A/N: Thanks a million to Chromde, MissMe113, bhar, saphiretwin369, and HelenLouise for the reviews on the last chapter and to everyone who is reading. Here it is, the moment of truth. BEDTIME for Joe and Nancy! Hopefully it meets expectations. If not, there's always "the morning after!" *evil grin* Thanks again everyone!
Quintessential Bliss
Chapter Nine
Joe couldn't believe it, but he was actually getting tired of ESPN. How in the world could he be getting tired of twenty-four hour sports? Obviously there was something wrong with him, severely wrong. Obviously his homesickness was impairing his senses.
He was tired and sore and kind of cranky. If dealing with Frank's bizarre shift in behavior wasn't enough, he was also busy pretending to be someone he definitely wasn't, living in a community that was slowly driving him insane and had just had a knock down drag out fight with a guy who knew how to wrestle. His throbbing ribs and splitting headache was proof enough of that.
Joe rolled his eyes as the two announcers started making lame sports quips. "Whoa," Joe muttered under his breath. He had never, ever thought of the sports jokes on ESPN as lame. This place was seriously getting to him.
Sighing he looked up at the clock on the wall: eleven-oh-eight. Maybe Nancy was asleep by now.
After getting in from the barbecue they had made a big show for the cameras of Nancy getting him ice, babying him, etc. They had curled up together on the couch and watched the nightly news, talked for awhile about the barbecue…normal husband and wife types of things.
It had been easy to do that because, hey it was Nancy. She was the closest thing he had to a sister aside from Callie. At ten she had yawned and said she was going to go up and get some sleep, they were starting their new "jobs" tomorrow.
She would definitely be asleep by now. It had been a long couple of days for both of them. Nancy wasn't a robot; she couldn't run forever he assured himself.
Heaving himself up off the couch he reached for the throw and with a smug smile and deliberate movements he folded it up and placed it on the edge of the couch. Chuckling quietly he walked up the stairs.
It was a creepy feeling, knowing you were being watched in your own home. Sure, it wasn't his house but he was living there for the time being and it was weird. Where were the cameras? Did they have them in the bedroom? What kind of creeps were these people if they had cameras in people's bedrooms?
Shaking the unnerving thought out of his mind Joe stopped at the door to his and Nancy's bedroom. He didn't hear any sound from inside the room but he didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.
After standing with his hand on the doorknob for an entire minute Joe shook himself out of his trance. 'Way to act suspicious, Hardy!' he berated himself and pushed open the door.
"Oh," he stopped abruptly when he saw Nancy sitting up in bed reading a magazine.
"Hello honey," Nancy said with a bright smile.
"You're still awake," Joe said and couldn't help that his voice sounded a little disappointed.
"I just got caught up in this article about squash goulash, it's riveting. I think I'll try making this recipe for dinner tomorrow night," She continued to smile as Joe made his slow way to the closet and his pajamas.
"Sounds…interesting," Joe didn't think any food that was called goulash could be good but he wasn't about to say so.
"You'll like this recipe, I promise. Actually, maybe you should take a look at it when you're done getting ready for bed." Nancy suggested brightly.
"Er, no thanks." Joe shook his head and reached into the drawer for his pajamas. Now what? Did he drop his pants and get changed right here, in front of Nancy, his almost sister-in-law?
"No really, I think you should read it," Nancy continued to stress the topic; "In case I need you to get some things from the grocery store after work I want you to be familiar with the recipe." When Joe turned to stare at her she gave the magazine a little shake as if to prove something.
"Um…okay…fine," Joe gave in. He didn't have time to puzzle out why Nancy was being so insistent over a recipe for goulash. He was in the middle of a complete crisis, where did he change into his pajamas? Suddenly, an idea struck him like lightening. "I'm going to grab a quick shower," the words came out in a quick jumble and he all but ran for the bathroom door.
In the relative safety of the bathroom (he had to force himself not to think about the fact that there could be cameras in that room too) he quickly stripped down and stepped into the shower. Running the water hot he took an even longer shower than normal, taking his time shampooing his hair and using conditioner.
Honestly he forgot to use conditioner eighty percent of the time but this time, he remembered.
Stepping out of the shower he took another fifteen minutes toweling off, getting dressed, towel drying his hair, brushing his teeth, flossing (another thing he forgot with regularity) and rearranging his shaving products on the counter.
When he knew he absolutely couldn't stall any longer he took a deep breath and left the bathroom.
"Better?" Nancy asked brightly.
Joe fought the urge to narrow his eyes, was Nancy enjoying his torment? "Much," he replied easily. He approached his side of the bed cautiously, as if the covers were going to rear up, grab him by the ankles and force him to get in and cuddle with Nancy.
"Here's the article," Nancy held the magazine out to him and he had no choice but to sit on the edge of the bed and take it from her.
Joe skimmed the pages of the article quickly and all thoughts of his embarrassment over sleeping with Nancy were suddenly pushed to the back of his mind. "Interesting," Joe murmured.
"I know," Nancy agreed. "Don't you think the blend of ingredients is truly unique?"
"Oh yeah," Joe agreed and continued reading because he wasn't looking at a recipe for squash goulash. Sure, there was one printed in the corner with a big splashy picture of the strange looking dish but the article filled in around it was full of information on the Ananda community. 'The Network must have left this for us,' Joe thought to himself as he continued to read about the neighborhood's history of missing people and the fact that some of them came back…and some of them didn't.
"I find the variations to be the most interesting," Nancy said and this time Joe caught her coded words. What she really meant was that she found that the disappearances and the fact that some people came back and some people didn't, to be odd.
"I agree," Joe said thoughtfully. "We should try all of these."
Translation: we should follow all of these trails and see where they lead us.
"Absolutely," Nancy nodded. "Maybe not all at once though, you might get sick of goulash!" She laughed very convincingly.
Translation: we don't want to ask too many questions too fast, people will get suspicious.
"You know who would like these recipes?" Joe asked. "The woman who lives across the street, she was telling me today how much she likes to cook."
Translation: Let's share this with Frank.
"Her name is Callie Shaw silly," Nancy laughed again and rolled her eyes. "My husband, the powerful investment banker who can't seem to remember people's names to save his life."
"And yet, you love me anyway," Joe replied with a smile. He finished with the article and carefully closed the cover of the magazine titled Easy Gourmet. "Here," he passed the magazine to Nancy and watched as she carefully set it in the drawer of her bedside table.
As soon as his mind snapped back to the current task at hand, sleeping with Nancy, the butterflies and nervousness returned in a massive wave. He cleared his throat and stood to climb under his section of the covers.
"Well," he said and climbed into the bed. He was immediately distressed to see that what had appeared to be a rather large bed from a standing position suddenly shrunk to the size of a twin as soon as he laid down in it.
"Well," Nancy repeated and looked at him, her eyes laughing.
"Big day tomorrow," Joe said nonchalantly.
"New jobs," Nancy agreed.
"Okay…goodnight!" He said hurriedly. He quickly leaned forward, gave Nancy a quick peck on the cheek and then just as quickly turned and faced the opposite direction.
He didn't care what it looked like to whoever was watching them. He and Nancy could be having a marital spat or one of those loveless marriages for all her cared, there was no way he was going to cuddle with her in bed. Cuddling on the couch was one thing, but in bed…no way. Wasn't happening.
The Network would just have to deal with it.
"Callie?" Frank said quietly as he knocked lightly on her bedroom door. The sounds of quiet sobs had pulled him away from his room and his research and led him straight to Callie's door. Frank pushed open the door and stepped inside to find Callie standing in front of her bedroom window, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. "Callie?" Frank repeated.
"Frank," Callie turned, her tear stained face shining in the moonlight. "I'm so, so worried about Charlie. I don't know how much longer I can do this, going around pretending like nothing is wrong."
"I know," Frank stepped forward and pulled Callie into his arms.
"And now Joe and Nancy and you are all caught up in this mess," Callie's sobs punctuated the words. "I don't know what I'll do if anything happens to any of you."
"Don't worry about us," Frank assured her. Secretly he was just as worried about his brother and Nancy as she was. What if something did happen to the either one of them? How would he ever forgive himself? "We're professionals."
"So you always say," Callie said with a watery sigh. "Doesn't help with the worry though."
"Yeah," Frank agreed.
"I'm so worried about Charlie," Callie sniffed. "Where is he Frank?"
"We'll find him Callie, don't worry."
Laughing silently over Joe and his antics Nancy pulled her cell phone from out of her pajama pants and hiding it under the covers, flipped it open. Pulling up a new text message she quickly typed: "It feels weird to be going to bed without you and you're right across the street. And even though you didn't get to defend my honor today, you're still my night in shining armor."
Smiling at the cheesiness of the message Nancy selected Frank's number from her phonebook and hit "send".
After making sure Callie was settled down for the night Frank made his way back toward his room and the research that awaited him there. Seeing the light flashing on his phone he picked it up and read the message from Nancy.
Laughing he quickly sent her one in reply: "Don't think I didn't try and defend your honor, Joe was just faster to it. He always was a sneaky little guy."
A few minutes later another message came. This one read: "It's a good thing he was faster, you could have blown it all, buster."
Frank rolled his eyes and shook his head, hadn't Joe already told him that? He replied: "I know that and you're right. Next time I'll keep letting the slime ball talk about you like that."
There was an almost instant reply: "God, I wish I could get my hands on your right now."
Frank's eyes widened and suddenly the air in the room grew hot. "Me too" he typed and sent the message as fast as he could.
A few seconds later: "I have a surprise for you, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow."
Frank groaned; there went his sleep for the night. He typed a single word in response: "Evil".
Finishing up the text conversation Frank laid his phone on his bedside table and grabbed his laptop. It looked like it was going to be another long night of no sleep…and not from doing research either.
Sometimes this undercover thing could be a real drag.
