032. Sunset

Title: Dark Shadows
Genre: Mystery, Romance
Characters: Fran Callahan, Nathan Davis
Prompt: 032. Sunset.
Word Count: 647
Rating: G
Type: Series: 15 of 33.
Summary: Fran watches the sun go down and gets an unexpected proposition.
Warnings: None.


Fran watched the sun disappear slowly beneath the horizon, making its way towards the other side of the Earth. She looked up at the evening sky and breathed in the salty air coming off the breeze. After a long day at work, she went to a small harbor off the coast, the small fishing pier one of her favorite places to think.
Walking over to the corner, she leaned over the edge of the pier. Lost in the lapping waves against the long columns below, she steeled herself against the cool, evening breeze. Engrossed in her thoughts, she didn’t hear him come up behind her, didn’t feel his gaze on her bare arms, didn’t feel the need that pulled him towards her.

“Nickel for your thoughts.”
The sudden voice nearly made her fall over the small rope, “Nathan! Geez, you scared me!” she exclaimed, grabbing her chest. “What are you doing here? And by the way, it’s a penny for your thoughts.”

He smiled warmly and stuck his hands in his pockets, “Well, considering it’s you I’m talking to, thought I’d be generous. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you, I figured you might be here.”

She smiled back, he always knew just the right thing to say; a second ago, she could have throttled him for scaring her. “Uh huh, since when is four more cents generous, I’d at least expect a dollar from you.”
Nate shook his head and laughed, “Okay, mentally noted. Frannie wants a whole dollar next time. Oh, I forgot, I’m not supposed to call you that anymore.”

She made a face, a cross between a grimace and a smile. “Ha ha, very funny. So, are you going to tell me what you wanted to talk about?”

Of course. Back to business as usual, he thought, asking her to join him at a nearby table.

After they sat down, Nate cleared his throat, he knew she wasn’t going to like this conversation one bit. “I had an idea, something I need your help with. I’ve cleared it with the Mayor and your boss,” he paused, delaying the inevitable as long as possible, “I want you to go undercover on these homicide cases I’m working.”
Her brows crossed in utter confusion, “What? How can I help, what are you even talking about, how is that possible?”
He sighed, he knew it wouldn’t be easy getting her to agree. “There have been two girls murdered as you know, they were both models. We have no leads, no witnesses, we’ve got nothing to go on. Since you have modeled, you can give us an inside look at their world, I have a strong feeling someone in the agency is involved in this. Please Frannie, at least think about it, no one at the department is qualified enough to get a job there, you know what a female officer looks like, very rarely can they pass as a model.”

Fran blinked in disbelief, she never expected him to want to discuss something like this. “I don’t know, Nathan…”
“Come on, I know you have that itch in your blood like me, you would have made a great detective, like your father.”
She flinched visibly at the observation. It stung and the worst part was, he saw it.
His tone softened, he even reached across the table, caressing the top of her hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring him up. I know it’s still hard for you.”
She slowly pulled her hand away, the contact a hundred times worse than when he had simply tucked her hair behind her ear that day in his office.

The sun slipped down below the nearby ocean, bathing them both in darkness as the streetlights began to come on. Fran sighed deeply, “It’s not just hard, it’s nearly impossible…I just don’t know what to say for you to understand.”

Part 16