Morningstar Manor

Truth be told, when Cleo came to Jazz Thursday night and asked about having a girl's night in Jazz was quite relieved. She'd been running out of ideas to keep Cleo occupied. And when Cleo mentioned calling Jane and seeing if she'd like to join? Well, that was just inspired.

So after a run to the nearby video store, where they searched for and then rented the most cliche chick flicks they could find, and some phone calls to a few take out places, they settled in the living room. Dressed in their comfy best they set up a nest of pillows and blankets and made sure all the girl's night necessities were within reach: junk food, wine, and all the bits to a great pedicure.

Only thing left up in the air was whether that knock at the door was Jane or the Chinese food they'd ordered.
( Read more... )

Jane had worked hard all day, put up with Avery's sniping, spent a couple of hours dealing with laundry and other odd jobs, then cleaned up the Gonzalez apartment, which was only slightly more of a job with Jazz's sister there, and Cleo had even helped her with some things when Jazz wasn't there.

At lunch she'd had a thought, and popped home to pull a large lasagne out of the freezer along with a couple of baguettes of home made garlic bread. She even realised she had the ingredients for a green salad, which was great news, so when she got home after work she quickly pulled everything together for the salad, wrapped the now defrosted bread in tin foil for baking and then packed everything into a cool bag and carried it up to Memphis' apartment. Surprising him and Travis (if he was in) with dinner was risky, but then, she couldn't think of a better way to break the news that her car was dead and somewhere else to boot.

She knocked on the door, and grinned, "Dinner delivery, anyone home?"

Jane had finished her grocery shopping, including a tub of her latest ice cream obsession, Haagen Dazs Green Tea Ice Cream. It was truly unusual, but utterly delicious! So she wasn't very happy when having stashed her grocery bags in the trunk the car wouldn't start. It turned, and turned and turned, it just, wouldn't start.

She waited a few minutes, in case she'd flooded it, then tried again. It woudn't go. So with a sigh she got out, unpacked her groceries, and headed back in towards the store. Of course pushing in through the doors she bumped into someone, and one bag split, sending her groceries across the floor. It was too much, she'd come out early hoping to be back in time to get up to the Avery apartment, and now everything was going wrong.

( What you need, is a knight, but in pinstripe suiting? )

Ang was in the garden with Gavin, a sensible sleeping baby, while she weeded her garden patch and tended her herbs and vegetables. Just occasionally she'd sip from a water bottle, and look round the garden to check her progress, or to see if there was anyone to talk to, even she didn't know which.

---

Icene was in the gym, working out some of her frustrations with a concerted effort to exhaust herself so she could sleep. She'd done her laundry yesterday, and cleaned her apartment from top to bottom, but that hadn't helped much. So now she was pounding the punchbag into some semblance of submission. She wasn't entirely unaware of her surroundings though, and often paused to wipe her face or sip from her water bottle, especially when anyone walked by the doorway.

---

Emma was positively not skulking. She was up in the pool house swimming laps instead, and then when she needed to take a break she was enjoying the sunshine and whatever tunes her iPod shuffled up. Which didn't mean she was averse to company, but, while there were a few people she really didn't want to see, pretty much anyone else was guaranteed at least a smile as they came by.

---

Spencer was in the Mocha, waiting patiently for his Mom to call him back, something about a wedding present? But while he was waiting, he was enjoying a large coffee, and a cinnamon danish or two. Well, he'd call it lunch if anyone asked.

---

Jane was between apartments, and having trouble with her trolley as she moved about the Manor's hallways. One of the wheels was wonky, had been ever since that incident with Jazz knocking it over the other week, and today it was being extremely awkward and not steering at all well. It slowed her down too much, and she was considering asking someone to fix it for her, because she had no idea where to begin.

She hadn't done anything except pop into work for a few hours today, but Jazz was tired. She wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep for the next several days. Forget work, forget people, forget the sense of loneliness and depression that seemed to creep closer each and every day.... She frowned and rubbed her forehead with the heel of one hand as she jabbed at the button for her floor with the other.

The door dinged shut and she took to rubbing her eyes with both hands as she waited, and waited, and waited. Lowering her hands, she blinked blurrily first at the doors, which were resolutely closed, then above to the little light up numbers. 14? She hadn't hit 14. Or at least she didn't think she'd hit 14. She reached out again and carefully, taking time to make sure she absolutely had it right, pushed the button for 2. For a moment nothing happened, then the elevator slowly started moving again and she nodded decisively.

That's more like it.

She didn't have long to feel smug though, for out of nowhere the elevator gave an almighty lurch, heavy grinding noises flowing into the car, and then stopped dead.

( Read more... )

She landed in a heap on the stairwell landing, but thankfully didn't seem break anything. She clambored to her feet, looking around wildly before giving in to instinct and bolting down the stairs. Little beads of red dotted the floor behind her as she lept the last few steps and threw herself at the door. She didn't look, she just pulled and tried to go through, slamming into someone on the otherside trying also to get through.

She cried out and tried to wrench away, immediately thinking she was back. That'd she'd turned back to that dark, nightmare place she'd thought she'd escaped.

Jane had done the kitchen, and moved on to the lounge before she heard signs of life from the occupants of the Avery Residence. Ignoring the sounds though she carried on dusting and cleaning in the lounge, doing her job, just the way she should be doing it. Thoroughly.

It was hard though to ignore the fact that someone who normally did nothing but snipe at you was about to appear, and in god alone knew what kind of mood. For once, she thought to herself, let him be in a good mood?

Memphis knew Jane had Mondays off. He'd been a bit busy with work recently, and hadn't seen her around. So after work on Monday, he decided to stop by her apartment. His hand that knocked on the door had been washed before leaving the shop, but it seemed to have permanent grease marks on his knuckles.

The nightmares were not going away, although Jane felt they were slightly losing their impact. In fact, last night, although she knew she'd woken up from one, she hadn't been screaming at the time. That was progress. Well, she thought so, even if she hadn't been able to get back to sleep until the dawn had started breaking. Now though, she was up and on time, knocking on the door of Mr Avery's apartment, but letting herself in at the same time, because they'd been away all week, and she was tired and just wanted to get on...

She left the trolley outside the kitchen, and got started on that having cleaned all the counters and cabinets before she noticed something, the floors were marked. That was the first thing, the second was that the apartment no longer felt empty. Oh dear. They were back?

She stood up, having just finished the last cabinet, and turned to go into the lounge with the trolley, well, that put out her routine, since neither of them were visible, she could only think they were still in their rooms, which meant she couldn't get at the sheets or clean those rooms. She frowned slightly, and picked up the duster, she could still clean the rest of the apartment. Worrying about it, she moved round the room, but after a little while, she'd forgotten, which was not a good thing, because then she started humming.

Tuesday night Jane had managed to sleep for at least six hours, it had helped. Of course she'd struggled to get to work on time, and was late getting up to Mr Avery's apartment, only to find the place was just as empty as it had been on Sunday. Even the things she'd deliberately left out were still there.

Mr Avery and Lucas were not home. Well, that had made her day on Wednesday and she wound up finishing early enough that another decent night's sleep had actually happened. Meaning that this morning even, she had been fine up at Mr Devereux's, although she hadn't seen him. So by the time she got to Jazz's apartment, she was actually in a pretty good mood. Which helped a lot.

She opened the door and pulled the trolley in behind her, "Manor Maid Service! Anyone home?"

She settled into bed the same way she had every night almost since arriving here at the Manor. Checking the door and windows were shut and locked, turning off the lights, and then settling into her bed in the alcove, the curtains drawn and a warm milky drink on the side table as she read a few pages of whatever book she was reading. Once the drink was finished, she would simply lay down, closing the book on a bookmark, and setting it on the side table, before turning off the bedside light and closing her eyes. A regular routine, which had, until recently, resulted in a good nights sleep.

Now though, things were different.

( Very, very, different. )

God, Niles couldn't wait to lay down and go to sleep. Just pull all the blinds and conk the fuck out. It'd been a hard night, both literally and figuratively, he thought with a smile. But, it was over now and all he wanted to do was sleep it off, maybe talk to Lola for a bit.

Goddamn, he felt great.
It was a good night. A better morning. He thought Erin had left, but if the noise coming from his living room was any indication, she was either still hanging around, or back for more. Which only added to that feeling of greatness. 
He stood and pulled on his jeans, if only for the fact that she seemed to like pulling them off, and walked out of his bedroom. 
"Can't stay away, huh?" he drawled, teasing as he rounded the corner.

It might have been Tuesday, but the excitement of achieving her new job definitely hadn't worn off for Jazz yet. In fact, it was pretty much the first thing out of Jazz's mouth when Jane showed up that afternoon to clean.

"Guess what?" she said coyly as she could with a giant grin on her face as loitered in the kitchen doorway as Jane pushed in her cart.

Jane was tired, but happy. Yesterday's barbecue had been fun, and she'd helped to clear up after it as well, making sure that the gardens no longer showed any sign of the party that had been. Then this morning she'd cleaned Mr Avery's apartment, and despite him being his usual sarcastic and overbearing self, she'd held her own and even managed to keep calm at the same time. Then, after a hasty lunch, she'd done Jazz's apartment, but Jazz was out, probably at work, so Jane had left after finishing, and come down to the laundry instead. Sometimes it was just nice to sit and watch the washer drums rotating. Of course that meant she wasn't really aware of time passing and therefore was very surprised when someone else came into the laundry room.

She looked up, startled and wide eyed, "Oh! Hello, um, did you need any help?"

No point in dealing with a problem then just trusting to luck it doesn't rise again. Follow ups were essential.

So Charlie asked Mary-Ann where he might find Jane and went to tap gently on her door. Gently because he didn't want to startle her.

Niles padded through his apartment, fresh from the shower and bare assed naked. It was going to be a good day, he decided. He had a date with Kara tonight and a maid was going to be coming soon to clean his apartment and sweep up all of Lola's hair.
He hadn't had a maid since...Well, before. But it would be different than before because this maid wouldn't live with him and he just had a silly apartment, not a mansion. He was just Niles now, not Master Devereux or Mr. Devereux, except for in the very special case of Ms. Elspeth Vale, but that was hardly the same thing, wasn't it?
The good news was that if the rest of the women in this place were anything to go on, the maid was bound to be one of the most gorgeous women he'd ever seen. They all were. Except for that hag Joy in the Mocha. His brow wrinkled as he padded over to the jeans he'd brought up from the laundry mat last night before going out and slid them over his naked hips. Man, he really didn't like that woman.
He meant to find a shirt, he really did, but Lola meowed from the living room, begging for attention and he walked over and scooped her out of her big kitty bed that he'd put her in before taking a shower. She was still too little to jump out of it on her own.
"Mornin' baby, " he muttered to the kitten as he settled down with her on the couch, stretching out and putting his arms above his head, laughing a little as Lola's paws tickled his ribs as she searched for a proper nook in which to doze.
He should go shave and find a shirt, he thought, just in case the maid was hot... But man, was he sleepy.

It was eleven thirty five when Memphis knocked on her door. He was dressed in his non oil stained or scuffed up boots, a pair of khaki pants and a blue button down shirt over a white tee shirt. He had sunglasses tucked away in his pocket, and a small bouquet of wildflowers in his left hand. He'd picked them on the way home from his shop, after making sure Travis was going to be keeping tabs on phones there.

Hopefully, Jane wouldn't notice he was late.

Jane had worked hard, baking a cake, making it look right, frosting and everything. She'd even set it on a board, and then covered it to keep it safe. Now, having cleaned Avery's apartment this morning, and been soundly criticised while doing so, she was knocking on Jazz's door, and letting herself in with her pass key. It didn't look like Jazz was home, but Jane wanted to see her, so she set the cake board on the side in the kitchen and got on with the cleaning.

Only once the cleaning was finished did she go back into the kitchen, and having already cleaned it, she started preparing a meal. She was not going home until she'd seen Jazz. Even if it took all night.

Jane arrived on time to clean Jazz's apartment, and on top of her trolley was a tin, containing something of a peace offering. A batch of Jane's personally baked double chocolate chip muffins, the dark chocolate kind with the white chocolate chips in them. There didn't seem to be any sign of Jazz, so after she'd cleaned the kitchen, extra thoroughly at that, Jane left the tin on the side where Jazz was sure to see it, and then got on with the rest of the apartment.

She did make extra special efforts with the apartment, plumping the cushions on the sofa, making the bed extra smooth and wrinkle free. But Jazz wasn't there, and eventually Jane had to leave. She just hoped Jazz would enjoy the muffins, and realise what Jane meant by them.

Jane had not had a good day. She'd been on edge after the conversation with Charlie about Mr Avery, and going up there had been met with shouts and then the slamming of doors. It had been, uncomfortable to say the very least! But she had done her usual job of cleaning, leaving the apartment as clean as one woman in two and a half hours could get it. Which in Jane's case was very clean.

Then other clients, and laundry, and now, in the last of the evening light Jane was trying to relax, but, not having much luck. Her book wasn't holding her attention, but then, vampires didn't hold any sort of attraction for her, so Twilight was just, not doing anything for her. Luckily it was a library book, so she could just return it and get something else, but she didn't move. Just kept turning the pages slowly.

It didn't help that she still wasn't sleeping properly, and so might not have been quite fully awake.