Serendipity Gallery

2245hrs Friday 18th February 2005

'You have no idea how glad I am that's over,' Nick remarked with an exaggerated sigh. He'd been given the job of keeping Jim and Trixie at the party until Honey and Di could put their plan into place. Another few minutes and his duty would be complete. 'Di had more confidence in my work than I did. I guess she's right.'

'I noticed most of your paintings have sold,' Trixie offered, looking for a chance to escape. She needed to get Jim on his own without at least one of the Bob-Whites or their partners hanging around. If she didn't know better, she's sware they'd conspired against her.

'Actually,' Nick commented with a shy smile, his eyes flicking to the woman in his life. 'I've got several commissions as well. It'll keep me busy for the next few months.'

Di and her parents completed the small group until a few minutes earlier. Now saying her goodbyes in private, Diana locked the gallery's front doors. Trixie observed the defunct escape route as Edward and Mary Lynch became the last of the official guests to leave.

Nick's eyes strayed to the most beautiful woman he'd ever had the fortune to meet. I wonder if I've told you just how much I love you today, his lovelorn gaze communicated across the room. Silly smile covered Nick's face at the silent thought. Turning in his direction, as if she'd heard the non-verbal communication, Di's lips quivered into a come hither grin. Pointing towards the gallery's inner sanctum, Di started towards her office. She given the signal Nick waited for.

'Well, I guess that's our cue to join Di and the others for a little private after-show bash,' he grinned good-naturedly.

Without thinking, he grabbed hold of Trixie's wrist. For a moment, she'd appeared uncertain about Diana's extracurricular plans. Seeing the excuses mounting in her clear blue eyes, Nick tightened his grip. He had his orders from both Di and Honey. The consequences of not bring this pair into his lovers office wouldn't be worth his while. Tugging on Trixie's arm, her reaction shocked Nick.

Instinctively Trix planted her feet. Reflexively her arm muscles prepared to twist out of the hold. The movement completed with more force than she intended, Nick stumbled. Ingrained from the first day of her training in self-defence, the action had been unconsciously completed in the blink of an eye. A shy, embarrassed expression covered her face when both Jim and Nick turned on her, stunned by her odd behaviour. Both men realised the inappropriate actions and her defensive response to such a harmless gesture.

'I'm sorry, Nick,' she blushed heavily, trying to relax and wondering how she to explain the reflex action. 'I…'

'Look, Trix,' Nick began. Somewhat annoyed with the changes he saw in both Jim and Trixie. They affected Di and he didn't like that one bit. 'I have no idea what's eating you or Jim, and neither do any of the other Bob Whites. Di is worried sick about you two, and so is Honey. They've both been since you came back to live in New York. I know Di went out of her way tonight to arrange for all of the Bob Whites to be here, because she believes in the ethos of "one for all and all for one." Honey helped and together they've cooked something up which they're keeping a closely-guarded secret. So go along with whatever it is, OK?' Nick finished imploringly.

Dropping Trixie's arm, Nick shook his head, disappointed at the guarded look still lacing her blue eyes. Something in her posture told him she wanted to be as far away as possible but didn't quite know how to extract herself from the situation. Losing his temper, he rolled his eyes.

'You guys were so good at caring and protecting each other in high school,' Nick stated vehemently, anger lacing his orbs. 'You were so tight it, everyone else found it impossible to break into your perfect little world. You seemed more like seven brothers and sisters than friends. Do you have any idea how much I and several other kids really wanted to be a part of your group?'

Waiting for Jim and Trixie's reaction, he didn't give them the opportunity to say the words he saw forming in their minds. 'I thought dating Di would give me a fast track into the Bob Whites, but you know what?' Nick felt disappointed with their quick glance at each other. It seemed to communicate something between them while excluding him. So he continued in a voice laced with disgust, 'by the time I started dating Diana, your perfect little world had already crumbled. Honey and Di realised and attempted to fix the problems. They managed to repair the distance they felt in their relationships with Brian, Mart, and Dan. They even had the foresight to welcome me and the other Bob Whites' partners into the group. It took time and effort, but everyone believed it to be worth the trouble.' Halting once again, he added an extra helping of distain to his next words, 'except you two. Do you have any idea how that made your siblings' and friends feel with your introspective and selfish behaviour?'

'Nick!' Astounded, Jim's complexion took on the same hue as red as his hair.

'You know what?' Determination filled Nick's expression as he took a backward step towards the office area. 'I'm going to give you guys exactly five minutes alone to sort out the issues you have with each other before letting Di and Honey tear strips off your hides. They've worked too damn hard to bring tonight about to have the pair of you stuff this up!'

'Five minutes won't be enough to sort out all my issues with Trix.' Jim's eyes glared at the blonde by his side before they flicked to Nick's amused grin, 'but it'll be a start.'

Jim returned his glare to his companion. Waving good luck over his shoulder, Nick disappeared into Di's office knowing he'd achieved what the other Bob-Whites hadn't been able too over the last two years. For some reason, his emotional pleas affected Jim, making his anger bubble to the surface and want to confront Trixie.

'What did I ever do to you?' Hands on hips, Trixie turned on Jim vehemently. Calm down, she mentally scolded, you're only mad at that statement because it's far too close to the truth.

'Let's see?' Holding up a hand Jim started to count in an incredibly level tone. Trixie instantly saw the conflict resolution techniques he employed to keep his famous temper firmly under control. She wondered why Jim needed to learn them.

It's not the first time tonight Jim's managed to keep his renowned red-headed temper under control, Trixie now appreciated the subtle differences in the man standing before her, he's surprised me several times with is restraint. Just when I thought he'd yell at me, he cooled off and gave me one of his distant stares. It affectively put me on the defensive.

'First,' he recalled, gaining Trixie's complete attention immediately, 'you got my sister and yourself kidnapped in California when Brian, Mart, Dan, and I weren't around to help you out. Second, Honey ended up in the hospital for three days having surgery. Third, once we both finally calmed down enough to think rationally, we decided to start a relationship. Only you didn't want to tell the rest of the Bob Whites about it. I went along with your idea reluctantly because your reasons seemed sound. That is, until, fourth, you and I get carried away one night and…well…you know how that ended.'

Jim glared at her as he finished, his voice rising slightly. 'I'm glad I have no fingers left because, finally, you decide to tell the Bob Whites-and me who you've been intimate with the night before-that you're leaving Sleepyside in three days. We all find out you're due to start College in Washington, D.C., not at NYU like you'd planned. How did you think I'd felt about that, Trixie Belden?' Finally Jim's frustration got the better of him. His tone became increasingly aggressive as he continued to glare down at Trix.

'Hurt?' She suggested, forcing herself to remain calm and see the situation from Jim's point of view.

If you can stay cool, calm and collected throughout this, James Frayne, Trixie told herself determinedly, so can I! After all, I have a major in criminal psychology and have almost finished my masters in Clinical Practice! Not to mention I've hidden my life from you for the last six years. If I can make it through CIA training, I can make it through one session of your anger and resentment towards me. Besides my instincts tell me there's more to this than meets the eye. I know you're holding something back, something you don't want me or anyone else to know.

'Confused? Betrayed?' Trixie worked hard to keep the tremor out of her voice, wondering if she truly described Jim's feelings to the events he was recounting, or her own.

Bewilderment clouded Jim's usually sparkling green eyes. I didn't expect Trixie to verbalise my feelings. Yet her words have stopped my rising temper. How did she manage that, when I really want to get angry with her for the pain she's caused me?

'I felt all those things Trix,' Jim admitted softly, calmly with a melancholy air demonstrating just how much the events affected him emotionally, 'although I never expected you to understand. You seemed to lightly dismiss my feelings when I tried to talk to you about the situation in the days before you left for college. I thought we could conquer the physical distance. After all, it's not really that far from New York to DC, but it proved to be more than that. You became so emotionally distant from me in those last few days. I hated myself for a long time, thinking I caused of our break up when our relationship suddenly turned intimate. I know neither of us should have taken that final step. It took me a long time and three years of counselling to realise it wasn't entirely my fault.'

Jim took a shuddering breath before finishing. 'I had enough trust issues with my background. You knew that, so why did you leave the way you did? You had to know how much it hurt me!'

'To protect you,' Trixie cried, close to tears. Tonight has been too emotional for me to cope with. I don't want to be the strong one anymore. I don't want to stand alone, forced to give up my friends and family for a job that endangers my life every day. A job I'm beginning to suspect I don't even like. I want to have a normal life, a normal relationship and one day, a family of my own. Is that too much to ask?

'Protect me from what?' Jim asked, confused. His hands reached out for her shoulders. I really want to shake her, to make her tell me everything that's going on in her head, because I still love her. No matter how much she's hurt me and I've hurt her, I believe we can weather this storm if we could just be completely honest with each other now. Shocked at the thought, Jim pulled Trixie into an embrace, needing to feel as close to her as he'd once been. Hope blossomed when she didn't try to pull away.

'From me, from the career I wanted, from hurting anymore of the Bob Whites with my mysteries.' Unable to pull away from the warmth and protection Jim always inspired, Trixie realised they didn't have enough time for her to tell him everything she wanted to confess. She wrapped her arms around him and gave into her tears instead.

'I'd almost turned sixteen when Honey got hurt chasing down one of my mysteries,' she offered in a choked voice. 'It devastated me because I caused your sister and my best friend to get hurt. How do you think I felt, Jim?' Not waiting for a response to her rhetorical question, Trixie hurried on. 'I felt so guilty. I could only blame myself because it was entirely my fault. When you blamed me, too, and demanded I give up dragging the Bob Whites into mysteries, I felt I didn't have a choice. I promised you, and that's a promise I never wanted or intended to break.'

'So you agreed and regretted it.' Jim silently cursed his temper and lack of insight as a seventeen-year-old. I'm older now, he reflected. I know how much people can hurt each other without meaning to. And I think I'm beginning to realise how our lack of communication became the real reason why Trix and I never made it. We were as doomed to fail as the other Bob Whites. Unless we find a way to sort out the issues of trust we still have with each other, the major issues that still lay between us and our true emotions, I can't see any future relationship between us.

'Indirectly,' Trixie continued, 'my promise to you led me to the career I wanted. The CIA recruited me by dangling the offer of a full scholarship to college. I felt I couldn't pass up the opportunity because Moms and Dad were taking out a second mortgage on Crab-apple Farm for my tuition at NYU. My new employer led me to believe I would be at college with my friends until the change in plans the night you and I…the night we…'

'The night we slept together, Trix,' Jim finished quietly, closing his eyes and remembering her uncharacteristically emotional behaviour on that particular evening. Planting a chaste kiss on the crown of her head, Jim had never felt more dejected and alone than he did at the moment he realised he'd been as much to blame for her leaving as Trixie.

What must she have been thinking, Jim wondered, to deepen our relationship yet know she would have to sacrifice it the next day? How did that affect you, Trix, and why did you feel you couldn't talk to me about it? Oh, Shamus, between us, our innocence, and the clandestine relationship we hid from the other Bob Whites for six months, I helped to put you in an untenable position where you were forced to choose between the people you loved and your career.

'I was so confused. I had to make a choice, you or the career I wanted. I'd only just turned eighteen,' Trix sobbed, remembering the terrible decision she'd been forced to make.

'Are you two going to join the rest of us?' Brian interrupted, his face contorted into a scowl, leaving Jim and Trixie to wonder exactly how much of their conversation he'd overheard. 'I think we'd all like to hear this.'