Caution to the Wind

Chapter 24

Chapter Summary: Tara's ex-husband comes to her with a case, which brings up some complicated feelings and some unpleasant memories. Follows S14E9, "Broken Wing."

Emily had spent most of her adult life thinking she'd never get married. By the time she even had the option of getting married, she was pretty much married to the job. She told herself that it was fine, that she wasn't the marrying type, that she was happier and better off without a ring on her finger. Tara was making her start to reconsider her position. Tara, of course, had already been married, divorced, and engaged a second time. She'd had some pretty rotten luck when it came to the institution of marriage, but that was all in her past. Emily was her future.

The trouble with the past, though, was that it didn't always stay in the past. When Tara flew out to Los Angeles, she thought she'd give a few lectures and then come back home to Emily. She didn't expect anything big to happen. She certainly didn't expect to look out into the audience as she finished her lecture and spot a face she hadn't seen in fifteen years. If she hadn't been giving a lecture, she might have screamed, or stormed out, or thrown something across the room, but she couldn't. She bottled up the wave of emotions that hit her like a freight train at being in the same room as her ex-husband, and she finished her lecture like the consummate professional she was. She shook a few hands and answered a few questions and avoided looking at Daryl, hoping she could make a clean getaway, but no luck.

"That was a great presentation," Daryl said.

"You only saw the last 30 seconds," Tara replied icily.

"Well, I've seen it before," he said, "The TED talk you gave is on YouTube." Tara didn't respond; she just shoved a manila folder roughly into her briefcase, so Daryl played both parts in the conversation. "'Daryl, wow, it's been fifteen years. What are you up to?' Well, I got my doctorate finally. 'You did?' Yeah, I did, in addiction treatment modalities. 'Wow, that's great. Good for you.' Thanks. Listen, I saw your name on the visiting speaker list so—" Tara turned to leave, but he grabbed her by the arm to stop her. "Will you listen to me for just a second?"

"Hands off," she growled, yanking her arm out of Daryl's grasp.

"I need your help," he said.

"Well, I've heard that one before, Daryl," she replied, "Goodnight."

He followed her out of the auditorium and down the hallway. "Look, this isn't about me," he pleaded, "I've been working in recovery, and people are overdosing."

"Well, I'm sorry, but you know better than anyone, that is a part of the disease of addiction," she said.

"Yeah, it is, but this is different," he insisted, "I think someone's killing them."

"Did you talk to the LAPD?" she asked.

"Yeah, I did," he replied, "And they gave me a colder shoulder than you just did. Look...give me five minutes? Let me show you what I've found, scientist to scientist?"

Tara looked him over skeptically, and her eyes stopped on his left hand. "You got married," she said.

"Yeah, I did," he nodded, "Last year."

"Good for you," she said, "I mean it."

"Um, she's actually the one that suggested that I reach out to you," he said.

Tara took a breath and thought for a moment. "Five minutes."

Daryl told her about a recent spike in questionable overdose deaths in Los Angeles. There were seven cases of addicts dying of apparent heroin overdoses within 24 hours of completing rehab, which wouldn't be all that suspicious, except for the fact that none of them had been heroin users before entering rehab. They'd gone in for other reasons: cocaine, meth, alcohol. Daryl definitely had a case here, and Tara couldn't just ignore it. She had to call the team and bring them in, which was bound to be a little awkward; Emily was the only one on the team who even knew that she'd been married. But the team agreed that they should take this case, and they boarded the jet for Los Angeles. In the meantime, Tara and Daryl set up at the police station and went over the victimology while they waited for the team to arrive. Tara noticed that Daryl's phone kept buzzing inside his jacket pocket.