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Before and Now (Life/Standoff: Charlie/Matt PG-13)
Not hearing from my brother in like 2 months and then getting a random text from him because he's watching a movie and recognized someone from Band of Brothers is fairly amusing. Apparently he sent it to the whole family.
Anyway, this is finally out of my head. Plot bunny came along when I watched the first 2 episodes of Life on Friday. Maybe I shouldn't watch more until I'm done my Kirk/McCoy AU and non-AU.
Title: Before and Now
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Charlie/Matt
Word Count: 1,795
Warnings: Life/Standoff crossover, sequel to Misery Loves Company, Matt and Charlie Meet in a Bar 'verse
Summary: For the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
chem15try prompt neutralization - Matt and Charlie meet again on a case.
+++
"Crews?"
Charlie blinks when he hears Reese's voice but doesn't look away from the television in the break room. There's a bank being held up on Wilshire Boulevard, there's hostages, and the HT called the stations so the news trucks were there before the FBI even showed up. And when the FBI shows up… It's Matt, who is from before, but now he is now, so that's gotta mean something.
Remembering that Reese called him and is probably standing in the doorway with her arms crossed, glaring at the back of his head, Charlie turns, still leaning against the table in the break room. "Yeah?"
She points to the screen, not looking happy about it. "We're on that - let's go."
So Matt's in the now, but he's also in the future, which Charlie shouldn't be letting himself think about, but on the drive over he's antsy, waiting for the future to become now so he can be a part of it. Reese also seems on edge, and Charlie wonders if it's because he's actually not talking, or if it's just because of the bank, because she's also thinking about the future, but Charlie doubts she's thinking about Matt like he is and is instead thinking about how sometimes hostage situations don't end well at all.
They park at the road block and walk the rest of the way in, passing an armored van parked outside the bank. There was a cash pickup today. The HTs had been watching this bank for a while. One of them, Charlie thinks, might even work inside.
The FBI trailer is parked on the opposite side of the street with a line of cop cars separating it from the main entrance. Charlie follows Reese as she makes a beeline for the tall woman standing outside the trailer who seems to be in charge. "LAPD?" she asks, and when Reese nods, she introduces herself as Supervisory Special Agent Carrera. Charlie can hear Reese introducing them, but he's looking at the bank, not at her. He's getting sick of the way people react when they hear his name, especially law enforcement. Everyone seems to have an opinion instead of just going by the facts. Although even Charlie doubted those facts, at some point, but that was seven years in, when he'd given up.
He turns back to see Reese following Carrera into the trailer, so he follows, curious more than anything even though he's planning on staying right near the door. He can't see who's in the other room that Carrera is talking to, someone called Flannery, but he hears Reese being introduced. "And Detective Crews," Carrera says, motioning at Charlie, and then it's Matt peering around the wall at Charlie, looking surprised and like he's just put two and two together as he takes Detective Crews, the cop who was sentenced to life for murdering his best friend's family, and realizes he's the same man as Charlie, the one night stand from the bar with the good limes.
"Detective Crews," Matt repeats, his gaze steady. "We're going to try to make contact with the HT if you and your partner wanted to listen in."
He really wants to watch Matt work, to study his body language when his guard is down, but it requires moving to the back of the trailer. It's wider than the city buses, he knows, but they at least have a lot of windows. Reese is looking at him like it's okay for him to go outside if he can't handle being here, but he finds himself moving to the other room, sitting at a table with Reese under an array of monitors while Carrera stands by Matt who is sitting in front of a phone.
"All right," Matt says. "Let's see what the hell is going on in there."
+
It's fascinating to watch Matt work, how he finds some way to connect with the HT and earn his trust. Charlie feels bad for the HTs, and he'd been right when he thought earlier that an employee was involved.
Hank Burns is a high school history teacher whose daughter has leukemia and his wife, Sarah, took a teller job at the bank to help pay for treatments that the insurance wouldn't cover. They got desperate enough and scared enough and loved their daughter enough to think that robbing a bank at gunpoint would be a good idea.
Charlie catches the way Matt smiles at him when he manages to get all the hostages released, including the two men who had been in the armored van, and Charlie pointedly ignores the way Reese arcs an eyebrow at him in response. She goes outside to help corral the hostages for questioning, needing all the details of what happened so the LAPD would know what they could charge Mr. and Mrs. Burns with. They knew no one had been killed, but that didn't mean no one had been hurt, and they really wanted to know how the two had managed to subdue not only the employees of the company that transported the money but also the bank's guards and nearly a dozen adult civilians.
The line goes dead, presumably because Hank is telling Sarah that they need to let the hostages go, so Matt puts the phone back in its cradle. Charlie leans back in the chair, spinning in it idly, watching Matt, in a dark red button down and dark jeans, write notes on a yellow legal pad. He sees Matt visibly relax when he hears Carrera (whose first name, Charlie had learned, is Cheryl) on a bullhorn, giving the hostages instructions to give their names to the officers and that unfortunately they need to give a statement before they're allowed to call their families.
"You're good at your job," Charlie says, without preamble.
Matt laughs dryly. "Sometimes." He runs his fingers through his hair, hair that Charlie quite distinctly remembers fisting his hands into. "Listen, Crews...Charlie... This doesn't usually happen so I'm not sure what's the norm for this situation, but you don't have to try and make small talk."
"That was before, and this is now. Before doesn't matter. Before only makes now more difficult, and there's still two people we need to get out of that bank alive so a sick little girl isn't made an orphan."
The look on Matt's face indicates that that isn't what he was expecting Charlie to say but he's willing to go with it. The phone starts to ring, so if Matt had anything that he was planning to say, it's pushed aside as Hank and Sarah seem to have them on speakerphone but are yelling and at least one of them if not both of them sound like they're crying.
Matt hits the mute button, grabbing a walkie to ask someone named Frank if he can see what's going on in the manager's office. Frank has no visual, and neither does Duff, but a phone call to the office gets Lia to put security cam feeds on their monitors in the trailer. Neither of them are holding weapons anymore - they just seem overwhelmed by everything that's happened and have now lost all hope completely.
Charlie doesn't need to ask about the times Matt isn't good at his job.
+
It turns out today is a good day. Well, for Charlie, anyway. And Matt, the hostages, that little girl who didn't have to lose her parents. It was probably a bad day for the HTs because of what they resorted to and now they were going to jail, but they weren't dead. That had to count for something, right?
The last of the statements are being wrapped up and Cheryl is out there somewhere dealing with the press as Reese is watching the cops put Mr. and Mrs. Burns in the backs of separate squad cars to be brought back to the station. Charlie's still in the trailer, though, helping pack up equipment since he doesn't feel like he was terribly helpful around here today.
"I'm sorry about what I said before," Matt starts, staring at the monitors that are still showing the bank's security feed even though it's CSU in there now looking for evidence. Evidence of what, Charlie has no idea, but they're still in there. "I didn't want you working with me thinking I go to bars to pick up random men, but then, you were guilty of that, too, at least once."
Charlie tilts his head to the side, like maybe trying to process Matt's words at a different angle will help them make more sense. "You figured me out backwards. Normally the first thing people register about me is that I'm 'that cop' but with you it was the last."
"I think I'd thought you'd seemed familiar but couldn't place it. I tend to end up on the news because of a case so often that I don't like to watch it."
Charlie considers this, pondering the piece that is Matt Flannery and where he fits in the puzzle that's Charlie's life. He thinks back to that night at the bar, remembering why Matt had been there to begin with. "So the partner you were drinking over isn't Cheryl, is it?"
Matt's bark of laughter and the amused but incredulous smile is all the answer Charlie needs as he advances, invading Matt's personal space. He tilts his head down, kissing him, feeling the way Matt hesitates, pauses, before his brain either kicks in or shuts off, opening his mouth wider, kissing back. He doesn't taste like whisky this time.
"What happened to your speech about before and now?" Matt asks, one hand on Charlie's arm while the other still holds the walkie talkie he'd been talking to the snipers with.
"Just because before doesn't matter doesn't mean that now doesn't." Charlie grins. "We should have dinner together."
Now it's Matt's eyebrow that arcs at him, but Charlie likes it much more when Matt does it at him than when Reese does it. Her eyebrows are condescending. Matt's are kinda sexy. "Like a date?"
"Like a hamburger. Or tacos. I know this place that makes guacamole to order."
The walkie crackles to life between them, and Charlie's getting really sick of being interrupted by people via electronic communication devices today. Cheryl's asking for Matt, and Charlie backs away, giving Matt room to get around him and exit the trailer.
"Oh, why the hell not?" Charlie's hears Matt say, practically half out the door. "I like tacos. You know where I work - swing by tomorrow."
Charlie's practically whistling when he gets back to the car, finding Reese waiting for him inside. "What are you so happy about?" she asks.
"Before," Charlie replies. "And the future."
Anyway, this is finally out of my head. Plot bunny came along when I watched the first 2 episodes of Life on Friday. Maybe I shouldn't watch more until I'm done my Kirk/McCoy AU and non-AU.
Title: Before and Now
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Charlie/Matt
Word Count: 1,795
Warnings: Life/Standoff crossover, sequel to Misery Loves Company, Matt and Charlie Meet in a Bar 'verse
Summary: For the
chem15try prompt neutralization - Matt and Charlie meet again on a case.+++
"Crews?"
Charlie blinks when he hears Reese's voice but doesn't look away from the television in the break room. There's a bank being held up on Wilshire Boulevard, there's hostages, and the HT called the stations so the news trucks were there before the FBI even showed up. And when the FBI shows up… It's Matt, who is from before, but now he is now, so that's gotta mean something.
Remembering that Reese called him and is probably standing in the doorway with her arms crossed, glaring at the back of his head, Charlie turns, still leaning against the table in the break room. "Yeah?"
She points to the screen, not looking happy about it. "We're on that - let's go."
So Matt's in the now, but he's also in the future, which Charlie shouldn't be letting himself think about, but on the drive over he's antsy, waiting for the future to become now so he can be a part of it. Reese also seems on edge, and Charlie wonders if it's because he's actually not talking, or if it's just because of the bank, because she's also thinking about the future, but Charlie doubts she's thinking about Matt like he is and is instead thinking about how sometimes hostage situations don't end well at all.
They park at the road block and walk the rest of the way in, passing an armored van parked outside the bank. There was a cash pickup today. The HTs had been watching this bank for a while. One of them, Charlie thinks, might even work inside.
The FBI trailer is parked on the opposite side of the street with a line of cop cars separating it from the main entrance. Charlie follows Reese as she makes a beeline for the tall woman standing outside the trailer who seems to be in charge. "LAPD?" she asks, and when Reese nods, she introduces herself as Supervisory Special Agent Carrera. Charlie can hear Reese introducing them, but he's looking at the bank, not at her. He's getting sick of the way people react when they hear his name, especially law enforcement. Everyone seems to have an opinion instead of just going by the facts. Although even Charlie doubted those facts, at some point, but that was seven years in, when he'd given up.
He turns back to see Reese following Carrera into the trailer, so he follows, curious more than anything even though he's planning on staying right near the door. He can't see who's in the other room that Carrera is talking to, someone called Flannery, but he hears Reese being introduced. "And Detective Crews," Carrera says, motioning at Charlie, and then it's Matt peering around the wall at Charlie, looking surprised and like he's just put two and two together as he takes Detective Crews, the cop who was sentenced to life for murdering his best friend's family, and realizes he's the same man as Charlie, the one night stand from the bar with the good limes.
"Detective Crews," Matt repeats, his gaze steady. "We're going to try to make contact with the HT if you and your partner wanted to listen in."
He really wants to watch Matt work, to study his body language when his guard is down, but it requires moving to the back of the trailer. It's wider than the city buses, he knows, but they at least have a lot of windows. Reese is looking at him like it's okay for him to go outside if he can't handle being here, but he finds himself moving to the other room, sitting at a table with Reese under an array of monitors while Carrera stands by Matt who is sitting in front of a phone.
"All right," Matt says. "Let's see what the hell is going on in there."
+
It's fascinating to watch Matt work, how he finds some way to connect with the HT and earn his trust. Charlie feels bad for the HTs, and he'd been right when he thought earlier that an employee was involved.
Hank Burns is a high school history teacher whose daughter has leukemia and his wife, Sarah, took a teller job at the bank to help pay for treatments that the insurance wouldn't cover. They got desperate enough and scared enough and loved their daughter enough to think that robbing a bank at gunpoint would be a good idea.
Charlie catches the way Matt smiles at him when he manages to get all the hostages released, including the two men who had been in the armored van, and Charlie pointedly ignores the way Reese arcs an eyebrow at him in response. She goes outside to help corral the hostages for questioning, needing all the details of what happened so the LAPD would know what they could charge Mr. and Mrs. Burns with. They knew no one had been killed, but that didn't mean no one had been hurt, and they really wanted to know how the two had managed to subdue not only the employees of the company that transported the money but also the bank's guards and nearly a dozen adult civilians.
The line goes dead, presumably because Hank is telling Sarah that they need to let the hostages go, so Matt puts the phone back in its cradle. Charlie leans back in the chair, spinning in it idly, watching Matt, in a dark red button down and dark jeans, write notes on a yellow legal pad. He sees Matt visibly relax when he hears Carrera (whose first name, Charlie had learned, is Cheryl) on a bullhorn, giving the hostages instructions to give their names to the officers and that unfortunately they need to give a statement before they're allowed to call their families.
"You're good at your job," Charlie says, without preamble.
Matt laughs dryly. "Sometimes." He runs his fingers through his hair, hair that Charlie quite distinctly remembers fisting his hands into. "Listen, Crews...Charlie... This doesn't usually happen so I'm not sure what's the norm for this situation, but you don't have to try and make small talk."
"That was before, and this is now. Before doesn't matter. Before only makes now more difficult, and there's still two people we need to get out of that bank alive so a sick little girl isn't made an orphan."
The look on Matt's face indicates that that isn't what he was expecting Charlie to say but he's willing to go with it. The phone starts to ring, so if Matt had anything that he was planning to say, it's pushed aside as Hank and Sarah seem to have them on speakerphone but are yelling and at least one of them if not both of them sound like they're crying.
Matt hits the mute button, grabbing a walkie to ask someone named Frank if he can see what's going on in the manager's office. Frank has no visual, and neither does Duff, but a phone call to the office gets Lia to put security cam feeds on their monitors in the trailer. Neither of them are holding weapons anymore - they just seem overwhelmed by everything that's happened and have now lost all hope completely.
Charlie doesn't need to ask about the times Matt isn't good at his job.
+
It turns out today is a good day. Well, for Charlie, anyway. And Matt, the hostages, that little girl who didn't have to lose her parents. It was probably a bad day for the HTs because of what they resorted to and now they were going to jail, but they weren't dead. That had to count for something, right?
The last of the statements are being wrapped up and Cheryl is out there somewhere dealing with the press as Reese is watching the cops put Mr. and Mrs. Burns in the backs of separate squad cars to be brought back to the station. Charlie's still in the trailer, though, helping pack up equipment since he doesn't feel like he was terribly helpful around here today.
"I'm sorry about what I said before," Matt starts, staring at the monitors that are still showing the bank's security feed even though it's CSU in there now looking for evidence. Evidence of what, Charlie has no idea, but they're still in there. "I didn't want you working with me thinking I go to bars to pick up random men, but then, you were guilty of that, too, at least once."
Charlie tilts his head to the side, like maybe trying to process Matt's words at a different angle will help them make more sense. "You figured me out backwards. Normally the first thing people register about me is that I'm 'that cop' but with you it was the last."
"I think I'd thought you'd seemed familiar but couldn't place it. I tend to end up on the news because of a case so often that I don't like to watch it."
Charlie considers this, pondering the piece that is Matt Flannery and where he fits in the puzzle that's Charlie's life. He thinks back to that night at the bar, remembering why Matt had been there to begin with. "So the partner you were drinking over isn't Cheryl, is it?"
Matt's bark of laughter and the amused but incredulous smile is all the answer Charlie needs as he advances, invading Matt's personal space. He tilts his head down, kissing him, feeling the way Matt hesitates, pauses, before his brain either kicks in or shuts off, opening his mouth wider, kissing back. He doesn't taste like whisky this time.
"What happened to your speech about before and now?" Matt asks, one hand on Charlie's arm while the other still holds the walkie talkie he'd been talking to the snipers with.
"Just because before doesn't matter doesn't mean that now doesn't." Charlie grins. "We should have dinner together."
Now it's Matt's eyebrow that arcs at him, but Charlie likes it much more when Matt does it at him than when Reese does it. Her eyebrows are condescending. Matt's are kinda sexy. "Like a date?"
"Like a hamburger. Or tacos. I know this place that makes guacamole to order."
The walkie crackles to life between them, and Charlie's getting really sick of being interrupted by people via electronic communication devices today. Cheryl's asking for Matt, and Charlie backs away, giving Matt room to get around him and exit the trailer.
"Oh, why the hell not?" Charlie's hears Matt say, practically half out the door. "I like tacos. You know where I work - swing by tomorrow."
Charlie's practically whistling when he gets back to the car, finding Reese waiting for him inside. "What are you so happy about?" she asks.
"Before," Charlie replies. "And the future."