For all you Boyd/Frankie shippers out there, especially Joodiff, my loyal bad idea plot bunny. This partly came about after listening to the song "Shut Up And Dance by Walk The Moon." It's an amazing song and is most definitely a song to write Waking the Dead too. It was supposed to be a single chapter but has now somehow changed to at least three. So, sit back and enjoy.

The music was loud, the lights were far too bright, but the drinks were cheap, which was so far the only good thing Boyd could find about the god awful place he currently found himself. When Frankie has said the team were all invited out for her birthday he hadn't expected to find himself sat in some club filled with people at least half his age. Frankie had tried to get him up dancing but he had flat out refused. Thankful Spencer, Eve and Stella has been there, he had managed to pass Frankie off on to one of them every time she had stumbled over.

As the night drew on Frankie drank more, which meant the more Frankie drank the drunker she got, which in turn lead Frankie trying harder to get Boyd to dance. By ten-thirty Grace was done, making a very credible excuse to escape. Grace had managed to catch Frankie before she left, giving her a very brief hug and peck on the cheek before heading home to enjoy the peace and quiet.

"Good luck, Peter. You are so going to need it. I'm surprised she can still stand up the amount she's drunk." Both of them looking to the dance floor where Frankie was currently stood swaying rather precisely with Eve, Stella and Spencer.

None of the others was doing much better, all of the showing various signs of inebriation. Spencer was propping Stella up, or vice versa, while Frankie and Eve danced in some kind of drunken limbo. Jesus, he was too old for the shit. He had tried to find a table far enough out the way so every young person that passed didn't eye him up like some perverted grandad eyeing up the young girls. Picking up his drink he sipped the whiskey, watching as Frankie staggered and Eve caught her, the two women making their way slowly towards him. Frankie didn't do girly clothing, Frankie didn't do girly period. Yet she had somehow managed to squeeze, squeeze being the operative word, into a white dress. It was skin tight and showed off her assists very nicely. The problem was he wasn't the only red-blooded male to notice how good Frankie looked. He had seen on at least a couple of occasions her being approached by some young guy trying his luck. She had seen them off quick enough, only once did Spencer have to step in and square his shoulders at the guy for him to take the hint.

Boyd was ready to go up and punch the guy when he placed his hands on Frankie but Spencer has stepped him.

When Eve and Frankie finally reached the table Eve deposited Frankie on the bench seat beside Boyd and grabbed her purse from the table.

"Heading to the loo. You want another drink?" Eve asked Boyd as she saw him slide his arm around Frankie's waist and prop her up.

"Have we not had enough?" The slight growl in his voice telling Eve he was so passed done with the place.

"One more, it's nearly time to go anyway. Place shuts in just over an hour." Eve grinning as Boyd groaned.

"She's had enough." Looking down at Frankie as she sat giggling beside him, her body still moving about in time with the very loud music.

Eve didn't say anything, just nodded her head as she headed off in the direction of the bar and toilets. He wasn't sat with Frankie long when Spencer and Stella joined him. Stella slid in beside Frankie and the two ladies suddenly broke out into song as they sat dancing along with the music. Boyd removed his arm from Frankie's waist and watched as Frankie and Stella drunkenly sung along completely out of tune.

"You want another?" Spencer asked as Boyd picked up his glass and downed the content.

"Eve's getting one I think." Looking Spencer up and down as he replied.

He needed to ask Spencer how the hell he was still standing. He knew Spencer had been a party animal, but tonight had to be the first time he'd ever seen how much of a party person he was. After a couple of hours, Boyd had normally ducked out of their team get together and headed home. The problem was he couldn't do that now, not when one, it was Frankie birthday and two, he was now dating Frankie. Before they started their relationship, when she was still part of the team, he had been happy to leave Frankie with Spencer. Now though, after seeing what he had seen it made his skin crawl and gave him a sick feeling to his stomach.

He was brought back from his musing when Eve appeared, somehow managing to carry four glasses and a bottle of something under her arm. She deposited the whole lot on the table, then took the bottle from under had arm, swiging on it before putting it on the table.

"Drinks," Frankie yelled as she reached out her hand towards the light purple glass on the table.

"For fuck sake, Eve," Boyd shouted over the loud music, seeing Frankie grab the glass and manage to get it to her lips without actually spilling any.

"Boyd, it's her birthday, and she has you to watch out for her. Let her be." Passing Boyd what looked suspiciously like a triple whiskey.

Spencer appeared behind Eve and slid his arms around her waist from behind, both of them instantly dancing to the music.

"Let's dance." Frankie slurred as she and Stella stumbled to get out their seats and stand up.

Boyd watched as Frankie, Stella and Spencer made their way back to the dance floor, Eve staying at the table with him.

"You do know you can't get out of dancing with her all night. The music changes in about ten minutes and she will have everything still upright with a pulse all over her. She's going to need a big strong man to save her from drunken perverts who want to cop off with her and have a quick feel while they do it hoping they get to take her home." Eve smirking as she looked between Boyd and Frankie.

"Is that what you get up too when I'm not about?" Boyd's eyes scanning the dance floor quickly before turning his attention back to Frankie.

He watched Frankie dance with Spencer, her back pressed flush against Spencer's body as he placed his hand on her hips.

"Sorry to tell you but this is what we do, yes. Frankie can handle herself, she's seen off quite a few weird creeps tonight on her own. Plus she has us with her. We look out for our family." The obvious affection in her voice as she talked about her colleagues.

Boyd regraded Eve properly, probably for the first time since she had taken over the job as the team's forensic pathologist. Eve has taken over after Frankie's replacement Felix had left. In some ways he couldn't blame Felix for going, a chemical attack in the squad room which could have ended rather differently for her ending her short career with the team. Frankie had left some very big shoes to fill, and Eve had done that. She had grown on the team, slowly forming close relationships with each member. He had to admit he had kept his distance in the beginning, she wasn't Frankie and that hurt. He had just become accustomed to Felix then she was gone, he wasn't making the same mistake with Eve.

"You are one of us now, aren't you." Boyd's words catching Eve completely off guard.

Eve blinked a couple of times, she was slightly tipsy, a little lightheaded, but she wasn't that drunk.

"I like to think so." Eve saying the first thing she could think of.

"I'm sorry I was so standoffish in the beginning when you first joined the team." Boyd taking a drink of his whiskey as he turned to face Eve properly.

"It's okay, I didn't take it personally. I know things were difficult then. You missed Frankie, Felix was there one minute gone the next, then in I came. I get it, I do. We're good now though, aren't we?" Eve deciding in for a penny in for a pound since he started the conversation.

"Eve, I think you spend more time at my house than I do. You were there for Frankie when I wasn't." Recalling how distant he was after Luke's death. "She needed a friend and you stepped up. You helped her get over Mel's death, and somewhere in all that I think we became friends as well." Reaching out and squeezing Eves shoulder.

Eve was speechless. In the two years they had worked together, and the year and a half she had been friends with Frankie she had never had a heart to heart conversation with Boyd. Yes, they had talked, but not like this. Even when he had woke her up one Sunday morning, coffee in hand, hungover as hell next to an equally hungover Frankie in his bed they hadn't really talked. She hadn't even asked him where he had slept that night, just mumbled her thanks for the coffee and buried herself back under the quilt, which smelt very strongly of his aftershave and soap.

"How much have you had to drink?" Eve watching as Boyd finished his drink and placed the empty glass on the table.

"Not enough to make this place bearable, or me want to dance. But enough for me to talk and to let you know I do appreciate you, and everything you do for both the team and Frankie." Boyd giving Eve one of his rare smiles just as they both heard the music go quiet and the DJ speak.

"Okay folks, it's nearly that time of the night. Grab that special person and get yourself down on the dance floor. Here's one last song for you ravers to dance to before then though." The music coming back on loudly as Eve and Boyd turned to look across to the dance floor.

Frankie managed to weave her way through the throng of people, her focus solely on Boyd. He had avoided dancing all night, managed to fob her off onto Spencer, Eve and Stella. Frankie was still warming to Stella, Mel's replacement after things went to hell in a handbag. She didn't dislike the young woman, but she just wasn't Mel. Spencer was like her brother and she loved him dearly, he was always there for her, even when her own brother wasn't. Then there was Eve. Eve was her best friend in the world. Eve slowly filled the void in her life left by Mel, helped her move past the grief and see that Mel wouldn't want her to be sad. It was Eve Frankie tuned to when she first started dating Boyd, Eve who ribbed her relentlessly about shagging an older man and asking if they did it better. Frankie still remembered all to clearly the night they were out celebrating Frankie landing a lucrative research contract at work and the how they had ended up passed out in bed together, at Boyd's place no less.

To be continued...