"There is a beautiful thing inside you

That is thousands of years old.

Too old to be captured in poems.

Too old to be loved by everyone

But loved so very deeply

By a chosen few."

-Old Souls, Nikita Gill

First thing the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving, David Jacobs was ringing the doorbell of Clara and Anthony Higgins' home. He was surprised when Clara opened the door herself and not a maid. "David." She greeted, pleasantly. She was fully dressed in a pale, sage day dress complete with an emerald shawl that draped around her shoulders, looking as though she'd been up for an hour at least. She was holding a book in one hand, a finger saving the page, as she murmured, "What a nice surprise. Come in."

She stepped to the side and he thanked her as he entered, removing his coat as she shut the door and the warmth of the home settled around them. Clara was watching him with intelligent, green eyes, her face neither questioning or probing him, just accepting him into her home. "Tony's not up, yet." She told him finally, setting her book next to a vase with flowers to take his coat and hang it up for him.

Ducking his head slightly, David cleared his throat before replying, "I'm actually here to see you." He felt the sheepish smile pull the corner of his mouth up before he could really stop it.

"Oh?" Clara asked, clearly intrigued now, "Katy and Viv mentioned helping you with Nina…" She trailed off, tilting her head to look up at him.

Sometimes, he forgot how short she was. He all but towered over the petite, red-head and it hit him quite suddenly that he very much liked how tall Nina was. A quick, entirely inappropriate image of her long legs wrapped around him made a hot flush climb up his neck and cheeks, "Uh, we made up but I am here for a favor." He told her, trying to redirect his thoughts from the fantasy that he very much wanted to make a reality.

Clara smiled sweetly, "David Jacobs, hotelier extraordinaire wanting a favor from me?" Her voice was a touch awed, "What is it?"

She looked like she half wanted to run and tell someone this startling news, as if she couldn't quite believe it, and David sighed as he reconsidered going to Clara for help. Clara wasn't really someone he saw as loose-tongued; however, she was married to Racetrack Higgins and she didn't keep secrets from her husband. Therefore, everyone across the city would know by dinner that David was here for dance lessons.

"I need dance lessons." He figured it was best to just come right out and say it, but didn't really expect the words to echo in the large foyer, the marble not quite absorbing the words but bouncing them around as though they were taunting him. He could talk Teddy Roosevelt into investing in his hotel, but now everyone would know he couldn't dance.

Blinking at him a few times, Clara digested his statement, and then smiled brilliantly, "Alright, let me send messengers and cancel some things and then we'll push the furniture to the side in the parlor." She was walking away as she listed what needed done, heading towards the kitchen, "Henrietta!" She disappeared as she called for someone David didn't know and he stood there awkwardly as he waited for things to settle down.

Despite her size, Clara barked orders like a general in the army, and David couldn't remember ever seeing this side of her. He found a new respect for her, and slightly for Race, as he and her gardener, John, pushed furniture around.

"That will do. Now, what dance did you want to start with first?" Clara asked, as John clapped David on the shoulder and left the room. David felt his blush return as he pulled out the booklet of events and handed it to her.

"This is the order of the dances. We're going to the Farewell Banquet and Ball tomorrow at Coney Island."

Clara gasped, green eyes round as saucers as she looked over the pamphlet that included the dinner being served, the members of the ships that were departing New York's harbor, and the picture of the President on the front cover, "You got an invite to that? Not even my parents got one."

He sighed, a tad embarrassed about his connection to the former Mayor of New York and practically the sole reason he was able to open the Benjamin Hotel at eighteen, "President Roosevelt always invites me to events when he's in the city and I almost never go. But, I thought Nina would enjoy dancing and getting dressed up. I think they were surprised when I accepted the invite and with a date."

Clara chuckled, "I bet. David Jacobs…with a woman." She mumbled the words, shaking her head as she looked over the booklet before she realized what she said and a blush colored her cheeks, "Sorry, that was rude. I've been hanging around Tony too long." The red head told him, avoiding his eyes as he suppressed a smile and she sighed as she added, "I just remember inviting you to every dinner we held in the hopes you'd like any of my eligible friends. You never so much as glanced at one of them."

He ran a hand over his mouth nervously as he considered how to reply to that without offending her or sticking his foot in his mouth as he so often did. He needed her help if he was going to learn theses dances, "Your friends were all lovely…they just weren't-I mean, I wasn't ready-" Cutting himself off he felt his shoulders slump, "I'm sorry, Clara. But, I'm asking you to help me with this woman now?" His hopeful question did the trick, causing Clara to toss the booklet and square her shoulders.

"Yes. No matter about those other women, Nina is a fine choice. I had my doubts in the beginning, but losing that bet taught me a lesson. Now, let's teach you one." Clara proved to be an excellent, though unsympathetic, teacher in the hours following his arrival. She didn't let him take a break until he learned each dance flawlessly, which meant he rarely got one. She drilled and critiqued his form to the point that he began to wonder why he thought this was a good idea. She even called in Henrietta, the lovely, albeit rather buxom, head of the household staff for him to dance with while she looked over his form and steps.

It was early afternoon by the time Race came down stairs, griping about the noise and then falling onto the floor laughing as he stepped into the parlor and found David dancing with Henrietta as Clara glared at him, "Tony, you're disrupting my lesson!"

He howled in laughter, choking out the words, "David's learning to dance!" In between fits that shook his entire body. David scowled and tried to ignore him as Clara quickly turned off the music playing from the phonograph and he and Henrietta stopped dancing. Her hands went to her hips and she tapped her foot as she glared at Race until his laughter stopped and he sobered up. He gazed up at her with dark eyes still dancing merrily from where he was on the floor, "Clara, ya can't blame me. This is gold material." He was pointing at David and Henrietta, as though she couldn't see them.

"Tony, I am helping our friend out and you can either be his dance partner or sit there quietly." Her threat made David chuckle, but it got Race off his feet, his hands going up in a defensive position as he backed slowly out of the room.

Clara caught David's eye and she gave a smug smile that made him laugh a little harder as he told her, "You'll make a great mother, Clara."

It was always the words he least suspected that usually brought a reaction that made him realize too late that he'd said something wrong. Clara's complexion paled and she forced a kind smile, but he could see a sparkle of tears fill her green eyes, causing them to look almost kaleidoscopic before she turned her back to him to re-crank the phonograph. "Alright, back into position you two." She called out, a wavering note in the beginning that diminished as she turned back to them with a steeled, more composed look. David quickly took Henrietta's waist and hand, letting Clara have her pride as he timed his steps to her counts and threw himself back into his education.

David felt a bit of a kinship to Nina, and a new respect for her craft, as he wiped his brow and realized he'd been dancing almost all day, as Nina undoubtedly was right now. They took a break for dinner and then continued to practice until the sun began to set and he decided he'd had enough. Even if he made a complete and utter fool of himself tomorrow, at least he'd tried. He thought Nina might at least respect that.

"Thank you, Clara." He told her, sincerely, as he stood at the door. Race was behind him, smoking a cigar on the front step as he pulled Clara in for a hug. He gave her an extra squeeze for whatever he'd said that almost made her cry and then let her go. "I'm humbled that you gave up your entire day for me." He added, because it was true.

Clara beamed up at him, "If it helps land you the woman you love, of course I'd give up a day of my time."

He opened his mouth to argue, because he wasn't sure, yet, that he loved Nina, but he couldn't force the words out. He nodded, instead, and then turned to Race as Clara shut the door behind him. Race smiled up at him, "Awright, David. Now, you'll be ready ta dance at ya wedding." He pressed the hand with the cigar to his stomach as he lifted his free hand up and did a half-dance from his sitting position, cackling as he flicked ash off his pants, "David learning to dance. Blink's gonna keel ovah."

"Are you walking with me to the Ben for your shift?" David asked, ignoring Race's amusement at his expense.

Race nodded, putting his cigar out on the concrete step, "Yeah, gimme a second ta kiss Clara goodbye." David shook his head at Race's unabashed adoration of the tiny red head, but waited patiently for the Italian's return before starting the journey back to the hotel.

He felt rather eager and excited about tomorrow. Especially now that he knew he wasn't going to be sitting there and watching his girl dance with men who knew how. And not just any men; rich, powerful men that basically ran the country. Nina would have her pick of any one of them and he was nervous that she might choose someone else.

"Race?" He asked, burying his hands into his coat pockets to keep them from the bitter cold of late November.

"Yeah?"

Sighing, David decided to just go right ahead and tell his friend what happened, so he could shed light on the situation, "I told Clara she would make a great mother and she almost cried."

Race had re-lit his cigar, and he took a pull of it, his face uncharacteristically devoid of any emotions as he nodded, almost resolutely, before blowing out the smoke and casting a side eye look to David, "She had a miscarriage in October." He finally got out, his voice a little raspy and David realized he was just as upset as Clara seemed earlier. "Didn't tell anyone except me and Sophie. She was only a couplah months along but she got so excited about it and then it was gone."

"I'm sorry, Race." David whispered, swallowing back a lump in his throat. Race and Clara were so good for one another, like two best friends who spent every spare moment together and never got sick of each other. He'd always envied them, could remember when Race came back from the Chicago trip, a new light in his eyes that was a mixture of happiness and hope. It was a light that hadn't been in the gambler's eyes for a long time. Though he'd proposed to her after only three months of dating, their year and a half long engagement had been a wonderful foundation to a marriage that deserved to expand. David couldn't think of any couple more deserving of children to share their unconditional love with.

Race nodded, "The midwife says miscarriages so early are common enough, but she was so happy, Dave, and now she feels like she let me down?" Race shook his head, his face troubled and awed at the same time, "That woman has got more emotions than I know how ta deal with most days."

David chuckled at Race's light humor and his inability to handle Clara. He'd always sidestepped difficult situations with humor and this was no exception. "As long as she knows you don't feel let down."

Race looked thoughtful, "She knows that…but, it's times like these that I wished I'd listened ta what my ma always said."

Brows furrowing, David looked at his friend, "What did she say?"

He looked at David from the corner of his eye before he shrugged and deadpanned, "I don't know, I wasn't listening."

Sighing as Race laughed at his own joke, David shook his head as the Benjamin came into view.

A/N: Sooo sooo sorry this took forever. I fell down the blackhole that is Riverdale, but I PROMISE I'd never abandon this series! I still have so much planned for our two couples and I've even thought about a little-bit-in-the-future story with Les and Clara's sister Diana . Anywho, drop me a review and light a fire under my butt to finish the next one! (And love and thanks to my wonderful reviewers!)

Truly,

Joker is Poker with a J~