We get to see more of Jim. Yeah there will be no writing here at my new job. Wont even let me bring my laptop for break.

Thirty Four

"Hey Ugly!"

James looked up from the crate he was methodically ripping apart, correctly assuming the voice was addressing him. "Yeap?"

The supervisor hurried over to him. "Hey listen… remember that thing you told me about those invoices? You got any more tricks like that?"

James leaned on his crate and considered the man, eyeing him with shrewd thoughtfulness. "Maybe. You got something better for me to do than mess with these here boxes?"

The man chewed his lip. "Well, I could… I'd hate to lose you out here because you're the only guy I got who doesn't bitch all the time, but I could do like a half day here, and half day in the office, how about that?"

"They got coffee inside there?"

The man chuckled. "Sure."

"All right." Jim nodded. "Saw them big trucks coming in this morning."

"No kidding. All that damn high tech crap with ten thousand little pieces and no manifest. C'mon." The supervisor motioned him to follow. "Let's see what we can do so it doesn't become a cluster."

James followed him willingly, leaving behind his crate full of bolts and nuts and emerging from the dockside warehouse into the sun. It was early yet on Wednesday morning, but he was passing glad to get out of the noisy, chaotic building with an opportunity to do something more interesting.

Not that he'd never unpacked boxes. He'd unpacked more boxes than Jade had brain cells but the action had limited opportunity for mental exercise though it did provide plenty of physical work.

They went into the trailer being used as an office. It was small and only barely cooled by an overworked wall air conditioner, and the four men sitting at old, scarred wood desks inside it were sweating as they worked.

"Hey, Brady.. gimme that file." The supervisor held a hand out, and when the tattered manilla object was put in it, he promptly turned and gave it to Jim. "There.. see what you can do with that stuff. Most of it's greek to me. I know carpet, hammers, machine parts.. this stuff's just garbage."

Jim opened the folder and studied the first page. "Wall." He sniffed reflectively. "Mah kid's one of them geek types. I think ah can figger this stuff out."

"Yeah?" The supervisor sounded interested. "He want a job?"

Pale blue eyes looked up over the papers at him. "She's got one already, thanks for askin." Jim moved over to a chair near the side of the trailer, sitting down and putting the folder on his knees. What he had here, he realized after studying the papers for some minutes, was all the stuff he'd heard Jade and Tori talking about putting in their ship. So it was a sure bet the two people working against his kids had come up with their own list and here it was. "First off." He looked over at the supervisor. "Better make up some copies so I can mark on em."

"Right over there." Brady, the heavyset paymaster pointed at a paneled wall without looking up.

James got up and went around the wall, finding a copy machine there. With a satisified grunt, he set the stack of papers down on the top sorter, and punched first the number 2, then copy.

The super poked his head around. "Listen, I cleared off the end of the table in there – you can use that to work on, okay?"

"All right."

"Great!" The man disappeared, leaving Jim to stand and watch the copier do it's work. He bounced up and down on his heels a few times, whistling softly under his breath until he heard the door slam open.

"Where the hell is that asshole?" A woman's voice rasped.

Jim's eyebrow quirked as he recognized one of the two targets he'd heard the previous day.

"Pardon me?" Brady asked, in a bored voice. "You'll have to be more specific, lady. There's a lot of assholes around here."

"Heh." Jim chuckled silently. "Ain't that the damn truth."

"Don't give me that.. oh, there you are. Where's our gear?"

There was a scrape, and a thump as the door to the trailer's bathroom was closed, and heavy boots crossed the floor. "We're working on it, ma'am. I got my best guy sorting all the deliveries right now."

Jim's eyes twinkled wryly, and he shook his head. "Lord."

"That doesn't help me. I need to know what's here and what's not." The voice snapped back. "We don't have time to waste on your stupidity."

James took his pile of copied papers and sorted them into two piles. He looked up as the super came around the corner. "Sounds like someone's got a bee in their buttocks." He drawled softly.

"Jesus." The super rolled his eyes. "You think you can get me a list of all this stuff?"

"Yeap." Jim allowed. "Bout an hour, something like that."

"Great." The man ducked back out. "Ma'am, we'll have something for you in about an hour. We just got the invoices in now."

"You'd better, or else your company's going to explain to me why you can't even keep truck deliveries straight." The voice faded, then vanished, as the outside door slammed shut.

"What a bitch." Brady snorted. "Sounds like she needs a good screwing."

"You can have her. Not my type." The super also left, closing the door more gently behind him.

Jim went to the small window and looked out it, spotting the stocky form of the bigger woman retreating from the trailer. He watched her disappear into the pier building, then he returned to his task, picking up the stacks of papers and going back into the main room.

The other men in the room eyed him, then went back to their work as he took a seat at the end of a long banquet table. He set the papers down and picked up a pencil lying on the table, examining the first page thoughtfully.

When Jade had taken an interest in technology, he'd made a point of going out and reading up on the stuff she'd decided to make her living from. Most of it wasn't that much different from some things he'd encountered in the Navy, but it had it's own language.

Since he'd retired, he'd taken the opportunity to delve a little deeper into the subject, and he felt he was almost at a point where he could at least have a somewhat all right discussion with his kid about it. So when he looked at the pages and pages of parts, at least the names and descriptions were somewhat familiar to him.

It seemed like they'd been shipped without any mind to what went with what though. Jim scratched his head and frowned. He knew the names, but had to admit that the functions of each of the gizmos were somewhat foggy, and he really had no way of guessing which part went with the next except by actually guessing.

Jaden it.

"Wall." With a shake of his head he started sorting out the bits by the maker, figuring at least if he put all the ones from the same place together it was a start.

"That's a mess, yeah?" Brady looked over at him. "What a bunch of maroons shipping that stuff."

"Yeap." James scribbled some notes down. "Pain in mah butt, tell you that. Don't know what them folks was thinking."

Brady got up and looked over his shoulder. "Weren't." He commented briefly. "You got a background in this sort of thing? Thought you were just a loader."

"Done some stuff." Jim answered. "Spent thirty years in the Navy, had to learn something."

"Wow." Brady's attitude altered abruptly. "Really? Were you out on the ships?"

Pale blue eyes peeked up at him. "That is what the Navy does." He replied. "But ah tell ya what, someone be this disorganized on a carrier, they'd be pitched overboard or sent shoreside fastern' you could spit at em."

"Yeah." The paymaster agreed. "They don't seem to know what they're doing, you know? Like everyone's doing their own thing, and nobody's coordinating. Then you get those bitches like that one coming in here and thinking they own the joint."

"Woman did have her an attitude." Jim nodded. "Ain't a way to get things done."

"Yeah." Brady said again. "Maybe we should stop jumping when she barks. That way she'll back off."

"Could be." The ex seal agreed mildly. "I sure wouldn't be saluting her, that's for damn sure."

Brady wandered off, going over to the other table and leaning over to talk to two of the men sitting there working. Jim peeked over at him, then put his head back down with a smile, continuing his sorting.

Jade pushed the door to the computer center open with a stiff armed motion, almost hitting one of the techs on his way out. "Sorry."

The tech jumped out of the way and stammered an apology of his own, then slunk out past her as she walked on by. Jade went past the MIS command desk and headed for Sinjin's office, where she could hear voices already raised in excited conversation. "Hey."

Sinjin's head jerked up as she entered. "Oh.. hey, boss." He greeted her. "Check this out!'

Jade obligingly circled his desk and focused her attention on the small, silver gray box sitting on top of it. "I'm checking. What is it?"

Sinjin turned it over, and displayed a circuit board. "Integrated unit. Plugged into our extra port for the projector down there, and get this." He slid a small panel aside. "Cellular"

Jade peered at it. "No kidding?"

"No shit. " Sinjin said. "They dialed in and activated it – sent the worm in over the cell link, then had it refocus out the network port. If Tori hadn't found it… Jesus."

Jade picked up the device and studied it closely. "Damn."

"Yeah."

"That's pretty sophisticated." Sinjin's assistant, the lanky Peter spoke up. "I checked it out on the web last night. That's like… black bag stuff."

"Mm." Jade nodded agreement. "It sure is." She looked up. "So, tell me why we didn't catch a rogue MAC on the network?"

Peter stuck his hands in his pockets. Sinjin cleared his throat.

"Will you excuse us, please/" Jade looked at Peter. "And close the door on your way out."

The tall man escaped gratefully, shutting the door and leaving them alone in the office.

Sinjin gave her a look that could easily have been one of Chinos, when caught stealing cookies from the closet. "It's not an excuse." He temporized. "But it's that damn projector.. we've had it fixed like six times in the last four weeks."

"And?"

"So the guy told me last time, he thought it was the MAC blocking that was making it freak out." Sinjin admitted.

"So you turned it off."

"For that port, yeah." The MIS chief agreed. "It fixed the problem."

Jade folded her arms, then she walked over to Sinjin's office window and looked out. "That's a breech of our security policy." She remarked quietly, keeping her eyes focused outward as there was no answer behind her. "Here I have Tori beating herself up for not asking for a scan, and the fact is the room was left deliberately wide open."

Sinjin shifted in his chair, the leather squeaking softly. "You… want my resignation?" He asked, in a somber voice. "It was my screwup, Jade. I took the security off that port, not one of my guys."

Jade found a small boat to watch, as it skittered across the water. "What I'm more interested in right now is who knew you did it, other than you and the projector tech."

Sinjin remained silent for a few moments. "I don't know, boss. I didn't tell anyone here."

Jade turned and leaned against the window. "So – then either someone here just happened to see the change in the switch and got bought… or we have a problem with a vendor, because whoever put that.." She pointed viciously at the device. "Sure knew it."

Sinjin relaxed just a trifle. "You think it was one of those Telegenics goons, right?"

Did she? It was tempting to. They were in the room, that was in the room, and no doubt about it, they had a motive. And yet… "That's more tech than Shari's capable of, and damn it, I think Michelle's too ethical for it."

"Huh."

"But you never know. Let's start hunting." Jade decided. She headed for the door, stopping as she reached it and turning. "No, I don't want your damn resignation. I screwed up, Tori screwed up, you screwed up… that's it. We've exhausted our once in a blue moon big time. No more screwups."

She walked out and shut the door behind her, leaving a slightly stunned Sinjin sitting at his desk in silence. After a moment the door cracked open again and Peter stuck his head warily inside. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Sinjin finally let his held breath out. "I think so. She's just really pissed." His brow creased. "I think."

"You think?"

"Yeah." Sinjin rested his chin on his fist. "But I can't really tell who she's more pissed at, the joker who stuck this on the network, or herself."

Peter looked confused, then he slowly withdrew his head and shut the door again, leaving Sinjin to ponder the question alone.

"Tori?" Mayte stuck her head around the corner of the door. "I have a fax for you."

Tori looked up from her pile of paperwork, one dark eyebrow cocking. "Nifty. I needed more paper on my desk. Bring it over."

Mayte walked into the office and put the thick stack of paper down. "It is from the port, but I do not understand what this is."

Tori glanced at the cover sheet, and saw a somewhat crude rendition of a seal scrawled on the page. "Ah." She tossed side her current list of ordering and pulled the stack over. "I do, and boy, we sure did nail down which of her folks Jade gets her doodling from." She flipped through the pages, leaning a little closer to study the details. "Ah." She repeated softly. "Interesting."

"Tori?"

Tori looked up again. "Sorry, Mayte.. was there something else you needed from me?"

Her assistant fiddled with her hands, then she sat down in Tori's visitor chair. "Is it all right if I ask you something that is a little personal for me?"

Uh oh. "Sure." Tori pushed aside the fax and focused her attention. "What's up?"

"Did you… I am sorry, this is very embarrassing, but.. did you know right away when you were liking la chefa?"

Liking? "Um.. well, not really." Tori replied very slowly. "If.. I mean, Mayte, are you asking me when I knew I was in love with Jade?"

Mayte turned brick red, even under her already well tanned skin. "Si." She answered in a whisper.

"Boy, that's a tough question." Tori frowned. "Because we came together in such an odd way.. with work and all. But.. you know, I will tell you this. I felt something in here.. ' Tori touched her chest. "From the very minute I set eyes on her. I just didn't know what that something was for a while."

Mayte nodded slowly. "That does make sense."

"Are you.. uh.. " The Brunette hesitated. "Someone you're interested in?" She finally asked, a touch awkwardly, then they both looked up as Tori's inner office door opened and Jade entered.

The blue eyes flicked to both women, and Jade paused. "Sorry. Didn't meant to interrupt." She said, retracing her steps.

"No no.. I was just leaving." Mayte jumped up and raced out, closing the door quickly behind her.

Jade looked at the door, then looked at Tori. Both eyebrows shot up.

"Beats me." Tori shook her head. "She was just asking me about how to know when you're in love."

"Uh oh." Jade advanced again. "Someone catch her eye? Mariela hasn't said anything to me, at any rate."

"I got the feeling yes." Tori pushed the fax over towards her. "Look what Dad sent… and did you talk to Sinjin? He gave me a rundown on the thing he found.. holy cow, Jade."

Jade flipped through the pages, then looked up at Tori. "What did you tell her?"

brown eyes blinked in confusion. "Huh? What did I tell who?"

"Mayte."

"About what?"

Jade glanced out the window. "About how you know when you're in love." She peeked back at Tori's face, with a half abashed grin. "Or did I interrupt that part?"

"Oh." Tori leaned back. "Yeah, I think you sorta did." She pondered, twiddling her thumbs together. "Probably a good thing… I don't think my going into racing heartbeats and sweating palms would do anything for our professional rapport."

"Probably not." Jade's face eased into a smile.

"Though I did tell her I knew the second I met you." Tori smiled back. "I'm not sure why she ran out of here like that, though." She idly stifled a yawn. "Was it something I said?"

Jade took a seat on the edge of Tori's desk, regarding her with a faintly amused expression.

"Stop it." Tori punched her in the leg. "Don't start with that crush stuff again, Jade. The last thing on earth she'd be asking me if she really had a crush was the question she just asked. Right?"

The taller woman shrugged one shoulder.

Tori made a face. "You really think so?"

"I really do." Jade replied. "But I don't think you've got much to worry about – she knows you're taken."

Now it was Tori's eyes that twinkled. "Now that's the truth." She leaned her head back against her leather chair. "I'm looking forward to class tonight… you going to be out of your meeting in time?"

Jade had been studying the fax. Now she dropped it lightly onto Tori's desk and stood. "Yep." She indicated the papers. "Not sure what that gets us, besides what they're paying for the standard gear. Nice of dad to send it though. Wonder why he had them?"

"Yeah." Tori twiddled her thumbs. "At least I know we're paying less than they are. Volume has to count for something, eh?" She pushed the fax with her index finger. "What did you think of that thing Sinjin found?"

Jade had wandered over to the window and was gazing outside. "Slick."

Tori waited, but Jade offered nothing else on the subject. "Okay." She leaned forward and went back to her mail, recognizing a rebuff when she felt one. "Guess I'll leave that in your ballpark. Mine's busy." She put her head down and concentrated on the screen, trying not to become hyper aware of the figure standing behind her.

She knew Jade was looking at her, though. She could feel it, feel the impact of those blue eyes on the back of her head even before she heard the soft rustle of fabric as Jade turned. She heard the light scuff of her footsteps against the carpet, and against her will, she found herself straining to figure out if they were coming closer or leaving.

"I really don't know what to think." Jade's voice sounded unexpectedly loud in the office.

Tori continued typing. "Well, I'm sure you'll handle it."

Jade resumed her perch on Tori's desk, making it very difficult to continue to ignore her. Tori tried, but after a moment she felt a nudge against her shoulder, and it was either look up, or really escalate her miffed feelings into a fight.

Did she want a fight? Tori swiveled a little and rested her chin on her fist, gazing up at her partner. No. She never really did want to fight, it was just that sometimes their differences pushed them in opposite directions until they clashed. "Yees?"

"Was I being a bitch?" Jade asked.

Tori shrugged one shoulder.

"I wasn't trying to be." The dark haired woman admitted. "That thing Sinjin found's got me confused."

"Why?"

Tori's phone rang, and she gave it an evil look. She hit her intercom button. "Mayte, can you get that please? I'm in an important meeting right now."

"Si, of course." Mayte answered back promptly, then clicked off.

Tori returned her attention to her partner. "What's confusing you, honey? Was it more than you expected it to be? Sinjin showed me the details.. it was pretty sophisticated."

Jade sighed. "It was pretty sophisticated." She admitted, running her fingers through her hair in some distraction. "Tor, I know you want to think it was Shari and Michelle, but I.."

"You don't' think so? Really? C'mon, Jade.. who else could it be?" Tori almost laughed. "I mean, let's be real. We have our worst enemies right here in the building, I leave them unsupervised for a half hour, and a couple days later we get hit with an internal probe." She put a hand on Jade's leg. "Honey."

Her partner exhaled. "So now you know why I didn't want to talk about it." She got up and headed for her office, shaking her head. "Just forget it. Yeah, it was probably them."

"B.." Tori got up and chased after her. "Jade! Wait a minute…" She caught up to her at the inner door and gently took hold of her arm. "Hey..hey…hey.."

Jade stopped, but there was a perceptible pause before she turned, and when she did, her expression was dour. "What?"

As their relationship progressed, Tori had learned bit by bit just what worked with Jade and what didn't. She had no idea what the heck was going on with her, but she knew enough to know that attempting to placate her at this point would do exactly jack squat. "Okay."

"Okay what?" Jade repeated, but in a slightly modified tone.

"Okay, we've both already cycled this month, and it's not a full moon. So let's blow this office and get some lunch." Tori said. "Somewhere outside this building."

Jade hesitated, then she wrinkled her nose up and clucked her tongue. "I'm in a really pissy mood. You don't want to have lunch with me. Maybe I should just go to the corner and get a hot dog." She said. "Last person I want to wrangle with is you."

Tori bumped her gently. "C'mon." She replied softly. "We'll talk about the new fish tank." She looked up into Jade's eyes, watching the strong planes of her partner's face shift a little as some of the storm clouds faded. "I'm sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way.. I didn't mean to."

Jade scowled, but it was one of her more engaging ones. "S'allright. I didn't mean to be a touchy whiny ass this morning." She eased closer, exhaling as her body relaxed. "Lunch sounds great. You can try and talk me into those boxing crabs." She gave Tori a gentle pat on the side. "Let me go close my machine down, and we can take off."

Tori stepped back and watched as she left, her own body relaxing from the tension she always felt in the times when they disagreed. "Thank god it doesn't happen often." She turned and went back to her desk, hitting her intercom button as she sat down. "Mayte? Was that anything critical? C'mon in."

After a moment, the outer door opened, and Mayte poked her head in, then entered, crossing over to Tori's desk. "It was Mr. Jose. He has a gigantic problem with something in Los Angeles." She handed over a piece of paper with some notes. "I wrote down what it is he said, but he wants to talk to you."

Tori reviewed the notes. "Well, he's going to have to wait until after lunch." She decided. "Jade's in a mood, and I'm going to work on getting her out of it. Let him know I'll be up to his office when I get back."

Mayte blinked at her. "Si." She agreed softly. "I will do that. And thank you before, Tori, for your advice. It is appreciated."

"No problem." Tori smiled. "Good luck."

Mayte smiled back, then left.

Tori leaned back and studied the closed door. "Nah.' She shook her head. "It's not me." With a click, she locked her computer screen, and headed off to wrangle fish.