A/N: Sorry so long on the up-date. Been a bit crazy at home and at work and when I get tired, my beloved muse goes a-walkin'. Really wish I had a lap-top at work...

Chapter 20

"This is not funny!" Randi yelped. "I hate these damn parties!"

"Girl, put up and shut up. After BeeGee's little rumor-spreading, you've got some serious damage control to do," Angel said. "And showing up at the Bradford Halloween party is the best way to do it."

"Can't I do it some other way?" Randi pleaded. Both Angel and Candy shook their heads firmly.

"If it makes you feel any better, we're planning on going as well," Candy said. "I've never been one to turn down a good party."

"That's not a party, that's a bloody blood-sucking, leach-infested, zombie gathering," Randi shot back.

"That might be true," Angel said, "but that zombie gathering, as you so charmingly call it, can help salvage our reputation and shut Bee-Gee's mouth."

BeeGee was the polite version of Beyatch Girl and was the pet name for Catherine Wilcox these days. Randi didn't know who had come up with it and she didn't care; in her present opinion towards her sister these days, it fit.

The three women were in the main office of Back In Time and Randi had just been told she was going to the Bradford Halloween party, which was two nights from today. She'd made her opinion of that very clear and both Candy and Angel had put their foot down. She was going. What she'd said had not been polite and it had resulted in her co-workers laughing at her.

"Besides, there's always a little fun to be had in up-staging your sister," Candy pointed out. "You show up, glammed up and charming, smile sweetly and all that, and you'll have the zombies eating out of your hand, revising their opinions, bring us in more business, and pissing your sister off."

Randi's eyebrows shot up. That idea had a certain appeal to her. "Fine, fine, I give up. I'll go to the darn party. I just need a costume and I'm assuming you girls have some ideas, since you've basically bullied me into this thing?"

"How about Arwen from Lord of the Rings?" Angel said. "You've got the dark hair and grace to pull it off."

"Or even one of the dresses Scarlet O'Hara wore from Gone With the Wind?" Candy suggested.

"I've got a better idea; let's see what we can find first," Randi said.

The three women, who had all become very good friends, hit the shops. With a bit of luck, they found the green coronation dress Arwen wore during Aragorn's coronation ceremony in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. They also found the Evenstar pendant Arwen wore, a silver and gold headdress worn by Galadriel, and a pair of elf ears.

Deciding to stick to the movie theme, Angel decided to go as Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, confessing to having seen both movies and loving them, and Candy found a white wig and promptly became Storm from the X-Men movies, admitting she admired actress Halle Berry.

What neither Angel nor Candy told Randi was that they had found the coronation costume of Aragorn from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. A little luck turned up his crown, ring, and Anduril, the sword that was reforged from the shards of Narsil and used by Aragorn in Return of the King. The two women were going to have a little chat with Mac in the immediate future about his plans for Halloween night.

"Hey Mac?" Angel asked, knocking on the detective's office door later that day.

"Angel, what can I do for you?" Mac asked, smiling pleasantly.

"You doing anything on Halloween?" she asked, coming in to his office.

"Nothing's been called to my attention, but then again, this is New York," he said wryly.

"Good point. Anyway, Randi's attending the Bradford Halloween party that night. If you go with her, you'll stop her from trying to kill a few of the socialites," Angel said. "You'll also help us put Back In Time back in good graces."

"I thought she hated those functions," he said.

"She does and she's not going willingly. We're making her go for damage control due to the rumors Catherine's been spreading. Candy and I are planning on being there but Randi's the main event."

Mac nodded. "What's she going as?"

"Arwen. Don't worry, Candy and I've already got your costume. All you need is a pair of dark brown pants and comfortable black shoes," Angel said. "Oh, and I need to know your ring size for the first finger of your left hand," she said, wiggling the finger closest to her thumb.

Mac's eyebrows shot up. "What will I be going as?"

"Aragorn during his coronation. Do yourself a favor and don't shave for the next two days."

Mac had to think about that for a moment or two before he remembered that Aragorn had a bit of a beard. He chuckled and nodded. After telling Angel his ring size, he asked, "Does Randi know?"

"No, and we're not going to tell her. It'll be a surprise," Angel said, grinning. "I'll drop of your costume and the formal invitation tomorrow."

Sure enough, the next day, after getting back from a case, Mac found a garment bag and box waiting for him. Inside the garment bag were a red turtleneck tunic, "breastplate", ankle-length "chain mail" that would be worn under the breastplate, gauntlets, boot tops, and attached cape with Gondorian wings for the cape. In the box were Aragorn's crown, ring, and sword, complete with scabbard and belt. There was also the formal invitation, a reference picture of Aragorn as king, and a small container of black face make-up in case Mac's face decided not to co-operate and grow his beard fast enough for the party.

Mac got a bit of ribbing from his co-workers about his new look and but it was all in good fun, especially once he explained what he was up to.

"I want to see that," Stella said, grinning.

"Well, I was planning on changing here before heading over there," Mac admitted. "Might be a bit easier, since I'll be finishing my shift before I head over there."

"Makes sense," Lindsey said, grinning. She looked at Danny, who was standing behind Mac, and unbeknownst to him, held up one hand and did a 'camera' gesture, a very broad grin on his face.

Halloween night, Bradford Halloween party.

Randi had to fight with herself not to sigh heavily. It was only an hour in to the party and she could seriously feel a headache coming on. Mrs. Stratford, dressed as a southern belle, was yammering away about the next big charity party that she sincerely hoped Randi was planning on attending, something Randi had absolutely no intention of doing, provided she didn't get black-mailed by her co-workers again. She'd spoken to Mac yesterday via phone and made a comment about wishing he was with her. He'd been a big vague but very apologetic, saying that since it was Halloween, he was on call in case the lunatics decided to come out of the woodworks. He did, however, promise to catch up with her for a private dance with her later that night provided she behaved herself and didn't kill anyone. She figured it was better than nothing.

"Oh, my," Mrs. Stratford suddenly breathed. "Now there's a man who knows how to wear a crown." She was looking at someone in the crowd and her eyes had gone absolutely wide. Out of curiosity, Randi followed her line of sight and felt her own jaw dropping.

He may have been wearing a beard but Randi knew him too well. There, chatting easily with the hosts of the party, champagne glass in hand, was one Mac Taylor, dressed as King Aragorn, complete with sword and crown.

"Do you know him, dear?" Mrs. Stratford asked, watching Randi shrewdly.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, that's Detective Mac Taylor of the NYPD. He's a Level One CSI and one of the best," Randi said, sensing an opportunity to work things in her favor. "I've had the good fortune to know him while I was working with the NYPD to evaluate the contents of their storage rooms."

"And?" Mrs. Stratford, asked, hoping for some gossip.

Randi knew this and smiled. "He's a perfect gentleman but he's got a very sharp mind. I wouldn't cross him if I were you. Word is, if the evidence says you're guilty, heaven help you if you get in his cross-hairs because he'll do all he can to nail your butt to a jail cell. He's also very protective of the people he cares about."

"Oh, I would imagine so," Mrs. Stratford said, enjoying this.

"Yes, Catherine, my sister, she made the mistake of trying to come on to him a while back and, Mac, Mac doesn't like that. He prefers ladies. Mind you, the word I got was that Catherine also came on to several other men Mac works with and one of them very politely told her that he would rather screw a corpse than her," Randi said conversationally. She knew darn well who had told Catherine that but she wasn't about to say so. Let the woman wonder.

Mrs. Stratford tittered.

"I don't mean to be rude, Mrs. Stratford—" Randi began.

"Oh, please call me Judy, dear," Mrs. Stratford cut in sweetly.

Randi nodded. "Judy, but I think politeness dictates that I go say 'hello' to him. Perhaps I can get a dance out of him. I hear he's quite the good dancer."

"Oh! By all means, my dear, by all mean!"

Randi smiled, and gracefully swept away, feeling as if the evening had just suddenly gotten better.

As Mac exchanged polite chit-chat with Mr. and Mrs. Bradford, something caught his attention and he turned to see a vision of loveliness in the form of Randi, dressed as Arwen in her coronation gown, moving towards him, a smile on her lovely face. He smiled back.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bradford, quite the lovely party this evening, just as you both look wonderful this evening," Randi said politely to the hosts, who were dressed as a medieval king and queen, complete with some very real jewelry. "It's a pleasure to be here."

"Thank you, Miranda and it's lovely to see you here. Have you met Detective Taylor?" Mrs. Bradford asked, smiling.

"Please, call me Randi, and, not only have I met Detective Taylor, but also I've had the good fortune to work in conjunction with him in regards to an insurance fraud case some weeks ago," Randi replied, flashing Mac a wide, charming smile. "Also, I'm in progress with my second evaluation contract with the NYPD and Detective Taylor has been very kind in his assistance with both me, my secretary, and my business manager," Randi said smoothly, earning a grin from Mac.

"Fraud case? Did that have anything to do with Byron Vandersteen the Third?" Mr. Bradford asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. Nasty bit of business, but you'll have to understand that, since I was involved with it, I can't really talk about that particular case until it finishes going through the courts," Randi said apologetically.

"Oh, we understand perfectly," Mrs. Bradford soothed. "Nature of the job and all that."

"I understand your former business manager, Stewart, is causing quite the ruckus, suing you and all that," Mr. Bradford said.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Randi said. "I had to fire him due to threats of taking over my business with my sister, Catherine. He threatened to get even with me but made a bad mistake; he said it in front of a large portion of the NYPD."

"He did?" Mrs. Bradford said.

"She's telling the truth," Mac said. "He said, and I quote, 'I'll ruin you, you stupid bitch, see if I don't.' Unquote. She found out he was attempting to take a percentage out of the business contracts for 'personal fees', whatever that was, and was threatening her secretary at the time if the girl didn't start doing things his way. Fortunately, Randi has a very loyal secretary and she was made aware of this immediately."

"Good staff is hard to come by," Mrs. Bradford admitted, even as Mr. Bradford's eyebrows shot up.

"And Angel is one of the best," Mac said. "That's why she's now the business manager once Stewart was fired. I believe it was a very wise decision on Randi's part. Of course, Stewart also got himself in to some serious trouble when he decided to sleep with Randi's sister at Randi's place, even though, from what I understand, Randi had made it very plain about how she feels about that sort of thing."

"Oh dear," Mrs. Bradford said, taking in this tidbit of information.

"Yes, I believe I did. You see, I consider my home to be my private space, my little domain, if you will, and I do recall asking Catherine to never bring anyone to my place without clearing it with me first. She failed to do that and I'm afraid there are limits to my tolerance. I mean, as a guest in someone's home, you wouldn't bonk someone in your host's bedroom, would you?" Randi said, looking disgusted.

"She did that?" Mrs. Bradford gasped. Both Mac and Randi nodded solemnly. "My heavens! How disgraceful of her! And to such a nice, respectful person like you, Randi." She looked at her husband. "Well, that certainly changes things."

"It's not a pleasant picture, I'm afraid, but it's the truth," Randi said. "Now, I hate to be rude, but I believe this fine gentleman here owes me a dance and I understand your band is quite good." She grinned at Mac and he placed his now empty champagne glass on the tray of a passing waiter.

Arm in arm, after nodding politely to the Bradfords, Randi and Mac swept away to the dance floor. As they moved to the music of a waltz, Randi grinned up at him and gently slapped his arm. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming here tonight?"

"What, and ruin the surprise?" he shot back, grinning. "By the way, you look beautiful tonight and you handled yourself well back there."

Randi blushed at his praise. "Thank you. You don't look too bad yourself. You seem quite comfortable in this setting."

"I may be just a cop but I help run the CSI lab and that means dipping my fingers in politics and what-not so I had to learn how to swim with the sharks a while back. Let's just say I got quite good at it."

"I could stand to learn a few lessons from you. I can swim with the sharks if I have to but I'd rather not but if Angel and Candy are going to insist on this kind of 'damage control' then I'd better learn, hadn't I?" Mac nodded. Suddenly, she clued in to something. "Wait a minute! Did Angel and Candy have something to do with you being here, especially after you told me you weren't going to be able to make it because you were on-call in case the lunatics decided to come out of the woodworks?" He grinned and nodded again, enjoying himself. She briefly entertained the idea of smacking him again, smacking her co-workers, or just enjoying herself. She decided to go for the later and smiled up at him. "Well, it looks like we get our dance after all."