Chapter 12
Charlie feels her combat boots hit the ground heavy with every step she takes as she angrily walks into the bullpen, the other cops in the bullpen refusing to meet her eyes as they sense the mood she's in. She runs a hand through her messy windblown hair and tries to slow her breathing to a reasonable rate, but Charlie is anything but reasonable and she soon feels her blood start to boil again.
"Charlie."
She refuses to look over to the voice calling her and instead sits down at her desk and pulls her jacket off.
"Charlie"
This time Bass's voice is more forceful and she notes how the bullpen is so silent you could hear a bullet drop. She finds him standing in front of her desk, his hair unruly and his clothes rumpled and sweaty as though he had run after her and the sight of him makes her angrier than before.
"We need to talk."
She wants to tell him where he can shove it but the silence of the bullpen reminds her that there's a time and a place to make a stand and this is neither the time nor the place. Instead she stands and without a word leads him to the elevator, hearing him follow her, his footsteps heavier and wearier than hers as he joins her in the elevator and watches the glowing lights take them to the roof. She can feel the tension radiating off him and she feels her hands clench into fists as the elevator rises.
Finally they reach the roof and she steps off into the stairwell, taking the flight of stairs that lead to the door of the rooftop, climbing them two at a time and opening the roof door with her key, the key shaking in her hands before she steadies herself.
The evening air is cooler, especially up here and despite her anger she feels goosebumps brush her skin, making the skin rise and her hair fly.
"Listen, Charlie-" Bass starts and she wheels on him so fast that he backpedals for a moments before he seems to remember that she's a quite a few inches shorter than him and weighs half of him as he then holds his ground.
"You had no right! No right to make the call that you did!" She's screaming and can hear it echo off the roof and into the air.
"Charlie she had a gun at your head!"
"I was talking her down Bass! She wasn't going to shoot!" Charlie still hadn't washed the blood off her yet and sees specks of blood on the white tank top.
"She was just lost Bass, she had nothing and no one. She would have killed herself before she would've hurt me. It's my call to make with the snipers, not yours! I'm on the ground with her, I'm the one talking to her. She would have let me go."
"You know the rules Charlie. As soon as she took you, she had made her choice whether she lived or died."
"As the person she took, it was my call whether the trigger was pulled. Not yours. You shouldn't have even been there! This was a completely different case than what Washington sent you here for."
Bass falls quiet and Charlie can feel his hesitation. "What Bass?" She asks, her exhaustion seeping into her voice.
"I asked Steve to assign me to any case you work."
She freezes and can't seem to form the words for a moment as her brain tries to process what he's saying.
"Did Miles ask you to do this?"
Bass shakes his head, "Miles doesn't know."
"I don't need you there. I can take care of myself which you would have seen if you hadn't put a bullet in that woman's head!"
"You would be dead if I hadn't done that!" Bass yells and she sees anger that matches hers in his eyes. " You would have let her kill you then have the sniper take her out."
"I'm not suicidal Bass, but there was a chance for her to walk away, one chance and you took that away from her, from me. I could have given her another chance."
Bass looks exhausted as he runs a hand through his hair, making the strands stand up unevenly. "Charlie…. You can't save everyone."
Charlie feels like he's slapped her and backs away and she can see Bass realizing the impact of what he said, his eyes becoming frantic and he tries to get closer to her.
"Danny's death…. It wasn't your fault. Neither was the hostages dying. You are not responsible for everyone. Their deaths are not on your hands."
Charlie feels tears at the mention of Danny and takes a step closer to him and watches as he matches her step and takes one towards her until they're an arm length apart.
"Charlie…" She sees his eyes widen but he's too slow to back away as her fist connect with his nose, making his head ricochet backwards from the force.
"Don't ever mention Danny again." She spits out as she walks back to the door, leaving him on the roof alone with a bleeding nose.
Bass enters Steve's office, taking in the alarmed look on Steve's face as he closes the door behind him.
"Where's Charlie?"
Steve looks concerned but motions for him to sit, giving him a hard look until Bass relents and sits unhappily in the chair.
"She do that?" Steve nods to Bass's nose that is still bleeding slightly and is answered by Bass not answering.
"It was the right call Steve." Bass has no doubt he made the right call and is only slightly relieved when Steve nods.
"It was, but Charlie needs time to process what happened. Deaths like these aren't easy on Charlie. This isn't some cokehead in an alley threatening to shoot a child Bass. This was a woman who's child had been taken away from her and given back to her ex, an abusive asshole who hits her only a bit more than he hits her kid. All she wanted was a way out, someone to pay attention and Charlie feels like it was her duty to save them."
"Even if it ends with her leaving in a body bag?"
Steve sighs and runs a hand over his face. "She's not suicidal Bass if that's what your asking. She's willing to go far to save someone, including taking a bullet meant for them and being held gunpoint if there's a chance she can save them. Now, why did she hit you?"
Bass feels uncomfortable and goes with lie that feels the most like the truth, "I told her she couldn't save everyone."
"You brought up Danny." Steve's glare is daggers at him and Bass shakes his head. "She got Danny from that. I then tried to fix what I said by telling her that Danny was not her fault."
"God you really fucked up didn't you Monroe?" Steve crosses his arms and leans back in his chair. "When a hostage negotiator is about to join my team, I make it mandatory that they take a psych evaluation that is only passed if the psychologist and I both sign off on it. Well she goes for the exam and the psychologist thinks it's a joke when a nineteen year old walks into her office, but what she doesn't know is that Charlie can lie through her teeth like the devil pretending to be an angel. I don't hold that against her, I mean her job requires that. Anything to make the bad guys relate to her. Anyway the psychologist finishes with Charlie and tells me that she has some concerns, mainly Charlie unwillingness to talk about her family.
So I call Miles to tell him that if Charlie won't answer the questions, she wont ever pass the exam and Miles tells me to let it. Overlook it. I tell him I need to know why I'm suppose to overlook something that my agent can't seem to open up about, something that could jeopardize a negotiation one day if she can't face it, and Miles tells me about Danny."
Steve pauses and then nods, "And I'm guessing by your face that you know about Danny."
Bass slowly nods, "I was there when they were doing the bone marrow transplant. We made sure that Rachel and Charlie were to never see each other after she had a panic attack from seeing Rachel. We didn't see her for a long time after that."
"Until Danny died."
Bass exhales slowly and nods. "The transplant was a success… at first. Then Danny's body started to reject Charlie's bone marrow. The doctors say that there's a 75% chance with kids that sick that the transplant will fail. He didn't last very long after the rejection started. Then two years later Ben died from a car accident while driving to see Charlie here in Chicago. At least that's what I heard. I wasn't around when that happened"
"Charlie blames herself, that's what the psychologist told me. Her brother died from her bone marrow, her father died in a freak accident while coming to visit her after two years of not seeing her and yet he dies on that trip? It explains how she handles herself now, she's at peace with the idea of dying because she thinks it should have been her, no matter how unrealistic that is. She takes it to another level when she can't save someone because it takes her back to her father and brother dying."
"I need to talk to her." Bass says, his hands clenching the arms of the chair.
"She's out on a raid with alpha team 2."
"She's on a raid?!" She just had a gun held to her head less than two hours ago and she's out on a raid?"
"Bass, the more you learn about Charlie, you'll learn that the worst thing to ask Charlie to do is to go home and let it go. She needs to work it out of her system doing something worthwhile."
"I need to see her." Bass repeats and watches as Steve gets up from his chair and collects his coat before he heads for his office door. "You can ride with me."
Bass shifts impatiently in Steve's truck, and even with Steve driving 15 above the speed limit he still feels the impatience.
"Relax Bass, they won't breach until I'm there and give the order."
Bass nods but still feels the tension in his stomach rising, his eyes searching the sidewalks for blonde hair and a SWAT vest.
Steve parks and then takes off in a jog towards the black SWAT van positioned a block in front of them and Bass breaks into a jog to keep up with him. As they near the van he spots the herd of SWAT members all decked out in gear except for the tiny blonde with the tiny bulletproof SWAT vest, her hair up as she checks her gun before sliding it back into its holster.
"Stay here." Steve mutters as he goes over to Charlie who looks more than unimpressed when she spots Bass lurking by the van. Bass watches them talk for a moment before Steve comes back over to him with a comm and he motions Bass into the van with him.
"No way," Bass shakes his head, "grab me a vest and let me go in there with them."
"Bass get in the van or go home. My best agent is pissed as hell that you're here and I'm doing you a favor letting you be here."
Bass glowers but gets in the van, hearing Steve speak beside him and over his comm.
"Alpha team 2, Adam will lead the raid from the back entrance, alpha team 3, Charlie will lead the raid from the front entrance. Bass watches the screen where the helmet behind her is capturing her moving swiftly towards the front entrance as her ponytail swings back and forth.
"Alpha team 2 in position." Comes the voice over his comm and Bass watches as Charlie takes position by the door.
"Alpha team 3 in position." Charlie's voice carries over the comms and it sounds calm and hushed.
"Breach on my go." Steve checks both monitors and then begins the countdown. "Three, two, one, breach."
Bass watches the guy on Charlie's right kick the door in before Charlie sweeps by him and goes for the stairs. The only thing Bass can see on the monitors is Charlie's torso as she runs up the stairs, her gun angled up as she turns left and starts to clear rooms.
"Shit!"
There's a blur of motion on the monitor where Charlie is and then Bass can hear himself yelling, "Get down Charlie!"
He sees a flash of her turning before the guy is on her his gun pointed towards her torso before she kicks him in the stomach as the voice over the comm yells for a medic as alpha team 2 declares the rest of the house clear.
"Boss?"
"Yeah?" Steve searches the monitors for a moment before listening over the comms.
"Greysons down. We need a medic."
Bass is about to jump out the door when two medics come rushing past him and he slows as he watches them rush into the house and feels Steve come up behind him.
"She's fine Bass. Darren would be yelling a lot louder if she was actually hurt."
Bass nods but keeps a lookout until finally Charlie comes out of the house, one of the medics supporting her weight as she walks with her. The other medic comes over to Steve and Steve eyes him with disdain.
"She's walking."
The medic shrugs sheepishly. "She refused to be carried out on the gurney. It's a shallow cut across her torso, nothing life threatening. She'll need stitches and something for the pain but she'll be fine. We'll take her to the hospital."
It's barely out of the medics mouth before Bass can hear Charlie protesting. "No. No hospital."
Bass can see Steve preparing for a fight like he's had this argument with her enough times.
"Charlie you need stitches, a hospital is where you're going."
She shakes her head furiously and her hands hold the bandage to her torso. "No hospital. Bass can stitch me up."
Bass opens his mouth to protest but Charlie beats him to it. "You have the training for basic field stitches."
Bass want's to argue but sees the pleading look in Charlie's eyes. "Fine but you better not complain about a scar later."