Chapter Text
They both keep putting it off, this talk that they both feel they should have with each other about the thing they don’t dare to say out loud. There is something there, obviously, they’re not dumb enough to not see this. However, for two intelligent people they sure are acting way too foolish when it comes to this. To them.
They feel like there is a “them” to be talked about but neither can pick up clear signals from the other so they feel unsure about vocalizing it. By the time they both have sorted out their own feelings, they start worrying about how this could be a one-sided thing, and oh, wouldn’t it be awful if they ruined a good friendship for something like that?
So they choose to put their feelings aside. They date other people and get into relationships and even congratulate the other when they are in one, refusing to acknowledge their shattered heart. Because they can’t both be this dumb, can they? One of them would have the sense to say it by now, if it wasn’t one-sided, they rationalize.
They keep doing dinners and game nights and being Rex’s favorite humans in the world. The dog's keen senses never miss Charlie’s filled with adoration looks when Sarah isn’t looking or Sarah’s pain when she happens to see him kiss other women. Were he human, he still wouldn't understand why these two don't do anything to stop their suffering.
However, what may seem like an easy solution can be a complicated one for the parties involved, especially when two people care for each other deeply. Charlie has witnessed first-hand the falling out of an important relationship in his life. He is reluctant, to say the least, to dive into something so serious again just as he is starting to mend his broken heart from his first marriage. He doesn’t want Sarah to finish the job that his ex-wife had started. Not that he thinks that Sarah would cheat on him but he doesn’t think he can survive her getting out of his life if things don’t work out between them.
And Sarah knows that Charlie is a very reserved person who plays his feelings close to the vest. She only met him after his divorce but she can tell the damage that cheating does to a person. She doesn’t know if he even wants to open up his heart again completely and let someone else in. She understands it, but this also causes her to have more reservations about opening up.
So they spend their time tip-toeing around their feelings and being content with having each other close but not close enough.
Until it happens.
Until he happens.
Charlie’s phone rings in the middle of the night. That is not unusual but the words he hears once he picks it up certainly are, and almost make him sick.
Mankiewicz has escaped from prison, his whereabouts unknown. And it took two hours for the prison to inform the SJPD.
Charlie immediately hangs up and calls for Rex, while his hand is already picking up his service weapon. He is almost certain that Mankiewicz will be seeking revenge after the last time they met, when he could almost taste freedom until they thwarted his plans. Could he already be here? He doesn’t know but he won’t risk it. He starts a sweep of the house, and tells Rex to sniff out anything suspicious. Rex does so but doesn’t find anything suspicious and neither does the detective.
“He’s not here,” Charlie exhales with relief, patting the dog comfortingly. He was never here.
He picks up the phone to let Sarah know. Surely by now someone must have told her the news and she's probably already worried about him and Rex.
The phone rings and rings until it goes to voicemail. Charlie doesn’t like this. Sarah is always ready to have a case assigned to her every time she’s on call, just like he is. So she ends up leaving her phone on all the time, day and night, preferring that to missing a work call.
Why isn’t she picking up then?
Charlie wonders if the worry over Mankiewicz’s escape is getting to him, filling him with paranoia. But then he remembers their last encounter with the criminal. And he remembers how he called Sarah: Charlie’s girlfriend.
“Oh, no,” the realization hits him like a ton of bricks.
He rushes through the door, almost forgetting his car keys in the process. If he had not put on clothes as soon as he was done clearing the rooms of his house, he would have left in his pajamas because he would not waste another second. Thankfully, Rex senses his haste and doesn’t miss a beat following him to the car.
Charlie drives fast but not irresponsibly. He needs to get to Sarah’s house in one piece, he needs to know that she’s okay, needs to fill that pit of worry in his stomach with the relief of seeing her.
He phones Jesse’s number, asks him if he's had any contact with her.
“Not since yesterday. Do you think that Mankiewicz…”
“I don’t even want to think it, Jesse,” Hudson cuts him off. “I’m close to her house, I’ll check for myself. Just send backup as soon as possible.”
He hangs up and focuses on the last part of the road. He tries not to think grim thoughts, how Mankiewicz has had the advantage because of the delayed notification, how he has been harboring a grudge on all of them ever since they stopped his previous attempt to escape, how he had been almost clever enough to make it out of a building full of cops…
“Shit!” he hits the steering wheel in anger.
Rex barks at him. That brings Charlie back into a focused mode.
“You’re right, buddy, it won’t help anyone if I lose it now. We’re almost there.”
As soon as he reaches Sarah’s house, he pumps the breaks and opens the door, not bothering with parking properly. Rex follows after him.
The door is open, seeming broken into, which confirms Charlie’s worst case scenario.
Mankiewicz has already been here.
And Charlie is late.
Rex lets our a threatening growl that he reserves for people he doesn’t like. His partner can definitely smell the criminal in Sarah’s house. Charlie rushes in, abandoning all police protocol.
And comes face to face with the man himself. Holding a gun to Sarah’s head, who looks absolutely terrified. The sight makes him freeze.
“Glad you could join us, Detective,” the man says, almost gleefully.
“Mankiewicz,” Hudson growls.
He tries to assess the situation. Mankiewicz has Sarah in a chokehold, and the gun to her head doesn’t leave much room for any kind of rush action on his part. Charlie didn’t even take the time to unholster his own.
“Keep your dog away if you want your girlfriend’s brain inside her head,” the mobster threatens.
“Rex, stay,” Charlie immediately orders and his partner obeys. “Sarah, are you okay?”
“Fine,” she manages to choke out. Indeed, Mankiewicz has not touched a single hair on her head. And despite the fear, she seems ready to jump him the minute he gives her an inch, which downgrades Charlie’s pure terror enough to make him think.
“Sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night, sweetheart, but I have some unfinished business before I leave town,” the man says. “I can’t just go without a final goodbye. Hudson, tie your dog somewhere he can’t escape from and cuff yourself with your cuffs. Quickly!”
Charlie knows that if he stalls enough, the backup he has requested will arrive. But stalling would involve pissing off the man and he can’t take that chance, not when he’s pointing a gun at the woman he cares about most. He ties Rex and cuffs himself, all the while looking at Sarah as if to let her know that everything will be okay.
“Now, here’s what we’ll do. We’re all gonna get into my car. Your girlfriend will drive and I’ll be in the passenger seat, ready to pull the trigger if she doesn’t drive as fast as I tell her. Rex doesn’t come with us, he’s a magnificent dog and all, but I have a feeling he’d make my job twice as hard as you would, Hudson.”
“You don’t need Sarah, Mankiewicz,” Hudson desperately tries to convince him. “I’m a pretty good hostage on my own.”
“Oh but I do. See, I know you’ll be much more obedient if she comes with us. And she can even take part in what I have planned for you later,” Mankiewicz’s tone makes Charlie even more nervous. He definitely sounds like a man who has been thinking of revenge for a while.
Charlie can't hear any sirens approaching as they get out of Sarah’s house, so there is no point in stalling. The only thing they can hear is Rex’s pitiful whines as the German shepherd realizes that they are leaving him behind.
“Don’t worry, pal, we’ll see you again soon,” he promises and he intends to keep his promise.
Mankiewicz opens the trunk of a car that Hudson has not seen before. “Get in there, Hudson.”
“What?”
“I won’t have you behind me, trying to thwart my plan. Do you think I’m an idiot? You’ll get in the trunk. Don’t worry, this model has plenty of space,” the criminal chuckles.
Charlie doesn’t want to leave Sarah in the car alone with Mankiewicz but can’t see a way around it. He catches Sarah’s look.
“I’ll be fine,” she tries to convince him.
So Charlie does get in the trunk without a protest. The cramped space resembles a coffin too much as soon as it’s shut and plunged into darkness. He tries to keep his head with him, to not think of whether he has enough air, not think of how Mankiewicz could just leave him in there to suffocate and die. He must remain calm. Sarah’s life may depend on that.
Sarah wouldn’t even be here if not for him, his guilt-ridden mind tells him. She’s not his girlfriend but something in the way that he behaved around her must have made Mankiewicz think that she was. And Charlie didn’t correct him, essentially binding her fate to his own.