The sound of the door clicking into place alerted the team that Frank had arrived. Jake wasted no time in heading toward the doorway to meet him. "You filthy sonofabitch," he yelled as he connected a tremendous right cross to Donovan's cheekbone.
The force of the blow was enough to knock Frank off his feet. Jake stood over him, bent down and grabbed him by the collar. "I told you once, if you ever hurt her...I would kill you."
Frank stayed down. The raw hatred that blazed in Jake's eyes warned him Jake's intensions were real. "Jake..."
By this time, Shay, Frankie and Cody had reached Jake's side. Jake reached out with his free hand and grabbed one of Shay's arms, pulling the sleeve upward. "Try...just try...explaining your way out of this."
Frank knew to what Jake referred, and watched as all eyes fell to Shay's badly bruised wrist. What could he say? He practically raped his wife?
Frankie's eyes flicked from the bruises to Frank's face. She could see the truth and more in his expression. It was time.
Shay pulled out of Jake's grip and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Jake...it...it was an accident."
"Hon," he said, releasing Frank and taking both her hands in his, turning them palm upward; revealing the bruises. "This was no accident."
Frankie offered Frank a hand up. "C'mon, darlin'. Better put some ice on that cheekbone before your face starts to look like the Elephant Man." She pulled him up and pushed him off towards the break room.
Jake started to follow. He was not finished. Not by a long shot.
Frankie turned around and held up her right index finger. The look on her face brooked no argument. She looked back at Frank to see him enter the break room. "Go. Talk to Shay. Frank and I are going to have a 'Come To Jesus' meeting." She left Jake with that and closed the door to the break room.
"Jake."
He turned to face Shay. "Don't. Don't you dare defend him."
She shook her head and took his hand. "Remember what I told you yesterday. There's something going on, Jake. Something he's keeping from all of us. It's making him something he's not."
"I don't care, Shay. He's a monster."
"Okay, Jake. Go on...kill him. It won't change what happened." She sighed and sat down in a nearby chair. "The only thing that will make any difference if he decides to open up to us. Hell...maybe 'his Francesca' will get him to talk."
"Cut her some slack, Shay. She's been through a lot in her life and Darinda was her friend."
Shay could hear the admiration Jake had for Frankie in his voice. "So, tell me, Agent Shaw...what is so great about that woman, anyway?"
Jake laughed. "Well, if you were a man, I wouldn't have to tell you." He winked and Shay laughed easily. "Ah, at least you haven't lost your sense of humor. Did you know that Frankie was a Private Investigator? Or that Frank gave her a glowing recommendation to the FBI Academy?"
Shay shook her head. "You know that I never heard of her before yesterday. She's that good, huh?"
"I wouldn't have anyone else besides her and Alex helping with this or covering my back."
"So, if she's that good, why isn't she Federal?"
"She told Frank that it wasn't her style, turned it down without even blinking. Something about liking the hours, the freedom and her own dress code. She's not evil Shay and she's got a heart of gold under that street exterior."
"And I should ignore the fact that she's all over Frank every time I turn around? She's probably kissing it and making it all better."
"If I were to tell you that she's his friend and nothing else, would you believe me?"
"Is that what you're saying, Jake?" Shay searched his face for the truth. "Then what's she doing?"
"If I know Frankie... Holding his head in the toilet and giving him a full swirlie. She doesn't hold with violence against women of any kind, intentional or accidental."
"Will he listen?"
"If he wants to live past her temper he will."
"What was that crack earlier about frying pans, wingbacks and butcher knives?"
"Last time Francesca lost her temper it was after she found her brother had run away. She and Frank were.. ah.. well..." he chuckled a bit. "Anyway... she snapped. Under the tremendous amount of pressure she'd been under for months, then to discover that her brother running away - it was inevitable. Cody, Monica and I walked in to see her throwing all sorts of items across the room, the sofa was overturned and she missed my right ear by this much with a butcher knife." He held up his thumb and forefinger barely half an inch apart. "She also winged a frying pan, a wrought iron lamp and a wingback chair at all of us. It took Frank tackling her to the ground and holding her there until she wore herself out."
"So she's unstable?"
"No. She's got a temper, yeah. But it takes an act of God to set her off." Jake chuckled and tugged at a lock of Shay's honey blonde hair. "Are you ready to call it a draw and make nice with her?"
"Guess that depends on her, Jake. If she continues to try to provoke me, I may just have to shoot her and hide the body." She smiled when Jake chuckled and then stood and looked around. "Cody...where's that damned file? Someday I'll get the whole story on how Francesca Battles come to grace everyone's presence."
"Sure. Just make sure to ask her personally. She's got nothing to hide and if you ask, she'll tell you everything."
************
Frank winced as Frankie held the cloth wrapped ice to his cheek. It felt like Jake had hit him with a brick.
"Are you finally going to tell me what the hell is going on?"
"It's nothing Frankie."
Frankie raised an eyebrow and pressed the icepack deeper into the bluing bruise.
The action elicited a hiss of pain and Frank's firm grip on her wrist to peel her hand back. "Drop it Francesca!"
Frankie dropped the ice pack and twisted her hand around to grip his wrist, then twisted her arm and put a painful pressure on his elbow in a smooth motion. "No, Frank. YOU are skating on thin ice here. Those bruises weren't there yesterday and I can do the math. You're out of your normal character, snapping at your wife of all people and now she's got bruises to beat the band. Jake's lost it and there lies the proof. You are going to tell me what's going on or I'm walking out of this case right now."
Frank's other hand gripped her wrist and slowly he peeled his wrist out of her grip. For a moment, he smiled. Then the reality of it set in and he sighed. Grabbing a mug of coffee, he sat down at the table, his head hung in almost defeat.
"I don't know what happened. I wasn't all there. I remember going home, then I remember waking up to see her shaking and scared."
Frankie watched him. For once, she knew what it was like. She'd been where he was as far as stress and pressure. He was near a breaking point, strange how fate can turn things around in a matter of a few years. Frankie crossed the room and put her hands on his shoulders, rubbing them gently. "Frank."
"Yes, Francesca?"
She pulled him upright and massaged deep into his neck and shoulders. "It's time you got righteous with yourself again. Your wife needs you, your children need you, your team needs you. I'll give you everything I can to help with this case, but you've got to let your wife in and let her help you."
"What did I do to deserve this..." he whispered, not really to anyone.
At first Frankie wasn't sure she'd heard him. But, she chuckled and answered. "You saved my life, Frank Donovan."
"No. This case, these deaths."
"You didn't do anything. There's a killer out there who's escalating. Sooner or later he'll be caught and life will go on."
Frank nodded.
"Frank, I've been there every time your love life hit bottom. You were there for me in the darkest hour of my life and for that I will always owe you." She came around beside him and sat down on the table. "Hey darlin'..."
Frank looked up and hugged her tight for a moment. "Thank You Francesca."
"Oh, stop that. If your wife sees this she'll think I'm trying to seduce you again."
"Again?"
"Yeah. For some odd reason she's got the idea that I'm crawling all over you and trying to seduce you. Too bad she doesn't know me and my healthy respect for the institution of marriage."
"You've never been married or so in love that you're not thinking straight."
"Maybe I have." At Frank's look she chuckled. "Yes, Frank, life did go on after you and I realized that there wasn't anything there after Eric's funeral. But, for him... I'll always be a friend." Frankie stood up and slid off her suit jacket. The tank top she had on underneath revealed the woven circular tattoo around her navel and a fresh navel ring.
Frank was fairly certain that it was short enough to reveal the tattoo in the small of her back as well. "Thank you, again, Francesca. I'll talk to Shay about her misunderstandings of your intentions."
"No. Talk to her about why you're not you recently. Talk to her about how much you love her and need her and how sorry you are for behaving the way you have been. Leave Shay Donovan's misconceptions to me. Get Righteous with yourself again, Frank. That's thanks enough." Frankie threw her white-ribboned jacket over her arm and made to leave the break room to Frank and his thoughts.
"Francesca..." Frank called before she reached the door.
"Yeah, darlin'?"
"She's not at all like you make her out to be." He grinned thinking back to the first time he'd met "his gift". "She saved my bacon more than once; the little spitfire even carried my sorry hide tossed over her shoulder through the Colombian jungle in her bare feet because I was half dead."
"And, you're telling me this, why?"
"Thought it might make it easier for you to accept her if you knew, that's all. Your friendship means a lot to me. I know you mean well, but Shay doesn't know you yet. She'll come around...I've given her enough to deal with lately; don't push her over the edge."
"No promises." Frankie smiled and winked before leaving the room.
************
