Start from Scratch

by Quitting Time

It's been 3 years since Hollywood Arts and Jade's life hasn't worked out like she wanted it too. Fleeing her past, she must start over from stratch and finds her only refuge is with a person with her own personal demons, Tori Vega. Can the pair rebuild their lives and perhaps even find love along the way. A Jori story.

27. Just one more thing

Disclaimer: The show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.

Start from scratch.

Chapter 27 – Just one more thing…

Note: Two weeks have passed since the last chapter.

Tori, who was normally a light sleeper, woke to the sounds of Jade crying out in the other room. Looking at her clock as she hopped out of bed and threw on her robe, she could see it was 3:55 in the morning.

Tori hurried out of her room into the still dark living room just in time to hear Jade scream and suddenly sit up on the couch. She appeared to be very disorientated and upset and for a moment her arms flailed as if she was fighting off some imaginary attacker.

Tori quickly kneeled by the couch, making sure not to touch Jade. "Jade, Jade. It's ok, you're safe. It was only a bad dream Calm down."

Jade seemed to calm slightly down hearing Tori's soft voice, but it was obvious she was very disturbed by her nightmare.

"It's ok…..just relax, you're safe now."

The Goth continued to stare straight ahead, with a somewhat hollow expression.

"Just breathe Jade. You're ok."

After sitting there for a moment, Jade rubbed her face and fought back a tear. "It was a bad one."

"I'm sorry you had another nightmare Jade. Do you want me to hold your hand?"

"No, don't touch me please. Not now."

Jade then covered half her face with her open hand, this time letting a tear escape her eye. "How foolish I was to think I could ever actually be free of him. He was convicted 2 weeks and sentenced to life in prison 4 days ago and I'm still having nightmares about him."

"I'm there for you. I wasn't before, but I am now."

"Tori, stop that!" Retorted Jade quickly. "You did what you could. There's a saying. A dog can only bite the hand that feeds them so many times before their left to starve. I proverbially bit you more than enough times. Ok, you made mistakes, I'll admit that, but I'm way ahead of you in that department. So stop beating yourself up over it. Just sit with me for a moment."

"Ok" Replied Tori in a soft voice.

"I dreamed that cops grabbed me and locked me in his cell. He just kept raping me, over and over….."

"You're ok now."

Jade nodded but remained silent, as she sat there, collecting her thoughts.

"I'm just tired, when I'm tired, worn out or stressed, I have these dreams more often."

"Jade that the third one this week. I'm getting worried. I'm not sure what's going on but you've been going out the last few nights and staying out really late. Not to mention you've been spending 4-5 hours on the computer at a time for the last week. It's been wearing you out, not to mention you're been more short tempered than normal. When did you come home tonight? "

Jade ran her hands through her hair. "Just after 2 am."

"Jade, I know you said this had to do with your mysterious project, but I'm worried. Whatever it is, it's not worth it."

"I have to do this Tori. I just have one more thing to do, then I'm done. It will be worth it. I promise." Jade said wearily.

"You will tell me what this about, will you?"

"Yes. I will. I'm fine now. You can go back to bed, sorry for waking you."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fine." Snapped Jade, impatiently.

Tori stood up, thinking about Jade's dog analogy. Perhaps she's right, mused Tori for a moment.

"Just let me know if you need anything."

Jade by then, had lain back down and covered herself with her blanket.

Tori knew that Jade's been obsessed with this mysterious project since the major blowout. She had described it as part of her therapy and something to focus her attention on. Lately it's been taking up more and more of Jade's time and at least to Tori, looks like it's been taking both a physical and emotional toll.

Going back to bed, Tori couldn't help be troubled by it. Could anything be worth all that grief, Tori wondered. But looking at her own struggle getting Jade free from Beck, she had to say, in some cases yes.

All through the next day Tori kept wondering about this project and by the end of it, she had decided to get some answers.

Arriving home from work, she found Jade sitting on the couch, watching some sort of zombie movie.

"Jade, I really want to know what's going on with this project. It's taking too much out of you. I must insist."

With a neutral expression, Jade turned off the TV and motioned to the couch. "Actually, I'm done. It's time to tell you what this is about."

Tori then sat down and said. "Ok then, what is this about?"

"Tori, it's about you."

Looking puzzled, Tori shook her head. "About me, how?"

"I know you feel you didn't do much for me, but you have, you've gone above and beyond and I've been wanting to pay you back, in some manner."

"Jade, just getting better is all you need to do."

"No, that's not good enough. Not nearly enough. I've done more."

Looking somewhat exasperated, Tori threw up her hands. "Then what did you do?"

"Ace Decade, the superstar music producer/manager/executive blackballed you for not only rejecting his advances, but for humiliating him at a party. He saw to it, that no one in the business would work with you, by telling everyone you were unstable and crazy. He threatened to retaliate against anyone who did work with you."

Tori closed her eyes briefly, while rubbing her forehead. "Jade, I'm painfully aware of that. I was there, remember. It's old news, nothing I can do anything about. What does this have to do with anything?"

Jade leaned in closer with a hint of a smile. "I got back at him for you."

Tilting her head, Tori said. "What?"

"I got back at him for you. I'm not sure how it will all play out, but I certainly knocked him down a peg or two."

Instead of looking happy, Tori frowned immediately. "Jade, he's rich and very powerful. Don't fuck with him. He'll destroy you too. I told you this is old news. I have no chance of a music career and I've resigned myself to that. I'm sorry, but you should have done this…whatever it was. Just tell me what did you do?"

Jade grabbed a manila folder that was sitting on the coffee table, pulled out a photo and handed it to Tori.

"No, he shouldn't have fucked with you. He's earned my wrath. Look at this photo."

Tori glanced down to see a man of about 60 with greying hair and next to him was a much younger blonde woman of about 30. They were both in fancy dress and appeared to be at a party.

"I don't know these people, Jade. I'm still not following you."

"They man is Mark Strickson, he's 62 and the woman next to him is Tiffany Strickson, she's 31 and his wife. 2nd wife actually."

"So."

"So, Ace Decade, is having an affair with Tiffany."

Tori looked nonplussed. "Jade, everyone on the planet knows Ace cheats on his wife, including his wife. She used to be a model and is cheating on him, with her Italian bodyguard apparently, it's in the tabloids. Ace and Tiffany are supposedly having an affair, even if true, you have absolutely nothing, that anyone would care about."

Jade shook her head. "Yeah, he messes around a lot, but this one affair he doesn't want people to know about. Kind of like the saying, where's the best place to hide a tree? In a forest."

"Jade, I still don't follow, why doesn't he want people to know about him and Tiffany? Is Mark some politician or something?"

Jade smiled a wry smile. "NO. Mark is his best friend. Mark and Ace went to college together, the roomed together in the same fraternity; they've been best man at each other's weddings and have been the closest of friends for 40 plus years."

Tori studied the photo for another moment, with a more serious expression. "I guess that's bad."

"There's more." Jade said with a chuckle. "Mark is also an attorney; he's Ace's personal attorney and has been for years and years."

Tori looked at the photograph a third time and then to Jade. "You're telling me that Ace Decade is sleeping with the wife of his Attorney/best friend."

With a smile, Jade pointed to Tori. "Bingo. Who is the one person, besides me, you don't fuck with. Your attorney. Who else knows where all the bodies are buried."

Tori gasped. "How long have Mark and Tiffany been married?"

"7 Years, his first wife died in a plane crash a dozen years ago. He met Tiffany 8 years ago on an Alaskan Cruise. They fell in love and soon after got married. Huge age difference, but I suspect…actually know that Tiffany loves Mark's money. He's very well off. Mark adores Tiffany, he couldn't be more in love if he tried. Spoils her rotten."

"And yet, she's sleeping with Ace. How you possibly know this?"

"Social media?"

"Social media?"

"Yes, I set out to dig up something on him anything, I could knock him down a peg or two. So I started to follow the social media accounts of everyone even remotely associated with him. I made up several identities and followed their facebook, twitter, snapchat, Instagram accounts, everything. I followed everyone, even the hairdresser of the wife of his pool man for his house in long island. She's obsessed with Cat's by the way."

It was a fantastic tale and getting more by the moment and All Tori could do was listen.

"I spent hours each day sorting through the most inane, stupid and pointless crap you could imagine, baby pictures, cat pictures, people talking about where they ate, it was mind numbing. I did this for you."

Tori blinked twice in disbelief. "You did this all for me?"

"Yes. After weeks, I'd learned nothing, other than the fact that Ace is a total narcissist and most of his servants secretly hate him. Finally I hit pay dirt."

Jade then pulled out a second photo and handed it to Tori. Looking at it she could see it was a small statue of Napoleon, except he was holding a surfboard and dressed like a surfer, complete with loud Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses.

"Jade this is literally the ugliest thing I've ever seen."

"Yes horribly ugly, it's also 4,500 dollars by the way, created by a Dutch artist. One day I saw a picture of Ace that went along with an interview of him. That was sitting on his desk, rather prominently. I then remembered I had seen it before. In a picture taken 3 weeks previously and posted on Instagram, Tiffany was in an exclusive boutique while shopping in Monaco. She was vacationing there solo. The boutique is very exclusive and is called, One of a kind. They ONLY sell one of a kind items, originals by artists. Tiffany had taken a picture of a vase that she said she was going to buy. That ugly thing happened to be sitting next to it and was in the shot. I called the store and confirmed that that piece was the only one made by the artist and both the vase and the statue had been very recently sold. I pretended to be interested in both of them. Are you following me."

"Yes."

"A week after the photo of Ace in his office with that thing on his desk, Ace, his wife along with Mark and Tiffany met at a charity function. In a brief Instagram clip, it shows Ace and Tiffany meeting at the function and actually saying how it's been 3 months since they had seen or spoken to each other. If that's true, then how did that statue get from the shop to Ace's office?"

"Perhaps someone else bought it for him."

Jade shook her head. "No. I follow everyone connected to him on social media. Tiffany was the only person connected to him that was anywhere near Monaco since I started this. Tiffany was the only one who could have given it to him. Yet, when they met at the function, they acted as if they hadn't seen each or spoken to each other in months. They had lied and there is another thing."

"What?"

"Say you enter someone's office and it is very tastefully decorated, save for an ugly misshapen ashtray on their desk. Who would you think gave it to them?"

"Their kid, probably made it in art class or something."

"Yes, Their kid or someone important to them. Ace has no kids. Why would Ace put that ugly piece of crap in a positon of prominence, unless the person who gave it to them was very important to him."

Tori was astounded. "I should just calling you Colombo."

With a laugh Jade, did her best Colombo impression."Just one more thing….."

Then after a brief pause, Jade began speaking again. "When I realized they had lied about meeting, I focused on them like a laser beam. They never said it outright but patterns started to emerge. When Mark would go out of town, for the next few nights, both Ace's and Tiffany's social media accounts would not be updated for hours at a time, and it was always the same amount of time in with each person. Certain vague things they would say sometimes. There's more but I won't bore you. In the end I knew they were having an affair. All I needed was proof."

"You have proof?"

"I got some money from my parents, bought a camera and rented a car. I had learned where Tiffany and Mark live. Mark's been out of town on business the last few days, so I started to follow her at night. I had no success at first and for several nights I kept losing her. Last night I hit paydirt. I followed her car from Manhattan to a Red Roof Inn, in Haworth, New Jersey. That's a little ways out of Manhattan. Who was waiting for her; Ace Decade. I got some nice photos of them making out in the parking lot and going into the room. They were checked in under the name of Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Mercer. I had to bribe the desk clerk."

Tori laughed. "That's a music reference. Johnny Mercer was a famous songwriter. He wrote the lyrics for Moon River and tons of other songs."'

"I got pictures of them making out as the left the motel."

Jade then pulled out several photos of Ace and Tiffany, kissing from their cars to the motel room and then back again after a few hours.

Looking at them Tori's jaw dropped. "My god. That's why you've been so tired. Digging up dirt. What are you going to do?"

Jade smiled, "It's all done, I learned that Mark was due back from Denver this morning and would be in his office this afternoon. You can learn so much from social media. So I dressed up nice and walked into his office and….."

Flashback.

Jade walked through the oak paneled reception area for Mark's office and up to the desk of his secretary, Margaret. She was an older rather plump lady.

"May I help you, Miss?"

"I'd like to see Mark Strickson please?" Jade figured, it wouldn't hurt to ask first.

"I'm sorry, he's very busy, you can make an appointment, I have a 10 minute opening, in 2 months."

Seeing the door, to Marks office, Jade suddenly bolted towards the door.

"Hey, you come back here?" Yelled, the secretary.

Not stopping Jade burst in the door so see Mark at his desk. The lawyer, looked at Jade and quickly looked at her with daggers in his eyes.

"Who are you and why have you burst in my office?"

About half a second later, the secretary, burst in right behind Jade. "I'm Sorry, Mr. Strickson, she just burst in, I'll call the police."

Knowing she had mere seconds, Jade pulled out the folder with her evidence and held it out. "Mr. Strickson, your wife Tiffany is cheating on you and I have proof, right here."

Mark seemed to freeze for a moment, looking at the folder. "Margaret, that's ok, this woman can see me."

After giving Jade a dirty look, Margaret left, shutting the door behind her.

Mark then looked at his watch. "Ok, Miss, you have bought yourself exactly 15 seconds, before I call the police. Show me?"

"I'm Jade West and the pictures are quite clear. I got her car, them kissing and his car. I think you know him." Jade said proudly as she handed the very skeptical looking Mark, the pictures.

Jade stood there nervously, as Mark looked at each of the pictures, not once, not twice, not three times, but four times. Each time he looked through them, his face became just a bit paler.

By the time he put them down on his desk, Mark Strickson, looked as if he'd aged 10 years. "Ace…he's my best friend….my fraternity brother….my best man….I….I…..he and Tiffany…they betrayed me…."

"It's true, you can have the photos analyzed, they have not been altered or changed in any way shape or form."

Looking devastated, Mark looked to Jade. "Are you a detective. Why?"

Jade looked directly at Mark. "Victoria Vega, that's why?"

A look of recognition came to his eyes. "Restraining order. She didn't even do anything."

"Not to mention, Ace blackballed her." Spat out Jade fiercely."

"And you wanted to destroy him? I take."

"That would be nice, but I'll take what I can get."

Looking very shaken Mark glanced once again at the photos. "I believe you. I just do. Well Miss West, You've done a thorough Job. You've done all that you need to, your work is done. I'll take care of the rest."

Mark just went back to starring at the photos as if Jade was no longer there. Not sure what his words meant, Jade turned around and left.

End flashback.

Tori now looked shocked. "Oh my god. Jade, you didn't need to do any of that. You didn't."

"No Tori, I owe you. I'll never be able to pay you. I don't know what will happen, but I did this for you. You don't have to thank me. I did it for you."

Tori was shocked to be honest at Jade's massive effort to avenge her. Getting back at him, seemed like a distant fantasy, now Jade through sheer will power and determination made it happen. It was so much Tori, barely knew what to say.

All they could do now was, wait.

They resumed their normal lives and waited. Her project done, Jade had more time and feeling up to it, returned to work at the hospital part time; 20 hours a week.

Each day Jade would check the news to see if anything happened with Ace and every day nothing. A week later, Jade saw him on TV, smiling at a European music award show. He got a lifetime achievement award.

"I've been scammed, that bastard Mark, let Ace slide. Fuck…Fuck…Fuck!" Screamed Jade.

Tori who was in the kitchen, came over to try and calm Jade down. "Jade relax. You've moved mountains for me. I'm proud of you and all that matters."

Calming down quickly, Jade whined. "I wanted you to get your career back. Or at least avenge you."

"Thank you anyway Jade." Tori said, with a hint of sadness in her voice.

2 days later, Jade was at work at the hospital and happened to be passing one of the lounges, when she saw Ace Decade's face on TV.

Curious, Jade stopped and walked over to the TV. Watching she realized it was a news report.

Seconds later, Tori, who was at work, got a text from Jade.

"Tori, turn on the channel 5 news, RIGHT NOW!"

Sense its urgency, Tori ran to an empty conference room, turned on the TV that happened to be in there to channel 5.

"…The indictment which was unsealed today, alleges that Superstar, Music Mogul Ace Decade, has been siphoning off Royalties and profits from various musicians he's been managing for years. It also alleges, that he's been stealing profits from his Record Label, Ace Records. According to sources, this indictment came about, when his lawyer and best friend, Mark Strickson, came to federal officials and turned state's evidence, in exchange for a lighter sentence.. In addition to the indictment, federal agents executed search warrants for his house in L.A, his Manhattan penthouse apartment, his offices at Ace records and his Long Island estate earlier today. Though a number of boxes of evidence were removed from all locations, Federal officials were tight lipped as to what exactly they were searching for. Our affiliate in Los Angeles approached rapper D-Gold of the mega popular, rap group, The 8th Street Boyz, who are one of Ace's biggest clients, for comment."

The reporter went up to the very fierce looking D-gold outside a L.A. restaurant. "D-Gold, would you care to comment on the allegations that Ace Decade has been stealing the Royalties from your group and many other musicians for years."

D-Gold grabbed the microphone and with his face twisting in anger ranted. "I'm going to kill that…."

It was at point the feed cut away to the newsroom anchor. "Sorry, but we're not able to play the rest of his comments, but none the less, D-Gold appeared to be quite upset. Now onto sports…."

Her eyes like saucers, Tori's Jaw fell open.

When she recovered the ability to talk, all Tori could say was.

"OH MY GOD!"

Yes, Mark is Ace's attorney and there is attorney/client privilege but in cases where the attorney knows the law is being broken, that does not apply. The fact that he is taking a lighter sentence indicates he was part of the criminal scheme anyways.

Haworth, New Jersey is a real place and the birthplace of Elizabeth Gillies.

Columbo was a Detective series, starring Peter Falk that ran off and on from the 70's to the 90's. "Just one more thing…" That was one of his trademark sayings.

Johnny Mercer is real and was a lyricist for many famous songs including Moon River and Satin Doll.