A/n: Remember me? I know it's been a long time.. six months at least. I have a really good excuse though. Honest. 6 months ago my husband deployed. (you can look it up on Facebook, Operation Continuing Promise 2015. no pictures of him anywhere though. sorry. he's shy.) any who, about 5 months ago, as I was in the middle of writing what I was hoping be my next big epic 'Boys in Major Danger' story, my Mac decided to go FUBAR on me. FUBAR: Fouled up Beyond all Recognition. Only being a sailor's wife Fouled was replaced by a different, more appropriate 4 letter word. It worked fine. except the 'a' key died. and then the 'e' key died. then it just snowballed.. shift key, entire second row of the keyboard. As you may remember, I am homebound and cannot drive so I had to go six months without a reliable keyboard before I could get it serviced. do you have ANY idea how hard it is to write fan fiction without the two most popular vowels?! and of course half of my passwords for important crap contained one if not both vowels. he's home now. he also retires on 1 December after a 20 year Navy Career. so while he is freaking out about finding a real, post Navy civilian job, I am trying to stay out of his way and he discovers the joy of resume writing .
In the meantime, I adjusted on the fly since I couldn't write for 6 months. This is a bit of a fluff piece, focusing more on Frank for a change and revisiting his past although this is far less angsty than my last one that dealt with Frank. Maybe 5 chapters total, three of which what I would consider.. publishable. The original story arc had Frank and Gloria in deep kimchee as they attended Frank's High school reunion and crazy person with a grudge took the entire reunion hostage. It was going have Frank bleeding, Gloria trying to keep him alive and other characters from Frank's past causing issues, all while Joe was going insane with worry on the outside. Here, the reunion happens. not so much any of the other stuff, although I reserve the right to revisit that topic at a later date.
The last few days I have seen an upsurge in people favoriting me as an author or my individual stories, so this was the incentive I needed to go ahead and publish a new one. Thanks to all of you who have added me recently and thanks to all of you that kept hoping I'd be back.
Auld Lang Syne
Frank Hardy sighed as he looked in the mirror and didn't like what he saw. With a grimace of disgust he ripped the knot of his tie apart and savagely yanked the offending piece of silk over his head. He glanced at his watch, grimaced again and slumped his shoulders in defeat. Taking a deep breath, and steeling himself for the inevitable, he reached over to the dresser and grabbed his phone.
It went straight to voicemail. Now he was frantic. Suddenly, inspiration hit. He scrolled down to the next name on his contact list. Luckily, this time it was answered.
"I'm desperate. Can I come over and raid your Tie rack?!" The eldest Hardy son pleaded into the receiver.
"And hello to you too, I'm fine, thanks for asking" came the slightly amused voice on the other end.
Frank blushed. "Sorry. On a time crunch here. Nothing I have is suitable and I can't reach Joe."
With a chuckle, Fenton gave his son the affirmative. With effusive thanks he promised to be right over.
As he rushed up the driveway and up the front step, Fenton opened the door and grinned at his normally calm and placid son's agitation. "What's wrong with the ones you have?" he asked as he headed inside.
"When I put them on, all I see is courtroom." Frank explained. "I want something less austere and grim." he shrugged. "Hell I was ready to ask Joe for a Taz one!"
"That might be pushing the boundaries of good taste, Son." Fenton laughed as he opened the walk in closet door and flipped the light switch. He indicated Frank was free to peruse the extensive selection.
Frank choked back a snort of incredulous laughter as he unearthed from the very back a truly hideous brown flowery tie that had to be 5 inches wide. The pattern had obviously been designed by someone on an acid trip. "Speaking of boundaries of good taste what the hell is this?!" he cried in mock horror. Fenton snatched the offending thing out of his son's hands and said haughtily,
"This was the height of fashion in it's day I will have you know."
"If I had graduated in 1974, I might be tempted. But I think this will do nicely." he held out a royal blue paisley in his other hand. It popped against the deep charcoal grey of his suit and he nodded approvingly as he beheld himself in the mirror. "Perfect."
"Very nice. Keep it. I rarely have occasion to wear suits any more." Fenton offered.
"Thanks, Dad!" Frank exclaimed as he rushed back down the stairs. "Gotta run, I am late!"
He was late. Ten minutes late, in fact. Gloria was already outside the employee entrance of the hospital, tapping a foot impatiently. As he pulled up he reached over and pushed open the passenger side door. "Sorry, Hon. Fashion emergency." he apologized.
"Hmpf. I thought only women got those." she sniffed as she tossed her duffle bag full of nursing uniform and other accoutrements into the back seat.
"It takes effort to look this good." he smiled as he pulled away and headed to the Hotel where the reunion was being held. Along the way he started telling Gloria about some of his classmates and which ones he was most looking forward to seeing. "Honestly, most of my best friends are either still in town or are in Joe's class, so the list is actually quite short." In truth there were a total of three names on that list, and one of them was Callie Shaw. Gloria knew about Callie as the mantle in the Hardy Family home was festooned with old Prom and Graduation pictures. Based on Frank's reaction whenever the blond woman's name came up, and the degree of eye rolling from Joe, Gloria was not so much jealous as slightly amused at the prospect of meeting her.
The reunion was being held at the most luxurious hotel and convention center Downtown. Frank had also taken advantage of the special room rate being offered to attendees and secured a room for the night so he could have more than one drink. As he pulled into the parking lot, he asked Gloria whether she wanted to check into the room first.
"Sounds good." she responded affably. After a short check in, they headed upstairs to their room. Along the way Frank ran into an old classmate whose face he recognized, but not the name. They paused only long enough to shake hands and exchange "see ya downstairs"-es before slipping the card into the slot and entering their room.
The king bed dominated the room and faced the balcony. While not very large it had an impressive view of the Bayport Skyline. A bottle of sparkling wine sat in an ice bucket wrapped in a a towel, two flutes next to it, along with a card welcoming them to the reunion, signed by the committee.
"Pretty fancy for a small town high school." Gloria commented as she examined the bottle.
"Says the person who had 19 people in her Senior class." Frank chuckled. "I had more than that in 1st period English."
"Hey now. Don't diss the Mountain Lions." Gloria huffed. "There are advantages to a smaller class."
"I have no doubt. But what say we head on downstairs. I feel like showing you off." Frank grinned in unconscious imitation of his brother's usual charm. It was so unlike his usual manner that Gloria looked at him strangely before picking her purse up off the bed where she had tossed it.
"What's gotten in to you?!" she asked as they exited the room and headed towards the elevator.
"What? Can't a guy be eager to show the world how lucky he is?" Frank retorted all innocent like. In truth, the inside lapel pocket of his suit jacket held a small bulge that he fully intended on producing later that evening. Privately, of course, not being nearly the show off his younger sibling was. But first, and he was not ashamed to admit it, he wanted to prove to a certain blond that her prediction was totally wrong.
By the time they reached the floor of the ball room, they had met up with several other of Frank's classmates so it was a very amiable group that exited and approached the large table where an assortment of name tags were displayed.
"Hey Liz!" Frank said as he picked up his and Gloria's tags. "Everything looks great. The champagne is a nice touch."
"You can thank Jeff Powers for that. He donated the bubbly from his liquor store." The former Class Treasurer had immediately gone into the family business after high school and was doing quite well for himself.
With a little wave to the other two ladies seated at the table with Liz, Frank ushered his girlfriend into the expansive ball room and steered her towards one of the two bars along the side. There they ran into Chet, Phil and their spouses, Pam looking like she was ready for an adult only night. "They do eventually sleep through the night, right?" she practically pleaded to Chet's wife Melissa, mother of two girls herself.
"Someday. The trick is convincing Daddy that only his touch will do the trick." she replied with a laugh and a wink at Chet, who groaned good naturedly.
"Funny how only Mommy is good enough during the day but only Daddy will do at night..." Chet lamented. Everyone got a good chuckle out of that. "Did you find your places yet at the tables, Frank?" he asked. I know you aren't at ours."
"We just got here. Shall we go find them, Dear?" he asked Gloria. "You can drop off your purse at least." she assented so they excused themselves and started wandering the tables. "Ah! Here we are!" Frank said as he spotted his name on a table placed at the outskirts of the configuration. He took off his jacket and placed it along the back of his chair before pulling Gloria's out so that she could place her purse on the seat. "Oh good. Roger is at our table too!" Roger Davis was one of the three people Frank was most eager to catch up with. Only Roger could ever consistently beat Frank at chess. As he wandered around the rest of the table picking up name cards he stopped and sighed as he read the last one. "Of course" he muttered.
"What?" Gloria asked as she picked up the offending piece of paper. "Oooh." she breathed knowingly. "Sorry, Babe."
"Meh. I would have had to make polite chit chat no matter what. Who knows. Maybe I will get lucky and my chicken will be so dry and chewy I won't have to talk until cake and coffee."
"Well, she is seated as far away from you as possible so maybe conversation won't be all that easy anyway." she pointed out. "Besides, now I can stare daggers at your ex girlfriend much easier than having to do it from across the room." Frank laughed at that, if a little ruefully.
"It wasn't that bad of a breakup. Besides, if she hadn't gone off on me that night, I never would have been unattached when I met you." Frank pointed out reasonably.
"Quit giving me reasons to not to hate Callie Shaw, Frank Hardy!" Gloria chastised her boyfriend. "As the current love of your life I am entitled to be petty and jealous and possessive!"
"Yes, Dear." Frank sighed before sighting someone he wanted to talk to. He raised his hand in a wave even as he headed back over the bar to shake hands with his lab partner all through high school, Matt Dixon. By the time Gloria made her way over, the two were deep in conversation about the old days. She and Matt's companion tried to look interested for about five minutes but gave up as they were completely ignored by their partners. The two ladies left the men standing there oblivious to everything around them and decided to powder their noses. Gloria had to wait a minute for an empty stall, so she spent the time idly observing the other women. A group of three or four were giggling like teenagers in low voiced whispers like long lost sorority sisters. Gloria pegged them as cheerleaders right away. She quickly entered the just vacated stall and did her business, listening to the gigglers leave the room. As she stepped out and went to wash her hands, she was joined by another woman at the line of sinks. Gloria just nodded and then went back to concentrating on washing, when she did a double take. Narrowing her eyes she stared hard at the woman next to her using the mirror.
Slightly shorter than she was, and more than slightly plumper. The blond hair was cut short in the universal 'Mom' cut that was low maintenance but not very flattering. There was a ring on her left hand but she wore no other jewelry. The dress was the height of fashion, ten years earlier. She gave only a quick glance over to Gloria, and obviously not recognizing her, proceeded to apply lipstick. The Nurse finished washing her hands and ran still damp ones through her hair, fluffing it up a little before reaching into her purse and spritzing a little cologne on. She turned away was headed to the door when the other woman dropped her purse, spilling a few small articles out. Gloria reached down and helped her retrieve the items, handing back the lipstick and a keychain.
"Thanks." the woman said as she stuffed things back.
"You're welcome, Callie." Gloria said.
Frank's ex girlfriend cocked her head quizzically. "Sorry I don't recognize you. Did we have some classes together?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that." Gloria laughed. "I just recognized you from the pictures."
"Oh no they didn't do that awful giant poster board plastered with everyone's yearbook photo did they?!" Callie exclaimed in dismay. Gloria laughed again.
"No. Well, yes they did but that's not where I saw your pictures." Gloria hooked an arm through Callie's and steered her back into the dining room. Matt and Frank were still deep in conversation and didn't even notice when the two ladies approached. "Look who I ran into, Darling!" she said brightly to the back facing her.
Frank turned around and looked soberly into the pale blue eyes of the woman who he had dated all through high school and for a short time beyond. "Hello, Callie. You're looking well."
A/n: oh come on you ALL knew this was the 'someone from Frank's Past' . Blue Spine Callie, TV Callie and Case Files Callie are three entirely different characters. the one I like best was TV Callie.. smart, confident, resourceful and not romantically involved with anybody. While I an not a Frank/Nancy shipper in any way shape or form, I also was never all that convinced of a Frank/Callie relationship either. Frank always seemed to me as someone who didn't need a girlfriend( or boyfriend) to fill a void. I will let you decide whether or not Frank is in character going forward.