What If…

Chapter 33

~Penthouse 4~

"Here's another one. Single white female, 33, seeks male companionship for a casual fun relationship, must be athletic, love dancing, hard activity, professional and single," Rory read the ad aloud. "Jesus why doesn't she just say I want a hard body for a night of loving?"

"Rory."

"It'd be much simpler if she just ran an ad saying 33 year old woman with an itch seeks attractive male. Think how much she would save in ad space and cost alone."

Shaking his head Jason went back to his section of the paper. "I thought you were job hunting. Why are you reading the personals?"

"Just seeing if I can get an upgrade," lowering the paper she shot him a smirk and got a killing glance in return. "I've already scanned the ads I found three potentials. They need strippers at a club called Oasis. What do you think?"

Wisely Jason kept his opinions to himself.

"Hmmm skydiving instructor. That sounds interesting."

"I know you want to work," Jason began cautiously. "I just wish you'd let me take care of the hospital bill."

"With the exception of $512 dollars your insurance took care of the hospital bill, I'll pay for the rest not you. If I hadn't sent Uncle Gabe the cash before my accident it would have already been paid off," dismissing the loss Rory went back to her paper.

Jason wanted to press her but knew better. Besides being stubborn she was very proud. She wasn't like Carly she didn't need a martini shaker full of money to make her happy. During their travels if they were going to be in a spot for a time, she invariably found a part time job.

"Medical transcriptionist, nah too boring."

"I know you don't want me to pay your bills so I won't, but that still doesn't change the fact that you don't need to buy…"

"I really hope you aren't suggesting that I don't need to buy a car to replace the one that went airborne, that I should instead just continue to use the Durango that you bought for me," she never even looked up. "I know you don't want to go back to that argument."

Frustrated Jason went back to his paper.

"What's a four letter word for trier of patience. Oh I know … dolt," Rory looked at him with a grin.

"Brat," Jason countered.

~Penthouse 2~

Getting off of the elevator Emily, for once, had no concerns that Zander might be lurking around nearby. It was a pretty safe guess that the last place that Zander would be, would be anywhere near her brother. In the days since finding out what was wrong with her physically, she'd been lucky that she'd managed to avoid Zander and his persistent desire to see her. She still wasn't sure what she would say when she did finally see him. The numbness that had gripped her since finding out the evilness he was capable of was gradually beginning to fade. Sooner or later anger would grip her of that she had no doubt.

The chilling way Rory had theorized Zander's plan still scared her. It scared her because she knew Rory was right. Even if Zander never admitted it to her, she still knew that tricking her into getting pregnant so he would be set financially had been his main goal in life. Had she ever really known him? Or was every word between them a lie?

Emily gradually became aware that she was standing in the hallway between the two penthouses. Who knew how long she'd been there staring at nothing, she was just grateful that there wasn't a guard on the floor to witness her inactivity. The ding of the elevator sounded behind her, turning she smiled when she recognized who it was.

"Ms. Quartermaine," Johnny stepped from the elevator resisting the urge to wipe his mouth to check if there were any remains from his doughnut breakfast remaining there. "Are you here to see Jason?"

"Actually I want to see Sonny if he has a minute."

"I'll check," Johnny quickly crossed to the door knocking briefly before opening it. "Emily Quartermaine is here to see you." When his boss nodded he stepped back to let Emily inside before closing the door behind her. Once he had he took a swipe at his mouth and wasn't surprised at the white powdered sugar visible on his fingers.

"Emily," stood in welcome, his smile remained even while he took a critical survey of the girl. She was too thin and it didn't look like she'd been sleeping. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Emily shook her head when he held up the coffee and made herself move towards the table and the breakfast spread sitting there. She knew she had to do this, she had to get Zander to leave her alone. If not Reggie was going to kill her. He was getting crazed by having to constantly run interference between her and Zander not to mention figuring out which room she was sleeping in each night.

"What can I do for you?"

"I came to ask you something." Taking a seat she couldn't help but feel relieved that the smell of food no longer made her nauseous. Since finding out what was wrong, her stomach had lost the frequent urge to rebel at the sight of food. She still didn't have much of an appetite but what she had was better than it had been. Aware that Sonny was eyeing her curiously she focused on the reason for her early morning visit. "How do you feel about Zander?"

Pausing to pour more coffee for himself gave him time to consider her question. Zander was a punk, but he'd been a useful punk, at least for a time. "I'm grateful to him for what he did with Sorel." Emily slumped in her chair. "But my loyalty is to you, not him."

"Really?"

Noting the surprise on her face he couldn't help but feel rankled. "Why are you acting so surprised?"

Emily shrugged and kept her eyes on the table. "I know how much you value loyalty. I'm Jason's sister but other than that I haven't done anything to earn your loyalty, Zander has."

"Zander's also a punk," he countered. "Gratitude only goes so far with me. He crossed the line when he started mistreating you."

"Jason told you." It wasn't a question, just a comment and she wasn't sure if she was relieved or sad to know that he knew.

"Yes he did," he confirmed.

"Did he tell you that I broke up with Zander?"

Sonny nodded.

"Zander didn't take it well," Emily admitted. "Since then he," she hesitated. "He keeps coming around. He seems to think we'll get back together."

"I hope that's not true."

"There's no way in hell I'll get back with him, especially not now, not after I found out what he did to m…" she trailed off. "No there's no chance of that."

Sonny couldn't help but he curious as to what had put that furious look in her eyes but he let it go. "What do you need from me?"

"Zander." Again she hesitated. She may hate Zander at the moment but that didn't mean she wanted to see him permanently injured. Hurt … possibly, but permanently injured … no.

"Emily?"

"He's been using you, his belief that you owe him to try to intimidate people around me to either try to get me to come to him, or to get at me. He's threatened Reginald, some people at my school and he's tried to get into the house," she admitted in a rush.

"I see," getting up from the table he moved for the phone.

"Wait," jumping from the table she took the phone from his hand. "I don't want him hurt, not really. I was just hoping you could scare him a little bit. I don't know maybe suggest you're not as grateful as he thinks, maybe even encourage him to leave town. The best thing for everyone will be if Zander leaves town."

"Emily if he's threatening you…"

"He's not, not really." Emily paced a little. She needed to get Zander out of town before Jason found out what he'd done to her. The last thing she needed was for her brother to get into trouble because of her. Another reason was much baser. There was a good chance that Jason might kill Zander. When he'd found out about Tom Baker blackmailing her then holding her hostage and threatening to kill her, she'd seen the coldness in his eyes and knew that he would kill Baker. The only reason he hadn't was because of her demands that she could handle it, and more importantly her insistence that Elizabeth needed to handle it. A part of her always knew that Jason's solution to her problem would have been a violent one.

She wasn't naïve, she didn't have blinders on when it came to her brother. She knew he'd killed before and quite possibly would again. But killing for his job and killing because of her were two different things. She could live with the stuff he never talked about with his job. She didn't like it but she could live with it. But she couldn't live with knowing he'd crossed the line again and this time it was because of her. So it was a partially selfish reason that brought her to Sonny's door.

"Emily you told me he won't leave you alone, that he's basically stalking you. Jason told me that he got rough with you when you ended it. Zander has to learn that he can't treat you or any woman this way," he hesitated the softened his tone. "Maybe you should be having this conversation with Jason."

"No." Her voice was sharp, firm. "The Zander of the last few months may not be the Zander I originally fell for. But I still don't want him hurt and I really don't want my brother to be the one doing the hurting. If you make it clear to Zander that he no longer has your protection, and encourage him it would be in his best interest to leave town, I know he will."

Rubbing wearily at his eyes he shook his head. "I still think you should talk to Jason."

"Jason's going to have other things on his mind. More important things," she contended. "Please Sonny I won't ask you for anything else if you'll just do this."

~Kelly's~

Climbing the steps at Kelly's had become something Nikolas was very used to, but it hadn't always been that way. When he'd first arrived in town he knew of Kelly's, his uncle made sure of that, but he also knew it was owned by the Spencer's as such it was a place he would never be welcome in. Perhaps it was the fact that he wasn't welcome inspired a sense of longing to be inside. Even when he had been unwelcome he still went in, his pride would let him do nothing else. He was a Cassadine after all. Later that had changed, eventually he had been welcomed in the warm room, laughter and conversation flowed easily around him and through him. Lucky, Bobbie, Elizabeth, Emily, always Emily. Shaking the thought of her away was getting harder and harder for him to do and yet he still tried.

In the last two years Kelly's had changed once again and when he climbed the stairs it was always with a sense of trepidation. He never knew what he would find once he finally reached the top. Would he see Lucky lying bleeding on the floor in front of his door, because he'd tripped over his feet during the night and couldn't seem to get up? Would he find Lucky camped out in the bathroom getting sick over the previous night's activities? Would he barely be able to speak because Lucky's hangover was so bad even breathing was too loud for him? Or would he find Lucky passed out in the bed barely breathing because of alcohol poisoning? Any of those options and a multitude of others were possible.

In spite of Lucky's claim of a few days ago that he wasn't drinking anymore, Nikolas wasn't convinced. So it was with wariness that he knocked on his brother's door and waited. A long minute passed before he knocked again, and strained to hear movement on the other side of the door. A third knock came and went with no Lucky. Tammy said he was here so that only left one reason as to why he wasn't opening the door. With a sigh of disappointment but not surprise he reached for his key and was about to stick it in the lock when Lucky opened the door. Startled Nikolas said the one thing on his mind. "What took you so long?"

Lucky looked down at the towel wrapped around his waist then back at his brother. "I think that would be obvious. I was in the shower. Come in, I'll be right back," he called before disappearing in the bathroom.

Still suspicious Nikolas followed him into the room and studied it looking for evidence of a night filled of drinking. There were no beer cans on the dresser or bottles in the trash but that didn't mean a thing. Lucky had always been a social/anti-social drinker. He preferred to drink alone, that was true. But he preferred drinking alone in a crowd of people. Lack of evidence of booze didn't mean Lucky hadn't been drinking the night before. Refusing to feel guilty over his lack of belief in Lucky's new lease on life, Nikolas eventually crossed to the desk. Boredom, more than curiosity had him picking up one of the pieces of paper piled high upon it.

"Man I'm hungry. How about you?" Lucky was in a good mood and it showed. "I need to put in a few hours at the warehouse then I have a job interview at a computer shop later."

"If you're convinced that Rory is Rory and not Elizabeth why are you investigating her past?"

Startled by the unexpected question Lucky turned to look at his brother. The question might have been calmly asked but Nikolas' eyes were definitely angry. Recognizing the look Lucky realized he was going to have to talk really quick to get around his suspicious brother.

~Penthouse 4~

"Heading to work?" Rory asked when Jason came tramping down the stairs.

"Yeah. Are you staying in for awhile?"

"I told Francis I wanted to leave around 10:00. I won't leave without him," she grimaced then. "We'll go job hunting then I have to go to hell and visit Satan."

Knowing that was her present name for her physical therapist Jason wisely let her comments pass. He was pleased with her attitude when it came to therapy. He was also relieved that the problems they'd been having seemed to be gone. Ever since what he still considered to be her ultimatum, they had been getting along better than ever. She still refused to believe the attempt on her life had been because of something she'd done, but she wasn't fighting him about having Francis around anymore. They were closer than before, but still a little cautious with each other. He still hadn't broached the topic of love with her. Why he was waiting he wasn't sure, but he was.

"Earth to Jason … Come in Jason." Amused Rory waived a hand in front of his face until he focused on her. "Where did you go?"

"I was just thinking."

"You're not still angry are you?" Keeping her tone light she took his hands in hers and searched his eyes.

"Angry about what?" He realized what she was talking about and couldn't help getting angry again. Manny's funeral. More precisely, Taggert and Garcia crashing Manny's funeral. Even now, days later he still got a bitter taste in his mouth when he thought of them intruding where they had absolutely no right to be.

"I can see you are." Rory sighed she wanted him to let his anger go. Personally she had no problems with a person being a little angry, only Jason wasn't just a little angry and what he was feeling was directed at the police, not a good combination in her opinion. "If you need to let it out, I can straighten my fingers again so I'm ready for Round 2."

"What?" Her curious words pulled him from his memories.

"Wellllll," she drawled the word out deliberately. "I wrapped my fingers through your belt loop when you saw the cops to keep you in place and it took days for them to uncurl," she held up her hand. "See they're straight again, I'm healed."

Amused he bent down and kissed her lightly.

"If you were planning to do that to the cops I'm sorry I stopped you." Her words caused the last of his anger to fade from his eyes and for that she was grateful. Stepping closer she slid her arms around his neck and considered it a victory when she felt only slight pain. "But if you plan on kissing anyone else we'll have a problem."

Recognizing the grimace in her eyes that she kept from his face he shifted them both until he was sitting on the couch with her on his lap, thereby taking the pressure from her still injured shoulder. "So now I'm only allowed to kiss you?"

"What do you mean now?" Rory demanded. "Those were always the rules Morgan. As long as I'm kissing you, no one else is."

"Funny," he paused in nuzzling her neck. "I don't remember that rule."

"Morgan," she tried to sound stern but it was hard when his lips found the soft skin below her ear.

"You might have agreed to this rule but I'm sure I didn't." This morning he felt lighter than he had since coming home to Port Charles, that lightness turned, as it normally did, into a tease when he was around Rory. She was the only person who could make him act this way.

"Morgan," her squirming resumed. "Let me go."

"I don't think so," his arms tightened around her holding her easily in place.

"You better behave," she warned him.

"Or what?" Recognizing the dare in her eyes he goaded it.

"Or I'll go back to the personals and find someone else. You can be replaced you know," Rory taunted.

"No I can't. There's only one me."

Rory burst out laughing. "And for that fact alone the free world rejoices."

Feeling slightly insulted his hold loosened and Rory twisted free. Getting to her feet she quickly moved to the end of the couch eyeing him warily.

"Think of it. The part of Rory's boyfriend will now be played by _____."

"By who?" Jason got to his feet taking a step towards her she countered by taking one of her own.

"I don't know … yet. I'm sure there will be a lot of people volunteering for the job." Amusement danced in her eyes at his approach.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, you can be very exasperating, crazy, stubborn…"

"You chased me," she huffed out, "I'll be in demand."

Jason stayed where he was calculating. "I know I chased you but did you forget I'm also brain damaged?"

Her mouth fell open in shock. Using her stunned immobility to his advantage he moved quickly, picking her up and heading for the stairs.

"Morgan," Rory began to laugh only to have it cut-off by his mouth.

He'd just cleared the 2nd step when a knock sounded on the door. Curses rang out as usual hers were more inventive. Realizing he didn't have time to do with her what he wanted to do he moved back into the living room and dropped her on the couch before heading for the door. He wasn't surprised when a pillow bounced off the back of his head before he ever reached it.

"Emily." Stepping back automatically he let her in.

"I hope I'm not interrupting. I needed to talk to you about something," spying Rory on the couch she came to a quick halt.

Rory felt the humor of the last few minutes vanish and got to her feet.

"I'm sorry. I didn't see Francis outside. I thought you were gone." Emily blanched at the way that sounded. "I'll come back."

"Emily wait." Rory thought quickly. There was no way she was going to keep Jason from his sister when it was obvious that Emily was finally ready to talk to him. If she were the reason Emily wanted to leave she'd remove herself from the equation. "I was just heading for Sonny's. I'm hungry and one good thing about living in this overgrown hotel is the food next door." Pausing by Jason she kissed his check and saw the curiosity and concern in his eyes, ignoring them she headed for the door. "Emily I'll see you."

Jason had known that Rory had been worried about something the past few days. He could see it in her eyes from the time she'd returned from her mysterious errand the morning of the funeral. Now he knew that whatever was causing the worry had something to do with Emily. Reaching out he caught the door before he could close it. "Rory."

"Don't worry Morgan. I won't go anywhere until Francis gets here," leaving the door for him she continued across the hall.

"I didn't mean to chase her off," Emily offered although she was relieved that Rory had left. She couldn't help but feel uncomfortable around her. Not only did Rory know the worst of her secrets she seemed to find them fascinating. She felt like an idiot next to Rory and no one liked feeling like an idiot.

"You didn't." Shutting the door he turned to study his sister who quickly turned away and sat on the couch. Undaunted he followed. "What brings you by?"

"I needed to tell you something," she hesitated for a minute then turned to face him. "It's about mom."

~Penthouse 2~

"What do you want?" Carly demanded when she answered the knock on the door.

"It's nice to see you too Blondie." Ignoring the fact or maybe because of the fact that Carly didn't want her inside Rory moved past her into the darkly furnished room. "Don't believe in color around here do you?"

Insulted Carly slammed the door.

~P.C.P.D.~

"You don't really think this is going to work do you?"

Taggert eyed his partner for minute then shrugged. "Aren't you the one always telling me how smart Whitey is?"

"Yeah," Garcia conceded. "But to build a receiver for a sophisticated bug that we don't even know will work? That might be stretching his talents a bit."

Shrugging again Taggert moved back to his desk.

"Even if he can get this thing to work we can't use anything we hear. We don't have a warrant." Garcia trailed him keeping his voice low. "Besides Mac laid it out to you. The next time Alexis mentions your name and harassment in the same sentence you're suspended."

"I know," Taggert snapped. The fact that he might lose his job while Corinthos and Morgan got away scott-free burned him. But he'd figure out a way to get them. The bug Whitey discovered might be that way.

"Maybe you should back off for awhile, let your latest warning fade a bit before trying again."

As far as Taggert was concerned backing off wasn't an option. It would never be an option as long as he was dealing with Corinthos and Morgan.

"Taggert…"

"Look there's nothing illegal with Whitey building a receiver. If he happens to pick something up from the phones then I'll worry about figuring out how to use it." Sighing a bit reluctantly he picked up his prized Roger Clemons rookie card and headed for the lab.

"Phones?" Garcia repeated. "You don't think…"

Smiling slyly at his partner Taggert nodded. "If there's a bug in Rory's phone it only stands to reason there's one in Morgan's as well." Whistling a happy tune he continued on to the lab.

~Kelly's~

"Do you need to hear the question again?" Nikolas asked casually.

"No," Lucky snapped snatching the paper from Nikolas' hand. "I started checking Rory out the day after I first saw her."

"Have you stopped?" Again his voice was casual.

"Yes." Disgusted Lucky stomped to a chair and dropped in it.

"Then why did that page, this page and most of the pages on this desk have yesterday's date on them?"

Keeping his eyes on the floor Lucky paused in the process of tying his shoes, trying to think of a legitimate sounding reason to give to his brother.

"Don't try so hard Lucky." Nikolas dropped the casual his tone turning sharp. "I knew you were lying the night you told us you knew Rory was Rory not Elizabeth."

"You did not."

"Yes I did. You're out of practice Lucky. You're not a convincing liar anymore. I saw through the scam, Emily probably would have too if she hadn't been so desperate to have her friend back."

"That's not why Emily didn't see the truth." Lucky admitted his lie and tried to divert Nikolas at the same time. "She was upset when she got to Kelly's that night and it had nothing to do with me."

Uncomfortable Nikolas moved from the desk to the window that much was true. He wondered if Emily was still upset. He hadn't seen her since that night. She never answered either her cell, or her private line. When he went to her house Reginald always said she was out. He'd tried catching her at school but she had proven to quick for him. The day he saw Zander lurking outside her school waiting for her, he stopped going by the school. One stalker in Emily's life was enough. He had taken perverse pleasure in calling the police and reporting a wild-eyed druggie freak hanging out by the school. Hopefully Zander had been arrested, he hadn't waited around to find out for sure.

During Nikolas' surprising silence Lucky used the time to study his brother. The uncomfortable vibes he'd picked up the last time he'd talked to Nikolas about Emily were back. He also remembered the look on her face when Gia had made her surprising announcement. Something was going on between the two of them, and in the past whenever that had happened Emily was the one that got hurt. "Damn'it your messing with her head again."

"What?"

"Emily. You're messing with her feelings again. You've got to stop this," Lucky snapped.

Nikolas regrouped quickly. "The only one messing with Emily's head or her feelings is you."

Lucky couldn't help flinching at the truth in the remark. "I'd say there's plenty of blame to go around, or were you too busy to notice the fact it looked like someone kicked her in the teeth when Gia dropped her bomb about the two of you going away?"

It was Nikolas' turn to flinch.

~Penthouse 2~

"Why are you here Shorty?" Carly demanded after a minute of watching Rory wander her home.

"Is Sonny here?"

"No he's at work." Carly opened the door expecting that to be the end of it but instead of leaving Rory took a seat on the couch. Irritated all over again Carly slammed the door.

"I thought you were here to see Sonny."

"Do you like living here?"

Both remarks came out at the same time.

"It's my home," Carly answered first.

"Yeah but don't you think it's a bit dark?" Rory asked.

Bristling Carly glared at her. "What do you want?"

"Me?" Rory stalled. "I'm just killing time."

"Well kill it in the bright rooms known as Jason's penthouse if the dark bothers you so damn much," Carly snapped.

Rory remained where she was. There was no way she was going to interrupt Jason and Emily, not when it seemed that Emily was finally ready to confide in him. Of course once Emily did tell him about Zander she was going to have to stick real close to Jason. She had no problem with Jason maiming the guy but she couldn't let him kill the punk. She got the feeling that Emily wouldn't be able to handle it if Jason killed her ex-slimeball.

Frustrated by Rory's unwillingness to leave, Carly headed back in the kitchen to finish what she'd been doing, she had a feeling Rory would follow and wasn't disappointed.

"Remodeling?" Rory asked, taking in the magazines, blueprints and tape measure the blonde was bent over.

"Obviously." Carly turned back to her fingers while Rory wandered the kitchen. It was like watching a poodle sniff out a new home. Amused with the analogy Carly snorted.

"You have a lot of blueprints for one room." Eyeing them Rory jumped up on the counter next to where Carly was working. "Planning on building an addition like the Taj Mahal?"

"No. These are blueprints for both penthouses. The architect sent them all." Carly swatted Rory's hand away when she reached for them. "Back off."

"Fine," Rory grumbled taking a magazine instead.

Carly was soon distracted by a thump sound. Looking over she was surprised to see Rory batting her feet against the cabinet door. Her attention was distracted again when Rory let out a laugh.

"I thought you were remodeling a kitchen."

"I am."

"It's going to be an interesting remodel," Rory commented with a grin. "Tell me where were you putting the pool table?"

"Give me that." Carly reached for the magazine but Rory jumped off the counter and danced away laughing the whole time. It was there in that moment that Carly decided to leave the scuffmarks of Rory's shoes on Sonny's prized cabinet doors. Watching the blow-up when he saw them and went after the runt would be fun to watch.

"Where are you going to put it?" Oblivious to her impending peril Rory continued to tease. When the blonde didn't answer she turned, exploring the small hallway behind the kitchen. There was a room halfway down it, opening the door she realized it had once been a bedroom.

"We're putting in a playroom for Michael," Carly informed her stiffly from behind.

"Sure you are," agreeable Rory played along for a second as she headed back to the kitchen. "I'm sure your remodel had nothing to do with me cleaning your clock in pool last week did it?"

"You didn't clean my clock." Infuriated Carly slammed the door closed as hard as she could. It slammed so hard in fact that a little piece of wood broke free from the wall next to the door and fell to the floor. "Shit."

"What's that?" Rory was already heading back down the short hall.

"It looks like paneling," Carly sniped.

"No that," Rory's eyes were sharp and had spied something Carly hadn't noticed yet.

The piece of paneling that had fallen was small, perfectly square, probably the width of a man's spread fingered hand. But that wasn't the unusual part. The hinge on the backside of the panel was unusual. So too was the space where the paneling had once been. Instead of a section of insulation, what had been exposed was a keypad built into the wall.

"What's that doing there?" Carly asked.

"Since this is your home I was hoping you could tell me," Rory muttered while crouching to get a good look. "It's old."

"How can you tell?" Carly crouched to look as well.

"The electronics, the name of the firm, they went out of business 5 or 6 years ago." Tilting her head she tried to look in the opening to discover where the wires led, but the opening was too small, the paneling too dark. "It's odd."

"Yes finding a hidden keypad in the middle of a hall is odd."

"It's not just a keypad Carly. It's a lock."

"A lock for what?" Carly wanted to know.

Stepping back from the opening she took a good look at the narrow hall studying it before opening the door to the bedroom to do the same.

"Prospecting?" Carly acted blasé but was dying to know what Rory knew. She knew something that was obvious. Rory walked out of the adjoining bathroom with a frown then walked inside the closet. "Looking for a new place to live?"

Ignoring the blonde Rory continued to work through the puzzle remembering something she headed out the door back to the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Carly demanded when Rory made a beeline for the blueprints.

"Didn't you see it?"

"See what?"

"These aren't the original blueprints." Rory sounded almost accusing when she looked at Carly.

"I know the architect couldn't find the originals he swears these are exact duplicates."

"Look." Rory spread the plans for both penthouses side by side. "Tell me what you see."

Curious Carly did as she was told. It took her a few minutes but she finally figured out what had put the excitement in Rory's face. "There's a room missing from the plans."

"Exactly." Rory nodded. For once her and Carly were united. "The square footage is the same for both penthouses yet Jason's has 2 rooms in his hall behind the kitchen while you only have the one."

"Maybe there's only one room here because it's bigger than the one in Jason's place."

"Look at the dimensions they're the same. No you have an extra room back there. Probably hidden by the paneling or a wall and that's what the keypad is for. You need it to unlock the room."

~P.C. Hotel~

Marin threw the slide rule across the room in disgust his pencil soon followed. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't get the numbers to come out right. The penthouse dimensions refused to conform to the blueprints and he didn't like that. Even though the penthouse giving him the fits wasn't the primary one he still didn't like it. He didn't like surprises.

Normally he only worked from originals. But he'd been unable to locate the original blueprints for the penthouses. Now he was wondering if a mistake had been made on the copy and if so how many other mistakes there were. He didn't tolerate mistakes but since taking this job that was all that was happening. The mistake in trying to kill Rory Nichols before his client had been ready, being spied at Jake's when he went to check the bugs, being unable to get into the penthouse to place new bugs, forgetting to take Rory's cell when he had the chance. Too many mistakes and it was all her fault. One day she would pay for making him look foolish. She would pay.

Pain. It made him shift his focus, looking down he was surprised to find his hand bleeding. Opening his palm, pieces of glass fell to the floor and drops of blood fell on his pants. Yet another thing to blame Rory Nichols for. Wrapping his bleeding hand in a handkerchief he went back to his plans. He needed to study them until he knew every square inch of both penthouses. He wouldn't be able to make his move until he did.

~Penthouse 4~

"I thought you'd be gone," Rory hesitated in the doorway when she saw that both Emily and Jason were still here. A quick look at Emily's face told her that the girl had been crying. "I'll come back."

"No. Stay." Jason's voice was harsh and incredibly weary at the same time, clearing his throat he tried again. "We need to leave anyway."

"Okay." Rory moved to Jason's side to search his face for a clue to what he was feeling. His normally clear blue eyes were swirling with emotion but there was no anger in them. "Are you okay?"

For a minute he bent down, resting his forehead on hers and just let himself breathe. Caught off-guard Rory took his hands in hers but kept quiet. After another minute he steeped back. "I'm taking the Durango we need to see someone."

"Okay, I'll ride with Francis. If you need to call me use his phone mine's still missing," she squeezed his hands trying to comfort and letting him know she was there for him.

"I'll call," letting go reluctantly he stepped back and joined Emily who was waiting at the door. The door closed behind them and Rory stared at it for a long time. What could Emily have told him that made him so upset?

~*~*~*~

"Francis," Jason's tone was brisk.

"Jason I'm about five minutes out."

"That's fine. I just wanted to let you know I'm taking the Durango so don't be surprised when you get here and it's gone. Rory's in the penthouse waiting for you. You're going job hunting again."

"Wonderful," Francis jeered then hesitated. "Jason yesterday one of the places she applied was the Bucket of Blood."

Hearing the words and Francis' tone got to Jason and in spite of the news he'd just received he couldn't help reacting to it. "I'm sure she was able to produce an I.D. that showed she was over 21."

Francis was quiet for a long time. "Are you sure you want her to work there?"

"Relax Francis she was just trying to get a rise out you. Instead I bet you just stood there impassively like always." Hearing silence on the other end of the line he knew he was right. Feeling for his friend Jason decided to give him a heads up. "Don't be surprised if she takes you to Oasis today." The elevator came to a stop. "I've got to go, call me if there are any problems."

Frowning Francis was slow to close the phone. Wasn't Oasis a strip club?