Truth And Life (5/5)
by Namarie

Spoilers: IWTB, all of Life
Keywords: MSR, XF/Life.
Rating: PG-13
Summary, disclaimers, etc. same as in part 1, which I posted way
back in... October. It's been a busy bunch of months. Sorry about
the wait!

Many thanks once again to missmonkeh and to comice for sticking
with this story, and for their excellent suggestions.


Chapter 5

Charlie stopped moving, and took a deep breath. "Mr. Rayborn,"
he said, keeping his tone falsely polite. Out of the corner of his eye,
he thought he saw Reese shoot him a glance. "I'm sure you're calling
to express your condolences to my partner for her loss. But that
would mean you meant to call her, not me. Should I give the phone
to her?"

"No, actually I did want to talk to you, Detective," Rayborn replied
smoothly.

"Really?" Charlie clenched his jaw. "Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Rayborn,
but now is not really a good time. I have company, and also a lot of
paperwork to fill out."

Rayborn chuckled, and then sighed. "You're right about that.
Murder does tend to generate a lot of paperwork for everyone
involved - but then, I guess you already know that from personal
experience."

*I will not give in to anger,* Charlie told himself, reaching inward to
hold onto his calm. "I'm sure we'll talk later, Mr. Rayborn," he said
pleasantly. "Goodbye."

"Who was that?" Dana asked as he shut off the phone.

"No one important." Charlie crossed the hallway to Reese and
looked at her. "Is he on the way?"

She nodded, still looking stunned. "Yeah. He, uh, said he'd take
care of contacting the CSIs and the coroner, and...everything."

"Okay, good." His gaze lingered on her for a moment. Tidwell was a
good guy, he mused. Then he turned back to Dana and Mulder,
who were looking a bit out of place. "Our boss is on the way."

She and Mulder exchanged glances. "Are you two going to be in
trouble for investigating this on your own, unofficially?"

Charlie smiled grimly, remembering the applause he had been given
as he walked into the station with Kyle Hollis. "I think this might
actually go over better, since I wasn't working alone."

Dana nodded, watching him carefully. "Even if you were also
working the case with a couple of civilians? I just... I don't want to
cause you any problems."

"Don't worry about it," Charlie said - although he had been thinking
about the implications himself. He smiled again. "IAD and I already
go way back. And besides, since it wasn't an official case until now,
it shouldn't be a problem."

"All right." She turned to Mulder again for a few moments. They
didn't exchange any words, but Charlie could tell they had both just
come to the same conclusion. "Charlie, the police are going to want
to question us."

He looked at her calmly. "Yep."

"So we'll just tell them what we know of the case, then," she
continued, emphasizing the word know.

"Sounds good to me," Charlie replied. He didn't see any reason to
worry about their discretion.

Within a few minutes, increased sounds of activity upstairs
announced the arrival of Tidwell and everyone else who had to be
called in a situation like this. Charlie moved to stand behind Reese -
close enough that if she leaned back, she would feel him. 

The Captain was at the head of the group that came down the stairs.
The concern was clear in his eyes as his gaze found Reese, but he
kept things professional. "I'm sorry to have gotten this news,
Detective Reese. How are you doing?"

Reese had pulled herself together for the moment, Charlie could see.
She stood up straight as she said, "As well as can be expected, sir.
Thanks."

Tidwell nodded. "Good." Then his eyes moved over to where Dana
and Mulder were standing. "Uh, you two have any introductions you
want to make?"

Charlie motioned for them to come over. "Yeah. Captain, this is my
sister Dana and her partner Fox Mulder. They're visiting from
Virginia, and they volunteered to help us out."

"Nice to meet you," the Captain said, obviously still a little confused
at their presence. "You're not in law enforcement, are you?"

"No," Dana said with a polite smile. "We were, though."

"Until we parted ways with the Bureau a few years back," Mulder
added.

"Okay." Tidwell glanced toward Charlie for a second, eyebrows
raised, and then said, "I'll ask you both to go with some of our
uniforms for now, just so we can get the official investigation going
right away." To Charlie's relief, he pointed in the direction of Bobby
Stark.

Charlie met his sister's eyes. "See you later."

Reese had already turned to walk back toward the freezer. To
Charlie's further relief, she stopped outside the door and gave no
sign she wanted to go inside. "This is the crime scene."

"All right. We'll take it from here," Tidwell said. "Detectives, I
suggest you head back to the station to give your reports - and then
I don't want to see either of you at work for a while. We can figure
out the details later."

Charlie stood aside to let Reese pass him on her way out, then
followed her quickly. As soon as they were out of the building, she
stopped and faced him. "You got a call from Rayborn while I was
calling Tidwell?"

"Yeah." Charlie took a sharp breath. "I don't understand how he
could know we found your father just a few minutes after we knew."

Reese's eyes darkened, and she swore out loud. "Someone must've
tipped him off at the station, when I called it in."

"Someone," he repeated grimly.

They made their way to Reese's car. "What did Rayborn want?"
Reese asked, as she got into the passenger's seat.

Faintly surprised, Charlie climbed into the driver's seat and took the
keys she handed him. "Not sure. I told him to call back later."

A faint smile passed across her face. "I bet he wasn't expecting
that."

"Probably not," Charlie agreed, returning the smile.

The rest of the drive to the station was spent in silence. Regardless
of who had passed the word to Rayborn, it was clear when the two
of them arrived that it had already spread throughout the whole
department. Charlie had to restrain himself from putting his arm
around his partner in a protective gesture that she probably would
not appreciate at this moment - but he did move closer to her as the
other officers shot sympathetic or openly curious glances their way.

For her part, Reese kept her head up and her eyes straight ahead.
She stayed focused on writing her report until she was done,
although Charlie thought he might have glimpsed her swipe her hand
across her eyes once during the process.

As he was nearing the end of his report, the elevator doors opened,
and Bobby ushered Dana and Mulder through ahead of him. Charlie
stood to meet them.

"Hey. Did Bobby treat you two all right?" he asked, smiling to make
sure his former partner knew he was kidding.

"Yes, he was very helpful and polite," Dana said.

Bobby grinned and scratched the back of his neck. "Bet that's a
surprise for you to hear, Charlie."

"Nah," Charlie said, "I knew you had it in you somewhere."

Mulder, who had been looking in Reese's direction through most of
this conversation, asked quietly, "How is your partner doing?"

"She'll be all right," he answered, after a pause. "But not yet."

Mulder nodded.

There was another brief period of silence. Then Bobby cleared his
throat. "Well, Charlie, I gotta get back to work, so I'll leave your
guests with you. Let me know if you need anything, okay? And...
and tell Reese I'm really sorry about her dad."

"Okay." Charlie smiled at his old partner again. "Thanks, Bobby."

"Sure thing. Nice to meet you both."

Charlie searched his sister's eyes. "So how was the debrief, really?"

"It was fine." She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Do you
want us to go back to your house, now that it's done?"

Frowning, Charlie took a glance at Reese, who looked to be
finishing up, and then back at his guests. "I don't think I'll be too
much longer here. I can call Ted and update him so he knows to
expect you. Oh." Charlie pulled out his cell phone as another thought
occurred to him. "And you need a ride back to your car."

After some discussion during which Charlie managed to convince
them to accept some cash for a cab, he let Ted know what was
going on and headed back to his desk. Reese was staring at the
report in front of her, unmoving.

"Hey." Charlie touched her lightly on the shoulder, and she jumped.

"Oh. Sorry." She sighed and stood up. "You finished?"

"Yep." He took the report from her. "Do you want to drive home,
or do you want me to drive?"


Reese raised her eyebrow. "We came here in the same car, Crews.
I'll drive you home."

"That works, too," he said easily.

As soon as they got to her car, Charlie stopped and stood with his
hand near his jacket pocket, waiting. He wouldn't have to wait long,
he was sure.

"Crews?"

Before he could say anything, his phone rang. He answered it,
exchanging a glance with Reese as he did so. "Hello."

"You have a little more time to talk now, Detective?" Rayborn
asked.

"Yeah, I do, Rayborn," he replied, opening the car door. "Thanks
for asking." Reese looked at him in question, and he motioned for
her to start the car.

"Good." A sigh carried over the line. "You know, kiddo, I've got to
congratulate you and your partner on your quick work in finding
Jack Reese. It couldn't have been easy, tracking down where that
animal Roman stashed him, but you did it."

"We had some help, actually," Charlie said.

"Oh, that's right," Rayborn said, "your guests. That would be your
half-sister and her... partner, if I'm correct. They certainly have an
interesting history."

Charlie realized that, once again, he was gripping the phone so hard
it hurt. "What do you want, Rayborn?"

"What do I want?" The man laughed. "I think you have some idea of
that - you being such a good detective and all."

He did have a good idea. "I thought I'd made it clear I wasn't
interested in your offer. If I wasn't clear enough the first time, let me
fix that right now: I'm not interested."


Reese shot him a look as Rayborn said, "Well, that seems a little
ungrateful, kiddo. After all, if it weren't for my interest in you, that
whole issue of you kidnapping me to hand over to Roman in
exchange for your Detective Reese would have caused you a little
bit more hassle. Probably more prison time, in fact - and I think we
can agree that you've had enough of that."

Charlie was silent. He had the beginnings of a headache, and the
feeling it was only going to get worse the longer this conversation
went on. The furor surrounding his actions in rescuing Reese had
been serious - but it had passed with much less trouble than he had
expected. Tidwell had done his best to smooth things over, he knew,
more for Reese's sake than his. But even he had told Charlie that he
was one lucky guy for getting through it with the relatively minor
consequences he had been given.

"On a related subject," Rayborn continued in a matter-of-fact tone,
"I guess I have you to thank for getting rid of Roman. He was way
out of hand. By the way, how does it feel to have committed the
kind of crime you were sent to prison for?"

"I don't owe you anything, Rayborn," Charlie shot back, and then
took a breath, trying once more to hold onto his calm. "It was your
Group's plans that sent me inside for twelve years, even if you didn't
mean for that to happen. You'll just have to get along without me
somehow."

Through the window, Charlie saw that they were almost to his
house. "Was there anything else?" he asked. "'Cuz I've got a lot
more important things on my schedule for today."

Rayborn was quiet for a few seconds. "Yeah. You can pass on my
condolences to Detective Reese." He sounded oddly sincere. "I'm
very sorry for her loss. Jack was a good man, and a good friend -
and I know he cared about his daughter, even if he wasn't great at
showing it."

"All right."

Before he hung up, Rayborn got in one more word. "And let me
know if you change your mind, kiddo. I'm sure we'll talk again."

Reese pulled up outside his house. She turned off the motor and
turned to face him. "You didn't tell me Rayborn had offered you
anything," she remarked, sounding faintly accusing.

"It wasn't important," Charlie told her. "I'm never going to take him
up on it."

She kept her eyes on his, insistent. "How much do you know about
Rayborn's Group? What do they want with you? Was he threatening
you?"

"Reese," Charlie said, and then sighed. He rubbed a hand across his
face. "To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of
person."

"I don't need your Zen right now, Crews," she said, frustration
evident in her expression. "Just tell me."

Looking out through the windshield at his house, Charlie thought
about his sister and Mulder inside, relaxing together   or knowing
Dana at least, worrying about him. This was not something he'd be
sharing with her, but Reese needed to know. She had the right to
know what kind of a man her partner was.

"That day," Charlie said quietly, "Rayborn told me he'd known me
for a long time, since before prison, and that he'd marked me as the
one to take over when he got too old." He could hear the bitterness
in his tone, but didn't bother trying to hide it. "He said as it turned
out, I'm an even better fit for the job now. And maybe he's right."
*Only a certain kind of person could do what I've done,* he
thought, *and so I must be that kind of person after all.*

Silence fell in the car, and Charlie unbuckled his seatbelt. "Oh, and
Rayborn sends you his condolences," he said, reaching for the door.

"Crews."

Charlie stopped and turned to her. She was serious, but no longer
accusing.

"What, Reese?"

She leaned closer, and put her hand on his. "Rayborn is a
manipulative liar with an over-inflated opinion of his own importance.
Don't just accept what he says as truth." With a gleam of challenge
in her eyes, she added, "I didn't think you were ready to let
someone else define who you are, Crews. Isn't Zen about knowing
yourself?"

"Yeah, it is." Charlie smiled. It was a lifelong journey, to be sure.
"Thanks for the ride."

"You're welcome."

As he got out of the car, Charlie turned around again. "I'm sorry
about your dad, Reese," he told her.

Reese nodded, her eyes dropping away from his. "Thanks."

Charlie watched her drive away for a few seconds before heading
toward his front door. He hoped Reese would spend time with her
remaining family now, to help them all heal as well as possible.

~

Upon coming inside, Charlie noted quickly that most of the lights
were off, except one on the second floor. He was about to go
upstairs when he heard the sliding glass door at the back of the
house open and close, so he changed course.

Ted was just sliding into the pool when Charlie got there. He
surfaced, and saw Charlie sitting on one of the deck chairs. "Hey,
Charlie. How's Reese?"

He took a breath. "About as good as you could expect. I think she'll
be okay, though. Are Dana and Mulder still around?"

Ted nodded. "Yeah. I think they're in their room packing."

"Packing?" Charlie frowned. It seemed like they'd barely gotten to
spend any time together, and now they were getting ready to leave?

"Uh huh," Ted said. "Your sister said she didn't want to be in the
way when you went back to work, and also something about--" He
hesitated. "Charlie, do you have a brother, too?"

"Half-brother," Charlie said. *Or maybe less than that, at this
point.* "Older."

"Oh." He looked like he was trying not to be so surprised, this time.

"Did she say they were going to visit him?"

"I think so," Ted replied. "But you should ask her yourself."

After a period of silence, Ted started to swim a few laps, and
Charlie leaned back against the back of the chair. So, Dana was
going to visit Bill, was she? He tried to picture his brother's face in
more detail, and was shocked when he found that he couldn't recall
everything -  and how much it hurt to realize this.

Ted came up for air at the opposite end of the pool, and Charlie
stood up. "I'm gonna go talk to my sister," he announced.

"Okay," Ted said.

Charlie walked upstairs slowly, lost in memories of his family, back
when they had been a family - before he had found out the truth
about his father, before he'd moved away and gotten married to Jen,
and before he'd gone to prison for twelve years. He thought of
Reese's stricken expression as she stared at the lifeless body of her
father, and remembered the pain he'd felt when news of his mother's
death had reached him.

He stopped at the top of the staircase. Maybe it was time to start
again with the remaining members of his family, too. Reese would be
on compassionate leave for a while, he knew, and during that time
he would not have to be in at the station every day. But it wasn't
going to be easy, dealing with the years of separation and bitterness.
He didn't want to go far from Reese, either, in case she needed him.

At least he had already had this time to reconnect with Dana, he
reflected. With that thought in mind, Charlie continued toward her
and Mulder's room.

The door was partially open, and when Charlie pushed it further,
Ted's report that Mulder and Dana were packing was confirmed.
Dana looked up from where she was kneeling next to her mostly full
suitcase. "Oh, Charlie, you're back."

"Yeah," he said, leaning against the door frame. "I take it you two
aren't planning to stick around much longer?"

She looked at Mulder, who had paused in the middle of folding
clothes on the bed. "Well, we thought we'd leave after breakfast
tomorrow, if that's not a problem for you."

"Places to go?" Charlie asked mildly. He smiled a little, trying not to
come off as either hurt or too casual.

Dana wasn't fooled, obviously. She stood up and crossed to where
he was standing. "Charlie," she said, "if you can get the time off,
Mulder and I would love it if you could come out and spend some
time with us this Christmas. And I want us to stay in touch between
now and then. But you've got your job, and your partner dealing
with her father's death, and we don't want to be in your way."

"My house is huge, Dana," he protested. He glanced at Mulder,
who was now seated on the edge of the bed. "You guys won't get in
the way."

She shook her head and smiled. "You do realize I have a medical
practice to get back to, at some point."

"And the FBI is bound to need me soon, to give my particular insight
on the latest paranormal-tinged case," Mulder put in, at which point
his sister just rolled her eyes.

"Well, if you put it that way," Charlie said, and pulled Dana into a
hug. When they separated, he looked her in the eye, took a deep
breath, and asked, "Are you going to visit Bill before you head back
east?"

Dana squared her shoulders. "Yes. For just a day or so, while he's
in town." She paused, and then added, "You know, I really think he
does want to see you, Charlie. He's just... not very good at making
the first move."

Mulder snorted, and Dana shot him a dirty look. Charlie raised his
eyebrows, wondering about the history there. "Well," he said finally,
"maybe next time he's in town then, if he's only around for a few
days right now."

She nodded. "I'll tell him you said that, okay?"

"Sure."

Dana was just about to turn back toward her suitcase when a
thought occurred to Charlie. "Do you have any recent family pictures
from Bill?"

Her face registered surprise and then sadness before she said,
"Yeah, I have a bunch in my wallet. Mulder, can you hand me my
purse?"

Mulder passed the bag across the bed to Dana, who quickly found
her wallet for Charlie. "Here you go," she said. "They're mostly
pretty recent pictures. You can borrow them for a while, if you
want."

Charlie had already glanced at the pictures, and realized he hadn't
quite prepared for the wave of emotion he felt upon seeing pictures
of Bill, his wife, and his son. A nephew that Charlie had never met.
He swallowed, and looked up briefly. "Thanks." Clearing his throat,
he asked, "You both free for dinner in a few hours?"

"I think we'll have managed to get almost everything packed by
then," Mulder said with a smile.

"Great," Charlie said. "I'll see you then."

~

Charlie walked with them to the front door, and stopped as they
both turned to face him.

"Well," Mulder said, holding out his hand, "it was good to meet you,
Charlie, and thanks for letting us stay at your house while we weren't
out investigating."

Charlie shook his hand firmly. "Good to meet you, too, Mulder.
Thanks for helping Reese and me."

Mulder nodded. "You can tell Reese that Scully and I were glad to
be able to help, even a little."

"I'll do that."

Charlie turned his gaze to his sister. She bit her lip, and then hugged
him again, as tightly as she had when they'd first come across each
other on the beach. "I'm glad we ran into each other, Charlie," she
said, her voice choked.

"Me, too," he answered, closing his eyes again and savoring the feel
of her in his arms. It wouldn't be so long between hugs this time, he
knew, but still. Moments like this needed to be enjoyed.

"You're going to come out and visit us soon?" Dana asked, as they
pulled apart.

Charlie nodded. It would be the first time he'd left the West Coast in
almost two decades... but he found himself looking forward to it.

"Good." She looked up at him again, and said, "Please tell Dani it
was good to meet her, and that we're both sorry it couldn't have
been in better circumstances."

He nodded again. "But I'm sure you'll be seeing more of her, when
you next come out here."

Dana smiled. "You're right," she said. There was something in her
expression that made Charlie think she might be agreeing to more
than he had been saying, but he let it pass.

"Have a safe trip," Charlie said, looking from his sister to Mulder
and back again after a short pause. With final goodbyes exchanged,
they headed out the door.

He stayed at the doorway long after their car had left the driveway.
When he finally turned around to head toward the bowl of fruit in his
kitchen, Charlie was smiling. He knew there would be plenty of
difficult things to deal with in the next few days - and he hoped he
could help Reese deal with the difficult things in her life as well. But
for now, he felt surprisingly at peace.

~

Author's Final Note: Thanks for sticking with this story to the end! It
has been a lot of fun to write, and has helped keep my love of
Charlie and his universe alive. I know Zen tells us we're not
supposed to get attached to anything in life, but I sure am attached
to this show. *sigh*