FYI, Writer's block is still kicking my butt. Be kind.

…0...

"This is, without a doubt, the most humiliating thing to ever happen to me." Paige paced angrily back and forth in the cell. Her hair swung wildly around, and she paused, picking a piece of what looked to be carrot out of a long strand. "Ew."

Spinner stared at her, trying to hide his amusement. True, spending the night in a very crowded Las Vegas jail with his very irritated ex girlfriend was not something he was looking forward to, but the fact that she was so worked up while picking food from her hair and clothes was somewhat amusing.

"It's your fault we're in here to begin with," he reminded her. "The least you could do is apologize for getting me arrested."

"My fault?!" Paige whirled, fixing a glare on him, her hands flying to her hips. "Excuse me, this is not my fault. I'm not the one who started throwing the food!" She stamped her foot angrily, like a little girl in the midst of a tantrum.

"Paige, you smacked her," Spinner stated flatly.

She sat on the bench on the opposite side of the cell and crossed her arms over her chest in a huff. Even after three hours she still couldn't wrap her head around the act that she was in jail. Jail! For something that wasn't even her fault. Well, maybe it was her fault-but she was totally justified in doing it.

She sniffed dismissively. "Well it's pretty obvious whose side you're on."

"And it's pretty obvious that you're jealous." He leaned back on the bunk, propping his hands on crossed arms and closed his eyes. But in his mind's eye he could still see Paige's expression. He knew her well enough to know that her entire face was beet red by then-eyes narrowed into tiny slits and jaw tightly clenched. Classic Paige.

"Why would I be jealous of Ellie?" she demanded. "Spinner?" she prodded when he didn't answer. "Spinner!"

…0...

Bring-bring-bring-bring-bring.

"Jay!" Ellie hissed. "Stop ringing that bell."

Rolling his eyes, Jay continued dinging the small bell on the hotel's front desk. "The sooner we get checked in, the sooner we can get to the tables." He rubbed his hands together excitedly.

"Not all of us came equipped with fake ID's, Jay," Ellie reminded him. "We're planning to get some sleep."

"Wusses," he muttered under his breath and went back to tapping the bell.

Spinner pulled his hand away from the desktop. "Dude, stop it."

Craig hitched his duffel bag higher on his shoulder and wondered if he took a step backwards he could pretend he wasn't actually with these people. "Guys," he said, "you're gonna get us thrown out of here."

"Since when are you the voice of reason?" Ellie demanded. All three guys took a step back. Ellie on a regular day was dangerous enough, but Ellie cranky from six hours of sleep in a week was close to homicidal. Added to the glare she was giving Craig, who she was blaming everything on, none of the guys were anxious to tick her off.

"I'm not," he said quickly. "I'm just tired and want to sleep in an actual bed." He pressed closer to the counter, leaning over and peering down a small hallway towards the back of the building. "But Jay," he added, "we will leave you here if you're too busy gambling to get in the car when we leave."

Jay made a face at him. "All these comments about leaving me here, Manning- what's up with that?" His gaze ticked between the three of them, noting that they had all gone very silent all of a sudden. "Hrmph." He made to hit the bell one more time, but went his hand fell it connected with the wood of the desk instead of metal and he looked up in surprise. A very stern looking Native American man was behind the counter, standing so still he looked like part of the décor, and so disapproving that Jay took an instinctive step backwards.

"How did he-" Spinner muttered and craned his neck toward the small hallway as if trying to decipher the secret to the man's silent entrance. Ellie shook her head at him, sending a silent signal to be quiet.

"Name?" he said gruffly.

Ellie nudged Craig, propelling him forward. He walked slowly, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket and extracting a credit card. "Manning," he replied quickly. "Um, we don't have a reservation, but-"

"Card."

Craig hastily dropped his credit card into the man's outstretched palm. He was almost afraid that if he took too long the guy might put an ancient curse on him or something. "Uh … two rooms. Please."

"Two?" Jay piped up from behind him.

"Yeah," Craig replied. "One for Ellie and one for us."

"Why does she get her own room?" he asked.

The other three of them rolled their eyes, each casting discreet nervous looks at the man at the check in. But he remained perfectly composed, eyes trained on the computer in front of him.

"Because I'm a girl, Jay," Ellie said slowly, putting heavy emphasis on the words.

With a smirk, Jay looked her up and down lecherously. "Oh, I know."

With a roll of her eyes, she turned away from him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Jay, the level of crass you have continues to amaze me."

"Thanks, Toots," he said with a wink.

Shaking his head, Craig turned back to the counter. "Fine. Three rooms. Two singles, and a double, please."

The man shook his head. "We have one room. A double."

"What?!" Ellie demanded. "How is that possible?"

Possessing all the solemnity of someone pointing out an execution site, he raised a hand slowly, his index finger extended toward a large framed sign near the main entrance to the hotel casino.

"Welcome Plumbers Association # 566," Spinner read off. "Perfect. Should we try another hotel?"

Craig shook his head, his hands waving around to dismiss the idea. "I'm sorry, guys, but I'm about to fall over here. I have to get some sleep." Pushing his lower lip out in a pout, he stared pitifully at Ellie. As tired as he was, it was really up to her whether they stayed or not. She was the one who was going to have to share a room with three guys if she opted to stay.

And Ellie knew exactly what Craig was asking, and why he was directing it at her. His tendency to try and be a gentleman at times killed her. It took away her right to call him a jerk and she hated that. It was much, much safer.

"Whatever," she muttered, averting her eyes from the brown ones fixed on her.

Jay clapped his hands together loudly then proceeded to rub them together. "Well, now that that's settled, key?"

The man gave Jay a hard look and slid two key cards across the counter towards Craig. He scooped them up, thanking the man, and handed one to Ellie.

"Hey!" Jay protested.

"Jay, I don't want to have to worry about you betting the key in a poker game or something. It's safer with Ellie," Craig explained.

Jay raised his hand to his mouth and stage coughed 'whipped' under his breath. Spinner laughed, but off Ellie's glare he turned it into a cough very similar to Jay's.

"Let's just get upstairs."

…0...

The room was bigger than the outside of the hotel would suggest. The two beds were both kings and spaced on opposite sides of the room. A large overstuffed couch lay up against the far wall next to the bathroom-all done in a very festive southwestern theme.

No sooner than the door closed Jay fell onto the bed nearest the door, spreading his arms and legs wide and sighing in contentment.

"Jay," Ellie complained. "You can't just take the bed."

"Chivalry's dead, Sugar," he told her. "Try Bert and Ernie over there if you want the other one."

"Jay, come one, man," Spinner tried. "If you're going down to the casino you should let one of us have the bed."

"And then the couch will be gone and what-I get the floor?" He snorted. "I think not."

Spinner sighed, turning to Ellie with his hands up in defeat.

She nodded. "Fine. So what now?"

Craig had been standing back by the door, almost falling asleep where he stood. But he came forward then, dropping his bag to the floor. "I'll take the couch and one of you guys take the bed." He fell over, flopping onto the puffy couch on his back. "Ahh."

"You take the bed," Spinner told Ellie. "I can sleep on the floor."

"Spin, you look ready to fall over." And he did. There were huge circles under is eyes and his shoulders were sagging with exhaustion. She expected she looked about the same, but he was the one who had volunteered to come on this trip just for the sole purpose of helping her. "You take it."

"No. Ellie, come on …" he began.

"Spin, really …"

"Would you too pipe down and just flip a coin already," Jay muttered. "If you'd be quiet I can take a quick nap before I head down to the slots."

They both rolled their eyes at him and Craig pretended he couldn't hear any of it. They would have thought he was asleep already if he hadn't been shaking his foot in impatience.

Ellie look scrutinized the bed intently. It was huge. And the idea of making anyone but Jay sleep on the floor was just mean. "Look, this bed is pretty big and we're friends, right?" Off his nod she went on. "And we're both adults so why don't we just share. It's only for one night."

Craig sat up on the couch. "Share?"

"You got a problem with that, Manning?" Jay taunted from his bed. Even with half of his face buried in his pillow they could still see the huge smirk he was sporting. Figures he would get a kick out of the situation that he'd cause.

"No." Craig's voice was steady but not very strong and it was more than obvious that he was lying through his teeth. "But um, don't you think Jesse would have a problem with it?"

Jesse. It was amazing, but this was the first time Ellie had thought about him since she'd answered her phone back in Toronto. And being that her battery had died somewhere around Winnipeg, she was sure he wasn't too happy with her at the moment. Near five days of unanswered phone calls after just disappearing was one thing-but when he found out she had gone to get Craig, with Spinner and Jay-neither of which he could stand, it was likely that he would never speak to her again.

"Right now," she said, "I really don't think so. And I just want to get some sleep."

"Hey, if you don't mind, I don't mind," Spinner stated and kicked his shoes off. "And I promise to keep my hands to myself." He grinned mischievously up at Ellie from the bed and she whacked him with a pillow before laying don on the other side of the bed.

"You alright, Manning?" Jay asked, his voice dripping with mock sincerity. "You look like you just swallowed a frog."

Shooting Jay a dark look, he nodded. "I'm just peachy."

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