Title: Mango
Rating: PG-13 (some violence, angst, a couple f-bombs)
Characters: Charlie Crews, Dani Reese, Kevin Tidwell, Ted Earley, a few OCs
Pairing: Crews/Reese
Summary: Crews and Reese, five years post-series. Life is changing.
Spoilers/Time Period: Set five years after One. (July 2014)
Disclaimer: Most of the characters (sans the Ayers) aren't mine, but the situation is.
Author's Note: Sorry, sorry. Real life is not great. I was hoping to hold out until this story was done, but that won't be until this summer. I decided I would go ahead and post the two chapters I've been hoarding. This is up today. Chapter Seven will be up in the next week or two.
Chapter Six: Attitude
Dani takes a deep breath and knocks on the doorframe.
"Captain, can I have a minute?"
"Sure, Sergeant. Come in," Tidwell says amiably, gesturing her in. "How's life in uniform?"
"Fine. Bums, crazies, petty theft, the usual."
"Yeah, well, you're doing your time. I'm sure they'll give you your own detectives soon."
She turns to close the door behind her, which gets Tidwell's attention, thought not in the way it used to. Now, it usually means he's about to get yelled at. He really needs to talk to Crews about why Tidwell's still getting in trouble with Dani, even after Charlie married her. (That fact still hits a nerve.)
"Everything okay, personally?" he ventures. "I mean, Little D settling in okay? Gotta be rough. And you guys? I mean, you went zero to kid at warp speed."
Another fact that niggles at him.
"We're getting along. I'm actually here to talk to you about some leave."
"Leave?" He asks, rifling around with the paperwork on his desk. "Reese, you just barely got back from your family leave to help D with the transition. When exactly are you going to need this leave?"
"About four months."
"Four months. Why are you asking now?"
"'Cause I'm probably gonna need to be on desk duty until then."
Realization starts to dawn in Tidwell as he raises his head up to meet her eyes.
"You're pregnant," he concludes, in the same moment she admits, "I'm pregnant."
Tidwell looks like a kicked puppy as he sadly smiles, "Congratulations. Tell Crews I owe him a couple stogies."
She looks a little nauseated at the mention of such an event.
It's not that he wants to be where Crews is anymore (at least not any more than any heterosexual man on the planet), but that he had wanted that. He'd foolishly, despite the self-destructive behavior and her obvious connection to Charlie Crews, believed he had a future with Dani. Wife number four, maybe a couple kids this time. Seeing someone else get what you once wanted so badly, well, honestly, it sucks.
She takes another deep breath. "I was going to wait a couple more weeks, but Charlie's, understandably, worried about me on the streets."
'Charlie'. When had she ever, consciously or otherwise, called him 'Kevin'? Or taken any of his worries about her and not only labeled them 'understandable' but also altered her behavior because of them? No, Crews knows Reese, gets Reese, on a level no one else has ever reached.
"I'm glad you told me. I'll take care of the paper work. You want Stark to fill in for you in the field?" he asks, still surprised at how Stark has gone from persona non grata to right hand man.
She nods. "He'll handle it, knows the guys, knows my style."
"You tell your officers yet?"
"No, that's my next step."
"They're not gonna let you walk down the street to get coffee without an escort," he teases.
"I'll beat it out of them," she assures.
He studies her face, notices the subtle changes; it's just a little wider, a little softer around the edges. It looks good on her.
"Really, Dani. I'm happy for you," he says sincerely. "You want a boy or a girl?"
"Just healthy."
Because she can't risk enough to ask for anything, not with the things she's seen, the grief she's experienced, the good she's had taken away.
"Crews got a preference?"
"Girl," she smiles. "One of each. Alright, Captain. I'm gonna go break the news to my officers, and then head home for dinner. See you tomorrow."
"Goodnight, Sergeant."
Officer Sara Winn, the left to Bobby's right, meets her at the door.
"Everything okay, Sergeant Reese? I got the uniforms assembled, just like you asked."
"Thanks, Winn. Everything's fine. Just gotta make an announcement."
***
"Where's the picture, Sarge?"
"Yeah, c'mon, Sarge. Why won't you show us a pic of the little Sarge?"
"No," Reese repeats, studiously refusing to look up at Ruíz and Stone's imploring faces. "And don't call it 'Little Sarge'."
"What are we supposed to call it then?"
"Charlie says 'Mango'. 'Cause, you know, it can be a girl or a boy," Bobby adds, joining them.
Dani decides that it wouldn't be professional or boss-like to groan.
"Oh, and Charlie's got the sonogram of Little Mango Crews over at his desk."
Ruíz and Stone run off to the Detectives' room.
"Dammit, Crews," Dani sighs, finally looking up from the paperwork.
"Better clean that mouth up, Boss. You're gonna be a momma in what? Four and a half months? Mid-November, right?" Bobby grins. "Hey, that picture of Little D holding Mango's picture is pretty cute. How's he handling the whole thing?"
Dani's face softens. "He's really excited about being a big brother. Apparently he's asking all of his friends and camp counselors for tips."
"And Charlie said he's settling in okay, otherwise."
"Yeah, seems to be. We're probably going to be changing schools in the fall, give him a fresh start. We're hoping it won't be too traumatic, but he seems to be looking forward to it."
"Good. Oh, and Branch and Pella caught that vandal. They're asking if you can join them in the break room for advice on the best way to go at this kid to get him to confess to the robbery in that building he tagged. We've got good circumstantial evidence, but a confession would really help the case. And then Winn's got the next batch of performance reviews for you to go over with her."
"I'm starting to think there's no way a newborn can be needier than you guys."
"Oh, it's possible, but at least you've got good practice."
***
"Guys, I'm home!" Dani calls as she enters the house. She strips off her badge and gun, setting the latter in its lockable drawer and turning the combination. "Hello?"
"The boys are out back," her mother calls from the living room.
Dani stops off briefly to greet her mother, then wanders into the backyard to find Charlie and Little D, stripping off her shoes and stretching out her back as she goes.
She hears them before she sees them, the steady rhythm of leather falling into leather, their amiable chatter.
"Uncle Charlie," D says as she rounds the corner. Charlie is scooping a baseball off the ground. "You're not so good at this."
Dani bites back a laugh as Charlie puts on an annoyed face and wipes his brow with his sleeve.
"I used to be good at this. I just haven't played in a while," he defends.
Daniel looks skeptical. Charlie pulls back to throw the ball again. It's a little to D's right, but he effortlessly leans over and lets it fall right into his glove. Grinning, he adjusts the bill of his Dodgers cap.
"Show off."
"It's okay, Uncle Charlie. Practice makes perfect."
"Ha! Run for this one."
"Alright."
Daniel takes a sprint away from Charlie, which happens to put him in the direction of the pool. Charlie throws the ball, far. Dani sees it coming and calls out:
"D! Watch out!"
The boy's focus is on the ball, though, and he runs right into the pool.
"Crews!" Dani objects.
"Sorry!"
D, a strong swimmer, comes up sputtering, ball in his glove.
"You caught that?" Charlie asks as he jogs over to help the boy out of the pool.
D nods and then holds his leather glove towards Charlie. "Get the glove out of the water."
"Boys," Dani complains, shaking her head at D's worry over his sporting equipment.
"Hi, Aunt Dani! Did you see me fall in the water?"
Dani has her arms crossed under her chest, still pretty weirded out that there's a little something there to rest on. Charlie hauls Daniel up by his shoulders.
"Oh, I saw," Dani assures them.
D grins. "Cool, huh?"
"Sure."
"We should probably put the pool fence up before playing catch next time," Charlie tells Little D.
"But, Uncle Charlie, it's hot. You should get in the pool, too."
"Take your clothes off at the door and tell Maamaan-bee that you need a towel," Dani instructs, shooing the boy into the house after he gives her a soaked hug.
"Accident," Charlie defends as he approaches his wife, holding up the wet glove for protection.
"Mhmm."
He smiles at her faux-stern expression.
"Don't be mad," he teases.
"Not mad."
"That's always what you say when you are mad."
"Crews," she sighs, still fighting off her own grin. "I'm not mad."
"But you called me Crews. You do that when you're mad."
"Or annoyed. Or at work. Or not thinking about it."
"Okay, I'll give you that one," Charlie concedes, wrapping his arms around her. "Maybe you're not mad."
"Not mad," she says again, this time into his chest.
"Annoyed?"
"A little. He's not a puppy."
"No, he's more fun than a puppy. Wait, we should get a puppy!"
"No." Dani says firmly, pushing away from him and looking him in the eyes. "No puppy. And if you say one word about a puppy to Daniel, you're sleeping on the couch."
"Why no puppy?"
"Crews, we're going to have a baby! We can't have a kid, a baby, and a puppy."
"What about a grown dog?"
"Crews!"
***
Dani closes her eyes and sighs. She knows it isn't his fault that sometimes he just gets into these awful moods and lashes out at her. He knows she'll love him, no matter what, and he has been through hell.
But the baby's started kicking her bladder, and she barely sleeps at night.
"Fine. Just go outside. Stay where I can see you, and don't go in the trees."
D huffs his agreement and skulks out. Dani stretches out her lower back and starts in on her paperwork again. She doesn't like when he gets like this, when there's no reasoning or cuddling him out of it. This isn't the little D she knows.
The summer's been hard, and it's only mid-July. Charlie and Dani have gone back to work full-time (for the next few months in Dani's case) and he's gone from day camp to day camp, trying to make friends who don't know he's 'that kid'. When not in camp, he and Noor spend their days together. Dani has the day off, though, and sent Maamaan-bee off to her sister's for a kid-free day, hoping to get some paperwork out of the way and then spend the afternoon doing something fun. Daniel hadn't taken well to the first part.
There's a dull thump outside, and then a scream. Dani reaches for her gun and hurries to the window. D's alone, but crumpled at the base of one of the orange trees in the backyard. Dani sets her gun back in its drawer and runs out back.
"D! D, what happened?"
Danny is sobbing, right arm pulled tight against his chest as he writhes in pain.
"Shit," she curses, realizing he must've fallen out of the tree. She panics, coming quickly to his side.
"Let me see, buddy."
Oh god, how could she let this happen?
Daniel howls in pain as she moves to check it. There's no blood, so it didn't break skin; that's good.
"Can you move it, D?"
He just cries in response. She knees down beside him, cupping his face in her hand. She wants to pull him into her arms, but she's wary of jostling his injury.
"Hey, it's okay," she tries to soothe. Panic hangs at the edge of her voice. "We'll get you fixed up."
He takes gasping breaths. "I…I…I want my mommy."
Dani winces. So does she.
TBC