Standard disclaimers apply: I don't own the characters, I only take them out to play with them occasionally and I don't make any money off them. A book is never really happy unless it has been read and re-read until the cover falls off and you need to buy a second copy. This is how I pay loving homage to my childhood favorites.

 

 

Rule #4: The best way to keep a secret? Keep it to yourself. Second best?

Tell one other person - if you must. There is no third best.

 

Twenty year old Jim Frayne’s cell phone chirped with a new text message. It was from her – Bee Johnson. What had started out back in September as chatting with a fellow student on Facebook had evolved into text messages. And somewhere along the line, the conversation had devolved from research papers to something bordering on flirtation. At least, he thought she was a fellow student. She claimed they had met freshman year in a survey course but the two or three pictures she had placed on Facebook were too blurry for Jim to recognize her.

 

Guilt pressed against him as his finger hovered over the screen of his phone. What would Trixie say if she found his phone? They weren’t technically an item. Yeah, they had dated casually and went to a few dances together but the combination of their age differences and his going away to college at 17 hadn’t allowed him time to actually court her.

 

He hadn’t wanted to tie her to him during the last years of high school. He understood and lived with the very real threat that she’d wind up experiencing all the firsts he wanted to have with her with someone else.  But what was the alternative? That she sat at home waiting for his phone calls?

 

“Hey sexy. u were in my dreams last night.” Jim read the text twice before closing his eyes and cursing. Bee was funny and smart. Always interested in what he was doing. She asked questions about his friends and students and a million other things that made him crazy about her.

 

But she wasn’t Trixie.

 

What was an honorable guy to do? How did he get out of this? Did he want to get out of it? What if Trixie wasn’t ‘the One’? What if Bee Johnson was? It was so easy to talk to Bee. With Trixie, he always felt like he was walking on eggshells. He found himself either lecturing her, being afraid for her, or pulled into one of her mysteries.

 

He was only human and it felt good to be the center of a woman’s attention.

 

“I think we should meet on this plane,” Jim typed back. It wasn’t the first time he had tried to initiate a meeting with the mysterious Bee. To date, there had been over a dozen excuses why she wouldn’t meet him. Projects due, family visiting, and his personal favorite, her cat got out and she couldn’t just leave Mr. Mittens out there, could she?

 

His phone remained silent and Jim cursed and went home to pack.  His Bachelor’s Degree was almost wrapped up and he had a job lined up with Vanderheyden Hall, a boy’s school similar to the one he’d always dreamed of building. His mother sat on the board and had been heavily involved with the school for the last year.

 

All packed?

 

“Just about. It’ll be good to take a year off of school and work. Get some experience before I go on for my master’s degree,” Jim typed Bee back. He bit his thumbnail and checked the time. He wanted to hear Trixie’s voice but it was too late.

 

I’m so excited for you. r u getting ur own place? Or staying with ur folks?

 

“I purchased a place in my hometown,” he wrote back. Thank God Bee didn’t know about Rochester and Jonesy or the fact he was a millionaire. He was simply Jim from Sleepyside-on-Hudson, NY and it felt good.

 

Channel surfing later that night, he came across the MTV show Catfish. It didn’t take long to figure out the premise or the similarity to his own situation.

 

Fingers poised over the keyboard, Jim thought for a moment before writing the email and hitting the ‘send’ key.

 

Two weeks later, Bee’s cell phone rang and she didn’t recognize the California number. “Hello?”

 

“Is this Bee Johnson?” came a friendly male voice.

 

“Yes, this is Bee.”

 

“This is Nev Schulman. Maybe you’ve heard of me? I do a show for MTV called ‘Catfish’. Have you heard of it?”

 

Panic struck and hands shook as she held the phone. “Y-yes,” she stuttered.

 

“I’m sitting with a guy by the name of Jim Frayne. And he’d really like to meet you. What can we do to get that done?”

 

“I’m really busy right now,” she said. “I’m finishing up my thesis on the rise of the consumer movement of the mid-20th century. My mentor is a stickler about time lines.”

 

“Jim really likes you,” Nev said, twisting emotion’s knife. “It’s really important to him to figure this out and meet you. When can we make that happen?”

 

“I…I need to call you back,” she said, panic and anxiety evident in her voice. “I’m sorry.”

 

She disconnected the call and blue eyes looked back at her from the mirror over her bed. Suddenly she wished there were counterfeiters or drug smugglers to track down. They seemed far tamer than the Pandora’s Box she had unwittingly opened back in September. What had she gotten herself into now?

 

 

~*~*~*~

 

Rule #18: It's better to seek forgiveness than ask permission.

 

 

“Let me get this straight,” Di Lynch said, her brow furrowed. “You told a lie to Jim. Mr. Honorable Jim. The Most Wonderful Boy in the World Jim. Right? And it’s snowballed out of control and you don’t know what to do?”

 

Trixie nodded, miserably. Both girls sat on the old couch at the Bob-White clubhouse. The windows were open, letting in the faint early spring breezes.

 

“What were you thinking?”

 

“Obviously, I wasn’t,” Trixie said with a rueful smile.

 

“Can you tell me anything else about it?”

 

Trixie shook her head. “I’m too embarrassed,” she whispered, her face blazing a bright hue that would have shamed Jim’s own shock of red hair.

 

Diana nodded. In her opinion, those two needed to just kiss and get it over with. Hormones, shyness, and fear turned them both into a pair of stubborn pistachio nuts.

 

Di hugged her friend. “Talk to him. Tell him the truth,” she said. “Take the train down to Rutgers, look him in the eye, and tell him the truth. And then beg him to forgive you.”

 

 

*~*~*~*

 

Rule #1: Never screw over your partner.

 

 

Jim’s phone vibrated in his pocket. Meet me at Nuebies on Easton Ave at 8pm. Alone. Please.

 

Jim stared at the screen for a long time before finally responding. It had been almost two weeks since his last contact with Bee. Bee’s stubborn refusal to meet had thwarted Nev and his crew. Finally, he had to simply wish Jim good luck in his search for the truth.

 

So, whoever Bee was, she was familiar enough with the Rutgers campus to know Nuebies pizza was the place to be on a Friday night. Doubt crowded Jim’s mind. Could she really be a student here?

 

“How will I recognize you?” he sent back.

 

You’re smart. You’ll figure it out.

 

So she conceded that he knew her, Jim decided. Maybe not her name, but he knew her. Who the hell was she? He glanced at the clock on his phone. Guess he’d find out in another half an hour.

 

30 minutes later

 

Jim took a deep breath. He could do this, he decided. What was the worst thing that could happen?

 

He opened the door and scanned the room, looking for a familiar face but no one stood out in the crowded room.

“Looking for me?” came a too familiar soft voice at his elbow.

 

“Trix?” Jim said, frowning. “What…” Realization dawned but he still had to ask the question. “What are you doing here?”

 

She shrugged. “Let’s go talk,” she invited. “I have a booth over there.” She took Jim’s hand in her own and led him to his seat.

 

“You’re Bee, aren’t you?”

 

Trixie bowed her head. “Yes.”

 

“Bee Johnson,” Jim said, putting the clue together. “Your first initial and your mom’s maiden name.”

 

Eyes downcast, Trixie nodded.

 

“You… lied to me? You…betrayed me?”

 

Breath caught in Trixie’s throat. Jim wasn’t angry with her at all. He was hurt! Tears welled in her eyes as she realized the breadth and width her small lie had taken on. “I was so lonely,” she said, her voice small and forlorn. “I needed you but there was always this wall between us. I didn’t know how to get past it. I thought if we were meeting for the first time you’d stop seeing me as 13 year old Trixie and instead see me as an adult.”

 

Her sadness cut through his own hurt and budding anger. “You have three brothers, two best friends, me, and Dan. You have your mom and dad. Cousins. Why were you lonely?”

 

Trixie played with the hem of her shirt and wiped at the tears that fell from down her cheeks. “It wasn’t any of them I wanted to talk to.” Hiccup. “It was you. But when Jim and Trixie talked it was always about school or homework or mysteries. You wind up teaching me or reminding me to be careful.” Hiccup. “I wanted it to just be about hopes and dreams. Feelings. You know, the stuff we always have problems with.”

 

“Look at me,” Jim said.

 

Tears trembling on her lashes, Trixie looked up at Jim. She bit her lip to keep it from quivering. “I’m so sorry. Except I’m not. I know so much more about you now than you ever let me see before.” A sob tore through her chest. “I had no idea you were scared when you first came to live with the Wheelers. No idea that you blamed yourself for your mom getting sick. You were my rock. My touchstone. And you never asked for anything back. I was selfish and only thinking of the next mystery. It never even occurred to me you lectured because you were scared to lose me. Why couldn’t we talk as Jim and Trixie?” she demanded.

 

Jim reached out and brushed her tears away. “You were my rock.” Jim’s voice cracked with emotion and his own eyes began to fill. “And I knew I couldn’t do any of it without you, Shamus. Not the Wheelers, not leaving yet another home for college, starting the school I dreamt of – none of it was possible without you. Nothing is possible without you.” His broke eye contact and let a few tears fall unnoticed to the table. “How could you not know?”

 

Trixie couldn’t stand the distance anymore. She rushed around the table and sat next to Jim. “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” She burrowed her head in his shoulder and mumbled something.

 

Jim sniffed and grinned down at her golden curls despite the pain still crawling through his heart. “What was that last part?”

 

Trixie grabbed a napkin and blew her nose before facing Jim. “None of it was possible for me, either. Without you,” she clarified.  “Not smugglers or counterfeiters or diamond thieves.” Hiccup. “I had Honey backing me up, but I always knew you were in my corner in case things went horribly wrong.” Hiccup. “We’re a team. And I’m not even sure if Honey and I can do all the things we planned on without you and the rest of the Bob-Whites backing us up.” Hiccup.

 

“Aw, Trix, c’mere,” Jim said, pulling her onto his lap. Her jean clad legs straddled his hips. “You had me so confused this last year. Bee was easy to talk to because I could just be me with her. Without all the baggage of Jonesy or the time I ran away.”

 

“One large cheese pizza,” their waiter announced.

 

Jim and Trixie exchanged a look and then Jim said, “Could we get that to go, instead?”

 

The waiter sighed. “Sure, let me go get you a box.”

 

 

*~*~*~

 

The Unspoken Rule: You do what you have to for family.

 

 

Jim popped the pizza in the oven to heat it up and Trixie went to clean up. She knew she wasn’t a “pretty crier” and sure enough she was greeted to a splotchy face and swollen eyes. She splashed her face and dampened her curls.

 

“Jim?” she said as she approached the kitchen.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I don’t see you as this orphan whose stepfather beat him up. I have always seen you as this incredibly strong man who’s overcome so much in his life. I admire you. I always have.”

 

Jim set up plates of piping hot pizza and they took seats on his garage sale chic couch. “It was always too much. I knew if I started telling you how I felt, it would all gush out and I’d scare you off.”

 

Trixie smiled. “Same here. And besides,” she said taking a nibble on her slice, “you were the boy. You had to make the first move!”

 

Jim smiled and wiped a smudge of pizza sauce off her face. Her chin trembled and she put the pizza down. “You never answered. Can you forgive me?”

 

Jim pulled her into his arms and kissed her gently. Then a little more thoroughly. “Haven’t you figured it out yet?” he asked, guard down and soul bared. “I’d forgive you anything,” he admitted. He closed his eyes. “But please don’t ever lie to me again, Trix. It hurts too much, baby.” His voice was hoarse and barely audible.

 

“I won’t,” she vowed, her eyes solemn. Her brow creased in thought and then cleared. “I know!”  Her curls quivered with excitement. “We’ll cut our thumbs and do that blood brotherhood thing. Or something. Something concrete to show that Trixie adores Jim and Jim adores her right back and they’ll always be honest and even occasionally talk about fears and emotions and all that stuff.”

 

Trixie watched as Jim’s beloved crooked grin appeared. “I don’t think we need to cut up our thumbs for that.” He brushed a kiss across her forehead. “But maybe we could seal our promises with something a little more pleasant,” he said softly, pulling her into his arms.

 

Trixie sighed as the silky soft skin of his lips touched hers. “I think,” she gulped, eyes wide and interested and a tiny bit scared, “that sounds like the best idea I’ve ever heard.”

 

And they sealed it with a kiss.

 

 

The end.

 

 

A/N: A huge thank you to Joycey, Cindy, and Sabrina for taking a peak and giving me their feedback. I’ve been struggling lately and I needed a break from my own dark thoughts. I wanted something silly. Short. Hopefully fun. My original thought was to do a song fic, but the only one that ‘spoke to me’ had a guy jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge. I’ve been in a bad mood, but I didn’t want to fling poor Jim off a bridge! 

 

Vanderheyden Hall is a real place in New York. Per their website: Vanderheyden Hall cares for children with special developmental, emotional, and behavioral needs. As a multi-service agency, we provide a residential program, a day treatment program, clinical services, crisis intervention, respite services, and in-home parent assistance programs. The similarity to Katie’s maiden name, the NY location, and how closely it resembles Jim’s dream makes me think this is somehow connected to the Julie Campbell world. I could be wrong but it works for me.

 

Facebook is an online social networking service.

 

Catfish is an American reality-based docudrama television series airing on MTV about the truths and lies of online dating. I do not have Nev Schulman’s permission to add him to my story.

 

For my fellow NCIS fans, my quotes are all Gibbs’ Rules. Gibbs doesn’t belong to me either, but kinda should, I think.

 

Rutgers is a university in New Jersey.

 

Nuebies is an actual restaurant on the Rutgers campus. No money has been made by mentioning it.