Tickle Tantrum Part 10/?

Pairing Miranda/Andy

Rating: Um PG 13 maybe... eventually?

For more disclaimers - See Part 1

AN1 I am soooooooo sorry for the obscene length of time since I posted the last chapter of this fic, I'm afraid my TT muse went AWOL completely. She seems to have returned and I'm trying to keep her well sated with cookies and coffee.

AN 2 No I am not being paid for product placement of a particular pink medicament, lol, it just seems to have invaded my story and poor Emily's life.

Andy walked Leslie to the elevator at the end of their meeting, neither saying much, everything had already been said in Miranda's office. Andy had been pleased with the PR Rep's professionalism, especially how she hadn't batted an eye at the brunette's presence in the meeting, or the fact that she and Miranda had sat together on the couch the whole time.

Leslie and Miranda had drafted a prepared response to be used should any images end up leaked to the press. Miranda had been content with the PR rep's advice that any response would stress the fact that the images were of two adults in a consensual physical relationship, she had been less enthusiastic with the suggestion that they also emphasise that Stephen was the wrong doer in the situation, the one who had broken the law. More specifically Miranda disliked it when the other woman had described her as the 'victim' in the situation. Andy had managed to smooth that over with a few gentle words and the meeting had ended amicably.

When the elevator arrived Leslie paused before stepping in and smiled encouragingly as she gave Andy one last piece of advice. "Stay close to her Andy, Miranda's a pro when it comes to dealing with the press, but when the girls are involved she may be tempted to say or do something she wouldn't otherwise. It will be bad enough as it is and that will just feed the frenzy."

Andy gave a small pained smile before replying. "I'm more worried about me losing it than Miranda. When I think about what those vultures are likely to say, I already want to strangle the lot of them."

Leslie smiled and patted her arm then pressed the button giving a little wave as the doors closed. Andy sighed and turned back to re-join Miranda. It was time for the next hurdle of the day, the staff meeting.

Miranda gathered up the folders she'd brought from the house slipped them in a portfolio binder and headed out the door, meeting up with Andy in the reception area. The brunette fell into step beside her as they made their way toward the large conference room. The younger woman glanced sideways and gently brushed her hand against Miranda's free hand as she smiled. Miranda took her hand and gave it a fleeting squeeze before releasing it and continuing on their journey with the ghost of a smile quirking her lips upward just the tiniest bit.

As they turned the corner and made their way into the large and crowded conference room the smile disappeared and Andy dropped a step behind to follow her into the room. In full Dragon mode, Miranda made her way to the head of the conference table laying the portfolio down and surveying the room to assess how many of her minions were present. Thinking of that word as Andy had used it earlier, she allowed herself a mental smirk, one that came nowhere near her facial features.

As expected, the entire production team was there, as well as at least 20 other people from different departments, and she noted with satisfaction that the all department heads were present. It occurred to her that that happy circumstance was quite likely as a result of Andy's handiwork, rather than any exceptional work ethic on their part. Fixing her frosty gaze on each person in turn she lost no time in launching into what she had to say to them.

"In the next few days events are going to unfold that will see my personal life come under scrutiny by the press. The scope of that scrutiny may become both intense and possibly unsavoury. Each of you have signed a NDA so the only thing I expect to ever hear said by any Runway employee is, 'No comment.'" She paused and gave particularly glacial stares to two of the staff she knew were Irv's creatures before continuing.

"Should I discover that anything other than those two words have crossed any of your lips that person will never work in this industry, this city or the east coast again." She paused once more for effect. "And be assured I will find out, make sure that everyone in your departments fully understands that fact. That's all."

With that Miranda sat down waiting for those not involved in the production meeting to file swiftly out of the room. Andy had taken the time during the speech to prepare Miranda a coffee which she quietly placed beside her hand before taking a seat against the wall and opening her note book prepared to take notes. Emily closed the door and took a seat beside Andy, giving a snide little look at Andy's pad as she pulled out a Dictaphone from her pocket and clicked the on button setting the little machine on the arm rest of her chair.

"Right, the fiasco of the June edition, what do you propose we do to fix this, and stay within budget?" She smiled snidely, "Well, at least not go horrendously over-budget."

Nigel gave a small snort before corralling the rest of the group to voice their ideas for possible changes. These ideas varied from the extreme measure of scrapping the main portion of the issue and starting from scratch, through the slightly more imaginative and possible idea of changing the theme from the fire of inspiration to the multi-colours of the desert landscape, using the blues as an oasis motif, all the way to the ridiculous suggestion of just using the turquoise jewellery without comment. The person who made the latter suggestion spent the rest of the meeting trying to disappear into the fabric of his chair after Miranda had not only pursed her lips, but rolled her eyes as well.

After more than 20 minutes of continued talking with dwindling returns Miranda finally held her hand up for silence and then placed that hand on top of the folder she'd drawn from the portfolio on the table.

"Enough. You've had all morning and half the afternoon to confer before this meeting and this is the best you can come up with? Perhaps Francesca is not the only person who needs to find other employment." No one said anything, but everyone shifted uneasily in their seats, wondering where the axe would fall.

"Well it's a good thing that someone here was able to combine a proper work ethic with a decent amount of creativity, Andrea come and take Keisha's place."

The silence was palpable as they all looked at the second assistant who was looking like the proverbial deer in the headlights. Miranda looked her way and lifted her eyebrow slightly. Emily's gaze was riveted on her as well, a look of shock and dismay written large on the red-head's features.

"By all means, move at a glacial pace, you know how that thrills me." This pointed use of a phrase from Paris made Andy look sharply at Miranda where she caught a fleeting warmth in the older woman's gaze she knew was meant just for her. While that made her feel better, she was still utterly confused about why she was being asked to join in the meeting. Keisha got up and moved to take Andy's seat, and the brunette sat in the newly vacated space to Miranda's left. As she sat down Miranda slid the folder in front of Andy opening it at the same time.

"What are your ideas for saving this issue Andrea?"

Andy looked down at the papers in front of her realising immediately they were her notes from the night before, and her head whipped up as she gaped at Miranda disbelievingly. Miranda merely raised her eyebrow once again and gave a barely perceptible tilt of her head to encourage the younger woman. Andy licked her lips and glanced down at the folder before straightening and looking at Miranda once more. The look in the older woman's expression seemed to be saying, 'You can do this' Firming her shoulders a little Andy looked around the table and took her notes from the folder.

"Um, right. Well the theme for the June issue is the Flame of Inspiration, with the idea to show case how the beauty of the models is the inspiration for the designers and their work. So, of course the layout was focused on all the different colours of flames, red, orange and yellow."

The brunette paused to take a breath and glance at Miranda to see if she was annoyed by her stating the obvious before getting to her actual ideas. She expected to see signs of impatience, however the Editor's face was attentive but neutral in expression so she pressed on.

"The first idea I had was to perhaps change the theme from fire as inspiration, to a more general theme of Fire and Ice. Umm, well that way I thought we'd still be able to use all the colours we've already planned and just make the additions of some layouts featuring blues and greys as the ice part of the equation."

There was a low buzz of comments between the production team as she shuffled the papers to get to the section where she'd jotted down her other idea, when she'd found the right section she looked up and continued.

"Well, I kind of really liked the original idea about women being the flame of inspiration for the clothes and accessories." She looked fondly at Nigel before she continued. "A wise man once pointed out to me that fashion is art after all." Nigel winked at her and she smiled.

"But when I noticed that all but one of the designers that were being featured were men, I, well, um, I thought it was kind of sexist, saying that the female models were just the canvas that the male designers were painting on, like they could inspire but not create themselves."

She licked her lips and realised her throat was drying up and it was becoming more difficult to speak. A flash of movement to her right caught her eye and she glanced over just as Miranda handed her a glass of Pellegrino. Smiling her thanks she took a long sip and put the glass down before continuing.

"Then I was looking at a gas flame on the stove and it suddenly came to me, that the hottest part of the flame is actually blue/white, not any of the shades of red to yellow. So, um, well what if we kept the red and orange material from the male designers, but added a selection of blue and white material done by female designers, like Elizabeth Haskell's jewellery. So we'd be showing women as both inspiration and artist, women at the heart of the flame."

Andy looked around the table and noted with relief that all the looks she received were showing interest and not boredom, or worse, disdain. She finished up with a little, "Anyway, that's it, those are my ideas," and she sat down, at which point she realised her hands were shaking like leaves so she pulled them into her lap to steady them.

The table broke out into comments and questions as the team debated the pros and cons of both of the ideas, the one thing everyone there seemed to agree upon was that both of Andy's ideas were much better than what they'd come up with themselves. Miranda didn't let them waste much time with the debate before she waded in with the choice she'd already decided to go with while she'd been having her morning coffee. Unsurprisingly the most powerful woman in the fashion industry chose the theme of women at the heart of the flame of inspiration.

The decision made, the production team got down to business with the material Miranda had Emily gather from the closet and more suggestions were tabled as the meeting moved on at a steady pace. By the time 7:00 pm rolled around everyone had their assigned tasks, the June issue was back on track and even Miranda was satisfied with the progress they'd made, so she sent everyone home except Emily, Andy and Nigel who all trailed her back to her office. Nigel still needed to work out with Miranda what they were going to do for editorial for the revamped issue, and the two assistants wanted to get a jump on the work they needed to do because of the changes made during the meeting.

Emily was in a foul mood and had refused to speak to Andy ever since Miranda had handed over to her to give voice to her ideas. Added to that she'd spent most of the meeting darting withering glances toward the brunette and sniffing disdainfully every time anyone had asked for Andy's opinion. Andy knew how upset Emily was and as ever had tried to smooth things over, but she'd been rebuffed each time. She came up to Emily's desk to try to assuage the Brit yet once more.

"Come on Em, this was a total fluke and you know it. I was just trying to do something to help Miranda and the magazine; you can't hold that against me."

Emily glared at Andy as she replied. "Just watch me." Shrugging and giving up the struggle for the moment, Andy went back to her desk.

Twenty minutes later Miranda and Nigel came out her office the latter sporting a knowing smirk as they both stopped in front of Andy. As the brunette looked up at them, Miranda dropped the folder of Andy's notes on the desk in front of the younger woman before she spoke.

"Nigel agrees with me that the article you outlined in here shows considerable promise. You have two weeks to submit the full version of 4000 words, with additional information about the other women designers we'll be using."

Andy jerked to a standing position as she gaped at Miranda. "You want me to write a lead article for Runway?" She squeaked, her voice breaking on the last word.

Miranda looked at her intently before saying quietly, "Do not disappoint me Andrea."

She then angled herself away from Nigel as she winked at the younger woman and mouthed, 'I believe in you,' before she sauntered back into her office. Andy flopped back into her seat as Nigel chuckled at her and Emily, who had gone chalk white muttered a forlorn bloody hell.

"Well done six. I'm sure you can knock that up in the 15 minutes you have before falling into bed each night." Seeing the girl's troubled look, he relented and added.

"Seriously Andy the article has real potential. I'm sure you'll do Miranda proud." He just couldn't help himself from adding the next part. "Either that or you'll never work in this town again."

Laughing he dodged her swipe at his shoulder. Taking a step away from the scowling brunette he turned just in time to see Emily chugging down a 16oz bottle of Pepto Bismol as she glared at them both, at which point he dissolved into gales of laughter which only grew as he caught Andy's muttered, 'Not helping.'