A Disappointing Dance

While the crooks slept late into the morning, the detectives enjoyed some cheap Chinese at Scarlet's house for lunch,"So they left another note?" she asked with a laugh, glancing at the pictures of the two crime scenes for similarities. There wasn't much.

Bart nodded while handing her the note. "Yeah." He said, shaking his head. "They left one at the last scene too. Just to toy with us."

She chuckled lightly, "Yeah. Always so snide," she scoffed, picking a piece of chicken into her mouth with a chopstick.

He looked at the two notes of the same handwriting and sighed. He groaned and rubbed his head. Scarlet looked slightly concerned, "Sorry, I have a headache.." he said sadly, setting them down on her coffee table. They had already been analyzed so it didn't matter if a little food contaminated them now.

She glanced to a full water bottle that came with their food, "Maybe you're dehydrated? Drink up." she ordered, setting the water in his lap.

He yawned but opened the bottle as he continued looking over their pictures. "They're upping their game." He sipped his water and nodded, "This place was a bit more fortified then the last place was."

"Man, you're right, Bart." she said to say sarcastically. A house didn't have more security at all! "I didn't see that. Better security, more cameras?" she scoffed and shook her head before setting her bowl of orange chicken down in her lap. Bart looked down and sighed. He fiddled with the bottle cap then looked at the ground. "Anyways," she tapped at the note in front of her, "I think If we can track whoever made these notes, we can find our robbers. Surely the writer will have some information, right?" she asked herself, cocking her head slightly.

He nodded while looking them over. "Probably yeah. We could track the hand writing through our records." He suggested, taking another drink of water. "Maybe that would work?" He asked her with his head cocked.

Scarlet grinned at him and jumped lightly in her seat. "Finally, a good idea, Bartholomew!" She pat him on the back then returned to her Chinese.

Bart smiled as he couldn't help feeling so very proud of himself. "Yeah?" she almost never liked his ideas!

"Yup." she replied through a mouthful of chicken, "How about we try to get that done after lunch? Food should help your head too...maybe." She shrugged as she was no doctor. She didn't want him hurting though. He was an idiot, and she made of fun him often, but she did consider him her friend.

"Ok." Excitedly he picked up his note book and wrote down their plan before picking up his box of food. He unwrapped his fork and started eating his chicken and rice. "We'll figure it out, Scar." He said, elbowing her lightly.

She smiled and nodded."Yeah, we will." She elbowed him back.

*&^%$*&^%$*&^%$*&^%$*&^%$*

They ate and worked on the case a bit more, checking security cameras that couldn't catch anything because they wore masks, gloves, and hoods. Hopefully they'd slip up at the next one.

Scarlet shook her head then stood up suddenly,"Y'know what, Bart?" She asked, putting her hands on his shoulders. This was turning out to being much more frustrating than they thought, because their crooks were simply too good at covering their tracks. "How about we take a break?" She blew out her breath and looked around. Hopefully they'd slip up at the next one.

He cocked his head. "Um sure."

"I feel like I'm gonna die if I spent another minute in this house!" She shouted then laughed. Shaking her head, she pulled him to his feet,"Get dressed then meet me at Green House Swing in an hour," she looked ordered, waving him forward.

He cocked his head at her. "What's that?" He asked as she pushed him out the door.

Scarlet smirked,"You'll see! Wear church clothes!" She giggled excitedly and closed the door after him.

"Um..k." He laughed as he walked down to his car.

"Awe I'm so excited!" She shouted to the empty house, skipping to her room. When was the last time she had had fun? She couldn't remember. There was so much crime in this small town. It really kept her busy. She smiled as she looked at her clothes, "Oo," she cooed, looking at her dresses that had been collecting dust recently. "Which one of you beauty's should I wear?" She asked cheerfully. She fingered a blue dress then a pale green one then a yellow one,"Oh so prettttyyy." She cackled and snatched out her green one with white polka dots.

Poor Bart was still confused when he got home. "Church cloths?" He questioned, scratching his head at the cloths adorning his small closet. After some time he settled on some jeans and a white button up shirt. Seeing himself in the mirror, he winced. He didn't dress up often. This simple truth was painfully obvious. He sighed, combed out his light brown hair, and cleaned his small wire framed glasses.

Scarlet grinned as she dolled herself up, giving herself a cat eye and some light green eyeshadow to match her dress. She smacked her lips after adding some lip gloss to them, fixed the frizz of her hair with a bit of gel, then finally left the house to meet her partner. The smiling redhead walked in and glanced around the gymnasium. Truthfully, she was multitasking, checking out a few of the men while looking for Bart. She held her hands behind her back while browsing around. She snickered as there were some ravishing ones.

Bart spotted Scarlet and grinned. She looked beautiful. His cheeks couldn't help heating a bit as he walked over to her. He cleared his throat. "Scarlet!" He exclaimed as he waved at her.

She glanced over in confusion, slowly walking over as she was rather curious how this man knew her name. He smiled at her softly. "You look great. I like the green." He said with a smile. It was truly a great contrast to her vibrant red curls.

"Thanks!" She snickered lightly, her eyes scanning him. They widened and shot up to his face, a gasp escaping her lips,"Oh my gosh, Bartholomew?!" She broke into a chuckle and shook her head.

He rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. "Um, yeah?"

"Bart, you're looking sshharrrpp!" She cat-called with a grin.

His cheeks heated, but his face shined delight. "Y-Yeah? I didn't go too fancy?"

"No," she looked behind her then looked back. "Whoo! You're gonna get a girl today with *your* looks," she told him with a pat on his back.

He laughed nervously while his sun-kissed cheeks flushed with even more red. 'Wish it would be you' he thought dreamily. "U-Um. Thanks. I uh, I don't dress up often." He said, rubbing his arm.

"Yeah?" She looked behind her as people were lining up in two groups. "You should more often."

"You uh, you look great too!" He fumbled out. Why was he so nervous? 'Calm down Bartholomew. She doesn't like you!' He scolded himself.

Scarlet smiled at him and nodded,"Thanks."

He rubbed his arm and sighed lightly before glancing back up to her. "So uh...what are we doing here?" He asked, pushing up his glasses.

"Well," she led him to the edge of the lead line, "First we're gonna have a lesson teaching you the basics for about an hour and then they'll let us free and we can dance with whoever!" She explained quickly before running off to the follow line and giving him a thumbs up.

"I-um." He looked around in utter confusion. Lead? Follow? What??

"You got this!" She shouted from across the way before turning her attention to the instructor.

Bart watched his friend and gulped. "I can't dance." He whispered to himself.

"Hello everyone! I'm Jean!" The middle aged man introduced himself, adjusting the microphone at his mouth, "I, along with my beautiful partner Susan," he gestured to her and smiled fondly, "Will be teaching you swing dancing moves like open position, closed position, basic foot work, spinning, and maybe I'll throw something fun in there!" he shouted with a wink.

Scarlet chuckled and threw up an arm,"Yas fun!" She shouted to relieve her boredom. Honestly this was the part the hated to most, being that she'd been swing dancing for years; but she knew it was important for newcomers.

Jean smiled and nodded, "You know it, Scar." He looked to everyone,"Now, I hope you've noticed I've separated you into two groups, leads and follows," Scarlet cringed as she knew the next part,"Leads, well, lead the dance. Anddd follows, follow."

Bart gulped as he now realized he was in the lead line. "What do I do?" He asked himself quietly. He glanced to Scarlet and sighed, rubbing his arm. "I don't dance. She just left me."

"Whaatt??" She whispered to the girl next to her,"That's crazy talk!" She responded to the instructor with sarcasm.

The blonde glanced at her in a bout of confusion. "Um...sure." She said, shaking her head before looking back to Jean. Clearly, she was one of the noobs that needed this.

Bart tapped his foot anxiously as he listened. He didn't dance, and honestly, he was rather disappointed about this. He had thought...no. That would never happen. Sighing deeply, his posture slumped to the ground. This wasn't his idea of fun. He would rather be at a park or the observatory in the next town over. Scarlet looked over to him and furrowed her eyebrows in concern. He looked painfully nervous and uncomfortable. Of course he did. His only friend and person he knew here left him to learn on his own!

The instructor told each of them to take the person across from them as their partner. "Hey, you okay?" Scarlet asked softly, taking his hands when told. He looked to her hands in his and gulped. She rubbed them lightly in hopes of comforting him. "We don't have to stay if you don't want to do this." She said with a sigh, glancing behind her to Jean.

"N-no." He stuttered before shaking his head and meeting her eyes. Scarlet sighed deeply. His light blue eyes were threatening to water. "I just don't dance. Can we switch?" He asked, trying to swollen the lump in his throat.

"You ready?" Their instructor asked, nodding his head to create a beat, "Leads! Left, right, rock step.. Slow, slow. Quick quick!" He repeated as the group practiced. Bart tried to follow along as best he could.

She remained patient though he wasn't good on his feet, and messed up quite a lot. "I just thought it'd be fun..." She clearly didn't want to go. She loved this and she thought it'd be nice to share something with him that wasn't work.

He sighed as Jean let them break for water. He sat on a bench and shook his head. "I know, I'm sorry." He held his hands in front of him, thinking about how soft and warm her hands had felt in his, how her smile made his heart flutter.

She shook her head, "Hey, it's okay. I should have asked. I'm the one whose sorry." She said with a sigh, standing above him.

He frowned at the floor. His chest ached in pain. "Hey um....I uh...I'm sorry," He had thought the wrong thing, and got his hopes up. Now, they were crushed. "But I think my headache's coming back. I'm gonna." He bit his cheek as tears built in his eyes. "I'm gonna go home, try and figure out our case. You have fun, ok?" He gave her a small hug then turned away.

"Okay, bye. Feel better, Bartholomew," she said with a nod. While he walked out of the building, she scolded herself, 'Nice going Scarlet! He feels like crap because of you! Why didn't you just ask?' She sighed and turned back to the people in the gymnasium.

As soon his car door shut, his tears instantly broke free. He clenched his steering wheel while he leaned on it and sobbed. He didn't like to admit it, but he was a very emotional guy. And this.....this broke his heart. He drove home with tears in his eyes, going straight to his liquor cabinet. It was his only solace. He poured himself a large glass of scotch then sat down in his living room. He had been cutting back on his drinking, getting small relapses. He wanted to do it for her, to show her that he really was trying; but what was the point anymore?