Chapter 19 – Wearing the Dress

The next morning Shadow awoke promptly at 9 when one of the communicators started beeping. She crawled out of bed with sleep still etched on her face and staggered towards where the device sat on the dresser. Nothing that Tyana was still sleeping she took the communicator and answered it in the privacy of the bathroom. She hoped Tyana didn't mind that she was answering her communicator. She flipped it up,

"Morning…oh, morning Shadow" Bret greeted, obviously expecting to find his Guided on the other end of the line.

Shadow nodded tiredly, "morning Bret, d'ya me to wake Ty or will I do?"

He smiled, "no need to wake her, you'll be just fine" Shadow nodded, her pink locks bopping about as she did so, then jumped up onto the counter next to the sink. She blinked for a minute, trying to erase the blur of sleep form her vision and when satisfied urged Bret to continue. "Right, well, first of all I want to congratulate you on your success last night, I just remembered I never actually did that"

"Thanks"

"Quite alright. Ok, so, moving on. We're trying to pin-point the second card maker. So far we have a name but nothing else. Finding their location is a current problem. So we're trying to pin point the others at the same time. We should, hopefully, have the locations of the remaining card makers by late tonight. Tomorrow seems like a good time to mimic last night's mission."

"Tomorrow, got it" she nodded.

"Good, in the mean time I think it's safe to say you can have the day off, both of you. Shop, talk, whatever it is you want to do. If we come up with the locations by this evening then we'll move up the mission but I think it's fairly safe to say you don't have to worry about that, the process is going very slowly indeed."

"A day off? Cool, Ty'll be so happy"

Bret's face softened and switched to concern, "how is she taking the news about the memory device? Is she still upset about it?"

Shadow nodded, "Yeah, I think so. I mean, she was when we got back last night but she's still asleep so I don't know. Maybe she got over it in the night, I don't know" the beauty shrugged.

"Alright, well I'll leave you to you free day. Take care"

"You too, bye Bret"

"Bye" the screen went blank. Shadow sighed; I hope she's over it. But she recalled last night, how Tyana and Jeff had been in the pool. And she knew her friend would still be upset.

When Tyana awoke that morning she showered straight away then dressed and sauntered out into the main bedroom while she tried to pull on some socks.

"So whatcha wanna do today?" Shadow asked as her friend dressed. 

"I dunno, whatever you want, I'm not bothered" Tyana shrugged, but her tone didn't indicate that she would be pleased by any activity. It implied that she was still upset about the use of her communicator without her permission.

Shadow opened her mouth to suggest something, daring not bring up the topic of the memory device, but there was a knock at the door that interrupted. Tyana strode over to it and opened it. She pepped up as soon as she saw who stood on the other side.

"Morning" Jeff greeted with a grin.

"Morning" Tyana replied before she looked back over her shoulder at her grinning friend. She slipped outside and closed the door behind her, "sorry, my friend is totally nosey"

He laughed, "No problem. I just came by to see what you're up to today; well, no, tonight more specifically"

"Tonight? Nothing, why?"

"I was thinking we could go to dinner, like I promised."

Tyana beamed, "Sure, sounds good. Where we going?" Like it made a difference!

Jeff smiled and taped the side of his nose, "That's a secret. You'll see tonight, just made sure you're wearing the dress. Does 8 o'clock sound good?"

"Sounds great." She nodded enthusiastically.  

"Good. Ok, well, I gotta go, Matt and Amy have the day off so we're heading into town. Actually, you can come if you want, I'm sure they wouldn't mind"

Tyana wanted desperately to say yes but something in the back of her mind told her maybe it would be overkill if she spent the day with him then accompanied him that night. And also there was the small fact that her newest friend was sitting in the room behind her, expecting to spend their day of hanging out. She shook her head, finding it reluctant to move in the left to right direction, "No, it's ok. I already have plans with Shadow actually. But thank you for the invitation."

"Ok, well have a good day"

"You too"

"And I'll see you tonight" Tyana beamed at the words. She had a date. Wait, could it really be classified as a date? The only reason they were going to dinner was because she had wanted that dress so bad. But then again, she thought, he wouldn't have spent so much money on me if he didn't like me. Her mind fought over it while she tried to focus on reality.

"You most certainly will"

"Good, it's a date" the voices inside her head stopped bickering; well that certainly cleared that one up. He smiled wide at her nod, noticing she was biting her lip to keep back a huge smile. It took everything he had to stop himself from kissing her. He said goodbye once more and left before he forced his lips upon hers. Not that it would be such a terrible thing. Tyana stepped back inside her room with high spirits.

"So girlfriend, where we headed?" Shadow laughed at her sudden change of mood and thanked the forces that be that Jeff was such a miracle worker. They both pulled on some boots, grabbed a jacket each then left.

***

Jeff met up with his brother and friend in the lobby with a huge great smile, a spring in his step. Matt raised an eyebrow at his terribly happy exterior while Amy just chuckled. They both knew he had met a girl but he had refused to spill any details, supposedly because he didn't want to jinx it.

"She said yes I presume" Amy guessed with a large smile. Jeff nodded emphatically. She chuckled again.

Matt smiled for his brother but grew impatient, "Who is this chick anyway? You've been going gaga over her for the past 2 days"

Jeff shrugged, opening his mouth to say something to the extent of 'just a girl' when the elevator doors pinged open and out burst a familiar laugh accompanied by one that was no so known to him. He turned at the sound and smiled wider when he saw Tyana and her pink haired friend stroll out into the lobby. The turquoise haired sweetheart smiled and waved when she saw him then continued with her friend to the reception desk to hand in their keys for the day. Matt and Amy followed Jeff's gaze, finding it settled happily upon a gorgeous woman with bright blue-green hair. Matt's eyebrow arched at the sight of her. Something about her seemed quite familiar to him but he couldn't pinpoint what. Amy found the same problem but they both silently dismissed it when they realized the woman at the desk was the perfect fit to Jeff's description of the girl from his dreams.

"She looks like the girl you keep dreaming about" Amy commented.

Jeff nodded, "I know, strange isn't it?" His eyes stayed fixed to Tyana even as she left. Matt and Amy exchanged a look and decided without words that Jeff liked this girl because she was alike the figure that haunted his subconscious, as apposed to actually being the girl from his subconscious. They gave in their keys and left the subject of the mysterious woman without another word.

***

The day flew by for Tyana and Shadow who shopped until they dropped then picked themselves up, went to the gym and on to the movies. They laughed all day long, cementing the opinion that they got along well. Finally the evening came and Tyana showered thoroughly, washed and dried her hair, curling it and letting it falling indelicate ringlets to her exposed shoulders, slicked on a bit of natural make up and then pulled on the dress with a pair of thin strapped, high heeled stilettos. The clinging bodice enhanced the shape of her chest and the delicate spaghetti straps were highly feminine. The glitter of the bodice glinted in the bathroom light, winking back at her in the mirror. She ran her hand down over the beaded bodice and smoothed out the floaty skirt. She felt like a princess. Sighing with satisfaction and smiling in anticipation of the evening that lay stretched out before her Tyana exited the bathroom and stood in the bedroom waiting for Shadow—who had a screwdriver in hand, tweaking a device of some kind—to notice her. The pink haired woman was so engrossed in what she was doing that Tyana had to clear her throat. But finally the girl raised her head then let her jaw hang slack and her eyes bulge as she took the other woman in.

"My dead lord, Tyana!" she gasped, getting up from where she sat and crossing the room to inspect her friend closer. Tyana giggled at the response but Shadow wasn't done, "Whoa, what the hell? Oh my gosh, you look fantastic. Damn girl, lookatcha body, you're so stunning" Tyana's cheeks finally began to glow a warm red. A knock at the door stopped Shadow while she was still standing staring at the turquoise woman. A glance at the clock told Tyana exactly who would be on the other side of the door. She took a deep happy breath, exhaled then found her coat and moved to answer the door. She did so elegantly and stood with a smile as she found her date staring at her with a stunned and pleased expression.

She giggled, "You like?"

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*A/N* Sorry about lack of updates, college is a bitch. I'm lucky I managed to nab the comp to finish this chapter off. But I don't have time to say anything more except thank you for reviewing :o) *blows kisses and runs off to do homework*