3/

Mike stood in Ed's office, looking down at the heavy river that flowed freely down the streets of Las Vegas Boulevard. "There's water down there," he began, "and I can swim. I can easily throw a chair, or a lamp, or something heavy, out the window, jump and swim to shore."

"Swim to shore?" Ed asked, his brows arched, "You aren't in a friggen boat, Mike, you are in a building with sixty-three floors."

"Ah," Mike began, "But we are only on the third floor."

"You'll break a bone, Mike," Delinda said. "Just wait it out."

"Wait it out? Do you know how long we'll be stuck up in this death trap with a man who could put King Kong to shame?" Mike quickly looked at Ed, "No offense, Mr. D."

Ed sat back in his chair, an amused smile on his face, "None taken."

Delinda sighed as she stood up, "Well, maybe," she began as she approached Mike, "if somebody had made sure to double check with the electrician, than we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Well maybe," Mike countered back, "if some cheap bastard actually got the new generators we needed instead of overhauls, than we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Good point," Delinda agreed and then turned to glare at her father.

The older Deline sighed as he shook his head, "Fine, I agreed to the overhauls, but only," he said as he stood up, "because I didn't want to get an ass chewing by Brunson, who, by the way, is the mega cheap bastard."

"But you signed for it, Dad, and now we are stuck up here like sardines."

"Look, if you hadn't have come up here to beg for more money, than you wouldn't be up here! You'd be back down there with the rest of them." Ed fired back, suddenly waving a finger in his daughter's face as if she were a small child.

"And what exactly is 'them', Ed?" Mike asked, his hands on his hips.

"Them!" Ed roared, "You kids are so goddamned spoiled today it isn't even funny! Everything's gotta be high-tech, run on batteries, have internet access, the ability to send pictures through a friggen phone, play pq4s!"

Delinda blinked, "PQ4s?"

"You know... those stupid music things." Ed said in annoyance.

"Um, I think you mean mp3s, Dad."

"Whatever," he said as he began to pace himself. "Here it is," he ranted, "raining cats and dogs, we got a river instead of a street, no money's coming in, and you are griping because you need money."

"Hello!" Delinda said as she stopped, glaring at him, "When did this get to be my fault? I'm not the one who ordered for the overhauls instead of the new generators! You want to be pissed at someone, be pissed at yourself!"

Ed stopped and looked at his daughter. He was about to say something when his phone rang. He grabbed the ringing phone, "What?" He barked.

"Now is that anyway to answer the phone, Eddie?"

Ed sighed softly and turned his back to Delinda and Mike, "Hi, honey, you doing okay?"

Delinda's head jerked over to her father and quickly walked over to her, "Is that mom?"

"Just a second, honey," Ed put a hand on the phone and looked at his daughter, "No, it's one of my girlfriends." He gave her a wink and removed his hand, "Okay, I'm back, sorry, is everything okay? The basement hasn't flooded, has it?"

Jillian laughed as she sat in the living room, watching the rain pour down. "No, the basement is still dry, miraculously. I'm fine, we lost power though, and, of course it would happen right after I bought some seafood and put it in the freezer."

He laughed softly, "Of course. I got one better on you though."

"Better than a freezer full of shrimp, crab legs and orange roughy?"

"I'm holed up in my office with our daughter and Mike. We lost power too." Ed responded with a sigh.

Jillian winced, she had heard the stories about Mike and his claustrophobia during the last blackout. "I thought you guys got new generators to prevent something like this from happening again."

"Well, we were going to get them, but Brunson just went for an overhaul."

"But you are the president," his wife pointed out, "don't you get to pretty much do what you want?"

"Well," Ed said, "some of the time, but when it comes to big purchases like that, I have to get it cleared with Brunson."

His wife nodded, "Okay, well, I just wanted to call and see how you were doing. I was going to try and come out and bring you and Delinda some stuff, but seeing as how you both are locked in your office, I guess that would be pretty pointless."

"You just stay there, okay? The very last thing I need is to be worrying about you being out in this."

She laughed softly, "Alright, call me later."

Ed hung up the phone and sighed.

"So, a girlfriend, Mr. D?"

Ed turned and gave Mike a dirty look, "You know, if you want to jump, go for it."

"Sam, it's been well over an hour! I can feel my good luck leaving!"

Sam sighed as she ran a hand through her dark hair and turned and looked at Kevin Bailey again. "Kevin, what do you want me to do?"

"I want the power restored!" He exclaimed.

"Fine," Sam smiled sweetly with a smile, "I'll just call down to the Venetian and have them send over a gondola and I'll row myself down out the desert to the power grid and put the electrical degree that I got to good use and solve everybody's problems!"

Kevin blinked at her, "You have an electrical degree?"

The brunette sighed in annoyance and walked away from him, heading towards Mystique. She stopped when she saw Mary. "God, how does stuff like this happen? I've got clients who are pissed off because they lost money, clients who are pissed off because they feel their good luck is wearing away and clients who are pissed off because the runways are flooded."

Mary laughed softly, "Glad I'm not you."

Sam just shook her head and sighed, "Well, being me right now has to be better than being Ed right now," she said with a laugh.

As they walked towards Mystique, Danny passed them by. "Any luck with the electric company?" Mary asked.

Danny stopped in his tracks. "The electric company? You call the electric company when you neglect to pay your electric bill. They can't do anything right now about this, this is the power grid."

"Oh, well excuse me then, Mr. Know-it-All, I'm just a dumb redhead who doesn't know her ass from a hole in the ground," Mary shot back.

Danny grinned as he took a step back and glanced at her rear, giving it a smack, he said as he quickly bolted forward, "That's your ass."

Mary narrowed her eyes at him as she felt herself blush.