Disclaimer (again): I don't, twice. Don't own and don't get paid. Yippee!

Xxxxxx

After the Show

Chapter 2

Xxxxxx

In our last episode:

As soon as Tori pushed the end-call button, the PearPhone vanished from her hand, startling the two teens. Tori looked in astonishment at her empty hand and yelled, "What the... I was gonna try to call Beck."

Taken aback by the disappearing phone for only a second or two, Jade quickly regained her whits and said, "That's okay. We'll just head over to his trailer and see him in person."

The two girls got up and, as they exited the front door, found themselves standing in the Oliver's driveway, right in front of Beck's RV trailer.

Xxxxxx

We continue now with the stoooory of Toooori (Hey, that rhymes!) and Jade as they wend their way through TV's Outland:

"That really is a convenient way to get around," Jade jested as she moved to the metal door of the trailer and knocked. When they didn't get any answer, Tori walked over to look in one of the windows as Jade knocked again and called out, "Beck."

"Um, I don't think he'll be able to come to the door," Tori called over as she intently peered in the window. She walked back over to the door and tried it, finding it unlocked.

"What do you mean?" Jade begged.

"See for yourself," Tori said as she swung open the door and enter the trailer without any hesitation.

Jade and Tori could clearly see there was something strange going on, or not going on, as they entered. A fully naked Beck was standing next to the open refrigerator door of the trailer, a can of Peppy Cola in one hand and a glass filled with ice in the other, pouring the drink. That wasn't the strange thing, though.

Beck and the liquid were frozen in mid pour. It was like he was stuck in a freeze-frame.

"Well that bizarre," Jade marveled as she went over and waved a hand in front of her ex-boyfriend's face, getting no reaction at all. She poked the stream of soda with a finger and found it was solid.

"What do you think is going on?" Tori questioned in confusion as she jabbed a finger against Beck's cheek and found it as hard as a rock.

"I can only guess," Jade said as she went over to the kitchen counter and started to rummage around in one of the cabinets. "I think Beck wasn't considered a main character on our show, so he's being kept in some kind of stasis until he's needed again."

Tori shook her head to clear it while saying, "I don't get what you mean. Why is Beck only a secondary character? He was part of our main group of friends."

Jade found what she was searching for and pulled a brown paper grocery bag out of the cupboard, looking inside it. "Listen. You were the main focus of most everything I remember happening on our show. That makes you the main character. Right?"

"Okay, I can see that; Especially since that fat guy said the name of our show was Victorious, an obvious take on my name. But what about you? Why aren't you in stasis, too?"

"While you were the main protagonist, I was the main antagonist; The one who caused you a lot of grief."

"Okay," Tori tentative said as she mulled over Jade's point. She could agree with all of what Jade had said. "Soooo, that's probably why my PearPhone disappeared and weren't allowed to call Beck or André. They weren't deeply involved with all the stuff that happened to me so they'd be considered secondary characters. But what about Cat? She wasn't involved that much either. Shouldn't she be frozen like Beck?"

Jade unplugged a small appliance on the counter and picked it and the bag up as she ventured, "I would guess since she's living with that Sam girl from Seattle, who was probably only a character in a sit-com too, that Cat and Sam may just have their own spinoff show. That's why Cat isn't frozen in place. And that may be why we're still alive and kicking, so that we can occasionally interact with Cat on her new show."

"You know," Tori said as she followed a ladened down Jade out of the trailer door and they immediately ended up on her front doorstep, "that makes perfect sense. But why are you taking that stuff? Won't Beck miss it if he's ever needed to interact with Cat, or if we're renewed or something?"

Jade stopped at the Vega's door and waited for Tori to open it for her before entering, while saying, "I doubt if he'll miss it. This is my one cup coffee maker and fixings that I stashed at his place while we were dating. I just never had the chance to get it back after we split the second time."

Tori watched as Jade walked over to the kitchen and started to set up the machine on the counter. She curiously begged, "Aren't you gonna take that home with you when you leave?"

Jade starts to brew a cup of coffee as she angrily replies, "Of course not. You've seen my bedroom on The Slap. It consists of a coupla paintings and butterfly collections on the walls, one shelf with specimen jars, a bookcase with a few pairs of shoes and candles stored on it and one small end table with a lamp next to my burgundy arm chair. There's no bed, no clothes closet or chest of drawers. What would I do there? Post stuff on my Slap page, which doesn't really exist? The website was part of the show. The alternative is to wander around the Black Box or the coupla hallways and rooms we know of at school, or live in Beck's trailer with his statue."

"Oh yeah. I see your point," Tori sheepishly groaned in admission. "So, I guess you wanna stay here for the company."

Jade let out a tired breath trying to ease her anger before answering, "Yeah. We should be able to get along better now that we aren't competing for lead roles in school plays... which you always seem to get." She let out another breath, dissipating her anger further and ceded, "But I guess that wasn't really your fault. That's just the way the show was written."

"Yeah. Even though it wasn't my doing, I'm sorry you didn't get more starring roles to play."

"Whatever," Jade sniped as she fixed her cup of coffee the way she liked it, with two heaping tablespoons of sugar. She took a quick sip before asking, "Anyway, what do you wanna do now?"

"Well," Tori thought it over for a quick seconds. "We could head over to some of the places we know of, like Karaoke Dokie or Nozu. We could sing at the club and I remember making a mean sushi ball once for my ex, Steven."

Jade blew off both ideas, saying, "They're both so cliché, so let's hold off on those unless we're desperate for something to do."

"Well," Tori thought for another moment as she glanced around before saying, "we could sit around the pool out back. I know it's there. I can see it through the window." She pointed out the kitchen window above the sink and, sure enough, the kidney shaped pool could clearly be seen.

"You know I sunburn easily," Jade huffed in irritation.

"I don't think you will," Tori smugly replied. "If we're not supposed to age or get hurt at all, then the sun shouldn't affect you now."

Realizing what her friend was saying, Jade's faced brightened. "Hey, you're right. I can finally go outside and not worry about getting sunburned since my body can never change from the way it currently is unless it's in a script."

"And we're already dressed for the pool, too," Tori cheerfully joked, pointing out that they were both still naked and wouldn't have to change into a swimsuit, which they didn't own anymore, or get their clothes wet in the pool.

"Okay," Jade said as she started walking towards the front door after first typing something into Tori's laptop. "I'll meet you out there in a minute. I just need to get something from my school locker, first."

"What?"

"My PearBook."

Xxxxxx

Tori and Jade had been out by the pool for close to two hours now and the Goth girl's skin was still a pale white, leading both of them to agree that Tori's supposition had been correct.

While Tori had jumped in the water a few time to splash around and swim a few laps in the kidney shaped pool while spending the rest of the time basking in the Sun, Jade had quietly sat there typing away on her computer the whole time. She'd occasionally grunt in aggravation and erase something she'd written, but otherwise she silently went about with her work.

As Tori got out of the pool and was instantly dry, and neither of them could fathom exactly why that happened ever time, She asked, "What are you doing? You're so intense I'd have to guess that you're writing a new Broadway play that you'll star in."

"That's an idea," Jade chuckled, "but no. I've been writing a few scenarios for the both of us to keep ourselves occupied for a while."

Curious, Tori walked behind Jade and leaned in to see what all she had written. Before she could read one word, Jade slammed the PearBook closed, stood from the lounge chair and headed for the house, saying, "Come on. We got placed to go and things to do."

As the two stepped into the house through the patio doors, they immediately found themselves outside again in the pit area of what appeared to be some kind of vast meandering race track.

Tori incredulously begged, "You're kidding me. You want to race?"

"Why not?" Jade answered. "Paul Newman was a professional race car driver for close to thirty-five years after he made the movie Winning, even while he was still doing movies. And besides, you know I like to drive fast."

"Well alright," Tori happily chimed as she and Jade nakedly went to separate Le Mans type racing cars and shimmied into the tight cockpits without donning flame retardant suits or helmets first. (Or strapping themselves in with the five-point harnesses, either.) After a quick tutorial from the pit crew, especially needed by Tori since she still didn't have her driver's license, they pulled out of the pit and paused at the starting line.

After revving the engines a few times, the Starter dropped the green flag and they were off, smoke billowing from the spinning tires as they burned rubber.

Jade immediately took the lead on the meandering oval track, going into the turns low then exiting high like she knew she should. Tori on the other hand was all over the track trying to get used to the high-powered vehicle. She'd spun out once onto the grassy infield and was swiftly able to return to the track, but it was a lost cause. She would never be able to catch up with Jade who was driving like a professional.

After only ten laps of the track, it was decided between the two that Jade had won. (By almost a full lap, so Jade had ended the race early since she was getting extremely bored with the whole thing.)

Jade was already out of the car when Tori pulled into the pit. But unlike the disappointed girl she thought she would see, the svelte brunette practically hopped out of the race car and started doing a jig, arms triumphantly waving in the air.

After a minute, Tori ran over to Jade, wrapped the raven-haired Goth in a big hug and yelled, "Did you see that? I did it. I raced and came in second."

Jade forcefully extricated herself from the embrace and retorted, "Of course you came in second. There were only the two of us out there to begin with."

Tori only laughed and countered, "Yeah, but I spun out and kept going. You've had a lot more driving time than I've had so of course I knew you'd beat me. But I drove an actual car and completed the race. I'm happy with that."

The two teen made their way out of the pit area though a tunnel under the track. When they emerged, Tori found herself on another race track of sorts. The only difference from the last one was that this was one long straightaway. She turned to Jade and incredulously begged, "You want to race again?"

"Yeah, but just for today," Jade said as she walked over to what appeared to be a slightly modified Camero with a huge blower sticking out of the hood. Just how Tori knew that big scoop thingy sticking out of the middle of the engine block was called a blower, she wasn't sure. But she figured it was something like being able to drive the La Mans race car fairly well with only a little tutoring and absolutely no experience with a stick shift.

Tori smiled as she caught up to Jade and said, "Okay, I get 'cha. After that last race, to quote a famous movie, 'I feel the need, for speed'."

Jade, catching the Tom Cruise reference, let out with a light laugh, "You know, that's another great idea. I never thought about flying a jet fighter but that just might be fun; Especially if we could do some attack runs on a target range or enemy stronghold and blow stuff up."

"Oh great," Tori playfully mocked herself. "Now I'm giving you ideas on how to be more destructive than you usually are. What are you gonna do? Fire scissor bombs at them?"

"Nah, but don't think too much about destroying other things right now," Jade said as she climbed into the Camero through the driver's side window since she knew the door was welded shut for safety reasons, "we'll probably wreck a few cars here today. This is one of the least safe sports in the world. There's always some kinda crash happening in drag racing."

And Jade was right.

They'd decided that they should do their first run solo, and that Jade should go first. After lining her car up for the quarter mile run, Jade accelerated fast enough at the green light to pull a wheelie for over one hundred feet. When the front end touched down again the car wasn't on a straight course and she over corrected, sending it headlong into the wall on the other side of the track after fish-tailing a few times. The collision somehow disconnected the fire suppression system causing it to fail, and when the fuel started leaking onto the hot engine, well... It was quite a spectacular explosion and fireball.

Otherwise unaffected, Jade closely examined her hair as she nakedly walked back over to Tori, muttering something about charring the ends and now she'd need to get it trimmed to make it look nice again. After saying that, Jade watched the singed hair magically repair itself.

Tori was able to complete her initial run with what was designated a super street car, but her finish time wasn't all that fast. After watching Jade crash and burn, Tori had become a bit pensive despite the fact that she knew she couldn't get injured. She knew her body would remain the same as it had been through the four seasons of the show unless it was scripted otherwise, but she was still worried. (Thinking back on it, Tori remembered breaking both of her arms at The Gorilla Club, but then they were perfectly fine a week later. Whereas she knew it would normally take six to eight weeks and a ton of therapy to fully heal in the real world.)

Jade and Tori moved up to two funny cars next and it was Tori who crashed this time. She ran a fairly fast quarter mile but when she popped her drag chute and started to slow down after the finish line, one of her tires blew out sending the car spinning out of control and ended in a rollover crash.

Of course she walked away without a scratch... Or singed hair, much to Jade's disappointment.

They moved on to super stock, then dragsters, and had a good time racing against one another, but they decided to end it there. Neither desired to try out the motorcycles. They didn't want to get bugs in their teeth since they were driving without helmets the whole time.( Both knew that couldn't happen since it wasn't scripted, but didn't want to take the chance and eat a few bugs.)

Tori and Jade walked in to the Vega's living room and laid down on the couches. Both wanted to continue with their adventures, not being tired at all, but they wanted to save the naked skydiving, cliff jumping, hang gliding and bungee jumping for another day. (And one of them had to write a script for the F-16 attack runs.)

Since Jade was the better writer, they'd decided she would be the one to continue writing scripts for things to keep them occupied. That left Tori free to surf the web to see if she could find more stuff for them to do.

After a half hour trolling the web, Tori sat up and called out, "Um, Jade? You gotta see this."

The Goth girl moved over next to Tori and begged, "What'cha got?"

"Welllll," the half-Latina tentative replied as she place the computer between them on their adjoined legs so both could view the screen at the same time, "I somehow found this website from the real world where people can write their own stories using us as characters. They're called fan fictions."

"Cool," Jade enthused as she scrolled down a page listing the different stories for their show.

"Yeah but, there's a lot of stories here that have us self-harming ourselves. You know, cutting and stuff. Don't you find that kinda strange? Kinda... Emo?"

"That is strange," Jade said as she quickly perused one of the stories. "I would think our lives wouldn't interest the Emo crowd. They're usually so dark and moody."

Tori let Jade continue to read as she said, "But that's not the strangest thing. Most of the self-harm stories have Cat as the one cutting herself."

"You're kidding me," Jade laughed as she backed out of the story and began reading the descriptions of other ones. "Sweet innocent little Cat, cutting herself? That's about as likely as me and Sinjin falling deeply in love and doing the nasty."

"Yeah, well..."

"What?" Jade practically exploded in disbelief.

Tori took the computer onto her lap and backed out of the page as she said, "I haven't gone through all of the fourteen thousand or so stories yet, but I found one where it happens." She stopped on the story and shoved the laptop onto Jade's lap.

"You're kidding me," Jade marveled in wonder as she started to read the fan fiction of her and the freaky boy falling in love. After a minute she lightly laughed and said as she continued to read, "That's sick! These guys are so messed up in the head they shouldn't be allowed write. They should all be taken out and run over with a steamroller or something."

As Jade continued to read the different stories, Tori laid back and stared off into nothing as she idly pondered, "Have you ever wondered where the show's writers came up with our names?"

Intrigued, Jade looked over to her cohort and answered, "No, not really. Why?"

"I was just thinking. Your name is Jade West so maybe you were modeled after Mae West, the actress. I mean she had blonde hair, but you're both outgoing, sassy confident ladies. Your attitudes are similar and you both love acting and writing."

"I see your point," Jade nodded in agreement as she set the laptop aside. "But what about you? Where did they come up with the name Tori Vega?"

Tori wrinkled her brow in concentration and muttered, "That, I haven't figured out just yet."

"Maybe," Jade ventured as she got up and went to the kitchen for a much needed cup of coffee, "you're name is a combination of two different people, like they combined Tori Amos and Suzanne Vega. Amos is a pop singer and Vega is a folk-style singer."

"Yeah, yeah," Tori said, sitting up in realization. "I can see being named after Suzanne Vega. She was nicknamed the 'Mother of the MP3' because they used her music during the initial tests. Being named after her is like a tribute to her or something."

Jade came back over to the couches and sat down, adding, "And Tori Amos plays the piano like you do and has long hair like yours, except her's is a fiery red, like Cat's." Jade's wicked personality came out as she also suggested, "Or, you could be named after the star Vega, which is the second brightest star in our hemisphere... Just like you were the second brightest star on the show."

"Ha,ha. Very funny," the svelte brunette mock-giggled. She knew her friend was only teasing and that the jest was only her TV personality coming out.

"And speaking of stars, what about Counselor Troi from the Star Trek series?" Tori threw out. "The names Troi and Tori use the same letters, and Troi is a takeoff of Troy, the ancient city when Helen was from. She was the beauty woman whose face launched a thousand ships."

Jade playfully scoffed, "Now you're just grasping at straws."

Suddenly, Tori hunched over her computer sitting on the coffee table in front of the sofa and started typing. Jade asked, "What are you coming up with now?"

Not looking up from her rapid typing, Tori answered, "I don't know. I just suddenly want to go to sleep for some reason right now, so I'm writing that I go up to my bedroom for a nap. I'm describing my bedroom." She finished with a flourish, stood up and headed for the staircase.

"Actually, a nap sounds like a good idea right about now," Jade smirked, following the brunette up the stairs. "Mind if I join you... In bed?"

Tori had a fairly good idea what Jade was implying and audaciously begged, "So you found some of the stories where we became friends and lovers, too?"

"I noticed a few," Jade chuckled as she reached up and lovingly caressed her hand over the other girls naked butt and between her legs.

Tori squealed in delight and sassed over her shoulder, quoting a famous old Dustin Hoffman movie, "Why Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me."

Jade, again catching the reference, answered, "Why yes. Yes I am, Benjamin."

The two girls swiftly ascended the stairs and found Tori's bedroom exactly like she'd described it in the short drabble she'd written. There was a king sized bed with jet black, comfortable looking silk sheets and bed spread, and the full-sized bar next to it appeared to be fully stocked. The lights were low and there was some very sexy saxophone music playing softly in the background.

"I'm not sure," Jade laughed as she walked over to the bar, grabbed a glass and filled it with some ice from the ice cube dispenser in the refrigerator door, "But I think you're trying to seduce me with what you came up with."

"Maaaaaybe," Tori cooed as she grabbed a bottle of Single Malt from the bar and sexily slinked back onto the bed with lust in her eyes. She took a quick sip from the bottle before purring, "Maybe driving all those hot, fast cars got my engine revving."

Jade took a sip from her glass as she slowly sashayed over to the huge bed. She set the glass down on the nightstand and, as she crawled into bed, asked, "Why do you think I like to drive fast?"

Tori smirked as Jade lays down beside her and questioned, "Do you know what else I found in those fan fiction stories that I found interesting?"

Jade sexily growls, "You wanna talk about fan fiction when I'm about to kiss you?"

Tori licks her lips lasciviously and replies, "You see, that's the thing. Some of the writers seem to think you can't breath through your nose when your lips are otherwise engaged in kissing, so the two people who are kissing have to break apart for air after a minute or two."

"The idiots probably haven't kissed anyone in their short pathetic lives," Jade chuckled as she pulled closer to Tori. A sly, almost evil smirk arose as she asked, "Wanna prove them wrong?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Tori murmured as she swiftly closed the distance between their lips.

Xxxxxx

Author's Note: And, I'm going to end the chapter here. I'll just let them have their fun uninterrupted.