Back Blast

The ride to the station was uneventful. The elevator could barely contain the buoyancy that the three of them felt from surviving the morning, but nothing could prepare Dani for what would happen next. The moment the elevator doors opened Dani tensed and Charlie felt it, following her eyes to Tidwell's office. There stood a very pissed off Jack Reese, pissed off - but definitely alive.

Although they had not the time to look for him, Charlie was very aware that Roman told Dani her father was dead. Somehow, he wasn't entirely sure Reese was happy to see her father and Charlie knew that Jack Reese would definitely not be happy to see him. And if Jack Reese knew what Charlie did to his daughter after hours or what she did with him, well....that was just not a conversation that would endear him to the aged SWAT officer father of his partner.

About that time, Bobby Stark with his usual gift of restating the obvious wandered by "Hey Charlie. Who have we here?" noticing Sarah who was still being held by Dani.

Dani stopped walking and was just staring at her father who was gesticulating angrily at Tidwell. Every once in awhile Jack's angry voice carried beyond the glass, usually when the name "Crews" was pointedly pronounced, accompanied by a finger jab in Tidwell's direction.

"Isn't that your father Detective Reese?" Bobby continued.

This earned him a scowl from Reese and Charlie both. "Okay, well I can see you two are busy." Bobby said retreating down the hall toward the vending machines. "Juarez and I gotta hit the street" he pronounced to no one in particular.

The movement drew Tidwell's attention and saved him from further verbal abuse as he pointed through the glass at Crews and Reese. Jack turned to look and his eyes narrowed and darkened. Charlie stepped in front of Dani as if to shield her from he father's dark stare, his arm simultaneously sweeping Dani and Sarah behind him. This simply enraged Jack, who snatched open Tidwell's office door and stalked across the bullpen in large strides.

All police work had stopped as the eyes of the other detectives, witnesses and even the janitor were now focused on the dark looks being cast between Crews and Jack Reese.

Only Sarah seemed immune, "who's that man?" she asked in her innocent five year old way, snapping the mood and spurring everyone to action.

"That - is my father Sarah." Dani pronounced stepping around Crews and looking directly at her father. "… who is supposed to be dead" she said pointedly.

Jack looked at his daughter, holding a small child and the towering, protective figure of Charlie Crews his eyes dark like storm clouds and developed the impression things had changed while he was away – and changed in a way he did not like. He spoke in a low, menacing growl meant just for Crews "I told you to keep my daughter out of this". Charlie did not respond, he only glowered at Jack and stood his ground.

They were a fair match; Jack more stolidly built and compact, but Crews more nimble with a longer reach. Reese thought and in terms of tenacity she'd give Crews the edge, but in terms of stubbornness she knew her father outlasted most. As enticing as the idea of letting the two of them go at it, she knew she had to stop this and that she was the only who could.

"Crews" Dani barked. Charlie tore his eyes away from Jack Reese to look at his partner. "Take Sarah" she told him. Charlie looked at her and an unspoken conversation occurred between them. Are you okay? Yes, I'm fine. Are you sure? I got this. Crews relaxed slightly and opened his arms to Sarah.

"Come on honey, let's let Dani talk to her Dad. I've got someone I want you to meet. Would you like to make a new friend?" his tone relaxed and friendly, but eyes still worried.

When Crews returned his eyes to Jack, they glittered in warning, still wanna dance old man - just say when.

Jack Reese observed the interaction between his daughter and her partner, noticing the almost imperceptible differences. They stood closer together, their bodies in contact more frequently, a shoulder, an arm, a hip together touching but not seeming to reach out, more naturally connected. Less communication was spoken and more said with nuanced eye contact and facial expressions. Charlie Crews was a dangerous man and he did not want his only daughter partnered with him in the first place. They were even closer than when he'd left and this disturbed him more than he wanted to admit.

"I need to talk to you, alone" Jack said in a hoarse whisper to Dani. He inclined his head to the interview room where they could talk privately. It wasn't a request it was a directive and Dani obeyed, casting a backwards glances at Tidwell and Crews who for once in the last week were too preoccupied - to be at each other's throat. Geez, she thought the testosterone was so thick in here you could cut it with a knife. One more alpha male and the building might collapse.

Tidwell stood in the bullpen pronouncing "nothing to see here people, go back to work" right on cue as if to announce he was in charge.

"Detective" to Crews "a word?" he beckoned.

Charlie watched Dani all the way into the interview suite and after the door closed a moment longer before returning his eyes and attention to his Captain. He walked into Tidwell's office still carrying Sarah in her white dress with daisies on it and her little green Crocs. She was largely silent sensing the atmosphere and without Dani present she seemed to feel smaller and more alone.

"This is your witness?" Tidwell asked, all business. Charlie simply nodded.

"But she's….what four? Five? She's just a kid…" Tidwell whined, Charlie shrugged - both men trying to ignore what they really were interested in.

A loud noise and raised voices from the interview room distracted both of them. Crews set Sarah on Tidwell's couch and told her calmly "stay here I'll be right back", striding out of the office toward the interview room, a hard look on his face and his jaw set.

Sarah looked ready to cry and began to sniff like she would cry, prompting Tidwell to plead with her "please don't cry, little girl - he'll be right back".

Sarah pronounced "I want Dani" and under his breath Tidwell offered "don't we all?"

When Charlie Crews entered the interview room, Jack Reese had his daughter gripped firmly by the shoulders and was shouting at her "what did I tell you about that man?"

There were tears in Dani's eyes, although Charlie couldn't be sure he was physically hurting her, it didn't matter, he'd made her cry and for that he would pay.

Charlie was absolutely enraged. "Take your hands off her" Charlie said in an impossibly low fierce and threatening tone adding "now" for emphasis. This was not the smiling, but serious Detective Crews; not the flippant, but fierce Charlie; this was the dark, dangerous man who was prepared to defend his partner to the death. This was the man who survived twelve years in prison and who crushed Roman Nevikov's windpipe with his bare hands.

As his hands dropped to his sides, for the first time in her life, Dani saw fear in her father's eyes, fear of Charlie Crews.

Charlie walked between father and daughter forcing Jack to step back, but permitting him to see the change in Crews up close, right before his eyes. Softly, but with a voice still thick with emotion, he inquired "are you okay?" while dipping his head to seek and hold Dani's eyes. She nodded and Crews gently brushed her hair back from her face like he was touching a spider web, his touch was so light. He thumbed an escaped tear from her cheekbone and gently whispered "its okay, you're safe, Dani".

Jack Reese watched as his tough, little, tomboy daughter who never accepted help from anyone, accept this from her partner, and after a moment, she leaned into Crews while his arms wrapped around her tightly. Crews dropped his head to kiss her hairline and Jack could hear the breath his daughter had been holding – released as she relaxed in his arms.

Over her head, Crews spoke softly "it's okay, just breathe" and then looked up and directly at Jack Reese. "If you ever so much as think about hurting her again, they won't find the pieces Jack" he warned in a tone so low and dark it chilled the room.

Before his eyes in the span of moments, Jack Reese realized that his worries were for nothing. He acted out of fear, for his family, for his only daughter – a little girl he could never really express affection for, because he was too preoccupied, busy protecting her - from his own poor choices.

Jack Reese realized that Charlie Crews was a hard and capable man. There was perhaps no one on the face of the earth more suited to keeping his daughter safe than Crews. He saw not a battered, broken man, but a warrior. Jack Reese suddenly realized the closer Dani was to Crews - the safer and more protected she would be. He also realized that Crews was capable of giving his daughter something he could not – love - and that his daughter had at last found someone worthy of her trust and her faith.

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Kevin Tidwell had three ex-wives and not one kid in the mix. There was a reason for that, he thought. Kids made him nervous. They cried unexpectedly, were fragile beyond belief and just kinda freaked him out. He wanted kids some day, but when he imagined them - his kids they were always around ten, could already ride a bike and play baseball.

Sarah standing on his couch bordering on tears was his worst nightmare. He'd rather raid a crack house, alone, at night, with no vest, armed with only a plastic spoon, than this. He needed to do something, but Child Services was out, he'd promised Dani. Then he had a stroke of genius – the departmental shrink. She was a murder witness – it was perfect. He picked up the phone and dialed the switchboard, which was way faster than looking up the number and demanded the shrink. He was informed the department had a psychologist, to which he replied "sure fine, whatever, just connect me".

The line rang through and a rather nasal sounding man named James answered. "Funny cause for some reason I was expecting a woman", Tidwell started the conversation off – badly. "This is Tidwell, Homicide. I got this witness and I need you to talk to her."

"Send her down to the 4th floor, Room 319" James sighed. If he was perturbed by attitudes from cops, he'd have long ago jumped out the window and done a "Peter flipping Pan" as the beat cops called it – all over the pavement. "Captain?" James inquired "4th floor? Room 319?" he wondered if the man heard him.

Tidwell was actually considering if the kid could find the 4th floor, Room 319 by herself, but concluded if he lost her Dani would be beyond furious. "Uh…maybe you should come get her….yeah, you need to…I need you to come to my office and get her, uh, the witness". He decided in mid-speech.

"Very well" – James was now obviously annoyed. "I'm having my lunch now. I can see her at 1:30PM."

"No dude, you'll see her now. Get up here." Tidwell said hanging up the phone as Sarah's bottom lip began to tremble. "Okay….okay…now that was a guy…and he's coming to talk to you…he'll be here in like seconds… so like don't cry okay."

Maybe he should get closer he thought, stepping around his desk, when Sarah screamed. "Ok, ok, not getting closer" he retreated immediately "closer is a bad idea".

The scream brought Dani bolting from the interview room to his rescue, with Crews and Jack Reese trailing behind a distant second and third like some washed up nags blown out by a thoroughbred at the racetrack, Tidwell thought

"Oh, thank god" he spoke as relief rolled off him in waves.

As she cleared the doorway into Sarah's view, the little girl practically launched herself at Dani. It was amazing to watch; one minute there were two people and a millisecond later they were one, indistinguishable from each other, not even daylight got between them. Dani was rocking Sarah and talking under her breath in a way that made Tidwell very jealous of the little girl.

"What did you do?" Dani said to him through clenched teeth.

It was then that Kevin Tidwell realized Reese didn't come to his rescue, she came to Sarah's. "I…nothing…I didn't do….nothing…she just freaked" he babbled as he watched the girl relax in Dani's arms.

"I called the shrink" Dani's dark glare told instantly that was a mistake "thought he could I don't know talk to her, hypnotize her, get something from her about the murder" he trailed off.

As Crews approach them from behind, he stepped deliberately inside Dani's personal space and leaned down to whisper to Sarah and Dani both.

"You two remember this is a murder case right? Not Romper Room" he said in deliberately clipped tone for Crews' benefit. If anyone was going to indulge Dani's whims it was damned well going to be him – not Charlie Crews.

About that time, as a tense silence descended over the group, James emerged from the elevators. "Ah, I see – a child – well, give her to me" he began, the equivalent of throwing a gauntlet. The opening salvo of a protracted battle, despite being trained observer of human behavior, James some how missed the fact that the four adults obviously wanted to kill each other at this point and Sarah was pretty much all that was keeping it from turning truly ugly.

After much discussion and a direct order, a very angry Reese was forced to surrender Sarah, who cried bitterly as James carried her away, after she bit him too. Crews looked down at the band-aid on his knuckle remember how scared Sarah was and what she'd been through. Who was she? He wondered. And why was she in that house?

Jack Reese excused himself to visit his home and wife, after saying his good byes to Dani, which curiously enough ended with a hug, surprising Crews immensely. The two men exchanged pointed glances until Dani dragged Charlie back to their conjoined desks

Hours passed as they searched the NCIC for missing children, combed through Amber Alerts and contacted NIMEC for little girls matching Sarah's description. There were hundreds, thousands of missing children in their database, each case a tiny tragedy, but none of them matched a "five year old Caucasian female, 36 inches tall, 40-45 lbs with long strawberry blonde hair and green eyes" as Dani described her for the tenth time on the phone, while Crews listened and thoughtfully chewed a handful of raisins. Strawberry blonde...Crews thought wondering if strawberries were in season or if he could talk Reese into some strawberry pie or ice cream.

Raisins were the only fruit like item he could find in the vending machine. What an awful thing to do to a grape Charlie thought as he chewed the tangy little morsels. Then he stopped as he hit a stem and spit it into the trash can, earning him a disdainful look from Reese. Then with nothing to do, but watch and worry, they returned to the scene to take another look - but really it was take Dani's mind off Sarah.

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"Reese" Charlie began as soon as they settled in the car. "What were you like as a child?" he inquired expectantly

"Smaller" she replied tersely. She was slunk low behind the steering wheel, hiding tears behind polarized sunglasses and griping the wheel like she was choking it.

Crews didn't inquire further. Dani's dark mood wouldn't tolerate banter today. Charlie knew instinctively there was nothing to change her mood.

As they arrived on scene, there was less of a police presence, only a lonely radio car at the end of the block. The coroner had come and gone with the body, so only a strip of yellow tape across the door showed it was a crime scene at all.

From the outside without the lights and sirens, it was just another house. A simple house, where a horrific crime had been perpetrated leaving behind a dead man and a lost little girl.

Reese reached into the backseat for fresh rubber gloves and there on the seat was Sarah's Barbie. She stared at it for a long moment and then got out of the car, slamming her door hard. Charlie watched her concerned, but unable to help. She leaned back against the car, facing away from him as a single choked sob escaped.

Charlie leaned across the roof speaking to her, "Reese, look at me" he demanded gently. When she turned to face him, still hidden by her shades and biting her lip to hold back tears "What can I do? What do you want?" he asked.

"I want her back." She said in a small, quiet, tortured voice. "I want her back".

He didn't have to ask who. She meant Sarah. Reese had been through a lot in the past month, with Roman and Rayborn and her father's reported death. But the thing that caused her to come unhinged was - them taking Sarah away. As Sarah was pulled from Dani's arms, his heart broke a little for both of them, and for himself. Their connection severed.

He noticed the dark look Dani gave Tidwell as they left and thought this one he's not getting forgiven for. He watched as her jaw tightened seeing the red rimmed eyes of the little girl with sea green eyes watch Dani until the elevator closed severing their link. He watched as Dani pinched the bridge of her nose trying to stave off the headache that was coming from fighting back tears.

He wondered if all mom's felt this way and considered the private hell of every parent missing a child – the thousand of tortured women in that database who belonged to a missing child. It didn't matter if they were taken by a non-custodial parent or abducted by a stranger, each one left a big gaping hole in someone's life. All of them were missed by someone - except it seemed Sarah. Why hadn't anyone reported her missing? Where was the woman who should be grieving as Dani was for this little girl?

"Let's just work the scene." He said, not wanting to promise her something he couldn't deliver, but in his mind he was already thinking about how he would do it. He was thinking "If that is what you want, then that is what you shall have." He was already thinking about where he would go next and how Zen wasn't going to help him, but how some of his contacts from Pelican Bay, just might be able to.