This is the last chapter of the story. Thank you very much for having read it, I loved each and every comment you left.

This chapter is not betareaded (yet) because my beta has disappeared, but I can't wait more, I have to post it because I want to end the story before 'life' restarts.
So I'm asking for your help: if you find some mistakes or bad use of words just let me know and I'll edit them.

Uh, one more thing: "The dark nights of the soul" is a sentence that Tidwell said in 2.01, but "The Dark Night of the Soul" is actually a treatise written by Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic Saint John of the Cross; neither Tidwell nor I have read it, so any reference to it is for narrative purpose only. If you want to know what it really says you have to read it!

And since this is the last chapter of the story I strongly recommend you to read the previous three chapters to fully understand any implied reference.

I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading!

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The Dark Nights of the Soul

Tidwell enters his apartment later on that same evening, and puts the shopping on the counter.
He's just started placing the things in the fridge when the doorbell rings.

A beautiful blond girl smiles at him as the Captain opens the door.

"Marie…" he smiles back.
Shifting from the doorframe he adds "Come in."

"So, this is where you live" Marie says looking around as he grabs her coat.

"Yeah. Not too big, not too small, but with a breathtaking view on L.A." Tidwell nods and smiles again, looking her up and down. She always wears miniskirts and it's impossible for everyone not to notice her beauty.

"Do you want something to drink?" He asks her, walking toward the fridge "I have…" A quick look inside it "Hmm…orange juice, seltzer water and…oh yeah. These beers…"

"I'll take a beer. Thanks" Marie says sitting on his couch and crossing sensually her legs.

Tidwell grabs two beers, opens them, empties one in a high glass and gives it to her. Then he sits in the armchair across the couch.
She shifts in her seat so that her bare thigh is exactly under Tidwell's glance. He doesn't look away.

"May your wishes become true" she raises her glass in a cheer.

He nods, raising his bottle toward hers.

Marie sips the beer and makes a grimace "This beer…It's really…I mean, this beer tastes like-"

"-a soft drink?" he anticipates her comment. "Yep." he nods, closing briefly his eyes.
"I've made the decision to avoid buying alcohol…you know-" he smiles lightly "-for her."

She smiles tenderly back.

Then she sips again her 'fake' beer before adding "I did what you asked me to." Another sip "I let her imagine I was about to date you". Marie's eyes capture his.

He nods yes.

The girl becomes thoughtful as she uncrosses her legs and puts down the glass.
Then she looks straightly at him.

"What?" Tidwell asks, going on the defensive.

"Are you sure that it was a good idea?" the girl pauses "I mean, why don't you simply tell her you love her?"

He thinks a little bit before answering her.
When he decides he can open himself with Marie, he nods.
"I have to speak her language if I don't want to lose Dani." He raises his eyebrows "Because I don't want to lose her."

She gives him an understanding smile.

"Dani has time requirement. I can't say 'I love you' to her unless I want to make her run faster than a train-" he makes a grimace and a gesture with his hand "-out of my life, I mean!" A sip on the beer. "I wanted to give her something to think about. I hope she looks inside her and she finds me somewhere."

Marie stands up, still smiling, and steps toward him.
"I promised a thing to Charlie, though."

She stops in front of him and Tidwell raises his eyes to meet hers. He gives her a questioning look.

She bends down.
"I promised him tomorrow I'll be able to tell him if you're a good cop or a bad cop."

Tidwell frowns.

"Usually I have a special procedure to determine that" her lips become closer to his "But I think that with you I've already got the answer." She shifts her face, kissing him on his cheek and stands up.
"If Dani doesn't find you inside her heart-" Marie gives him a knowing glance "-call me."
She steps away from him sensually, reaching her coat.

"Oh boy…" he whispers to the empty couch.

"She is lucky to have you. You know?" the girl says while putting her jacket on.

Tidwell joins her near the door giving himself airs "Oh yeah, you're lucky if you have your own Tidwell-" he nods yes with his eyes half closed "-there aren't many of us around!"
But his conceit wanes fast under her tender look and he opens his heart to her once again "No…the truth is I'd be lucky if she could just think the same…" he admits smiling.

The blond girl looks hard at him for a while.

"Oh, what the fuck!" she exclaims out of the blue, and grabbing suddenly his neck, she locks her lips with his, surprising him with a deep kiss.

Tidwell opens his eyes wide and tries not to kiss her back and not to take her in his arms.

Marie breaks the kiss, smiles at him and licking her lips she confirms "Definitely…good cop." then exits his apartment waving her hand and leaving Tidwell speechless in the doorframe.

xxx xxx xxx

The night is fragrant and dark around Charlie's house: the lights of LA stay there, down the hill, and their glimmer doesn't reach the windows of his bedroom.

Inside the room a sudden nightly breeze moves the curtains behind Charlie's back, carrying away his last words
'Dani. We have a problem. I think I want to fuck you'

and her reaction to them
'I was afraid you would have never said that.'

Her sentence is still echoing in Charlie's mind when their lips meet gently in a hardly touched kiss.

"It will be only sex, Charlie, you know that?" she whispers on his lips.

They settle their heads in a different angle, closing their eyes, and share another light kiss.

"I know-" this time are his lips that lean on hers for a moment "-only sex-" he murmurs.

Immediately after they come close again and now their tongues meet briefly, parting only to let him underline "-only hot sex. "

Dani comes back again on his mouth and on his tongue, devouring them.

"Yes Charlie, only hot sex -" she murmurs, breaking temporarily the contact, then she returns to him letting herself go in a deep and passionate kiss that keeps them busy for a little while, until Charlie moves away to whisper "-oh yes, just like the one you make with Tidwell…"

The inflexion Charlie gives to the sentence makes Dani open suddenly her eyes just to find his staring seriously at her.

She frowns and stares back.

The hand she has put on his neck comes back to her astonished face, moving away a lock of hair from her cheek. Then her eyes look briefly at something to the right before she turns round, walks to the door, picks up her clothes and exits the room.

Charlie nods yes, making a grimace.

"I have imagined that…" he murmurs, smiling bitterly in the dark.

xxx xxx xxx

"Wake up Crews! It's late, and we have to organize the things!" exclaims Dani storming in his bedroom the next afternoon.

Charlie blinks a few times. Than looks at the thin frame of his partner.

He sits on the bed "I thought you had gone home…" he says while passing the right hand in his hair.

"Don't be silly Crews!" she takes the blankets away "Now I'm going to help you taking these clothes off, then you'll have a bath and then you'll wear those" her last words are followed by the launch of a blue tracksuit on his bed.

She has never looked at him while doing those things.

"I don't own a tracksuit, where did you find this?" he asks, trying to focalize what could have happened since the night before.
Oh yes, because he only remembers her demanding lips on his, then his decision, and after that Dani storming out of the room.

"At the station" she answers in a half voice opening the windows.

Charlie then sees the LAPD symbol on the sweatshirt, on the left of the zip, and notices that Dani wears the same tracksuit she wore the day she appeared drunk at his door.

"Did you went to work this morning?" he asks, confused.

"No Crews, I went there only to ask for the leave, and I took the clothes-" she turns to him but Charlie notices she doesn't look him in the eyes "-I figured out you don't own a thing like this because, you know-" she stops, and her gaze shifts from his wounded shoulder to his feet "-I thought it reminded you the clothes you wore when you were…you know…"

"In Pelican Bay."

"Yeah."Dani raises her eyes and meets his for a short and awkward moment. Charlie takes the chance to talk to her.

"You saw Tidwell." Not a question.

"No." Her eyes come back to his feet. "He was holding a meeting or something like that for the case, you know, the bodybuilder's case, and he was in his office with the curtains closed and the door shut."

"Dani, listen-"

But she cuts him off almost immediately.
"-Marie showed up to see you this morning, after I came back home. I told her you were sleeping, so she's going to visit you later." She pauses. "She left a message for you." This time Dani looks him straightly in the eyes "She said your boss is a good cop."

"Dani…" his look softens.

She raises an hand to stop him.
"She said another thing too." Dani sits on the bed near him and her next words seem to come out from a very deep place.
"Tidwell had told her to make me believe they were dating."

Charlie searches her beautiful brown eyes for a moment, and then grabs her arm, to attract her attention.

"I don't regret anything."

He tightens the grip on her arm "And I don't bear a grudge against you. Even if you were about to be with me only because you wanted to prove something to him or-" he pauses "-to you."

Her eyes let him know his words have hit the mark. Dani nods slowly.

Then she stands up, freeing her arm from his grip, and waits a little bit before adding "I thought a lot this night and this morning, before and after having seen Marie."

"And…?" he asks

"I understood the things you didn't tell me yesterday evening."

"And…?"

"You were right."
She lets go a sigh of relief.

He smiles, and he is about to tell her that was been very difficult for him doing the right thing the night before, when she starts unbuttoning his shirt efficiently, surprising him and making him lose the thread of his thoughts.

"C'mon Crews, or Marie will find you still in bed!"

Charlie knows her very well and he guesses the argument is off-limits for now, but he wants to know one more thing.
"Just one last question Reese-"

She stops briefly raising an eyebrow and giving him a questioning look.

"-I want to know if you made a decision about Tidwell…"

She smiles mysteriously.
"I did."

Charlie lets Dani undress him and wonders how would have been being with her, being her man for one night, letting her hands touch him in a different, more gently and intimate way.
He tries not to listen to that thin voice inside his mind that is telling him he would have wanted more than that though.

xxx xxx xxx

When Tidwell comes back to the station that evening after having been at Doug's fitness club, he finds it half-empty.
Yeah, he remembers suddenly, the fire-prevention training course was programmed for this evening.
He forgot about that. But he has had a billionth things to handle that day, and now he has a ton of paperwork to do. He guesses he's going to stay in his office at least since midnight.
Plus Dani is spending her vacation only-God-knows-where.
Someone told him she was here in the morning, but she hasn't left any message and she hasn't called him.
He hasn't heard her voice since yesterday afternoon, when she threw in his face the fact he hadn't called her back the night before.

Definitely his plan isn't working.
He thought he was good in planning things.
Maybe it works only for the job.

"Tidwell, you're really out of your mind today…" he murmurs to himself noticing that he forgot even to arrange his office: both the door and the curtains are still shut like they were in the morning.
He's shaking his head when he opens the door.

But he freezes.

xxx xxx xxx

Tidwell stands open-mouthed in the doorframe: he could scarcely believe his eyes while closing the door slowly, hoping that no one else has seen this wonder.

The lights are off and the office is illuminated only by the light of the candles she put on his desk.

And there, in the soft gloom, sitting on his beloved leather couch, legs crossed, there is Dani - his Dani, his love, his everything - wearing that red dress he told her he would have liked to see her in.

It's the best thing he's ever seen in his whole life.
She is the best thing he's ever seen in his whole life.
Most of all because he totally understands the meaning of her presence here.

He would want to run toward her, to take her in his arms, to hold her tight, and to swear her eternal love, but he knows he has Reese in front of him, and she's a hard woman: she needs to be the one who marks time.

He has to act differently with her.
"You bought it." He whispers, smiling.

She nods yes and stands up slowly.

He glides his gaze onto her body "I knew that." His voice is hoarse when he adds "Right shape, right color, right length." A nod. "Definitely."

Dani nods yes again, smiling, and starts walking toward him.

He gives her an admired look and whispers "You're so beautiful…"

She stops in front of him. The high-heeled shoes she's wearing make herself find almost at the same Tidwell's eye level.

This time is Dani who starts getting near to his face and stops a few inches before it.

She must be very sorry with him, because she's playing the I-crave-for-it-but-you-don't-have-to-know-it game with him. This is usually his own specialty.

Tidwell loves her even more for this gesture.
He thinks that she's giving him a very sensual peace proposal, and he knows the after-quarrel sex is the best of all, but he wants to play a little bit more with her: he likes to provoke Dani because he's discovered she becomes hotter if she has to wait for something she longs for.

"You didn't call me, you know?" he murmurs licking his lips, a stern look in his eyes.

She nods yes, smiling lightly. 'I know you're doing it on purpose', her eyes reads.

"I mean, since yesterday morning…" he wears a fake sulky expression.

She nods yes again slowly, bits sensually her lower lip and shifts her glance from his blue eyes to his mouth, making a step forward. Her body is now fully pressed against his.

Enough is enough. Tidwell can't hold out any longer, so he reaches out his arms, holds her tightly and catches her lips.
Dani holds him back and kisses him passionately, letting herself go completely.

After having satisfied their mouths and their tongues, the two lovers part their lips and stare at each other. The desire in his eyes is mirrored in hers.

Tidwell doesn't need to hear her saying those three words, he simply can read them in her look.
And Dani knows it.

"I was wondering-" she finally murmurs, smiling "-what are those 'dark nights of the soul' you were talking about when we met for the first time?"

Tidwell smiles back, casting a glance at his leather couch.

"They regard love -" he caresses her hair with his hand and his glance "- mystical experiences -" his hand follows the curve of her face down to her throat and to her breast "-and rebirth…"
Saying this he starts pushing backward, guiding her toward the brown couch.

"Love, uh?" she pokes him without stopping grinning.

"Yeah, spiritual love to be honest, but I prefer another interpretation…"

"And what would it be?" her legs touches the coach and she tightens her hold on him to avoid losing her balance.

Tidwell pushes her backward again murmuring "I think it's better for you to experience it than to talk about it…" he raises an eyebrow.

They exchange an understanding look.

Falling down on the coach, kissing each other greedily, undressing mutually and starting making love passionately are only the first steps of his explanation of how they can confess their reciprocal love without saying a word.

THE END

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Okay Creese fans: I'm REALLY sorry. I beg your pardon! I know you wanted something else, but I don't like infidelities...
One day, when Dani will leave Tidwell (because we all know that Dani is going to leave him...) I'll be able to write some Creese again. I swear it.