Notes: After a hiatus of…oh, two-and-a-half years or so, I’m returning to this story! Sorry for the long absence….a combination of circumstances drove me away from it, and I just never returned…until now! Please let me know if you remember/like it! I PROMISE I will finish it, without anymore 700-day gaps J

The Deal

 

Chapter 14

"Trixie!" Honey shrieked in amazement as her friend stepped into her neat living room. With more speed than she’d mustered in weeks, Honey pushed herself out of her chair and enveloped her friend in a bear hug.

"Oomph," grunted Trixie, grimacing. "Watch the ribs."

Honey stepped back and surveyed her friend with a critical eye. "Well, you look awful," she said bluntly.

Trixie grinned, and dropped onto the couch. "Thanks."

Honey resettled herself in her armchair and stared at her friend. After a moment of this intense regard, Trixie squirmed uncomfortably. "What?" she asked.

"Well? What’s your side?" Honey asked bluntly.

Trixie’s features tightened slightly. "So your brother has paid you a visit, huh?" she observed wearily.

Honey nodded. "Mr. Doom and Gloom himself," she confirmed.

Trixie made a face. "Hey, at least he came and talked to you," she said bitterly.

Honey winced. "What on earth happened, Trix?" she asked, her concern apparent in her voice.

"Gee whiz, I’d love to know," Trixie said in exasperation. "He told you about the case?"

Honey nodded. "You get kidnapped more than anyone I’ve ever met," she observed.

Trixie grinned. "Hey, you’ve got to stick with what you know," she quipped. "So, I’m there, thinking things are going well – he listened to me, didn’t try to go all macho…we were working as a team... The next time I turn around, he’s stormed out of the state without even bothering to say good-bye to me."

"Well, he saw you…"

"I know," Trixie interrupted. "And, may I say, for the record, Mark kissed me."

 

Honey raised a brow at her.

"He did!" Trixie insisted.

"I don’t doubt that he did," Honey nodded. "But I also don’t doubt that you kissed him back. Enthusiastically," she added meaningfully.

Trixie flushed. "It wasn’t like that," she mumbled.

"Like what?" Honey frowned.

"It wasn’t like I was kissing him kissing him," Trixie explained with a marked lack of coherency. "It was just…he’s Mark, Honey!" she said rolling her blue eyes. "And he was there, and the whole damn FBI was there, and the helicopters were there, and the lights, and I’d just gotten out, and I’d managed to get him in the middle of the job, which no one can ever do, and now Fynnes owes me so much money…"

"What’s this about?" Honey frowned, diverted.

"You can never surprise Mark when he’s on," Trixie explained. "Derek Fynnes and I made this bet, years ago, that we could. Five hundred bucks."

"Five hundred dollars!" Honey exclaimed, aghast.

"I don’t think either of us thought that anyone would ever win," Trixie grinned. "But I just did, and now Derek owes me big… Anyway," she said, dragging herself back on track. "I didn’t ever mean to kiss him…I just…kissed him back," she finished. "Do you understand?" she asked, her blue eyes imploring.

Honey nodded slowly. "I do," she told her friend, and she meant it. She understood that the other girl had just gotten caught up in the excitement and the adrenaline of the moment, and had ridden that wave of euphoria right into Mark Carlson’s embrace. But she also thought that Trixie had been a little thoughtless. That wouldn’t be an easy idea to express without angering her partner, though.

"I just think…that you really should have…considered what you were doing a little more," she said carefully.

Trixie groaned and sunk down deeper into her seat. "I know," she groaned. "I know. Poor Mark," she sighed.

"Poor…Mark?" Honey repeated slowly.

Trixie nodded, and explained to her friend the revelations that Mark had made when they’d been alone in his apartment. Honey’s eyes widened as Trixie explained everything.

"So, I feel bad," the blond girl concluded.

"For Mark," Honey established.

Trixie nodded again.

"You…dope!" Honey half-shouted at her, feeling like she’d used that insult before, rather recently.

Trixie scowled. "What’d I do?" she complained.

"Poor Jim!" Honey frowned. "Don’t you feel the least bit…bad about that? He followed you all the way to Texas, Trix, just so that you’d give him another chance, and at the dramatic rescue moment you kiss the other guy?" She shook her head.

"I’m mad at him," Trixie said flatly.

Honey sighed. "What else is new?" she asked wearily. She shook her head. "You know, Trix, I’m starting to think that maybe it’s just as well that you and Jim aren’t together."

Trixie stared blankly at her friend. That wasn’t at all what she’d been expecting. "What…what do you mean?" she demanded finally.

"I mean," Honey said significantly, "that you’re always mad at him. Nothing he ever does is enough. Maybe you just don’t want to be with him, but you don’t want to be the one to make that decision." She regarded her sister-in-law silently for a minute. "I think maybe you’ve been trying to make him make it for you. Now, maybe you have," she finished quietly. She watched the other woman as her words sunk in. Honey didn’t believe at all that her brother would write off Trixie so easily, or that the constant tension between the two meant that they weren’t right for each other. If anything, that tension showed how much there was between them. But Trixie did tend to take Jim and his devotion for granted from time to time. Maybe this would help her realize that she had to work at the relationship too.

Trixie looked away from the other woman for a moment, conscious of a strange, sick feeling in her stomach. Honey thought that she’d driven Jim away on purpose? Honey thought that she’d …driven Jim away. That he was…tired of her. She pressed her lips tightly together. Well, it hadn’t been that hard to do. Maybe he didn’t really want to be with her. Maybe Derek was right after all, and they were best leaving what they’d had together where it belonged – in high school.

"Well, anyway," she said, somewhat stiffly. "I thought, as my partner, you’d like to know what happened in Washington."

Honey sighed. She’d hoped for a little more reaction or discussion on the topic. Instead, Trixie was just going stubborn. "Of course," she said, resigned to the fact that she’d have to wait at least a few minutes to resume the topic of Trixie and Jim.

"Apparently, before he’d let them show up with full guns a’blazin’, Mark’s supervisor made him accept an ultimatum on my behalf," Trixie began, annoyance apparent in her tone. She went on to explain the FBI director’s "offer."

"You didn’t accept it, did you?" Honey demanded, horrified.

"What choice did I have?" Trixie returned reasonably. "If I’d said no, we could never have gotten federal assistance again…"

"Like we need it a lot," Honey interrupted.

Trixie shrugged. "We could never have taken a potentially dangerous case again, Honey," she said quietly. "I know everyone thinks I’m an idiot with no sense of self-preservation, but I’m not sending myself or you into a situation without any possibility of back-up."

Honey was silent for a moment, wincing slightly at the hurt she heard beneath her friend’s words. "Trix, no one means…"

"Anyway," her partner interrupted. "I’m committed to two calls a year. If I know Rocchio, he’ll make sure he calls me twice a year, just to remind me who’s boss," she said sourly.

Honey was silent for a moment. "Isn’t this…what you want anyway?" she asked slowly.

Trixie frowned. "Isn’t what what I want?" she asked. "To owe the department? To have no say over the jobs I work? To…"

"You want to work big-profile cases," Honey interrupted. "Bigger than anything you’re getting in the greater White Plains area. And with me out with the baby you’re not taking anything big, and…"

"And so you think I’ll just take off?" Trixie asked remotely.

Honey sighed. "I don’t think that, Trix," she assured her friend. "I just thought that you might be looking for more since…

"Since you’re not coming back to the agency?" Trixie supplied heavily, voicing aloud one of her greatest worries..

"What?" Honey demanded, sitting up quickly, wincing as her body objected. "Who told you that?"

Trixie looked sheepish. "Well, no one," she admitted. "You’re just…" She shrugged. "With the baby….You’re going to be somebody’s Mom, Honey!" she exclaimed. "You’re not going to want to risk that. I understand," she said, looking away. "It’s ok."

"Well, unless you’re planning to replace me, I’m certainly planning to come back," Honey said tartly. "Well, for Pete’s sake, Trix," she said acerbically at her friend’s expression of surprise, "you think I’m going to quit working forever?"

"Well, I thought…"

"I’m not running into any burning buildings anytime soon," Honey admitted. "But…" She shrugged. "Brian and I have talked about it. There’s risk in everything, Trix. I’m not quitting what I do because of what might happen."

Trixie nodded slowly, smiling a genuine smile for the first time since the conversation began

"But I don’t want you staying with Belden-Belden just because you feel you have to," Honey added.

The smile faded. "Why do you think…"

"I think you’ve made too many decisions based on other people," Honey said slowly. "It’s time to make them based on yourself."

Trixie groaned in frustration, tugging on one blond curl. "I wish you would all decide whether I’m a selfish jerk or a martyr," she ground out. "Listen," she said, sitting up and glaring at the other woman glancing quizzically across the room at her. "I’ll tell you the same thing I’ve told everyone else. I’m with Belden-Belden because I want to be. Having my own agency’s been my dream for years. I don’t work for the FBI, or the NYPD or the LAPD or any of those other places because I want to pick my own cases. I like the freedom I have with B-B, and…"

"But I don’t think you’ll mind working those two cases a year too much," Honey accused.

Trixie sighed. "You’re…right," she agreed slowly, looking a little surprised at the admission. "I’d like to be…in on a few things. Not even necessarily the biggest things," she added. "Just…something."

Honey nodded. "So it’s really not that bad a deal," she pointed out.

Trixie nodded. "I guess not," she said slowly.

"I think that Jim will see that, once you explain…"

"Jim?" Trixie interrupted. She shook her head. "I don’t think…that that matters," she said slowly.

"What do you mean?" Honey demanded, frowning. That wasn’t good. Trixie was supposed to be thinking about how the pieces were falling into place, except for one, and realizing what was missing without Jim…

"You’re right," Trixie told her friend. "We’re always fighting about something. I’m always mad at him, and he’s always exasperated with me…" She shook her head. "I don’t want to live that way, Honey."

"But he…"

"We had a deal of our own," Trixie interrupted. "And obviously, it didn’t work out for him." She pushed herself to her feet and crossed the room, leaning down to hug her friend. "Stay off your feet," she ordered. "It’s too late in the day for you to go into labor now…none of us would get any sleep," she finished, grinning.

"Trixie." Honey reached up and grasped her friend’s hand, arresting her movement as she tried to turn away. "What are you saying? You’re just going to give up on Jim and…."

"It’s over, Honey," Trixie said, smiling sadly. "It was our last shot, and it didn’t work." She tried to shrug it off, but Honey saw the misery in her blue eyes. "Deal’s off," she finished softly. She forced a smile, then turned and hurried out of the small house.

"Oh, dear," Honey murmured, struggling to get out of her seat and follow her friend. She heard a car start outside, and the engine rev, and scowled. Too slow!

A moment later, the door opened again and Honey looked up hopefully.

"Oh. It’s you," she said unenthusiastically as her dark-haired husband entered the room.

"I’m happy to see you too, dear," he told her dryly.

"I’m sorry, Brian!" she apologized contritely, leaning up to kiss him as he bent over her. "I thought you were Trixie."

"She just left," he told her, unnecessarily. He shook his head. "She almost hit me in the driveway again. She’s making a habit of that, and I don’t really think it’s a good one…" He trailed away as he took in his wife’s expression. "What’s wrong?" he demanded, concerned. "Do you feel all right? Is it the baby? Are you…"

"No," Honey said, waving her hand impatiently. "It’s Trixie. And Jim."

Brian sighed, and seated himself on the sofa. "So the great Texas Adventure didn’t work out as planned?" he asked.

Honey shook her head, and poured the whole story out. "I didn’t think she’d believe me!" she wailed after she’d told him everything. "She was supposed to see that she wanted to be with him!"

"Well…I hate to say this, Honey, but maybe you were right," Brian said slowly.

"What?" his wife demanded stridently.

Brian shrugged. "Maybe they will be better off without each other," he said reasonably. "After all, they never do seem to relate that well to each other…"

"Brian Belden, I can’t believe you," Honey huffed. "If you can’t even see that your sister and my brother are positively stupid over each other…"

"They just seem positively stupid, sometimes," Brian quipped. He looked at his wife, and cringed under the glare she was giving him. "All right," he said meekly. "I’ll talk to Jim tomorrow. See what he’s thinking…"

"Today," Honey corrected firmly.

Brian sighed. "All right. After dinner I’ll…"

"Now," Honey insisted.

Brian stared at her. "I just got home!" he reminded her. "I haven’t had dinner, and…"

"Now," she repeated.

He sighed. "Fine," he agreed, in tones of great self-sacrifice, as he pulled himself to his feet.

"Then Trixie," Honey continued.

"No," he said firmly. "I can’t deal with them both in one day. I just can’t. I…"

"Brian…"

"Can’t Mart talk to Trixie?" he demanded, somewhat petulantly. "She listens to him…"

"When does she ever listen to Mart…?"

"When he’s not being a pain," Brian insisted. "I’ll send him over to talk to her. Come on," he wheedled. "I’ll never get home if I have to track both of them down…"

"Fine," Honey relented, smiling up at her husband.

He sighed in relief, and bent to kiss her on her forehead. "I’ll be home soon," he promised.

"Brian!" she called after him as he went out the door.

"Yes?" he asked, turning back.

"Thank you," she smiled.

He grinned. "I’d only do this for you!" he reminded her, and was gone.

Honey smiled after him, but the expression faded away as she thought of the mess Trixie and Jim – with a little help from her – had created. Could even Brian help them sort it out?

She rubbed her stomach absently. "I hope so," she said aloud. "They’re meant for each other," she said, nodding decisively. "Even if they don’t know it!"

But they’d better find out. And soon, too.

To Be Continued

TBH Main