Author's Note: Day Nine! Man, this was a hard one to get done. I struggled with it all day, hence the late posting. But I finally got to the point where I'm mostly alright with it so yeah. Hopefully I'll have better luck with tomorrow's numbers =)

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing, apparently not even my brain cos it just won't co-operate today!

Old Friends

Bailey Pickett had been a Temp for a long time, longer than any of the other employees at the agency. Out of all of her jobs – waitress, teaching assistant, saleswoman, tour guide, cook, dog walker, etc – the ones she loved the most were the ones where she got to work in an office.

The atmosphere was always the same, always just on the edge of drama, like all it would take was one word to set the whole office a flame with anger, and scandal, and sex, and betrayal. Of course, Bailey would never in a million years taken part in such things; she wasn't that kind of person. She just liked having her own personal Soap Opera. So when she got the call late one Sunday afternoon that someone was needed in one of the corporate offices down town, she didn't hesitate.

The next morning Bailey was dressed in her usual First-Day-in-the-Office pant suit as she strolled towards the office building. She stopped for a moment, looking up at where the word 'Tipton' towered high above in giant letters. A nostalgic smile slipped onto her lips as she passed through the glass doors and headed towards the receptionist. She was directed up to the fifteenth floor to find the Office Manager. He turned out to be a blue-eyed, messy-haired man who, if it hadn't been for the dark circles under his eyes and week's worth of stubble on his jaw, she would have thought only to be in his early twenties, like herself.

She followed him as he weaved through the throng of workers queuing for the coffee machine and came to a stop by an empty desk at the far side of the office floor. It was situated by the stairwell and quite out of the way, which made Bailey frown. He handed her a stack of paperwork and disappeared back the way they had come.

She looked around her, disappointment plain on her face. The closest occupied desk to hers was four in front of her. Sighing, she dropped her bag next to the desk and plonked herself down onto her wheelie chair, which proceeded to squeak loudly every time she moved. Already this job wasn't what she had hoped for.

The day passed by slowly after that. She spent a fair bit of her time straining to hear the numerous conversations that buzzed about the office, but everyone else was too far away so once or twice she wandered over to the water cooler the other side of the stairwell so she could eavesdrop on the employees over on that side of the room. It was on one of these wanders that something interesting finally happened.

Bailey was on her way back to her desk, with her third cup of water in hand, when she heard someone running up the stairwell. They didn't stop at that floor, just continued on up. Glancing about her to make sure no one was paying her any attention, she set her cup on her desk and slipped out into the stairwell and peered up. All she could see was a hand on the handrail as the person ascended.

The next thing she knew, Bailey was running too. She took two steps at a time, her long legs and sensible shoes meant she was only a few floors below the other person when she heard the door to the roof open and close. She didn't hesitate once she got to the top, stepping out into the afternoon sun, the breeze catching her hair and tossing it about her face.

"Why are you following me?"

The voice came from behind her, making her whirl. A woman stood between her and the door, arms folded across her chest, a questioning eyebrow raised. Bailey was lost for words as her eyes raked over the other woman; each loose curl of her auburn hair was perfect, her skin was flawless – make up expertly done, even her clothes weren't out of place, like she hadn't just run up numerous flights of stairs.

But none of that was what had Bailey speechless. It was the way the woman exuded power, her chocolate eyes dark with anger, the way she stood... – her whole body just radiated with it and it was the most exquisitely painful kind of beauty Bailey had ever seen. There was something else too, something... familiar about her but at that very moment, Bailey couldn't seem to make her brain work right.

"Well?" the woman snapped.

"I- Umm..." Bailey stammered. "N-No reason."

"So my father didn't send you after me?"

"Y-Your father? I don't know who your f-father is."

The woman narrowed her eyes. A tense moment passed before she finally released Bailey from the hold she had her under and turned away. "Fine. Then go away." She walked over to the edge of the roof and leant against the guard rail.

Bailey watched her for a second before making up her mind. She moved to stand next to the woman, her eyes fixed on her. "Are you okay?"

The woman shot her a look that made Bailey's brain trip over itself.

"I-I mean, I know you're not okay, 'cuz, y'know, okay is a relative term. And you're obviously not okay, what with looking so angry and running up twenty flights of stairs! Not to mention-" She managed to snap her mouth shut when another glare came her way. "Sorry."

The woman sighed. "No, you're right, I'm not okay. It's been a very long day and I'd kill to be anywhere but here."

Bailey remained silent.

"My father is an impossible man to get along with. Especially when there is money involved, that's when he just stops listening to reason and he gets out of control," she turned to lean with her back against the guard rail now, looking up at the company name that towered above them. "He thinks just because he has his name in really big letters on top of a couple of buildings he can do whatever the hell he wants! Selfish bastard. He has everything in the whole world, why can't he let me have one thing? It's my home he's selling, not his." She dashed a tear away angrily. "How can he take away the one thing that actually means something to me?" she couldn't hold back any longer as a sob escaped from her throat. She moved to turn but Bailey was faster.

She smiled softly, tucking a loose curl behind the woman's ear as she swiped a tear away with her thumb. "I'm so sorry, London. I know how much the Tipton Hotel means to you."

"W-Who... Bailey?"

Bailey only smiled wider. "It's been a long time, almost too long. You've changed so much it took me a minute to recognise you."

London gaped at the other woman. "What are you even doing here, Bailey?" Her hand came up to grasp Bailey's wrist where her hand rested on London's cheek.

"I'm not quite sure. This was just supposed to be another Temp job but now..." she bit her lip, her eyes flickering down to London's mouth.

Before she could decide what to do, London surged forward and kissed her first. She pulled away a moment later, a grin plastered across her face.

"I've wanted to do that for as long as I could remember. I just didn't have the nerve."

"What changed?" Bailey entwined their fingers together.

"My father cut me off. I've made my own way in the world since we left the S.S. Tipton, and I realised that no one was going to just hand me things any more so if I wanted something, I just had to go for it."

Bailey chuckled. "You really have changed."

London shrugged, squeezing the other woman's hand gently. "I'm still the same old London at heart. Well, that's what Mr. Moseby writes on the notes he puts in my lunch anyway."

AN: Thank you ever so much for reading, more tomorrow =)

Peace Out.