"Are morons still complaining about you being gone for three days?"

"Oh yes, how dare we leave the city even though they told us they didn't need us working at the lab. Calmer heads told them to grow the fuck up and get over themselves.

Jessy, Xander, and Harmony return from signing up from their classes and buying their books.

"Did you sign up for your graduations?"

"The two of us did, Harmony will once she gets her masters." Jenny looks at her. "I've got an appointment next summer."

She nods in satisfaction as they sort out the supplies they'd picked up at the office supply store, unless it's something they absolutely cannot get anywhere but the school store they buy it there.

"Is there anything special beyond the computer programs we need to buy next year?" Wesley asks at a meeting a couple days before Christmas.

"It's time to start looking at computers and printers again."

"It's been a few years for anything but the laptops." Joyce says. "Server?"

"We've got most of the first server left and have two more waiting." Rupert says. "We won't need more for a few years."

"Construction. I was looking over Jessy's house and it needs some work."

"So do a couple of the guest houses. They all date from the same time."

Rupert looks at Horatio. "Are the plans for the lab back on track?"

"Yes, the morons who couldn't understand why we couldn't just use the other lab demanded to inspect it and went off whining when they realized how small it was."

"Of course they didn't realize half of what you do and thought any area could work?"

"Uh-huh. . .or that policemen still walked beats with a nightstick and whistle. They just got the position on the city council because the wanted to lord it over people who actually work for a living. Thank you for taking care of the debris Rupert, landfills were full with debris from the storm."

"Yes, I understand they're trying to truck it out of the state now. I can deal with it if you want to tell the council that."

"I will."

Rupert looks at Gregory. "Do we need to update the medical section?"

House shakes his head. "We're good barring anything beyond a mass case of the flu or food poisoning. We've got sixteen beds, enough for any injuries that we can't send on to a hospital."

Rupert nods and goes to the next item on the list.

Christmas is quiet at the House, presents being opened at the main building and stockings emptied. Jessy puts her bag on the floor beside her seat and starts to get a tray, one of the others giving her a look and pointing at the chair. The others snigger. "Everybody loves you Jessy and you're in pain, relax and let us fuss over you." Joyce says calmly.

"Mac." Horatio nods as he looks over his sunglasses at him when he arrives at the hotel next to the convention center.

"Horatio, I hear the work for your lab is back on track?"

"Yes, after whiny fools in the city council realized we can't all work in a auxiliary lab you'd find at a high school and they couldn't handle all our work anyway they supposed they'd have to allow us back to work and rebuild the lab. After they wailed because they couldn't punish some of us for being out of town for a couple days while we were on leave."

"Sounds like the self-centered morons who flock to positions on the city council to try to lord it over people who actually know what they're doing." Mac snorts.

Grissom introduces himself to the pair later that night and after they eat the rubber chicken dinner and sit through the boring talks they settle in Mac's room. Mac and Gil look over the new plans, shaking their heads when they see pictures of the old lab. "That was an accident waiting to happen,"

"They were looking at it as a way to bring people to Miami, they didn't care if it was practical or not as long as it looked good."

Horatio detours past the lab when he returns to Miami, seeing the last of the debris gone and construction started. Some people are still wailing even after seeing the other lab with them crammed together and had been told to grow the fuck up and 'asked' to leave the city council. They're pouting they can't shove their oh so precious opinions down anybody's throat anymore.

He recognizes one of the workers and they wave at him.

"How long?"

"Six months, the city refused to let us run double shifts."

"That's going to bite them in the end."

"Especially considering they're going to be facing fines in three months for not getting it done on time."

Horatio nods. "I've heard complaints from the courts about prisoners not getting quick trials but the state threw out suits since there's nothing the city can do about it with the lab gone."

Jessy settles into her seat for the first class of her thank you god last semester of classes.

"Think Rupert will start dropping hints about going for MBAs?" Xander nudges her shoulder.

"Just as soon as I finish my Library masters, you can't take classes in two masters at the same time." Somebody snickers behind them. She reaches into the rolling cart the others had insisted she start using and digs out her books for the class as the teacher walks in. . .Mr. Sampson. Everybody cheers.

"Yes, you lot have me for your last semester of classes." He chuckles. "Mr. Hanson is busy with the new crop of students signing up for their masters."

"How's your girls enjoying Harvard?" Somebody asks.

"It is cold and people talk funny." Everybody snickers. "Their grades are good. . .but people are weird to want to be out in that white stuff."

"They probably say the same thing about people who live in Hurricane land and keep rebuilding instead of getting the hell out of dodge." A man behind them says.

"True." He hands out the syllabus and they open their books.

"Your friend?" One of the women asks a couple weeks later when Jessy isn't in her usual spot next to Xander.

"Off for an expo for work, she'll take this class on the computer."

Jessy is sitting down on the edge of her bed at that moment, Paige sitting on the other bed. "Dinner?" She asks.

"Yeah." She puts her shoes back on and they walk to the elevator. The next morning they sign into the expo and set to work walking through the tables.

A few days later Jessy slides into the back seat of the car Ryan has brought for them, he gets in the front after putting their bags in the trunk.

"How was the expo?"

"Better than the hotel. Damn hotel had trouble with the water the entire time we were there. . .nothing as mundane as no hot water. . .people were complaining about the water cutting out completely in some rooms."

Paige takes up the story. "They wanted to work on it during the night when nobody would be using the water because they were asleep but soon realized. . .they wouldn't be able to get in the rooms because people were asleep."

"I swear the hotel must go through light bulbs by the tractor trailer as many as they seemed to be replacing during the expo." Paige then mutters. She looks at Jessy. "They weren't replacing them."

"No, I think they were trying to investigate the expo since the nice clothes didn't match hotel maintenance uniforms. Once they saw nothing was going on it stopped. I hope they didn't go as far as bugging rooms. . .I'm sure they enjoyed listening to tv shows and people snoring if they did."

"I'm sure they thought they'd find some fantastic crime that would make them the heroes of their bureau. And it blew up in their face." Ryan snorts as they get on the interstate.

"Did we miss anything?"

"Bunch of fool teenagers who got together to see who could pull the most crimes. Juvenile, annoying shit."

"I'd heard a story on the news about kids doing stuff like that." Paige says slowly.

"Yeesssss, young punks with too much time on their hands getting on websites like that trying to cause trouble for the dumb cops. If they suceeded they'd be able to put up a tally on the site for everybody else to try to beat in the next city."

Jessy moans. "I can just see my mother in the thick of one of those groups."

"And half the damn cliques in schools."

"That's who they were targeting. Teenagers who haven't grown into the smarts they think they have." Ryan snorts. Paige and Jessy giggle. "Hopefully they'll grow up and realize how fucking lucky they were their families didn't kill them for their stupidity."

Jessy snorts this time. "Half their families they came by it honestly. . .all you have to do is look at the morons who swore you didn't need two labs or even two crews. . .then howled when you were out of town while you were off. They get into politics to make everybody see they're special. . .because otherwise if they had to have a normal life they might realize what miserable people they are."

At the house they're greeted with hugs and their mail is handed over as their bags are taken of for the laundry. They head to the cafeteria for a good meal.

Jessy settles in her bed a couple hours later after she's got back her laundry and gone through her mail. She squirms in her bed a second. . .Rupert had told her they'd replaced her box spring and mattress for her while she was gone. It will take a couple days to get used to this new one she decides as she picks up her book from the nightstand drawer and starts to read another chapter in an old Anne McCaffrey novel. She'll have to make a trip to the bookstore next week she thinks as she marks her place and turns off the light.

The next afternoon finds her doing inventory in her seamstress building to get ready for the girls that will start descending on the building for their prom dresses.

The other students smile when Jessy walks into the room with Xander.

"Expo?"

"One of three I normally attend for the seamstress shop. Between that, the textbook expos, and others I'm usually gone six, seven weekends a year."

"Comicon." Xander coughs. "Yes, those too. Our boss has a list of expos for the year that we can sign up for. Some the people actually doing the job attend, but some are just go and bring us back information."

In the doorway Mr. Sampson nods as he comes into the room. He hands out tests and the sound of papers and pencils scratching is the only thing heard for the next few minutes.

A few days later Jessy and Andrew get in the truck, driving into Miami and stopping at the mall first. The bookstore is the first stop and the cart is soon full of books, Andrew running the bags out to the truck and coming back for the second load.

It takes three trips out but Andrew joins Jessy at the video store where she's filling the cart again. The manager of the store is used to them running multiple bags out to the truck and Jessy gets something to eat at the food court while Andrew runs to an electronics store. He runs the cart out three times and slides into the seat across from Jessy.

"Are we making two days of this?"

"Yep. I already called the motel. We'll stop to the comic book store and a couple other places today and then hit the fabric warehouse tomorrow."

The owner of the comic book store chuckles as he sees the pair walk in the door, holding up a hand bringing out boxes of their regular comics he'd put aside for them. They grin and start looking through the racks and boxes.

Andrew comes in with pizzas and they talk on Jessy's room after they get checked in, talking about what Jessy has to buy at the fabric warehouse before they head back to the House.

Rupert looks at the boxes and bags being taken into the main building the following day. Jessy drops the receipts on Larry's desk and leans against the wall, closing her eyes and moaning theatrically.

"Bad night?" Rupert chuckles.

"Some damn fool pissass punk policeman pounding on doors at the motel because he thought he was the man when a group of kids used their parents credit card to rent a room for a party. He was so sure he'd find more people if he just checked the other rooms. Surprise, surprise. . .all he found was people actually sleeping. Who weren't happy to be woke up by him. His supervisor was cussing him out when I slammed the door in his face."

"There's two type of officers, those who join the department because they actually want to help the public and those who do it for the power. He was one of the second." Horatio says from the doorway. "I brought out copies of our newest books."

"Thank you Horatio, I'll put them with the others in the library."

"Speaking of which, I'm expanding it next year."

"Okay." Jessy blinks. "Fuck, I hate getting woke up in the middle of the night. I'm groggy the rest of the damn day." Horatio chuckles as she looks at them.

"Did you get all the books on your list?" Joyce asks at dinner.

"And then some, same with the music and DVDS. I'll put in an order for audio books later. All the ones at the stores are abridged and they cut out the good parts."

Jessy looks around the seamstress building in satisfaction, everything is ready for the girls who will be arriving shortly.

The next week is midterms already and Jessy shakes her head as she feels a pang a moment that this is going to be the last time she sits in a classroom waiing for Xander to finish his midterms. Xander looks at her and chuckles a second.

"Feeling a little homesick about this being our last midterms for this degree?" He asks before he gets up.

"Until I realized it's our last midterms for this degree." Behind them one of the others snickers.

Jessy drops most of her mail into the recycling bin when she returns to the House. "Yeah . ..right." she snorts as she opens a letter from the police department. "I hope your supervisor kicks your damn fool head right off for this latest bit of stupidity." Joyce looks at her then at the letter.

"Fucking asshole wrote a half-assed apology for banging on all the doors of the rooms he knew were occupied trying to find more kids partying and finding all of us asleep. It was our fault for choosing that hotel. . .he was forced to do that."

"Bullshit. . .he was looking for the rush of power and he got his ass handed to him. Now he's sulking."

That turns out to be the truth as he's yelled at by his boss and IA the next couple of days as the department gets complaints. The motel threatens to sue and he gulps. . .realizing the precinct isn't going to be taking his side. Maybe he shouldn't have pulled that. . the other rooms had been dark when they'd arrived. . .he could tell people had been sleeping. His father had told him he'd pull something stupid and get his ass handed to him for it. How could he have been right? Mommy had told him he was special and he could do whatever he wanted. Other people were just jealous.

Rupert talks to Jessy after the rush of students getting their graduation dresses has eased. he leaves her with magazines and whatnot. Looking through her fabric she makes another list of what she'll need and works on plans for a second shop. Rupert nods at all her suggestions and starts making plans.

Xander looks at her as she grumbles about having to buy a dress for their graduation. "New building?"

"Yes, Rupert's getting into crossdressing."