shorter more bite-sized chapters for you. I hope you all enjoy it. ~ S.K.

Three

Tori became aware of her surroundings when a sharp crack of thunder rattled the windows. She blinked her eyes open, and glanced at the clock, realizing that though it was close to dawn, the weather was keeping it very dark outside.

Thunder rolled again, accompanied by several flashes of lightning. She peeked up to see the dim reflection of the clock's light against half open blue eyes. "Sounds nasty."

"Uh huh." Jade agreed.

"You're not considering going out and running in this, are you?"

"No." Jade snorted lightly, as she ran light fingertips across Tori's bare ribs. "You think I'm nuts?"

"Just checking." Tori nuzzled the soft breast she was resting on. "You've been very consistent lately."

Her lover snuggled closer, and made a soft noise deep in her throat. "Running's a good way to start the day out… kinda clears my head…gives me a little time to think." Thunder grumbled overhead. "However, this is perfect sleeping in weather." She muttered.

Tori eyed the rain lashing against the window, along with the almost constant flashes of lightning. "Yeah… it sure is." She slid a knee between Jade's thighs, and went belly to belly with her, curling an arm around her back and exhaling contentedly. "Well, we have an hour or so before we have to get up, then."

"Mmhmm." Jade tugged the covers a little closer, and let her eyes slide shut.

The phone rang.

Jade cursed softly, and untangled one arm, reaching out and capturing the instrument. "Yeah?"

"Jade, it's Sinjin." The MIS chief sounded pissed.

"What's up?" Jade answered, stifling a yawn. "Did a Meteor fall on New York, or something?"

"Worse… the international server is down… for all the Games… and our internal."

"Ugh." Jade winced. "Jesus… can we reroute?" She felt Tori stir against her, and she stroked the woman's back lightly. "Oh shit… they've got a transatlantic sales meeting with four new British clients this morning."

"I know." Sinjin replied. "That's why I'm calling… the shit's going to hit the fan in so many directions, we might as well set up a freaking stand and sell fertilizer." A soft sound of clicking keys came through the phone. "The Admin server is down with it, they can't tell who's up and who's down, and they can't reroute until they get some diagnostics done…it could take hours, maybe all day."

"Can we buy transponder time and go via sat?" Tori uttered, very softly.

Jade considered that for a minute.

"Did you say something, Jade?" Sinjin inquired. "Thought I heard something."

Tell him? What the hell, he knows she logs on from here all the time. "Tori suggested a possibility... switch it to a sat conference and rent uplink time."

"Oh… tell her I said good morning. " Sinjin's voice held a touch of triumphant amusement, despite the circumstances. "That's… well, they were going to do multimedia real time… I'm not sure the sat can handle that kind of bandwidth, but it's a thought. We'd have to reconfigure all the sets here, and there for the different network type... I'd have to put that on the fiber backbone."

"Is there any other possibility? Other than the reroute, which we have no reasonable ETA on?" Jade inquired.

"Not that I can see, boss... that's why I was calling you." Sinjin replied. "Got two for the price of one too.. Tori was next on my list of notifies."

"Please don't call me." Tori mumbled. "I left it on vibrate, and it's on the dresser… it always scares the crap out of me when it goes off."

Jade muffled a laugh. "Okay… contact Intelsat, see if we can get one.. no, get two transponders.. and bring some of your people in early to go up and reconfigure the presentation system in the big conference room." She gave Tori a hug. "Good work." She mouthed.

Tori shrugged modestly. "I learned from the best." She mouthed back, resting her chin on Jade's breastbone with a contented sigh.

"Okay.. will do." Sinjin replied, amid another clatter of keys and a rumble of thunder. "See ya in the office."

"I'll bring pastelitos." Jade remarked wryly. "And lots of Cuban coffee." She hung up, then sighed, as she regarded the dimly seen ceiling. "So much for sleeping in."

Tori didn't let go of her. "Why? Is there anything you can do in the next hour there?" She asked, reasonably. "It's going to take at least that long for Sinjin to get someone at Intelsat to answer him, considering it's only a quarter to six here." She started a slow, teasing rubbing up and down Jade's belly, running her fingers over the slightly rippled surface in little circles.

Jade hesitated, torn between a natural urge to pounce on the situation, and her body's insidious desire to remain right where she was, in this nice, warm cuddle, where she could almost feel the affection surrounding her in the circle of Tori's arms.

Shockingly, her body won out, and she capitulated, resettling her hold around her lover's body, and exhaling softly. "You're right… no sense in going in there just to pace around the carpet." The gentle stroking was relaxing her and she felt her eyes flutter closed, as she eased forward, finding Tori's lips waiting for her.

They were both too sleepy to go too far, but they spent a very pleasant half an hour nibbling and touching each other, until the reluctant gray light warned them of the growing dawn. Jade stretched, and rolled out of bed, offering a hand down to her languidly watching lover. "I'm gonna go take a shower… the coffee should be ready."

"Y'know… " Tori hopped out of the bed. "It would save time if we both showered at the same time."

Jade's dark brow lifted. "Oh it would, would it?" She laughed. "And save water, too… maybe." She agreed. "All right… let's go." She led the way into the bathroom, flipping on the light and ducking into the free standing stall shower to start the water running.

"Mm.." Tori curled an arm around her, and nipped her waistline. "You know, Jade.. I think the thought of not being able to touch you for two and a half days is making me… um… " She hesitated.

"Horny." Jade supplied, giving her a quick kiss. "That's all right." She smiled at the dull red flush that covered Tori's neck and face. "Come here." She drew the brunette woman into the shower, and let the warm, pulsing water cascade over both of them. Then she picked up a natural sponge, and added some liquid soap to it, and started scrubbing Tori's body.

"Mmm." Tori swayed a little, then captured her own bit of sponge, and returned the service, rubbing the soft surface against Jade's alabaster skin. She'd gotten halfway around her ribcage before she found herself sliding closer, and replacing the sponge with her lips, unable to deny her body's cravings.

Jade responded, dropping soap slick hands down over Tori's hips, pulling her forward and into the intense flow from the shower head. She let herself forget the time, as Tori's hands slid up her thigh and they allowed a spiral of passion to take them over, building to a fiery intensity, then leaving them both shaking, as Jade leaned back against the water warmed shower tile and managed to keep her legs from collapsing under her. "Whoa."

Tori sucked in a breath that was half heated skin, and half chlorine tinted water, with the soft tang of their soap on the peripheries. "Oh…" She caught her breath, and bumped her head against Jade's arm. "Guess we're skipping breakfast this morning. "

Jade chuckled, on an uneven breath. "Thought that was breakfast." They finished showering and got out, wrapping towels around each other and easing into the living room, where they could hear faint whines as Chino heard them moving. "Okay… " Jade sighed, running her fingers through her damp hair. "Onward to Hell." She gave Tori's brown head one last kiss. "Oh… Elle… you wish you had as much of a life as I do."

They both laughed.

Tori reached over and flicked her computer on as she sat down at her desk. She glanced at her inbox taking a sip of fragrant coffee. She leaned back in her comfortable leather chair and smiled a little, resting her head against the soft surface as she waited for her computer to finish booting up.

As she logged in, her phone rang. She punched the button without looking at her caller ID. "Tori Vega."

"Hi, Tori? It's John Brown in Charlotte." The man's voice sounded harried, but friendly. He was a supervisor in the networking office, she recalled.

"Good morning, John.. what can I do for you?" She answered cordially.

"Well… um. I got a request from your office, and I just wanted to check it out with someone.. I don't want to do something then get my ass nailed, if you know what I mean. I tried Ms. Robert's office first, but she's not there."

"She's just down the hall in MIS... but what's the problem?" Tori inquired curiously. "What did we ask for?"

"It's the fractional T1 we use for data transfer… we got a request to turn their link off, and reroute network traffic from your office to the London conference center." John replied. "They're gonna go bonkers if we do that.. so… "

Tori's brow creased. "We asked for that? Wait.. no, I mean, I know we've got a problem with the overseas links, but we found a way around that.. who made the request?"

Ruffle of papers. "Someone named Fab…Fabaricini or something." He muttered. "I didn't get the spelling.. one of my guys took the call, and he gave it to me to check out." A pause. "You want me to go ahead?"

Tori drummed her fingers on her desk. "No." She replied evenly. "In fact, don't do anything from this office unless you get it from Jade, Sinjin, or me."

A long pause. "Uh...okay." John replied, obviously confused. "I mean.. usually I wouldn't question stuff like that... I mean you guys ask for shuffling all the time, but this seemed a little drastic, you know?"

That stupid piece of… "Yes, I know… but, as a favor to me, just clear everything through Operations here first, okay?"

A shrug she could hear even through the phone. "Sure." John agreed amiably. "Better for me… that way I don't get my ass nailed when they find out their pipe got taken down." He rattled a few keys. "Thanks, Tori."

"No problem." The brunette woman responded, and hung up. She stewed for a moment, then she stood, about to head out the door for MIS to find Jade. The phone rang before she could move, though, and she punched the button again. "Tori Vega."

"This is Jose." The VP's voice sounded flustered. "We're having a meeting here.. come down. I can't find Jade."

Brown eyes regarded the phone. "Sure." Tori replied. "Be right there." She circled her desk and strode out of her office, heading for the large conference room at the end of the hall. She opened the door, seeing a group of six or seven people inside, and walked on in.

"We were heading right for disaster!" Steve Fabricini was insisting, thumping a fist on the table. "Can you imagine the egg on our face?" He turned and saw Tori approaching. "And you people didn't do a god damned thing about it! This is disgraceful!" He threw his hands up. "If I hadn't been here, I can only imagine what would have happened!" A pause. "Nice of you to show up.. waltzing in here at nine o'clock."

Tori paused, and regarded him, then walked around to an empty chair and sat down, folding her hands on the table. "Mind starting at the beginning? I'm not sure what you're talking about."

Jose threw a pencil on the table. "We have a big goddamn conference with the overseas office in London.. and the lines are down."

Tori nodded slowly. "The intercontinental trunks.. yes… we were notified." She replied calmly, savoring what she knew was coming. "I was notified this morning. " Well, not quite, but…

"And you did nothing." Steve fumed. "Well, I took care of it.. I have the network office tying in some extra lines for us, so we'll be okay."

The brunette woman cocked her head. "No you don't." She replied calmly. "Netops cleared it through us, and I told them not to do it."

"What?" Jose sat up. "Are you crazy, woman?"

"That's it! I knew it.. you are trying to sabotage us." Fabricini accused, leaning on his hands.

Tori exhaled. "Those extra circuits belong to a live account, which you were going to take down without any prior notification.. so yes, I told them not to do it." She stood and put her hands on her hips. "And it's not needed, because we already have an alternate link up."

Silence. "What?" Jose asked again, looking at Steve. "You said there was nothing." He looked back at Tori. "No one was in your office… We called three times!"

The brunette woman shrugged. "No one called me." She replied simply. "Or my cell, or left me voicemail… or contacted Mariela. Seems to me someone didn't try very hard to find out if we were doing something." She brushed a fleck of dust off her sleeve, then she walked over to the presentation computer, and signed into it, hitting the key which would switch the output to the overhead screen. She waited, then accessed their intranetwork, and started a conferencing session. A list of remote offices popped up, the London one conspicuously in the center. "There you go." She glanced up. "Is there anything else I can do? I've got a pretty big inbox to clear before we leave this afternoon."

Steve wasn't finished. "Okay.. so who did you steal lines from?" He asked, sarcastically.

Tori smiled at him, with no humor in her face. "No one. We bought sat time, and used an uplink." She replied briefly. "And it's been done before dawn, so I guess you can say I've been working for three hours longer than you have." She gave them all a look, then walked around the table, and headed for the door.

"You should have let us know." Jose interrupted her. "You can't blame us for thinking we were high and dry, Ms. Vega… I have a department and company to protect here."

Tori turned at the door, and regarded him. "You're right." She told him, sincerely. "We should have paged you… but we were hoping to get the alternate route up before anyone even realized there was a problem. " She admitted "I apologize for that…I'll make sure you get notified the next time."

Jose fiddled with his tie. "Exactly.. exactly.. yes. Good." He nodded, then waved at his secretary. "Get this conference hooked up, will you?"

Tori slipped out the door, glancing back in as she closed it and seeing the hostile eyes watching her. She sighed, and let the lock click behind her, leaning against the wall as she willed her body to stop shaking. She hated face to face conflict like that. All at once, her stomach rebelled, and she got to the ladies room just in time to lose her breakfast, her body violently reacting to the sudden, unexpected stress. She leaned against the wall afterward, closing her eyes and hoping her stomach would settle. "Okay, Tori… just relax.. you've been in more tense situations that.. what's up with you?" She asked herself silently. And it was true, she had… with her mother, with Jade, for heaven's sake.. so why did this bastard get to her like this? She sighed, and trudged to the sink, washing her mouth out and splashing water over her face, which felt overheated. She was just drying her face off with a paper towel when footsteps approached, and she glanced up as the door swung open, and a familiar dark head poked in. "Oh...hi.." She greeted Jade. "I was just coming to look for you."

Jade slipped inside and let the door close. "I was just coming to look for you… " She gazed at Tori. "You okay?"

Embarrassed, Tori nodded. "Yeah.. yeah.. I'm fine…" She decided Jade didn't need any more stress of her own. "I was just making sure the conference went off… I logged on and confirmed the London servers were accessible from the big presentation room."

The blue eyes studied her in puzzled concern for a moment. "Good… good… I'm glad you did that.. " Jade glanced behind her then came closer, very gently touching Tori's cheek. "You look really pale.. you sure you're okay?"

Tori also glanced around, conscious of how public a place they were in. "Yeah… I'm sure.. something disagreed with me.. maybe that meat pastelito I had.. " She put a hand over her stomach. "But I'm fine now."

Jade stepped back, giving her a relieved nod. "Oh… yeah, they were kinda greasy this morning." She commented. "Well, if that crisis is done, I've got another one for us to work on."

Tori exhaled. "Lead on." She responded. "What's up now?" She followed Jade outside and down the hall hearing the faint sounds of the presentation going on in the conference room.

"Our international servers are completely down, as in, they need replacement." Jade responded.

"And?" Tori inquired. "That doesn't sound too tough."

"The parts are in Hong Kong." Jade replied dryly. "Which now has a technology restriction and we can't get parts in to fix them."

"Oh." The brunette chewed her lip. "That sucks."

"Mm… "

"Smuggle the chips inside fortune cookies?"

Jade chuckled wryly as they headed down the corridor.

"Jade?" Mariela's voice broke into her concentration, as she poured over circuiting diagrams. Jade glanced up with a start, aware suddenly of the time.

"Yes?" She asked, checking her watch. Shit.

"Cat just called… The bus is here." The secretary said. "She asks, are you ready?"

Jade sat back, regarding the pile on her desk with a look of mild disgust. "No.. but that's not going to stop this thing from happening, is it?" She muttered in response "I've got a six inch stack of paper I need to go over.. and three reports that are due…. " She sighed, and rubbed her temples. "Tell her I'll change, and be down in the lobby in ten minutes… you might want to call Tori, and see if she's headed down."

"Not quite." A soft voice answered, from the inner door.

Jade glanced up, to see Tori's head poking into her office "Never mind on that last, Mari…she's right here. "

"Okay… I will wrap things up here, Jade… try to have a good weekend, okay?" Even Mariela sounded doubtful, knowing what the situation was. "Good luck."

"Thanks." The dark haired woman sighed. "You have a good weekend too, Mari." She glanced at Tori. "You ready?"

Tori entered, already changed into jeans and a sweatshirt. "As I ever will be." She gave Jade a wry look. "I finished up everything I could Jade… but there's still a lot of stuff pending… next week's going to be a bitch."

"I know." Jade sighed, and stood up, stretching her full frame out and rolling her neck around to loosen it. "What a day… All right, let me get out of These clothes… I should have come in casual dress…but, whatever. Then we can head down." She stepped around the desk and held her arms out. "One for the road?"

No argument from Tori. She slid into Jade's embrace, feeling the cool silk under her fingers that warmed as she closed her arms around the other woman's body. "Mmm…. " She sensed the pressure of lips against her head, and she let herself absorb the sweet feeling, wishing she could just stay like this and not have to get on that damned bus.

After a long moment, they parted, reluctantly, and Jade let her fingers brush across Tori's cheek. "I resent having to spend an entire weekend pretending not to be desperately in love with you." She stated, seriously. "I think I resent that more than having to go in the first place."

Tori blushed a little. "I just hope I don't slip up and forget you're just my boss." She admitted. "You'd better stay far away from me at night." She gave Jade a pat. "Go change… I'll get my bag."

Jade sighed, but complied, changing out of her dark blue Jumpsuit, Which was cute but impractical for this situation, and into a comfortable pair of jeans and T-shirt and Hoodie. giving herself a cursory glance in the mirror as she did so, then running a comb through her hair before she put her suit on a hanger and headed back to her office.

"Jade, it's cold out." Tori scolded. "You need more than a hoodie or something... you're going to catch a chill."

"Yes, mother." Jade chuckled, but did as she was told, reaching into the hidden door in her paneling and as she hung her jumpsuit, pulled out her leather jacket within and slipping it on.. "Better?"

Tori reviewed the rich, blue color against Jade's pale skin and dark hair, and smiled. "Oh.. I like that… you look really good in royal blue." She shouldered her bag and exhaled. "Okay... let's go."

They went down the hall to the elevator and got in, riding it down in silence and exchanging one, last look before the door opened.

The rest of the group was there waiting, and they collected several annoyed looks as they joined them. "Sorry. "Jade addressed the woman sent to collect them briskly. "Just tying up loose ends."

The woman, a perky blond with an infectious smile, nodded. "Well, that's great…glad you could join us. " She checked her clipboard. "You would be West and Vega, right?"

Jade nodded. "Yep."

"Excellent. Well, okay… my name's Skippy, and I'll be your guide during the seminar." She checked her list. "What we're going to do is get on board the bus, and get started… the camps about Two and a half hours south of here in Wine Country, and on the way we'll have you fill out some questionnaires, and pass out a little snack in case anyone gets hungry, okay?"

"A snack?" Jose objected. "Hey, come on now… most of us didn't get lunch." He glanced around, twitching his jacket closed. "It's almost six o'clock." Several other people nodded with him.

"All right." Skippy didn't miss a beat. "We also have some full dinners on board… so let's get going, and I'll explain more about the program when we're on the way." She checked them over as they boarded the huge, chartered bus. "Now, no one has anything nasty, like a computer, or anything like that, right?" She reminded them. "We're trying to get your minds into a different space this weekend."

"I wonder how many people have asked her if she has any peanut butter." Rob commented, in a low murmur. Causing Jade to chuckle. "I cannot believe I am doing this, my friend… or that you are, for that matter."

Jade shrugged. "Won't hurt us." She replied laconically, as she watched Tori board, then stepped up after her, glad to leave the thick, diesel smell behind. The bus was plush, with two rows of seats going back on either side, spaced far enough apart to provide a decent amount of leg space. There was really no excuse to squeeze in, so Jade reluctantly went past the row Tori had settled in, and slid into the row past her, pushing the arm between the two seats up and stretching out. If she leaned against the window, she could see Tori's head doing the same and as she watched, the brunette woman turned and peeked back through the opening at her.

Sticking her tongue out, and making Jade smile, which she quickly muffled as Steve settled in the seat across from her, his dark eyes regarding her coolly. Rob took the seat behind her, and Cat took the one behind Steve, and she briefly kicked herself for not arranging to do the same with Tori.

Great. Now she was stuck looking at Steve's obnoxious puss for three hours. With an aggrieved sigh, Jade propped one knee up, and rested her arm against it, as the bus pulled out of the parking lot, into the fading twilight. I should have hired a helicopter….