Trauma……..
Dani was already in surgery, when Tidwell and Crews arrived at Cedar's. She had a "through and through" gunshot wound that penetrated her department issue "bulletproof vest", which Charlie was holding to his chest in the OR waiting room. All they really knew was the bullet perforated her left lower lung, collapsing it and on top of that she'd lost a helluva lot of blood. Crews was dazed, but sat eerily still, as Tidwell left to make the drive to wake up and notify Dani's mother. Tidwell told Crews where he was going and Crews nodded, but Tidwell was not certain if Crews even really heard him.
As the Captain it fell to Tidwell to notify family members when his officers were injured or killed. He was praying "injured" was as bad as it got tonight. Kevin Tidwell was trying hard to maintain the veneer of Captain and not let the man seep through, but it was a struggle. He bit his lip and told himself she's gonna be okay, before punching his roof a few times, straightening his tie and starting the long drive on darkened quiet streets. This was the first one of these notifications he'd done since reaching sunny California and it hit very close to home. He bit his nails continuously on the drive to the Reese home and found his mouth dry as bone as he walked to the front door.
He rang the doorbell of Dani's parent's home at 0545hrs. A tired woman in a bathrobe answered the door, after turning on the porch light to illuminate Kevin Tidwell standing there holding his badge, she swept the curtain aside, saw the badge and quickly unbolted the door and asked "Jack?". He shook his head and heard her gasp "Dani?" He nodded and quickly added "she's been shot, she's in surgery, but she'd holding her own." She nodded and opened the door to let him in. "I've come to take you to the hospital Mrs. Reese, I'm Kevin Tidwell… Dani's…." he reached for a word to describe what he was to her daughter and decided upon…. "Captain".
If Dani had not told her mother about them, this was not the time.
He sat awkwardly on the couch in the dark and silent living room, listening to the ticking of a wall clock for a few minutes before he got up and began to examine the pictures on the mantle; Dani in the police uniform from the Academy, Dani on a pony when she was about six, Dani with a gap toothed grin at about ten in a softball uniform on her father's shoulders. Jack and Roya Reese lived their whole lives in this same house and Dani was their only child, she was everything to them. Tidwell knew how they felt.
When Roya Reese emerged, she was collected and dressed, Kevin was struck how much Dani favored her mother. "I am ready" she pronounced. Yep, classic Dani Reese, that's where it came from he thought.
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Charlie replayed the shooting over and over in his head. How did he miss her getting hit? His eyes squeezed shut and hands against his temple, Dani's vest now rested on the chair behind him as he sat bent over with his head in his hands. Each time the door opened or closed Charlie looked up expectantly but it was nothing, people coming and going, but never any news. It had been hours - hadn't it? What the hell was taking so long?
The door finally opened to reveal Tidwell and a small dark haired woman who Charlie instantly recognized as Dani's mother. It was like looking into Dani's future thirty years and seeing how she would age. It was gracefully; the woman before him was beautiful with fine features and sympathetic eyes.
"Crews, this is…" Tidwell started.
"Dani's mother" Crews finished. "Ma'am, I'm Charlie Crews. Your daughter's partner."
"Of course, I know who you are Mr Crews" Roya regarded him coolly. They were the exact same words Jack Reese spoke to him when Dani introduced them – right before Carl Ames funeral. "Dani and her father fought over you. She believes in you and trusts you completely and my daughter does not give her trust easily." She stated with the same bluntness as her daughter.
Charlie looked away, ashamed he had allowed his partner to be hurt. "I know this probably doesn't mean much, but I wish it was me in there instead of her. I'd do anything in the world for her." He said to his shoes.
"I know Mr Crews… and so does she" Roya Reese pronounced.
Charlie looked up at her and saw Dani's shy smile in her features. "She looks just like you" he thought not realizing he'd said it too.
"I know that too Mr Crews". She demurred.
"Please no one calls me that. It's just Charlie." He said instantly as smitten with Roya Reese just as he was her daughter. "Would you like to sit down?" he offered.
"What do we know?" Tidwell asked gently.
"Nothing, they've said nothing. How long has it been now?" Charlie said shakily.
They sat in relative silence, each person alone with their thoughts. Tidwell visited the hospital cafeteria, finding it closed, but located a vending machine and returned juggling three paper cups of lukewarm coffee.
"Dani wouldn't drink this" Charlie pronounced staring into the cup. The long hours, little sleep and recent stress left him frayed around the edges and saying things he normally wouldn't say to anyone but Dani.
Her mother snorted a short laugh. Another thing Dani inherited from her mother he thought.
"She doesn't drink coffee unless you can stand the spoon up in it." He said fondly remembering their last altercation over what would be acceptable as coffee the night before.
"This she gets from her father" Roya said smiling quietly remembering. "They are more alike in temperament than either of them would like to admit" she shared. "It is why they argue so much I think" she volunteered. "Dani was so close to her father when she was little" she continued. Both Crews and Tidwell listened in rapt attention as they gained some small insight into their shared interest in Dani Reese.
"What changed?" Tidwell asked when Roya did not continue.
"Jack" Roya said as darkness edged into her voice. Charlie recognized the same tone in Dani's when something uncomfortable or personal surfaced.
The doors swung open and a grim faced surgeon in green scrubs marred with blood emerged. Charlie wondered if it was Dani's blood and looked down at his bare chest, missing his shirt. They all rose and looked at the surgeon expectantly.
"She's out of surgery and stable. We repaired the damage and her lung is functioning again. She lost a lot of blood and she's still very weak, but I believe she'll make a full recovery. She's tough, a real fighter, but we can't get her to stay asleep and to remain still, which she really needs to do - to rest." He finished.
Tidwell hugged the man, Roya released a shuddered sigh and Charlie stood stock still as the tears he'd been holding back rolling down his face and alternately clinched and released his fists.
"I'm her mother. May I see her?" Roya asked crying slightly, but ever the stalwart soul she would not show pain if she could avoid it. She was elegant, poised and graceful. Strong as iron. Dani I see you Charlie thought as he watched her mother.
"Yes, of course. She's in Recovery, I'll take you." The surgeon said steering Roya by the elbow towards the doors. "Which one of you two is Crews?"
Charlie held up a hand, unable to speak. "She's asking for you" He blinked back tears as Roya reached her hand out to him "Come with me, Charlie." As Charlie put his cold hand into hers, he noticed how warm she was, just like Dani always warm he thought.
Dani's mother drew him along with her along the white, cold corridors of the hospital and stopped when balked at the foot of her bed. Charlie froze and couldn't move as he observed Dani. She looked so small and pale surrounded by machines with tubes and electrodes connected to her body. "She needs you to be strong….for her" Roya prompted him to approach her daughter.
Dani thrashed and mumbled, sending the machines into a wild riot of sound. Charlie dropped Roya's hand and was instantly at Dani's side. Most of what she said was unintelligible but for one word, which Charlie recognized – his name – Dani said it as she breathed out, just as she had in the orange grove that day, like a plea, "Crews".
He dropped to his knees beside her and smoothed her hair back from her forehead. He spoke to her in a voice barely over a whisper "It's okay, honey. You're safe, shhh" and as the frantic nurses watched - Dani stilled and her rhythms returned to safe levels.
"It's okay, sweetheart, you're gonna be fine" he continued talking to her – the rest of the world forgotten.
Roya watched as Charlie Crews sunk to his knees and saw the immediate effect his voice and touch had on her troubled daughter. She knew Dani did not permit many people inside the high walls she'd built to hold the world at bay, but this man was one in whom Dani had absolute faith and trust. Roya also knew Dani before those walls went up; she'd seen her stubborn daughter through skinned knees, first dates and adult traumas like her disastrous undercover experience and first loves.
Roya knew both sides of Dani, the naïve young girl who smiled easily and lived life fully, the one who existed before the traumas that life brings shaped her into the tough, distant, battle hardened police officer her daughter was now and so did the man kneeling beside her daughter. He knew and loved her daughter, instinctively sensing the delicate side of Dani - hidden under the layers of protective devices she'd built. This man cherished her daughter and despite her husband's objections, Roya found she liked Charlie Crews and what's more she liked the idea of him with her daughter.
Roya never met Charlie Crews before the day she first laid eyes on the tall, thin man with red rimmed eyes, greenish eyes and a shock of red hair in the OR waiting room that night, but she knew him instantly from Dani's description of him. She also knew Crews saved Dani from Roman Nevikov and the pointed discussion they'd had about it left her with the distinct impression that her daughter's faith in Crews was unshakeable. And there just weren't that many things Dani still believed in.
Her daughter confided in her the fear she'd felt during her captivity, along with Nevikov's boast that he'd killed Jack Reese, which neither woman believed. They both suspected Jack was too tough and too stubborn to die. Beyond that Dani confided that she knew Crews would come for her, that she was certain of his ability to find her and that he would find her or die trying and it was the second option that truly frightened Dani. The prospect of losing Crews troubled her more than the threat to her own life and while Dani wrestled with what that meant – her mother knew.
Dani loved her partner with a deep abiding love – one that lasted through pain, hardship and which would sustain them through a lifetime. What she was unsure of was Charlie Crews' level of commitment to her daughter, but that she questioned no more. He whispered soothing things to her daughter, unaware of his use of endearments, completely unable to mask his love for her in her constant state of distress. Crews' effect on her was immediate and apparent to everyone in the room. With Crews present, she relaxed and became calm and Dani generally didn't do calm. She again mumbled his name "Crews", this time she was not calling for him, but was content that he was present.
Dani fumbled, reaching and Charlie grasped her hand "you're in the hospital, you've been shot, but you're gonna be okay… Dani". Her eyes fluttered open, she tried hard to wake. "Honey, stop fighting. You're safe, I'm here. I won't let anyone hurt you, sweetheart, but I need you to sleep."
Dani fought to stay awake, she focused on Crews and slurred a series of words meant only for him but the room was so quiet Roya heard her plea "don't leave me, Crews". It is usually a painful thing for a parent when their child no longer wants them, to watch them play, to kiss them good night, to sooth them when injured. Each step was a step away from them and on to adulthood, but this step was away from her mother and toward her mate.
Roya was not disappointed when her daughter wanted someone besides her now. She knew Dani needed Charlie Crews close and feared being without him and for once Dani was not afraid to say so. Roya smiled as Charlie spoke the words that let Dani go back to sleep "I'll never leave you sweetheart. You're stuck with me."