Merry christmas Y'all busy day I hope you had a great one.
Twenty-One
There was just enough breeze for Jade to be able to sit in comfort, allowing the late afternoon sun to drench her with it's oddly pallid light. She had a delightfully intricate tour behind her, two bags of rampantly tourist flavored purchases next to her, and a bellyful of cherry vanilla ice cream.
Life was good.
The museum had charmed her and she was fairly sure her knick knack acquisitions were going to charm her family.
Her family. Jade had to stop and take a breath, releasing it slowly as she thought about how full of family her life was now. She'd gotten a sub model and a sweatshirt for her dad, and a space shuttle plus a t-shirt that said 'my husband is in the navy, and all I got was this t-shirt and a pail of seaweed' for her mom, and a bagful of god only knew what for Tori. Even Chino had gotten a toy.
It was a radical change for her, having so many people to get things for. Jade removed the stuffed squeaky Apollo capsule she was sure Chino would tear apart in no time and examined it, squeezing it gently with her fingers and listening to the wheezily bright sound.
It certainly made shopping a lot more fun though. Jade grinned. She'd gotten herself a few things, but she'd extracted far more enjoyment in picking stuff out for everyone else, especially the bagful of items for her partner.
Silly things. But Jade was certain Tori would love them, and that a good number of them would find their way into the office to perch in hopefully inconspicuous spots near her desk. The hours of exploration had restored her good humor, as had the moments of indulgence in old memories that the smell of brass and diesel had called up to her.
In fact… Jade pulled out her conspicuously silent Phone and opened it, tapping a little note and sending it on it's way. She waited for a short while, but didn't get an answer, and figured Tori was probably either busy with the meeting, or had fallen asleep at the meeting, but probably was doing just fine.
Jade decided she'd had a long enough rest, and after flexing her calves a few times, she stood up and arranged her shopping bags, then started back down towards the city and away from the docks. Now towards evening, the foot traffic was starting to pick up, and the harried looks of the people on the street were relaxing as the workday was ending.
Well, if she was stuck in New York, at least she'd had the afternoon off. Jade strolled down the sidewalk, pausing as a small bar caught her attention. After a moment's hesitation, she shrugged one shoulder and entered, finding a spot in a quiet area off to one side.
She eased onto one of the high stools and set her bags down by her feet, resting her forearms on the round wooden table as one of the waitresses scooted over to her. "Hi."
"What can I getcha?" The girl asked, putting down a small, square napkin next to Jade's elbow.
Milk? Jade glanced around the place, which oozed a tavern atmosphere she could almost feel coating her skin. Hm. Her eyes fell on the beer tap, and spotted a name she knew Tori liked. "Ah, I'll take a Killian." She decided, looking over the chalkboard next to the bard. "And a plate of wings."
"No problem." The girl looked approvingly at her. "C'm righ up." She headed back towards the bar, leaving Jade to appreciate her surroundings more fully.
Bars generally weren't places she tended to hang out in. At least not by herself. Deferring to Tori's fondness for good brew, she equably accompanied her partner into pubs and enjoyed them, but more for the company than for the alcohol.
A television was on above the bar, and she amused herself by watching the basketball game in progress, mildly surprised to find the players female. A news banner ran chattily under the picture, but she steadfastly ignored it until a familiar word caught her attention.
San Francisco.
Jade leaned forward and focused on the headline, gritting her teeth and squinting slightly to keep the words in focus.
It didn't take long. "Son of a bitch." She uttered, with feeling. "Why the hell didn't she call me?" Jade pulled her phone out and hit to make a call on Tori's contact, waiting for it to connect and then holding it to her ear.
It rang eight times before it was answered, and then the first sound that came down the line was a rattling noise and a seriously pure sounding curse as Tori was trying to be more mindful for the kid that they are yet to have.
"God bless the milkman.. yes, hello?" Tori growled into the phone, by her tone very obviously at the end of the chain tied to the ribbon tied to the end of her rope.
Jade waited a moment, then exhaled. "I love you."
There was a few heartbeats of silence, then a soft grunt came down the line, and the sound Jade recognized as a body Tori sized landing in the leather chair in her office.
"Jesus." Tori exhaled.
"No, just me." Jade responded. "I just saw the headlines on the television. How's it going there?"
"Well." Tori said. "Entire city has no power. Every single employee in this building is lighting candles of prayer to your image for having a diesel generator big enough to run the air plants. I have a headache the size of the Orange Bowl, and Verizon blew their backup power to one CO and a spike blew their OC on the other and we have no telecom in to the building."
Jade covered her eyes in pure reaction. "Holy shit."
"I was holding off calling you until I was absolutely positive the only thing you could do was pat me on my head." Tori sighed. "I have every critical thing we've got loaded on the sat links, but.."
"Jesus."
"No. Just me." Another sigh. "The one bright spot in my day was that piece of moose pooter meeting got canceled."
The waitress returned, putting down her beer and giving her a bright smile. "Wings'll be right up. K?"
Jade nodded, picking up the frosty mug of beer and taking a long swallow of it. "Tor.."
"Tell me you're in a bar having a beer, and I might have to fly to New York just so I can bite your butt for that."
Jade almost spit her mouthful of beer out across the table, but she managed somehow to swallow it instead. "Um…" She cleared her throat. "Want me on a plane back there?"
Tori sighed very audibly. "Yes." She replied in a quiet tone. "There is nothing in the world I want right now more than to have you here right next to me…
Jade checked her watch, then reached for her phone. "Gimme a minute.. let me get the flights…."
"Sweetheart, hold on." Tori said. "I have so many people pissed off at us down here, do we really need another client ticked off because you walked out?"
"Fuck them." Jade was busy with her flight scheduling.
"Jade."
"In addition to the fact that they all mean jack nothing to me next to you, Tori, the rest of the company does take precedence over them." Jade replied, reviewing her options. "You should have called me before now."
"Yeah, I know." Tori's tone now just sounded tired. "But I like to think I can actually do the job you pay me for sometimes. Besides, I'm up in the air right now. I needed to get my hand on a huge issue."
Jade paused in mid tap. She put her phone back to her ear and concentrated on the phone exclusively. "Tori, this has nothing to do with your competence. This is outside anyone's scope." She hesitated. "You just want me to butt out and let you handle it?"
There was a very long silence after that. Finally, on the heels of the faintest of sniffles, Tori spoke up. "Professionally? Yes."
Jade winced.
"Personally, no." The brunette went on quietly. "So what should I do? Can you give me some advice so I can make some kind of peace with myself?"
At least that put the problem into a perspective she could more easily deal with. Jade released a held breath, and ordered her thoughts, sipping her beer as she pondered the question. "Okay." She said. "I'm assuming the big cluster is our lines being down."
"Yeah."
"I'm assuming you've already browbeaten and bullied everyone in Verizon you can get your hands on."
"Mmph… yeah. Problem is, emergency services are a priority, and we're not."
Which was true. "Okay." Jade closed her eyes and thought. "The blown switch is out of our hands.. but the other CO's just out of power?"
"Yeah."
"Send Sinjin to Home Depot and have him buy every big generator they've got, then just go in there and hijack the bank we're in and push power through it."
"They're not going to let us do that."
"Don't ask them." Jade said quietly. "Just show up, walk in, don't take no for an answer."
"They're going to think we're nuts."
"Yeah." Jade agreed. "But our customers are going to think we're miracle workers."
A soft rattling of keys came down the line, along with the ghost of another sniffle. "You were right." Tori said, after the rattling stopped. "I should have called you before now." She admitted. "Damn."
Tori had been doing everything humanly possible, Jade was sure. They'd been through enough crises together for her to trust her partner's judgment implicitly. But sometimes when Tori encountered the unlikely and was under a lot of stress, thinking way outside the box wasn't her first instinct.
It was always Jade's first instinct. "It's okay, sweetheart." She tried for a faint joke. "S'why you pay me the big bucks, remember?"
A faint chuckle rewarded her.
"I wouldn't have called anyone either." Jade admitted. "Never have been able to do that. So… "
"Hello pot, Kettle here." Tori sighed wryly. "Wanna get together for some macaroni and cheese?"
Jade relaxed a little, the knots in her guts easing slightly as she felt her heartbeat start to settle and cease it's painful pounding inside her skull. "Sounds delicious."
Tori chuckled a little. "Do me a favor?"
"Anything." Jade responded. "I've got the flights in front of me. Offer's still open."
Tori was very quiet for a bit, and Jade gave her the space to wrestle with her own conscience. At last, she grunted softly. "Tell you what, partner. If this doesn't work, I'll give you a call with your flight information, okay?"
A compromise. Jade accepted it reluctantly. "You know I'm going to be a mess all night, right?" She found herself saying anyway.
"I know." Her lover said. "But if it works, I'll take out a full page ad in the Chronicle and tell everyone what a smart and amazing person I have as my boss."
"That's supposed to make me feel better?"
At last, Tori laughed, if only briefly. "Or maybe they'll get the power grid back online, Jade. Having the entire city down with no AC is putting more pressure on the powers that be than I ever could."
"Mmph."
"Call you back as soon as I know something." Tori went on. "Promise."
"Okay." Jade sighed. "Hang in there, Tor. Where are you headed anyway?"
"New York… Love you."
"Tor…" The line was cut. "Love you too." Jade closed the phone reluctantly, thoughts running through her mind at a furious rate. She looked as a plate appeared in front of her, meeting the eyes of the waitress.
"Wings?" The girl said.
Wish I had a pair. Jade nodded in response, staring at the crispy golden items before her. With a sigh, she picked one up and turned it in her fingertips, completely uninterested now in everything except for the vanished voice on the other end of her disconnected phone.
Tori forced herself not to tense up, concentrating on keeping her hands down at her sides and not balled up into fists. "Listen, Barry, you don't have a choice here." she said looking around her flying office, she resolutely refused to wgive up this fight. Jade had given her a clear plan and she wasn't brooking no arguments.
She could hear the man she was speaking with on the other line, a station manager with a drooping moustache and desperate eyes slam his hand on the desk. "Tori, I can't do it." He repeated, for the nth time.
"You can." Tori replied inflexibly. "Bottom line is, you have no choice." Her voice already had a slight rasp in it.
"If I let you do it, I have to let everyone. Do you know how many lines go through this building? To the financial district? Jesus, Tori, do you think you're the only one who's down?"
"We have a contract."
"THEY ALL DO!" Barry yelled, at the top of his voice in frustration. "Woman, you can't understand what you're asking."
What would Jade do? Tori took a breath. Jade would just yell louder, until the walls shook. But she couldn't do that – it wasn't really her style. "Barry, you have a contract with us to provide diversity. You didn't. Are all those other companies paying you top dollar for that kind of insurance?"
He stared at her.
"We pay you to make sure." Tori inhaled and upped the volume just a little. "MAKE SURE.. that we never go down. NEVER. Not 99 percent, not 99.5 percent, not 99.9 percent. 100 percent, Barry. I can't afford any less, and you god damn well know it."
"You can't just hook this stuff up to a generator." He replied, after a long hesitation. "It just doesn't work like that. You can't fathom the complexity of this stuff, and I.."
Tori slammed her hand down on the desk. shocking them both. "I can't fathom it? I can't fathom it? Who in the hell do you think you're talking to, the operations vice president of Safeway? Jesus Christ, Barry you're so lucky I'm half way across the country right now! I've got more complex technology sitting in my living room than you have in that place!"
His eyes widened. "Hey, now listen…"
Tori growled, Jade's words were ringing in her head like sea-bells and it was all she could do not to just keep berating the man until he gave in to her. "Barry, use your head. Get me off your back. Just do it."
"I can't."
"You can." Tori insisted.
"Tori, for the sake of god, I can't. It'll be my job!"
Tori growled even more deeply hoping to channel her wife. "You will, Or it'll be your job anyway. I swear it."
Would he believe her? Tori forced herself to hold her tongue now. Staying steely silent, offering him no compromise. Her guts were clenching inside, and she only hoped it wasn't showing.
He took a breath to answer, only to release it partially in defeat. "Tori, it's not that easy. C'mon now. You can't just plug in one of those things to a damn generator. What if it blows the boards? Then what?"
Ah. Tori felt the success, like that momentary give in a tug of war when you knew your team was about to break the grunting muddy stalemate, and start to move in the right direction. "Then you hand me a bill." She agreed readily. "I'll take responsibility for the decision."
He gasped incredulously. "You know how much money you're talking about?"
"Yes, I do." She tilted her head just a little, and gentled her expression. "C'mon, Barry. Get rid of me. You know I have to do it."
Barry relaxed in defeat. "What the hell." she could hear as He lifted both hands off his chair arms and let them drop. "I'm screwed anyway. I was the dumb bastard who forgot to schedule the maintenance on that freaking backup system."
Tori felt sweat roll down the back of her neck, and she spared a moment of tired sympathy for him. "Thanks, Barry. Let me get my guys rolling on this." She hesitated. "You got anyone else that's as big a pain in the ass as I am? I can see if we have enough power to share some."
"I wouldn't know where to even start."
"Okay." Tori hung up and dialed the phone again. "Sinjin?"
"Yeah?" A slightly apprehensive voice answered.
"Go." Tori instructed, now at last wiping the sweat off her brow with one hand. "Pull the truck around back. No sense in giving the news people something to shoot." She looked her cushie plane her eyes landing on the canister siting proudly beside her and felt bad for those braving the summer heat back home. But she had to get these guys to Jade no matter what.
No sense, she had to agree. With a deep sigh, she hit recline button waiting for Sinjin to call again letting her know when her crew will arrive. she'd taken the time to change into jeans and a short sleeved shirt before getting on the plane. She let her eyes close for a minute, the stress of the long day weighing on her heavily.
Then the rumbling of the landing gear, jogged her into straightening up. She brushed off the fatigue and waited to be let off the plane. Just then Sinjin called. "Hey, boss." The MIS manager sounded as ratty as Tori felt.
"How many did you get?" She asked.
"Six." Sinjin answered hearing the techs rolling out the generators in the background.
"Six. Good."
"All they had." Sinjin explained. "These are the big ones…most of the small ones were gone already. You know how people are. Lucky we're halfway through the season."
"Right." Tori stated as the door to the cabin was opened by the crew.. "How many to run the one switch inside, Sinjin?"
"Lemme check." Sinjin replied and she picked up her precious cargo and headed down to the tarmac. "Holy crap, it's steaming in here!" He said into the phone. "Hey… I'm not sure we can run those things even if we do juice em up. They'll overheat."
Shit. Tori thumped against the ladder, a sense of sick horror coming over her. "Find out what they'll need." She told Sinjin, to give her a moment to think.
Idiot. Of course they need cooling. She blinked a droplet of sweat from her eyes. Why hadn't she thought of that? Tori let her head rest against the metal wall. Maybe she'd gotten too used to letting Jade do her thinking for her?
A draft of cool air blew into her face, and she looked at the airport, and she could see a refrigerated milk truck.
Can you run the generators in a fridge truck and run the line from there?
He paused. "We can do it with one of these sucTors. No problem, but it won't stay up more than ten minutes, boss. I…" He hesitated. "I shoulda thought of that."
"Why? Even they didn't." Tori exhaled. "At least, they never mentioned it. So maybe they figured we'd figure out a way around that, too."
"Yeah." Sinjin frowned.
"So we'll have to. Listen." Tori pushed away from the ladder and walked into the airport. "Here's the plan. Sinjin – set four up and get them going. Figure out what we need to connect them all in series, but use one at a time so we can keep them running longer. When one runs out of gas we switch to the second, but we can't drop any power."
"Uh…"
"When you figure out what you'll need for that, surge boxes or whatever,get to where we rent our semis and see fi thy have a fridge truck to put them in and some air conditioning duct so you can run the truck all night and pipe some air in there." She raised her hand to hail a cab "Okay? Thanks. Call me."
She turned and headed for her car, knowing she'd left slack jawed employees on the other end of the line. Reaching her cab, she gave the cabbie directions, placing her precious cargo gently beside her.
Would Sinjin figure that all out? Tori wondered. If they didn't find a way to keep things going, it'd be useless. Dropping the lines every couple hours while they refilled the diesel just wasn't going to cut it. "One thing at a time, Tor." She reminded herself, putting her seatbelt on with a determined expression. "What was that Jade once said? Step at a time and you can eat an entire buffalo, tail and all?"
With another sigh, she hoped her wife wasn't going to be too upset.
Jade's cell phone rang as she entered the hotel lobby, and she found a quiet corner to drop into a leather chair and answer it. "Yeah?"
"Jade!" Alastair's voice belted through the phone. "Good grief, woman! Where are you!"
"New York." Jade answered. "Saving one of our client's asses. Why?"
"Do you know what's going on down in san Francisco? Jade! We've got half the network down!"
The silent anchors of CNN faced Jade from the bar's big television, the outline of a darkened San Francisco prominent in the background. "We're page one on CNN. Of course I know what's going on, Alastair." She snapped. "Tori's handling it."
"What?"Her chairman almost squealed. "Jade! This is serious!"
"And I'm 2,000 miles away!" Jade yelled back, only in a soft tone, since three men at the bar had turned around to look at her. "What would you like me to do about it? Jesus, Alastair, calm down!"
"Calm down." Alastair fumed. "I have an international board meeting in two hours, in case you forgot, Jade. "
Oops. "No kidding. Me too." Jade replied calmly. "And?"
"Jade."
She could hear the utter panicked frustration in his tone. "Alastair, it's a power outage. Most of the crits are on the sat, and Tori's working on a plan to get more lines up. What is it you expect us to do? Change physics? All the money in the bank ain't gonna cut any slack down there because they can't get the damn hospitals working. Guess what? That's first."
There was a brief silence. "Tori's working on something?"
"Of course." Jade injected as much impatience into her tone as she could. "I thought we'd gotten past that damned "I picked her for her looks' thing. What's wrong with you?"
Alastair sighed. "I'm not used to having to rely on anyone but you. That's what's wrong with me."
"Get you something, ma'am?" A waitress came over to her.
Jade hesitated, debating on the answer, covering the microphone with her fingers. Then she half shrugged. "Got a chocolate milkshake handy?"
The woman smiled. "I can find one for ya. Be right back."
"Well." Jade spoke into the phone. "Get used to it."
Alastair paused, taking an audible breath. "What's that supposed to mean?"
What was it supposed to mean? Jade wondered bleakly. "I pay her for a reason." She finally said. "If I didn't think she could handle it, I'd have already headed back."
Her boss sighed. "Yeah, I know." He admitted. "Sorry, Jade. Backhanded compliment, really."
"Yeah." Jade agreed softly. "Look, she'll take care of it. Trust her."
"Since you do, I will." Alastair said. "Just got the jitters, Jade. Been a rough couple of months here. Last thing I need is bad press… what the blazes happened to the backup we're supposed to have down there?"
Jade explained the problem. "So, yeah, it's Verizon's issue. They screwed up. Doesn't help us."
"I'll get Ham on it." The WestTrek chairman stated, his voice now brisk and businesslike. "We can get some cash out of it, anyway. Keep me advised, willya, Jade?"
"I will." Jade promised. "See you on the conference call later."
"With good news." Alastair said.
"With news." Jade clarified. "Or else I'll be on a plane headed west. Guaranteed."
A more contented sigh. "Now I feel better." He replied. "Thanks, Jade. Talk to you soon."
Jade put phone in her pocket. She slid down in the leather chair, gazing up at the finely plastered ceiling until the waitress sauntered back over with her milkshake. "Thanks."
"Sure you don't want a shot in that?" The woman asked, with a sympathetic grin. "Looks like you could use it."
Jade stared at the glass for a long moment, then her eyes lifted to the waitresses. "No, thanks." She cradled the cold drink between her hands. "Just this for right now." She handed the woman her room key, then signed the resulting check presented to her from the handheld printer. "Appreciate it."
"Anytime, okay?" the woman smiled warmly at her. "Just ask for Trina." She gave Jade a wink, then went on to the next group of older, business suited men seated nearby.
The flirting didn't even register, really. Jade got up and headed for the elevator, hardly aware of the watching eyes.
The elevator whooshes her up to the 25th floor and she marches down the hallway to Jade's room.
Two sharp raps at the door. "It's me," she says softly.
The lock clicks and Jade opens the door. Her eyes widen in surprise seeing Tori standing there. "Tori? What are you..."
Tori holds up the cannister with a grin. "I'm here to knock you up, Dixiecup."
Jade's mouth opens slightly before she recovers and tugs Tori inside, shutting the door. "Tor, I told you not to," she says, but there's no bite in her voice, only a mix of pleased surprise and lingering hesitance.
"I know but I was worried about you missing your window. I know how much you hate those hormone shots. Plus I couldn't wait another minute to see you." Tori sets the cannister on the dresser and wraps her arms around Jade's waist, pulling her close. "I've missed you so much. You look so tired though, I hate that I couldn't be here sooner."
Jade softens into her embrace and sighs. "I'm fine, just ready to be done with this trip and home with you." She meets Tori's eyes. "I can't believe you're doing this though."
Tori kisses her lingeringly. "Anything for you, babe. Now, did I get here on time?"
She leads Jade over to the king-size bed and sits her on the edge of it. Jade looks up at her warily as Tori retrieves the cannister. "I think my temp is almost right."
"I know how I can get it up… we'll make this nice and easy, I promise," Tori soothes, kneeling in front of Jade.
She runs her hands up Jade's thighs as she helps her shimmy out of her shorts and underwear. Jade's breath hitches and her legs fall open at the attention. "Mm, look at you, ready for me already," Tori purrs as she licks her lips.
Jade flushes but makes no move to cover herself. "Tori..."
"Shh, just relax for me." Tori dips her head and presses a kiss to Jade's inner thigh, making her jump. She eases her back down with nibbling kisses and murmured praise.
When Jade is trembling and whimpering and dripping in arousal, they take her temperature. "Just right," Tori said, taking the cannister and filling the syringe. "Almost there, my love."
Jade's hands fist in the sheets but she trusts in Tori completely. Tori lines the needle up and presses it home in one smooth motion. Jade lets out a sharp gasp but it quickly melts into a moan as Tori distracts her with her mouth. Working on her util Jade's muscles are nice and lose again.
Slowly, carefully, Tori injects the precious cargo into Jade's willing body. She sets the syringe aside and focuses on worshiping her wife's breasts with lips and tongue until she's writhing and keening, shaking apart beneath Tori's ministrations.
Jade tugs at Tori's hair as she comes undone.
"That's it, come for me," Tori urges her on, coaxing her release with fluttering and flicking fingers. Not wanting to waste a single swimmer of Beck's ensuring all of it was inside Jade. "You're so beautiful like this, all spread out and desperate for me."
Jade moans, grinding against Tori's hand. With a few more purposeful strokes of her fingers, Tori sends Jade over the edge again.
She works her through each crest of pleasure until Jade collapses bonelessly back onto the bed. Tori crawls up her body to capture her lips in a deep kiss, sharing her essence between them.
"Mmm, thank you, for coming," Jade sighs, carding her fingers through Tori's hair as they come down together. "You always know just what I need."
"Always, for you," Tori promises, smiling against her lips. "Now, how about you put those feet up, and tell me what's the delay?"
Jade grins up at her, mischief sparking in her eyes. "Oh,don't think I won't get you back… in about an hour." She rolls her body so she could put her lower body at a slant to allow gravity to help the process. "So." She wanted to get this out of the way first, to untie that one knot of uncertainty deep in her guts so she could deal with whatever it was, and get past it. "Tori."
"So, Tori what?" Her partner asked curiously.
"So. What is this thing you did that I'm going to kill you for?" Jade got the words out in a stolid rush, chasing the last one out of her mouth and clamping her jaws down after it.
Tori lay next to Jade, letting one hand rest on Jade's belly as she looked up. "Huh?" She queried. "What did I do now?"
A wrinkle appeared in the skin above Jade's eyes. "Ah… you.. said you.. the other day?"
"The other day." Tori's gaze slid to one side, as she thought. Abruptly her expression cleared, then took on an immediate look of embarrassed chagrin. "Oh." She lifted a hand and half covered her eyes. "Yeah, that."
"That." Jade repeated, reassured. If Tori had forgotten all about the damn thing, how bad could it have been? "Which is… what?" She asked, a touch hesitant.
Tori had completely forgotten 'that', and now she felt like an idiot. With a sigh, she took Jade's hand "You really are going to think I'm a nut."
Jade's eyes fastened on her partner's expressive face intently. "I am?"
"Yeah." Tori rubbed her nose. "I think you are."
Jade waited, but nothing more seemed forthcoming. "Well." She cleared her throat gently. "Why don't you give me a try and see? I mean…." She examined the brunette. "You don't usually do nutty things."
Tori took a deep breath, and looked Jade squarely in the eye. "I did this time." She admitted. "I.. um… " She took another breath. "I got a tattoo."
Jade's face remained very still for a long, long moment. Then she blinked several times. "You did?"
Watching her face anxiously, Tori nodded. "Yep, I did." She didn't see the little signals she'd learned were disapproval from her partner, and it gave her the courage to continue on. "You know I've been sorta thinking about it…"
"I know." Jade finally managed to get a few words out of her shocked throat.
"Anyway, after that night with the gang, I was talking to one of the guys about it and he said his friend was a great tattoo artist, so..." Tori grimaced a bit, half shrugging one shoulder. "So I went to talk to him and I saw his stuff."
"Nice?" Jade asked.
"Gorgeous." Tori admitted. "We got to talking, and I told him what my ideas were and he drew this thing and…" She let the words trail off, sneaking another look at Jade's face. The pale blue eyes were focused on her face, a look of mild intrigue mixed with curiosity in them
Not disgust. Not disapproval. Tori felt a little better. "I guess I decided to do it before I thought about it and chickened out."
Jade absorbed this. Of all the possible things Tori could have thought she was going to kill her for, this was by far the least of anything she could have imagined. Why would Tori have thought she'd be upset anyway? "Tor, it's your body." She said. "You could paint it orange and I'd be fine with it."
Tori didn't respond to that for a moment. She took Jade's hands in hers and squeezed them, her eyes fastened on their tangled fingers. "I just thought it was a pretty radical thing for me to do."
"Nah." Jade disagreed. "If you'd gotten your face pierced, I might have freaked out. But tattoos… hell, I wanted one when I was a punk. Why not?" She watched a smile appear on Tori's face. "So.. um…" The brown eyes lifted to hers. "You going to let me see it?"
Tori nodded. "Sure."
"Where'd you get it?
Slowly, Tori released one hand and lifted it, tapping her chest lightly.
Jade winced. "That must have hurt."
"Eh." Tori exhaled, responding to a gentle pressure on her shoulder and lying down on her back on the bed. "This is where I'm supposed to carry on the grand tradition and prove my womanhood by telling you it didn't hurt, in fact, it felt great."
"Ah." Jade brushed Tori's hand aside and unbuttoned her shirt, reclining next to her as she started to pull the fabric back.
"But it's not true." The brunette forced herself to relax, letting her arm fall to the bed and focusing on Jade's face as that warm touch brushed across the skin under her shirt. "It hurt like hell, and I betrayed tough chicks everywhere by screaming like a weasel when he did it."
Jade chuckled softly, finishing her unbuttoning and pulling aside the left side of Tori's shirt, exposing her shoulder and chest. A flash of color met her eyes, and she leaned closer staring at this new and very different thing with intense curiosity.
Tori held her breath.
"Wow." Jade murmured. "It's… beautiful." She edged a bit closer. "Is that a rope or.."
"No, it's a. .um… it's a snake." Tori uttered softly. "You know, it's that Celtic thing, the one with it's tail in it's mouth?" She hesitated just for an instant. "The one that means eternity?"
"Oh… yeah!" Jade now found the pattern. Each scale of the snake's body had been outlined and done in a different color, and the effect was truly striking. The snake was winding itself in and out of a darTor pattern and Jade had to stare at it for several seconds before her mind resolved what the pattern was.
It was her name. Jade put the word 'eternity' and those letters together and slowly lifted her head to stare into Tori's eyes.
After a moment of utter silence, Tori managed a smile. "No offense, sweetheart, but I'm really glad your name is only four letters."
It was stunning. Jade felt short of breath. It was overwhelming. She blinked and felt the surprising sting of tears. Her head jerked a little, and the droplets scattered over Tori's bare skin, trembling as Tori drew in a shaky breath.
With a little sigh, Jade just buried her face into Tori's neck, giving her mind a little space to absorb this most explicit of messages.
Well, I don't think she's mad. Tori reached up and ran her fingers through the dark hair draping over her, scratching Jade's scalp with her fingertips. In truth, she'd forgotten completely about her anxiety over the damn thing, too, and the sudden stress after the long day was leaving her feeling totally wasted. But it had gone off rather better than she'd expected, so maybe not preparing for it was the way to go.
Anyway. "I know you know how I feel about you." Tori ventured. "So it's not a big shocTor, but…" She felt Jade exhale against her skin. "Now I want to find an excuse to wear a strapless gown."
Jade's body twitched as a tiny chuckle emerged.
Tori stroked Jade's hair gently, loving the feel of it against her skin. The pain, she decided now, had indeed been worth it, and her last doubt drifted away as Jade turned her head finally and their eyes met, and she saw the wonder there.
Yeah. Definitely worth it.
Sinjin met her as she got out of the Volvo, his face a study in anxious consternation. Another bright light suddenly interrupted them, and they looked up to find a television camera pointing it's round, inquisitive eye at them followed by a reporter stumbling alongside almost losing his footing on the loose shale.
"Uh oh." Sinjin muttered. "This aint' good."
Tori exhaled as the reporter headed her way. "Wanna be a Vice President for a day?"
"Nuh UH."
"Didn't think so."
"Betcha wish Big J were here."
The sweat in her eyes felt very much like tears. Tori had to look down for a long moment and wipe the moisture away with her sleeve before she could pick her head back up and face the music.
She'd left Jade, her feet up against the wall because things were getting to be a circus. She couldn't even enjoy making her potential child with her wife because of this disaster.
THere were no updates or debriefings for dar, because everything was happening real time. And then She had to go. And now she was crying like she was hormonal because she couldn't get a cuddle.
Jade had called her in transit to answer some questions Sinjin had, in how to put the generators together. And now everything seemed to be working. But someone had to be here with this until the grid came back up.
But having a camera solved in her face, in the pouring rain was not what she wanted right now.
Send in the Clowns would be about right.
It was dark in the hotel room. Jade was lying curled up on her side on the bed, her laptop open in front of her and her cell phone resting near her hand.
But the screensaver whirled unmolested, and the cell screen was dark. Jade merely lay there and watched the hypnotic pattern, waiting through what seemed to be the longest night of her life.
It was very quiet, and after a while she lifted her hand and let it drop on the keyboard, bringing the screen to life and exposing the network map she'd placed there. The lines leading into San Francisco were still mostly dark, and she felt a moment of intense shame as she hoped they stayed that way.
Not for Tori's sake. For her own, because if they didn't come up, the phone would ring again, soon, and she'd grab her bag and head for the airport and home.
Home.
But as she watched, there was a flicTor in the lines, a slow ripple that went from red, to yellow, to green as she blinked and sat up, leaning forward to stare at it. The lights steadied and held, pulsing a healthy color that reflected brightly against the dark background.
They did it. A rogue burst of pride drove aside the gloom, and despite it all, Jade found herself smiling. Unless the power came back but… She checked a gauge. No, the office was still on generator. She released a held breath into a whirlpool of mixed emotions. "Good girl."
The phone rang. Jade looked at the caller id for a long moment before she answered it, cradling the phone next to her ear. "Hey."
A long, long, long sigh. "It worked." Tori sounded lightheaded with relief. "Oh, my god, Jade. It worked. I'm watching the network live! It worked. We're up."
Shoving aside her own ridiculous disappointment, Jade determined herself to rise to the occasion. "I knew you'd do it." She said. "Tell me how it went."
"Hang on, let me sit down." Tori was almost out of breath. There was the sound of a car door shutting, then a brief rumble of an engine starting. "Oh god. Sorry. Had to get the AC on in here. I'm dying in this god damned heat."
Jade closed her eyes and just drank in the voice. "Must be like hell."
"Oh, honey… where do I start." Tori sighed. "Shit, I have such a headache."
Jade's fingers twitched in pure reflex, a testament to her natural inclination to answer the comment with a gentle knead of Tori's neck. "You take anything?"
Another sigh. "I I didn't I don't have any with me, and I haven't been home yet. Came straight from the airport. Shit… I didn't know ten hours in the air could be so draining."
"You haven't had dinner?" Jade checked the clock.
"I didn't have lunch." Tori admitted. "Just some of my bars. Anyway… they fought me tooth and nail, Jade. No way did they want us to do this, because everyone's up their butts wanting favors."
"I'm sure they were." Jade said. "Where are you now?"
"Outside the CO. Sinjin and the guys are cleaning up. We're leaving two techs here to keep filling the gas tanks."
Jade opened her phone's massage app and tapped out a message, hitting send quickly. "Good idea."
"Thanks." Tori said. "We kept running into obstacles, but everything worked out. We got the generators hooked up together, and we were just going to start the power…"
"Hooked them up together?"
"Yeah. I got a gizmo, a thing that let me connect all of them. You know.. I mean, you must know because you told me to get a bunch of generators, but I didn't think about how to make them work together and I guess you assumed we'd know so.."
Jade's eyes widened. "Shit." She exhaled. "I didn't even think of that, Tor. I just figured you might need more than one in case our stuff was on more than one switch."
Tori was silent for a little bit. "Oh." She finally said. "Wow. Well, no… I got this thing to make them all work together, so we didn't have to take the lines down to refill the gas or anything like that."
"Go on."
"So then I had to figure out how to keep the switch cool." Tori said. "I put some air conditioning duct from the switch out the door to the fridge truck we rented… it had ac in the back."
Jade rested her chin on her fist, a genuine smile appearing on her face. "Uh huh."
Tori cleared her throat. "So it was going great. Then the reporters showed up." She let out an aggravated breath. "Jade, they treated us like a bunch of squirmy hooligans. Like I was cheating or something to get what I wanted."
"Sweetheart, you were." Jade told her. "But it's okay. It's what you get paid for."
"That's what I told him." Tori said. "He went away, but I think he's coming back. Anyway, we got it all going, and plugged the switch in, and we all sort of just held our breath."
"And it worked."
"It worked."
"Tori?"
"Mm?"
"Outstanding job. You went over and above, and I really appreciate that. Well done. Very well done." Jade said, meaning every word.
Tori exhaled, and there was a soft sound as though she'd let her head rest against the glass window. "Thanks, boss." She replied simply.
They were both quiet for a little while. Then Jade shifted the phone from one ear to the other. "I'm damn proud of you."
A faint sniffle traveled down the cellular link. "Even though it meant you didn't get to come riding to the rescue?" Tori asked, making a wan joke.
"Yeah."
Tori made a small sound of contentment, but then she sighed again. "Know something?"
"What?"
"I was just thinking about something you once said to me. About how you felt when you got promoted, that time? And how you just went back home and it was like…"
"It ended up not meaning much, yeah." Jade said. "What brought that up?"
"Uuugh. Because I just was sitting here thinking that after all this, after this crappy, disgusting, horrible day – all I have to go home to is a dark, hot house and an empty bed."
Jade was caught speechless.
"I want a hug." Tori uttered. "I want you." Then there was a rustle, and the sound of the car window opening. "Hang on, sweetie." The sound of wind rushed in. "Hey, Sinjin…oh.. oh, yeah, um.. that would be great…yeah. Thanks! How… oh, that smells great. Thank you."
Jade smiled faintly at her distorted reflection in the laptop screen. She waited for the sound of the outside to vanish as Tori rolled up the window again, and heard the rustling of paper bags on the other side of the line.
"Did you have something to do with this, Jade?"
"Me?" Jade inquired. "I'm sitting here in New York. What makes you think I had anything to do with having your dinner delivered?"
A very soft, knowing chuckle answered her. "The fact that my Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich has no lettuce, and extra cheese on it, the frosty is large, and the baked potato has no bacon bits. Sinjin maybe could guess number two, but the other ones had your little fingerprints alllll over them."
Jade flexed her hand in front of her eyes, studying her fingerprints. Then she let her arm drop to the bed again. "Least I could do." She conceded. "Since I'm not there to do it myself."
"Wish you were." Tori's voice was muffled as she chewed. "I can admit that now, since this crappy thing is over."
"Wish I was too." Jade echoed softly.
Tori swallowed, and cleared her throat a little. "Are you okay?" She asked, in a gentle voice. "You sound really down."
Was she? Jade stared at the screen, with it's winking green lights. "Yeah, I'm all right." She answered, after a brief pause. "Worried about you all night, that's all."
"Mm."
"Least I have good news for the international board call in half an hour." Jade made an effort to inject some normality into her tone.
"Call? I didn't know you had one." Tori said.
"Yeah, I forgot too. Alastair reminded me." Jade admitted. "It's on my schedule … woulda binged me anyway. Give me something to do now that the crisis is over."
Tori seemed to absorb this in silence for a few heartbeats, chewing on her chicken sandwich in a thoughtfulness almost tangible through the phone. "Want some of my frostie?"
Jade chuckled.
"Want me to get on a plane and come to New York?" Tori asked. "Not for business. Just to keep you company and get my hug?"
"You really have to ask?" Jade responded wistfully. "You know I'd love it. But you've got that damn bid, Tor. This won't take me more than a day or so to straighten out. Then I'll be back and you'll get your hug."
"Mm" Tori grunted unhappily. "Hell with them." She said. "Oh, crap. I was right. Here come those damn reporters again."
"Ouch."
"You think they'll just stay there filming me if I eat my dinner inside the truck and refuse to open the door?"
Jade smiled. "Worth a try, sweetheart." She said. "Guess I can go order room service now too."
"Bad Jade."
"Bad Tori." Jade responded promptly. "Two of a kind."
Tori laughed suddenly, a light, joyful sound that made Jade's tense neck muscles relax in an instant. "Oh, what a compliment that is. Okay, love of my life.. let me let you go get dinner, and I'll try not to strangle these reporters. Call you later?"
"Sure." Jade agreed. "I'll let you know what the board had to say about my genius VP Ops."
"Love you."
"Love you too. Later." Jade closed the phone, feeling better than she had all night. Good enough to make her get up and go to the desk, sitting down and flipping open the room service menu with an acceptable level of interest.