Home again and back on the grind. Thigs start coming to light.

Forty Two

"Morning, Mariela." Tori caught up with her wife's secretary as they both entered the elevator. Mariela was carrying a white bag, which Tori suspected had coffee and pastries for a certain person they both knew and loved.

"Aie! Vitoria!" Mariela immediately gave her a one armed hug. "I am so glad you are back."

"Me too." Tori returned the hug with warm enthusiasm. "Thank you so much for the basket."

The doors opened onto their floor, and they walked into the hallway. "That was such a sad event." Mariela said, diplomatically. "We saw Jade and her papa on the television yesterday, and I was so glad that you had such nice people around to help you."

Tori's ears perked up. "You saw Jade and Jim on TV? When? "

"Sim." Mariela answered. "Did you see them also on the newspaper? I have one at my desk." She led Tori into Jade's outer office and removed a folded paper from the top of it, unfolding it and handing it over. "There, is it not a good picture?"

Tori examined the shot, a quarter page full color photo taken in her family's main lobby. It was a very striking photo of both of them, Jade slightly in the lead as they headed directly towards the camera, with almost the same, exact expression on their faces. "Wow." She had to smile. "What a pair."

Mariela looked over her shoulder. "Sim." She agreed. "I like Jade's papa very much. He is such a gentleman."

"What's so interesting?" Jade's voice interrupted them, as she entered the office and closed the door behind her.

"You." Tori turned the paper around and displayed it.

"Ah." Jade reached out and took the paper one handedly, and examined it. Her arm was tucked conspicuously in a new sling, and she had her jacket draped over that arm. The visit to Doctor Dodie had been humbling, but not as bad as she'd expected, and resulted in mostly a severe scolding and two new prescriptions.

And an order to report to the hospital for a second scan of her shoulder. Jade had promised to schedule that as soon as possible, and escaped into the reception area to wait for Tori to emerge, rolling her sleeves down after having vials of blood taken for testing.

"What is this, USA Today?" Jade turned to the front page, where the funeral of Tori's mother was prominently pictured. Though she knew a number of the people in the photo, they seemed strange, as though her mind could not, or would not reconcile the people she'd spoken to, and in some cases laughed with as the same somber, grieving figures before her eyes.

All she knew was that she was very glad she and Tori were not in that picture. Jade folded the paper back to the photo of her and her father and handed it back. "Can you have someone pick up a copy of this for my mother? She'll love it."

"Surely, I will do that right now." Mariela assured her. "Let me put this cafacito on your desk." The secretary disappeared into Jade's office, leaving Jade and Tori regarding each other quietly.

"Glad to be back?" Jade smiled, as she indicated the flashing lights already winking on Mariela's phone.

Tori picked up the paper and regarded the front page, then put it down and gave Jade a pat on the side as she headed out towards her own office. "Yes, I am."

Jade gazed pensively at the hole in the air so recently full of her lover, then she turned and made her way into her office. It was lit with warm sunlight from the outside, and she found herself actually glad to be back as well. "Thanks, Mariela." She circled her desk and settled into her comfortable leather chair, reaching down to start up her PC. "Did I miss anything really critical?"

"Ay." Mariela sat down in one of her visitor's chairs. "To tell you the true thing, Chefa, I was too worried about you and Vitoria to pay much attention to these little terrors." She exhaled. "My husband thought I had gone crazy, I was throwing such things at the television at those people who were yelling at you."

Jade smiled. "Thanks, Mariela." She glanced at her email inbox, which was rapidly filling with line after line of exclamation marks. "Ahh.. a light week. Only a hundred criticals."

"Jade, may I ask you something?"

Jade looked up. "Sure." She replied.

"Was it very terrible there, for Vitoria with her familia?"

Jade wondered at the question, but she nodded slowly in response. "Yes it was." She said. "For a lot of reasons, but mostly because a lot of what they hated her for she had no control over."

"Tch."

"Made me appreciate my folks." Jade responded, wryly. "I used to fight tooth and nail with them, but never about that."

"Jade, your mamma and pappa, they are so crazy about you." Mariela said. "And about Vitoria, too."

Jade regarded her Siamese fighting fish, who were swimming lazily in their tank. "Yes, they are." She agreed quietly. "I was glad they showed up there, so Tori's family could see their way isn't the only way to deal with something that doesn't fit your idea of what's good and normal."

"Sim." Mariela murmured. "Jade, I think I would like to talk with your mamma. Do you think that would be all right?"

Jade cocked her head in puzzlement. "Sure." She replied, before a clue finally wandered up and whacked her in the back of the head. "Uh…about anything in particular? I mean.. " She paused, taking in Mariela's uncomfortable look. "Mariela?"

The older woman folded her hands in her lap. "I did not wish to trouble you with this so soon when you got back, Chefa. I am sorry." She looked up. "My daughter Mayte has told her papa and I this weekend that she is gay."

Jade blinked, wishing she'd already downed her coffee. "Um."

"It was not such a shock, chefa. But I had thought I was prepared to be understanding and I find that I am not." Mariela said apologetically. "So if it is all right with you, I would like to call your mamma, and speak with her."

"Um… sure." Jade pulled out her cell phone , laid it on the desk and fished a pen from her drawer to write her parent's number down. "Listen, Mariela, I hope you don't think.. ah.. that either Tori or I…"

"Chefa." Mariela had gotten up, and she reached over to put a hand over Jade's. "I wanted for her to work here, because I wanted her to have the best examples, yes?" She waited for Jade to look up. "It is just a little hard for me to understand where she is coming from."

Jade handed over the paper. "It's all right." She said. "My mother didn't have a clue where I was coming from either, and my father spent a month in the library reading before he'd talk to me about it."

Mariela nodded in understanding. "Thank you, Jade. I want Mayte's papa and I to be good to Mayte like your mama and papa are to you, and to Vitoria. But it will take us a little time." She took the piece of paper. "Now that I have started off this morning so nicely, I will go and get you more coffee."

Jade sat back as Mariela left, feeling very off kilter. It was the last thing in the world she'd expected to have to deal with first thing, and she wondered if the rest of the day was going to be equally as unsettled. Then a thought occurred to her, and she pulled her keyboard over, pecking a message out laboriously with one hand. She clicked send, then slapped at her speaker phone, dialing it impatiently.

"MIS Ops."

"Morning, Sinjin." Jade watched the screen for a response. "I need a favor."

"Hi, boss." Sinjin's voice was quiet. "Glad you're back. How's Tori?"

Good question. "She's doing okay. Listen, I need a damn vocal adapter for this thing. I'm down to one hand again."

"Ouch. I'll be right down." Sinjin said briskly, cutting off the line before Jade could object.

A window popped up, and she studied it. Under her own message "Mariela just gave me a toaster for Xmas" was Tori's wry response. "I'm dealing with the Pop Tart that generated the request."

Ah. Jade picked up her coffee and took a large swallow. Grand way to start a Monday. She looked up as the door opened, and Sinjin entered with an armful of equipment and a very sympathetic look.

Then her private line rang. "Yeah?" She answered it.

"Ms. West, it's security." The low, musical female voice answered. "There's a gentleman here from the Navy insisting on seeing you."

"Oh really. What's his name?"

"Ainsbright."

Jade took another swallow of coffee, and shook her head. "Bring him up." She gave Sinjin a look. "That got voice recognition software with it?"

"Preprogrammed, yeah." Sinjin agreed, laying the microphone and card on the desk. "Nice vocabulary."

"Hope it's got Anglo Saxon down pat."

Sinjin just looked at her.

"I was scared, sure." Mayte said. "I mean, mama I figured was going to be fine, because she knows you, and Jade, and it's not something that's so out there for her, you know?"

"Mm." Tori nodded sympathetically. "I do know. With my family it was very, very different. You're lucky, Mayte. It may be hard for your parents to adjust to what you told them, but you've already got a foot inside the door to understanding with them."

"Yes." The pretty Cuban American agreed. "I was still pretty nervous, though. Lena and I have been talking over lunch since she started, and she told me some horrible stories." Mayte paused a moment. "She's nice. I'm glad you helped her out."

Tori smiled. "I'm glad too. I understood what she was going through, and anything I can do to help someone in that kind of situation out, I'll do." She fiddled with a pencil. "It's funny, because I spent days trying to think of exactly how I'd tell my parents about Jade, and I never did come up with a good way to do it. There was nothing I could tell them that would make what I said acceptable." A pause. "I finally took some advice and decided not to tell them then, during the holidays. It was bad enough I was telling them I wasn't coming home, and Daniel and I weren't getting married."

Mayte gazed at her, wide eyed. "You were engaged?"

Tori nodded. "It's okay. Daniel's a good friend of mine. We've been close since we were kids, but he's much more of a brother to me than he ever was a boyfriend." She said. "So I thought that was more than enough shock for one Thanksgiving."

"Wow." Mayte seemed overwhelmed by this radical descent into rebellion. "Here I thought I was so brave just to put a copy of the Advocate on my mother's sewing table and wait to see what she would do."

Tori had to laugh. "You know, I never thought of that trick. I should have ordered them both a subscription." She shook her head wistfully. "No, they would have had a little reprieve, but they pushed it, not me. They went looking for trouble, and they found it inside my briefcase." She gave Mayte a wry look. "Pictures of me and Jade I'd brought to show my sister. "

"Oh God."

"Mm. I was so proud of her, I had to show someone, and Trina and I are very close." Tori rested her chin on her fist. "I had no idea what I was going to get into with that."

"Tori, can I ask you something?" Mayte inquired shyly.

"Sure."

"If you could go back, and if you knew everything that you know what happened, right now, would you still tell them?"

Tori was silent for a long moment, thinking seriously about that question. "You mean, if I had it to do all over again, would I trade my family for Jade?" She asked, glancing at Mayte. "If I had it to do all over again, I would not have made the same decision."

Mayte's eyes widened.

"I would have slapped my mother in the face with those pictures the second I walked into that house." Tori went on, softly. "My problem was, Mayte, I wanted it both ways. I wanted my family to be there just the way I remembered them, and I wanted them to accept me with all the changes I'd made in my life. You can't do that. You have to understand that when you make choices, you have to accept the consequences."

"Like people hating you?"

Tori nodded sadly. "Yes."

Mayte exhaled. "That's scary."

"It is." Tori said. "But what's scarier to me, is the thought of what the consequences would have been to me if I'd decided to pass up getting involved with Jade because of what my family thought." She regarded the cup in her hands thoughtfully. "It's hard to think of it this way, but finding her was worth losing them." Her eyes met the girl's. "You won't have to face that, Mayte."

"I think mama's a little shook up, but you're right." Mayte agreed. "She hugged me, and papa did, and they told me it would just take them some time to think about all of it."

Tori remembered her own parents reaction. Then she smiled at her assistant. "I know. She's over talking to Jade about it. I can just imagine Jade's face." She grinned.

They both laughed. "Okay." Mayte stood up. "Thank you for listening, Ms. Tori…"

"Ah ah ah." Tori wagged a finger at her.

Mayte smiled. "Sorry, I forgot, Tori." She turned and walked back towards the door. "I am going downstairs, can I bring you back some cafecito?"

"Oh, you bet." Tori sighed. "I still feel like I've been run over by a truck, even after a good night's sleep." Well. She amended silently. Not entirely sleep. There had been a lot of hugging, snuggling, kissing and cuddling in there too. She waited for the door to close, then leaned back in her chair and exhaled, absorbing the warm, sunlit silence of her office. Slowly, she swiveled her seat around and gazed out through the plate glass windows at the ocean, a ruffled blue green blanket that stretched before her out to the horizon. There were several large ships chugging their stately way out of the cut, and she watched one idly. Then she turned back around and opened up her email program, propping her head against one fist as the screen filled with new messages.

It was good to be back, she decided, as she clicked on the first urgent one. It involved several accounts she'd been working on scheduling for consolidation last week. Her scheduling conflicted with half of Rob's staff being out of the office for a training class on the new accounting package. Compromise or reschedule? Tori checked the contracts, stapled inside folders in her active tray. Ah. Time limits on the consolidation. No reschedule. She dialed a number.

"Accounting." A low, gruff voice answered.

"Hi, Rob." Tori said. "I'm calling to ruffle your feathers."

There was a moment's silence. "Ah, Tori." Rob replied. "Good to have you back. Sorry to hear about your father."

In that order, Tori smiled to herself. "Thanks. I'm glad to be back."

"Now, what was this about my feathers?"

Tori pulled the contracts over. "Smathers and Pine, consolidations."

"No no… everyone's in class that week."

"Can we do a partial?"

"With only half the staff here?"

"Contract's got a time limit."

"People have a work limit."

"I'll offer time and a half."

There was a short silence. "Hm. Perhaps we could work out something."

"Let me know, Rob. I'll need five people at least." Tori pushed the folder back into its pile, knowing she'd get her way. "I'll spring for dinner for them, too."

"Are you cooking, then? I might be tempted if that is the case." Rob chuckled.

"Flattery will only get you invitations,Rob. How about you andCat coming over next weekend for a barbeque?" Tori offered. "I've got a new recipe for marinade I've been dying to try out."

"Jade won't eat barbeque?" Duk's voice rose in utter astonishment.

"Oh, no, she will." Tori laughed. "But you have to use it on something like half a cow, and I don't want her eating the whole thing herself."

"Well, then, count us in," Rob said. "And I will get you your martyrs to the accounting cause."

"Later." Tori hung up and answered the urgent email, sending it on it's way with the new amendments. "One down, eighty six to go. Next?"

Mayte entered, carrying a cup of coffee. "Tori, that creepy guy from IS is outside. He wants to speak to you."

Creepy guy from IS. "That could be half the staff." She mused. "You mean Brent?" Mayte nodded. Tori accepted the cup and took a sip of the sweet liquid, reminded abruptly that she hadn't eaten anything yet due to her blood test. With her other hand, she rummaged in her desk drawer and pulled out a granola bar, biting the end of the paper with her teeth and ripping the end off. "What does Brent want?"

"He didn't say, just that he wanted to speak to you, and that he'd wait." Mayte said. "Do you want me to tell him you're busy?"

Yes. Tori sighed inwardly, chewing on her snack. "No, I'll see him." She decided. "Might as well get it over with. Give me five minutes to get this down, then send him in."

Mayte left, leaving Tori to ingest her granola in peace. She thought about the blood test, and resigned herself to the phone call she knew she was going to get from Dr. Dodie about the results. Hypoglycemia. She knew she had it, it was common in her family, and she was familiar enough with the symptoms to know them when she'd started feeling them herself.

And most of the time, they weren't bad, she reasoned. If she kept the stress down, and remembered to get her snacks in, she usually didn't have any problem at all. The past week, though, had knocked things a little out of kilter. The overwhelming stress of the situation with her family had kept her guts in knots, and she'd barely eaten anything other than what Jade had coaxed into her for the past few days. Not a good combination, she acknowledged wryly.

Oh well. She was home now, and she could get back to her regular routine, and that should take care of it in short order. She hadn't had any symptoms at all for months before now, and she was convinced they'd soon fade as things got back to normal.

Right?

She finished her granola bar, and as if to prove her point, felt much better. She pressed her intercom button. "Mayte? I'm free now."

The door opened a few moments later, and Brent entered, closing it behind him. He crossed the floor and sat down in one of her extra chairs. They regarded each other.

Finally, Tori spoke. "What can I do for you, Brent?" She asked very quietly.

He shifted, then eyed her furtively. "Got something you should know." Brent answered. "Now I can finally tell you about it."

Oh boy. Tori braced herself. This should be a good one.

Jade remained seated, leaning back in her chair as she fingered the smooth wood grain pen Tori had given her in her uninjured hand. The door opened, and first the security guard, a young girl with ash blond hair and a very no nonsense attitude entered, holding the door open and watching as Jeff Ainsbright walked past her.

"Thanks, Julie." Jade met the guard's eyes, and allowed her lips to twitch into a wry grin.

"If you need anything, ma'am, you let me know." Julie replied, giving Ainsbright a dour look.

"I will." Jade promised gravely, as the door closed and she was left alone with Jeff. She waited for him to walk closer, studying him in silence before she spoke. "What can I do for you?"

He sat down without a word and rested his elbows on his knees, gazing at her from beneath thick, grizzled eyebrows. "Know what my problem was?" He asked, almost conversationally. "I figured I could treat you like some gangly young kid who used to be a friend of mine."

Jade's face didn't even twitch. She merely raised an eyebrow.

"But that's not what you are."

'That's never who I was." Jade replied. "And don't kid yourself. You got cut slack because you are who you are, Jeff. I didn't want to take down an old friend of my fathers. He doesn't have that many."

Ainsbright regarded her thoughtfully.

"Did you really think Gerry sent me there because he heard rumors of the crap that was going on?" Jade leaned forward, leaning her own arms on the desk carefully. "He hadn't a clue. He wanted me to clean up his fitness stats, and get him appropriations for a billion in new computer hardware for the Navy." She shook her head. "Not uncover another damn scandal."

Jeff sighed, and shook his head. "I should have just sat you down and leveled with you. That was a major class fuck up and it's right in my lap." He looked down at his clasped hands, then up at Jade. "So now what, Jade? You know they're not going to let you release that data."

Jade smiled, which seemed to scare Jeff. "Of course I know that." She answered. "But that's between Gerry and I."

Ainsbright exhaled. "Figured you would say that. I should have known that when we contacted that bitch Senator, no good would come of it."

"Holly Vega?" Jade vocalized her surprised visible. "What's she gotta do with this?"

"You messing around with her kid. I guess sheshe thought she'd found a way to get you our of the way."

"She tried a lot of different ways." Jade mumbled with an angry shake of her head. She shrugged her good shoulder. "What else did you expect? You're right, Jeff. You should have leveled with me, instead of throwing your son at a problem way out of his depth and dumping staff in front of me the likes of which I usually have for lunch on a good day here."

Jeff just looked at her. "Chuck wasn't a part of this." He finally said. "Yeah, I used him cause he was a convenient roadblock, but he didn't know what the hell was up. He was just after you."

Jade lifted an eyebrow again.

"No bullshit." Jeff shook his head. "You can take it or leave it, Jade, but that kid was stuck on you for the longest time, and I don't mind admitting I used that to my advantage. But don't blame the kid."

Jade wondered if Jeff was telling the truth, or merely attempting to protect his son. Did it even really matter? "What's your point, Jeff? I wasn't the one who decided to go postal, remember? He made his choice, and now he's gotta live with it, just like the rest of us do." She cocked her head. "If I was half the bitch you think I am, I'd have filed charges against his ass for that baseball bat, and watched Metro cart him off to the Correctional."

Jeff's eyes flicked to the sling Jade's arm rested in. "He got hurt too."

Jade had to laugh. "Yeah, but I doubt they'd have booked me with assault with a deadly hiking boot." She shook her head. "I'm sorry he couldn't accept the truth." A pause. "I'm sorry you couldn't accept it, and I'm sorry I had to be the one to find out what a bunch of scum bags you people are."

Ainsbright stiffened.

"Scum bags." Jade repeated, holding his eyes. "Petty larceny.. I could deal with that. I see it all the time. Money I could care less about, but drugs suck." Her voice dropped. "Helping people to poison kids sucks. You suck, Jeff."

"You always had that bug up your ass." Ainsbright replied. "I shoulda remembered that." He stood up. "Goodbye, Jade."

He turned and walked out, closing the door behind him. Jade watched the empty space with hooded eyes. Then she got up and walked over to the window, staring out over the waves as she let her heartbeat settle, and the memories Jeff stirred up to dissipate again.

"Jackass." Jade turned and went to her desk, punching a number into her speakerphone. "Julie?"

"Yes, ma'am." The security guard answered instantly. "Is everything all right?"

"Commander Ainsbright just left my office. Make sure he leaves the building." Jade stated. "I'm not picky which floor he leaves off of."

"Yes, ma'am!" Julie replied crisply, and ended the call.

Jade barely had a chance to take a deep breath before Mariela called in on the intercom. "Yes?"

"Jade, I have Mr. Alastair on linha um."

"Okay." Jade sat down and hit the button. "Yes, Alastair?"

"Jade!" Her Chairman voice vibrated the intercom. "How are you?"

Jade scrubbed her face with her good hand. "I've been better, Alastair. How are you?" She rested her chin on her fist. "Thank you for the basket you sent up for the funeral."

"Pshaw. Least I could do, Jade. I almost made it out there for the service, except the damn airport got shut down here for weather. I heard you didn't make it yourselves."

Jade blinked. "It was a nice thought. Thanks. No, we didn't go to the service itself. We'd had enough by then." She said. "Not a good week."

"Eh." Alastair verbally as if he'd waggled his hand back and forth. "Company Wise, it wasn't too darn bad. I announced the new government contract at the board meeting yesterday while you were flying back to San Francisco. Let's just say my tenure, and yours, is pretty much a sure thing at this point."

"Mmph." Surprisingly, Jade found herself not really caring. "Glad they got their shorts wet over it." She remarked. "We're going to need to realign the budgets for this, you realize."

Alastair chuckled. "I knew that was coming. Sure, I realized it. Looks good for us, though. After the big contract last quarter, now this one… though, to be sure, JaeJae, I'd have given this up not to have had you go through the crap you did to get it."

"Really?" Jade experienced a warm and fuzzy moment. "Alastair, you're going to ruin your hard as nails business reputation if you let that kind of stuff get around." But she couldn't deny the fact that she appreciated the sentiment, because it said more about how her chairma felt about her as a person than anything else. "Fact is, I'd have given it up myself. Nailing the Navy wasn't on my agenda this year."

"Who are you going to put on that project?" Alastair asked curiously. "I'd hate to see you tie yourself down to it, though you'd have the best knowledge set to do it with."

A quirk of Jade's lips. "I haven't decided yet, but I'll be sending a special analyst down with them. Don't worry, Alastair. It'll end up being ship shape when we're done." She paused for a moment. "Did you need something, or was this just a social call?"

"Social call." The Chairman told her cheerfully. "Glad to have you back in the office, and I wanted to find out how you were feeling… how's the arm?"

Jade sighed audibly. "Hurts like hell." She admitted. "I may have to take a few days off if they decide they have to do something to it."

"Mm." Alastair murmured. "How's Tori doing? That reception looked like hell." He commented. "Saw you and your daddy, though, so I figured she had quite the cavalry nearby."

How was Tori doing? Jade's brow creased, as she remembered the almost desperate hold Tori had kept on her the entire night, and how little she knew her wife had slept. The revelation that Senator Vega had been behind a lot of the trouble they had been tangled with was not something she was willing to place on her daughter's concience. "It was tough." She admitted. "She'll be okay, though."

"Right, well, give her my regards, will ya? I just tried to call through to her office, but she's in a meeting." Alastair said. "Talk to you later, Jade."

Jade gazed quietly at her desktop for a few moments, absorbing the silence of her office. Then she got up and paced back and forth in front of the window, before she finally gave in and headed for the small door that led down the hall to Tori's office.