"Thank you my boy, the state government is full of morons. They are giving us more land around us .. .in return for putting up a bank, movie theater, mall, and warehouse club."

"For gods sake . . .why?"

"We have all those employees at the commerical farm and power plant. . .don't they need a bank?"

"Yes. . that's why they just drive ten minutes into town and go to the bank." Wesley snorts.

"As I told the fool. Of course we'll want the other stuff too. .. won't we? He's going to talk to the mayor next because I told him no. . .I'm sure the little fool will be blubbering that he didn't know we didn't need any of this. . .he was just looking for a way to make a name for himself."

"If you have all this of course you'll be interested in putting up houses around us." Jenny snorts. They walk out of the office, finding the decorations for the main house being brought out. Unliike most of Florida all the buildings have full basements and are used for storage for seasonal items.

The decorations start going up and everybody who's going home for the holidays or visiting relations leave. A grumbling Xander is one of the ones heading off, he'll be spending a couple weeks in Denver at the House there as well as going over his inheritence.

A group goes into Miami a week before Christmas, everybody coming back loaded down with bags.

"Asshole to elbow?" Joyce asks as they troop into the cafeteria.

"Oh yes, as usual this close to the holiday. I'm not even going into town until after New Years."

"Worse spring break, then they'd all be getting drunk and stupider." Ryan says sourly. Horatio and Speed chuckle. "And trying to get out of tickets by telling everybody how important their parents think they are."

"Amen. While those who have the real power don't talk about it."

Jessy limps into the second seamstress building a couple days before Christmas. It's turned cold for December . . .in the mid-sixties. A couple of people are in the building and Jessy brings out fabric and other supplies from the now linked back rooms. She'd doubled her usual orders. . .with the back rooms expanded there's no lack of room for everything.

Christmas is noisy at the house and after dinner people head to the home theater to watch Christmas movies. Jessy snorts and settles in a seat in the house with a book while she lets dinner settle for a few hours.

Some of the others are in the game room, playing video games, board games, or some of the games in the room. Oz wanders through with his guitar and starts playing.

Jessy settles in the library for the first day of her second semester of classes. She has to admit she might miss classes at the school a bit but she doesn't miss the constant power interruptions. Xander chuckles as he walks behind her and drops an armful of stuff on the table next to her.

"New expos Rupert wants you to look at along with some places in the area that you can visit. And yes, that includes Powell's in Seattle." He laughs as he blows a raspberry against her neck, getting swore and swatted at then laughs as he heads off.

"Xander." Wesley sighs.

"Jessy's parents and RA made her grow up too soon." He says quietly. "By annoying her she's acting like the kid she is." Rupert nods behind them. "Thank you Xander, I'd like her to live a little too."

"Did they ever get the matter of all the fines straightened out for the lab?" Xander asks, looking past Rupert.

"Oh yes, the fools on the city council were blubbering they didn't know they'd be held responsible for the lab not coming in on time and under budget." Speed snorts as he walks past. "He was just trying to save money. . ..he couldn't use the excuse of bothering neighbors for not having a second shift. . .every building around the lab empties at five."

"They were just trying to shove their weight around." Wesley sighs. Speed nods. "The equipment is going in now and they figure on everybody being back at the end of the month. Now. . .that won't mean everything's over. . the lab took the opportunity to get new equipment. . ."

"And it will be full of bugs . . .which makes getting settled in and finding what the city cut corners on to save their almight budget even worse?" Jessy snorts from the doorway. "The server is down at the school, there's a note saying it will be back up tomorrow."

"Good, I was going to tell you it's time for a break. You've got at least three months to get in all your classes." Rupert wraps an arm over her shoulders.

"I've heard rumors that this is going to be a bad year."

"I've heard the same rumors. That's why I'm getting in extra supplies again." Rupert looks at Speed.

"The city's getting in supplies too. The new building is beyond hurricane code so we're going to be a place for the state to store supplies."

"I saw a lot of complaints about other precincts?" Jessy asks, looking back at him as they walk to the main house.

"Yes, with the loss of our lab the city was forced to inspect all the buildings. Surprise, surprise. . .corners were cut a lot when it came to hurricane standards."

"Of course. . .this way the money can go to better projects." Jessy mock-chirps. "Then something like the lab happens and people are busy blubbering they didn't mean for it to happen." Everybody sighs but nods. Jesse is putting the empty mail containers in the closet and Jessy throws her mail in her shoulder bag, getting nodded at a couple packages on the floor.

"The people who go into politics are the last people that should be allowed power." One of the cooks snorts as they enter the cafeteria. Everybody in earshot laughs and nods.

"Jessy, trip into Miami?"

"In a couple weeks. Some fool group is picketing the mall for some damn useless reason nobody . ..even them understands. But they're parents and saving our souls." Jessy hisses. "This way we miss the fools."

"Yeeesssss, we got briefed on them the other day. They can't figure out why they're picketing either."

"The ones briefing you or the ones doing the picketing?" One of the cooks snorts.

"Both."

"Sounds about right."

A couple weeks later the truck pulls into a parking space, Jessy putting up the handicapped placard before sliding out of the passenger seat. A woman gives Andrew a look but subsides when she sees Jessy coming around the side of the truck. He looks at Jessy then the woman and back.

"Fools who try to find fault with people having handicapped placards. . . because they're miserable old bats. That's why I always park in a regular spot if at all possible. I put up my placard anyway because they complain if I don't."

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't."

"Exactly."

"How are you coming on your classes?"

"Good, I'm trying not to get them in too soon, Rupert would just give me the look. But I'm going to be gone for a couple weeks this semester."

"The more you get done now the less you have to do when you get back." Andrew nods as he opens the door for Jessy.

The bookstore owner grins as his favorite pair of customers come in and start wandering the aisles, filling the cart multiple times. The employees start boxing and bagging everything up and they head off to do the rest of the shopping, Andrew driving around to the loading dock a couple hours later and they put everything in the truck. A few more stops. . .including a late dinner and they arrive back at the house at nearly midnight. Locking up the truck they head to their home or apartment, everything can be taken care of tomorrow.

"Jessy, can I talk you into getting a different phone?" Jenny asks a couple days later.

"Why? I don't use the one I have now enough to say I need a phone. That's why I went prepaid. Lemme guess, the contracts are up?"

"Nearly up. You could get a smartphone to accept checks."

"Wouldn't work for those who pay in cash. And I get the bulk of my business twice a year. Even with the second building opening it wouldn't be worth it. I get a check or cash I can run into town."

"Just like the rest of the businesses." Jenny chuckles. "Which is why the state wanting to put up a bank nearby crashed and burned. They'd still like to put up a movie theater though, along with a mall and warehouse store." Jessy rolls her eyes. "Yes, they'll soon learn. You put those type of businesses in good traffic areas. We're out of the way for a reason."

"I could see them trying to put up homes and apartments in the area then trying to move us off as undesirables." Jessy snorts. "I saw it aaaaaalllllll the time in California, urban renewal at it's worst because 'oh my god, we can't have those type of people living here."

Jenny sighs but nods.

The next day everybody is on deck as the first truck of supplies arrives. Everybody should be shocked at how much more room they have in the stockrooms even with getting extra but they just shrug. It's something they've become used to.

A couple weeks later an employee at a hotel/casino in Vegas apologizes as he leads Jessy and Illyana to a suite. The room Jessy and Illyana should have been staying in hadn't been available due to water damage. Jessy slumps on a couch and looks around. "Two bedrooms, two baths, a sitting area, and a kitchen. Swanky." Illyana says.

"A swanky price too. . .you can tell they didn't want to give it to us for the price we'd already paid for the room." Jessy looks around again. "I gotta look at the paperwork when we return to Miami, I think this is one of the ventures my father invested in before he died."

The dinner is lively, Jessy wasn't the only one to have to move to another area.

"Any idea what happened?"

"Pipe cracked in a wall. . .by the time they found it a lot of rooms were affected. Carpeting tore up, walls tore out. . .stuff like that."

"How was the suite?" Illyana had called to let them know they'd been upgraded. Jessy's sour look makes Xander chuckle. "Not worth the money they would have charged you for it?"

"Exactly. It's meant for business meetings." Wesley nods. Jessy sorts through her mail, tossing part of it into the recycling bin without opening.

"Did you ship everything back?"

"Yeah. . .according to my last check the shipping numbers say they'll be in Miami in the morning."

"Oh thank god I am back." Jessy fills a tray and sits down to eat. "Somebody want to tell me why the bigger the name on the restaurant. .."

"The worse the food?" One of the cooks chuckles. "sounds about right. You wouldn't see our food in a restaurant unless it was one of those home cooking places. And you couldn't come back multiple times unless it was one of those all you can eat buffets."

"How are you in your classes?"

"Got my midterms in before we left. I'll have my finals done after I get back from Seattle."

Rupert nods in satisfaction.

"I hear there was some problems at the hotel?" Jenny asks dryly.

"The rooms or that fool ass woman who was running around with the police trying to claim she'd been attacked? Stupid bitch was drunk off her ass and escorted out of the hotel twice before we checked in. She went to three different hotel rooms claiming this is where she'd been attacked. . .two of them were rooms that were being worked on for water damage and the third had been empty before the expo. The hotel had her arrested. . .dumb bitch was blubbering about how they should have given her money to go away, not have her arrested!"

"Which is why I leave the hotel industry to calmer heads, I'd have beat the little fool."

"What happened to the hotel rooms?"

"Pipe cracked in the wall. . . by the time somebody realized the wall and carpet were wet it had went down multiple floors. And you know Vegas, rather than shut down the hotel to inspect the other pipes and do the work they're trying to keep the hotel open, inspect the pipes at night, and work on the rooms during the day."

Over the next couple of days Jessy sorts through everything she brought home from Vegas. The sky darkens and she pauses her class to check the windows before finishing it. Looking at the time she walks into the main house for lunch.

Girls and their mothers start arriving at the seamstress shop, more expensive dresses being selected when they see the new fabrics available. Checking her supplies after the rush is over she sends in her order and getting in a truck drives into town to deposit everything then runs into Miami.

"Have you ever had a check not clear?" One of the clerks at the fabric warehouse asks.

"Nope, not after they see the signs we have all over saying if your check doesn't clear I enlarge it and plaster it all over the walls so everybody knows what kind of fool you are. A lot of women who'd been sneering before gulped and put their checkbooks away."

The manager leans against the counter and cackles. "Oh god, the embarrassment would be horrible for them."

"Yep, they'd never be able to hold their heads up around their peers again. Who already know what kind of miserable fools they are."

The manager is laughing so hard she can't speak, she just nods. The receipt prints out as Dexter comes around the back with the truck, everybody getting everything in before they take off.

"She wasn't taught that in business school."

"Nope, she learned that by living in that environment."

"Should I expect a wailing Rupert when he gets the credit card statement?" Jenny snickers when Jessy slumps into a seat at the main house after returning from Seattle. She hands her her mail and it goes in the bag. If it were anything important, Jenny would have said something.

"If he hasn't yet, he won't now." Jessy snorts. "Oh gods, I ache. Seattle is as wet and cold as they complain." She looks out the window. "I can say the same for Miami though."

The others chuckle but nod. "At least with all this rain the crops should be good."

"Yes, thank god we don't have to deal with the droughts and wildfires they did in California." Dexter looks at her.

"No. . .I didn't live in an area bothered by fires. . .thank you god. But I saw the fires on the news." Jessy tries to get up and Dexter lifts her out of the chair, carrying her to the cafeteria. Xander sniggers behind them as he comes back from his apartment.

Rupert comes in and drops two envelopes in front of both of them, staring at them pointedly. They open the envelopes and look at him. "You can sign up for pre-admittance, they are through your school and Mr. Sampson will be your advisor."

Everybody sniggers as they fill out the paperwork, Rupert handing them two stamps and two checks already made out. Jesse chuckles as he drops them in the outside box, everybody had been wondering how long it would take Rupert to put his foot down.

Rupert shakes his head as he watches the boxes being unloaded a few days later.

"New stuff coming out, stuff being sold at a loss because it wasn't selling ... Books from Powells and other stuff. Oh. . .I saw Amanda in Seattle."

"Oh dear lord. What did she want?"

"She just looked at me, laughed, and said she had a few things to teach me when I have the time."

"That's what I was afraid of." Rupert ignores the laughter from the others,

Sam Winchester looks up from the motor of his beloved Impala when a shadow falls over him. "Horatio." He says calmly as he turns his attention back to the car. There's another man with him but since the bastard hasn't bothered to introduce himself why should he be polite?

"The officer that. . ."

"Murdered my father and brother.'

"It was an accident." The other man starts to bluster.

"Bullcrap. The fucking fool came in shooting like it was the old west and was stunned when he found the garage really was a garage and not a drug den. Is the little fool still bleating he didn't know he had the wrong address?"

"Yes, the city is still investigating how the numbers got transposed. He does feel sorry about what happened."

"If the little bastard hadn't been all John Wayne going into the garage he might have thought a second and realized he had the wrong building. I might only be a civilian. . .but I doubt they were taught that at the police academy."

"No it's not."

"The only thing the bastard feels sorry about is everybody knows what kind of fool he is and he's going to punished for what he did."

"He . .he didn't even listen to my apology." the other man whines as they drive off.

"That wasn't an apology, it was an insult." Horatio says, looking at him over his glasses. "I agree. . .the only thing your fool son feels sorry about is he's going to be punished for what he did. . .unlike most of the police who shoot unarmed individuals. Your fool son was told to wait because his boss thought something was wrong with the paperwork when he was looking through the file but he didn't. . .and two men died for it."