Sarah stayed the night with her grandmother.

It was dark by the time Charlie found Dani sitting alone in the kitchen. The pool of Jack Reese's blood had been cleaned up – most of it. There was a ring of dried blood, which stubbornly refused to come up. She'd abandoned it and was staring blindly out the window at the patio when he came in. The house was dark, but the pool lights reflected a pale green cast into the kitchen.

"Hey," he said softly.

"Hey," she responded in a daze.

"Whatcha looking at honey?" he inquired cautiously.

"Your friends," she replied.

He stepped closer and noticed a coyote mom and some pups sitting at the edge of the patio. "That's why they attacked," he understood her fascination. "Family."

"Yeah," she said softly, her reply was barely audible.

He sunk to his knees and pulled her into his arms. "I'm so sorry."

"Charlie," she confessed. "I had to protect my family."

"I know, honey. I know," he assured her. "Come on. I'll get this in the morning."

He pulled her by the hand to a shaky standing position and then slowly toward the stairs. He stopped, dropped her hand, walked to the door and locked it.

"I told Rachel to make herself scarce for a couple days," she admitted her scheme. "I gave her all the money in your wallet."

"Yes," he teased lightly. "Luckily, I noticed that before we endured ninety minutes of some cartoon this afternoon. Ninety minutes of my life that I will never get back."

She smiled, but seemed far away, "I'm sorry."

"You have been through a lot today," he brushed aside any shame she felt.

"I meant about lying to you," she clarified. "I wanted to tell you, but I know you… I know you too god damned well Charlie. You'd have never let me handle this."

"Not because I don't trust you," he qualified, "because I didn't want this to be a weight you have to bear."

"It's always been there. The realization that someday it would come down to the two of us. Now it's gone. You know, I would have been content to just let him go. To live and let live, but he was never going to leave us alone. He wasn't going to stop, ever."

"I know, honey," he replied kissing her gently.

"You did what no one else seemed to be able to do. You found the answer no one thought of. I just wish…" he trailed off.

"I didn't have to be the one to pull the trigger," she offered.

"Yeah," he exhaled. He held her close and rocked her against his chest. "Your mom knows. I didn't tell her, she just knows," he tried to explain the unexplainable.

"All my life, my mother has told me that one day my father and I would have it out and one or both of us was not going to survive it," Dani explained. "In some ways, she always knew this was coming."

"Did he hurt you?" Charlie asked cautiously.

"Tonight?"

"Ever," Crews qualified his question.

"Constantly," she said, but it wasn't a real answer. "That's no reason to do what I did. It's...there's no reason good enough to kill someone."

"True," Charlie agreed, "but sometimes it's kill or be killed and I know what that's like." He waited a moment and then asked her, "Do you think you'll be indicted?"

"No," she answered succinctly and confidently. "I think I will pay a little every day for this, but not to the State of California or the City of LA. I think I'll pay with my soul and I think the cost will be severe."

"I have a lot more than just money," he offered. "I can help you pay that price. I know how to get past it."

"Aren't you gonna tell me that I'm already past it?" her humor wad maudlin and twisted.

"I think that…I want to think that….but some times I'm still there too," he mused thoughtfully, "in the past."

"Charlie, you know what I'd like?" she gripped his hand, "what I need?"

Their eyes met and he did. "I'll go get her." He climbed from their bed, dressed and kissed her gently on the forehead. "I'll be home soon and we'll all be together, our family," he recited what he knew her heart needed. He left quickly and quietly, locking the door behind him. In his hand he held a house key he'd never carried before. It was a moment for him; a profound one. Inside that house was the one woman he'd love forever, on the other side of town was a little girl who the sun rose and set upon for them both. They were what mattered; they were all that mattered.

Forty minutes later he carried a sleeping four-year-old girl into the house, relocked his front door and ascended the stairs to place her in the arms of her waiting mother. Dani sighed, wrapped Sarah in her arms and a shudder escaped her as silent tears began to fall. Charlie shed his pants and jackets and climbed into bed gathering his family in his arms. As he relaxed, the first rays of sunshine began breaking through the window bathing them in their warm glow. They slept long in the sun, but when their day began anew it would be together and in light... for all of them had walked too long in the darkness.