Chapter 10 --- Fran's Beau
"He sounds great Fran, if you go for the tall, dark, handsome type. Where did you meet?"
Fran looks down, after a second she replies, "At work."
"Did you get Kyle to check up on him? You know I had the whole almost 'being sold into white scientist slavery' thing happen with a guy from work."
"Kyle approves. How about the four of us split a pizza tonight?"
"Sure, do you think he'll want to?"
"It was his idea."
"Ok, so who is this man of mystery?"
"I think I'll wait to tell you until he gets here."
"I'd feel more comfortable knowing who is coming to my home."
"He has Kyle's approval."
"Even so Fran…" Diane begins as the door bell chimes.
A couple of minutes later Jake is on the intercom. "Diane, Kyle's here for a briefing."
Diane stares at Fran. "You've got to be kidding?"
"What's wrong with Kyle?"
"He doesn't even notice you at work."
"He notices me plenty after work."
"Fran!"
"Besides, you're one to talk, you married a patient."
"And you warned me a plenty." Diane hugs Fran. "So you're happy?"
"Very!"
"How long have you been dating?"
"Seven months."
"So you got together…"
"When you were shot. I rushed in wearing my tennis outfit; I didn't notice anything but you two. The next week Kyle asked me for a match, then dinner. That went on for a month; then I asked him to a dinner I had tickets for. We talked for hours."
"And the rest is history." Kyle added from the door.
A lost Jake is looking over Kyle's shoulder. "What's history?"
"Kyle is Fran's beau."
"No… Really?"
"Yes really Jake. You don't think I could be interested in Fran?"
"No… I mean yes… I mean you never acted like you ever noticed her."
"We're discrete."
"Diane and I were… Hold it." Jake looks at his smiling wife. "We weren't were we?"
"All part of your charm sweetheart."
"What's the other part?"
"Being a spazz and having all our favorite pizza parlors on speed dial."
"Ah yes, the irresistible trifecta."
"Could you two quit flirting?"
"Why?"
"Because you are always flirting." Fran comments. "Why are you laughing?"
"Fran," Jake began, "Earlier today we had a weird, tense argument."
"Tense?" Kyle asks.
"Weird?" Fran queries at the same time.
"I want the insults to stop."
"I want him to accept me as I am."
"Hold it!" Kyle sternly commands. "Jake, Diane insults you?"
"No. Herself."
"How so?"
"She's fat, she's too short, her eyes are too dark, she's too fair, she's not pretty enough… There's more, but you get the picture."
"Is it hormonal?" Kyle asks.
"No, she's always done it. I can wine her, dine her, romance her and we'll spend the entire night making love. The next morning she's in front of the mirror tearing herself down again."
Fran and Kyle exchange looks.
"Diane, haven't you noticed the foot traffic by our labs are mostly men, or the looks we get in the cafeteria?"
"Or the way Jake looks at you?" Kyle adds.
"How does Jake look at me?"
"Love, lust and longing." Kyle answers.
"Don't forget pride." Fran adds.
"You are a beautiful woman Diane, who's intelligent, accomplished and compassionate."
"And thoughtful, moral, a good boss and better friend."
"A loving wife," Jake adds, "and soon mother."
Somewhere in all of this Diane has clouded up and tears ran freely now. Jake pulls her close as he weeps. Kyle and Fran quietly leave them alone, going into the kitchen.
"Perhaps we should go."
"We can't Fran. I have to brief Jake on a mission. I was hoping you could distract Diane."
"I thought we were here as a couple."
"Fran, Lou assigned this mission just before I left. I thought I could brief Jake later after a nice evening. Speaking of which, what's with Diane?"
"She always obsessively questions things. Makes a good scientist, but it seems to amplify her self-doubts."
"The one's we all have?"
"Exactly."
"This isn't the first 'argument' I've seen of theirs lately; you?"
"I've heard about them, but hadn't witnessed on."
"Do me a favor; check Diane's nanite activity over the last two hours."
Taking out her PDA, Fran starts checking, catching on to what Kyle's thinking; or so she thinks. "Her hormone activity is up. Nothing abnormal though."
"Now check Jake's, comparing it to Diane's."
"Up then down after I arrive. Back up when you two join us. Diane's is natural, but I don't understand Jake's reactions."
"I think Diane's nanite's are influencing Jake's."
"A detail we'd appreciate you keeping to yourselves."
Jake said from the doorway. "How long have you suspected?"
"Ever since the transference." Kyle replied. "Your little dance in Recovery was too weird and you've been unusually in sync the last few months."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Fran addressed to both men, with a frown.
"I thought you already knew." Kyle answers.
"And we," Diane said entering the room after a quick freshen up,"wanted to keep the information to ourselves."
"I'm lost," Fran confessed, "How detailed is the influence?"
"We can communicate like a cell phone, only we always have bars."
"Quit bragging sweetheart." Diane said hugging her husband. "It's more like walky-talkies with a range of a couple of miles."
Kyle gave them a stern look complete with arched eyebrow. Fran just giggled.
"We quit communicating after it was decided she should use her enhancements as rarely as possible because of the baby." Jake managed to say. "We didn't know about the influencing."
"But since the nanites are active anyway…" Diane didn't have to finish.
"Why were you both listening in on us?" Kyle quietly demanded.
"I," Jake began, "was listening in on Diane freshening up; to make sure she was Ok…"
"That is so sweet." Diane cooed.
"… I wasn't trying, I mean when I heard the word PDA my attention shifted to you two."
"That wasn't nice." Fran pouted.
"Fran," Kyle began, "we're spies in a spy's home. Seem normal to me."
"I'm not a spy!" Fran believingly said.
"You're spy support." Diane teased, hugging Jake.
"Guilt by association." Jake put in.
Fran looked a Diane, "I never thought I was working for Mata Hari."
"You would if you'd seen her veil dance… Diane… Quit squeezing... Can't breathe…" Jake gasped from his wife's embrace.
"Seems like a good idea at the moment." Diane said easing her grip slightly. "The bedroom information is need to know only, and if you ever want to know again…"
"I understand, 'Resistance is Futile'." Jake quoted. Then looking at Kyle, "Having a hot wife can be painful, but worth it." He said and kissed Diane's pate.
"Are we expecting anyone else?" Jake asks Diane as the door bell chimes.
At her shrug, Jake moves to the front door. Kyle kills the dens lights while simultaneously pulling his gun and ushering the ladies into cover.
Jake opens the door to find a nervous Sarah Carter standing there holding, judging from the wrapping paper, a baby present.
"Hi Sarah."
"Hi Jake. I hope you don't mind, I thought I'd drop this by. Is Diane here?"
"Please come in." Jake turns and calls down the hall, "Diane, Sarah has stopped by."
Coming into the hallway, Diane hugs her friend. "I thought we were having lunch on Tuesday?"
"I have to cancel, and I really wanted you to have this." She says handing Jake a piece of paper.
Reading it, he hastily exits.
"Come on back." A curious Diane leads Sarah into the den, where she switches on the lights.
Sarah sees Fran sitting on Kyle's lap. "I'm…"
Coming to her rescue, Diane makes the introductions. "Sarah, this is my friend Fran and her beau, Kyle."
Fran jumps up and strides over to shake Sarah's hand, Kyle saunters over to do likewise.
"Nice to meet you."
"A pleasure."
Jake returns with Diane's PDA and a glass of water. He absently taps the screen with the stylus and reaches over and pulls a bug from Sarah's purse, then one from her belt and lastly out of the heel of her left shoe. With all three in hand he drops them in the glass of water where he causes them to short out; a cute bubbly show for Sarah's sake.
"All clear Sarah. What's going on?"
"You just happen to have a bug scanner?"
"Diane's work is confidential."
"Cute cover sweetheart." Diane 'thinks' to her husband.
"And you two work for the NSA." Sarah says looking at Fran and Kyle.
"Why do you say that?" Jake asks.
"You didn't hide your scanning from them."
"I work with Diane." Fran admits.
"I'm an office supervisor." Kyle interjects.
Sarah arches an eyebrow at Kyle, then turns to Jake and Diane. She takes a big breath and began. "When I broke up with you Jake, I never forgot the lie you told me. It hurt my feelings and pride that you would go to such extremes just to avoid me. But it wasn't a lie, not one word of it." She reaches over and takes Diane's hand. "A research doctor and an IT guy working in the same department, sudden disappearances and appearances, a sudden boost in confidence, Yellow Panama, and breaking that mallet at the carnival. Then there's the research my Senator has been doing into the funding of DOD projects and personnel." She could feel Diane stiffen. "I thought it would be fun to check your files myself, better me than a stranger, right." A shy smile crosses her face, briefly. "Jake your pay-grade is wrong for IT. Diane, your second doctorial thesis from Harvard was on nanotechnology. And that would make you Fran Yoshida. I didn't understand your thesis, 'Electrical Interface At The Cellular Level'."
"I think I'll make some coffee." Kyle say's while leaving the room.
"You realize that…" Jake began.
"That I stumbled onto a NSA classified project. That exposing it would jeopardize national security. That two of my closest friends are in harms way. And that it would create the Senator into a presidential candidate. Yeah, I realized."
"So you're not mad?"
"Jake, you told me the truth. Diane never actually lied; in fact she told me she couldn't tell me what she did at the NSA. Besides Jake, you are one of the good guys. Diane, you can unclench, my hand's going numb. The last two years, you two have come to mean a lot to me."
"We like you too."
"Yeah," Jake adds, "a little shopping and a mani-pedi and she's a new woman."
"Jealous?" Diane asks.
"Are you kidding, you said yes after a mani-pedi." Jake smirks, "You're also always in the…"
"Jake!" A blushing Diane admonishes. "Well I feel pretty."
"You," Jake says while kissing her hand, "always feel pretty."
"A pretty picture." Lou states from the door, looking at a blushing Diane sandwiched between Jake and Sarah; while Fran quietly sits reading her PDA. "Fran?"
Looking up, she nods her head.
"Ok, Diane you look like you could use some rest. Fran, why don't you help her."
Sarah looks serious and confused, starting to speak…
"Let's wait on Kyle. "Lou says with quiet authority.
Sarah looks at Jake and the way he looks at Lou – respect. So this is Jake's boss, she really must be mixed up in something to warrant a prompt visit like this. Her opinion of Lou is confirmed when Kyle enters, his best military posture evident.
Taking a sip of the coffee Kyle offers her, "Jake tell me about the bugs."
"The one in her shoe was CIA, motion activated. The rest of her shoes probably contain, or contained one…"
"What do you mean contained?" Sarah asks.
"By now they've probably been sanitized," Lou answered, "removed after Jake's discovery. Please continue."
"The one from her belt is manufactured in China, but can be bought via the internet or spy stored world wide. The one in her purse is similar to what we use; but hand crafted, no serial numbers."
Sarah stares at Jake open mouthed.
"Your tax dollars at work ma'am." Jake replied to her look.
"We'll take care of those files Sarah." Lou instructs. "Diane isn't feeling well Sarah, you are staying here tonight to help her useless husband…"
"Hey!" Jake objects.
"… Kyle, you take Fran to a lovely dinner." Lou winks at him. "I stopped by for Jake to fix my laptop. You and I didn't talk; you were with Diane in her bedroom. Here," She removes a silver heart pendant from her pocket, "put this on. You're under our protection until we find the people responsible for bugging you."
"Another bug?" Sarah looks baffled.
"Just a tracer, hopefully soon you will have your life back. Also, this one you know about.
"Why me?" Sarah tries to sound brave, just not quite making it.
'There are enemies of the US that would pay handsomely for the information your office is amassing. Intelligence is a shell game anytime, more so in the US because of accountability. Which probably explains the CIA's interest. It would be best if you don't speak of anything discussed here today."
Kyle's phone rings.
"Never?"
"That's right. Jake and Diane can keep you informed. Discuss this with no one else and only when they say it's safe."
"I… understand."
"Lou." Kyle says, "A reporter for the Washington paper was picked up about a half mile from here. He was trying to get his spy ware to work."
'Make sure he's our man. Then put him in holding. Find whatever bugs he has around and present to the Attorney General for prosecution under the Patriot Act."
"Is that necessary?" Sarah asks.
"Bugging a Senator's office and personnel is treason. What made you suspect that you were bugged?"
"I'm used to men following me, so I take note of faces and cars. Lately the same car has been showing up too often in to many different places."
"It sounds like that reporter did us a favor." Jake puts in.
"Perhaps. I'll take care of the CIA, so all we'll have to worry about is whoever made their own bug. Sarah, Jake, goodnight. Kyle, with me." And Lou leaves.
"Impressive lady."
"The best."
"You work with her long?"
"About three years."
"Trust her?"
"Yeah, I do."
"I'm going to take your word on that."
"Good. I'll get you some warm-ups to sleep in."
"Just a T-shirt will do."
"Ok, but you'd better put the warm-ups on to wander around in."
"Why?"
"Because," Kyle says entering the room, "Diane is very hormonal. And she thinks you have a perfect body."
"You're kidding!"
"He's right Sarah. When Diane and I met, she often heard me talk about how beautiful you are. Now you're her ideal; I can't talk her out of it."
"What's she got to complain about? One of my legs is longer that the other, my thighs are fat; my butts too big and so are my ears. I don't remember my hairs real color. If I didn't wear colored contacts everyone would know that I have one green eye and one blue eye. Diane's skin is so beautifully fair; if I don't tan I'm blotchy, if I over tan I freckle. And these teeth, three years in braces, plus caps."
"Some list, Miss Perfect." Fran says crossing from the door to kiss Kyle.
"And what don't you like about yourself?" Jake inquires.
"That I don't hang with more confident people."
Jake smiles while Sarah snickers.
"Common stud," she says dragging Kyle out, "I want some attention. Oh yeah, Diane is napping." Fran calls over her shoulder.
Looking at Sarah, Jake asks the obvious. "So, pizza?"
"Fine."
XxxxxxxxxxxxX
Next: Who's the beautiful woman in Jake's bed?
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