Hi guys! So I know it's been awhile. I didn't have internet for a week, so in that time, I wrote about three chapters! Be prepared for an overload of stuff, because it's going to be awesome. I appreciate all of the reviewers, subscribers, and favoriters (which is not a word, I know). On with the show!

Polly, still shocked, held out her hand toward each man. "I'm Polly. Come in," she opened the door farther so the men could enter, glanced around the outside and closed it behind them.

B.A. was glaring at Francesca wanting to say I'm a corporal, Jesus. But he restrained himself, not wanting to embarrass her.

Francesca had made her way into the living room and sat down at the piano. Face and B.A. sat down on the couches, Murdock flitted about the room, and Hannibal leaned on the doorframe. Polly made her way to the piano as Francesca began to touch the keys slowly.

"Can I get you gentleman anything?" Polly touched Francesca's shoulder.

"Through thick and through thin…" Francesca belted out in chest voice, plunking the notes to a show tune.

"No, we'll be fine," Hannibal answered.

"All out or all innnnn-a," it was obvious all Francesca was trying to do was be obnoxious.

Polly rolled her eyes, "Francesca…"

She pressed a key to match the pitch, "Ye- Wait." She pressed another key, "Yes?"

"You're here for something?"

"Yes," she replied. "Yes we are." She began to play a soothing, calm piece on the piano. "We are heading off to Brazil for a very prestigious dinner. A self appointed mission, you may call it. We need some lovely clothing."

Face sighed, "This is stupid… this is-"

"The only way we'll be able to pull off anything," Francesca pointed out. She stopped playing, got up, and went into the kitchen. She came back with an Apple laptop. "Who wants to do some hacking?"

Murdock raised his hand, "Yes! Me! Pick me!"

"You're my favorite Murdock," she shoved the laptop into his arms and lowered her voice. "Don't screw that up."

Murdock was silent, his eyes widened. He new exactly what she was insinuating. Murdock wouldn't admit it, but she could scare the crap out of him. Sure she was beautiful, she was obviously caring, but she's an excellent fighter, small and strong. He gave her a small nod and a smile, and she smiled back, "Good."

Polly scanned the men, "I'll take you guys upstairs to be measured."

"Measured?" B.A. gasped. "What?"

Francesca had retreated back to the piano bench, "And whether it's win, place, or show. With you for me and me for you-"

"We'll muddle through whatever we do," Murdock chirped.

"Murdock, start some hacking," she smiled. "I'll tell you what you have to do. Go on, boys. Get fitted for your dashing suits and tuxedos. We'll take care of the rest."

They all went up the steps following Polly, Hannibal going more slowly as he watched Murdock sit beside her on the bench, scrolling on the computer. He smiled meekly and then ran up the steps to catch up to them.

"Alright, we have to find out what's going on at the Crystal room with the next week or I guess month. It's something political, it's something lavish and… spectacularly cunning. Do you understand?" Francesca plotted on the piano.

"You mean like this?" Murdock held up the computer to show the calendar of events on the Crystal Room website.

Francesca narrowed her eyes, "Very good, Murdock."

He smiled at her, happy to win her approval.

"Now, political events. Events to which an American politician would be invited. Multiple if you are so able," she started to play Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.

Murdock searched for one or two minutes and then gestured to the screen, "There. It's like a political conference, party, meeting, thing-a-ma-bob."

"Lovely," Francesca stopped playing the piano. "Now for the hard part." She started to type in codes, passwords and finally she came upon a guest list of over two hundred and fifty people. "Lovely."

After searching through the list they found fifteen Americans, three women, two of them white, and of course twelve men. "Okay… this is perfect. We cancel the American reservations and then make our own. We can masquerade as these people. Prosthetics, nose jobs, weight gain, it's perfect."

"Let's see, who should we be?" Murdock scrolled through the people.

"Here," Francesca pointed to a married couple from the states. "I slightly resemble her. And Hannibal can dye his hair."

Murdock gaped at her, "You still like the boss. You're not over him."

"I am over him, but I can still have fun, can't I?" Francesca rolled her eyes.

Upstairs, Polly was putting her measuring tape around Face's waist, secretly enjoying every minute of it. "How do you know Francesca?" he asked.

Polly smiled, "My daughter, Mary, and her went to high school together." She gestured to something on the other side of the room, "Mary kept scrapbooks if you'd like to look at some pictures."

"No way," B.A. gasped and ran over to the albums. He pulled one out and turned to a random page. Hannibal wanted to run over and look, trying not to look eager.

"I was like Francesca's mom," Polly reminisced. "She was such a smart girl, so driven. But she was definitely a flirt. I don't remember a night when she didn't walk up to the door with a boy holding her books."

Hannibal frowned, "Did she live here?"

"Practically," Polly sighed. "When Tommy went off to training, her mom passed away. Heart attack. She was so young. It was the saddest thing."

Hannibal as quiet while he listened, surprised and shocked at everything he was told. He hadn't known that Francesca's mother had died when she wasn't even out of school or that she lived with her best friend for a long time.

"Francesca was completely devastated, but she wouldn't show it," Polly continued. "So she channeled her energy into her school work. Valedictorian of her class, all honors classes. She got into Yale because her teacher urged her to send in an application, but she didn't want to go. It was the military for her. She thought she owed it to her brother, to her mother, but especially her father."

Hannibal pried, "To her father?"

"She had a long battle with that too. She thought that if he ever found her again, she wanted to show him that she was stronger than him," Polly hit Face on the backside to get him off the pedestal, but also to check out the merchandise.

Face hopped down, frowning, but surprisingly intrigued. Hannibal laughed.

Grinning, Polly wrote down some measurements. "Alright, you men should get off to bed. You have a long day tomorrow."

"We do?" B.A. started leafing through the album.

"Knowing Francesca, you definitely do."

Flashback

Hannibal led Murdock into the elevator, leering every chance he got. Murdock shrunk back into the corner of the elevator.

"I specifically told you to wait for me," Hannibal murmured. "You went against my instructions."

"You're not mad that I didn't follow the plan," Murdock shrugged. "You're mad that you got caught."

He shook his head, "I did not get caught. There was nothing for me to get caught in."

"Then why are you so mad? You've obviously been on a rendezvous with this Francesca person and it has been a secret for who knows how long. I don't know why you would but-" Murdock stopped for a minute. "Francesca Barrett."

The elevator stopped and two women got on.

Hannibal closed his eyes, "Murdock…"

"Barrett!" Murdock's eyes were wild in delight and hilarity. "Tommy Barrett! You're trying to keep it a secret because you're having sex with his little sister. That's some crazy stuff right there."

The two women looked up.

Hannibal bit his lip, "Pardon me."

The elevator door opened again and he dragged Murdock out to the lobby. He took him by the shoulders, "Look, Murdock. This is was a secret. It was between me and Francesca and now you're in on it. But you're going to have to keep it. If the boys found out I'd be a joke and if Tommy found out I'd be dead. So just keep it to yourself. If you have any questions, please hesitate to ask."

Murdock nodded, "I have one question though."

"Yes?" Hannibal gritted his teeth and dropped his hands.

"Why would you be a joke?"

"Because…" Hannibal looked off in the distance to figure out his plan of action. "Because I'm the man with the plan. This is all I am. Face has sex, B.A. fights, and you're crazy. There is no room for error in me. You saw how they reacted when you found that lipstick on my collar…"

Murdock smiled, "That's a good song."

"What?"

"Lipstick On Your Collar," Murdock searched his head for the lyrics.

Hannibal rolled his eyes and walked away to the door, "Unbelievable."

Following him, Murdock called to him, "Don't worry about it, boss. My lips are sealed."

"And if they aren't, I'll seal them for you," Hannibal pulled Murdock's baseball cap over his eyes and then went out to find their van. Murdock led him to the van, opened the back and jumped in after Hannibal.

Face looked in the rearview mirror, "What were you doing here, Hannibal?"

"None of your business, kid."

B.A. laughed, "None of your business infers a lot."

"He was visiting Tommy Barrett," Murdock said. "You know, old Tommy."

"Oh, yeah! How's Tommy doing?" Face smiled as the car drove off.

Hannibal gave Murdock a grin, "Tommy's great."

End Flashback

It was midnight at Polly's house. Polly, Face, B.A., and Hannibal had all gone to sleep. But Francesca and Murdock were sitting on the floor of the living room. Francesca had a bottle of red nail polish open and she was holding onto foot, trying to steady herself. Murdock was eating popcorn from a plastic bowl and looking through the iTunes account on the Apple computer.

"Let's play truth or dare," Francesca looked up at him and closed the nail polish.

"Yeah!" Murdock nodded. "Okay, truth or dare."

"Truth," Francesca smiled. "I love truths."

Murdock thought quickly, "Craziest place you've had sex?"

"Tie between an elevator and a hotel pool," Francesca leaned back on the couch. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare," Murdock drawled.

Francesca leaned forward, "Okay."

They went on with this game for awhile. Later, Murdock asked the repetitive question, "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"What is your deepest, darkest secret?" Murdock leaned forward, excited.

For a moment, Francesca hesitated. "You promise not to tell a single soul."

Murdock held out his pinky, "Pinky promise."

Francesca and Murdock locked their pinkies together for a moment. "I have a lot of secrets… But I guess…" she trailed off. "I have never told anyone this, but there was a short time when I thought I was pregnant with Hannibal's child."

A silence fell over them. Murdock gaped, "No."

Francesca nodded.

"No way," Murdock's eyes were huge.

"Don't say anything," she lowered her voice. "Hannibal doesn't even know that."

"When did this happen?"

She blushed, "I found out that I wasn't right before you found out about the affair."

"Wow," Murdock couldn't think of anything to say.

"I know," she rested her head in her hands. "I know."

He leaned forward, "Well, don't be embarrassed."

"It's so embarrassing," she groaned.

Murdock tried to comfort her for a little while longer before deciding to go to bed. Francesca was more than happy to have him leave. She began to cry to herself, not of embarrassment, but of what had happened in her life and what could have happened. She went to the piano and started playing. The music erased all her thoughts.

Francesca played until morning.

At six o'clock, Hannibal woke up and came slowly out into the hallway. He looked from the upstairs. He saw Francesca wearing a robe, her hair loose and free, and her hands moving across the piano, playing a quiet tune. There was smoke around her from the cigarette she held in her hand. A dismantled smoke detector lay on the piano. He walked down toward her.

Francesca heard him coming, but decided to ignore it.

"Have you been down here all night?" Hannibal asked.

"I couldn't sleep," she stopped playing for a moment and stared straight ahead.

He came up behind her, "May I sit?"

"Of course," Francesca took a drag on the cigarette.

Hannibal sat beside her, his legs draped over the other side of the piano bench. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Francesca looked at him from the corner of her eye, wearily. Her eyes widened, "How long have you been bleeding?"

Looking down, Hannibal saw a bloodstain on the light brown shirt he was wearing, "Oh, I didn't even notice."

Francesca lifted his shirt to expose his chest. She took a moment to look at his wondrous muscles, but then looked at the gash. "It's not too bad. Here," she got up and went into the kitchen.

"I'm fine," he frowned looking at it.

She returned with some bandages, a cotton ball, and a bottle of medicinal alcohol. "Did you sleep well?" she poured the alcohol onto the cotton ball.

Hannibal shrugged, "Sort of."

"This may sting," she put the cotton ball to his chest, leaning into him.

He looked down at her. She was so close to him. He could feel her breath on his chest. "You have a plan?"

Francesca paused and pulled back quickly, "Yes, I have a plan."

"Good," he said simply.

Francesca put a bandage on the wound, "There." She traced her hand down his chest and finally rested it on the piano bench.

Hannibal didn't reply, breathing heavily. He inclined his body toward her.

Putting her hands on his shoulders, Francesca tilted her head back, closing her eyes.

"Good morning!" Polly called from the top of the stairs.

Francesca pushed herself away from Hannibal and looked back to the piano, "Good morning."

"Do I smell smoke? Francesca, are you smoking?"