Morningstar Manor

It wasn’t so much that Icene was tired, as exhausted. The last twelve weeks had been her own personal hell, from that frantic phone call just before Christmas, right up until now, as she passed through the doors of the Manor and trudged wearily into the Mocha. Her father was now settled in a little cottage type house he liked, just across the block from Masai’s new three bed place, where Mas’ girlfriend was happily calling on Dad for decorating help and assistance with shopping for baby things. Of the four of them, Icene seemed to be the only one still looking back, still grieving, but then, they had each other, and a new baby for hope. For most of the last six or so weeks, Icene had been the one in control, leashing her temper with an un-natural (to most people) calm, her cool and unflappable self causing a few raised eyebrows.

Even Adam flying out for the funeral hadn’t broken that, even though she’d needed him desperately, and was almost surprised when he just arrived out of the blue. The only times she’d cried had been that night in his arms, and the one after he flew home and left her still raw and reeling. For all her mother’s faults, and how ever un-motherly she had been, she was still the only mother Icene had ever known, and now she was gone. It just made it harder to think about a future that Icene still wasn’t sure she had, even if Masai now seemed to have his secured.

( Black'n'blues please )

Ang was settled in the pool, drifting and lapping alternately, an exercise that Alec had agreed to, and which she was making the most of having left Gavin with his father for a bath and bedtime routine they mostly had down pat. Her mind was racing though, through the essay due next week that she had almost finished, but was indefinably unhappy with. She'd missed something, something, "Conditioning!" She suddenly sat up in the water, unaware that someone else was in the pool house, "I forgot about the damn conditioning!"

----

Emma was in the Gym, the phys ed component of her year was not going well, and she was doing her best to improve that with a few miles on the treadmill, and some light weights, but, really, could she have known less about what she was doing? Just then, she was sat on a mat, supposedly stretching, but in reality, mostly in a dream about opening an exhibition in a gallery, her exhibition, a brilliant success...... strangely enough she was smiling, despite the hunched posture and oddly extended leg that she was bent over.

----

Icene had finished emptying her apartment. The last of her belongings had gone, either to Adams, or the local good will. She'd advised her parents of the apartment number change, but only her father knew what was going on. He'd confessed her mother was slipping still further, and Icene was now worrying over a black coffee, that thankfully remained such, whilst shredding a muffin into crumbs.... should she go home? Could she do anything? Would she just make it worse? And if her mother was as far gone as her father said, would she even realise who Icene was? She sat, without realising she was crying, as a single solitary tear drifted down her face, slowly freezing until a small bead of ice fell from her chin into the mess of crumbs on the plate.

----

Gregori was cheerfully stuffing mailroom boxes with small samples of chocolates, he'd left a box that first time for Ashlynn, and that had given him the idea, now he dropped half a dozen chocs, in bags, into each box in the apartment, complete with a business card, and a small copy of the 'menu'. He was humming a Christmas Carol, because there were no good halloween songs.

----

Cleo browsed the library shelves, wondering, not for the first time, why she'd picked the courses she had. All this studying was not helping her find a date, and with halloween coming up, surely a costume for the rumoured ball was far more important than an essay. She found the book she was looking for, and turned, only to drop the book as someone else was right there, "Oh madre de dios! You made me jump!"

----

Spencer had been in meetings, and was feeling tired and drained. But there were chores to be done, so tonight he was staring blankly at the washing machine as it revolved rhythmically before him, the towels tumbling in and out of the soapy water, his mind seeking only rest and respite from worry and stress. Christmas was coming, the store was gearing up, and yet, he just couldn't find any enthusiasm for any of it. It worried him.

----

Jane was quietly clearing up the daycare centre, slowly cleaning up the spilled paint, the ground in clays, and setting things to rights. Alongside her were a couple of the last remaining children, who's parents hadn't yet arrived to collect them, even though officially the daycare part of their work was over. She was happy though, because the children were helping, and it was all good, however imperfectly they did it, they really were helping! "That's it, one more brush into the pan, and yes! You've got it! Well done," she smiled at the young boy, "Now, can you get it to the bin without spilling it?"

She looked up to see another parent arriving, "Evening! We've had a lovely day, everything all right?"

With a sigh Icene joined the queue at the Mocha counter yet again. That black coffee she'd been drinking, seemed to have somehow become hot chocolate, and six she was not! Muttering grumpily under her breath she waited impatiently for the line to get through being served. It was just one more problem to be dealt with, along with boxes that moved, switched contents, and generally messed themselves up as she was packing up her apartment. In fact, that was the reason she was here, since her coffee maker had gone somewhere and she couldn't find it!

"I swear, it was in the box with the green sticker, so how come it's not there now, and where did the breadmaker come from? I've never owned one of those...." She shook her head, not really paying much attention to anything other than her mental packing list, and lucky that when she did bump into someone, she didn't spill black coffee (hopefully) all over them!

A tense week. Not as bad as some others he'd experienced at Morningstar Manor, but still unpleasant.

Adam had responded in the most sensible way he and his brother could come up with: holing up in their apartments to wait it out. Whatever was or not coming would be easier to face and deal with from the familiarity of their own homes they figured....

Hopefully, anyway. Didn't really help the waiting though, that was still a bitch.

Finishing up a check-in call with Joe, Adam pushed the pizza into the oven and straightened to check the microwave clock.

Twenty minutes - more waiting.

Icene was on edge, many of the people in the department figured the butcher had finished, but, there was a part of Icene's mind that said that was not the case. So instead of letting them get to her at work, she came home and punched the bag, lifted weights, ran and rowed, and generally worked herself into exhaustion before going back to either hers or Adam's apartments to shower before dinner. Tonight was no different really, she just, wasn't feeling it quite so much, and even though the workout had been intense, and she was now stretching out, she still couldn't put her finger on what was wrong. But something was, something very bad was very wrong.

The door opened behind her and she rolled, twisting as she did so to come up facing the door, nobody was going to sneak up behind her today!

Sunday was a day for catching up and preparing for the working week ahead:

Adam was in the laundry room, carefully turning a set of camo inside out before tossing them into the washer with the rest of his colors; Joe paused to consult a grocery list as he stood in Michaels Bros. dairy section; Jazz took a break from her errands with lunch at the Auberge.

Exciting? No. But life couldn't always be.

Emma had put the phone down after a long chat with Ang, and yes, Alec too, even Gavin had gurgled at her, and finished her cup of tea, then fetched up both dogs, and headed for the gardens. They needed a longer walk tomorrow and she was thinking of taking them out for a long hike, but for now the gardens and a dozen or so laps, along with assorted fetch and tug of war games would have to do. So for a while she was settled on the lawns, throwing tennis balls in various directions and laughing as Faith and Lily raced each other to bring them back.

Spencer was hiding out in the Gazebo, he was fairly sure his mother was likely to call, so had left his cell upstairs, and instead bought some paperwork with him to read while he sipped on his coffee. A whole batch of papers had just slipped from his grasp though, and were now drifting about in the breeze as he tried to catch them without spilling his drink - if only he'd thought to put it down.

Icene was basking in a secluded corner that had sunshine, not working on her tan as much as trying not to burn, but then, she had plenty of sun cream, at least on the bits she could reach. An ice cold, and staying that way, bottle of white wine sat next to her, along with the one glass she'd poured and was currently sipping. She had a veritable picnic in the bag by her feet, but, so far, no-one to share it with.

Jane was not too far from her apartment windows, in a more shaded spot, wearing a large floppy brimmed hat, and a long-sleeved but very cool loose cotton kaftan type thing. She'd bought it on a whim because the pale blue fabric was covered in little white daisies with yellow centres, but she really wasn't sure even now that it was a good choice. Bare feet peeked out from under it as she struggled to keep her attention on the book she was trying to read. Any distraction from a childcare textbook would probably be more than welcome!

Gregori was just outside the Mocha doors, on the phone to his builder, and slugging down a bottle of water fresh from the Mocha's fridge. He was not in the best of moods, but the sunshine was helping, along with abject apologies and promises of cost reductions... after a few more exchanges he hung up and sighed, then rolled his head on his shoulders before leaning back against the sun warmed wall and almost, but not quite, wishing he smoked or something.

Cleo was in the tenant gardens, admiring the plants, and occasionally pulling a random weed out of a plot here or there... and if she pocketed a few leaves of bay, or a sprig of rosemary, well, nobody would notice right? She did draw the line at pinching strawberries though, leaving those well alone in the plots where they were, just, oooh, garlic chives! Those would be good. She wondered how difficult it would be to get a plot, then she could maybe grow her own herbs outside, they usually tasted better than indoor grown...

They'd hung on after the barbecue to help Maintenance clean up and put away a lot of things. Most of the tenants had taken their dishes back, and the excess food had been disposed of somewhere. Then they'd gathered up the collection tins, and headed back up to Adam's apartment, where instead of doing anything constructive, they'd fallen into the shower and then bed with total agreement that sleep was the thing.

Now though, some ten, eleven hours later, they were both at least half awake, and in Icene's case, already up and making coffee. She carried a tray back to the bedroom and set it down on his night stand, before clambering back into bed and snuggling up to the warmth of him, "Come on sleepyhead, I made you coffee and it's nearly lunchtime, we have to eat?"

Icene was tired, and grumpy, so instead of going up to either her or Adam's apartments, she instead went directly to the gym, where she set herself a punishing pace on the treadmill for twenty minutes before moving on to the punch-bag and doing her very best to kill the thing. It was never fun to have someone dismiss hard evidence as the "patently incompetent ramblings of an idiot", and in her case, more galling since the moron in question had scored about twenty places below her at College. There was a small part of her that was intensely pleased that his coffee had been cold all day, however soon after getting it he'd tried to drink it, but such small and childish pleasures were all she'd been able to get.

So now here she was, sweating and aching, hair sticking to her neck, still attacking the punchbag with an aggression she didn't often display, swearing at it and generally letting off steam. She knew in the end she'd be proved right, but that didn't help right now, not with a promotion board coming up in a few weeks. The temperature in the gym reduced, but she wasn't out of control, it was just cold air, so far. What she needed was a good distraction.

Long hard days in court, in a suit and heels, were not Icene's favourites. Add that Adam was working late, and had asked her to pop into the Lamb to see if they could do the bar for the barbecue, and having her hair pinned up was annoying her, and it was a somewhat tightly controlled Icene who entered the bar and headed straight to the nearest bar stool, settling herself on it with a small smile for the bar staff, "White wine and soda please, no ice."

She'd left her briefcase at the Manor security desk, and only had a small purse with her, but luckily that had just enough room for her diary and a pen, some cash and a few other essentials. She hung it over her shoulder and tucked the purse into her lap while she waited for her drink. Hopefully Adam wouldn't be too long, but in the meantime....

It had turned out to be a gorgeous day, far too nice to be cooped up inside - especially when he'd already been so all day - so when Adam and Icene met up in the Mocha that evening, he suggested they take their drinks out to the gardens where they'd be able to enjoy the sunshine.

"There," he said, inhaling a deep breath of air that smelled full of fresh, new green things, as they took up a seat on a bench not far from the gazebo. "Isn't this better?" And he tipped his face back to soak up the sun's rays.

What with work tomorrow and neither of them having anything pressing to do this evening, Icene had taken the time to practice her cooking and presented Adam and Joe with a home cooked roast dinner. Her first, and quite possibly her last given the stressful time she'd had of making sure everything was ready at the same time. No way was that dinner as easy to cook as it looked on the plate! But, once they'd eaten and cleaned up, Joe had made his excuses and left, with Icene teasing him that if he was going to throw up, he should let her know, she had insurance after all....

Now she was curled up on the sofa with Adam, wondering how to go about telling him about the photo session she'd won at the auction. Of course, she had to consider that he already knew, but he certainly wouldn't know what she was planning... well, she hoped not anyway. She snuggled a little closer, the sheer heat of him seeping into her very bones and melting the ice at her core. "Adam, I heard about Eli going back overseas. Have you heard anything that I need to know about? I mean, after last time when you didn't want to say, I just thought I'd ask?"

It was too cold to do yoga outside, so having missed the Tai Chi thanks to a prolonged, difficult surgery, Laura came down to the gym in the evening. Wearing black track pants and a jacket, she toed off her shoes by the stretching area, and then took off the jacket to reveal a white midriff-baring top. Her platinum blond hair was on a high pony tail, and all her movements already before the actual excercise were as refined and controled as ever. She began with calming breathing excercises in the lotus position - only now thinking that she should have taken a pair of earplugs with her to shut out the loud noises of the other gym users.

Icene didn't want a fuss made, so Adam, ever eager to please, kept his response light. Or at least, he thought so.

The little exsperated smile-frown she shot at him when he turned up with cake, ice cream and presents might have said otherwise, but she still buried her face in the happy yellow daises when he handed them to her and got that misty, dreamy look he'd come to recognize. And once she'd seen the bundle of white in the box he handed her she'd bounded off, insisting it had be tried on right then while he served up the desserts.

Yup, he thought happily as he helped himself to a dollop of frosting, a perfectly good birthday.

Icene had had to work, bless her, so the McClarens were left to their own devices for the bulk of the morning and afternoon. They'd exchanged a couple gifts (the rest they decided to save until Icene got home) and were now settled on the couch doing the one thing they could both agree on: watching the copy of District 9 that Adam had gotten for Joe.

"We should probably at least start thinking about dinner," Joe said at one point during a break in the action. "That way it'll be ready, or near ready, when Icene gets home."

"It's just chicken," Adam shrugged. "Won't take too long."

Joe started to nod then looked over at him, brow furrowed in confusion. "Chicken?"

"Chicken," Adam repeated, matter of fact.

A moment of silence passed, broken only by the gunfire on the TV, in which Joe continued to stare at Adam.

"What?" the younger asked. "We always have ham. Or turkey. I thought something different might be nice."

Eli was sitting in the Mocha this afternoon, cup of coffee in hand and dressed rather sharply for a simple soldier. Yes, he'd gotten dressed up to go to church and sat through a two hour long service without falling asleep. He was a good Catholic boy, wasn't he?

Frustrated by a day in a lab with nothing new to report Icene had opted to work out in the gym tonight. Spending time on a cardio workout had been good, but now she was onto the weights machines, and contemplating finishing her evening off with a round of 'kill the punch bag'. She hadn't bothered with anything special, so the only sounds in the gym were the clank of the weights and the occasional heavy breath as she exerted herself. But for the most part she was working out in silence, so of course she heard the doors open and turned to see who it was that had come in.

It had taken a few days, but Jazz had noticed the absence of her cell phone and that, more than the loss of her keys, iPod, and clothes combined upset her. Those other things could be easily replaced, but the phone...well, that was important.

She wrecked her brain, but couldn't remember the thugs taking it and unless she'd been more out of it than she realized, she had a clear memory of Anastasia holding it.

So after hunting up the card the blond had given her while she'd been in the hospital, Jazz placed a call to the only person who could help her.

Icene Callan.

Jazz felt more alert, it didn't hurt quite as much to think now, but everything still seemed to blur together. One minute people were leaning over her, the next a doctor was flashing a pen light in her eyes, asking what hurt where. What could have been only a second later she was in a room, alone apart from a nurse who was scribbling on a clipboard and checking the tube that ran from the IV bag down into her arm.

"When-" her torn lip pulled painfully and she paused, touching the wound carefully with her tongue before trying again. "When can I go?"

"That's really up for the doctor to decide, but...you are sitting up, and talking, so I wouldn't rule out being able to go home tonight." The nurse looked up and smiled gently, "Now, is there anyone I can call for you? Any family or friends?"

Jazz looked at the other woman, saw her poised with a pen, and had to look away. Cleo and Olly jumped immediately to mind, but they were half a world away. They couldn't do anything for her, it wouldn't do any good to wake them up. She thought for a moment about Jane. Jane would come, she was sure, but as she opened her mouth to say so, she remembered how scared Jane had been at the wedding. Jane didn't do well with violence and Jazz knew, deep down, that she wouldn't be able to put her friend through this.

Finally she shook her head gently, "No."

( Jazz begins to perk up a bit under the care of the staff at Saint Martins and requests, after some thought, that Thomas be contacted. Meanwhile Icene and Chad pause to compare notes before Icene steps in to question Jazz and give her a physical in the interest of collecting as much evidence as possible. )

There was still a stretch of purple-pink along the horizon line, but otherwise night had well and truly fallen by the time Jazz had made her way outside after her Friday night dance class. She paused just outside the door to zip up her sweater part way - it wasn't cold, but there was a chill, Fall was definitely around the corner - and scroll through her iPod for a better song. Popping the little device back into her pocket, she pushed one earbud into her ear and left the other one dangling as she skipped down the steps and starting across the quad, heading for the parking lot.

Doug and Bob were waiting in the parking lot. It was finally night time and they had the cover of dark going for them. There were a few lights in the parking lot that were out and that coupled with the shadow cover from some obnoxiously large student cars, made for great cover. An unsuspecting victim wouldn't notice any extra shadows hanging about. So Doug and Bob waited. A few groups of students came by but they didn't mess with groups. It was too messy and it was more likely that they'd just wind up in trouble themselves. But then Doug spotted her. They were crouching near a hummer she was heading right toward, Doug whacked Bob's shoulder and nodded. Bob nodded in agreement and the plan was set in motion. Now they just had to wait for her to get close enough.

( Jazz is attacked on the Rutherford campus by two nefarious types, luckily Anastasia and Emma are passing through and manage to ward off the bad guys and save the day. Authorities in the form of Chad and Icene arrive to begin the task of evidence collection while Jazz is taken to Saint Martins Hospital. )

OOC: Big shout out to Ceil for writing the baddies. :)