Thanks to Esme for beta reading!
Details & disclaimer given in part 1.
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It's a Beautiful Life, Rachel Goldstein
by Hilde
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Part
5
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"You found anything yet?" Rachel asked curiously as she entered the Detectives' office, balancing two cups of hot coffee.
""Yeah..." Frank nodded thoughtfully with a glance at the cup Rachel put in front of him. "Do you call this *coffee*?" he asked, suspiciously eyeing the contents of the cup.
"Hey, don't make fun of my coffee!" Rachel mockingly tried to slap him over the head, but missed when Frank ducked. "Drink it!" she ordered, and Frank smilingly obeyed.
"So, what did you come up with?" Rachel asked again, wanting to get back to the case at hand. She took a sip of her own coffee while awaiting an answer, and decided that the station was in desperate need of a new coffee machine.
"You were right," Frank stated.
"Of course," Rachel smiled contently.
Frank raised his eyebrow at her remark, but did not enter into the subject. "All three girls were using lawyers from the same law firm during their battle for custody." He paused, receiving a "go-on-fast"-look from his partner. "It's called Anderson & Evans Associates. I assume you have heard about them?" He looked expectantly at her.
Rachel almost spilled her coffee, but managed to save the cup before it fell. She stared at Frank for a moment, realising that the situation was getting way too personal for her liking. "Yeah..." she nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know them. That's where my poor, late ex-husband used to work. I knew they couldn't be trusted," she added, a bitter tone in her voice.
~~~
After thinking everything through; the circumstances and the course the case was taking, Rachel had come to the conclusion that maybe it was not such a bad idea to let Frank stay for a while. Actually, she had been surprisingly happy about it – heck, it might even be fun.
That was up until two minutes ago. Now she regretted ever letting him in through the front door. "Frank, what the *hell* are you doing?!" She surveyed the scene in front of her, hands on her hips and lightning in her eyes.
"I'm cooking you dinner!" Frank replied, a bit offended that she actually had to ask what he was doing. "What does it look like I'm doing?"
"It looks like you're trying your very best to ruin my kitchen, that's what it looks like!" Rachel exclaimed, entering the room while letting the sight in front of her sink in.
The kitchen bench was hardly visible underneath all the packing, bits of food, saucepans and different sorts of utensils. What had once belonged inside the boxes and packings was now spread across the room, on the stove, in the sink and on the kitchen table, but most of it seemed to have landed on the floor. Not to mention Frank himself. His apron – or rather Rachel's apron – had changed its colour drastically, and his hair had turned gray due to the amount of – what, flour?? – which floated around in the air. For a moment Rachel considered setting the whole place on fire, since she probably never would get a clean kitchen again.
"God Frank, look at this! How on earth did you have time to create all this mess? I was only gone 15 minutes!" She looked around again, not fully understanding what had happened. It had to be a nightmare. It was impossible for one single man to turn a room upside down like this while she was having a shower. But Frank always succeeded in doing the impossible, didn't he? Resigned, Rachel sunk down on the cleanest chair by the table and sighed deeply.
"What?" Frank glanced around the room, not seeing what the problem was. "Okay, so it's a bit messy," he agreed. "But just wait till you taste my deliscious dinner! That'll take your mind off a few misplaced kitchen tools!" He grinned proudly at her.
"A *bit messy*?!?" Rachel was close to screaming. "Frank, I cannot possibly live here anymore!"
"That's taking it a little far, isn't it?" Frank picked up half a tomato lying on the bench, studying it carefully for a minute, a vicious smile forming on his lips.
Rachel didn't notice, she was too busy yelling. "No, I don't think so! I'll have to get a whole new kitchen, and I'm telling you, they're not on sale these days! I swear Frank, if I've ever wanted to kill somebody, now is the time! You can –" She stopped short as the tomato splatted against her forehead and ran down her face, some of the fruit stabilizing itself on the tip of her nose.
A complete silence filled the room. For what seemed like an eternity, both persons just stood there, none of them moving as much as a finger. Then Frank couldn't take it any more. His shoulders started to shake, and he desperately tried to control the twitches of his lips. But despite his efforts, his attempt to stay serious failed miserably. The sight of Rachel with tomatoe juice running down her face was just too hilarious. It started as a small chuckle, barely audible, then it grew stronger by the second, until he doubled over with laughter, having to reach for the bench for support.
Rachel drew a deep, calming breath, determined not to let her anger show just yet. She wiped the fruit juice away from her forehead and nose, and smiled sweetly at Frank while waiting for him to regain his senses. "*That*, Holloway," she said quietly, almost a whisper, "was something you should *never* have done."
Frank was too busy drawing in air between laughs to even notice the lethal look on Rachel's face, let alone take any precautions to avoid what was coming. Before he knew what had happened, he was coughing heavily, covered in something that seemed like wheat flour.
"Thanks for the meal," Rachel smirked while carefully eyeing Frank, obviously content with the result. "Only lacking milk and yeast, and I can put you in the oven and make a bread out of you."
Frank glared furiously at her, not yet able to talk. Finally the coughing seized, and he glanced around for the first and best thing to attack his partner with. He grabbed a boiled potato from a bowl and aimed.
Rachel saw it coming. She made a dive for it, but not fast enough. The potato hit her in the shoulder, and left a nice little stain on her shirt. "Right, that's *it*!" she hissed. "If it's war you want, you got it!"
The next few minutes were a mixture of flying vegetables, bouncing kitchen tools and a pair of screaming, laughing and coughing detectives. Rachel's complaints about her kitchen being a mess were completely forgotten as she now managed to at least triple the chaos – with a great help from Frank, of course.
Finally all objects able to be thrown at another person had served its mission, but not until Rachel had attacked Frank with a cucumber, wanting to smack him over the head with it. Frank lost his footing when he slipped on a piece of lettuce on the floor, and in his eager for something to hold on to, he grabbed Rachel around the waist. Despite Rachel's yell, they ended up on the floor, Rachel on top of Frank. If all the food scattered across the floor had been put between them instead, they would have very much resembled a sandwich.
"Francis James Holloway, I hate you," Rachel declared, out of breath, but not moving from Frank's stomach.
"And I love you," Frank smiled sheepishly. Seeing the look of confusion on Rachel's face, he added, "But I'd feel a lot safer if you dropped that cucumber."
Rachel glanced from Frank to the vegetable she was still holding in her hand, then back to Frank. And before either of them really knew what was happening, her lips were pressed against his. The cucumber fell from her hand and rolled across the floor as she affectionately ran her hands through his hair.
Frank was in shock; in fact, he even tried objecting, but it was hard to speak with his mouth full of… well, full of Rachel. He wanted to pinch himself just to make sure he wasn't dreaming, but in fear of missing his arm and pinching Rachel instead, he decided against it. And if it was a dream, he hoped he would never wake up.
Rachel finally drew away from him, in desperate need for air, and the magical moment (or rather minute) was gone. She looked him straight in the eyes, with a look that made Frank sure she was about to propose. She bent closer and whispered softly into his ear, barely audible, "Sweetheart… Get your butt away from my kitchen floor and clean this place up!"
Frank sat up with a jerk, causing Rachel to fall off him and hit the floor beside him with a thump. "Ouch!" she complained, but Frank was already on his feet.
"What the hell was that?" He glared down at her.
"What?" Rachel returned the glare, though looking as innocent as she could.
"What do you mean *what*?" Frank yelled. "That… That *kiss*!" He waved frantically with his arms, and Rachel had to concentrate on not bursting out laughing.
"What kiss would that be, Frank?" she asked lightly while getting up from the floor.
Frank stared incredulously at her. "Don't do that, Rachel…" he warned her. "Don't kiss me and then deny it afterwards!"
Rachel shook her head. "I'm not denying anything, Frank, but I haven't kissed you. You must have been dreaming." She smiled sweetly at him.
"What?!" Frank couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. There was no way he would let her pull a joke on him like that. "Rachel, you kissed me!" he stated intently.
Rachel sent him a sideways glance. "Nah, you're kidding. I didn't kiss you."
"Umph!" Not the smartest thing to say, but at the moment all words seemed to have left Frank's mind without a trace. "Umph… Umph!" he repeated, hardly able to control his still waving arms.
"Yeah, I hear you keep saying that," Rachel told him. "But I don't think I know the language. What is it; Japanese? I think you'd better attend a course." She wiped some flour off his shoulder, then turned to leave.
Eventually Frank managed to recover his wits, however he was no longer completely sure that Rachel had actually kissed him. Maybe she was right, maybe it was just his imagination running wild. Nah, that was impossible. He couldn't have imagined such a thing! Or could he…? "Hey, where are you going?" He suddenly noticed Rachel about to leave the room.
She turned to look at him, clearly amused. "I'm going to have another shower. Do me a favour and make my kitchen liveable again, will you?" She sent him a dazzling smile, then disappeared out of sight.
Frank was left beside the kitchen table, looking totally stunned.
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End part 5
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[ To be continued... ]
