bruh Jim's a peach a little BUd and Charly history lesson for you.

Thirty Five

The hotel was warm, and clammy inside as Tori ventured into the lobby. The power was still out, but the staff had stepped up to the challenge and put out a table full of relatively tasty looking foods for the guests to pick through.

Her eyes roamed the room, and she stopped as she spotted seated on the porch, his hand curled around a cup. "Ah." Tori grabbed a muffin and walked out to join him. "Hi, dad."

looked up at her. "Morning, there, kumquat." He greeted her, as his eyes drifted past her shoulder. "Where's mah kid?"

"Sleeping." Tori sat down and nibbled her muffin. "She was so tired last night. I thought it would be better if I let her get some rest while I scrounged breakfast for us."

Jim nodded in agreement. "She done things to be tired from." He said. "She okay?"

"I think so."

"Took them fellers up to the hospital, then came back down here and bunked out with some of the marina folk." volunteered. "Looks like they put a few cracks in Bud's head. Be there a few days."

"You could have come up to our room." Tori scolded him. "We had plenty of room up there."

"Nah." took a swallow of whatever was in his mug. "You two young ladies deserve your privacy."

Tori propped her chin up on her fist. "Dad, we were just sleeping." She grinned at him. "I'm glad Bud's going to be okay. Did he wake up?"

"Yeap."

"Does he know it was you who pulled him out of the boat?"

"Yeap."

Tori studied his profile. "Not really happy about that, was he?"

"No ma'am, he was not." turned, and looked at her. "But how would you be knowing about that?" He set his cup down and studied his tablemate. "They say something to you?"

Tori nodded. "Yes, and Jade told me a little." She said. "I almost kicked Bud in the nuts a few times until he finally calmed down and stopped saying mean things." Her fingers played with the edge of the table. "What was up with that?"

A server with a pitcher came up to them, and offered them a drink. held out his mug and they refilled it, then the server handed Tori a cup as well.

"Thanks." Tori took a cautious sip, relieved to find somewhat luke-cold fruit juice. She sensed wasn't comfortable discussing Bud with her, and decided not to push the subject. "I thought I saw cereal in there – did you eat yet?"

"Ah did." He told her. "Went down and checked out the boat. Hull got banged up a bit, but nothing big. Should be fine to head back with."

"Thank you." Tori said. "Did anyone say if DeSalliers' boat was brought in?"

"No, ma'am."

Tori gazed quietly at him. After a moment, met her eyes. "Sorry if I butted in where I didn't belong." She told him.

's expression softened, and he blinked a few times. "Wasn't that, Tori." He answered. "Just somethin that burns my shorts, and ah don't like chatting about it."

"Okay." Tori nodded. "Are you flying with us back home?"

"Yeap." Jim said. "I figure you two got things all squared off now. Got a pontoon flight to back out to Miami tonight. They ain't reopened the airport yet." He told her. "Still cleaning up. Storm racked up some fuss, but not a whole lot outside the marina. Then I figured I'd ride that Jet back with y'all to California, after you bring that Rental back."

Tori studied the horizon, which was clear and cloud free. "It's funny. I almost feel like last night was a dream." She admitted. "But I know it wasn't."

cocked his head in a listening attitude.

"I'm glad you came out here after us." Tori told him. "Thanks."

A smile tugged at the scarred face across from her. "S'what a father's for, ain't it?"

Tori stared off past him, her eyes distant. "Only if you're very lucky." She exhaled, dusting her fingers off from the muffin. "I'm going to grab something for me and Jade." Pushing against the table, she stood up, suddenly wanting to be out of the sun and back with her partner. "Maybe we can find you for lunch?"

Jim got up and patted her on the shoulder. "Lemme give you a hand with your grub, kumquat." He said. "We maybe need a chit chat, and I want to see my kid."

Tori smiled, feeling the tension between them relax a little. "Okay, Dad. It's a deal."

They went inside to the table, which didn't have much in the way of plates. improvised by stealing a basket of flowers, dumping the flowers, and standing helpfully behind Tori as she filled it. They were halfway down the table when Tori's progress was intercepted, and she looked up to see the police captain politely blocking her. "Oh. Good morning." She greeted him with wary cordiality. "Guess you had a busy night."

"Most certainly, yes, Ms. Vega. That we did." He replied with courtesy. "I am glad to see that you are safe. Is Ms. West safe as well?"

"Very much so, yes." Tori told him, then noticed his eyes flicking over her shoulder. "Oh, I'm sorry. This is my father in law, James West. Dad, this is Captain Alalau, of the St. Thomas police."

"Lo." issued a moderately cordial greeting.

Alalau gave him a brief nod. "Sir." He turned his attention back to Tori. "Might I ask, Ms. Vega, if you and your friend Ms. West could find a moment to chat with me later on today? Perhaps over lunch?"

Uh oh. Tori didn't think they were in trouble, even in the Virgin Islands she figured criminals weren't invited to lunch, but given all that had happened so far, you never knew. "Um.. sure." She agreed cautiously. "I'm sure that would be no problem at all."

"Excellent." The captain smiled, and ducked his head slightly at her. "Please, enjoy your breakfast. Unfortunately, the power will most likely be out for the rest of the day, but we are working on restoring it."

"Thanks." Tori watched him walk off. "Hm."

"Nice feller." drawled.

"Very nice." Tori sighed, dumping a last few items into their basket, and snagging a thermos of juice. "C'mon. Let's go wake Jade up and tell her the social agenda's changed."

They left the lobby, leaving the increasingly crowded space behind.

The cell phone buzzed near her head, and Jade jerked herself out of a deep sleep, reaching for it blindly in the darkened room. "Buh." She captured the instrument and opened it, her head pounding as her body tried to wake itself. "Yeah?"

"Jade!"

Alastair's voice was so normal, it almost hurt. "Morning, Alastair."

"Are you okay?"

Jade opened an eye and rolled it around, taking in her surroundings. "Yeah, I'm fine. It was just a damn storm."

"Storm? What the hell are you talking about? I got a call last night saying you got held up or something!" Alastair said, his voice audibly upset. "What the hell is going on out there, Jade?"

Where do I start? Jade cleared her throat. "Hang on and let my brain boot." She told him. "I was sleeping."

A momentary silence. "At ten am? Good heavens. Let me get my diary."

"I am supposed to be on vacation." Jade told her chairman, in a peeved tone. "In case that slipped your mind." She rubbed her eyes and tried to shake some sense into herself. "First off, I didn't get held up."

"Well, that's wonderful."

"My hotel room got broken into."

"That's terrible!"

"But they didn't take anything, so they just moved us to a bigger room."

"Well, that's not so bad." Alastair said. "Jesus, Jade. You had me worried for a minute. I've got a lot of company resources sitting out there in the islands at the moment."

Should she tell him about the rest? "We had a couple snags out here, matter of fact."

"Uh oh." He said. "Maybe that's what Sinjin was talking about. He sounded half nuts."

"Sinjin? What the hell is he calling you for? Does he think he's my mother all of a sudden?" Jade snapped.

"No, she called me last time." Alastair answered benignly. "Apparently he picked up something on a police record, and wasn't happy about it."

Mother hens. Jade scowled, gazing up at the ceiling. "Well, we ran into a couple of old buddies of my father, and had to help them out of a jam. That, and the storm is making my life currently miserable." She said. "Everything okay there?"

"Here?" Alastair's voice dripped with surprised innocence. "Oh, sure. Right as rain, Jade. No problems here."

Uh oh. Jade stared at her phone, then sighed. "Great. Guess I'll talk to you next week when I get back in the office then, huh?"

"Sure… sure. You two having a good time otherwise?" Alastair asked. "Getting some rest and relaxation in?"

"Well." Jade's ears picked up the sound of footsteps approaching. "Right now I'm flat on my back, and you woke me at ten. What does that tell you?"

"Good to hear, Jade. Good to hear. You take it easy, and try to keep out of trouble for the rest of your trip, hmm?"

"I'll try." Jade told him. "Talk to you later." She folded the phone and set it aside as the door opened, admitting Tori and the unmistakable bulk of her father. "Ah.. hi." She felt mildly embarrassed at being caught in bed.

"Morning, sleepyhead." Tori teased her as she closed the door and set the basket down. "I figured you might be up by now."

"Only by the graces of Alastair." Jade admitted. "Sinjin told him we were having problems."

Tori stopped and stared at her. "What?"

"Yeah. Hundred bazillion dollar corporation run by two nanny worrywarts." Jade laid her arm across her eyes, wincing at the dull headache. "Hi, Dad."

"Hey there, Gigi." crouched down by the bed and patted her arm. "You doin all right?"

"Mmpfh." Jade grunted. "Any chance of getting some fresh air in here?"

Tori walked to the windows and opened the blinds. Part of the wooden slats had been removed, and light flooded in. She unlatched the windows and pulled them open, rewarded when a gust of air puffed her hair back. "How's that?"

"Better." Jade still had her eyes closed. "What's going on outside?"

"No power, grumpy tourists, muggy weather, and the police want to have lunch with us."

Jade's eyes popped open, and she hitched herself up onto her elbows. "Us?"

"Us." Tori confirmed.

"Bck." Jade laid down, and pulled the covers up over her head.

"Yeah." Tori agreed ruefully. "That about covers it."

The boat rocked gently under her as Tori jumped on board. Jade was still on the dock, examining the mild damage the hull had taken, and Tori dropped into one of the chairs on the stern to wait for her. The sun was out, and the air was clearing of it's moisture, the light breeze lifting strands of her hair idly. She leaned back and looked around the marina, wincing a little at the small boats tossed up onto the seawall and the debris floating in the water.

The marina itself had taken little damage – it's concrete docks had weathered the storm quite nicely, and provided protection to most of the boats sheltered inside it. Many of the boat owners were around, checking things out, and around the shore crews were removing downed limbs and other debris.

Tori felt oddly itchy. She'd realized on the walk down to the boat that she wanted, more than anything, to be gone from the island and away from the chaos their vacation had become. A corner of her brain wondered what had happened to DeSalliers, but that corner wasn't making much headway against the rest of her who wanted to put the last few days far behind the two of them.

Jade appeared on the dock, and circled the stern, hopping on board and stepping down onto the deck. "Not too bad." She confirmed. "Just a few scrapes."

"Good." Tori held a hand out to her. Jade stepped closer and took it, walking around behind the chair Tori was sitting in and letting her other hand rest on Tori's shoulder. "Do we have a plan?"

"A plan." Jade yawned, her jaw cracking softly. "I'm still too wiped to have a plan." She eased into the chair next to Tori and slung one long leg over it's arm. "I guess we'll go talk to the cops first." She rested her head on one hand. "What do you want to do after that?"

Leave. Tori bit back the answer, knowing her sense of responsibility would kill her for it. "Well, if that all turns out okay…"

"You think it won't?" Jade interrupted mildly. "It's a lunch date."

"I know." Tori agreed. "But I'd rather not take anything for granted. Now, if that turns out okay, we could go see Bud and make sure he and Charlie are okay."

"Uh." Jade grunted.

"We could take Dad out for dinner before his flight."

"Hm." That got a much more interested response. "Okay, that sounds good." Jade agreed. "Where did he run off to, anyway?"

Tori shook her head. "He didn't say. Just that he'd be back." She glanced at the deck pensively. "I think I pissed him off before."

The chair creaked as Jade leaned towards her. "You?" Her voice expressed disbelief. "How?"

"I asked him about him and Bud and Charlie." Tori admitted. "I don't think he likes people knowing about all that. I guess it's embarrassing for him." She paused thoughtfully. "Or something." She turned her head and gazed at Jade. "I'm sorry I mentioned anything."

Jade reached over and gave Tori a scratch on the back of the neck. "Sweetheart, it's not what you think." She said. "Yeah, the whole damn thing embarrasses the hell out of him, that's true."

"Having them think he was gay, you mean?" Tori asked. "In that world, it's kinda understandable."

Jade chuckled. "No." She replied. "He didn't really care about that… but let me start at the beginning." She cleared her throat. "It was all really my fault."

"Your fault?" Tori asked in much the same tone Jade had used moments earlier. "How?"

"I'd just come out to them." Jade related. "It was tough for my folks, being part of the military world and seeing as I was such a pain in the ass child anyway."

Tori smiled, but kept quiet.

"So, my dad went out and read a whole boatload of stuff about homosexuality at the library." Jade went on. "He even checked a few books out, and took one of them with him on a maneuver with a couple of squads off the base."

"Uh oh."

"Yeah." Jade nodded. "So then he got assigned to sea duty for four months. The captain of the boat he was on was a real tight assed conservative, and one day he went off about gays in front of the guys." She paused to reflect, then sighed. "So my dad, being my dad, took him into a torpedo room and nearly removed a couple teeth from his mouth."

"Yikes."

"Word got around about it, and everyone put two and two together and got six." The dark haired woman stretched her legs out. "So after that, Charlie figured he was fair game."

"Oh." Tori frowned. "But… I mean, Jade – he was married, and had a child. Didn't they get a clue?"

Jade looked at her, one eyebrow lifting in wry sarcasm.

"Yes, I know that's not necessarily an indication of heterosexuality, but Jesus! Your father drips it." Tori protested.

"True. But that's really what he's pissed off about." Jade explained. "It wasn't that they thought he was gay. Since I am, that wasn't something he found offensive."

Tori cocked her head. "O…kay…" Her brows contracted. "But…"

"He was furious that they thought he was the kind of man who would cheat on his wife." Jade said, simply. "He never forgave them for that." She pushed herself out of the chair. "Want a drink?"

"Sure." Tori nodded, absorbing the previous information. "Wow. That makes sense." She shook her head slightly. "It was hard for me to think Dad would have been that embarrassed about something thinking he was what we are." She admitted. "But I can understand, now."

"Mm." Jade agreed. "He told me about it when he came back that time. He said he couldn't tell mom, but he wanted to share that with me so I knew, in case I heard anything on the base, what really happened."

"Did you?" Tori asked, in a soft voice. "Hear anything?"

A half smile twitched at Jade's lips. "Not directly." She said. "By that time, I.. um.. had quite the reputation for a temper, and most of the other kids on the base knew if they ribbed me about my father, it meant a fight."

Tori tipped her head back and regarded Jade with a slight grin. "Two of a kind." She reached up and touched the insignia now threaded through the silver chain around Jade's neck. It nestled together with Jade's joining ring and collected just the faintest hint of reflection off its dully burnished surface.

Jade stuck her hands in her pockets and looked down at the item, unable to hide the unabashedly proud grin. "Yeah." Her eyes twinkled. "That we are." Her attention returned to Tori's face. "Don't worry, Tor. Dad would never be mad at anyone just for asking a question. Especially you." She stroked Tori's hair. "He loves you."

The brown eyes looking up at her filled with unshed tears, as Tori remained silent, just watching Jade's expression.

"We've got a while before lunch." Jade said, in a gentle tone. "Let's go inside, and relax. Okay?" She held a hand out to Tori. It was taken, and she guided both of them through the cabin door and out of the sun.

Inside, Tori tugged her to a halt. She moved in and put her arms around Jade and hugged her fiercely.

Jade returned the hug, rubbing Tori's back as she did so.

"Urgh." Tori exhaled. "Can we just go out and get lost somewhere tomorrow, Jade?" She asked. "Find another of those blue holes, and just leave our minds out to dry?"

"Hmm. That's an appealing thought." Jade inclined her head and nipped Tori on the jawbone. "I could see spending a couple days out lost with you, as a matter of fact." She felt Tori's body press against hers. "I think I know some nice, deserted islands out there where it'll just be you, me, and if they're very lucky, a couple of dancing lobsters."

"Dancing into my nice big pot?" Tori burrowed into Jade's chest, breathing in her scent greedily. "I have a bottle of champagne in here that would love to meet them."

"Oh yeah." Jade assured her. "We'll spend the whole day just being sea bums." She squeezed her partner, feeling her shoulders shift and relax. "Hey, I've got an idea."

"M'sure it's a good one." Tori mumbled into the skin of her neck.

"I know we were going to go back to Cali for New Years… how about we spend it down at the cabin?"

"Mmm."

"Kind of get our couple days of vacation back?"

"Mmmmmm" Tori made a low, pleased humming noise. "Even if we don't have furniture, I think I'd really, really like that."

Jade rested her cheek against Tori's hair, content with the reaction to her plan. While she knew the interruption was really none of either of their faults, she still felt bad about the net effect of it robbing them of their needed time out.

It was funny, but already she found the preceding day's events fading into memory despite their fantastic nature. She'd always had a philosophy of setting aside things once they were over and done with, but she found it strange that she could look back on what she'd done last night and not have it seem terrifying to her.

It had been a bad situation. She had dealt with it as best as she'd been able to, and in the end things had turned out all right. What more, really, could she have asked?

It was over. Most often, when traumatic things happened, she examined them for lessons to hopefully avoid the problem the next time round, but usually that was in a business sense. Jade sincerely hoped she would not have to put her experience in escaping wacko pseudo pirates to use any time soon in the WesTrek boardroom.

Her blue eyes twinkled suddenly. Well…..

"What are you doing?" Tori asked.

"Just thinking." Jade replied. "Why?"

"I can feel you smiling."

Jade chuckled. "I was just imagining Alastair dressed as Captain Blood."

Tori's body convulsed into abrupt laughter. "I can barely imagine Alastair dressed as Captain Kangaroo."

"Heh."

The Brunette sighed, and circled Jade's neck with her arms, swaying against her as the boat rocked. "Well, one thing for all the stuff that's happened."

"Hm?"

"Made me totally forget my family." Tori murmured.

Jade lifted her head and looked down at Tori's profile. "Is that a good thing?"

Tori nodded. "Maybe seeing other people with crummier relatives than me helped." She stated. "I was thinking about that this morning after I talked to dad. My parents were pedantic and clueless, Jade – but you know something?"

"Mm?"

"I think you were right. I think… at some level, somewhere, they both did love all of us." Tori blinked. "Even my mother. Even me. Because as bad as she was, somewhere in all that twistedness she thought she was doing the right thing."

Jade blinked, surprised at the speech.

"I think I've seen enough true hatred the past few days to tell the difference."

"Ah."

"She hated what I was doing. She hated us. She hated my being gay, because she felt it as a reflection of the person she used to be. She hated me squealing on her." Tori went on. "But I don't think she ever hated me."

Jade nodded silently.

"I can live with that." The Latina said. "Because it gives us something in common."

And then, Jade considered, she'd always lived by the theory that things happened for a reason. She cupped Tori's face in her hands and smiled at her. Their eyes met, and she could see a note of tired peace in Tori's expression for the first time since they'd gotten back from Connecticut. She leaned forward and rubbed noses with her.

Tori pulled Jade towards her and traded a nose rub for a kiss. Then they hugged each other again.

"Okay." Tori released a long, heartfelt sigh. "Let's get back to the serious business of having fun."

Jade kissed the back of Tori's neck, moving the dark hair aside as she was rewarded with a sudden intake of breath at the action. "I've had about enough… " She growled into the brunette's ear. "Of real life intruding on my hedonistic vacation. How about you?"

"You bet." Tori felt a nudge. "Hey… "

Jade nudged her again.

"I think I'm being bumped."

"You are." Another gentle shove.

"Looks like it's towards the bedroom."

"Good sense of direction."

"Heh."