Jake chuckled at the sight before him.  There, sprawled out on the conference table flat on her back was one deeply sleeping Francesca Battles.  She looked so peaceful as she slept.  He thought back to the first time he'd seen his 'biscuit'.  He'd seen Frankie in many different emotional and personal levels.  Many times he'd wondered what things would be like if he'd stayed the night with her instead of Frank.

At the sound of Cody coming in, Frankie stirred and shifted.  She rolled her head over, the thick cascade of black hair fell over the edge of the table to puddle on the floor and the file that had laid open across her stomach fluttered in sheets to the floor.  The only other time she looked even more alluring than she did now was when she'd hurled a butcher knife across her living room at his head.

"Criminy what a thought" he whispered as he set the overnight bag down on the nearby chair and leaned over her ear.

"Francesca..." he whispered.

"Mmmmm" she mumbled, her head rolling over towards the sound.  What a silky sound.

"Francesca... wake up sunshine" he whispered in her ear, his mouth close enough to fan the shell of her ear.

"Mmmmm... Jake..." she sighed softly as her head turned and her lips came a mere breath from his.  Her gray eyes opened with a smile.  "What a way to wake up."

"Good Morning Firecracker," he whispered.

The only thing that stopped him from kissing her right there was Cody's cough from his computer console.  Jake chuckled as he backed up and Frankie sat up slowly with a stretch.  "I brought your clothes.  You pulled an all-nighter again?"

"Yeah.  Cody can fill you in on what we came up with while I change clothing."

As she left, Cody's cell phone rang.  The caller ID showed it was Shay.

"Yeah, Uncle Sam's Mortuary.  You stab 'em, we slab 'em."

"That was bad taste, considering this case.  Get me anything you can find on Francesca Battles."

"Frankie?  Why do you want a background on her?" he asked.

"Cody, just do it," she demanded.

"Ya know...you've been sleeping with the boss too long," he quipped.

"Yeah...or not long enough.  Will you do it, or not?"

"Sure, Shay...I'll get it done."

"Thanks, see you in a few."

As he hung up, Frankie walked back in, her hands fussing with her hair. "What does she want with my background files?"  She finally got the hair stick in just right and smoothed out her clothing.  The black leather pants fit her like second skin all the way down to the black leather boots with the 2-inch needle-like heels and extremely pointed toes.  She had a black tank top on under a white suit coat that dipped down at the hem to just above her mid-thigh.  It was threaded with white silk ribbons lacing the cut out strips together.  The whole effect was imposing as she walked back with her hair twisted up behind her head.

"She... ah.. didn't say." Cody stammered.

"She didn't, hm?"

"Now, Frankie.." Jake started.

"Now, nothing, Jake.  If she wants to know about me, she can damned well ask me. 

"I know, Frankie.  All I know is that she just called on her way in and requested a background on you."

"Jake... Leave Mrs. Frank Donovan to me, please." was all she said as she brushed by him and into the break room for some coffee.

Jake and Cody exchanged a look before Cody shouted.  "DON'T LOSE YOUR TEMPER, FRANKIE!!"

Shay unlocked the door and slipped into the nest without any fanfare.  However, as she slid by Jake and Cody, Frankie was coming out of the break room with a mug of coffee.

"Snooping before breakfast, eh?  And Cody, I haven't lost my temper in some years... not since I threw a frying pan at a half-naked man in my apartment."  She winked at Jake and turned to face Shay.

"Miss Battles, what are you talking about?" Shay replied, stepping past her and Jake, into the break room.

"Mrs. Donovan, I'm talking about your request for a full background on me.  Next time you want something, make sure I'm not within earshot.  If you want my information, then be a lady and ask me directly."

Shay quirked an eyebrow at the brunette.  "My apologies, Miss Battles.  One, I cannot see through a telephone line and two, most people have a home to go to," Shay retorted.   "I don't know you from Adam, and I like to know who I'm dealing with.  Sure, I could ask you and get what information you choose to tell me.  I run a background, and I get the information I want to know.  And as far as being a lady, you've got a helluva lot of room to talk."

Frankie chuckled and set the mug down.  Jake edged over towards Frankie and Shay in case things got nasty and Cody backed up, looking around the room.

"Relax Cody.  There's no butcher knives or wingback chairs here and I've got a firm grip on my temper.  As for you, Donovan..."  Frankie picked up the mug and sipped it with a slow smile.  "While you were, ahem, occupied, I was here working.  It is not a matter of not having a home to go to but simply a matter of wanting to catch Dari's killer."  She sipped at the coffee again and walked past Jake.  "I never claimed to be a lady, Donovan.  But, then, you'd know that if you ever ramped down on your hostility towards me."

Shay almost laughed at that last remark.  Her hostility?  She had received nothing but hostility from the territorial Francesca Battles from the moment they met at Darinda's funeral.  "Whatever you say, Battles.  Apparently you have a twisted sense of reality, but far be it from me to shatter your illusions."  Shay moved past her to pour a cup of coffee.

"Reality is 99% perception.  I suggest you accept that I'm working with Frank and his team on this and get over it.  I have no illusions, woman.  Any that I had were wiped away long before you ever darkened this doorstep!"

Her head was beginning to ache and she silently cursed her husband for bringing this she-devil into their midst.  "Do not call me woman and I am part of this team, like it or not."  Shay sipped at her coffee, she was tired of foiling with this woman.  "Besides that, I'm not the one crawling all over a married man." Shay slammed her cup on the counter.

"Temper, temper," Frankie scolded.  Frankie got right up behind her and whispered in Shay's ear.  "Perhaps if his wife wasn't such a frigid shrew, he wouldn't need me to comfort him."

"Jesus, Frankie," Jake finally moved into the midst of the conversation.  "You have no right to talk like that. Nor do you know what Frank and Shay have been through...together...with the team."

Frankie backed up with a smile.  "You're correct, darlin'.  I don't.  But then, she has no right to presume facts that do not exist."  She turned and walked out to pick up the file she'd dropped while getting off of the table.  As she left, she chuckled.  "Frank's women come and go... but one thing remains the same.  And that, is me."

Shay turned and laughed hatefully.  "Oh?  I don't recall him ever mentioning the wonderful woman who always remains.  And...I might ask...if you're just the end all that beats all...why are you not Mrs. Franklin Donovan?"

Frankie just laughed and kept walking into the conference room.  If Shay Donovan wanted to think that Frankie was after Frank, then that was her business.  Through it all, Frankie had never asked more of Frank than friendship and trust.  When each of his past relationships bombed, Frankie was there to give a friendly word and hug and get him righteous with himself again.

"Shay..."  Jake reached out to her.

Shay shrugged past him.  "Let her think what she wants, Jake.  I don't give a damn...I have more important things to worry about."  She left the two of them to find a quiet place to ease her aching head.

Not really feeling up to having any more conversations or listening to Frankie's taunts, distracted with the disturbing behavior of her husband and his reluctance to take her into his confidence, Shay sat down at her desk without so much as another word to anyone.  She rested her elbows on her desk and cradled her aching head in her hands. 

Jake lifted a brow and approached her desk.  Things between her and Frankie had gotten worse and Jake wanted to remedy that.  If Shay understood more about their past with Frankie, she would know there was a deep friendship between her husband and the gorgeous PI.  As he neared her, he noticed the bruises around her wrists.  She had apparently tried to hide them by wearing long sleeves; unfortunately, they rode up when she bent her elbows.  Jake felt and tasted the bile as it rose in his throat.  Heaven help Frank Donovan when he next saw him.  He turned and left Shay to her thoughts without disturbing her.

************