Disclaimer: I don't own victorious or any of it's characters.
:}
Jade and the driver arrived at what looked to be a small office in an office building. "This doctor is very good. He'll take good care of you, and it was closer then the hospital." A warm smile. "Also, he's trustworthy, so no one will find out about you and Miss Vega. Please, this is just a quick checkup, followed by the embarrassing bandaging, and then back to the hotel."
Jade didn't trust the driver, but quickly found he was telling the truth. The doctor was able to see her quickly, examining her and determining what she needed, then bandaging what could be bandaged, while splinting what he could. Then he wrote her a note in Spanish, telling Trina Jade's limits. Before she knew it, they were on their way back to the hotel. "See, I told you this was better. He's my doctor, and I figured you could use the personal touch." Javier smiled. "You don't trust much, do you? I can see it. But here, this is a safe place, and you're in good hands. Lets get you back to your lover." The smile on his face was scary, like he was rooting for them.
Tori had walked into Trina's office, ready to be chewed out. "So..." She started.
"Siobhan filled me in." Trina said. "She told me everything."
"I'm sorry." Tori said, starting to cry. "I was reckless, and Jade got hurt. She took a shotgun blast, right in her chest. I thought she was going to die..."
"She's hurt, and it's your fault." Trina agreed. "But thats the past, and we can learn from it. Not saying to strop with the fan interaction, cause thats kinda your thing, just saying to make sure things are safe, check with your people before you go someplace that could be a trap. Tori, I love you. You're my baby sister, and I want the best for you. Just, don't scare me like that any more."
"I love her." Tori admitted. "I love her, and I hurt her. I even let her go do that police thing, cause I thought she'd be safe. They could have killed her, and it would have been my fault." More tears as Tori allowed herself to open up and express her fears.
Trina was holding her by now. "No, that ones on Jade." The manager said. "I get what she was trying to do, but she shouldn't have taken risks. Now I have to chew her out for it. But for now, lets keep your and her romance on the down low, okay? We'll adjust your image after the tour. After we've had a chance to adjust things, get your security set up, get her a career, then we can see about you dating in the open. I'd love to have her standing next to you when Cat gets married. Save me the nightmare of finding you an escort."
Tori laughed. "Sure." She said, looking down. "But how can I wait? I mean, I want her now?" The singer was trying not to whine. But the tears had stopped.
"We'll work it out, okay?' Trina assured her again. "Just, we have media to go to. Go get cleaned up, and after, you can take a nap, get charged up for tonight performance. And while you do that, I'll talk to Jade." Trina looked out the door, trying to see the raven haired girl. "Where is she? It's not like her to let you face me without her there to help out, calm things down."
"I sent her to the hospital." Tori admitted. "She wouldn't get checked out, and I wasn't having her get hurt worse cause she was working injured. We'll get a doctors note, and go from there, okay?"
"Andre!" Trina called out to her head of security.
"Relax, I sent Javier, and he's good people." Andre assured her from just outside the office. He took that moment as an excuse to enter. "I've worked with him in the past, and we can trust him. As for security, we have enough. I've got half a dozen men we can trust around us, and Tori is gonna be in safe buildings. So lets get her cleaned up and on the road. I'll have Javier join up with us after their done."
"Have him take Jade to the venue, and she can get some rest until we get there." Trina instructed. "I'll talk to here there." He nodded and started speaking on the radio, before calling Javier and letting the man know what was expected.
Later, at the venue, Jade woke up from her nap to find Tori trying to discreetly move her aside and join her on the couch. "Sorry, didn't mean to wake you." She mumbled. "Did you know Trina insists on a couch, full sized, in my dressing room in case I want to take a nap? She's always thinking of me."
Jade shifted up to a sitting position, then stood. "Time to face the music." She said.
"Whats did the doctor say?" Tori asked.
"Not sure. I don't read Spanish, and he wrote the note in it." The blue eyed girl admitted.
"Let me read it." Tori offered.
"No, you have to get ready for your show. I'll go deal with Trina." Jade replied.
"You know I won't be able to relax and focus until I know whats going on." Tori protested.
"Tell you what," Jade offered, "You rest up, give a great show, and I'll have a late dinner with you. Just the two of us."
"We do that sometimes anyways." Tori said, rolling her eyes.
"But this time, we can call it a date." The bodyguard offered.
"With date rules?" The megastar asked. "As in, you'll finally answer some of those embarrassing questions I've been dying to ask you?"
"Date rules says I'll be avoiding those like the plague." The blue eyed girl teased. "But yea, we'll talk, open up a bit, and I'll even tell you about growing up with Beck as a close friend, unless you don't wanna hear that."
"I think I do." Tori remarked. "Cause maybe it'll help me see him as he really was, instead of the jerk I dated for ten fucking years."
"Yea, sorry about that." Jade felt strangely embarrassed.
"Don't be." Tori replied. "I had to come a long way to accept I found you attractive. I needed the hook, the connection, and now I have it. So go, talk to Trina, but this dinner had better be worth it."
"If it's not, you expecting me to flash you?" Jade joked as she walked out the door. Seconds later, her phone beeped. Checking it, she found a text reading 'I've already seen that..'
The raven haired girl made it to Trina's makeshift office, a space often used as an office by whatever celebrities management when they were using this venue. "Okay, I'm here, let the chewing our commence." She said, walking in and hoping she wasn't interrupting anything important.
"Andre, get in here now." Trina said over the radio. "Jade, glad you could make it. You have a doctors note?" Jade handed her the note. "Hmm, I see…." The manager read it twice, checking to see what complications it might represent. "Lets wait for Andre to show up."
The head of security showed a short time later. "So, what'd the note say?" He asked.
"A couple of cracked ribs, some soft tissue damage to her arm and body, as well as a hell of a lot of bruising." The manager said mechanically. "Basically, she's useless as a bodyguard for the next month, maybe more."
"So we swap jobs." Andre said calmly. "She acts as the extra pair of eyes, and I go with Tori when she heads out."
"I figured that much." Trina said, glaring at Jade. "Then again, she had to go and make this more complicated, didn't she?"
"Look, I admit, I should never have let her talk me into taking her to a place I hadn't checked out thoroughly before we ever set foot in it. I was sloppy." Jade didn't try to defend herself.
"You did your job, and Tori didn't run when you told her too." Trina said, not bothering to sound upset. "She cares for you, so I can't just pay you to sit at home, have the insurance pay for a substitute security officer, and just write the whole thing off. But noooo, cause after you and her promising me that you were professionals, that Tori didn't fucking care about you, she and you walk into a trap that you should have been able to get her out of, but she was too busy trying to protect you. Tori is fucking in love with you. Three months early, she's in love with you. I.. I'm gonna have to do something about this. Jade..."
"Sorry..." Jade's voice was small.
"You keep doing your job, just swap the duties you can't perform with Andre here, and we'll see if we can get some insurance money, or the studio will pony up the cash, for us to hire an extra hand until your on your feet. But for now..." She took a deep breath. "Has Tori read this note yet?"
"No." The damaged bodyguard replied. "She wanted too, but I made her a deal. Promised her a discreet date if she just let it be, gave a great performance tonight." She saw the glare emanating from her boss. "I screwed up again, didn't I?"
"I have nothing against the deal, except I need you and her to keep it on the down low until we get you into the movies. I'll call around, see if I can get you something early..." Trina looked tired, like this had been a major strain on her.
"Wait!" Jade cut her off. "Please, just let me do my job. Andre's made adjustments for me, and thats gonna help. We can be discreet, not let anyone know. Just, give us some time to work this out, cause I'm not leaving her without me while some maniac is hunting for her. I saw the mercs he had, and this guys serious. We need..." She looked around the room, seeing the way even Ryder was staring at her. Even Malcolm was looking at her like she'd gone off the deep end.
"There's the problem." Ryder said. "Jade, babe, your thinking like a girl in love, not a pro. Yes, we want to protect her, but you want to do it personally. Lets think this through. It's, I'm not against you being there, protecting her, cause I totally understand." His eyes flashed to Trina, who was staring back at him, and for a moment, he almost panicked. "That is, conceptually, I get it." He tried to cover, not seeing how Trina turned so he couldn't see the evil smirk on her face. "But if you stay, it has to be under rules. We work as a team, and we let the authorities handle finding this jerk, okay?"
"Yes, lets make a deal." Trina said. "I'll call around, see if Phillip can get you work, something before the movies he's bound to be lining up for you. Just short term stuff. You want her safe, you make sure that whomever replaces you while your doing whatever I line up for you as your agent is trained to take care of her. And when I say it's time for you to go and make a movie, or shoot a television show, you go, no complaints. Once you're healed enough, we pull the trigger on your career. It's easier to replace a bodyguard then a love interest. Sorry, Jade, but you have two months at most before I fond you something. Keep her safe until then, and you'll probably be back on tour for the final push."
"Trina, please, I'm a bodyguard. Even with the acting coach, I'm no where near ready." Jade tried.
"Sorry, but your value to the tour just shifted." Trina said, her voice soft but final. "In the next two months, you could be a liability if your out there with Tori, and you know it. So do your job, and date her, cause having someone she cares about will make her take fewer risks. Thats how you'll help her move into the future." Jade opened her mouth to protest, but thought better of it. "And Jade, the next time you help the police, take fewer risks. No telling how much worse things are now cause you went and played hero when Tori needed you by her side. You can go now. Tori's waiting for you." She'd made a copy of the doctors note, and handed the original back to Jade.
Jade was fuming, not sure how to handle her new duties, as she walked back to talk to Tori. "Yo, Jade, I wanted to go over a few things with you before we get too into things." Andre called out.
"If it's how to do your job, lets talk while she's on stage, okay?" The raven haired girl asked. "I'm not much in the mood for talking right now."
"And I get that." Dre said, walking next to her. "I totally do. No, what I wanted to talk about is just me asking, please, don't take your frustrations at Trina out on Tori. Girl loves you, and she needs this. I mean, not loving her bodyguard, cause cliche, but loving someone who can love her for being her."
"You sound convinced." Jade said, stopping to look the man over. "Trina's hinted at this before, so… How long have you suspected?"
"Bermuda." Andre replied. "Okay, I saw her interest in you starting in Bermuda, at that impromptu party she and Beck threw for us. The way she looked at you, it was almost a hunger, but she was with Beck, and I hadn't seen your side of it yet..."
"Beck loves being the big man." Jade commented. "It's a chizzing New York thing, comes from the gang mentality we grew up around. The big men, they tipped well, earned their respect by having money and being willing to share just a taste. Like in those old mafia movies. It's one of the reasons he reached back to the old neighborhood for a group of friends, his entourage."
"And you're avoiding." The head of security said, smirking. "Jade, I knew you were smitten somewhere along the way, but never once had the kind of solid proof I did for Tori. Besides, Beck was a great object lesson in keeping one's hands out of other peoples love lives. But now, back to the present, and you and Tori are involved. No sense in fighting it. So instead, we have you work until Trina finds you other work, coming back to the tour as you finish the small stuff, cause we do like having you around."
"And it'd be harder for us to continue to develop feelings for one another if I'm constantly gone." Jade added. "How are you and Trina gonna use that? Tell her not to risk my life, so she won't sneak off so much once back in the states?"
"And miss out on my chance to go back out sightseeing with Tori?" He asked, smiling now. "Are you out of your mind? Hell no, I loved that part of the job. Just her and me, and maybe you now, if we can swing it, heading out on the open road, seeing some of those small sights she loves so much. Or maybe, just maybe, we catch a second rate movie in a small theater. Did that last tour, hit a small one room theater, caught a movie we never would have seen otherwise. But we were miles from anything, in a small town where that theater was once the height of entertainment, and we loved seeing a movie that would have barely made it as a made for Television without places like that theater."
Jade was shocked. "You really liked that kind of chiz?"
"It was a chance to see her away from the trappings of fame, being more herself then anywhere else. Of course I loved it. But I also realized that she wasn't gonna go falling for her bodyguard, so the pressures of being with a pretty girl vanished too. Silly me, I hadn't realized it, but I just didn't have the breasts to win her heart." He smirked as she unconsciously moved her arm to cover herself. "And Jade, a word of advice, she'll appreciate it more if you don't keep trying to cover them. Not saying she's only in it for the boobies, but hay, if you got them, flaunt them."
Jade's glare was dangerous, but somehow his smile managed to relax her just a bit. "Maybe I should go tell her whats gonna happen?" Jade asked.
"Maybe." Andre replied. "And maybe you should be ready for her to wanna do things with you, things that you might not be comfortable with." He chuckled. "And I'm not talking about the sexy time stuff, which she wants, but maybe her babying her hurt savior for a bit, cause you got all damaged and hurt saving her life."
"What about this jerk who's trying to kidnap Tori?" Jade asked.
"Trust me, I'm more then motivated to find his ass." Andre's voice was dark, dangerous. "When we find him, I get a piece. Don't need much, just a piece..."
"Oh, we'll find him." Jade assured Andre. "Lets talk about that later, I have a pop star to placate."
Tori re-read the note, looking at her bodyguard over the paper. "Trina's gonna want this in your file." She said, holding the note out for Kasey to grab. As her assistant took the note, she regarded her companion carefully. "I suppose I'm glad Dre can step in, cause there aren't that many people I'd feel comfortable having that close to me. But I agree with Trina, you have another job now, and thats getting better, getting a career so we can be together, and being there for me. No more unnecessary risks."
Jade huffed, not flinching from the pain of that movement. Taping the body for support helped, but it still hut to breath, and it was worse if she breathed too deep. "Until I hear otherwise, my main job is your safety. That means your physical health, followed by your emotional health, then your image. Dating, while part of the emotional health, is low on the rankings. We can have dinner, a lot of behind the scenes chiz, but we can't do a proper date until after the tour."
"So now I have to work to seduce someone?" Tori asked, an evil, mischievous smile on her face. "The doctors note didn't say much about sex, just to take it easy for a couple of weeks. I figure, in time, we'll be ready for the big step, probably by the time you're doctor says you're ready. And until then, I have plenty of stuff to remind me of what I like about you."
"Ten pictures of my ass?" The raven haired girl asked.
"I have that recording of you singing Animal." Tori corrected her. "And our duet from Hawaii. Gods, Jade, there's more to me then some teenage boy's sex drive..."
"I recall, you got drunk, days after you and Beck broke up, and walked into the bathroom while I was showering, just to get yourself a peek." Jade joked.
"I still can't believe I ever thought I wasn't attracted to you." Tori moaned. "My god, how is it the entire media isn't aware that I'm into you?"
"Shapiro is." Jade reminded her. "You remember the first day I met him, how he told me I was the story? Man was right. Lets hope his instincts help us find the guy who's behind the kidnapping attempts. I desperately want him brought down before you return to the U.S. The kidnapper, that is. Shapiro can go on, as usual, until he disses my girl again."
"I doubt they'll find him in a week." Tori said. At the look Jade was giving her, the singer continued. "I have a performance on Conan in a week, and it's live from Los Angeles. I'm gonna be there for almost two days. I'll have to see if Trina wants you with me, or if she's gonna keep you here, safely away from trouble while I go and sing."
"At least you'll be safe, surrounded by that many cops." Jade noted.
"Yep." Tori agreed. "And I'll even be able to go home, relax in my own place." She hesitated. "On second thought, maybe you should come with. I'm having an extra set of rooms, along with an external garage, put in, so I can have a security room set up. Maybe you'd like to come check it out, give you expert opinion?"
"And I'd stay where, you're place?" Jade asked.
"I'm sure I could find someplace or you." Tori teased.
"Let me talk to Andre about this." Jade said, smiling. But inside, she was plotting. 'We need to find the guy behind this, fast. Tori won't have as many cops around her this time as she did the last, so she'll be vulnerable. Guys got money, had a mole in the New york police, so he might have on in Los Angeles too. I'll speak with Andre, see what he can think of… we need to get this guy, ASAP.'
Jade had reached out to every contact she had, and still it wasn't enough. They just weren't finding the guy who was behind this. Yet still the pending performance on Conan, the last big performance promoting the movie, was creeping closer and closer, and with it the trip back to Los Angeles in the U.S.. Each day Tori would smile at Jade, and the bodyguard knew she had to do something, cause this guy was never gonna stop. So she called Shapiro, almost daily, while Tori was doing an interview, or rehearsing a new song, or writing her latest ode to whatever miracle she was trying to honor that day. Not much was coming of their conversations.
"They hired a dirty cop in New York, so I'm betting they'll be able to find a dirty cop in L.A." Jade groaned at the gossip. "We need to be ahead of this. I mean, in Los angeles, Trina thinks Tori won't need as much protection, so thats the best place to do the snatch."
"I get it." Robbie said. 'What with you out of action, L.A. would be a good choice to grab her. Just one problem, the LAPD isn't about to let that happen. Even if they get a dirty cop, it's a long road up hill to using that to find a weakness in Tori's defenses. Just, let me reach out again, see what I can find out about possible safe houses this guy could be using to hide his people."
So the flight to Los Angeles was a lot more tense then any they'd been on the entire time of the tour. Tori was worried about her performance, while Jade was convinced that Los Angeles was her weak point now. 'She's a cops daughter, so there's like a million of them watching out for her, but that just presents a challenge. This is their best, possibly last, chance to get her without her full security force around her. Yes, it's gonna happen here, I can feel it in my blood. There out there, plotting, and this time, they're gonna fight dirty.'
At the airport, much to their surprise, they were met by Enzo, who had a car waiting for them. "Hay, sis, you gotta see the place Beck's living in right now. He made friends with this rich dude, and he's crashing at that dudes home in Beverly chizzen Hills for the next few weeks, while he finishes negotiating his run on L.A. Undercover. Can you believe it, he's gonna be on L.A. Undercover."
"Whats rolls he gonna play?" Tori asked.
"Jade's partner slash love interest. They find out that a crooked ex cop was behind a series of kidnappings, and Beck plays the guy who's working with Jett Stetson to go after the scum. Thats all I know, other then Beck wants Jade to play his partner, and she can have her own fight scene. They've been getting edgier lately." Enzo let slip.
"Wait, is Beck trying to ride my coattails in, or help me get a part to let he world know what I can do?" Jade asked.
"He's trying to help himself by helping you." Tori said. "And we're letting him, cause it serves our own ends."
"Right." Beck's personal trainer said, smiling. "But for now, let me get you home, and maybe you can drop by, see the place, before your big performance?"
"How about after?" Jade offered. "We have some layover time here while Tori gets ready to rejoin the tour, one last show down south and we're back on the road, only this time up in the great white north. And we'll be back with our regular tour then cause the trucks can move her sets again."
"And we'll need a couple of days to get used to the full set again." Tori added. "Hence the shows in Alaska. And oh yea, we're also touring a weather station, if you can believe that."
"That so cool." Enzo babbled. He led them to the limo, a stretched white one, and smirked as the driver opened the door for him. Inside, they found plenty of room to sit and talk, but other then catching Enzo up with Jade's latest interactions with her family back in new York, they didn't have that much to talk about. Bill and Kasey both were focused this time, with the big guy constantly watching the cars around them and the assistant typing away on her pad. It made for a tense trip. It got a little worse when Siobhan was brought up. Clearly, Siobhan didn't like that anyone in the family, adopted or otherwise, was so close to Beck.
They got to Tori's home, making it through the heavy security, and were able to settle in and relax for a bit. "Jade, did notice, we're all alone?" Tori cooed after Enzo and the car had left and they'd settled in a bit.
"Accept for Kasey and Bill." Jade said, smiling. "What did you have in mind?"
"How about some nude swimming?" Tori teased. "No, we have to wait for you to heal a bit more, don't we?"
"I can get wet." Jade protested.
"But are you ready for us to go all the way?" Tori asked. "This is sex, with heavy, real consequences. This is about love."
"So, why's Andre still with the tour?" Jade changed the subject.
"Cause Los Angeles is safe." Tori said with a shrug. "Two more weeks, Jade. Two more weeks, and you're mine. Or at least open to my taking."
"When do we need to be at the studio?" Jade asked, again changing the subject.
"They tape around four, so two." Tori replied. "Lets settle in. Tonight, I wanna just relax." There was a buzzing. "Oh, that'd be my parents. Be a dove, and let them in, will you?"
Jade looked over to where Kasey was busy getting their dinner ready, and growled. 'This was a setup.' She decided, right then, and walked over to the door. The security officer for the complex was standing there. "Miss West, these are Miss Vega's parents. We escorted them in, cause her father likes to look around."
"Do you have any idea the kinds of crimes that these walls might be hiding?" The police officer asked. His wife just rolled her eyes, worried that they'd once again get caught up in Davids not so hidden conspiracy theories about how the rich get away with murder.
About that time, if not a bit earlier, Trina got a call from Robbie. "Trina, I was wondering, do you guys use the cloud to keep track of Tori's schedule?" He asked.
"I don't, but maybe we should ask Kasey." The manager replied. She looked out the window of her room, at the tropical resort where her and the crew were staying while waiting for Tori rejoin them. This was their last show in Latin America.
"Ask Malcolm." The reporter insisted.
Trina huffed. "Mal, could you come here for a moment?" She asked her assistant. "Um, someone wants to know, do we keep Tori's schedule on the cloud?"
"Kinda." The assistant said. "We have a secure part of it for our use, so Kasey and I can share documents, coordinate stuff, keep everyone on the same page. Why?'
"Okay, Rob, I'm putting you on speaker phone so I'm not playing fucking relay, okay?" Trina announced. "But yes, we do, why?"
"Malcolm, I'm gonna ask you a strange question." Rob said. "Would you mind downloading a piece of software for me?"
"Depends, what is it?" Malcolm was careful about ever piece of software he touched. He knew about spyware, and wasn't going to let some be slipped onto his tablet by a gossip reporter.
"Technically, spyware, but you'll be getting a remove option, cause I know you'll want it off once you know what it does." Rob explained. "Look, I understand if you don't wanna, but we need to check your stuff for some high end spyware, and this program is the best shot we have. It's developed for snoops like me, and will alert me to the presence of other spyware on your system. Plus, you'll know it's there, so you can have your own experts remove it."
"Okay, but I don't trust you." Mal said, as he followed the verbal instructions and opened the laced email from the gossip.
"Okay, I have no idea how long it's gonna take for this to..." Robbie was saying, only to stop. "Okay, we have it. Yep, the program is piggybacking on existing spyware. Looks to me like someone else has access to your cloud account, as well as the ability to remotely access your Pearpad. I'm betting they have access to Tori's assistants as well. Hell, they have access to all your electronics. That means, if their watching, they'd know we know. But guess what. I can block that, cause they can't be watching all the time now, can they. This is good. Let me talk to some people. And Trina, go to the people I'm sending you now, and get this removed. All of it, remove it from your cloud account, from everything. Just, not immediately. It's time to bait a trap..."
"Details, Shapiro, of this ends now." Trina barked.
"Lets just say I think I might have access to an agent in their camp..." The paparazzi gloated, as he had his people take control of both the spyware, and the cloud account.
:}
So we know Jade got lucky, cracked ribs, and a lot of bruising, as well as soft tissue damage, but nothing that would require a body cast. She's hurting, and is restricted in what she can do. However, things are going smoothly for the couple, at least for the present. Ant Tori is playing games. What could she want that she doesn't already have?
The last part was important, cause now we know where the spy was. All it takes is one infected system…
Reviews are welcome. Let me know what you think. Is Jade right? Will they try something in L.A.? Let me know what you think.