merryghoul | Luther/Rizzoli & Isles fic: Soap Opera

Title: Soap Opera | AO3
Author:

merryghoul
Prompt: Alice Morgan walks into a bar and meets... Frank Rizzoli, Sr.!
Fandoms: Luther (TV/BBC)/Rizzoli & Isles (TV)
Word count: 576
Rating/Contents: G/no standard notes apply

Logan International Airport was not a place beginning with the letter M. Hell, Boston was not a place beginning with the letter M. But Alice was in Logan International, the victim of the letter L—layover.

Airports were useful to Alice if they had bars. She knew she was risking her chances if the bartenders caught her face and maybe recognized her on some wretched fugitive-tracking show, like America's Most Wanted. (Not like she would be on America's Most Wanted, but maybe there was an international variant on some American channel somewhere.) Then again, the airport bars were full of inebriated people, and, if Alice was lucky, that one person that would drink way too much and attract the attention of airport security. Who cares about an incognito murderer when there were more important things like making sure a drunken arse doesn't board his flight until he's sobered up?

To Alice's surprise, there was actually a wine bar in Logan International. Instead of trying to jockey for a spot at another bar in the airport, she stopped at the wine bar. After ordering a zinfandel and a red meat sandwich, a man flagged Alice down. He wasn't a man Alice had seen before, but he also wasn't a police officer, either. He dressed too slovenly to be an undercover officer.

"Would you like to sit with me?" the man asked.

"I don't usually sit with strangers."

"I thought you'd be lonely."

"I'm never lonely. But I'm sensing that you are. I'll sit with you."

Alice sat down to the man's table.

"The name's Frank. Yours?"

"Alice."

"I'm on my way to New Orleans for a plumbing conference. Where are you going?"

"Maine."

"Why Maine?"

"It starts with an M."

"That's it."

Alice said nothing.

"Okay."

Alice's silence made Frank nervous. He cleared his throat.

"I was in love with this girl once. Her name's Lydia."

Alice ate her sandwich and drank her wine in silence, staring at Frank while he talked.

"I thought I had a good thing with her. She was much different than my ex-wife. Younger, too. I was all set to marry her. I had my wife sign the divorce papers. We'd been through for years and yet she was upset when I gave her the divorce papers. I didn't understand that. And then she got pregnant."

Frank paused, expecting a reaction from Alice. Alice kept eating, drinking and staring at him in silence.

"I have a couple of other kids with my ex-wife. I was hoping that Lydia would be different, you know? We wouldn't have any kids, we'd just have some fun. And not only do I discover that Lydia's pregnant, she might be pregnant with my son's child or my child. And now I'm talking to you at a wine bar before I get on this flight to New Orleans. Isn't that crazy?"

By the time Frank was done talking, Alice had finished her sandwich and her zinfandel.

"Do you expect me to care?" she asked Frank.

"Uh…no…I just--"

"I've seen and done things more interesting than being in the middle of a love triangle with a baby. And if I wanted to see a plot involving a baby, I would've stayed at home and watched EastEnders."

Alice stood up and left the table abruptly. She disposed of her glass and her trash at a trash can and left the bar, leaving Frank to ponder what an EastEnders was.