Another short one... you know we're in the thick of it. Lots of tiny cliffs to hang you from.

Twenty Three

Ceci carefully put her hands precisely behind her back and clasped them. So. This is where Jade and Tori work. Her eyes traveled up and up and up to see the top of the atrium skylight, then back down across the marble and steel walls to the pretentious fountain in the very center of the space.

Somehow, she resisted the urge to yodel. The temptation to hear the echoes was almost overwhelming.

"There you go, ma'am." A security guard ambled over, and handed her a piece of plastic. "That's your badge."

Ceci accepted it, and clipped the item to her shirt. "Outstanding." She complimented the guard. "Does it check for radiation hazards as well?"

"Ma'am?" The guard cocked his head in puzzlement.

"Let's go." Jade had come up next to her. "Thanks, Devon."

"Any time, Ms. West." The guard ducked his head politely at Jade. "Haven't seen you here on the weekend in a long time." He managed not to look too curiously at her slinged arm. "Have a good day."

"Thanks." Jade led the way across the huge lobby towards the elevator, Tori a pace behind her and followed by her parents. She felt a little unfocused from the drugs, but still fairly alert. "Did we tell Devon to be on the lookout for the JAG rep?"

"Yes." Tori replied. "Twice." She swiped her keycard into the elevator receptacle, and held the doors as they opened. "All aboard."

"Tell me, Jade." Ceci commented, as they rode up. "Do you rent out mausoleum space in this place to San Francisco National Cemetery?"

Jade was leaning against the mirrored wall, staring at her reflection. An extremely grumpy looking slightly scruffy figure with a scowl was looking back at her. With an effort, she wrestled a little of her normal work attitude into place. "No." She eyed her mother. "We charge too much." She replied. "The American Cryogenic Society has the top floor, though."

Tori chuckled. "That explains why it's so cold upstairs all the time." She remarked. "I had to wear a parka the first few months I worked here."

The doors slid open, and they left the elevator, moving along the very quiet hallway, past closed or darkened doorways. No one on Fourteen worked on the weekends, save occasionally the operations group, and it was pleasantly unchaotic for a change. "Wish it was like this all the time." Tori muttered. "It's usual circus city at this time of day." She swiped her card at the front door to Jade's outer office, and heard the lock click.

James reached around her and worked the handle, pushing the door open and allowing them into the darkened interior. "Cec, this ain't half nothing. That there place in New York has got this beat hands down."

Ceci strolled in and looked around curiously. It was a good size space, with seating on one side, and a neatly appointed desk on the other. Across from the main doors was a set of inner ones, and that had a plaque on it. She looked at it as Jim flipped the lights on.

Jade's name and title.

With a sense of unreality, she followed as Jade opened the door to her office and went inside. It was light, Ceci noticed, and as she cleared the door she saw why.

Good goddess. She stopped, and stared. The place was huge - floor to ceiling teak paneling framed two walls, the other two were floor to celiing plate glass, giving a breathtaking view of the sea, The famous bridge, and all the way to the horizon. The room was filled with light from outside, which fell on the fine wood furniture, and the curved expanse of Jade's desk. Against one wall was a comfortable looking leather couch, and against the other, a credenza with a neatly put up silver tray holding a now empty pitcher and glasses.

Ceci noted a few other things. That the desk was absolutely spotless, and contained exactly no clutter, something she'd noticed about Jade's study in the house. Remembering what a wreck her daughter habitually kept her adolescent room in, this seemed almost funny. The only things on the desk were the computer screen and keyboard, Jade's trackball, her in and out box, and a… Ceci walked closer, and squinted. And a pair of Siamese fighting fish in a small, interlocked Lucite tank.

Interesting choice. Ceci eyed her husband, who was rocking slightly on his heels, his brow tensed in thought.

"I'm going to start pulling up their network schematics and printing them off." Tori said, as she headed towards the small door in the rear of the office. "Hope someone left the plotter up and linked."

"I'll check it." Jade went to her desk and sat down. "G'wan and take a seat." She told her parents, as she kick started her PC. The phone rang, and she hit the speakerphone button. "Yes?"

"Hey, boss." Sinjin's voice echoed slightly. "Saw your IP come active."

"Don't you have anything better to do than watch Snoopy?" Jade asked, testily. "Is the plotter active?"

"Hang on." The sound of a keyboard cut clearly through the connection. "It is now. Let me boot the print server if you're gonna be sending anything big to it."

"Diagrams. Tori's sending." Jade replied. "You get some people to come in?"

"Yeah. " Sinjin sounded preoccupied. "I had to rig a lottery though."

Jade braced a knee up against the edge of her desk. "What?" Her brow contracted. "Sinjin, damn it, I told you I wanted volunteers. What part of that didn't you understand?"

There was a momentary silence. "Um.. you said you only wanted six people, boss. I had to do a lottery to get it down to that." Sinjin replied carefully. "I had twenty five of those suckers show up here." He paused. "Did I do something to piss you off today?"

Jade regarded her hiking boot in mild embarrassment. Get your head out of your ass, Jade. "No, sorry, Sinjin." She replied. "I just want to get this started. Give Tori twenty minutes to get those diagrams done, then c'mon up here."

"Will do." Sinjin replied, then hung up.

"Ahm going to get me some coffee." James said. "You want some, Gigi?"

"No." Jade shook her head. "Dr. Dodie said to stay away from that for a couple of days." Awareness of her injury nibbled uncomfortably at her. "Thanks for the offer."

Her father left, and Jade became aware of her mother's pale eyes glancing her way curiously. She lifted a hand and indicated the room with wry irony. "What do you think?"

Thus invited, Ceci obligingly got up and toured the room, ending up next to Jade's desk. "It's… um.. "

"Pretentious?" Jade dryly supplied.

"No, actually it has very pleasant proportions." Ceci disagreed gravely. "Nice view, lot of open space, clean… " Her eyes, and Jade's met and she hesitated, a teasing remark on her tongue she wasn't sure she should utter.

Jade's cool gaze gentled slightly. "What am I doing in here, right?" A hint of a smile warmed her features.

Ceci returned the smile. "Nah. I think you fit right in here." She disagreed. "I especially like the blue jeans - they go well with the teak paneling."

That got an actual chuckle out of Jade, who plucked at the denim fabric covering her knee. "It's not how I usually dress here." She admitted. "But I wear what I want."

Her mother studied the faded jeans and untucked cotton shirt Jade was wearing, the easiest things she could manage with her arm in a sling. "You always seem to be on trend… That strap's twisted." She gestured. "Want it fixed?"

For a moment, there was a flash of wary uncertainty in Jade's eyes. Ceci merely waited, wishing for the thousandth time she'd made some different choices years back. She was almost sure Jade would politely decline the offer, when her daughter shifted, and leaned forward slightly.

"Sure." Jade said. "Felt a little weird."

Ceci unbuckled the strap and straightened it, tucking the cotton fabric under Jade's collar and refastening the buckle. She had to move a bit of thick, brown hair out of the way to do so. "I always wondered what Jimmy would have looked like with long hair."

Jade slowly turned her head and both eyebrows arched almost to her hairline. "Dad?"

"Mm." Ceci nodded, giving Jade's shoulder a light pat. "There you go."

"I don't think he's ever had it even covering his ears, much less his neck." Jade relaxed a little, settling back in her chair as Ceci stepped away.

"Nope, he sure hasn't." Ceci shook her head. "But when he was your current age, his hair was just like yours, same texture and everything. I remember he let it grow..oh, all of two inches over one summer before he had it buzzed again." She studied Jade's angular face and smiled. "I can almost imagine it, now." It was nice, a wistful thought intruded, to be able to see her husband so clearly in their child, and have it not hurt.

She wondered if Jade realized that. They'd both changed so much it was hard to say what went on behind those very familiar eyes anymore. Ah well. "How's your shoulder doing?" Ceci changed the subject.

"Lousy." Jade answered, with surprising honesty. "Sorry I didn't mention it the other day."

"I'm not." Ceci replied, with equal honesty, seeing the quickly shuttered wariness in Jade's eyes. "Don't get me wrong, Jade. What happens to you matters to me, and I'm sorry you got hurt by that a…" She paused. "By Chuck, but we both know it was better for him and Jim… for your father not to know."

"Mm." The door opened and James reentered the room, carrying two cups. Jade and her mother exchanged glances, then Jade smiled "Thanks, mom. Glad I made the right choice."

Well. Ceci accepted the cup of coffee, feeling pleased, if a touch bemused by the reaction. I think that was almost a Kodak moment.

She liked it. Ceci moved off towards the window and studied the view, half listening to her husband and Jade talking about the base in the background.

Jade had moved the strategy meeting into the big conference room down the hall from her office. Tori had gotten in ahead of her, and clipped the network diagrams to the big presentation board, and now she watched as the operations team filed in and took seats.

Sinjin, of course, was in the lead, carrying the backpack Tori knew held the big network analyzer and it's cables. He set it down on the floor and took a seat, as the rest of the group settled around him. Tori's eyebrows rose as she recognized Brent among the group, but she refrained from commenting as Jade entered from the back door.

The JAG officer and James were with her, and they took chairs near the other end of the conference table as Jade circled it and headed towards the podium. Ceci had seated herself near the window, and was watching quietly, her eyes flicking between the charts, her daughter, and occasionally, crossing gazes with Tori herself.

"All right." Jade's low, vibrant voice cut through the quiet. She put a sheaf of papers on the podium and drew in a breath, letting her eyes run over her audience. Tori could almost see the subtle shift as her wife assumed her professional demeanor, and she sharpened her own attention as she listened.

Even in casual clothing, and with her arm in it's white, cotton sling, Jade still managed to capture the room, the normal intensity of her attitude only lightly blunted by all the medication she was on. Tori could tell it was an effort, though. There was a persistent crease in Jade's forehead, she was blinking more than usual, and there was an uncharacteristic slump to her posture that was easily visible to her watching partner.

"We've gotten an unusual request from the government." Jade started her speech. "As most of you know, we were contracted to perform detailed structure and performance analysis on a number of military bases."

The techs were glued to her every word. They nodded almost in concert, which almost made Jade laugh. "As part of that investigation, information was obtained detailing irregularities in their data, which could extend from minor theft to felonious activities."

Sinjin shook his head, and let out a sigh. "I was thinking that, boss. That stuff you sent down stank to hell."

Jade nodded. "With good reason." She turned to the whiteboard. "Normally, I'd have just turned this over to the government at this point." She spared a glance for the JAG man. "In fact, that's what was originally intended. However, due to logistics, they can't get a security team here for at least twenty four hours, and we have reason to think data destruction would occur before that time."

"Sinjin, we're going to need to put the scope in here." Jade ran a hand over the diagram. "The three critical mainframes are here, here, and here, and we'll need to pull the drive arrays from all three."

Sinjin was scribbling. "We just going to walk in there, JW?"

This was the tricky part. "No." Jade folded her hands on the podium. "Tori and I are going in first." Heads all jerked her way. "The guards are used to seeing me, and they won't react." At least, you hope they won't. "Two of you are going to ride with us, and duck down in the back seat as we go through the gates."

"Check." Sinjin made a note. "How bout the rest of them?"

Jade felt a smile twitching at her lips at Sinjin's claim of his spot. "A volunteer who's familiar with the base is going to pay a visit. Everyone else will go with him."

"Them." Ceci muttered, just loud enough for Jade to hear her.

The techs all looked around, and finally spotted the two guests at the end of the table. "Oh, hey." Sinjin waved at Jim.

"'Lo." James drawled.

Tori watched Brent's face, as he focused on the tall retired seal, then returned his gaze straight ahead. She wondered what he was thinking.

"This is Captain Taylor, from the military justice department, and my father, James West." Jade introduced them succinctly. "My father's the volunteer who'll get the rest of you into the camp. He's very familiar with it." She let her eyes rove over the watching faces. "If either of them instruct any of you to do something, do it. " She paused. "Understand?"

"Gotcha, JW." Sinjin replied. "You guys all clear on that?"

The techs nodded.

"Good." Jade paused, then nodded. "Get moving. Don't do anything stupid when you're out there. I don't want to be spending half the week doing paperwork on anyone. Got me?"

Another round of nodding.

"All right. That's all." Jade stepped back from the podium. Everyone stood and a low murmur of discussion started. Jade exhaled, and ran her fingers through her hair as Tori crossed the room and came to her side. "Ready?"

"I've got all the equipment downstairs, ready to go." Tori told her. "I brought the portable hundred gig array along, in case we need to transfer something we can't just take." She leaned forward. "And I picked up the black box, so you can run your code on it if you need to."

Jade considered that. "Good work." She said. "Thanks, Tor."

They followed the crowd out of the room and towards the elevator. Jade found herself between her father and Tori as they entered the open car, and she leaned back against the mirrored wall aware of the warmth as they joined her. Slowly, she turned her had and regarded Tori, who had folded her arms, and was gazing ahead of her. Then she turned and glanced at her father, who had adopted the same pose. The rest of the occupants of the elevator were studying the tiled floor with great interest.

Jade's brow creased. They were all acting a little weird, she thought, then realized it was probably due to the very odd circumstances. With a sigh, she let her head rest against the cool surface, and waited for the drop to end. The JAG Captain had been quiet, and reserved, and fairly well unhelpful, even after Jade had given him the cocaine brick.

He needed concrete proof, he'd said seriously. That brick could have come from anywhere, and the Chief could have just been looking to get someone in trouble. Which was true, Jade acknowledged, and the exact reason she was dragging her butt down to China Lake on a Saturday afternoon when she felt like crawling into bed and passing out.

A hand on her elbow almost made her jump, and she glanced up to see the doors open, and everyone else exiting. "Whoops... sorry." She gave Tori a smile. "I was just thinking."

Tori glanced up at her, and returned the smile. "I could tell." She linked her arm inside Jade's and they continued across the lobby towards the front door. "How are you feeling?"

A little annoyed to be asked again. Jade almost retorted. "I'm fine." She replied. "Damn drugs are making me a little lightheaded, that's all." Deliberately putting more energy into her steps, she pulled free of Tori's grip and stalked towards the entrance.

Tori sighed. "Shit."

James glanced at her. "Stubborn cuss, ain't she." He commiserated wryly.

Tori looked at him. "Wonder where she gets it from." She answered, with equal wryness.

"Ah have no idea." James said. "You better git moving fore she decides on driving."

Tori sighed, and broke into a jog, ducking past the straggling techs as she tried to catch up with her partner.