this is why we love our girls... The story beats in this story are are throwing me for a loop. I might have to combine some of these LOL

Four

They arrived at the convention center late, closer to midnight than Jade had originally planned for. The building was lit on the outside, though, and there were both security guards, and a stir of motion about the place that reassured them.

Jade strolled across the front courtyard, approaching the doors and making eye contact with the guards. "Evening." She greeted the first one cordially, as she removed her id from her back pocket and offered it up.

The man studied the card, then glanced at her. "Dock entrance is round back." He told her politely.

One finely arched dark eyebrow lifted. "Excuse me?"

"Construction workers enter in the back." The guard clarified, still with careful politeness.

Jade looked down at herself, then up at the guard. "Do I look like a construction worker to you?"

"Yes, ma'am." The man replied. "You can enter in the back."

Tori covered her mouth to keep in the laughter threatening to burst out. The expression on her lover's face was just so priceless.

"This is not funny." Jade told her, testily.

"C'mon." Tori swallowed her amusement, taking Jade's arm and starting for the rear of the center. "No point in arguing with him, Jade. Just call the convention services group in the morning and have the entire company fired." She let her voice raise slightly, enough to know that the guard would hear her.

"Do I look like a construction worker to you?" Jade ignored the speech, turning and giving her an indignant look.

"Absolutely not." Tori reassured her. "It's just the tank top and the ripped jeans, sweetie. Orlando is obviously not ready for CIO's in less than pin stripes." She took Jade's arm again and patted it. "C'mon." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the guard's eyes turning into round saucers. "I bet if you really tried, you could get the entire convention services company kicked out. Wouldn't that be fun?"

Jade's eyes narrowed suddenly. "You're having fun freaking the guard out, aren't you?" She uttered, in a low voice.

"Yes." Tori smiled charmingly at her. "Give me two more minutes, and he'll need a change of shorts." She waggled her fingers at the man. "He deserves it for being a prick butt with the vision of a rhino in the dark."

Jade snicTored, her humor restored. She draped her arm over Tori's shoulders and headed towards the rear of the building, leaving the hapless guard behind them. Her ego was still stinging from the man's remark, though, and she was self aware enough to know it.

"Jerk." Tori held the gate open that lead into the loading dock and waited for Jade to pass through. "What could he be thinking, Jade? Let's just say it was true."

"What?"

"Shh. Let's just say you were one of the setup crew." Tori pacified her prickly partner. "It's nearly midnight. Who cares if you go in the front door? Who's gonna see you, the cleaning staff?" She closed the gate behind them and followed Jade towards an open loading dock door, the sounds of hammering and banging clearly audible inside.

"I don't know, and I don't give a damn." Jade grumbled, as they crossed from the warm night air into the cooler, but musty smelling building. Lit by fluorescent lights, and featuring a poured concrete floor it resembled the inside of a warehouse more than anything.

Which, of course, it basically was. Tori's nose wrinkled at the scent of mildew coming from a set of draperies dropped in a pile near the door. "Nice."

"Maybe they'll have a sledgehammer I could borrow." Jade muttered.

"Jade." Tori patted her on the behind. "Would you relax? He was full of horse poots. Don't tell me you're getting so sensitive in your old age."

Her partner scowled dourly.

"Okay." Tori could see a pile of people ahead of them, all busy. She took hold of Jade's arm and pulled her to a halt just inside the loading area, out of sight of the main room. "Sweetheart." It really wasn't like Jade to be so sensitive, The hormones she was taking must really be taking a toll on her wife, and Tori sensed a moment taken here would pay off in the long run. "Did that really bother you?"

Her partner leaned against the wall, and scrubbed one hand through her hair. "Stupid, isn't it?" She admitted, lifting her eyes. "Just hit me the wrong way, I guess… and I don't even have the excuse of it being that time of the month."

"But, the hormone's Jade…" Tori tucked her fingers into the waistband of Jade's jeans. "Listen, I asked you to wear this because I think it's really sexy." She tugged a little. "And I didn't marry a construction worTor."

Jade's expression gentled. "I know." She looked down. "And given I picked a pair of boots to wear that I used when we were painting the cabin, I guess he might have had a point."

"Hm."

"Tank top, ripped jeans, paint splattered hiking boots.. all I need is a tattoo and I could pass as a very good butch stereotype."

Okay, crisis over. Tori relaxed, and smiled. "Nah, you'd need leather pants for that."

"I have those." Jade reminded her. "But you'd have to arrest me to get me to wear them in summer." She bumped Tori's knee with her own. "C'mon. Let's go see what the kids are doing, and get the hell out of here."

They walked through the open garage door and into the convention center, pausing for a moment to catch their bearings. The room was huge, and it was full of nerds. The smell of new computers mixed with the scent of old coffee was almost overwhelming.

"Whoa." Tori rubbed her nose. "What a zoo."

"Uh huh." Jade stretched to her full height, reviewing the room. It was laid out in regulation trade show fashion, with wooden frame booths stretched in orderly rows interspersed with larger displays custom built by some of the bigger companies. "Ah. There we are." She pointed to a familiar logo banner, half hung, half draped over some metal pipe supports.

"Nice spot." Tori followed her between two wooden stalls, ducking as a technician struggled with a projection screen and almost clocked her in the process. They walked through piles of equipment cases, and emerged into a more open area that held a WesTrek display.

Four of their techs were on ladders trying to lift up and bolt into place the steel tube framing the marketing department had designed, and as they watched, the heavy structure tilted precariously to one side. Without a word between them, Tori and Jade reacted, leaping forward to help.

Tori grabbed the nearer ladder, which had started to tip over, while Jade used her height to reach up and take hold of the steel frame, taking it's weight as the techs fought to regain control over it. "Whoa!" The Latina grunted, throwing her body against the ladder as it threatened to come down on top of her. "Take it easy, guys!"

"Damn it!" The tech on her ladder cursed. "This piece of shit was built by freaking Gumby!"

"All right, hang on." Jade grabbed the ladder and climbed up several steps of it, hoisting the frame with her as she walked. "Get that end on there, Bruce."

The tech on the next ladder blinked, only then realizing who it was addressing him. "Holy crap!" He blurted. "When'd you get here, ma'am!"

"Just in time, apparently." Jade grunted. "You gonna bolt that into place, or are we all going to end up with our asses on the concrete?"

Tori could hear the tension in her partner's voice, and beneath the worn denim, she could see Jade's legs straining to keep her load balanced. With Jade's weight on the ladder, though, it no longer threatened to tip over and she shifted her grip to wrap her arm around Jade's calves in a secure hold.

"Okay.. okay… almost got it!" Bruce panted, extending himself out on his ladder to put a socket wrench on the bolts that Jade was holding even. He ratcheted them quickly, muscles jumping under his skin as he tightened the grid into place on one end. "Done!"

Jade relaxed her hold cautiously, relieved when the structure seemed likely to stay in one place. She flexed her fingers and shook her arms out, glancing up at the tech still perched on the steps above her. "Why the hell are you guys doing this?"

Bruce finished bolting down the other end of the structure then scampered down the ladder. He was of middling height, and lightly built, with wide brown eyes that had a perpetual look of astonishment in them. "We gotta get the booth up ma'am." He paused. "Don't we?"

Jade got off her ladder, and dusted her hands off as the tech above her gingerly climbed down as well. "They don't have a setup crew here?" She looked around, aware now that at many booths around them conspicuously corporate t-shirted crews were struggling to assemble the structures. "What the hell?"

Tori ducked out from under the ladder and joined her, as the rest of their techs gathered around. "Hi, guys." She greeted them with a smile, keeping an eye on Jade who started investigating their surroundings like a large, suspicious house cat.

"Hey, boss." The one nearest her returned the smile, his tow blond head not topping her own by much. "What are you guys doing here? Sinjin said you'd be up in a few days."

"Eh." Tori put her hands on her hips. "We decided to come up a little early… did they say why no one was here from the production company? You guys shouldn't be doing this, Jade's right. We pay big bucks to have someone in to do it."

"Well." Bruce sidled over to her. "We got here a couple hours ago, and the guy in charge told us if we wanted anything else put up, we'd have to do it. He said, with a tiny shrug. "Everyone here was bitching for sure, but what could we do?"

"Call?" Tori eyed him, spreading her hands out in question. "It's not like my cell phone number's a secret."

The blond tech next to him winced. "We didn't want you to think we were whiners. It's not that much to do.. just get those pipes up so we can start cabling. Not like the other guys, they're trying to get that wood together without hardly any tools."

"Mm." Tori shook her head. "The guys in charge, they still here?"

"No way." Bruce snorted. "They took off, just left the guards out front. Bunch of…um…" He remembered who he was talking to and his voice trailed off.

"We met them." His boss muttered. "They didn't make a very good impression on us. Hey, Jade?"

Her partner had wandered over to the next booth, and was talking to it's occupants. She held a hand up to acknowledge Tori's call, but continued her conversation. "Well, anyway, we can help you get set up." Tori told the techs. "What's up next, those poles over there?" She pointed.

Jade returned before they could get started, and she didn't look happy. "The Lucent guys say they heard the center didn't pay their setup crew for the last convention, so they walked." She reported. "They're pretty torqued. According to their lead tech, the center basically told them they could wait until tomorrow, when maybe they'd have some workers, or do it themselves and shut up."

Bruce nodded. "That's what they told us too." He agreed. "So we talked about it, and decided to see what we could do. We didn't want you guys to get here and have stuff not ready."

Jade sighed. "So instead, you get to have us show up and help you haul cable. It'll make a good story back at the office. Let's go. Faster we do it, faster we get out of here."

Tori walked over and claimed a spool of cable, and a wrench. "Are those the switches over there?" She pointed at a stack of brown cardboard boxes with a familiar label on them. "Cody, why don't you start unpacking them?"

"Speaking of." Jade turned, then tipped her head back. "Let me guess. They didn't pull any telco drops, did they?"

"Nope." Bruce said. "That was going to be a real problem." He admitted. "Sinjin didn't send any WAN guys up here."

"Not a problem any more." Tori tossed Jade a punch down kit which her partner fielded with consummate grace. "I think the jack boxes are over on that pole, Jade." She nudged Bruce towards the remaining unhung structure. "Let's go guys – move those ladders over."

Jade removed a pen from her pocket and scribbled down the jack numbers on the pole Tori had spotted, then paused as she put the pen back when she spotted several people near the back entrance just standing there watching them.

None were familiar, but if she squinted, she could just make out the logo on the nearest one's shirt. "Ahh." Jade murmured. "Our lowballing adversaries." The faintest twinkle appeared in her eyes, as she stuffed the bit of paper she'd written on in her back pocket, and headed for the telco room, which they'd passed on their way in.

Two of the newcomers walked on past her into the room, sparing her only cursory glances. The other three remained at the entrance, talking amongst themselves with sour looks on their faces. They absently returned Jade's nod of greeting, then dismissed her as she walked by.

"You want to wait for tomorrow? Jackson swore they'd have a crew in." The tallest of them said. "I'm not dragging all that gear through this place."

"I'd love to take off, but I want to wait till WesTrek gets their system set up, then see what we can find out about it. Those guys look like they'll talk our ears off." The second replied, a well built man with thick, black hair who had the air of a manager. "Maybe we can recruit some of 'em… I heard they're looking at layoffs."

The first man laughed.

But he probably would have stopped, if he'd bothered to turn around and see the ice blue eyes drilling unseen holes in the back of his head.

"You go for the guys. I'll take those babes with the cables." The shorter man also laughed. "I'll give 'em one thing, they hire for looks."

Jade glanced at the kit in her hands, and opened it, selecting a pair of needle nose pliers and studying it, wondering how much jail time she'd incur if she pulled the bastard's gonads out with the tool. Then she sighed, and put it back, turning and continuing on her way with commendable restraint.

Work before pleasure. Their time would come soon enough.