SiCela EstNoël
AnniKay

Sam/Mercedes/Puck

Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them

****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****

Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories

Special thanks to Isis Aurora Tomoe who is my current Beta rock star
Summary: Winter Break for the College Sophomores of the Learning French Series.
A time to reconnect with family and friends.

My Only Wish

Cassidy PoV

Given that I had three weeks off around Christmas, there was never a doubt that I would be going home to my Grandparents for at least some of that time. However, I'd purchased my flight tickets early, before the 'so you want to travel at the holidays, well that will cost you an arm, a leg and a lung' pricing kicked in. Even though we were all given the week of Thanksgiving off, I'd actually worked during that time. Not long after we got back to Manhattan after the summer tour, I did a wedding that opened my eyes to a few things. One of the guests that had attended Puck's parents' wedding over the summer had recommended me to her friend who was getting married. I made five grand for a three-hour reception. I almost felt guilty about it. Until her father thanked me for being one of the most reasonable DJ with an actual name and he gave me another grand for a tip. That was lesson one. Because I toured with KAMA as their DJ, I was actually considered a celebrity DJ. Lesson two was that celebrity DJs could command a lot more bank than the common, hustling DJ.

With that lesson in mind, I'd talked with Artie and his friend from back home, Lauren, and paid her a grand, Artie wouldn't take so much as a dollar…but they made my site look way more professional. Clean and efficient, but still cool and a little quirky. Lauren was adamant that I get rid of pricing on the site and instead have a prices available upon request button that led to a fillable form where they had to give information like their contact information, the date of the event and the venue and a comments section. "See if someone is doing a wedding at the Plaza at Christmas…they can pay a hell of a lot more than someone doing a bar mitzvah in Flushing that you want to do because of reasons. Like the kid is so deeply in love with Mercedes' ridiculously amazing vocals or Sam's ridiculously perfect abs or Puck's well defined forearms and you want to give a young fan one hell of a break." Lauren explained.

I did just that and when I got request for a chick with a Trump Tower's address who was having her wedding at the Plaza the day before Thanksgiving, I charged her fifteen G for five hours and she paid it and gave me a twenty-five hundred dollar tip. There was a little girl having her Bat Mitzvah in Hoboken the day after who said in the comment section that she hoped I could do it because it would be almost like having KAMA there, which there was no way her family could afford; I did the event for twenty-five hundred total. I also took her an autographed picture of my bosses and a special Bat Mitzvah greeting from the trio too. That felt good in an entirely different way from over charging the debutante. I wasn't just building up my rep for my side hustle, or main hustle depending on who you asked, I also used my time working on some funktacular beats to lace under a few of KAMA's next tracks. I had sent Idris Elba the beats for the remix of 'Rescue Me' that would be coming out after Mr. Elba got us his track. He was filming some secret project and couldn't get to a studio so though he'd written his verse, he had yet to lay the track down.

By the time of the office Christmas party, I was booked fairly solid for the week Columbia was taking their exams. Hudson and Haja rocked at keeping us all up to date on when there was no possible way that KAMA could utilize their band due to their class scheduling. I was booked solid that entire week. I had a few corporate parties, a winter wedding and a Hanukah party. It was a great week because not only did I manage to get all that extra work in, but I got a bomb ass bonus from my primary gig and I got all my Christmas shopping done, wrapped and sent to Grandma's house, which was where we all congregated on Christmas morning to open gifts. Granddaddy had given me the heads up that Rockey was supposed to be coming for Christmas. I was almost tempted to pretend no prior knowledge and therefore not get him a gift. I wasn't feeling spending much on him…but, by the same turn I really wasn't feeling the drama that would start if I got Granddaddy and Uncle Nadir the awesome gifts I had found for them, and got him next to nothing. Then I remembered the hundred dollar Macy's gift card, I'd gotten from Mercedes, Sam and Puck for Christmas. That would be perfect. As loathe as I was to give him anything they had gotten me, it wouldn't have actually cost me anything and I wasn't even sure he lived near a Macy's which meant he might have to leap through a few hoops to use it. I grinned evilly to myself. Anything that didn't cost me a dime and might force him to spend money just to utilize it was definitely the perfect gift for Rockey Carter.

I finally flew down to the ATL the Sunday before Christmas and would fly home late Friday night. It felt weird to call New York home, but that was what it truly felt like by that point. I had my apartment perfectly decorated to reflect my tastes and personality. More even than my first place in Decatur. Since I'd been earning a very good, very stable paycheck, I was able to budget better and so I could decorate my apartment in a way that had originally seemed foreign to me. I had art pieces on the wall that I'd discovered in a little gallery in SoHo. I had a beautiful rug in the living room that I'd found at a flea market that Erika swore by. I had everything exactly the way I liked it.

It had taken a lot of arguing and talking and cajoling and reassuring my grandparents that I could afford it, but I'd rented a car and gotten a hotel room for the week-long visit. The flight was quick and easy. The rental car turned into a bit of a pain in the ass. But after showing them way too many forms of ID and getting the suddenly mandatory insurance, I finally drove away with a cute little blue Corolla. Thankfully, after dealing with the wonderful people at the rental car desk, I had no problem checking into my room at the Holiday Inn Atlanta Airport South. Since it was just me, I'd gotten a simple one king bed, non-smoking room. It was really nice, though as soon as I got all my stuff inside the room, I had to hurry back to the car to make it to Grandma's and Granddaddy's right around the time they would be setting out Sunday dinner.

My grandmother was a southern black grandmother. She took one look at me and decided she needed to feed me up before I went home. Over the next few days, every time I turned around she was shoving food into my mouth. By Christmas Eve, our whole section of the Davidson family was present and accounted for. Including my father who had showed up with a twenty-seven year old fiancée who worked on 'the hill' as a clerk in a congressional committee office. I couldn't help but hope that she had someone who pointed out that my father had a hell of a lot of baggage for a forty-five year old man. But I wasn't stupid enough to say anything to her. I'd learned that lesson by the time I was thirteen. I was way toolight and bruises lasted entirely toolong on me. If I warned her and she left Rockey and he reacted like he did the last time I tried to help one of his women, I'd go back to New York looking all beat up. If I went back to NYC looking like a battered spouse, Dave, Sam and Puck, probably with Artie, Justin and the Dam Bros rolling with to provide some kind of alibi, would drive and make sure Daddy Dearest matched me bruise for bruise. My bosses and friends were loyal as hell and super protective of the women in their lives. Thankfully, most of the time they were there, I was in the kitchen helping Grandma and Aunt Kat get things ready for the next day.

The next morning, I was up at five and over to Grandma's by five thirty. She was already awake. Together we made coffee and got most of our families' contribution to the BIG family Christmas dinner that we would leave for not too long after all the gifts were open ready for transport. The tradition was that each of Grandma's brothers' and sisters' families would open their gifts and then drive the hour and a half to three hours to my great-grandparent's homestead near Warner Robbins. For us that meant we needed to start the gifts opening by around six…we'd be finished by eight and then give everyone time to shower and get dressed to get on the road to the homestead by ten. Grandma had it down to a science. She liked to get there after her sister Sandra who always did the desserts, well her daughter in law had been doing them for the last five or so years. Licia could bake for real…I was really tempted to offer to help her get a shop or something, she was that good. Grandma wanted to get there before her sister Freda who did the ham and turkey. If Grandma didn't get there before Freda, she wouldn't be able get the dressing and any of the other oven sides reheated before Freda took the stove to 'cook' the meats…yeah cook. If she was cooking them herself than Honeybaked Ham owed her a lot of money for stealing her recipes.

Anyway…Christmas morning at Grandma's meant that Felix and Frankie opened first, then Nara and Max, then Grandma and Granddaddy, then me, then Rockey, and I guess his girl, then Aunt Tanisha with Aunt Kat and Uncle Nadir going last. Before having grandkids, not including me…I counted as a kid not a grand, Grandma and Granddaddy used to go last. But once they retired, Grandma and Granddaddy flipped positions with the kids they had raised. Felix and Frankie were the first ones up. So I sent them to wake up Nara and Max. Just as they headed up, Aunt Kat, Uncle Nadir and Aunt Tanisha got there. The kids always stayed at Grandma and Granddaddy's on Christmas Eve. If Rockey had been man enough to get himself and his chick a hotel room, Uncle Nadir and Aunt Kat would have stayed with their kids. But instead they had stayed with Aunt Nisha. Rockey and Nisha hadn't gotten along since he'd told her she was going to hell for being gay and she had told him that he was going to hell for being a wack job woman beater. Even though she had gone back to dating men, they still didn't like each other. So no way could he stay with her.

Granddaddy went and woke up Rockey and his fiancée. I used to memorize their names when I actually believed they would be around the next year. Then I tried to help that one chick out and that hadn't worked at all in my favor. So from then on out, I prayed that they'd get their minds right before too long. Once everyone was assembled, it was a flurry of paper while the twins, Aunt Kat and Uncle Nadir's sons, and then Max and Nara, Aunt Nisha's kids open their stuff. Felix and Frankie jump all over me to thank me for the matching Amazon Fire for Kids, I'd gotten them. Mercedes had said that her new little girl loved hers so I figured that the boys would too. Soon as I got those two off of me Max and Nara were all over me. At least the twins were still smaller than me. Max and Nara were not. Once I got them to release me and check out their iPhone 6ses and designer cases, I made them both look me in the eye. "You are on my plan…but if you even think about going over your data, I'm gonna have your momma confiscate those bad boys so fast that your heads will spin."

"We promise." They swore diligently. They weren't irresponsible kids. If I really thought that they wouldn't keep their words, I'd have gotten them something else.

"I'm holding you to that." I told them. I couldn't not get all four of them something great. Aunt Kat and Aunt Nisha had made sure that I had something under the tree from my 'Daddy' every year when I was small enough not to realize that Rockey never gave a damn about me…not even at the holidays.

But while I had kept myself to a budget on the kids' gifts…sort of…I'd gone all out on Grandma's and Granddaddy's. All my life, my grandmother had yearned for a set of real, lady like pearls. She'd had fake sets over the years, even some really good fake ones. But Granddaddy had never been able to get her real ones. Which, they cost like three grand for one necklace and even once their kids were all out of the house, they were raising me with no help from Rockey so no, they couldn't afford to get her real pearls. When she opened her gift from me to find a nice, lady like, length pearl necklace, matching bracelet and earrings, and she read the gift receipt that didn't have the price, just the name Mikinoto Akoya and she realized that it was the dream, she cried. Holding the jewelry box open she turned it to Granddaddy to show him. "Jack, look what our baby got me?"

Aunt Kat and Aunt Nisha moved over quickly, pushing Rockey out the way in their haste. "Oh Mamma…You finally have your pearls." Aunt Nisha said with a smile. There were hugs all around.

Then Granddaddy interrupted the beautiful expression of happiness to show them the gold Rolex watch I'd gotten him. I wanted to get him something as awesome as Grandma's pearls and an article I read online said that men of that age group were Rolex's chief customers. So that was what I got him. "Now CassieBean…can you afford this?" he asked even as he was pulling that bad boy out the box and putting it on his wrist.

"You two have always taken care of me. You took me in when you didn't have to. You've fed me and clothed me and made sure I had everything I needed growing up. I wanted to get you something that I knew you'd have gotten for yourselves if you hadn't been raising me." I told them hoping they would understand how much I loved them. Then explained about the extra side hustle that Mercedes, Sam and Puck encouraged us to have and how I'd gotten my site updated. "Up there I'm considered a celebrity DJ. That means that people will pay me crazy money to spin for them." I assured them.

"Well, I guess you need to make sure you don't end up owing the IRS your life for double dipping." Rockey said snidely.

I just shook my head determined to ignore his negativity. Aunt TaNisha wasn't so nice. She turned and looked him dead in the eye and calmly said, "Rockey…if you leave here and Mamma and Daddy's stuff comes up missing…I don't care if it comes up missing two years from now…I don't care what Mamma tries to say, I'm going to point the police right in your direction. Your old jealous ass is sitting there talking to you daughter about that bullshit when she's done good and gotten both of your parents their dream gifts. I'd ask what you got them…but I'm willing to bet that Monica is the one who bought whatever is in those boxes bearing your name…just like me and Kat bought all CassieBean's toys when she was little."

Granddaddy got them under control with a hard look at both, before Rockey could say anything back. "We love them CassieBean. And Nisha, how many times do I have to tell you to stop stealing my nickname. Make up your own." That broke up the tension in the room and my grandparents were able to open the rest of their gifts.

I opened my gifts next. Monica, glad Aunt Nisha paid more attention than I did, and Rockey had gotten me a nice blue suede sip front jacket. "Rockey wasn't sure about your size, so I made sure that they put a gift receipt in there." She told me honestly.

So I repaid her honesty with some of my own. "I'm sorry I couldn't get you a real gift. I didn't realize that Rockey was bringing a guest with him." I went ahead and handed her the Christmas card envelope with her name on it from under the tree.

She gave him a strange look, but just accepted my apology and the Starbucks gift card in a nice holiday card from the CVS near the hotel I was stay at. "Thank you." She said simply.

The next thing I opened was from Aunt Nisha. One of the few times I'd ever seen Aunt Nisha go near a mall was when I was sixteen and she and I sampled a million fragrances at the Dillard's perfume counter. A few weeks later, at Christmas, I opened a bottle of perfume from her that I'd loved that day at the mall. That Christmas, like everyone since then I opened my gift from her to find a small bottle of 'Clinque Happy Heart spray. She and I shared a smile. To me the gift wasn't the perfume, it was the memory of my aunt doing something she hated just to spend time with me and find me a gift that I would like.

Aunt Kat and Uncle Nadir had gotten me a great Sprayground backpack with pink wings and the picture of a goddess with her wings outstretched on it. It was a perfect way to take my smaller gear around when I was DJing. I'd seen them on a few cats on the subway but hadn't asked where they got them the only reason I knew the name was from the small red tag on the front. "Oh this is awesome." I said happily. "I wanted one…"

"Look inside it." Aunt Kat was about hopping on her seat. So I did as directed. Inside were some DJ dream tech. A Corsair Flash Survivor USB flash drive that was waterproof, shock and vibration resistant and it was the sixty-four gig version so it could hold a lot of my mixes. There were two Serato control vinyl disks to extend the life of my tables and a pair of Munitio Winter Billets 9mm earphones.

"Wow…that is awesome. Thanks so much." I almost screamed. Those two had gotten me stuff I really wanted but hadn't been comfortable spending that much on myself."

Uncle Nadir wasn't as confrontational with Rockey as Aunt Nisha was, but he wasn't one to not say something because Rockey was there either. "Cassidy, you know that you are our first Baby." He chuckled. "Now Anthanio helped us pick that stuff out, so he says that when your tour comes through Charleston you'd better come and say hello."

"I will." I promised solemnly. I definitely would. I couldn't wait to introduce him to the band. I bet that he and Dave would get along like a house on fire.

My last gift was from my grandparents. I knew that it wouldn't be expensive. They were on a fixed income. I wasn't worried about that. They always got me something I loved no matter if it didn't cost a whole lot. That Christmas was no different. I opened the box from them and found a Cabeau memory foam evolution travel pillow and neck pillow and a second of the super flash drives. I was just as enthusiastic in my gratitude for their gift as I had been for Nisha's and Kat and Nadir's.

Rockey got a whole bunch of gift cards. No one knew enough about his life to give him real gifts. To be honest, only part of that was that he kept his secrets tightly. The rest was just the fact that we were family so we did love him…but none of us, other than Grandma and Granddaddy liked him very much. So each of his sister's children gave him a twenty-dollar gift card for Target or Sprawl-Mart. His sisters and I each gave him a hundred-dollar gift card, mine to Macy's, TaNisha's to an online superstore I'd never heard of and Aunt Kat's to Amazon. Pretty much all of us gave Monica small gift cards as well.

Then it was time for Aunt Nisha to open her gifts. She loved the tickets for the Delta Classic Chastain Music series that she got from Aunt Kat and Uncle Nadir. She really liked the warm winter coat she got from Grandma and Granddaddy. Aunt Nisha always made sure to get Nara and Max coats, but never managed to get her own, so that was a perfect gift. When Aunt Nisha picked up a silver wrapped box from me, she laughed. "And here I was thinking that my gift from you was finally getting to keep my smart phone to myself, and not having an extra bill on top of it." Then she opened my gift and she about lost her mind. Tanisha loved sunglasses. She bought 'designer' sunglasses from anywhere she could, for ten dollars or less. So for Christmas I gave her four pairs of real designer sunglasses. Two pairs of Gucci sunglasses with two Cs and two pairs of Prada not Prado. "Cass…Oh my God…Cassidy you are the best niece-slash-baby sister the world has ever seen." She crowed happily, showing them off to all who would look. She put them on and took them off and then repeated the actions with another pair until she finally had tried them all on. "Oh, you know I'm gonna be looking fly for years." She giggled before giving her daughter a look of promised doom, "Nara…I love you from the bottom of my heart, but you even think about touching my actual, factual, designer sunglasses, and you will lose your hand." She told her daughter with severe seriousness. Nara looked suitably frightened and agreed to keep her hands to herself.

Aunt Kat was laughing herself silly until she opened her gifts from the boys. They had made her hand prints with pictures of the two of them shellacked into the palms. She cried. Then she opened the gift from Grandma and Granddaddy and found a set of Bluetooth headphones that she would have never bought for herself…because she wasn't a tech head. They were hugely popular and only getting more so. Her husband bought her a beautiful, half carat, teardrop two stone diamond ring. I kind of hated having to go after that, but she had saved mine for last. Inside she found four designer handbags. Two Marc Jacobs Gotham pebbled, hobo bags, one in black and one in navy. Then two Kate Spade totes. I'd gone through every mommy blog associated with the twin's private school and found the ones that every one of the moms who lunch were day dreaming about and I got her the two designers they were aching for the most. I was kind of surprised they weren't wanting some of the super bags like a Birkin bag. I was grateful, but still surprised. "You darling angel." She breathed as she petted the purses. "I love them so much. Thank you." Sincerity rang through every word.

Nadir looked at me and laughed. "Unlike my better half, I cannot wait to see what you got me." So saying he opened the box bearing his and my names. Inside he found a MeisterSinger Pangaea watch that was less ostentatious than the Rolex I'd gotten Granddaddy, but only a little less expensive. "Wow, Cassie…this is really beautiful." He told me as he pulled his watch off and replaced it with the new one. "I love it. It's perfectly me." He grinned happily. He liked all his gifts, but I could easily tell that mine was his favorite.

That was the end of the gift opening. I helped Grandma and Aunt Nisha and Aunt Kat with getting all the wrapping paper picked up and thrown away. It was while I was taking some of the reusuable boxes up to the attic that my father decided to make his displeasure known. "How dare you spend all that money on that foreigner and barely a dime on your own father?" He started angrily.

"I dared because that foreigner…which Uncle Nadir was born in California." I defended. "Besides, I spent as much on each of your gifts as you each made an impact on my life." I said honestly. "Uncle Nadir's watch cost so much because he has never forgotten a single birthday or not been there when I needed him since the day he met Aunt Kat." Which was technically so long ago I had to think really hard to remember when he wasn't there. "He's been a father figure when you couldn't be bothered. So don't get mad at anyone but yourself for the fact that your own child thinks you are worth less time, trouble and money than a woman she just met."

"Your mother should have aborted you like I told her to." He growled.

I nodded. "I know Rockey…you told me that the first time when I was eight. And you have the nerve to wonder why Uncle Nadir got a better gift than you." I walked away.

We managed to avoid each other for the rest of the trip. My great aunts and uncles and the cousins were very used to seeing none of us talking to Rockey when he even showed up. So the drama didn't continue to the homestead. We even had a really good time and a really nice meal. Nara and Max were hits with their new phones and you couldn't tell Aunt Nisha nuthin' with her new shades. Everyone had a blast. Well, Grandma and Granddaddy had some trouble smiling when we first got there. But as soon as Rockey decided that he and Monica were going to head on back to Virginia a little early, Grandma and Granddaddy relaxed a little bit. The original plan had been for them to cut over to Interstate ninety-five when we all left to go back to Atlanta, so they already had their stuff. It wasn't until they left that I noticed Grandma hadn't put her purse with the others in the front closet, but instead kept a tight hold on it. I learned later that she'd put her pearls and Granddaddy's Rolex in her purse for safe keeping.

We didn't head back to College Park until well after dark. It had been great catching up with the cousins and the family. The next day, after I checked out of the hotel, Aunt Kat and I took Grandma shopping to find her a new church dress to go with her pearls. Since we were sticking to Ross' and TJMaxx, we were even able to convince Nara and Nisha to come. It was really fun. I made my return flight and was quite happy to be back in my bed that evening. Saturday, we met at the studio at four and practiced for an hour…just to shake off any cobwebs, before laying down two wildly different sounding versions of the same song as a demo for the Johnny Depp movie KAMA was under contract to do a song for. Then things got serious as we went to work on songs for the next album.

As I worked with the producer, Kaytranada, helping him find their perfect grove and learning as much as I could from him, I thought over the massive changes to my life that two-thousand and fourteen had brought about and couldn't help but think that I prayed that twenty-fifteen was even better.

Xena PoV

Since I'd learned that Slickback was working hard on going legit, I'd been saving my money, which wasn't hard. I made way more than I needed to live on. After taxes and making sure that I paid my rent and the few bills I had, I usually had about four grand left over every month. I put fifteen hundred into the savings account that was linked to my checking and I put twenty-five hundred into a special savings account for a little project I was hoping to undertake over Christmas. I also took some extra hair gigs and did a few other side hustles as Vampirella. Sci-fi nerds were willing to pay some serious bank for their cosplay events. Every time I talked to Blair or Slickback they were telling me all about the things they had under way to get the jump off money to start connecting the property to the city water lines and to power and sewer and communication lines for internet and phones. They'd had assessments done and it was going to run them between fifteen and twenty thousand to get all the needed lines run.

Thankfully, the city council, despite the rather illicit nature of their enterprise, was so desperate for the revenue stream that they were bending over backwards to be helpful. They had used county money to get the utilities stretched out to the area, which was in the city limits, but had never been developed at all. In fact, with the business plan that I had helped Blair and Slickback put together…so maybe my help was in sending them an employment contract that was pretty much the one I had with KAMA with the names removed and a few stipulations from the contract I had with the modeling group I did my hair modeling through. The payscale wouldn't be as high and the benefits package wasn't as awesome…but it was very realistic and gave them something to show the city council. The councilors liked it so much that it actually qualified them for both the sales and use tax and personal property tax abatements. Which meant that A Pimp Named Slickback wouldn't be paying much of anything in business taxes for the first five years after he opened. He would still have to pay the licensing fees, but even those had been waved for the first six months of operation. One of Slickback's best and most loyal clients was a lawyer who practiced in a bunch of southwestern states, including Nevada. He made sure that Slickback had everything in writing. A Pimp Named Slickback had had to put his actual name on all the paperwork. It wasn't an easy conversation to inform him of that.

I'd assumed that we'd be left to our own devices during Columbia's exam week and had planned accordingly. I was able to get a flight out to Reno for sixty-nine bucks and then another a few days later leaving from Vegas and going to Oklahoma City for seventy-five. Of course, I'd be renting a car in Reno and then again in Oklahoma City, but I wanted to make a few final decisions and it was the perfect time. I flew out the same day the SAG nominations were released. But since Mercedes didn't get nominated, it wasn't a big deal for me any day. As I was leaving my apartment with my one carry-on, my tote bag and my one checked bag, I realized that if any one broke into my place…they were going to be pissed as hell. Because I had everything of value in one of those three bags. The flight to Reno wasn't bad. I napped for the most of it. The four-hour drive to Goldfield was some other shit. That was the most boring drive I've ever driven. The Chevy Cobalt I'd rented seemed like a sardine can by the time I arrived in Esmerelda County.

As soon as I stepped foot out of that car, I immediately knew why they were so desperate for the business Slickback was getting ready to build. There was less than nothing there. The population of the town of Goldfield was smaller than the population of my building in Queens. I also understood why Blair said that once they got the utilities run they were covered for the cost of building the actual building. Slickback had savings from years of hustling and the two years he'd actually run the food truck back when he was establishing his IRS alibi. Blair had some money saved and she was going in as a silent partner. I think mainly she just wanted to make sure she had at least some of the input he promised she would have over the hiring of the girls. When I got to Stillwater, I was going to try and convince Slickback to let me buy in as well. Looking around Goldfield, there was a lot of history in the city. It was a very beautiful kind of old mining town preserved for posterity. That gave me a great idea for what the structure of the venture should look like. Ethan and Daniel had definitely trained me not to call it what it was.

Driving through the town, I'd had no trouble finding the four-acre plot of land near the end of Grand Street that Slickback had gotten at the county land auction. Standing out in front of it, I couldn't help but envision a nice big central building, built in the style of the historic buildings of the town center. Google called it Italianate Style Architecture. That building would be where the partying happened. The first floor would be a good sized, old fashion looking saloon that offered all the modern amenities. It would also hold the offices for Blair, Slickback and they would need at least a medic onsite. It was too bad that Nevada Laws made it illegal to run a casino and a brothel within the same business. Still, I'd looked into it and we'd be able to have slots. That was probably as deep as we'd need to go. Losing money made men mean…that wouldn't be good for the stable. I turned my thinking back to the concept I was building to give to Slickback. If the first floor was the saloon, kitchen and the offices…and a small side room with a runway setup to allow guest to choose their 'company' for the allotted time period. And of course public restrooms for those who just wanted a drink or food and conversation. Then the second, third and possibly a fourth floor would hold the party rooms. Each room would have to have its own bathroom and a closet plus a bed. The rooms would range in size from a nice size ten by ten-foot bedroom for just a one on one party up to really big 'master suites' for groups or special guests. I smiled and went back to the car and dug out a pad and pencil from my tote bag and started jotting down all my thoughts.

If we made the brothel itself, a nice restaurant, a good bar and a great brothel…we'd be able to make a shit ton of money and probably establish ourselves as the travel spot over the Bunny or Mustang Ranches, despite their long history. I made notes to see how much it would cost to do a pool on site as well. The brothel-slash-restaurant-slash-bar would be the main building. But if I could get the adjacent parcel of land for cheap enough, we could have the main building, the two small dorms for the stable and put up a small B&B or hotel too. Granted, the hotel would have to wait until we got the brothel up and running but it would be worth it. That could make it a real destination for the Hollywood set. A good fence and some security to guarantee privacy. Slickback would be rolling in dough in a few years at most.

The plan was to offer both males and females in our stable since it was legal to do so. Unfortunately, the laws made it really hard to source new dicks and chicks. But I was sure that we'd figure something out. Both dorms would be co-ed, but one would be a little nicer than the other. Depending on which one they wanted to live in, they would have to rent their apartments. The nicer dorm would, of course cost more to live in. We'd have to have a nice firm rule about no clients in the dorms. But it should be fine. I was sure that we could come up with a lease that established the rules for in the dorms. I spent another hour or two walking the entire four acres getting a feel for if what I was hoping would be possible was even close to being realistic. Then I headed to Vegas and checked into my hotel room. It took me about three hours, but I finally found a site that would let me buy and customize blueprints and that actually had the style I was looking for. I picked the biggest one and bought it…damn blue prints weren't cheap. Once I had that done, I ran out and grabbed a late dinner and headed back up to my room. I was in Vegas for three days, drove back out to the site twice…but I managed to get the blueprints for the main structure completely customized and ordered. They should arrive at Blair's place two days before Christmas. Despite the fact that none of us really celebrated holidays, they would be her and Slickback's gift from me.

I didn't spend the whole time working on the project. I was in Vegas, I had to make it to the tables a time or two. One of the things most foster kids learn early was how to read people. Everyone had tells that showed anger or even happiness. I used the hard won knowledge I gleaned during my years as a foster child and my time as one of Slickback's Warrior Princesses, along with some mathematics based card tricks I learned from Puck over the summer, and took five hundred bucks to try my hand at gambling. I tried to play it smart. I only bought five hundred bucks in chips. I stuck to the games I understood, so blackjack and poker. I didn't bring any other money or my cards down with me. I didn't let myself use any other money to gamble with. Over the course of my time in Vegas, I made enough to double the amount I was going to put forth for the Nevada venture and put an extra ten Gs into my personal savings account. My last night in the City of Sin, I treated myself to dinner at Naked City Pizza. It wasn't exactly a major expense, but it was something of a drive from my hotel on the strip. One of the few TV shows I watched was Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I loved it. The pizza was definitely all that they said and more.

The next morning, I turned in the rental car and caught my flight to OK City then rented another tiny car and drove to Stillwater. I got to Blair's place and found her talking to a few of the street level girls. As soon as she saw me, she dropped those broads to come and give me a hug. She introduced me to the women. "This is Xena, she's the original Warrior Princess and A Pimp Named Slickback considers her to be his daughter done good. So mind your mouths and your manners."

The girls weren't stupid. They heard and heeded the warning. I took the time to talk with each of them. I wanted to speak to them about their lives and how they were feeling about what they were doing for a living and how they were being treated. I was also data mining to make sure that they really were over eighteen. Nevada's laws were strict as hell about working girls being underage…which I totally agreed with. I still wasn't quite over the shit that I'd gone through in the foster home where I'd met and bonded with Blair. It did help to see the news report that he'd been found naked and castrated with the words pedophile and rapist carved into his chest and abdomen. Slickback took care of his girls. I really respected that about him.

Once his girls knew that I was there, it didn't take him long to pop up. "ZEE. How long has your tall ass been here?" he rolled in shouting as if he didn't already know. "You doing okay? We could have come and picked you up."

He came and gave me a big hug. I think he shocked the hell out of the stable chicks because the hug was completely platonic. He didn't rub on me like he would have done any of them. "I'm doing good Slickback. I drove because you know I like my independence." We shared a chuckle. "When are the girls going out? I've got some business to discuss with you and Blair."

Slickback shrugged. "They needs to hit their walk by seven, but they can go and get their asses some sleep and get ready for the stroll now.

One of the chicks hung back a little but with a hard look from both Blair and Slickback she dipped with the quickness. "So, Zee…what idea have you had that's going to change our lives this time?" Blair teased.

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry for making y'all legitimize your hustle." I shot back.

"Yeah, yeah…that's a 'sorry I ain't sorry' if I ever heard one." Slickback laughed.

I just gave them a Kanye shrug. "I'm making bank…what kind of sister and daughter type person would I be if I didn't try and help y'all to make a come up too?"

Blair and Slickback and I all exchanged long looks. We didn't do emotions so I was actually relieved when Slickback just laughed it off. "Alright, Smarty-Arty…what you got?"

So I laid it all out for them, even whipped out my refurbished laptop that I'd gotten for a Benji from a tech head that lived in my building and showed them the PDFs of the customized floorplans. I showed them what I thought would be a good start up plan for having three streams of revenue not just one. "Like, see, my boss, Sam he was homeless for a while a few years ago right. And he is really freaked out about being broke again. So to make sure that it doesn't happen ever again…they have all these real estate plans in the works to turn their one big money maker into a whole lot of money makers."

"I get it. So we'd make money off people wanting a nice dinner or an evening of drinks with friends…but we should also do a larger room for the selection process, then we can rent it out and do exotic dance parties like we do now for bachelor and bachelorette type deals." Slickback suggested.

I nodded. "Not bad." I said thoughtfully. I hadn't thought of that one. That could be a great way to increase our marketability. I made a note on my spreadsheet. I also made a mental note to thank Artie. He was really good people and he had taught me a hell of a lot about computers

Blair looked thoughtful. "If we can afford it, I'd love to go up one more floor and have a floor of fantasy rooms." We asked her to explain more. "Well, me and Slickback were saying that since Heidi Fleiss didn't open her place, and we're allowed to have rent boys…we should make sure that a few of them are bisexual, if not all of them. Well, for women, it's not just fucking, especially if they are paying for it. It should also be about the fantasy. So I was thinking a room that looks like something out of Gone with the Wind, and a classroom where she gets to be the teacher dealing with a naughty student…or the other way around."

"Oh, that's good." I agreed. "Maybe one of the fantasy rooms could be a small bar setting…you know for a group sex deal. Perhaps one with a nice large walk-in closet with a two-way mirror for a door for a voyeurism kind of bang." We did a little more brainstorming and decided that we'd have a floor of ten of the fantasy rooms, a floor of twelve regular rooms and then the floor of six of the larger suites."

Slickback looked over the floorplans and did some quick mental math. "That will put us at around thirty-seven thousand square feet. Given the quote for the build…that's about three times what we have saved up. And we haven't moved on the first steps because we didn't know how to do that and still have the money to actually build the place. Shit, I've been hustling for twenty some years to save what we've got."

I smiled. "Well, I have a little bit of an idea. I've got fifty thousand saved up. I want to buy in as a partner, maybe ten to fifteen percent. I can send you more after the new year."

Blair looked excited. "That's ten times, my little one percent buy in." she said happily. "That will definitely give us the money to get the utility lines all down."

I nodded. "Plus, I don't mind heading back to Vegas and seeing if I can win some more. Half of what I'm putting on the table I won over the three days I was in Vegas."

Slickback looked shocked. "How did you do that? I thought the house always won."

I smirked at him. Then explained the tricks Puck had showed me, the rules by which I governed myself and the ease with which I picked up peoples tells. "Not to mention that I'm a fairly attractive white woman. It was easy to keep men off their games and a little bit of flirting and they actually seemed to want me to take their money." We all chuckled. "Now, I'm not saying that I didn't ever lose. But overall, by playing things smooth and not getting too greedy. I won a lot more than the twenty-seven hundred I lost over the course of playing."

"So…could you teach Blair how to do that and the two of you head to Reno…not Vegas, don't want to piss off which ever mobster you won off of last time. Could you bring back some more for the kitty?" he asked quietly.

"I guess…not sure how successful we will be but…I don't mind." I said honestly. We weren't huge on holidays. Other than the fact that they were surprisingly lucrative for the street level chicks. It always baffled me how fathers and grandfathers would sneak away from family time to get it in. Slickback called Large Marge…one of the other Warrior Princesses, her name was actually Helen, she created her nickname based off both her size and the old PeeWee Herman movie. She showed up fifteen minutes later with a poker set from Sprawl-Mart and three extra decks of cards. When Large Marge figured out what we were planning, she wanted to help too. Turned out that her mother had been a dealer at some big deal poker club in Dallas. Helen had grown up around dealers and poker players her entire childhood. She had a hell of a lot tricks up her sleeve. So for the next three days, Blair, Large Marge and I worked on upping Helen's blackjack game…she already had more than enough knowledge to spank a poker table…and she was more than willing to share. Blair had to learn the basics of both games as well as the tricks and other things that we hoped would make sure that we got ourselves some bank.

Three days after I got to Stillwater, we girls took a road trip. We stopped first in Duncan and hit the Chisholm Trail Casino run by the Chickasaw Indians. They had a Texas Hold 'Em game that Helen rocked at. She rocked it so hard that she left there with a cool forty grand after having completed the paper work for the IRS. They weren't big enough to do the withholding thing. Which sucked ass a little bit, but what could we do. Then the next day, we stopped in a cool little Choctaw place with slots. Me and Helen couldn't hit for shit on those. But Blair, Blair was the goddess of those machines. She won on one that had a pay out of eleven hundred and ninety-nine dollars. There wasn't any paperwork involved in that win, but when she decided to try one of the big machines, just to see…she actually won fifty thousand bucks. There was definitely paperwork involved in that one.

The way we had it planned it would take us three days to reach Reno. We made what was supposed to be a short stop in Vegas and just made the decision not to go back to the Fabulous Ali Baba Hotel and Casino where I'd stayed the week before. We'd been putting our winnings into my special buy in account and Artie's Mom had been really nice when I asked how much to hold aside to pay the taxes on the ones that weren't automatically withheld. She sent me a spreadsheet that showed what would be our tax responsibility on wins over two grand and up to a hundred fifty thousand bucks. She also said that the way the government worked each big win was a separate tax burden. So we created a second page of the spreadsheet to keep track of every jackpot over two thousand. Date and time, name and address of the casino, which of us actually won it, it was a great way to keep track and I made note to send Mrs. Adams an edible bouquet in thanks.

When we hit the strip, we split up. Helen found a Texas Hold 'Em table. I went with the blackjack tables and we let Blair do her thing at the slots. She usually didn't win huge, but she'd been making steady gains and we'd been playing off her winning since we left Oklahoma. So she went to play the machines and win enough to pay for dinner, hotel and gas. Or so we thought. I was heading to the cage to cash out my exceptional thirty-seven-thousand-dollar win…God bless the crazy European guy who just refused to give up. He totally made up for the almost four grand that I'd lost at the other table. We were still living by the whole 'five hundred dollars of chips and you only play what you win thereafter' rule set. The gambling gods had been kind. As I was approaching the cage, the place lit up like someone had let off some fireworks.

I may have been nosy, but I wanted to go and check it out, so I did. When I got to the Megabucks slot machine, Blair was looking at it with the craziest look I'd ever seen on anyone's face ever. "What happened?" I asked as I pushed my way to her.

"What happened?" a woman who had to be seventy zillion years old shot back. "She won. She's been cruising the floor looking at machines and shaking her head for the last fifteen minutes. So I asked her what was wrong, and she said she was almost out of her seed and so she was trying to feel which machine was a winner. It's pretty light in here today, so nobody was bothered by it. She finally sat down at that machine over there and she won the jackpot. Twenty-nine million, three hundred and thirty thousand, five hundred and ninety-six dollars and twenty-two cents. We ain't seen a slot pay out like that in Caesar's since the ninties."

Blair looked up at me and simply pointed at the machine. "ZEE!"

"Blair Baby…you won." I told her with a wide eyed grin. "You won hella big."

"What am I gonna do with all of that?" She sounded so scared.

I gave her a hug. "Well, first thing we're gonna do is go and but those parcels of land on either side of Slickback's and make the arrangements to have the utility lines laid. Then we're going to get with Eliot and have him draw up the paperwork to make you and Slickback equal partners."

She shook her head. "No, you too. All three of us. Perfect thirds. We wouldn't be doing any of this without you."

"I don't have that much." I said honestly.

"I don't care. You have everything that's sitting in your bank account for your buy in. If I have to I will give you whatever you need to be equal. Hell, you deserve a third just for all the work you've put in thinking about things me and Slickback would never know to do. Like making the place fit in with the rest of the town or making it a destination for the rich and famous or even the whole revenue stream thing." She stated definitively. She would not be dissuaded.

For me that meant that I would have to feel like I'd earned my place. So I put her in contact with Puck's Uncle Saul and before we even left Vegas to head to Goldfield, he had sent us, what was basically a run-down of how he wanted her to let him invest everything that wasn't needed for the venture to give her the retirement of a queen and to give them, well us, operating capital until the venture was up and running fully. We made it to Goldfield and with Slickback on the cell phone to introduce us to the contacts he'd been working with, Blair owned the three-acre lot next to the one Slickback had gotten at the auction and I owned the five acres directly across the street. Helen had wisely pointed out that across the street would be a better place to put the hotel for people who wanted somewhat plausible deniability.

With the extra land on the side, we'd actually be able to put in a great pool and pool house behind the main building and put the dorms on Blair's lot. Talking through the plan helped me make a list of what I needed to do for the blueprints and everything. Before we left Goldfield we made arrangements to be back as soon as we had all our paperwork in order. We drove back to Vegas and turned in my rental then caught the train back to Stillwater. As soon as I saw Slickback, I put the original ten grand he'd given us back in his hand. Eliot, Slickback's lawyer, had already gotten the paperwork started before we left to do the five-fifteen-eighty partnership…it didn't take him half an hour to draw up the paperwork for SBX, Inc. An equal three-way partnership. He let me scan it and send it to Ethan Harris who'd always told all of us in the KAMA crew that he was there for us for legal things. Ethan was so awesome, maybe thirty minutes later, he sent it back with a few changes. Then Eliot went back over it and we all signed it. The agreement stipulated that despite the different amounts we were putting in, just a hair under a million from Slickback, four million from Blair and a million from me, even though technically that million was a hundred thousand of my savings and winnings, and nine hundred thousand from Blair though she refused to let it say that…and yes she and I had to sign something to stipulate that it wasn't a loan it was a one-time gift, or something like that.

Eliot filed the corporation paperwork online in Nevada. Since the brothel would operate there and was only legal there…it was the best way to go. It cost us twenty-five bucks to register our name with the Nevada Secretary of State with the three of us as the partners. It was a longer process, but we had ninety days to complete it. Eliot sent us home with a bunch of things we needed to get done to get it all completed. Over the rest of my stay, we had prepared and filed the Articles of Incorporation, filed the List of Officers and submitted the application for the state business license. We'd already amended the licensure for Esmeralda County to include me and Blair. That was the main one we needed to legally run our brothel. But the state one would cover both businesses, the brothel and the hotel. It was easy to set up a registered agent in place. By the time I headed back to New York, we'd gotten Helen a rental house in Goldfield. She was decently smart and she was loyal and honest. Plus, she had no problem with going out there by herself and setting up residency. Living by herself was something she loved. She had an employment contract, we got her a dependable car and paid for her to go to bartender school. She was ridiculously happy with the thought of coming up with signature drinks for the place.

Also, before my return trip to Queens, I'd customized and ordered the blueprints for both dorms and the hotel. When I did fly back, Blair came with me. While we were handling Blair's business, Slickback went out to Goldfield to get the utility line work started. Saturday while I was at work, she took a few tours of the city. Sunday we went window shopping at Macy's and a few other places that I still wasn't secure about going…unless there was no choice. She had a meeting with Saul Mayzer that Monday immediately after Christmas. He did exactly what he'd said he was going to do. He helped us make sure that the taxes were paid correctly. He helped Blair invest another five million of her winnings in an investiture to handle the operating costs, and the rest of what was left over was put into some high yield bonds and such for her future. She made me the beneficiary on all the things and I couldn't understand why. So she threw my words back at me. "I've got money now…what kind of sister type person would I be if I didn't try and look out for you too?"

So I just rolled with it. She teased me crazy for the fact that I was still living about like I had in Stillwater. But it was what I was comfortable with, so she let that shit drop. There were a few other things that we had to do for her before she left, including introducing her to my peeps. All in all, we probably had more fun on the trip to Reno that stopped in Vegas. But we reconnected for real. It was great. I could official count two thousand-fourteen as the single best year I'd even had since my parents disappeared from my life…I couldn't wait to see how the hell twenty-fifteen was going to top it.

Sorry for the Delay...I know that you were looking for this yesterday, but my real job didn't let me get to my home until almost nine last night. After that, I was too tired to post.

Let me know what you though. I hope that you all love it.

I'm working seriously long hours at work right now...which might be great for my bank account...not so great for my writing time. Fortunately, I'm two chapters ahead so I shouldn't get behind at the writing...just the posting. For the next few weeks to a month, updates will be either later Friday or sometime Saturday.

Sorry y'all...but the real job gotta come first.

Anyway...drop me a review and let me know what you think of the chapter. Reviews make everything better.

TTFN,
Anni