****

"BABE!!"

"Yes Francesca?" Jake yelled from inside the house. They both had to dodge the movers as the sofa came in. "What's up darlin'?"

"I'm off! I promised Shay that I'd go shopping with her! She even promised me that her father would watch Jessie while we were gone. I think she said that she'd con Frank into helping."

Jake came around the corner and poked his head out of the door. He was soaked head to toe in sweat from the summer heat and physical labor. They were moving into the new house that day and he was making sure that all the furniture made it in one piece and got put into the right place. Frankie and he had sat down with a piece of paper for each room and they both had made notes on the paper 'rooms' about which item went where. "You sure you have to go now?" he whined fakely. "I need some help getting things put away and in the right place."

Frankie looked her sweaty and bare-chested husband up and down thoroughly. Running the tip of her tongue over her lips slowly, she reminded herself that she'd been putting off this shopping trip for over a month now and Shay had been more than understanding. "I wish I could babe. But with the sudden rise in my work and buying the house, I've put off our shopping trip long enough. Besides, I need to get out of the way or I'm going to hurt a mover. I got to get out of here. Oh, while I'm thinking about it, the back bedroom we painted up last night? I'm gonna make that my office. I really need one now that I'm back off of my maternity leave. Just have the guys put everything marked for my office in the room and I'll deal with the rest of it when I get back."

"YOUR office?? Don't I get one?" Jake stuttered. The fourth bedroom had been a sore spot since they'd looked at the house the first time. He wanted a gym, she wanted a private office.

"You already have an office!" She stated firmly as two of the mover's jostled past them with the cedar chest for their bedroom. "Look, I'm late already. Just have them put everything marked office in the back bedroom and I'll deal with it when I get back! NO! No arguments Jake, I caved on getting media room built onto the back of the house. Speaking of which, the contractor is coming by tomorrow to give us some estimates on building the addition. HEY!" she shouted at one of the movers who was aiming at both her and baby Jessica without even looking where he was going. "Watch it, OK? Lady with a baby here!"

The mover mumbled something that was either 'sorry' or 'bite me'. Jake sighed and caved. "All right Frankie. Have fun and keep that cell phone turned on, 'kay?"

"Si, si querida, I will. Go on, I'll be fine." She kissed him quickly and picked up the baby carrier that had been sitting at her feet. She clicked the remote on her key ring and strapped her daughter into the Expedition's back seat. She waved again as she pulled out of the driveway and took off down the street. Punching a button on the phone, she placed the phone into the hands-free unit and waited.

"Hello?"

"Hey Frank!"

"Hey Frankie... hang on, Shay's right here. How's the moving going?"

"It's fine. Jake and I are still arguing about the fourth room. He doesn't have a clue that it's gonna be an office for the both of us. I've got him snowed into thinking it's gonna be my office and mine alone."

"I can imagine. Here's Shay." The phone jostled slightly and then a bright voice cried out "Hey Sistah!!"

"Hey girl!! I should be over at your dad's in about... 15 minutes barring any traffic."

"Take the highway. There's a lot of construction on the side streets and go-betweens that started earlier this week. You'll go out of your way about 10 miles, but you'll save about 30 minutes in wading through the barriers and traffic."

"Gotcha. So then I'll see you as soon as I pull into the driveway." She laughed as she pulled off onto the access road to the interstate.

"See ya then girl!" Frankie hung up the phone and looked into the rearview mirror at her dark haired and gray-eyed little girl. "Ready to see Aunt Shay and Uncle Frank again, eh Jessie?"

The 3-month-old baby in the back seat gurgled happily and waved her arms about, a soft plushie in her tight fisted little grip. She already had her dad's good looks, her mother's height and both parents' strong grip. Little Jessica Katalina Shaw was a bright eyed, happy and healthy baby girl with the world ahead of her. Never mind that she was a Daddy's Girl and had the street tough Justice Department Agent wrapped around her tiny pinky finger. What was even funnier was seeing her normally stoic Uncle Frank turn into mush when his niece gurgled at him.

Frankie sighed. "Shit." she muttered. "Traffic. I hate traffic." Ahead of her was about 40 minutes of 20 miles per hour highway. "And I wanted to live in the suburbs, why? Ohhhh Jessie, wait until your daddy sees the furniture I'm getting for him." As the traffic inched along, she kept telling her dribbling and burbling daughter all about office furniture, floor plans, paint schemes and other things.

****

"So, he's got NO idea?" Shay exclaimed as she got into Frankie's car and buckled her seat belt.

"None." Frankie grinned as she closed the door and started up the engine. She and Shay had just said good-bye to their kids and left them with Grampa Thomas and Uncle Frank. LJ was fawning over his new cousin and Ariel was crawling all over the place trying to play with Jessie's toys. Frank stood in the door and waved as the two women pulled out to go on their scheduled regular shopping trip. "He thinks this is 'our' trip this time. He has no idea that I'm picking out the furniture for our home office."

"Ohhhh how fun! So what's it gonna be? Traditional? Modern? What?"

As Frankie filled in her 'Sistah' on what her plans were for that objected fourth bedroom turned home office, they were happily oblivious to the van following the gold colored Expedition about 10 cars back as they navigated the roads down to the showroom.

"Is that them?" asked the driver.

"You got it. That's the wife driving. The other woman is a friend of his. We get the wife only. If we have to, kill the other one."

"Man, that's gonna be messy if we have to do that. Both of these women are pretty mean when backed up man. You sure we got enough people to do this? Mebbe we need to get a few more guys?"

"Are you always this dumb or were you dropped on your head as a baby?" The man in the passenger seat reached over and smacked the driver upside the head. "I'll take the wife and you pull your gun on the other woman. It'll be simple and fast. If I have to, I'll knock the bitch out!"

The driver grumbled and kept the car in his sights. This didn't feel right to him. He'd heard lots of things about the one named Frankie Battles on the street. Word had it she was in good with the Feds and if you messed with her, you got the wrath of the FBI down on your head. The more he thought about it, the less he wanted a part of this. But the man owned him and he didn't have a choice....

"Heads up girlie, we're being followed." Frankie whispered all of a sudden, her face turning serious.

"Oh give it up Frankie," Shay laughed. "Who would be following us?"

"I have no idea. Ask the driver about 10 cars back in the black van with no plates."

"No shit? You're serious?!" Shay sighed as she turned around to look for herself. "This is not going to be good. Look, if it's a car jacking, then let them have the car. You've got Lo-Jack, right?"

"Yeah, I do. And no, this isn't a car-jacking Sistah. Jackers don't follow you across town faithfully. They hit you when you're at a stop. This jack-off's been following us since right after we left your dad's place. Your dad got any enemies who would stand to benefit from holding you ransom?"

"Oh you don't think they'd do something that stupid, do you?"

Frankie gave Shay a look briefly. "Doy. You're the daughter of Thomas Renquist. I'm sure he's made a few enemies. You're married to Frank Donovan. I KNOW he's made a few enemies."

"And you're Francesca Battles, who's made some enemies of her own in her time. Not to mention that your husband has made his own enemies that would love to get their hands on his wife." Shay fired back. "We both are prime bait in a bad situation. Call Frank and let him know."

"Are you nuts?!" Frankie gasped. "You know what he'd say, 'Ladies, get your butts back here ASAP!'" Frankie mimicked Frank's voice right down to the accent, timing and speech pattern. "He'd treat this like a declaration of war, not to mention that Jake would just go off the deep-end. Look, you and I can handle this if they get stupid and try to jump us. We'll be in public, in the open. We're both armed, you've got your badge and shield, and I've got my credentials. If we have to draw, we're covered."

Shay didn't like the idea, but nodded. Both women sat in silence as they pulled into a parking spot at the showroom. The van following them parked at the far end of the parking lot and the side doors opened quietly, spilling out three men as the driver kept the van running. Frankie and Shay looked around casually, their shades in place as they headed across the parking lot to the front door of the showroom.

They were about 20 feet from the door when the men attacked. A pair of arms captured Frankie and Shay each around their upper arms and across their chests while a hand covered their mouths to prevent screaming. Frankie and Shay both reacted instantly, pitching forward to throw their attackers off-balance. While Frankie drove her elbow into her own attacker's solar plexus, Shay stomped on her attacker's instep and drove an elbow into his groin. Shay then twisted out of her attacker's grip and brought her knee up into the man's nose. Frankie stomped on her attacker's instep, whipped her fist backwards into his nose and then swung her closed fist down into his groin. She turned around as her attacker crumpled down to the ground whimpering in pain, to see Shay attacked by the third man. With little patience left, Frankie drew her gun and screwed it into the man's left ear as she pulled the hammer back with a soft 'click'. The attacker froze, recognizing the sound. He brought his hands up into plain sight, letting Shay go.

"Damn I hate things like this." Frankie swore softly. "You OK there Shay?"

"Yeah Frankie," she said as she pulled out her gun and her cell phone. "Yeah, this is Special Agent Donovan, I need a squad car at..." she rambled off the name of the business and the address as she kept her gun leveled at the one non-whimpering attacker. The third remained curled into a fetal position with both of his hands grasping his tender bits as they swelled to ten times their normal size due to the assault laid against them just a few seconds ago. He was going nowhere until someone picked him up and carried him away.

"What do you idiots want with us?" Frankie asked.

The one she had her gun trained on just kept his mouth shut.

"She asked you a question bonehead!" Shay snarled.

"Who said it was you both we wanted?" he finally said.

"Who was the target then?" Frankie asked, pressing the muzzle of the gun into his ear firmly.

The man looked at Frankie, then Shay and smiled as he looked back at Frankie. He said not one word as sirens were heard in the distance and the squealing of tires heralded a few squad cars of Chicago Police. All too soon the red and blue lights lit up the parking lot and uniformed officers were shouting at Frankie and Shay to lower their weapons and put their hands in the air.

Frankie looked at Shay and Shay looked at Frankie. Both sighed and did as ordered. Granted, it was standard procedure, but damn this was annoying. What made it even more annoying was that these two women were well known by most of the beat cops on the street. 30 minutes later, both women had their guns back in the holster and were giving their statements to the police about what happened.

They were about to go into the store when both of their cell phones rang. Each looked at the other with knowing looks and answered the phone. Almost as if in synchronization, both women heard "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED TO YOU TWO?!"

"Now Frank..."

"Jake, it's like this..."

****