A/N Here's the next chapter. I'm hoping to get another one up before Memorial Day weekend, but we'll just have to see since I'll be packing to go out of town. As always, all characters belong to their respective owners, which does not include myself. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter Twelve

Frank's POV

I had a fitful night of sleep and was glad when the sun finally came up. It gave me an excuse to get up and move around the house without someone trying to ask if there was something wrong with me.

All I could think about was my short time standing outside with Nancy last night. I'm not sure when the actual realization came to me, but I finally knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I cared deeply for her. More so than was appropriate for us just being friends. I wanted to tell her last night about my feelings, but there were too many things that seemed to be in the way.

I wasn't sure at first why she left the living room where everyone was gathered in order to head off by herself to the back patio. She claimed that she was second guessing some of the events that have taken place with the case, but I still got the impression that there was more to it than that. Instead of questioning her further on the subject, I asked about Ned. I guess that was both a good and bad thing to do. Good, because I found out that her and Ned are no longer involved and bad since it seemed to bring back painful memories to her.

There was a moment I was standing so close to her that I could feel the body heat radiating off of her. I probably should have told her about the feelings I had for her, but I chickened out and just left her with some parting words that would probably be too vague to really hint at anything.

I stood up from the bed and stretched. I couldn't believe I had chickened out of something so simple as telling Nancy that I felt something for her. As I trudged toward the shower, I realized that my feelings for her were actually more pronounced than just simply "feeling" something for her.

I could honestly say that I've probably been in love with her since before Callie and I even broke up. It might have even been an underlying cause of the break in our relationship that Callie had seen before I ever realized what was really going on. She would see the number of cases that Joe and I went on that Nancy would inevitably become a part of. When I came home after the case was solved, I always raved about how great Nancy was. I never even stopped to think about how that must have looked to Callie.

It's no wonder that she eventually got fed up with me. I would have done the same thing if I had been in her situation. At least, I now have the chance to put my new found knowledge to good use. I was going to do my best in gauging how Nancy felt about me. If the feelings seem to be mutual, then I hope we might be able to pursue a relationship with each other.

After showering, I quickly got dressed for my day at work and headed downstairs. I had checked the clock in my room before leaving and saw that it was still pretty early in the morning, so I didn't expect anyone to be awake.

By the time I got downstairs, I could vaguely smell bacon in the air. I walked toward the kitchen to see who was awake only to find Nancy standing in front of the stove cooking breakfast.

"Good morning, you're up early," I commented.

Nancy looked up and smiled at me. "I had a little trouble sleeping, so I came down here as early as I thought would be reasonable."

"That smells wonderful," I complimented as I stepped up right beside her. "Is there anything I can help with?"

I could tell that Nancy noticed how close I was to her but since she didn't say anything to discourage it, I decided that I would try to maintain a close proximity whenever possible.

"The eggs and bacon are finished," Nancy replied. "If you could just hand me a couple plates, I'll put everyone on them and we can eat together."

I opened up a few cabinets until I found the one that contained the plates. I grabbed two plates and handed them to Nancy, who immediately began putting food on both plates. While she was doing that, I grabbed two glasses out of another cabinet and walked over to the fridge where I pulled out some juice and poured us each a glass full.

Nancy carried our plates full of food while I carried the glasses over to a counter in the kitchen that had a couple barstools on the opposite side. We sat down next to each other and quietly observed each other before turning toward the food in front of us.

I hated to make myself look like a pig in front of Nancy because I truly did care about her opinion, but it was hard to keep myself from shovelling food in my mouth. I might have actually moaned at one point because of how good it all was.

Neither of us spoke while we ate. We just seemed to be content with each other's company. When I finished eating, I took my plate and glass to the sink and began washing all of the dirty dishes.

"You don't have to do that," Nancy said as she came up behind me. "I can wash them since you have to be at work."

"I don't have to be there for another hour," I pointed out to her. "Besides, we all know that Joe will be asleep for another thirty minutes."

"Still, I can wash everything," Nancy argued.

"You did the cooking, so I'll do the cleaning," I told her.

Nancy huffed and crossed her arms over her chest in irritation. I smiled to myself because I knew she has always been stubborn. I continued washing everything and just handed the dishes to Nancy so she could dry them.

"So, what's your plan for the day?" I asked her once we finished cleaning up the kitchen.

Nancy leaned back against the counter behind her and pondered for a moment.

"Well, since I have to be here all day, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to really do," Nancy finally said. "I think it's mostly going to be babysitting. Although, I suppose I should really make a call to the police station and see if they have any ballistics results to determine what make and model of gun was used to kill Jane.

"You're planning on calling instead of going down there?" I asked. That was a bit out of character for Nancy. She was usually one who liked to get involved face-to-face.

Nancy grimaced. She pointed to herself, "Babysitting remember?"

"Right," I replied.

"Besides," Nancy began shrugging, "I'd really rather not deal with Officer Turner any more than I can help."

I perked up at that. I hadn't noticed anything about the guy when I met him the first time. Of course, Nancy's had more interaction with him than I've had.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked.

"I want to say he's creepy, but I suppose that isn't the right thing to say about a police office," Nancy spoke. "He just makes me uncomfortable."

I walked right up to her so that we were almost touching. "Has he done anything to you?" I asked concerned.

Nancy shook her head. "He asked me to go out with him on a date sometime. Otherwise, he hasn't really done anything wrong. He's just different and it makes me a little uneasy around him."

Jealousy flared up in me as I heard her talk about him asking her out on a date. I wanted to be the only one to go out with Nancy. She must have noticed something in my eyes because her features softened.

"Frank, just relax," she soothed. "I have no interest whatsoever in him and plan to avoid him as much as possible."

I sighed and relaxed as she ran her hand up and down my forearm in a soothing gesture. "Well, I guess I'm glad that you're simply making a phone call down there instead of an actual trip."

"That's what I thought," she replied smirking up at me playfully.

That playful nature of hers made me want to lean down and kiss her. It took everything I had in me to keep myself from doing just that. I stepped away from her just as Joe came barging into the kitchen wearing some tattered shorts and shirt with his hair sticking up everywhere. Clearly, he had just gotten out of bed.

"Hey, anything good for breakfast?" Joe asked yawning widely.

I silently handed him a bowl and a box of cereal I found nearby and walked out of the kitchen. I wasn't sure that I wanted anything to happen at that moment between Nancy and myself because I was unsure of how she felt for me, but I still resented Joe intruding on what could have been a moment between us.

I only caught a brief glance of Nancy before it was time for us to leave for work. She had found time to pack Joe and I lunch and handed us each a sack with it in there. I didn't check to see what it was wanting to wait and be surprised later. I knew that it was probably something good though because Nan's always been a good cook.

I drove us both to work and we entered the lab right on time. We barely had five minutes to get our stuff put away and settled before James came over to us.

"Hey, I'm going to take Joe out back with me to sample some raw material," James told me as he gestured toward Joe, who was standing next to me. "It's usually easier to sample with only one person hanging around, so while we're doing that, you can use the density meter for anyone who needs it and get the dirty glassware washed."

"Sure," I replied.

I watched James lead Joe out the door where they would soon be sampling some sort of raw material. Once they were gone, I turned and saw several people pulling out glassware and placing it at the end of their benches next to empty containers that were conveniently labeled "dirty glassware".

I walked over to Alice's bench because she seemed to have the largest amount of flasks and beakers.

"Do you need any help with these?" I asked.

"Oh yes!" she said excitedly. "All of that stuff that I have by the sink is in water, so you can just pour it down the drain and rinse it."

I started pulling off the labels and poured everything out into the sink and rinsing it in hot water before placing it in the container. I was starting to make a dent in her stuff when I noticed that she wasn't helping because she was still pulling out glassware from her cabinet.

"How long have you been keeping all of this?" I asked in shock.

Alice looked up at me and giggled. "Oh, this is only from the past couple of days. I didn't have any time yesterday to dump it, so I'm doing it this morning."

I filled up the first container of glassware and carried it over to the dishwasher that I had noticed yesterday during the very brief tour James had given us. Luckily for me, even though the dishwasher was a commercial grade made for laboratories, it was still fundamentally a dishwasher like you would own in your home. I filled it up with as many items as I could get to fit in there without breaking anything. I opened a few nearby cabinets before I found the special detergent that is used in it and poured some in. I pushed the start button and walked back over to Alice's bench ready for more to wash.

After going by everyone's bench and claiming all the dirty glassware, I had managed to fill up all of the dishwashers. They were all currently running and I had just put the last container that still held a few pieces that wouldn't fit when James and Joe returned with a crate that contained several small, plastic containers that I guessed were filled with whatever raw material they had just been working with.

The day continued on with both Joe and I keeping busy doing whatever James needed us to do at the time. I was thankful when lunch rolled around because I was needing a break from this hectic job.

Joe and I grabbed our lunches and walked into the break room. I immediately saw the table full of Edward and Bella's friends wave us over, so we walked over to their table and grabbed the two empty chairs.

"So, how are you liking the job?" Rosalie asked.

"It's cool," Joe said. "Although, I can't believe how much stuff gets rejected around here."

"What are you talking about?" I asked him.

Joe looked over at me. "When I went out back to sample with James, we walked by this area where they keep all the rejected products. It's full of of batches that were made as well as raw material."

"That's what happens when it's tested and doesn't meet the specifications," Jasper told us.

"That must cost the company a lot of money," I observed.

"It depends on what it is," Jasper continued. "Some of our products are more costly than others depending on the raw materials that go in them. It's practically a guarantee that if it's a controlled drug, the company will lose a lot of money off of a bad batch."

"I saw a lot of controlled stuff out there," Joe told us. "They had all of it marked with a different label."

"We've been rejecting a lot of raw material lately," Emmett said. "The raw material coming in hasn't been up to the purity levels we require."

"There's also been several of our controlled products that have been rejected because they haven't met the label claims we require to release it to the public," Alice told us.

"That's interesting," I observed considering how much money the company could really afford to lose without jeopardizing their business. I decided that I might ask Carlisle about it later tonight.

We finished lunch soon afterwards and Joe and I went back to work.

"Be on the lookout for James to make a sneaky escape out the back door," I told Joe quietly when we were back in the lab. "I want to make sure one of us follows him this time and see what he's really up to."

"Sure, I'll keep a lookout," Joe answered.

The afternoon seemed to pass by in almost a blur of activity. Joe and I were hustling about doing all kinds of little jobs that needed to be done. It was everything from the seemingly menial tasks of cleaning glassware and dumping product to actually doing specific gravity testing and minimum fills, which was the latest thing both of us were trained on.

Some lotion had been brought in for release testing and James brought us over to where ten additional samples had been pulled for minimum fill testing. Basically, we ended up having ten graduated cylinders lined up on the counter and poured each bottle of lotion into a different cylinder. After taking down the measurement of how much lotion was in each bottle, we go over to the computer and fill in that information into a validated spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is already set up to calculate the fill volume in a percentage based on the amounts we recorded.

Joe, of course, thought it was boring; but I enjoyed having a small part in some of the testing procedures done on the products the company markets. I had just finished taping everything into my very own lab notebook when I noticed that it nearing break time and James wasn't anywhere around.

I stood up from my chair and scanned the lab just barely catching a glimpse of him going out the back door. I started heading toward the door while looking around for Joe. I couldn't find Joe so I decided that I would just have to check this out by myself.

I reached the back door and used my badge to open it. Luckily, I wasn't too far behind James and I saw him quickly open and close another door that was off to the side of the hallway I had entered. I had never really ventured through much of this part of the building, so I wasn't sure what was behind the door James went into.

Knowing that it could be some sort of open area that would easily allow James to see me, I ventured cautiously toward the door trying not to make much noise. I was just about to reach for the handle on the door when I heard a moan. I jerked my hand away and stepped up even closer to practically put my ear against the door to hear further. I was hoping that James wasn't trying to attack someone; but if he was, I was going to stop him before he hurt whoever might be there with him.

"Oh James," a female's voice moaned out.

Okay, that didn't sound like someone in trouble to me. I stood there shifting my weight from one foot to another wondering what the hell was going on.

"Victoria, baby, you're so sexy," James said between heavy breathing.

I was beginning to get the picture of what was happening behind that closed door. I couldn't believe it took me that long to figure it out. God, I was naïve.

I quietly walked away as fast as I could to give them some privacy because I really couldn't entertain the thought of hearing anything else out of the two of them. With another slight shake of my head as I entered the now empty lab, I realized that at least now I knew why James was sneaking around on a daily basis. I'm a little surprised that I hadn't noticed Victoria doing the same thing, but then again, she works in the micro lab and they frequently head out that particular door to do air testing or something along the lines of that.

I entered the break room where I found Joe once again sitting with what seemed to be our signature group of people. I sat down and ran my hand through my hair.

"Rough day?" Alice asked.

"You could say that," I said exhaling loudly.

"So where did you go?" Joe asked. "I looked around for you, but you had disappeared."

I looked around the table quickly and figured it wouldn't really matter if they knew about James.

"I wanted to see where James kept disappearing to," I said.

Joe furrowed his brow. "What did you find out?"

I grimaced before continuing, "Turns out that James goes into some room with Victoria. They were enjoying themselves to say the least."

"James and Victoria?" Rosalie asked. "But he's supposed to be dating that girl that works in manufacturing, Bree."

"But you know that I've heard that Bree has been hanging out with Laurent a lot," Alice said.

"I thought Laurent was dating Victoria?" Jasper asked.

"Dude, James is awesome for hooking up with a different girl at work," Emmett said.

Rosalie smacked the back of Emmett's head and glared at him. I laughed because Emmett actually pouted a little.

"Wow, the drama that goes on in the workplace," Alice mused.

After our short break, the rest of the workday passed by quickly and I soon found myself back in the car with Joe on our way to the Cullen's house. I was excited to get home and tried my best not to let it show, but I'm pretty sure Joe picked up on it considering the sideways glances I got from him every so often before we arrived at the house.

As soon as I pulled up in front of the house, Joe got out of the car and Nancy sat down in the passenger seat with a grin on her face. I knew she was ready to get out of the house and work on this mystery. I turned around in the driveway and we headed off in the direction of the address we had for Felix. I was hoping that we would be able to find out something that would help us with the case once we got there.