really?" Lois sounded surprised. "How's that?"
"I don't know for sure, but. . . Did you see the info on the DV case we were called to last night?"
"Um, yeah. I think I remember seeing something about it on the news. It looked brutal."
"It was. And something happened with Kaid. I don't know what. She freaked out on me. I had to call Jordan to come and help me with her ~ she and Kaidlyn are cousins," he added for clarification.
"I remember my first few DV cases. I 'freaked out' on a couple of them myself."
"Yeah. I think we all have. But this was different. . ." Eddie's voice trailed off. He'd really hoped that would be enough to convince her to take Kaid on. He looked down at his hands in his lap, not knowing where to go from here.
Lois looked at Eddie as she got up and closed the door. When she sat back down, she gently said, "Eddie?"
"Yeah?"
"This has to do with more than just last night, doesn't it?" Lois' voice was gentle as she spoke.
Eddie sighed. "Yeah. It does." He looked at Lois, who simply nodded her encouragement. "I. . .God, Lois, I never expected this to happen, but I think I'm falling for her. And that's not good on so many levels."
"Eddie. . ."
"I mean, not only is there the age difference, she's my subordinate. And. . .and even though it hasn't come up yet, I don't think I could work an unsecured scene with her. I'd be too worried that she was alright to focus on anything else around me. That would put everyone on the scene at potential risk." He paused, taking a deep breath. "And. . ."
"And she's Max Cavanaugh's niece?" Lois finished for him. When Eddie nodded, sheepishly, she laughed gently. "Man. . ."
"I didn't mean for this to happen!" Eddie said. "It just. . ."
"It just did. Eddie? It's ok. Well, not. . . Have you done anything about what you're feeling?"
"Not really. I did go by Max's house last night to check on her once we'd finished up at the scene." He thought about his second visit to Max's house. "And I carried her upstairs to put her in bed cause she was already asleep." He decided to leave out the kiss on the forehead. "And Jordan was with me the whole time, so nothing improper happened," he added quickly.
Lois looked at Eddie and slowly nodded. "Eddie, I'd be happy to take her on as an intern. But you're going to have to clear it with the commander. Any clue on doing that?"
"You don't think the female angle will work?"
"Actually that's probably your best bet. How bout I come with you?"
"That would be great, Lois," Eddie said. They stood and went to the commander's office.
Once Lois explained about women in law enforcement needing more female role models and mentors, he agreed and signed the forms transferring Kaidlyn's supervision to Detective Lois Carver. On their way back to their offices, Lois turned and looked at Eddie. "Ok, who's gonna tell her?"
Eddie nodded, understanding what she was thinking. "I will. It'll probably be better for her to hear it from me."
"Yeah. Alright, bring her down to my office when you've told her." Lois shook Eddie's hand. "And Winslow?"
"Yeah?"
"I really admire you for seeing this and doing something about it before. . ."
"Thanks, Lois." Eddie went into his office and waited for Kaid to come in.
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Simultaneously at Max' house. . .
Jordan woke up, momentarily disoriented as to where she was. She looked around and saw Kaidlyn still sleeping in the bed next to her. She rubbed her eyes as she remembered what had happened the night before.
After Eddie left, Jordan had pulled out an old air mattress and set up camp on the floor of her old room, not wanting Kaid to be alone after everything that had happened. She'd been sleeping and then woke up for reasons she couldn't explain. She rolled over and saw that her bed was empty, then sat straight up, looking around. She relaxed slightly as she saw Kaidlyn curled up in the window seat. She'd changed into a t-shirt and some pajama pants and was sitting with her back against the wall and her knees pulled up to her chest. She was resting her chin on them and looking out the window.
Jordan didn't want to startle her, so she slowly got up and moved over towards the window. As she got closer, Kaid turned her face towards Jordan. "Hey," she whispered. "Sorry to wake you."
"No problem, Kaidie," Jordan said, ruffling Kaid's hair and sitting down beside her.
Kaid laughed quietly as Jordan spoke. "You haven't called me that for ages."
"I know," Jordan laughed. "But for some reason it just feels right." She paused. "You ok?"
Kaid looked at her, eyes wide. "Yeah. I just. . ." Tears sprung to her eyes involuntarily. "I dreamed about it again. I haven't done that for months now."
Jordan pulled her cousin close and rocked back and forth with her. "I'm so sorry all that shit happened to you, baby. I wish I could snap my fingers and make it all go away. I wish. . .I wish there was something I could have done."
"Hey, you were a kid yourself when most of it was happening. It's not your fault." Kaid drew in a ragged breath through her tears. "You don't know the number of times I wanted to run away. . .come up here and stay with you and Uncle Max. Maybe if I had. . ." Her voice broke off as she buried her face in Jordan' shoulder.
"Shh. You're safe now." Jordan rubbed her back, cooing gently to her. As Kaid's sobs began to subside, Jordan added, "Trust me. If anyone tries to hurt you now they'll have to get through me and Dad," a pause and then, "And Eddie."
Kaid pulled back and looked at Jordan, a bit surprised.
"Hey, he might not be my favorite person in the world," Jordan explained, "but after tonight there's no denying that he cares about you." She realized that Kaid had been asleep when he came back by. "He came back after things were wrapped up from the scene. He wanted to make sure that you were ok. And he carried you up here cause you were asleep."
"Oh." Kaid was touched. But still. . .
"You wanna get back to bed?" Jordan tried to hide a yawn.
"Yeah." Kaid uncurled herself and stood from the seat. "Jordan?"
"Uh huh?"
"It's a big bed. You don't have to sleep on the floor." Kaid smiled at her cousin.
"It's ok, kiddo. . ." Jordan looked at Kaid's eyes and changed her mind. "Thanks, that'll be fine."
They'd climbed into opposite sides of the bed and Kaid immediately curled into a ball, her back to the middle of the bed. Jordan could hear her still crying softly and instinctively reached over and rubbed her back until her breathing steadied and she was asleep.
The sun was streaming in the window, so as Jordan got up, she pulled the shade the rest of the way down. Kaid needed sleep after last night. Making sure to pull the covers up so Kaid wouldn't get cold, Jordan tiptoed out of the room and down the stairs.
Max was up and in the kitchen. "Morning, sweetheart," he smiled as Jordan padded in.
"Morning, Dad. What. . ." Jordan looked at the clock on the microwave. "Crap! I'm supposed to be at work in fift-. . ."
"It's ok," Max shook his head. "I took the liberty of calling Garret. I didn't go into details, but I said we'd had a rough night as a family last night, and he said you could take the day off."
Jordan tried to look indignant, but ended up sinking down on one of the kitchen chairs and laying her head on her arms on the table. "Thanks Dad. I guess I don't always know how much I'm pushing myself."
Max walked over and kissed the top of Jordan's head. "It's alright, sweetheart." He went to the counter and poured some coffee into a mug then set it down in front of Jordan. "Kaid still sleeping?"
"Yeah." Jordan took a sip of coffee. "She woke up about 3 and we talked for a while, then we went back to bed." Jordan shook her head, "Dad, it makes me so mad what she went through. I. . ."
"I know, Jordan. I know." Max nodded. "But you're doing exactly what she needs right now ~ being there for her, letting her talk or cry when she needs to." At Jordan's raised eyebrow, he confessed, "I heard some noise from your room last night and went to the door. I watched you talking with her for a few minutes." He smiled at her, "You did fine."
"Thanks," Jordan said. "It doesn't feel like much, but. . . Yeah." She was glad that so far Max had said nothing about Winslow ~ she wasn't even sure what she'd tell him if he did. For all she knew, Eddie was just overly protective of his intern. . .well, his for now, unless he'd talked with Lois already.
They heard footsteps and looked over at the doorway where Kaid had just appeared. She'd pulled her wavy hair up into a loose ponytail and was rubbing her eyes. "Hi," she said sleepily.
"Morning baby," Jordan pushed a chair back with her foot so Kaid could sit down. As she did, Jordan playfully tugged her ponytail. "You sleep ok?"
"Yeah," Kaid smiled at her.
"Alright. What do you girls want for breakfast?" Max had the options laid out and was getting ready to pour some coffee for Kaid when she got up and went to the refrigerator, coming back with a can of diet Coke. "Kaidlyn, I. . ."
"What? It's caffeine. Just cause it's cold. . ."
"Ok, ok." Max laughed. She had a point. Kaid and Jordan settled on toasted bagel halves with peanut butter spread on them while Max ate his "twigs and straw" as Jordan had started referring to his cereal when she came back from L.A.
Kaid looked around the table and smiled, thinking how lucky she was to have family like this, especially after everything. She loved her mom, but this was different. Jordan had been right with her words the night before. For the first time in a long while, Kaidlyn felt completely safe.
. . .to be continued. . .