Blood & Water

Chapter 18

The next morning prior to Carrie's discharge, Angel took Joey back to his house to see how much EZ had gotten done and to try to clean as much as possible. It was never the neatest place and she had seen that but now that he was going to have Joey and Carrie living there full time he felt it needed an overhaul.

While the obsessive cleaning was taking place Carrie received a visit from Heimler. It was expected and Carrie needed to speak with him but her stomach churned when he sat beside the bed and she knew it wasn't from the baby.

"How are you?" Heimler asked, patting her hand.

Carrie shrugged. "I think I'm still in shock," she admitted. "I'm pregnant, I just found out last night."

"Wow," Heimler inhaled sharply.

"The baby is Kevin's," she said, "I know you want to ask."

"Bittersweet," Heimler said sadly.

Carrie nodded. "Listen, I have uhh, lost a lot and, uhh if it's valid or not I blame the DEA for a portion of that," she explained. "So, I have a request of you, Bowen, and the federal government."

Heimler looked at her cautiously. "What request?"

"Let Ezekiel Reyes out of his deal," she said firmly. "I lost my marriage and Kevin is dead, the father of my child, but the only reason Joey and I are alive, and this baby," she touched her stomach briefly, "Is because of EZ. I think he has done more than enough to wipe this shit off the record."

Heimler sighed, relieved it was not as steep of a request as he was fearing. "I can try, and I agree, but this is bigger than Bowen."

"How big?"

"I can't say," he told her. "Kevin was at a tipping point with this, he was ready to snap, you're lucky nothing blew up at work before this shit went down or you'd be out in the cold burying a disgraced agent."

Her nose scrunched. "What are you talking about?" It wasn't like Kevin to stir anything, to snap, or anything other than follow the letter of the law and orders. Something had to be amiss for him to risk so much and act so out of character.

"He didn't like how they were pushing EZ around, what they were asking, how they were threatening to burn him. KJ wanted to honor the deal they made, he wanted to do right by Reyes, but it was getting messy."

"You can't give me any actual info?"

Heimler shook his head. "I'm sorry."

"Fine," she huffed. "Can you talk to Bowen at least?"

He nodded. "I can see what I can do, but I won't promise anything."

"I appreciate it," she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood to hug him. "Thank you for everything you've done for Kevin and for me."

Heimler nodded as their hug ended. "I'm sorry all this happened, Carrie."

"I am too," she whimpered, feeling the urge to cry yet again.

Once he left and Carrie was alone with her thoughts, she felt awful. Using Kevin's death to free EZ from his deal was untorid to say the least, but she knew Kevin wanted the best for EZ and she hoped he would have understood, or even supported her decision. If Carrie had the truth though, the full truth, she wouldn't be there, painting the pictures she was, to help separate the men who killed Kevin from his murder.

--

*A Few Days Later*

Ever since she was released from the hospital, Carrie walked around with a perpetual knot in her stomach. The reality of what she had done, lying to the DEA, was starting to scare her more and more as her head cleared with each passing day. At first it made sense, it was the only option, but as the horror of what she walked into that evening dulled she was beginning to wonder if she'd made a mistake.