Chapter 4

Jeannie tried her best to mask the disappointment she felt from her voice as she held the telephone receiver to her ear.

"I'm really sorry, Princess. I'll make it up to you, I promise," Whitney said on the other line.

"It's fine, really," Jeannie replied with a sigh.

"I love you. You know that, right?"

Jeannie found her resolve melting away. "Of course, I do. Can I call you tomorrow?"

"Sure, babe. Look I gotta go. Talk to you tomorrow, alright?"

"Sure, tomorrow."

"Atta girl."

Jeannie heard the line go dead before she could say anything else. She had been both dreading and looking forward to having dinner at Whitney's penthouse apartment. It wasn't that she hadn't met his father before but it had been years since they had first been introduced to each other and it'll be the first time since they started dating that she'll see him again. She wasn't sure what Mr. Holden senior thought of her when she had been just friends with his son. She did recall that his domineering presence made her a little uncomfortable and now she was a jangle of nerves. From what Whitney had told her about his father, he seemed like a man who had high expectations and she hoped that she was going to be enough to meet his standards. Looking up at the clock on the wall, she sighed heavily. She wished Whitney had called her earlier and she berated herself the moment that thought entered her mind. Stop being so selfish. Of course he would have said something sooner if he could. Jeannie decided she wasn't going to sit at home sulking or eat dinner on her own for that matter. Not when she had already spent a great deal of time picking out a dress to wear. No, she was going pay two very important people in her life a surprise visit.

Even though the afternoon was wearing down, all hands were on deck at SFPD's homicide department. The bodies of two suspected homicide victims were found in a burnt out abandoned warehouse in South Beach early that morning. Lunch was off the menu for Steve and Mike simply because they were too engaged with the investigation that neither of them realized the time passing by. It seemed pointless to try to get a meal down when dinner time was just around the corner.

"Why don't you take what's left of the afternoon off. You're looking a little peaky," Mike suggested as he poured them some coffee. "Besides, I'm gonna stay a back a little longer. Jeannie's heading over to Whitney's place so I'll be on my lonesome till late anyway."

Steve practically guzzled down the beverage the moment Mike handed him the mug. "Are you sure, Mike?" Steve ordinarily would have declined the offer but they'd had a long day and it was a particularly rough case to handle. Everywhere they turned, they would hit a road block. There were no witnesses, no weapons, no prints and the bodies were too badly burnt to even be identified. They spent hours poring over missing persons reports, checking in with the ME to find something they could go on. So far, the only thing they had which served to rule out that the cause of death was the result of an accident or arson gone wrong were the remains of rope tied around both victims' wrists.

"On one condition: Can you pick me up and drop me home later tonight?" Mike asked with the faint traces of a grin.

"In that case I won't put my phone in the freezer," Steve teased.

"You're really something, you know that, Buddy Boy? Now go on! Get! Before I change my mind!" Mike playfully swatted Steve with a manila folder.

Ducking out of his partner's way, the Inspector grabbed his jacket from the coat hanger and pulled it on then started to make his way to the doors leading out of the bureau, when he almost bowled over a very expressionable looking young woman.

"Jeannie?" Steve gaped at the person whom he barely recognized to be Mike's daughter. She had her hair up in some fancy new do with a couple of curled locks fanning her face. She wore a dazzling midnight blue evening gown beneath an elegant woollen coat. In one hand she clutched a small sparkly silver purse and in the other she held a brown take-out bag.

"Steve! Are you leaving early?" Jeannie asked curiously.

Steve cleared his throat before answering, "Uh..yeah, I had kind of a long day…you're looking really...nice and that dress is great. I mean beautiful." A deep blush started to make its way to the surface and he quickly added, "Are you looking for Mike?"

"Thanks. Yeah, I brought him something to eat. He called me earlier and said he was staying back tonight. Actually, I brought enough for the three of us but I don't want to keep you if…"

"Wait a minute, aren't you having dinner at Whitney's tonight?"

Jeannie shrugged. "I was. Our plans changed. He's being unavoidably detained."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," Steve said, hoping he sounded consoling rather than selfishly happy. "You know, I skipped lunch, actually so er…If your offer still stands?"

Jeannie beamed. "Of course! Come on. First I'm gonna need your help to get Mike's nose out of whatever he's buried it into."

Mike's reaction seeing his daughter all dolled up mirrored Steve's. "Sweetheart, you look beautiful! What are you doing here?" He stood up, helped his daughter out of her coat and gave her a warm embrace.

"I bought Chinese. Now leave those files alone for the next twenty minutes before your chow mein gets cold and that's an order," Jeannie said, a mischievous glint in her eye lit up her face.

"I thought you were heading over to the Holden's?" Mike asked.

"Long story short, we are post-poning but since I'm already dressed for a fancy dinner, I really could use the company. Enough talk. Let's eat," Jeannie ordered. She started to clear Mike's desk and emptied the contents of the paper bag onto the surface.

Mike didn't have it in him to refuse. His daughter had clearly spent a great deal of time preparing for the evening even though in his opinion he believed she went a little over the top. He could just imagine the disappointment she must have felt to have those plans cancelled. He hoped Whitney and his father had a very good excuse for letting his daughter down tonight.