anjoufic | Seven Veils: Seven

Title: Seven Veils

Author:

comice aka Anjou (Anjou@rocketmail.com)

Posting Date: May 2009

Rating: R for language and sexuality; M for Mature readers

Classification: Crews/Reese

Spoilers: post-S2 finale, One

Disclaimer: Not mine, but they are fun to play with. All respect to Rand Ravich, Far Shariat and especially to Damian Lewis, Sarah Shahi and the rest of the exceptional cast. They created something I will always treasure.

Author's Note: The series finale (:: sighs ::) of Life opened up so many interesting possibilities. Here's the direction my brain took, mostly because I can't believe that I'll never see Charlie and Dani again, so … I'm telling myself a story. Seven different perspectives, in seven parts, beginning immediately after the end of One (which I'm assuming was supposed to have taken place in April 2009) and continuing into the future over the course of the next year or so. This is a WIP, but the whole story is plotted, if not completed.

Thanks to

suzanne_laura and

opus163 for the beta, and the support.

Also, NBC? You totally suck.

~*~

Paul Bodner knew a couple of things when he saw Charlie Crews standing by the side of the road next to his orange trees, patiently waiting for him to bring his partner back to him.

First, he knew that Roman Nevikov was dead, and it looked like Charlie Crews, who had walked away to certain death not more than ten minutes ago, didn't have a mark on him.

Second, he heard the soft, surprised sound that Dani Reese made, and realized that she was smiling. He'd never seen her smile, and she was a damned beautiful woman, but he didn't turn his head to see her expression. As far as he was concerned, other people's love stories were never as interesting as your own, and he was anxious to get his own back.

His third thought ran right over the first two, making his heart pound with the sudden rush of blood. They could come home now, Alicia and the kids. They could actually come home. He was surprised to realize how much he'd given up on this as a possibility, how he’d hardened himself to the idea that he would be alone forever, as long as they were safe but now … Roman Nevikov was dead. They could come home. He immediately began to calculate how long it would take his wife to get back to their house, their bed, their life.

But for him to get his empty house filled, he would have to get Crews moving, and Crews, as he stood at the side of the road gazing at his partner, seemed in absolutely no hurry. For a man as full of kinetic energy and constant chatter as Crews usually was, he was also capable of extraordinary focus and stillness. And right now, that focus was Dani Reese. For once, Crews' face was not wreathed by one of his absurdly wide smiles; watching him, Bodner realized this was probably the first time he'd ever seen Crews truly smile, eyes and all. Leave it to Charlie Crews to truly smile without actually using that mouth of his.

Crews turned his face up to the sun and as Bodner watched, he drew a long breath in and out, only looking back down to Earth when Bodner pulled the car up alongside him, and Reese lowered her window. Crews crouched down, still gazing at his partner with that expression of patient expectation on his face.

Bodner just got a glimpse of the curve of Reese's cheek as she glanced down in her lap. She'd been holding on to Crews' badge since she'd picked it up from the dirt, her hands cradling it like she could keep Crews alive by the force of her will, and who knew? Maybe she could. Maybe she had. The man led a charmed life, despite everything he'd been through.

"Crews," Reese said softly, but her voice wasn't ragged or anxious the way it had been. She said his name like she wasn't quite sure that he was real, holding out her hand with the badge laying flat against her palm like an offering.

Charlie Crews never took his eyes off his partner's face as he slipped one hand underneath hers, and rested the other over the badge, engulfing her hand in his. "I'm here," he said quietly.

Bodner heard the soft huff of Reese's laugh. She tilted her head to the side, and brought her hand up to cover his. "Yeah, you are," she said, and this time he could hear the smile in her voice, and see it echoed in Charlie Crews' eyes.

Knowing that he was intruding, Bodner looked out the driver's side window and pulled out his phone. "CH" he texted Alicia, and snapped the phone shut, knowing that she would know what he meant. Come home. He cleared his suddenly thick throat and blinked his eyes.

When he looked back, Crews and Reese were still in the exact same posture. "Detective Crews," Bodner said brusquely, " I think it's past time you got your ass in the car so that we could maybe work on getting our stories straight, or you know, not be here if Roman changes his mind."

Crews eyes lingered on his partner's face as he answered Bodner. "Not going to happen," he said, confirming Bodner's suspicions,"but, as to stories … yes." Crews rose up from his crouch, pulled an orange out of his pocket and placed it in Reese's palm, then reached across her for his gun, cuffs and phone, before he smoothly got into the back seat. "Stories …" he said again, dialing his phone.

"Crews … " Reese said questioningly.

Crews held up a finger and Bodner rolled his eyes, but put his foot on the gas and drove back toward the highway. He'd trusted the man this far – he could wait a little longer. Reese was more impatient, however, twisted up in her seatbelt as she turned around in her seat, watching Crews. Bodner wondered if she realized that she was holding the orange cupped over her heart.

"Ms. Puryer?" Crews paused, watching Reese. "Yes, it's Charlie Crews. Put Rayborn on the phone, please." His smile, which Bodner could see in the rear view mirror, was cold.

Reese made a noise of warning and reached a hand toward her partner as if to stop him. Crews caught the tip of her finger between his thumb and index finger and shook it and his head at the same time.

"Oh, I'm sure he is tied up at the moment," Crews said sardonically, "but he doesn't have to speak. In fact, I'd prefer it that way. Just put the phone against his head, or put me on speaker." He paused again. "Whichever your pleasure, Ms. Puryer."

"Ah, speaker it is,” he said to Dani Reese, and then spoke in a firm clear voice. "Rayborn --you'll be happy to know that I'm looking at Dani Reese right now." He paused, and Bodner saw his eyes soften as he looked at his partner. "I know that you were friends with her father." His peculiar emphasis on the word friends was brittle and sarcastic, and Bodner wondered exactly how much Charlie Crews knew about this whole confusing scenario, and if he'd ever explain it to him. "You'll be less happy to know," he said, "that as of right now, you are completely broke. Your money," and this was definitely said with a sneer, "is taking a little trip around the world."

He listened to the phone.

"Actually, Ms. Puryer, as I'm sure you're seeing, anything is possible when you let Ted Earley sit at your desk. He's very fast, and he's very good, and well, none of that is your fault. You wanted me to find Rayborn's body, and I did. As to the rest, my business with Mr. Rayborn is my business, but I assure you, if he owes you any compensation, you will be paid."

There was a momentary pause while Charlie Crews listened.

"No," Crews said, and his tone was deadly. "You're going to do exactly what I tell you. You're going down to headquarters and tell them that until you knew for sure that your old friend's daughter was safe that you couldn't reveal the whole story. I'll even let you claim that you paid the ransom for her safety, which I delivered. Tell them Roman tried to pull a long con with one of his Natashas so that he would own all your holdings after your death, and when you figured it out, he threatened to kill you, and that's why you faked your own death."

Crews paused again, squinting as he listened. "Because if you don't," he said, looking at his watch, "in a few short hours, the media will be speculating about how the length of your expected prison sentence will make Bernie Madoff's look quaint." Crews looked up at Reese with a sunny smile and pulled another orange out of his pocket. Bodner stopped at a red light and turned to look at them both, watching Reese challenge Crews silently for more explanation.

"Oh, didn't I mention that part?" Crews said happily, looking right at Reese. "It seems that you've been making your money the old-fashioned way: defrauding pension funds." He continued on in a cheery voice. "Public pension funds like the LAPD's, which includes the Survivors Fund for the widows of slain officers." He waited a beat, while Bodner pursed his lips and blew out a breath, miming a whistle in the rear view mirror as he got the car moving again. Crews smirked at him. "Not to mention the Corrections Officers Pension Fund. Oh," he added, as if it were an afterthought. "Both federal and state, which I believe includes county officers as well."

He covered the receiver with his hand and murmured "I really like it when Ted is thorough," to Reese in a delighted tone.

Crews listened for a few seconds more before he smiled a very chilly smile that made Bodner wonder exactly how he'd killed Roman Nevikov. "Detective Reese and I will be at headquarters in thirty minutes," he said. "I'd suggest that you be there, and be talking, long before us. Make it good, kiddo." Crews uttered the last word with such scorn that Dani Reese tilted her head at him, but Charlie Crews snapped his phone shut, and sat there, watching his partner watch him.

"Crews …" she said in a warning tone.

"It's a long story," he said breezily, rubbing a hand against his jaw.

"I've got plenty of time," she said briskly.

This time, when Charlie Crews smiled one of his toothy smiles, it was completely for real. "Yes, you do," he said to his partner fondly. "Yes, you do."

~*~

Six

Current Mood: creative

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

teenwitch77.livejournal.com

I am so excited to see a long post-One fic, you have no idea. Awesome start. I love witnessing this moment through the eyes of a third party, because we're voyeurs to this whole relationship to begin with, so the ambiguity works wonderfully.

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