Chapter 8: A Family Affair?
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the Rhodes family. Alliance and CBS own everything (bar the song references, which I don't own either!)
A big shout out to everyone who has been reviewing this story – I am so glad you like it; please let me know if there's anything you want to see…
I am watching CSI right now as a matter of fact…..
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Email:
To: Mac Taylor, Stella Bonasera, Sidney Hammerback, Sheldon Hawkes, Kendall Reilly,; Stephanie March, Montana (home)
Cc: Adam Ross
From: Daniel Messer
Subject: Apartments 3B and 3D Pool
Ok folks – here's the current status of the pool and I want to remind y'all I ain't changing the dates now…
Mac – 8 weeks (cautious ain't you, boss?)
Stella – 3 weeks, you old romantic
Me – two more days (and I don't care if I have to give them a little push)
Sid – 2 weeks, 4 days (I ain't saying nothing, man
Kendall – 2 weeks, 2 days (whatever)
Hawkes – March 3rd (you gonna pick a year man?)
Stephanie – 1 week – and I am not letting you change the date again girlfriend
Montana – 10 days (you know I'm gonna win baby)
Alright. Adam, you pussy, let me know if you're in – Rhodes and Flack won't kick your ass too much if you win!
Later,
Danny
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Rebecca took a deep breath and knocked at the door of 3D. She heard the sound of someone coming to the door and then unclocking it. The door opened and she was confronted with the sight of Flack, a little bruising under his eyes. He raised one eyebrow cynically at the sight of her.
"Come by to finish the job?" he asked, a little sardonically. Rebecca cringed, before she looked up to see an amused smirk on his face.
"I came bearing a gift by way of apology," she said, producing a bag labeled with the name of a good local restaurant on it. She picked up the six pack of beers at her feet.
"Good food?" he asked.
"I hope you like sushi," she said, then laughed at the appalled look on Flack's face at the thought of raw fish.
"I'm kidding Don," she said, laughing, "It's Thai!"
Flack stepped aside and opened his door further, sniffing appreciatively at the scent of spicy jungle curry mingled with other Thai dishes. Rebecca stepped by him, glancing sideways at him shyly.
"Ok, enter the dragon's lair, bringer of food," he said, "There's highlights of the last Rangers' game on."
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They enjoyed their meal.
Afterwards, neither of them was paying too much attention to the game highlights on the TV. Flack stretched his arm out across the back of the couch, it coming to rest behind Rebecca's neck. She shivered slightly at the nearness of him.
"Cold?" he asked, "You can always get a little closer to get warm," he added, cheekily.
Rebecca shot him a dirty look.
"Aren't you scared I might do you another injury?" she asked.
Flack smirked.
"I think I might be able to handle you this time," he said.
"In your dreams, Irish!" she said.
And that was it. Flack pulled her towards him and started to tickle her. Within seconds, he discovered just how sensitive Rebecca was to being tormented like this. A couple of minutes after that, he had her pinned under him, both of them breathing heavily. He searched her eyes for any sign that she might be uncomfortable with how things were and saw none. He started to close the distance between them, to capture her lips in one of his searing kisses; her eyes starting to close as her lips opened when….
Her cell started to ring.
Rebecca swore and Flack pulled himself back upright as she twisted and struggled to find her phone. Her face fell as she recognized the caller ID. She sighed and snapped the phone open.
"Hello Mother," she said.
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After that, their evening came to an end. Flack was disappointed, but judging from the little she'd said about her family, her mother ringing was a real mood-killer. The conversation was brief. Her family was coming to New York. Her brother had finally convinced his up-tight, WASP, senator's daughter girlfriend to tie the knot, apparently, and the ice princess wanted her engagement ring from Tiffany's. So the whole family had decided to come on down to New York. Judging from Rebecca's reaction, she suspected it was to check up on her and turn their noses up at her job, her life, her apartment and, assuming Rebecca introduced them, him.
Great, he thought, just great.
They arrived a few days later, a few days where Rebecca had got progressively more anxious and ratty with all of her colleagues and Flack had heard the sounds of several levels of crap being kicked out of her punch-bag whenever he passed by her door.
He'd decided to give her some space. Family was always tough, he thought, thinking of Samantha, his sister.
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Rebecca barely managed to get the punch-bag down from the ceiling before her entry doorbell went Answering it, she took a deep breath to prepare herself for the torture that awaited her. She hadn't bothered to dress up, favoring her jeans and a soft knit top. There was a knock at the door. Forcing a smile onto her face, she opened it.
There was her entire family and her soon-to-be sister-in-law standing there. Her mother looking around her nervous, as though she expected something nasty to jump her, but her father actually looking pleased to see her. She stepped aside and waved them into her apartment. They all walked in
Miranda, Harrison's fiancee just looked bored and sat down primly on the couch. Harrison looked uncomfortable. Vanessa Rhodes looked disapprovingly at her daughter as she sat next to Miranda. Stanley Rhodes leaned against the counter that separated the kitchen from the lounge.
"Rebecca," she said in her tone that said she was disappointed as usual with her daughter, "We're going to 21 for lunch – aren't you going to change?"
Rebecca sighed. She should have guessed her mother had planned something like this.
"Actually, no mother," she said, "I'm not going to change. I have to go into the lab to finish up processing some evidence on a case we have on the books."
On mentioning her job, her father's face grew tight.
So he still doesn't approve, thought Rebecca, Just great.
"Surely you have the day off," said her mother, slightly outraged, "I mean we are in town."
Rebecca could feel anger rising within her.
"No, mother," said Rebecca, "I have to go in for a while. It's a high profile case and Dr Brennan and Agent Booth are flying in to review our findings and evidence. I need to finish up my work."
Miranda rolled her eyes at the ceiling. Evidently annoyed with not being able to spend more of her valuable time shopping at Bloomingdale's, Rebecca thought savagely. And then Harrison did something surprising.
"Mother," he said, "Rebecca is absolutely right. Her career is important to her. You would be furious if Dad told you to drop organizing one of your charity events because he needed you to charm his clients, wouldn't you?"
Rebecca's jaw dropped. Apparently her spineless brother wasn't such a pushover.
"Now come on Becca," he said, placing a hand under his fiancee's elbow to force her to stand, "Let's go and see this famous lab that's keeping you away from all mother's plans to turn you into the ultimate socialite hostess."
He winked at his sister, who grinned back at him. Their mother rose from the couch as well, obviously outraged.
"Harrison!" she said sharply. She got her mean glint in her eye and turned to her daughter.
"Now when are you going to give up this silly little position and come home to Washington?" she asked nastily.
Grabbing her leather jacket and purse, Rebecca muttered softly to herself under her breath, like never.
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Flack was coming back to the apartment after grabbing a bagel and coffee from the café to see a pile of blonds and Rebecca on the outside steps to their building. The detective in him sized them up.
Rebecca, rebellious, dressed down in regular street clothes. A distinguished older grey-haired man in a good suit that Flack sort of envied, Dad, he thought. An older, graying blond, in a designer suit. That must be the mom from hell, thought Flack. Then there was a younger blond version of the older man, which must be the brother. And lastly, the beautiful young blond, dressed to kill, looking like something smelled really bad. That'll be the future Mrs Rhodes junior, he thought. As he got closer, he heard Rebecca raising her voice in response to something her mother had said.
"Mother!" she almost shouted.
"Don't you take that tone with me, Rebecca Mary," said the older woman, "I merely suggested that these old buildings might have an insect infestation problem."
Rebecca looked seething at that comment.
"Well don't say that to the super!" she hissed. Then she caught sight of Flack.
He stopped at the foot of the steps.
"Hey Bec," he said, noticing the warning look Rebecca shot him. All eyes turned to him.
"Uh, family," said Rebecca, "This is Don Flack, Jr, colleague and neighbor," said Rebecca. The young blond man bounded down the steps and shook his hand warmly.
"Hi," he said, "I'm Harrison, Rebecca's older brother. So you have the misfortune to work with the hellion, huh?"
Flack smirked. He liked this guy.
"Harrison," said the older woman, "I'm sure that's not appropriate. Now Rebecca dear, if we're going to see this lab of yours we'd really better get going," saying lab like it was a dirty word.
The older woman shepherded the rest of her family down the steps past Flack and they walked off down the street towards some packed cars. Flack couldn't resist saying what popped into his head next.
"Yo, Bec," called Flack after her, "You coming over for some beer and pizza later to watch the game?"
Rebecca glared at him. Flack could have sworn the older woman shuddered in distaste. Flack grinned to himself, slapped his paper against his leg and let himself into the building.
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The visit to the lab didn't go particularly well. Her father looked uncomfortable and her mother was just plain rude to all the staff who tried to be welcoming towards them. She'd even been rude to Stella, which Rebecca thought was totally wrong, as Stella was just about the nicest person around. Miranda had stifled a couple of yawns. Rebecca was not warming up to her as future family any time soon. Harrison, however, had surprised her by taking a real interest in everything she did and the whole place and had managed, somehow, to endear himself to Adam through a mutual of all things technical.
But then Mrs. Rhodes had met her boss, thought Rebecca, and having made some poor comparisons between the Jeffersonian and the Crime Lab, before making some equally disparaging comments about her daughter had resulted in Mac Taylor's steel-blue eyes turning cold and making some statements about just how good Rebecca was at her job, not to mention stating the facts about just how good his team actually was, before walking off to his office, but not without lightly touching Rebecca's arm, to let her know he didn't hold her responsible for her mother's behavior.
Rebecca was really glad when they left. She managed to finish up on her evidence, before heading home, but she passed on the beer and pizza. She was not that happy with Flack.
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The whole lab was nervous about the impending visit of the renowned Dr Temperance Brennan to the lab. Rebecca was expecting the third degree from her former boss and no small amount of ribbing from her friend, Agent Seeley Booth, who she'd sparred with on ice a few times before. She kind of hoped he'd meet Flack – they had so much in common. She also thought he'd probably get on well with Mac, as they had their mutual military careers to discuss. She guessed he'd probably try to charm Stella.
Then Bones had arrived, they'd gone through the evidence after exchanging pleasantries and messages from Washington had been delivered, along with a present from Angela for Rebecca (a small painting for her apartment, beautiful as things made by Angela always are).
Predictably, Booth and Mac had gotten along really well, exchanging stories about their time in uniform as well as going over the evidence from the New York Crime Scene.
Bones had been, well, Bones, discussing her findings in her usual methodical way, comparing them to the evidence from Washington. Bones had been taken aback by Danny's laid back attitude to the job and Adam, well Adam had just been totally stunned by the force of nature that was Bones, as though he really didn't know what to do with himself around her.
Everything, thought Rebecca, had been going just fine until a certain someone had decided to come up to the lab to discuss some aspects of a case.
She'd heard his voice in the corridor and looked up. She'd stopped talking to Bones and had looked in Flack's direction, coloring slightly as she followed his progress to Trace with her eyes, watching his laid-back stride as he sauntered towards them.
Bones had also stopped talking and looked at the man coming into Trace.
Bones had looked at the handsome detective. Then she had looked at Rebecca. She'd looked back and forth another couple of times.
That, thought Rebecca, should have been the first warning that Bones was about to make one of her badly timed and inappropriate observations.
Bones had smiled and stuck out her hand to introduce herself to Flack, who had looked amused at the vigorous handshake Bones had delivered. Booth had finished his conversation with Mac and he'd been introduced to Flack as well.
Bones had looked between her and Rebecca a few more times before drawing her conclusions. Rebecca had tried to draw Bones' attention back to the evidence in front of her.
And failed.
"I totally understand!" she said, drawing the attention of Flack, Booth, Adam, Rebecca and Danny.
"What?" asked Rebecca, who could have kicked herself later for making such a stupid comment.
"Your attraction to Detective Flack here!" said Bones, as though pointing out something so blindingly obvious everyone should be able to see it.
Rebecca's jaw dropped. Booth's head snapped round.
"Uh, Bones…." He said, warningly, his voice tailing off as Bones spoke again.
"He really is quite a superb specimen of manhood," said Bones enthusiastically.
And that was it. Danny started to laugh uncontrollably as Rebecca put her head in her hands. Adam stood there, mouth open, looking around uncomfortably, stepping from one foot to the other. Booth grabbed Bones' arm.
"Bones, we gotta go see Dr Hammerback about the body," he said, firmly steering her towards the door to Trace.
"But," sputtered Bones, trying to delay him, "You said I had to be more in tune with people's emotions!" sounding mildly outraged.
"Bones," Booth said firmly, "As Sweets and I have been trying to tell you, there's a time and a place for your observations. Now let's go talk to the creepy man in the basement."
He finally succeeded in removing her from the room, but then Bones grabbed the door frame and opened her mouth for her final assault on Rebecca's sanity.
"I quite understand why you would want to mate with him," She said.
"Bones!" said Booth, dragging her off. They could quite clearly hear Bones disagreeing with Booth all the way to the elevators, all the while explaining she liked the creepy man in the basement because she could talk to him about all kinds of things.
Danny, by now, was on the floor, speechless with laughter, tears pouring down his face. Other lab techs were sniggering behind their work. Adam's jaw was still near the floor. Rebecca didn't dare look at Flack. She knew her face must be bright red.
Muttering an excuse about checking on some results, she fled from the room, past Stella, who had come to see what all the commotion was about, to be confronted with Danny, still rolling on the floor with laughter, a stunned-looking Flack and a bunch of lab techs who suddenly seemed suspiciously busy.
"What's going on?" she asked, "Haven't any of you got work to be doing?"
Flack sputtered and made some excuse about needing to get back to his desk and left.
Having got nothing out of Danny or Adam, Stella fixed them with a sharp look and turned on her heel, walking back towards her office, reading through a case file.
When Danny finally got his breath back, he pulled himself upright. He suddenly had a brilliant idea.
"Boom!" he said. "Adam – how do you fix the elevators so they don't work?"
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A big thank you to everyone who's reading the story – I hope you like it. Review mean love, people, and they make my day, so stop by and say hi! Sorry this was so long in coming…It was a difficult chapter and Bones decided she just had to say something as well!