Fic: Found (Life, 1/1)
Because I haven't posted any fic in all of two days - heh.
Title: Found
Characters: Reese, Crews, Ted, Tidwell, Bobby Stark
Rating: PG-13 for somewhat disturbing imagery
Spoilers: Post-season 2
Summary: It's Reese's turn to do the rescuing.
Disclaimer: I do not own this show or these characters.
Author's Note: Yet more thanks to astrothsknot for her excellent beta skills!
~
Monday, 8:23 am
Dani picks up the phone, ready to ask her partner why he didn't call her cell and why he seems to have forgotten about work today, but instead a shaky-sounding voice says, “Hello, is this Detective Reese?”
“Yeah, who is this?”
“It's Ted Earley, Charlie's roommate. I-- I need to talk to you.”
“About Charlie?” she asks, her heart sinking.
“Yeah. He went out for a walk earlier this morning, and... and then I got a call.” Ted takes a deep breath. “They want his settlement money. All of it.”
Hastily, she picks up a pencil and a notepad, struggling to stay focused on the job at hand. There is procedure to follow now. “What else did they say?”
“It was a man who did the talking,” Ted replies, and Reese gets the feeling he's doing his best to stay calm, as well. “I didn't recognize the voice, but he said I have until 8:30 tonight to get everything together, or...”
He trails off, but she can fill in the blank. “All right. Um, does Crews have his cell phone with him?”
“He took it with him when he left,” Ted tells her. “But I've already tried calling it several times. I'm sure the kidnappers have gotten rid of it by now.”
“Probably, but I'll get it traced just in case,” she says, scribbling a note to that effect. “Where are you supposed to deliver the money?”
Ted relays the kidnappers' instructions to deliver it to a local street corner next to the newspaper stand - with the usual warnings of no police contact, come alone, etc. When Dani asks if the kidnapper allowed Ted to speak to Crews, he hesitates.
“He did let Charlie say a few words to make sure I believed they had him,” Ted confirms. “But, uh... he sounded bad. Like he'd been drugged, or beaten, or maybe both.”
Reese blows out her breath, dropping the pen and rubbing a hand across her forehead. This is sounding uglier by the minute. “Ted, we're going to find him,” she says, assuring herself as much as Crews' roommate. “I'll get someone on tracing his cell phone immediately, and we'll start looking. And we will find him and whoever took him.” She is about to remind him to keep in contact, but he anticipates her.
“Yeah. The guy didn't say they were going to call again, but I'll let you know if I hear anything else.” He hangs up.
Dani practically runs to Tidwell's office, ignoring the closed door and bursting right in. He's on the phone, but he hangs up a second after her entrance.
“Crews has been kidnapped. They called his roommate, gave him twelve hours to deliver all his settlement money, and threatened to kill him if their instructions aren't followed.”
Tidwell's face registers shock and dismay, and then resolve. Within minutes, there is a team mobilized: her partner's cell phone is being traced, and Reese herself is leading a task force of sorts to locate Crews. She is not surprised that Bobby Stark is the first to volunteer to be on the team.
~
Monday - Ten Hours Later
Dani is at her desk, staring off into space, trying once again to fit the pieces they've been able to gather into some kind of useful next step. There are only two hours left before the delivery is supposed to be made. Ted hasn't been contacted again. The only measurable progress they've made is locating Crews' cell phone - in a gutter about two miles from his house. Searching the surrounding area has not revealed any signs of a struggle.
“Hey.”
Tidwell's quiet voice behind her makes her jump, and she turns to glare at him. “What?”
“When was the last time you ate anything, Dani?” He doesn't look the slightest bit bothered by her attitude.
“I had breakfast.” Then she points to the coffee cup on her desk. “I have coffee.”
Tidwell just keeps looking at her, genuine concern clear in his eyes, and she finally looks down at the papers on her desk. “Look, I'm not hungry, all right?”
“Fine.” He hasn't moved. “I'll get someone to bring dinner, and you can decide whether or not you want some when it gets here.”
Reese nods. Whatever will get him off her back and let her get back to the investigation soonest.
She realizes after a few seconds that the captain is still there. Sighing, she turns to face him. “Is there something else? Sir?”
He acknowledges her attempt at civility with a half-smile before becoming serious again. “Look, Detective, I know you're worried, upset even - especially since this is all happening so soon after your own kidnapping, but--”
She is about to interrupt with a heated retort when her phone rings. It's Ted.
“Did they call again?”
“Yeah.” Sounding just as anxious as he had the last time they spoke, he continues, “I did what you said - I told them I needed more time.”
“And?” She holds her breath almost without realizing she's doing so.
He clears his throat. “They gave me until tomorrow morning, 8:30.”
“Good.” She exhales. At least they're consistent so far with the time, she thinks. “That's good news, Ted.”
“They told me this was the last time that would happen, though,” he adds. “And the officer here wasn't able to trace the call.”
“Well, that's not unexpected,” she tells him truthfully. Although of course it would have been an extremely big break.
“Sure would've been nice, though,” he mutters, echoing her thought.
When Ted hangs up, Tidwell has disappeared - but Dani does stop working long enough to eat a slice of pizza when an officer brings some in. She tries not to think about what disappointed comment Crews would make if he was here having a slice of Hawaiian pizza with her; the pineapple on top is canned, not fresh.
~
At exactly 8:32 the next morning, after Ted has dropped off the duffel bag containing $50 million in very realistic looking counterfeit hundred-dollar bills at the specified location, Reese is watching through binoculars when a kid in a black coat appears from an alley and begins sauntering casually over to the bag. He reaches to pick it up, and Reese springs into action immediately.
“That's our guy. Follow him, nice and slow.”
In the driver's seat, Stark nods while she radios in the location of the suspect to the other cars in the area. Their car starts forward.
After five minutes of tailing the kid (he can't be more than 25, Reese figures), he suddenly sprints across a crosswalk and ducks into an alley on the other side of the street.
Swearing, Dani contacts the other cops, and breathes a sigh of relief when Officer Reynolds tells her that the suspect is still in sight. “He's entering the side door of - I think it's a bar. I can't see if there's someone else inside the door or not.”
Of course it would be a bar. She takes one moment to gather her thoughts, and then tells Reynolds and his partner to wait for Stark and her to arrive before moving in. Even though she wants to get this kid right now, she won't risk two officers going in without backup... and she isn't stupid enough to think she could do this without backup, either. The other two officers are too far away at the moment for her to wait.
“So what do we have?” Stark asks, as he pulls up to the curb in front of the bar.
“Suspect is inside, that's all we know for sure,” she tells him. “I don't know about you, but I get the feeling that kid wasn't the brains of this operation.”
Stark laughs grimly at that. “Yeah, I kinda thought that myself.”
They walk up to the front door of the place. It's closed - just past 8:30 is a little early for most people - but Reese sees movement inside. Very rapid movement, in fact. Moving towards the front door. She's about to warn Stark, but when she looks over at him, he's already leveling his weapon.
The front door bursts open, and the kid with the duffel bag stops short at the sight of two gun barrels pointing directly at him. His eyes are wide as he raises his hands and tries to catch his breath.
“Going somewhere with that bag?” Reese asks him.
The kid takes a step back, shaking his head. Just then, Reynolds and his partner push him aside as they exit the building, a surly-looking guy in cuffs between them. “Look, I don't know this dude,” the man is protesting, casting a dark look at the kid.
Reese sees fear and anger cross the kid's face before anger wins out, and he drops the duffel bag. “Hey, I'm not sticking to any plan now, Jerry,” he says, turning to face the older man. “I don't want to go to prison for kidnapping!”
“You shut up,” Jerry spits, his lunge toward him halted immediately by the two officers at his sides.
“Whoa, there. You might want to take it easy, Jerry.” Reynolds leads him none too gently down the front steps of the bar.
The kid seems to remember that there are guns pointed at him. He raises his hands again, and Reese nods for Stark to cuff him. “All I was supposed to do was go pick up the money,” Jerry's friend says mournfully.
“Yeah, well, looks like it's gonna end up as more than that,” Stark tells him, and reads him his rights.
Dani holsters her gun. Finally, it looks like they at least have a chance of finding Crews - assuming he isn't just locked up in this building somewhere. She only hopes he's more or less in one piece when they do find him.
~
Tuesday, 1:42 pm
Reese stands up from the seat across from Jerry again, glaring at him. Her patience, already in short supply, is just about gone. The fact that this lowlife has Crews' location but refuses to tell her almost pushes her over the edge - but to her surprise, she finds that some of her partner's Zen ability to be still and hold back his emotions must have rubbed off. Instead of yelling or threatening violence (her size has not prevented her from being effective with this last course of action in the past), she simply begins to lay out exactly what will happen to Jerry if he keeps silent and an LAPD detective ends up dead as a result.
“We've already got you on kidnapping, Jerry,” she tells him, watching his eyes as he shifts in his seat. “But if Detective Crews ends up dead - which is what your buddy said would happen without the ransom - then we add accessory to murder.” She pauses, as Jerry meets her gaze and then looks away. “And Jerry, murdering a cop? Really not something you want on your résumé.”
Jerry is silent, but clearly hovering on the edge of terror. When Reese sighs and begins to leave the room, he quickly calls her back. With desperation in his voice, he says, “Look, I-- I'm not sure where he is. I only saw him once, and Fang told me he was gonna be moved, but he didn't say where.”
“All right.” Dani sits back down. “Then give me your best guesses where Fang might be holding him... and I'll tell the judge how helpful you were.”
After she's gotten all the information on possible locations from him, Reese gets up to pass this along to Tidwell and the other members of the task force. She is halted once again at the door by a plea for her to wait.
“Something to add, Jerry?” she asks in some irritation, turning around to look at him.
He hesitates. “Uh, I just wanted to say... I never wanted anyone dead. I just wanted my share of the money. But, um, Fang - it's like he had something against Crews. I heard him say something about how if he couldn't get at some guy named Rayborn, he'd get at Charlie Crews.”
She takes a deep breath. Of course, there would be some tie to Rayborn in this. The man seems to have a finger in every mess in LA. “That could be important, Jerry,” she tells him. “Thanks.”
~
Tuesday, 8:16 pm
It takes an infuriatingly long time to narrow down and search the possible locations Jerry gave her. By the time her teams have it narrowed down to one ancient, dingy two-level apartment complex, Reese feels the ticking of the clock like some kind of specter hovering over her.
She can barely wait until the car is parked before she throws open the door. It is only with her strongest effort of will that she is able to wait outside until the SWAT team has cleared the complex.
The SWAT leader approaches her upon exiting the apartment. “We've cleared everything except one locked door at the end of a hall. There's no sign of the suspect, unless he's staying very quiet behind that door.”
Reese nods. “Let's check it out, then.”
“All right.”
She pushes past the other cops into the hallway. Halted by the heavy locked door, she waits in undisguised irritation for SWAT and the rest of her backup to catch up with her and break it down.
The splintered door leads to a dark, narrow staircase. Reese feels sick, imagining what her partner must have been going through in the time it took for her to find him. Almost thirty-six hours... She moves down the stairs as quickly as she can without stumbling.
At the bottom of the stairs, in the beam of her flashlight, she spies a pull-chain for a light and pulls it. The single bulb illuminates the dirty, cluttered room - and to her right, under the stairs, another door. A closet door, by the looks of it.
Oh, my God, she thinks, the sick feeling in her gut increasing. They put him in there?! “Crews?” she calls out, walking toward the closet.
There is no response. Dani meets Stark's eyes and sees her own anger and fear reflected there. “Should we break down this door, too?”
“No. There's not even enough space in there for him to get out of the way.”
Looking chagrined, Stark nods. Dani walks to the door and sees in the faint light that the key is in the lock - a small mercy. There is also a bolt at the top, which she unlocks. “Crews, are you in here?”
Over the mutters of conversation from the other officers, Reese thinks she hears a faint sound. Hastily, she unlocks the deadbolt and pulls open the door.
The closet is slightly bigger than she had imagined, but Crews' curled form still takes up almost all of the floor space. Heart pounding, she shines her flashlight beam toward but not directly at her partner's face. His eyes are open but empty.
She kneels down and sets the flashlight on the cold floor. “Crews,” she says softly, “can you hear me?”
He makes no reply other than to turn towards her voice fractionally.
“Oh, God,” Stark says from behind her. He swallows. “I'll call for an ambulance. Hang in there, Charlie, okay?” He departs.
Dani reaches out slowly and puts her hand on his bare forearm. Crews flinches but doesn't draw away. “Crews, it's me. It's Reese.” She sees with a pang that his hands are bruised and spotted with dried blood.
She keeps her hand on his arm, watching him as he draws a slow, deep breath. Awareness seems to seep back into his staring eyes. He blinks and turns to face her completely. “Hey, Reese,” he says, his voice a raspy imitation of its usual cheer. “You found me.”
With a smile, she clears her throat. “Yeah, Crews. I did.”
~
Title: Found
Characters: Reese, Crews, Ted, Tidwell, Bobby Stark
Rating: PG-13 for somewhat disturbing imagery
Spoilers: Post-season 2
Summary: It's Reese's turn to do the rescuing.
Disclaimer: I do not own this show or these characters.
Author's Note: Yet more thanks to astrothsknot for her excellent beta skills!
~
Monday, 8:23 am
Dani picks up the phone, ready to ask her partner why he didn't call her cell and why he seems to have forgotten about work today, but instead a shaky-sounding voice says, “Hello, is this Detective Reese?”
“Yeah, who is this?”
“It's Ted Earley, Charlie's roommate. I-- I need to talk to you.”
“About Charlie?” she asks, her heart sinking.
“Yeah. He went out for a walk earlier this morning, and... and then I got a call.” Ted takes a deep breath. “They want his settlement money. All of it.”
Hastily, she picks up a pencil and a notepad, struggling to stay focused on the job at hand. There is procedure to follow now. “What else did they say?”
“It was a man who did the talking,” Ted replies, and Reese gets the feeling he's doing his best to stay calm, as well. “I didn't recognize the voice, but he said I have until 8:30 tonight to get everything together, or...”
He trails off, but she can fill in the blank. “All right. Um, does Crews have his cell phone with him?”
“He took it with him when he left,” Ted tells her. “But I've already tried calling it several times. I'm sure the kidnappers have gotten rid of it by now.”
“Probably, but I'll get it traced just in case,” she says, scribbling a note to that effect. “Where are you supposed to deliver the money?”
Ted relays the kidnappers' instructions to deliver it to a local street corner next to the newspaper stand - with the usual warnings of no police contact, come alone, etc. When Dani asks if the kidnapper allowed Ted to speak to Crews, he hesitates.
“He did let Charlie say a few words to make sure I believed they had him,” Ted confirms. “But, uh... he sounded bad. Like he'd been drugged, or beaten, or maybe both.”
Reese blows out her breath, dropping the pen and rubbing a hand across her forehead. This is sounding uglier by the minute. “Ted, we're going to find him,” she says, assuring herself as much as Crews' roommate. “I'll get someone on tracing his cell phone immediately, and we'll start looking. And we will find him and whoever took him.” She is about to remind him to keep in contact, but he anticipates her.
“Yeah. The guy didn't say they were going to call again, but I'll let you know if I hear anything else.” He hangs up.
Dani practically runs to Tidwell's office, ignoring the closed door and bursting right in. He's on the phone, but he hangs up a second after her entrance.
“Crews has been kidnapped. They called his roommate, gave him twelve hours to deliver all his settlement money, and threatened to kill him if their instructions aren't followed.”
Tidwell's face registers shock and dismay, and then resolve. Within minutes, there is a team mobilized: her partner's cell phone is being traced, and Reese herself is leading a task force of sorts to locate Crews. She is not surprised that Bobby Stark is the first to volunteer to be on the team.
~
Monday - Ten Hours Later
Dani is at her desk, staring off into space, trying once again to fit the pieces they've been able to gather into some kind of useful next step. There are only two hours left before the delivery is supposed to be made. Ted hasn't been contacted again. The only measurable progress they've made is locating Crews' cell phone - in a gutter about two miles from his house. Searching the surrounding area has not revealed any signs of a struggle.
“Hey.”
Tidwell's quiet voice behind her makes her jump, and she turns to glare at him. “What?”
“When was the last time you ate anything, Dani?” He doesn't look the slightest bit bothered by her attitude.
“I had breakfast.” Then she points to the coffee cup on her desk. “I have coffee.”
Tidwell just keeps looking at her, genuine concern clear in his eyes, and she finally looks down at the papers on her desk. “Look, I'm not hungry, all right?”
“Fine.” He hasn't moved. “I'll get someone to bring dinner, and you can decide whether or not you want some when it gets here.”
Reese nods. Whatever will get him off her back and let her get back to the investigation soonest.
She realizes after a few seconds that the captain is still there. Sighing, she turns to face him. “Is there something else? Sir?”
He acknowledges her attempt at civility with a half-smile before becoming serious again. “Look, Detective, I know you're worried, upset even - especially since this is all happening so soon after your own kidnapping, but--”
She is about to interrupt with a heated retort when her phone rings. It's Ted.
“Did they call again?”
“Yeah.” Sounding just as anxious as he had the last time they spoke, he continues, “I did what you said - I told them I needed more time.”
“And?” She holds her breath almost without realizing she's doing so.
He clears his throat. “They gave me until tomorrow morning, 8:30.”
“Good.” She exhales. At least they're consistent so far with the time, she thinks. “That's good news, Ted.”
“They told me this was the last time that would happen, though,” he adds. “And the officer here wasn't able to trace the call.”
“Well, that's not unexpected,” she tells him truthfully. Although of course it would have been an extremely big break.
“Sure would've been nice, though,” he mutters, echoing her thought.
When Ted hangs up, Tidwell has disappeared - but Dani does stop working long enough to eat a slice of pizza when an officer brings some in. She tries not to think about what disappointed comment Crews would make if he was here having a slice of Hawaiian pizza with her; the pineapple on top is canned, not fresh.
~
At exactly 8:32 the next morning, after Ted has dropped off the duffel bag containing $50 million in very realistic looking counterfeit hundred-dollar bills at the specified location, Reese is watching through binoculars when a kid in a black coat appears from an alley and begins sauntering casually over to the bag. He reaches to pick it up, and Reese springs into action immediately.
“That's our guy. Follow him, nice and slow.”
In the driver's seat, Stark nods while she radios in the location of the suspect to the other cars in the area. Their car starts forward.
After five minutes of tailing the kid (he can't be more than 25, Reese figures), he suddenly sprints across a crosswalk and ducks into an alley on the other side of the street.
Swearing, Dani contacts the other cops, and breathes a sigh of relief when Officer Reynolds tells her that the suspect is still in sight. “He's entering the side door of - I think it's a bar. I can't see if there's someone else inside the door or not.”
Of course it would be a bar. She takes one moment to gather her thoughts, and then tells Reynolds and his partner to wait for Stark and her to arrive before moving in. Even though she wants to get this kid right now, she won't risk two officers going in without backup... and she isn't stupid enough to think she could do this without backup, either. The other two officers are too far away at the moment for her to wait.
“So what do we have?” Stark asks, as he pulls up to the curb in front of the bar.
“Suspect is inside, that's all we know for sure,” she tells him. “I don't know about you, but I get the feeling that kid wasn't the brains of this operation.”
Stark laughs grimly at that. “Yeah, I kinda thought that myself.”
They walk up to the front door of the place. It's closed - just past 8:30 is a little early for most people - but Reese sees movement inside. Very rapid movement, in fact. Moving towards the front door. She's about to warn Stark, but when she looks over at him, he's already leveling his weapon.
The front door bursts open, and the kid with the duffel bag stops short at the sight of two gun barrels pointing directly at him. His eyes are wide as he raises his hands and tries to catch his breath.
“Going somewhere with that bag?” Reese asks him.
The kid takes a step back, shaking his head. Just then, Reynolds and his partner push him aside as they exit the building, a surly-looking guy in cuffs between them. “Look, I don't know this dude,” the man is protesting, casting a dark look at the kid.
Reese sees fear and anger cross the kid's face before anger wins out, and he drops the duffel bag. “Hey, I'm not sticking to any plan now, Jerry,” he says, turning to face the older man. “I don't want to go to prison for kidnapping!”
“You shut up,” Jerry spits, his lunge toward him halted immediately by the two officers at his sides.
“Whoa, there. You might want to take it easy, Jerry.” Reynolds leads him none too gently down the front steps of the bar.
The kid seems to remember that there are guns pointed at him. He raises his hands again, and Reese nods for Stark to cuff him. “All I was supposed to do was go pick up the money,” Jerry's friend says mournfully.
“Yeah, well, looks like it's gonna end up as more than that,” Stark tells him, and reads him his rights.
Dani holsters her gun. Finally, it looks like they at least have a chance of finding Crews - assuming he isn't just locked up in this building somewhere. She only hopes he's more or less in one piece when they do find him.
~
Tuesday, 1:42 pm
Reese stands up from the seat across from Jerry again, glaring at him. Her patience, already in short supply, is just about gone. The fact that this lowlife has Crews' location but refuses to tell her almost pushes her over the edge - but to her surprise, she finds that some of her partner's Zen ability to be still and hold back his emotions must have rubbed off. Instead of yelling or threatening violence (her size has not prevented her from being effective with this last course of action in the past), she simply begins to lay out exactly what will happen to Jerry if he keeps silent and an LAPD detective ends up dead as a result.
“We've already got you on kidnapping, Jerry,” she tells him, watching his eyes as he shifts in his seat. “But if Detective Crews ends up dead - which is what your buddy said would happen without the ransom - then we add accessory to murder.” She pauses, as Jerry meets her gaze and then looks away. “And Jerry, murdering a cop? Really not something you want on your résumé.”
Jerry is silent, but clearly hovering on the edge of terror. When Reese sighs and begins to leave the room, he quickly calls her back. With desperation in his voice, he says, “Look, I-- I'm not sure where he is. I only saw him once, and Fang told me he was gonna be moved, but he didn't say where.”
“All right.” Dani sits back down. “Then give me your best guesses where Fang might be holding him... and I'll tell the judge how helpful you were.”
After she's gotten all the information on possible locations from him, Reese gets up to pass this along to Tidwell and the other members of the task force. She is halted once again at the door by a plea for her to wait.
“Something to add, Jerry?” she asks in some irritation, turning around to look at him.
He hesitates. “Uh, I just wanted to say... I never wanted anyone dead. I just wanted my share of the money. But, um, Fang - it's like he had something against Crews. I heard him say something about how if he couldn't get at some guy named Rayborn, he'd get at Charlie Crews.”
She takes a deep breath. Of course, there would be some tie to Rayborn in this. The man seems to have a finger in every mess in LA. “That could be important, Jerry,” she tells him. “Thanks.”
~
Tuesday, 8:16 pm
It takes an infuriatingly long time to narrow down and search the possible locations Jerry gave her. By the time her teams have it narrowed down to one ancient, dingy two-level apartment complex, Reese feels the ticking of the clock like some kind of specter hovering over her.
She can barely wait until the car is parked before she throws open the door. It is only with her strongest effort of will that she is able to wait outside until the SWAT team has cleared the complex.
The SWAT leader approaches her upon exiting the apartment. “We've cleared everything except one locked door at the end of a hall. There's no sign of the suspect, unless he's staying very quiet behind that door.”
Reese nods. “Let's check it out, then.”
“All right.”
She pushes past the other cops into the hallway. Halted by the heavy locked door, she waits in undisguised irritation for SWAT and the rest of her backup to catch up with her and break it down.
The splintered door leads to a dark, narrow staircase. Reese feels sick, imagining what her partner must have been going through in the time it took for her to find him. Almost thirty-six hours... She moves down the stairs as quickly as she can without stumbling.
At the bottom of the stairs, in the beam of her flashlight, she spies a pull-chain for a light and pulls it. The single bulb illuminates the dirty, cluttered room - and to her right, under the stairs, another door. A closet door, by the looks of it.
Oh, my God, she thinks, the sick feeling in her gut increasing. They put him in there?! “Crews?” she calls out, walking toward the closet.
There is no response. Dani meets Stark's eyes and sees her own anger and fear reflected there. “Should we break down this door, too?”
“No. There's not even enough space in there for him to get out of the way.”
Looking chagrined, Stark nods. Dani walks to the door and sees in the faint light that the key is in the lock - a small mercy. There is also a bolt at the top, which she unlocks. “Crews, are you in here?”
Over the mutters of conversation from the other officers, Reese thinks she hears a faint sound. Hastily, she unlocks the deadbolt and pulls open the door.
The closet is slightly bigger than she had imagined, but Crews' curled form still takes up almost all of the floor space. Heart pounding, she shines her flashlight beam toward but not directly at her partner's face. His eyes are open but empty.
She kneels down and sets the flashlight on the cold floor. “Crews,” she says softly, “can you hear me?”
He makes no reply other than to turn towards her voice fractionally.
“Oh, God,” Stark says from behind her. He swallows. “I'll call for an ambulance. Hang in there, Charlie, okay?” He departs.
Dani reaches out slowly and puts her hand on his bare forearm. Crews flinches but doesn't draw away. “Crews, it's me. It's Reese.” She sees with a pang that his hands are bruised and spotted with dried blood.
She keeps her hand on his arm, watching him as he draws a slow, deep breath. Awareness seems to seep back into his staring eyes. He blinks and turns to face her completely. “Hey, Reese,” he says, his voice a raspy imitation of its usual cheer. “You found me.”
With a smile, she clears her throat. “Yeah, Crews. I did.”
~