Disclaimer: If only they were mine, then I wouldn't be a poor student! CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer own them, except for Frankie. She's mine.
Frankie was dressed to kill. Sitting at her apartment, waiting for Alexx to finish checking her makeup, she heaved a sigh of happiness. She had treated herself to a perfect little black dress, which swooped down low at the back, and a pair of gorgeous black stilettos, also new, completed the outfit. All in all, it was looking like being a great night.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, Lex, what's on your mind?"
Alexx hesitated for a moment. "Horatio…I was wondering why you treat him differently to everyone else."
Frankie was startled. Horatio was one topic that Alexx never brought up, and Frankie suspected it was because she knew more than she wanted to tell anyone. "Horatio's a great guy, but he's not exactly a barrel of laughs is he?"
"Is that it?"
"I guess so. I mean, he's very attractive, but not really much fun."
"Hmm." Alexx was silent for a moment. "Don't be too quick to judge him."
"I've known him four months Alexx, and I am a professional psychologist and profiler! I think I can make a good guess at someone's character." Alexx merely smiled, and changed the subject.
At the club, where it appeared that most of the MDPD had taken up station at the bar, Frankie was getting steadily drunker on large amounts of tequila. She spent a great deal of the night dancing with a steady progression of detectives, and was having a wonderful time. Even Rick Stetler, whom she had always dismissed as a supercilious snob, was being charming. Alexx and Frankie led the whole club in a riotous rendition of the Macarena, and collapsed back at the table they had requisitioned in fits of giggles.
"Having fun ladies?" Horatio, after one or two drinks, had turned to coke, and was staying sober to give Alexx a lift home at the end of the night. Eric arrived with another round of Jose Cuervo tequila, and Frankie knocked it back before she answered.
"This is one of the best nights of my life!" She giggled some more, before focusing on Horatio properly. He looked very dashing in a dark blue suit with a blue, stripy shirt. "You haven't danced with me yet."
Horatio chuckled and shook his head. "When they play something I like, then I'll dance with you."
"What do you like?"
Horatio paused for a moment. He had no intention of dancing with her, so needed to come up with something totally implausible. Given that they were in a very hip, modern club on South Beach which had so far played only modern dance tracks, he made his decision. "Frank Sinatra, or any of the Rat Pack."
Frankie, very, very drunk, could be very stubborn when the mood took her. She disappeared off in the direction of the bar, consuming more tequila on the way, courtesy of Frank Tripp, and was soon back at their table, smiling smugly.
The voice of the DJ cut through the music. "In honour of the birthday girl, I'm about to play an absolute classic. This is one for all you charmers out there." The opening bars to Strangers in the Night started playing. Frankie, one eyebrow raised in victory, held out her hand to Horatio, who sighed deeply in defeat.
Frankie had always known that dancing with basically a mating ritual, but she had never been so aware of that as when Horatio slid his arm around her waist and she laid her head on his shoulder. She had assumed that his reluctance to dance was because he couldn't, but was surprised to see that he knew how to lead properly, as they made their way around the dance-floor. Someone, at some point, had apparently given Horatio ballroom dancing lessons (perhaps his ex-wife, in preparation for their wedding, she mused?), as he easily waltzed with her, perfectly in time to the music. When the song ended, they stayed locked in position, both unwilling to break the spell. Frankie knew she was bright red with blushes, and wasn't entirely sure why. After all, she didn't fancy him. She was sure she didn't.
"Thanks," she mumbled, breaking away suddenly.
"Happy birthday, Frankie," he replied, and she smiled, turning away quickly.
