Chapter Twelve

When Ashlee reached the lobby, the first thing she noticed was that there was already a scene taking place, in which her sister was somehow involved, though Tessa appeared to be more of a spectator then the cause of whatever was developing. Vincent was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, eyes narrowed and cheeks red, with a frightened looking maid standing in front of him and an irate looking woman beside her, rubbing her ankle.

Tessa was kneeling beside the woman, holding an ice pack against her ankle and looking quite annoyed with her new job, looking up at Vincent. Ashlee cautiously approached, giving serious consideration to confronting Vincent another time, but by the time she had decided to turn and leave the lobby while she could, Vincent turned and spotted her, looking even more irate when he saw her. "What is it now?" He cried.

Ashlee shook her head. "Nothing." She assured him, heading over to where Tessa stood. "Now doesn't seem like a good time."

"You're right!" Vincent all but shouted. "It's not."

Ashlee knelt beside Tessa, seeming to cower behind her sister. "What's going on?" She questioned and Tessa sighed, shrugging slightly, as though she didn't know the whole story.

"Her maid's cart," Tessa gestured to the terrified looking maid, "ran into this woman and now the woman wants to sue, she thinks she has a broken ankle."

"That's so weird." Ashlee said. "My cart lost it's two front wheels." Tessa studied her closely. "I doubt things like that just happen."

Tessa lowered her voice. "Morgan?" She suggested and Ashlee nodded. She narrowed her eyes reflexively; it just figured.

"And you know what else?" Ashlee continued. "I heard Morgan and Nicole talking about you a little while ago." Tessa's eyes narrowed into slits. "Nicole wants to get you fired." She wasn't exactly certain if those were the exact words that had passed from the brunette's mouth, but it was the point of the conversation.

Before Tessa had the chance to question her sister further, Jason returned with a chair no doubt taken from the Ball Room and set it in front of the limping guest. Seconds after the woman took her seat, Nicole appeared from down the hallway, looking over a clipboard piled with pages.

When she looked up, the first thing Nicole saw was that both Tessa and Ashlee were watching her intently, which made her nervous in spite of herself. She pulled her eyes away from the girls and found Jason and Vincent dealing with two woman, one of whom was an employee of the Grand Waimea. Somehow, Nicole knew that whatever was going on was because of something Morgan had done.

"What's going on?" Nicole asked, stepping toward Jason and trying to ignore Tessa and her sister. She looked over at the maid and then back at Jason, her question still hanging unanswered in the air.

Jason cleared his throat and sighed. "Amanda's cleaning cart ran into this guest and she thinks that her ankle is broken." He explained. "She also thinks she's going to sue."

Nicole looked over at the main, whom Jason had addressed as Amanda, and asked, "What exactly happened?"

"The break on my cart didn't work." The main explained. "So when I reached into the cart to get something, it started rolling down the hall and ran into this woman." She shrugged. "I don't know what happened."

Jason looked at Vincent. "Maybe it was just a problem with the cart." He suggested. "Not her fault."

The female guest didn't seem so pleased at this decision. "Well, then who's fault is it then I'm going to have to spend the rest of my stay in a cast?" She snapped. "Who's fault is it then I'm going to sue this stupid place?"

Vincent turned toward the woman. "That's not necessary ma'am, I assure you, you will be well taken care of." The woman deflated slightly. "As for our clumsy maid," he turned toward the pale young woman, "you're fired."

Jason looked as though he wanted to argue but kept his mouth shut; it wasn't his place to second guess Vincent when the hotel was in jeopardy. Tessa, however, didn't seem to have that thought and jumped to her feet. "You can't do that." She said and everyone in the group gave their attention to her. "It wasn't her fault, you can't blame her for something that she had no control over." Vincent didn't look too pleased by her sudden outburst. "If you want to blame someone," Tessa continued, "blame Nicole."

Nicole's eyes went wide. "What?" She snapped, whirling to face Tessa. "What are you talking about? I had nothing to do with this."

Vincent nodded in agreement. "Where are you getting your information from Tessa?" He questioned, though he didn't seem too interested in the answer. "Trying to fire the people you don't get along with doesn't fly in this hotel."

"That's not it at all." Tessa defended. "All of the stuff that's been going wrong have been because of Morgan and Nicole."

Nicole shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe you've stooped so low, Tessa." She clicked her tongue. "Not only are you a whore but now you're a liar too."

Before Tessa could even open her mouth to let loose a retort, Jason stepped forward, as though intending to physically protect Tessa. "Hey, Nicole, that is not necessary." He snapped, putting his hand on her shoulder and pushing her away from Tessa. "I suggest you keep your mouth shut."

Nicole looked at him, wide eyed, too stunned too speak even as she felt her tears well up involuntarily with tears. How dare Jason defend Tessa instead of her? She stepped back, knocking his hand away and sniffing, blinking away the tears without looking as though she was doing it. "Excuse me but can we remember who was being accused here?" She snapped, glaring at Jason, ignoring the look that Tessa was giving him. She seemed just as surprised that she had been defended as Nicole was; only see was giving Jason and pleased, loving expression as opposed to the anger filled one the brunette was giving the general manager.

Vincent cleared his throat and caused everyone to give them his attention. "Keep the lover's quarrels for after work, children." He chided. "As for the subject of this accident, it is not up for discussion. And if I hear any more childish accusations, I'll put an end to it."

Everyone was silent, including the newly fired maid, who was staring at the floor and trying to think of all the things that was going to gain by not slaving away at the Grand Waimea. Vincent turned his attention to the guest, who had remained silent throughout the whole ordeal, looking as though she were watching a soap opera. "If you'll come with me, Ms. Gesner, I'll get you taken care of."

The woman limped down the hallway, following Vincent, leaving behind her bag of ice; Ashlee couldn't help but notice that the guest was favoring her other foot. Nicole looked at Jason for a moment, wishing more then anything that murder that was not a crime, before whirling away and storming off toward the elevators. Jason ignored her actions, which were little more then a typical Nicole Booth temper-tantrum, and looked over at Tessa, who was smiling at him. "What?" He questioned, suddenly feeling slightly self-conscious.

Instead of giving him a straight answer, Tessa leaned forward and kissed him lightly, the faint smile still on her face. Jason smiled as well, squeezing her hand lightly as she slipped passed him, on her way back to her post behind the guest relations desk. Jason found himself staring at Tessa with that same smile on his face even after she had begun helping another guest that requested her attention.

Ashlee looked over at him and rolled her eyes good naturedly and took Jason's arm, attempting to tug him away from his fascination. He turned to look at the younger girl. "What?" He asked, though with less tenderness in his voice this time.

"My cart broke too." Ashlee explained, tugging again. "Stop stalking my sister and come deal with that."

Jason glared at her as he followed Ashlee toward the elevators. "I am not stalking her." He argued and Ashlee remained silent. "There's a difference between-"

"Obsessive staring and stalking?" Ashlee supplied with a smile. "You're right, big difference."

It was Jason's turn to roll his eyes. "How 'bout you just keep your opinions to yourself." He suggested as he hit the up arrow to call an elevator. "The whole hotel will thank you."

Nicole was relieved to find Morgan sitting in their suite, channel surfing, when she stormed into the room, slamming the door shut so hard behind her that one of the framed pictures of the horizon line tumbled from the wall. Morgan jumped at her sudden arrival, dropping the remote and cautiously turning to look at her. "Baby?" He chanced. "Is everything all right?"

"No, everything is not all right." Nicole snapped as she flung herself on the bed, shoving her face into a pillow and wrapping it around the rest of her head, looking as though she planned on suffocating herself. "I hate her, Morgan." She mumbled, hot tears spilling from her eyes. She hated herself for letting Tessa drive her to tears but she hated herself even more for letting Jason drive her to this state. He didn't deserve her tears anymore. "I want her out of here."

Morgan rested his hand on Nicole's shoulder and ran his fingers along her back. "What happened baby." He questioned, though he knew who Nicole was speaking of. The events that had driven her to her current state was the question in his mind. Nicole didn't respond to his touch and didn't remove her head from its cushiony confines. "Nicole?"

Nicole mumbled something and pressed her face farther into the feathers, breathing out and trying to push away thoughts of Jason and Tessa together. Morgan couldn't understand her words and her half-hearted attempt caused him to snatch the pillow away from her, dropping her head roughly onto the mattress. "What happened?" Morgan repeated when Nicole turned to look at him.

"Does it matter?" Nicole questioned, sitting up and snatching her pillow back from him. "I just want her out of her Morgan, I want her gone." She sighed and flung the pillow across the room. "I want to kill her!" She snapped, her words high and strangled.

Morgan hide an amused smile behind his hand as he fixed his irate fiancée with a sympathetic look. "You can always get her fired." He reminded, bringing back their earlier conversation. "It couldn't be too hard."

Nicole looked at him. "You're right, Vincent's getting tired of her, I can tell." She pointed out. "She's been walking the line too long and now this thing with her sister...I bet Vincent's just aching for a reason to fire her.

"Okay, so then why not go through with?" Morgan prompted. "But it has to be done in a way that no one can ever suspect its you."

"Tessa will know it's me." Nicole told him. "No matter what happens, she'll know it was my fault."

Morgan shrugged. "Who cares what she thinks, by that time, she'll already be fired. Tessa won't be Vincent's problem anymore and she won't be yours either." Nicole nodded slowly, warming up to the idea. "So, there's only one question left: how do you fire the concierge?" He didn't have a problem messing with wiring and unscrewing the wheels on maids' carts but for single targets...he was going to have to leave it to Nicole.

Nicole thought for a moment, trying to plot out the easiest way to fire someone like Tessa; if she tried to set something up for her to walk into a get herself fired, there was almost a hundred percent chance that the woman would get her way out of it. Something had to be done that Tessa couldn't flirt or scheme her way out of. And suddenly, the idea struck her.

"The dog." Nicole whispered, causing Morgan to study her strangely. "That stupid dog.." She looked up at her fiancé. "I told her that if she lost this guest's dog that I would fire her. All we have to do is take the dog."

Morgan smiled slightly; his future wife seemed to have a knack for this sort of thing already. "And where is this dog?"

"She must keep it in her apartment." Nicole answered. "All we have to do is find a way into her apartment and take that dog."

Morgan's smile grew. "Leave that to me."