Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game
Maria was talking to him. She was leaning over the table, a worried look on her face. "Frisco, are you alright? You just spaced out and got pale all of a sudden."
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he answered, stammering. "You said these were trailing to the clearing?"
She sat back down, concern still etched in her face. "Yes," she said softly, watching his reaction. "They mean something, don't they?"
"Uh..." He hesitated, not wanting to give anything away, especially considering her husband was an investigative journalist. "Maybe," he admitted, perhaps a little too quickly. He pulled himself together, snapping back into work mode. "Is there anything else?"
"No," she replied, shaking her head. "That's everything."
He shut off the recorder, smiling unsurely. "Okay, I'll get this typed up for you to sign before I go back tomorrow."
"If you can't get me at home, I'm probably at the hospital. Just have me paged." She walked to the door, but stopped and turned back to him. "Are you sure you're alright, Frisco?"
"I'm okay," he assured her. As soon as she was gone, he laid his head down on the table in frustration. The orchids were the last thing he wanted to find.
Anna knocked, then opened the door. "Everything alright in here?" she asked.
Frisco's head shot up. "Yeah."
"How'd it go?"
He shrugged. "There wasn't a lot for her to say."
"I didn't think she'd be able to help much."
Frisco sighed, having no desire to tell her what he'd gotten from Maria. But he had to tell her. "I didn't say that."
Anna looked surprised. "How so? I interviewed Edmund before you got in. They just stumbled onto the scene."
He pointed to the orchids. "Maria thought they were from Edmund. That's why she didn't say anything before."
Anna gasped and sat in a chair before her knees gave out. "Orchids."
"Not so thin after all," he said, his disappointment obvious.
"He was here," she said quietly, not really listening to Frisco anymore.
"Looks that way."
"He left these for me."
"I hate it when Mac's right," he grumbled.
Anna looked up at him. "Why would Faison do this?" she asked, instincts finally kicking in.
A question he'd asked himself several times, never coming to a conclusion. "I don't know."
"I mean, he started with you. The murder scenes have all been directed towards you," she explained. "I haven't heard from him in all these years. I may be the reason these victims were brought to Pine Valley, but everything out there was meant for you. Nothing at the scene meant anything to me, except for this. The two WSB badges, I wouldn't have known them from Adam, I've been out of it for so long."
"I didn't know them either, Anna. I haven't known any of them, except Montoya."
"But you knew who they were from the previous scene," she reminded him. "I only called you because they were WSB. I didn't know you'd already found the rest of the bodies. I didn't know anything about this case before I looked through the files."
He wasn't totally following her train of thought. "So?"
"So why did he drop this in my lap now? Why would he direct an attack at you?"
Frisco thought for a moment. Those were questions he couldn't answer. He hadn't done anything in regards to Faison since they both left Port Charles and that was over ten years ago. His focus had mostly been terrorism in the Middle East and Africa. Even in the DVX's heyday, they hadn't had a large part in what he'd been fighting and it wasn't something Faison would've personally involved himself in. Too much of a threat, an unpredictable variable that could not be trusted nor controlled. Even when Faison kidnapped Felicia the last time, he had directed his threats at Luke and Mac, not Frisco. Hell, he didn't even know about it until it was long over.
"I don't know, Anna," he finally answered. "I can't think of a single reason why he'd come after me after all this time. Or why he'd do it in this fashion and leave so little evidence. No clues to what his agenda is."
"That's the big question, isn't it? Why."
"Yeah," he agreed. "Maybe it's not him. It's almost like somebody's trying to copycat him."
"Why would someone want to do that?"
"Hell if I know. You saw the files. I don't know anything that's not in the files. This," he said, lifting up the tissue paper, "is the best evidence we've got so far."
"Too bad we can't get fingerprints from flowers. Whoever left them probably weren't as careful with the orchids."
With all the WSB's advanced techniques, maybe they could get something. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.
"Who are you calling?" Anna asked.
"Sean. Our forensics lab can do a whole lot more than a civilian lab can. I don't know if that applies to flowers though." When the director finally answered, Frisco groaned as Sean started in about his drinking again. "You gave me this lecture before you left," he said, interrupting his boss. "Can you send Will down to the fingerprint lab and see if they can do anything with flowers? Have someone down there call me when they have an answer. Thanks, Sean." He quickly hung up before the older agent could add anything else. Sean was one of his best friends and he knew the man cared about him, but all this "caring" was stifling sometimes.
"Do you think your people will be able to pull any prints off the flowers?"
"No idea. If they don't call me back by tonight, I'll go ahead and get Maria's prints when I see her tomorrow." He looked at his old friend and smiled nervously. "I'm pretty much done here," he added softly.
"Guess I'll be busy packing tonight," she replied.
"Need any help?" he offered softly.
"I might," she shrugged. "Oh, by the way, Maria and Edmund invited us to dinner tomorrow night."
Oh wonderful, Frisco groaned to himself. A night with an attractive woman and her family. Just what he needed.
~*~
Frisco knocked on the door of the big estate, shuffling around the two cases he'd brought with him. Anna was smiling slyly at him, trying to look innocent. He knew that look well enough to know she was up to something. And he had no idea what that was.
Edmund opened the door, smiling. "Hi!" he said, ushering the two agents inside. Anna whispered something to him and disappeared further into the house. "I don't think we were ever introduced. I'm Edmund Grey."
Frisco shook the other man's hand. "Frisco Jones."
"Anna's told us a lot about you. You used to be a rock star?"
Frisco laughed humorlessly. "Is that the only thing people remember about me? That I was a rock star in another life?"
"Well, that not something most of us run into everyday."
Frisco followed Edmund into a family room where two kids were playing. "These are our kids, Sam and Maddie."
Frisco smiled regretfully as he set down the cases. The boy and girl were at an age that he had few memories of his own daughters at. He'd been too focused on work during those years.
"You have kids?" Edmund asked, seeing his smile.
"Two daughters." The agent pulled a fairly recent picture of the girls out of his wallet and showed it to the other man. "Georgie's twelve and Maxie is sixteen going on thirty."
"I'm not looking forward to that age," Edmund replied, handing back to picture. He hesitated momentarily, slightly uneasy. "Being in the WSB has to be hard where your daughters are concerned," he said cautiously.
"Yeah, it is." Georgie calls her stepfather Dad and Maxie hates me, Frisco added silently.
"Family's not encouraged, from what sources have told me. I've done a few articles involving the WSB."
He smirked. "I know. Donely had most of them blocked."
"Is that who was responsible for that?"
Frisco chuckled, shrugging. "Donely's the guy in charge."
"I'll have to remember that."
"It won't help you get anything past him. He's pretty strict about the press."
"There is a little thing called the First Amendment."
"You should know the Bureau doesn't operate on that level. As far as the general public is concerned, the WSB doesn't exist and never will."
Anna came into the room, preventing Edmund from arguing Frisco's last comment. "Anybody hungry?" she asked, glancing between the two men as the two children cheered and rushed past her. "Did I interrupt something?"
~*~
Dinner was wonderful. Frisco had almost forgotten what a family dinner could be like. It reminded him of his own home, the dinners his family had had up until his mother couldn't handle them anymore. Although regretful and a little sad for what he'd lost and what he'd given up, he felt content. The kids bickering, debating with Edmund over First Amendment rights vs. the WSB without any hard feelings on either side, cracking a few jokes with Maria about his brother's lack of fashion sense and competing with Anna to see who could tell the most embarrassing story about the other. A competition Anna had won, much to Frisco's disappointment and everyone else's amusement. He never realized how crazy he'd gotten while Felicia was with Colton until his old friend started in with some of the things he'd done trying to win his wife back. She wasn't an outright winner, though. He made it clear to Anna he still held one ace by vaguely referring to the Valentine's Day when Anna had tied Robert up and Frisco had to go untie him. He swore Anna turned a shade of red he'd never seen before for a brief moment.
Anna helped the family clear the table after dinner, leaving Frisco in the room alone. Maria came into the room a short time later, by herself, with a birthday cake in her hands. "We heard a rumor today is your birthday," she said, smiling broadly and sitting the cake on the table in front of Frisco. "And since the only other people in town you know, Anna said you wouldn't want to be around, we thought we would throw you a little party." She lit the candles. "It's not much..."
Frisco was floored. It had been years, before he and Felicia had divorced at least, since anyone had done anything for his birthday. Hell, the last few years he was doing good to even remember his birthday. This year was no exception. It had completely slipped his mind. He'd certainly never expected Anna to remember after everything she had been through in the last few years. "No, Maria, this is nice," he assured her, smiling uncertainly. "It's very nice. Thank you."
Maddie and Sam came bounding back in the room, carrying bowls and ice cream, Anna and Edmund close behind.
"Blow out the candles," Maddie ordered excitedly. "You have to make a wish!"
"A wish, huh? Are you sure that's how it works?" Frisco teased the girl.
"Yep, that's how it works," she told him definitively.
He stared at the little flames. Forty-one of them to be exact. One wish as he entered middle age with nothing to show for his life... The only thing he wished was for his family back, his life back. For things to be the way they were before he managed to screw everything up yet again. To go through one day without the memories. But a wish wasn't going to change the past. The future was still up for grabs, though. That he could wish for, for things to be different, to not have the same regrets as he did now. He took a deep breath and blew out the candles. About half of them immediately lit back up. He shook his head, trying to hide a smile.
"Very funny," Frisco said, licking his fingers to put out the trick candles.
"Sorry. We were scraping to come up with so many candles," Anna said teasingly.
"Last I checked, you were older than me, Devane."
"No need to remind me!"
"I hope you like chocolate, Frisco," Maria said.
Frisco grinned, picking up a knife to cut the cake. "I love chocolate."
~*~
"I'm glad you enjoyed our little surprise," Maria said to Frisco. "When Edmund was talking Anna about dinner, she mentioned it was your birthday. She wanted to do something for you since you weren't at home."
They were alone in the family room. Frisco had pulled her aside to give her her statement from the previous day. She'd quickly read over the document and signed her name. Frisco was taking her fingerprints
"I'm surprised Anna even remembered it. Truthfully, I didn't even remember it."
"How could you not remember your own birthday?"
It had been a long time since he looked forward to it, a long time since it meant anything but his anniversary was coming up. Or what would be his and Felicia's anniversary. He just shrugged. "Too many years of not even knowing what day it was and not having anyone to celebrate it with anyway."
"What about your family?"
"I, uh, haven't been around much," he admitted sheepishly.
"I know how hard it is to come home after being away so long," she said knowingly, making Frisco wonder how much Anna had told them.
"No offense Maria, but you have no idea. You lost your memory and your family thought you were dead. My situation and yours, two totally different things."
"So what's your story then?"
"I left," he told her sadly. "I walked away from my wife and my daughters for my job more than once. No matter what she tells me, I think there's a part of Felicia that's never forgiven me for joining the WSB." He chuckled cynically. "I don't blame her. She deserved more than what I gave her, so did the girls. They moved on without me. Felicia remarried and Mac was a better husband and father than I would have been. And suddenly here I am, back and wanting to be a part of it again." His fingers traced the surface of the fingerprint scanner he'd been using for Maria's prints. "It's not going over real well."
"Just give it time," she told him, touching his shoulder. "I'm sure everything will work out."
"Is that a neurologist thing? 'Cause my brother keeps telling me the same thing," Frisco complained, his face scrunched in annoyance.
Maria laughed. "Maybe you should start listening to him."
"But what fun would that be?"