Work Text:
Present Day --
You sit on the couch with a frown on your face. The record player on the table next to you plays “Why Try To Change Me Now” by Frank Sinatra.
“You know I’ll love you till the moon’s upside down
Don’t you remember I was always your clown
Why try to change me now?”
You groan and cry out “I want to be Frank Sinatra’s clown!”
You stand up in frustration to change the record. You ruffle through all your albums, but all you have is Frank Sinatra and some Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. music.
You decide to put on a different Sinatra record.
As you’re listening to the song “All of Me” you start singing along too.
Towards the end of the song you belt out “why not take all of me!” while wishing Frank could take all of you.
Immediately your record screeches to a halt, and starts to the play the song backwards. The song, still playing backwards, speeds up faster and faster.
The room starts spinning. Your head hurts and you start to feel nauseous. You feel a strange wind around you, and then all of a sudden everything stops.
You look up and realize you’re lying on the ground. You sit up and look down at yourself to make sure you’re okay. Somehow, you’re wearing a beautiful, yet casual swing dress.
You look up and start to panic. You quickly stand up and start to walk straight through the crowded street, staring wide-eyed at everybody around you. They look like their from the late ‘50s or early ‘60s.
As you’re walking down the street, you look up and gasp out loud. The Sands Hotel is right in front of you. Naturally, you enter the building.
You think to yourself, ‘it’s pretty crowded for... what time is it anyway?’
“Sir, could please tell me what time it is?”
He responds “2:10pm.”
“Thank you kindly.” As you walk away you think “Kindly? Do they even say that here? I mean back then? Wait, now I’m confusing myself.”
You wander around until you find that door in Ocean’s 11 that leads to a backstage area. You turn the handle and slip inside.
The room is empty.
You wander around looking at the walls, the piano in the corner, basically every detail of the place.
As you’re examining the piano, you hear voices coming closer and start to freak out. Your only option is to hide under the piano because you were frozen for too long hoping for one of those voices to be Frank Sinatra’s.
From under the piano you see two pairs of shoes get closer and closer.
“I never told you to kick him out!”
“But you never said I couldn’t.”
“That doesn’t mean you should, Dino!”
“How was I supposed to know? Last week at dinner you told me about--“
“Dino, everything is fine. Please ask before you throw someone out next time.”
“Okay, boss.”
Someone sits down at the piano. You stare closely and assume it’s Frank Sinatra. The man sitting down has smaller feet that the man standing up.
The man at the piano starts playing the intro to “The Lady is a Tramp.”
You hear Frank’s voice. He is the one sitting at the piano. Shortly after, Dean joins him singing “that’s why the lady is a tramp.”
Suddenly a door flies open and feet storm in.
“Frank! I--”
You recognize the voice as Sammy Davis Jr.
The feet stop in place.
“Who is that?”
Your eyes widen.
Frank bends to look under the piano. “What are you doin' under there? Who are you?”
You sheepishly crawl out and straighten up. The first idea that comes to your mind is to play drunk. But then you remember that you’re underaged and don’t know how to successfully pull that off.
“I didn’t know where I was going, and then I heard footsteps. Sorry.”
“Your first instinct was to hide under the piano?” Dean laughs.
Frank looks you up and down with a sly smile. “Where’d you come from?”
“I... don’t know.”
Sammy takes his cigarette out of his mouth and asks, “What?”
You decide to be honest because you hope just maybe they’ll help you get back home. And who better to help you out? “I was in my house, and next thing I know I was here.”
Dean lowers his head. “You sure you weren’t...” He tilts his hand to look like a drink. “No!”
Frank holds out his arm for you to grab. “I can escort you out.” You sigh.
As you’re walking out with Frank, Sammy sits down at the piano and starts to play a song. You recognize it and sing along “why not take all of me!”
Suddenly, you feel wind surround you. Everything starts to spin. Just as your head starts hurting, everything stops.
You feel something yank you down to the floor. Frank Sinatra has traveled with you. You assume you must be used to this form of travel by now and landed standing up. Poor Frank.
You help him stand up and look around at your surroundings. It looks like a really old Times Square. You turn to Frank with your teeth gritted, cringing. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know this would happen again.”
“Again?!”
You said you were sorry, but on the inside you’re really glad that worked.
You cock your head to the side. “Frank! You... you’re young!”
Frank immediately puts his hands up to his face and feels his hair. “Oh my gosh. I am younger. DID WE JUST TIME TRAVEL!?”
Your eyes widen. “I think so?”
“Then where are you fro--“
You hear loud, high-pitched screaming behind you. Both you and Frank widen your eyes and spin around. There’s a crowd of school girls who just spotted you. Well, spotted Frank.
Frank grabs your arm and bolts down the street, dragging you along with him. You never realized Frank could run so fast.
He pulls you down an alleyway and into the side door of what looks like some warehouse. You start to panic because Frank Sinatra took you to a warehouse. But once the lights flicker on, you realize you’re in some sort of backstage area.
Frank, still holding your hand, leads you through the mess backstage, then onto the stage, and to the seats in the audience. He sits down in the front row and so do you.
“Sorry, had to get away from those soxers.”
“I understand.” You really hope he’s going to say something that’ll make your day. Or year. Or life.
“I want to know how we got here. It’s weird. I’m a 45 year old stuck in a 30 year old’s body.”
“Every time I sing ‘All of Me’ I magically teleport.”
Frank’s mouth drops slightly.
“So can we sing it to get back?”
“I’ve already sung it twice and have only gone farther back in time.”
“Maybe there’s a different song that’ll take you, us, back.”
“Maybe. But once we get back to the Sands, I need to get to the 21st century.”
Frank looks stunned. “Woah.”
You laugh. “Yeah. Woah is the right word for it. I would’ve never been able to meet you other than in this weird time travel situation.”
Frank puts a hand on his face. “Hmm. What song do you think would get us back?”
“We could try lots of songs.”
Frank smiles and runs backstage. He comes out with a microphone on a stand and sets it in the center of the stage. He goes backstage again and drags out a table with a record player on it. “Come up here. Backstage there are crates of records. Can you get some of mine, baby?” You freak out inside but try to keep it cool by nodding and going in search of the crates.
Backstage you find many more crates than you could imagine. Your eyes scan the small labels. You spot a few crates that say ‘Frankie Sinatra’ and grab a crate. Frank walks up behind you and grabs a crate too. You walk out onstage together. You think ‘Wow, I’m on stage with Frank Sinatra!’
As you both set down the crates, Frank goes backstage again to get more. You flip through the records trying to find one that will help you get back.
Frank comes back with the final crate. “Find anything...”
“(Y/n)”
Frank smiles. “Find anything, (Y/n)?”
“No, but I was thinking the song ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’ is about the future. Wouldn’t it take us back?”
Frank tilts his head. “I’ve never sung that song. I don’t even know what that is.”
Your eyes widen. “Oops. Never mind. Forget what I said.”
Frank starts laughing. “You just told me my future, didn’t you?”
You don’t say anything back for fear of ruining anything more.
“Well!? What year do I sing that? Was it successful?”
“Shut up!”
Frank freezes.
“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to yell. I’m really nervous, I just want to get back home. And I really don’t want to ruin the space-time continuum.”
Frank is dumbfounded. “Space-time what?”
“Back to the Future joke. Ignore it.”
You go back to searching the crates. Your thoughts are filled with worries and your hands start to shake slightly. You feel a hand on your shoulder. Frank crouches down next to you and says in a low voice “We’ll get back. I promise.” You smile at him. For the first time you actually notice how blue his eyes are. Frank leans forward and gently kisses you.
“I promise.”
“Frank, don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
He stares into your eyes for what feels like way too long. “Frank.” He finally snaps out of it. “What?” “Help me find a song please.” “Right.” You both go back to searching the crates.
After a searching through most of the crates and finding nothing, Frank calls out “How ‘bout this?” You stand up and walk over to him. “‘Time After Time’? Sounds like it’ll work. I think we both have to sing it.” Frank smiles and puts the record on the player.
The song starts and Frank sings the verse. Once the chorus hits, you join in.
“Time after time
I tell myself that I’m
So lucky to be loving you”
As the song nears its end, you look Frank in the eyes and sing along with him.
“And time after time
You’ll hear me say that I’m
So lucky to be loving you”
On the last line, Frank takes a step closer to you. He wraps his arm around your waist and holds you close to him. You look up at him and he looks down at you. You both smile.
The song ends and you both frown. Nothing happened.
Frank lets go of you. “What? It had to have worked!” You walk up to Frank and put a hand on his shoulder. “Frank, we’ll try another song. I promise we’ll figure it out.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, (Y/n).” You roll your eyes.
You and Frank hear voices get louder and louder.
A bunch of bobby soxers run in the theater shouting “We found him! We found him!” The soxers scream and run up to stand directly in front of the stage.
You roll your eyes and walk back to the crates and randomly pull out a record. You stare at the list of songs. “Huh.”
“What? Did you find something?” Frank asks desperately.
“Yeah. I was singing this before I sang ‘All Of Me.’”
“Let’s try it. And quick.” Frank takes it from your hand and places it on the record player.
He starts singing, and you join in.
“You know I’ll love you till the moon’s upside down
Don’t you remember I was always your clown
Why try to change me now?”
While singing, Frank puts his hands on your hips. He pulls you close to him and puts his forehead on yours.
The bobby soxers start screaming. But it doesn’t ruin your moment. You smile because, out of everyone, you get to be Frank’s clown.
As you both finish the last line of the song, Frank kisses you.
You smile into the kiss as you feel that familiar wind again. The record starts playing backwards. It speeds up, and soon you can’t hear anything.
You land in the same room of The Sands Hotel, still kissing Frank. You hear someone clear their throat. Frank slowly breaks apart.
You look around and see Dean and Sammy staring at you two in unbelief.
Frank shrugs his shoulders with his classic silly look where he tries to look innocent. “What..?”
You laugh and so does Frank. You look him in the eyes. “Will you help me get back?” Frank embraces you. “Of course, darling.” You blush harder than you ever have before.
You and Frank walk over to the piano. Dean and Sammy follow behind you. Frank motions for you to sit at the piano, and you accept. He sits next to you on the bench and starts playing the song “Why Try To Change Me Now.” He starts singing it with you.
“I’m sentimental
So I walk in the rain
I’ve got some habits
Even I can’t explain
Go to the corner
I end up in Spain
Why try to change me now?”
Once you get to the chorus, Frank lets you sing alone. You smile at him as you say the last line.
Frank’s hands reverse and start playing the song backwards. The song, still playing backwards, speeds up faster and faster. The room spins. You close your eyes, trying to keep the image of Frank in your head.
Everything stops. You’re back home. The record player has moved on to another Frank Sinatra song.
You sit on the couch and sigh happily. You have accomplished your number one goal.
But now that that’s done, what next? You smile thinking, Peter Lawford was always cute. You frown in frustration, your head singing on repeat “why not take all of me?”