A/N: Here it is the third part in my little series! I know I said I would post this by yesterday…but I ended up spending the entire day with my grandparents…so alas, there was not much time for fan fiction. :) Anyway, for those of you who haven't read Second Chances…don't worry, this isn't a continuation of that story so you should be able to follow it just fine. There are a few references to Second Chances and OC's from that story, but otherwise it's a completely different story. Joe and Vanessa are engaged….Frank and Nancy are dating…and that's really all you need to know!
Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
The Three Minute Deal
Chapter 1
"I now pronounce you husband and wife," announced the minister amidst laughter and clapping from the audience.
The groom leaned down and kissed his blushing bride with all the fervor of love. The happy bride looked up at her husband and grinned, "I am the luckiest man in the world," the groom whispered quietly.
"It's true, you are," the bride smiled and kissed her husband again and then broke away, "but that makes me the luckiest woman."
"It is my honor to present, for the second time," the minister said, "Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Shoemaker!"
As Bernie and Mary Anne walked back down the aisle together grinning foolishly at each other the audience stood and clapped. Nancy smiled at Frank as he stood with Joe and the Shoemaker's son Robert. Frank looked so handsome in his suit, the ocean breeze ruffling through his hair.
Mary Anne had planned her vow renewal to Bernie to be an intimate gathering of close friends on the Big Island of Hawaii. Everyone had gathered together for a fun filled weekend away and to celebrate Mary Anne and Bernie's love for each other.
The music that signaled it was time for the wedding party to make their own way down the aisle began to play and Nancy smiled as Robert picked up his daughter, who had been the flower girl, and swung her laughing into his arms and walked down the aisle after his parents.
Nancy grinned at Frank and hooked her arm through his as he came forward to escort her down the shell lined aisle. Mary Anne had opted for a beach wedding where everyone was required to go barefoot so they could 'feel that wonderful sand between their toes'. Nancy's pale yellow dress fluttered in the wind and matched Frank's tie perfectly.
Joe followed behind Nancy and Frank with Vanessa on his arm. Mary Anne and Vanessa had bonded beautifully over their shared obsession of planning their weddings. It hadn't taken long before Mary Anne asked Vanessa to be one of her bridesmaids.
Frank and Nancy walked hand in hand down the beach to the hotel everyone was staying at and where the reception was being held. Soon all of the wedding guests were mingling and talking outside on the patio. Robert and his daughter, Vanessa and Joe and Nancy and Frank shared a table as they watched Bernie and Mary Anne dance their special dance.
"They are so in love," Vanessa sighed.
"You have wonderful parents," Nancy said smiling at Robert.
"They're not my parents," chimed Robert's daughter Ashley, "they're my grandparents," she announced this proudly as she popped a strawberry in her mouth.
"You're exactly right," Nancy said nodding, "my mistake."
"This is my dad," Ashley said pointing at Robert, "my mom is with the angels." She gave Nancy a toothy smile and licked her fingers, "she's watching us, but we can't see her."
Nancy smiled at the little girl and used her napkin to wipe the girls chin, "that's very true."
"My daddy says so," the girl replied simply.
"Jennifer died last year," Robert said in explanation and ran his hand over his daughter's golden head. "Cancer," he said in way of explanation.
"I'm so sorry," Vanessa said sincerely.
"We had a lot of time to prepare for it," Robert said smiling sadly. He chuckled, "we're at my parents wedding…I never thought I'd say that…let's not talk about things like that. I heard you two stole some of my clothing," he said to Joe and Frank.
Frank flushed, "we meant to return them but…"
"We're sorry, we got really busy with new cases and the trial and everything," Joe hastened to explain.
Robert laughed, "Its okay. I have too many sweaters as it is. Besides, from the pictures my mom showed me you two look better in argyle than I ever will. Now, the trial you're talking about? Is that the Giamatti/Krieger case? My firm worked on that, I was bummed when I couldn't take it on myself, my caseload was already too heavy."
"Yeah," Frank said and leaned forward. Soon the three men were immersed in going over every detail of the case and the trial that followed. Nancy looked at Ashley who was busily shredding her napkin, obviously bored. One look at Vanessa and Nancy knew that Vanessa was on the verge of shredding napkins herself. Nancy wanted to join in the conversation but decided to take pity on Vanessa and Ashley. Besides, she knew how the trial had turned out: Giamatti and Krieger had both been given the maximum sentence for a plethora of crimes and were currently serving out their time in the highest security prison in the country. The combined testimonies of Nancy, Joe, Frank and all of their family and friends had served to put the pair away for good.
"Come on ladies," Nancy said standing up, "it's obvious our men won't be asking us to dance for awhile. Who needs them?" she said with a grin and held out her hand for Ashley's. The little girl giggled and followed Vanessa and Nancy out onto the dance floor.
The three held hands and laughed as they moved to the music, Ashley amusing them with her creative dance moves. Frank looked over Robert's shoulder at Nancy who was currently being taught one of those dance moves by Ashley; Vanessa was on her other side trying to learn too. Frank smiled when Nancy laughed and swung Ashley around in the air, 'she'll make a great mom some day,' he thought to himself. His face fell in horror when he realized what he had just thought.
"Frank? Frank, you okay?" Joe sounded concerned.
Frank shook his head, "yeah, yeah I'm fine," he tried to smile. 'As much as I love Nancy and as amazing as the last six months have been I don't think I'm ready to get married and have children.'
"You look like you've seen a ghost, man," Robert said clapping Frank on the shoulder, "you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, totally fine. Just…thought of something," he lifted his drink to his lips and took a desperate gulp, 'has all of this wedding talk gotten Nancy thinking about a wedding of her own?' Frank furrowed his brow and thought about his time with Nancy over the last couple of months. Nothing they had done together or said had indicated that Nancy was in any way thinking about marriage. With that thought he started to calm himself down. He knew that marriage was definitely in their future but he also knew that Nancy was focused on her career right now. Wasn't she?
On the plane ride home the next day Nancy settled herself into her seat and pulled out her book. Frank pulled down his dinner tray and set up his laptop. "I hope Mary Anne and Bernie have a good time on their cruise," Nancy said and flipped to the page she had left off on.
"I'm sure they will," Frank replied and booted up his computer.
"I'm kind of sad to leave," Nancy said and stared out the window at the palm trees in the distance. "It was sort of fun to not have to worry about a case or work."
"I know what you mean," Frank said with a smile, "back to reality."
"That's alright. I happen to love our reality," Nancy smiled and gave Frank a quick kiss before turning to her book.
Joe leaned across the aisle toward Frank, "Hey Frank…?"
"No," Frank said.
"You don't even know what I was going to ask!" Joe said indignantly.
"Yes I do," Frank replied staring at his computer screen.
"Well, what was I going to ask?" Joe demanded.
"You were going to ask if you could use my computer to play solitaire," Frank replied simply. Nancy stifled a laugh in the chair next to him. When Joe didn't respond Frank turned and smiled at his brother, "well? Weren't you?"
"Yes," Joe mumbled and leaned back in his seat, "what are you doing on vacation with your laptop anyway?"
"Important work that you don't know anything about," Frank replied.
'Attention passengers this is your Captain speaking, thank you for choosing to fly with Air Taxi. We'll be flying non-stop to Dallas from the lovely island of Hawaii. Please remain seated with your seatbelts on until the seatbelt light has been turned off. My name is Captain Andrews, thank you for flying with me today. The in flight movie will be Batman Begins. Enjoy.'
"Excellent!" Joe cried and reached for his headphones.
"He has the attention span of a pea," Frank mumbled.
"You're not really working, are you?" Nancy asked Frank. Saying nothing Frank turned his computer in Nancy's direction. She laughed, there on screen was a half finished game of solitaire. "You're bad," she said.
"Hey, it's my computer," Frank said with a shrug. A few minutes later Nancy set her book on her lap and turned in her seat to stare at Frank, "why are you staring at me?" Frank said nervously.
"On a scale of one to ten, how happy and obliging are you feeling right now?" Nancy asked.
"Well, I just lost this game of Minesweeper so I'd say I'm about a 9.8," Frank answered.
"Good, because there's something I've been wanting to ask you for awhile," Nancy pushed the laptop screen down so she could have Frank's full attention. "Frank," she said seriously.
"Yes," Frank said in a mock serious tone.
"Frank, will you go to my family reunion with me?" Nancy said quickly.
"What?" Frank said clearly surprised.
Nancy rushed on, "it's in California at the end of August and I really, really don't want to go by myself again and this year I actually have a boyfriend and I'd really like it if I could sort of…you know, show you off to all of my cousins and aunts and uncles and things who think I'm a total loser because I haven't been with someone in years and…"
"Take a breath, Nancy," Frank said smiling.
"Well, will you go?" Nancy demanded.
"When is it again?" Frank asked.
"It starts on the nineteenth of August," Nancy replied.
"And where is it?"
"California, at my aunt's huge house in Orange County, they have a pool," she said enticingly.
"You want me to go to a family reunion for a weekend full of hanging out with people I don't know?" Frank asked skeptically.
"You just finished doing that!" Nancy cried.
"Not really, I knew about seventy-five percent of the guests," Frank said with a smile.
"Fine," Nancy crossed her arms.
"So, it's just a weekend, right?" Frank asked.
"Well, not exactly…it's more like a week," Frank groaned, "you promised you'd take me to California!"
"When did I promise you that?" Frank asked in surprise.
"When you were carrying me out of the woods after capturing Krieger," Nancy reminded him.
"You remember that?" Frank asked incredulously, "I can't believe you remember that."
"Well, you promised," Nancy reminded him.
"When I made that promise I was thinking more along the lines of a romantic weekend away," Frank grumbled. When Nancy rolled her eyes Frank laughed, "of course I'll go with you to your family reunion." Frank leaned over and gave her a quick kiss.
"Thank you, Frank," Nancy smiled, "you're in for a treat."
The way she said it had Frank raising his eyebrows, "what do you mean?" Frank asked sounding worried. When Nancy simply smiled Frank grew really concerned, "Nancy, what do you mean?" he repeated.
"My family is…a bit…eccentric," Nancy replied studying her book.
"But your dad is normal enough," Frank frowned.
"Yes, dad is the normal one. You either have a family of nuts with one normal member or a family of normal people with one nut. It's how the universe works, Hardy," Nancy smiled and squeezed Frank's hand. "You'll be fine."
"If I'm not, I'm going to send Joe after you," Frank replied.
"Deal," Nancy gave Frank a quick thank-you kiss and glanced at her watch. "Yes!" she said triumphantly.
"What?"
"It took under three minutes to get you to agree to go to my family reunion," Nancy replied.
"Okay…" Frank said clearly confused. "Explain?"
"You'll learn more about it at the family reunion," Nancy said mysteriously, "it's just a game we play in my family."
"How come I've never seen you play it before?" Frank asked.
"I don't normally, it's kind of a stupid game, but I figured I should get some practice in before the reunion. Also, I made a bet with my cousin…anyway, it will all be explained to you when you meet my family," Nancy returned to reading her book.
"But what…" Frank started to ask.
"Shh," Nancy said with a smile, "I'm really into this book." Frank had no choice but to open his computer and resume playing his game of Minesweeper.