speedgeek: (Frisco)
Title: Just Between Friends
Author: speedy
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Expecting her second child and caught up in a mafia war, Carly Corinthos has a secret that will change the lives of everyone she knows.
Disclaimer: I'm not the Rat, so obviously the characters aren't mine. I'm just borrowing them for awhile.
Notes: Just moving this over from my now defunct website. This veers off canon right before the panic room fiasco in 2003.
Chapter 15



Carly affixed the barrette at the back of her head, pulling her dark hair away from her face. She shook her head, letting her freshly curled hair settle. She examined herself in the mirror as she put on a pair of dangling silver earrings, as well as a matching necklace and bracelet, all new since she had so little jewelry of her own anymore.

It had been so long since she splurged on herself and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. High end brand name make up, designer silver strappy shoes, designer label dress, and real jewelry. Of course, she hadn't been able to decide at the store what she wanted, so she'd just brought it all home. Frisco had balked at how much she'd spent once he'd gotten his hands on the receipt. She'd just dropped the F word again and he completely caved to her wishes once more. Sometimes getting him to do what she wanted was just too easy.

Taking one last look in the mirror, Carly strolled out of the bathroom and spun around in her new dress.

Frisco whistled his approval, eyeing her from head to toe. By the grin on his face, he obviously liked what he saw. "Looking good."

He wore the only suit he had, minus the tie. The suit was black with a pale blue shirt that brought out the blue in his eyes, collar left unbuttoned. Carly couldn't help noticing how the shirt fit over his muscled chest, how the dark pants hugged his body. She hated him, he got on her nerves like no one else, but even she had to admit, Frisco Jones was one fine man.

"Thank you," she replied appreciatively with a smug smile. "You don't look so bad yourself. Ready to go?"

Happy and confident, Frisco looked like he could take on the whole world. "Let's blow this joint."

Carly picked up her small purse and followed her husband out the door.




Carly glanced at Frisco as he knocked on the Scorpios' door, a cocky grin on his lips. Cynical person that she was, wasn't quite as positive. She couldn't be sure of what would be waiting for them on the other side, despite the confidence Frisco had. Georgie coming to him was a good sign, but from what Carly knew of the two girls, Georgie was also the peacemaker, the people pleaser. It wasn't totally out of character for her to make amends with Frisco. On the other hand, Maxie was more of a hothead, just like her father. Her reaction would be entirely different, especially if Georgie hadn't told her everything.

No, Carly reminded herself. Georgie wouldn't do that. She wouldn't have made the date without telling Maxie it was with Frisco.

The door flew open, Maxie smiling excitedly on the other side. She wore a pale pink halter dress, with pink pins in her upswept hair and matching pink lipstick. At the sight of her father, she froze and her smile faded.

"Hey, sweetheart," Frisco said happily.

She was obviously caught off guard. She backed away from the door silently, allowing Frisco and Carly to enter.

"Hi, Dad!" Georgie cheered, jumping up from her spot on the sofa.

The younger girl looked like she had raided her mother's closet. Open red satin shirt with a white tank underneath and a black leather skirt that was a bit too big for her, a skirt both Carly and Frisco were sure belonged Felicia.

Maxie looked between her sister and her father in disbelief. "What is he doing here?" she demanded, glaring at Georgie and pointing angrily at Frisco, not even acknowledging her father or stepmother.

Frisco's grin faded, replaced by an expression Carly couldn't read.

"I told you. We're having dinner with Dad tonight," Georgie reminded her sister.

"He is not our Dad!" Maxie barked. "He is nothing but a deadbeat and no dinner is going to change that!"

"Maxie..."

"No!"

"Come on, he's trying!"

"He should've tried when we were still a family, instead of leaving us to go be Mr. Super Spy! He's been replaced and now he's nothing to us! End of story!"

"Please, Maxie! It's just dinner!"

Frisco sighed. "Look, Georgie," he said, stopping the angry response. "If Maxie doesn't want to go, that's fine." He looked at his oldest daughter, unable to hide his disappointment. "I'm not going to force her."

Maxie crossed her arms and held up her chin defiantly, switching her glare to Frisco. Georgie and Carly both looked between father and daughter, waiting for Maxie's reply, but none came. Instead, Frisco's words were met only with a cold, tense silence.

Finally, Georgie sighed in resignation. "Fine."

Frisco never took his eyes from Maxie's. "If you change your mind..."

Maxie let out a hostile laugh. "I won't."

"Well, you know you're more than welcome to join us."

She turned on her heels. "Don't count on it," she growled, stomping up the stairs.

Frisco just watched her. "I won't," he muttered to himself.

"I'm sorry, Dad," Georgie apologized, anxiously rubbing her hands together. She glanced back at the stairs. "I didn't know she was going to go off like that."

He shook his head. "You're not responsible for your sister's feelings," he reassured her.

She frowned. "I know. I just..."

"Let her be mad, Georgie. That's all you can do."

Carly smiled, trying to be upbeat, an almost alien situation for her. "Let's just go and enjoy dinner, huh?"

Georgie grabbed her small purse and keys from the coffee table. "Glad one of us can be cheerful tonight," she grumbled as she stepped outside.

Cheerful. That was hardly a word ever used in the same sentence with Carly. Bitch was more like it. She looked in stunned disbelief at Frisco. He tried to hide it, but she caught the smile on his face. She pointed at the door. "Out," she said softly between gritted teeth. She practically pushed him out of the door, with Frisco snickering as Georgie locked it.




"I'm sorry, I really am," Georgie apologized again. She stood at the front of the Port Charles Grille with Carly and Frisco, waiting to be seated.

She had apologized at least ten times since leaving the house. Frisco had remained quiet through the short drive, leaving Carly to strike up a conversation with the girl. An uncomfortable conversation at that.

"It's okay, Georgie," Carly reassured her, shooting a glance at Frisco. The maitre d' appeared and gestured for the three to follow him to a table. "This isn't your fault," she continued as they walked. "It was just a little miscommunication. She'll join us some other night. No big deal."

Georgie shook her head, unconvinced. "I should've been clearer with her. I just said Dad and I guess she assumed I meant Mac..."

The girl was being rough on herself and it was getting tiring. "Your heart was in the right place. I'm sure there will other dinners, after Maxie calms down."

"You don't know Maxie. She holds grudges for a long time."

Carly glanced back at Frisco, who was lagging behind. "Sounds like someone else I know," she said, taking a seat next to her stepdaughter.

Georgie giggled halfheartedly. "Maybe that's where Maxie gets it from."

Carly grinned. "I'm sure."

Frisco wasn't with them. Carly looked around the room, but didn't spot him. Georgie was staring at something - or someone - longingly. Curiously, Carly leaned over to get a view. Dillon, Georgie's boyfriend, was sitting alone at one table. Frisco stood next to him, leaning down as he spoke. The Quartermaines sat at the next table, in the midst of a heated argument. Poor kid looked miserable. She felt bad for him, knowing all too well what it was like in the middle of the family war zone. They were a little crazy on their own, but put together, the Quartermaines took family insanity to new lows.




As they walked to their table, arguing at one of the larger tables caught Frisco's attention. He stopped momentarily and stared, bewildered. Tracy and Monica were bickering, with an occasional barb from Edward, followed by one from Ned, and then the cycle started all over again.

It was watching like a train wreck and Frisco wasn't the only one in the room guilty of noticing it. Most of the surrounding tables were paying attention as well.

"Well, you certainly did a wonderful job as a mother, Monica! One son is falling down drunk and the other one is a murdering thug!"

"You don't get to criticize my parenting skills, Tracy! At least I didn't drag my child around Europe conning rich dullards out of their money, then dump him on virtual strangers and run off again!"

"That boy is a Quartermaine, Monica, and..."

"Oh, put a sock in it, Edward!"

Public spectacle, thy name is Quartermaine.

Frisco spotted Dillon sitting at the next table, looking very miserable. He glanced at Carly and Georgie just sitting down at their table, then back to Dillon. The agent sighed. This was supposed to be a family dinner, but the kid looked so down…

The hell with it, he decided. It wasn't as if Georgie hated Dillon. She cared about him, or maybe she was in love with him, Frisco regrettably didn't know which. He stepped over to the table. "Dillon, how's it going?" he asked, leaning on the table next to the kid.

Dillon gestured back to his family. "No comment."

"Been going on for long?"

"You have no idea. They live to make each other miserable."

"I've seen it before," he chuckled. "You want to come join us?"

Dillon shook his head. "Nah. It's a family thing..."

"Maxie decided not to come, so the family thing pretty much went out the window. You're welcome to join us." Frisco glanced up at the teen's relatives. "The company's a lot more pleasant."

A crash came from the next table. Dillon turned his head and groaned. He stood, his decision made. "I wonder how long before they notice I'm gone."

Frisco patted the kid on the back. He glanced back at the Quartermaines. His eyes met Ned's. He gestured towards the table where Carly and Georgie were already sitting. The younger man nodded at him, as an unspoken permission. "Don't worry about it, kid."




Frisco couldn't help noticing the rather large smile Georgie was trying to hide as he approached the table with Dillon. Or the way her face lit up. She was far more excited to see him than she was her own father. Teenage love in all its beautiful, infatuated glory.

"Anybody mind if a guest joins us?" he asked, although not waiting for an answer.

"I... I guess it's alright," Georgie stammered, flushed.

Dillon took the seat next to his girlfriend, while Frisco sat next to Carly.

"Your family's fighting again?" Georgie asked him, looking back to where the fight had turned into a full family free-for-all.

Dillon unenthusiastically smiled. "Don't ask."

"Quartermaine arguments are legendary around here," Georgie told Carly.

Carly just smiled, keeping the half a dozen nasty comments running through her brain to herself. "I can see why."

A waiter came by with glasses of water and took their orders, then quickly disappeared. An uneasy silence fell over the table, broken only by the continuing Quartermaine family squabble.

"So how's school?" Carly asked the two teens, very uncomfortable with the situation.

Georgie exhaled dramatically. "Over, finally," she replied, rolling her eyes in relief.

"Rough year?"

"A little bit."

"Perfect grades, I bet," Frisco added proudly. "As usual."

"Of course!" Dillon said. "She studied her ass off."

Georgie smiled shyly. "So did you," she said, gazing adoringly at her boyfriend.

Dillon gazed right back at her. "Only because of you." He looked over at Frisco and Carly. "Her diligence rubbed off, I guess."

"I'm sure that makes Tracy's life easier," Frisco said.

"Hardly," his daughter scoffed. "She's been gone this whole time. She left Dillon all on his own here in April and just showed up out of nowhere yesterday."

Dillon's eyes slowly closed. "Uh, can we not discuss my mother again?"

"Sorry," Georgie replied, touching his arm. "She just rubs me the wrong way."

Carly could clearly see this was obviously a topic already covered between the two teens more than once.

"Anyway," the girl continued, "I didn't get perfect grades this year, Dad. I totally sucked at trig."

Dillon laughed. "Mr. Jones, by sucked, she means she got a B."

"Am I supposed to be upset by a B?" Frisco asked, grinning. "That's pretty damn good to me."

"What did you get in trig, Dad?"

Frisco chuckled nervously. "So, how was Casablanca?"

"I'm guessing that means it wasn't a B," Dillon replied, cautiously holding back a smile.




Carly sighed as she dropped her purse on the counter of the loft. "I think that went well," she said, turning around.

Frisco closed the door behind him. He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, it did."

Dinner conversation had been controlled mostly by the two teens. Georgie had told them about their short relationship and she had prodded Dillon to talk about his future plans, his love of old movies, as if she'd expected certain questions to be asked. She had also gone on and on about the slime ball Maxie was dating, while Frisco sporadically leaned down to finger the gun holstered on his ankle. Given the cold, stony expression on his face, the story understandably had not sat well with him.

The girl, of course, was curious about her father and stepmother's relationship. Frisco had allowed Carly to take the lead on those questions. She spun a tale of romance and love while traveling through Europe, a plot she'd "borrowed" from some movie she'd watched one rainy afternoon in Berlin. A romantic encounter at a café was definitely more interesting than Frisco forcing her to walk up the hill to Neuschwanstein after she'd pushed him to take her to the famous castle.

The meal was pleasant, just a nice family dinner. It was, well... nice.

"You're disappointed Maxie didn't come."

He didn't answer. "Dillon seems like a good kid."

She just nodded. He didn't need to answer, she already knew. "Sure he's Tracy's kid?" she asked, only half serious, as she walked back to the bedroom and began to undress. "He's definitely too nice to be a Quartermaine."

"Must be Paul's genes."

She pulled on her old jeans and threw on a t-shirt. "No way it's Tracy's genes." When she emerged, Frisco had removed his suit jacket and was sitting on the sofa, his head down. She set down next to him. "Maybe we should make this a weekly thing. I bet Georgie would be open to it."

He mulled over the thought. "We have work to do here," he replied robotically.

"You said you wanted to spend some time with your kids. It might even prove to Maxie..."

A knock interrupted her. Frisco made no move to answer it, so Carly got up. She could hear sniffling on the other side of the door. She glanced back at Frisco, confused. His arm was resting on the side of his leg, the side with a gun. Cautiously, she opened the door.

Courtney was standing in the hallway, tears streaming down her cheeks. Carly moved aside to let her in, the confusion clearly evident on her face. "Courtney? What's wrong?"

Courtney walked right past Carly and looked right at Frisco. "Jason said something about..." She shook her head, clearly trying to control her emotions. "Robin told him you're some sort of federal agent. That's what he told me. Is it true?"

Frisco glanced at Carly and nodded. There was no point in denying it, it was hardly a secret in Port Charles. "Yes. I'm an agent for the World Security Bureau," he told her, standing and crossing his arms. "That can't be why you're here crying though."

Courtney took a deep breath before answering. "Sonny's been kidnapped."

Chapter 17
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