Side Story 2: Raye & Jadeite-Part III
Author: Alsepang
Rating: PG-13
E-mail: alsepang@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: Called fanfiction for a good reason. Fiction,
            characters borrowed, non-profit, and by a fan.
            Fans should be encouraged. 'Tis detractors who
            should be shot. :)

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           It was a nice, cool morning in the offices of Houghton-West 
Investments
Inc., largely due to the nice air-conditioning that kept the temperatures at 
decent
levels. It was, at least until Raye Hilton blew into the offices, scattering 
fire
and employees in her wake as she all but stormed into the conference room 
ten minutes
earlier than her scheduled meeting with her client.

           "If you expect me to be SLOBBERING all over your feet and KISSING
them with gratitude, you can FORGET about it!!!" Raye Hilton nearly spat at
Serenity Houghton-West, who had not been expecting her that early and showed
it. "And don't expect ME to swallow any word of that RIGMAROLE you paid or
BULLIED Ginny May to spew to me last night. I almost fell for it-- ALMOST,
but not quite! It's not fair to Ginny May-- she used to be such a nice,
sweet girl, and now you're using her for your own nefarious ends, whatever
they may be!!! I've heard it said you were manipulative and a scheming cat,
but this is too much!!! Stay out of my personal affairs, do you HEAR me?!?!"
She slammed her files down on the desk. "You deliberately put me together
with-- with that cad for some faux business idea you're having! Hah!
Investments in Asia indeed!"

           Serenity listened with an expression of increasing astonishment.
By the time Raye had finished, her eyes had lightened to an Arctic ice-blue
and her demeanour was chilly. "You assume and presume too much, Hino Rei.
Gwendolyn May wasn't paid or threatened and we both resent that baseless
assumption on your part. You are outrageously outdated as to her situation.
She married into the Chyne business empire, and they own enough jewel mines
and oil fields in this world to buy *me* out at least ten times over. I
needn't have *paid* her." Serenity's nostrils flared contemptuously. "At
any rate, I *wouldn't* have. She had important information, and we both
agreed you should know it. Certainly, if we had known that you did not like
receiving information pertaining to your personal affairs, we wouldn't have
gone to that much trouble.

           "Oh, and I didn't choose you to work with Jadeite. You're due
for a promotion and Jadeite Jensen was to analyse your performance and
make a final report. If you're going to kiss and slobber over anyone's
feet, Miss Hilton, I suggest you pick Jadeite Jensen's feet. Even then,
I doubt he'll be taken in." Her mouth twisted and she rose to her feet.
"This meeting is over. Good day to you."

           Raye Hilton was left with an open mouth, shocked face and
a raging headache brought on by yesterday evening's imprudent bout of
alcohol consumption. Very slowly, she put her head in her hands. The
ring Ginny May had been wearing the night before was a distinct design
of the Chyne jewellery empire. It explained why it had looked so familiar.
Her head hurt. She bit her lip. Was she going to lose her job as well?
She had just gone head-to-head with the de facto owner of her employer,
and that as good as said that her career was over as well. Serenity
Houghton-West didn't chair the board and own sixty-five per cent of
this company without having *some* leverage over all matters, and
if she wanted an employee sacked, there was no doubt that she could
get it done. It didn't matter how. In any case, she had been abominably
rude to a powerful client, an offence that had 'You're fired' written
all over it in big red letters ten feet high.

            And-- Jadeite Jensen. Raye groaned and cursed softly under her
breath, in Japanese, English, French and German. She should have known that
Beryl Ashleigh would do exactly that sort of thing. Poor Ginny May. Still,
Raye felt the sting of humiliation. Even if the invitation all those years
ago had been a clever forgery at her expense, her own handwritten note of
acceptance had been genuine enough. She should have smelt foul play when
she saw Beryl's catty smile all those years ago. It had her hallmarks all
over it. But, Raye supposed, she had been too wild about Jadeite to notice
at that time, and too angry and humiliated later.

           He really hadn't been to blame-- he'd probably written it off as
some bloomin' idiot's stupid idea of a joke. Raye cursed again. Suddenly the
grudge she had borne him seemed extremely petty. But it hadn't seemed so to
the proud, sensitive girl she was. Even now, he hadn't done anything to rid
her of that bad impression of him. For the third time, Raye swore and quite
lucidly too.

           Behind her, someone coughed lightly. A familiar voice spoke. "I
had no idea you could swear in so many languages."

           Raye turned. Jadeite came around the table and took the seat
opposite her. He put his files down and looked at her, his expression
thoughtful. On a sudden whim to try him, she said some very rude things
in Italian, and waited to
see what he would say.

           He blinked. "Okay. I don't know what you just said, but I know
it's not parliamentary language. I can speak only three languages." He 
paused
and added,"But I can swear in eight, so maybe some day we can compare notes
or somethin'." He stood looking down at the files, a quizzical frown on his
face. "Serenity's hopping mad, isn't she?"

           Raye held out her hands glumly and guiltily.

           "Fortunately, I can also read sign language." He sighed and then
gave her an unexpectedly nice smile. "It's okay. I screwed up once that way
too. Tell you what-- I'll read you the riot act first and after that, you 
can
tell me what really happened-- if you can, that is, and maybe something can
be worked out."

           Raye shrugged and nodded gloomily.

           "First, if a customer gets mad and has reason to get mad, 
apologise.
Grovel. If this is an important client, then no matter who's wrong, grovel
anyway. Half our clients have such egos it does us all good to deal with 
them
now and then. Skins the arrogance from us every once in a while." He paused,
grinning a little. "Incidentally, grovelling doesn't work with some clients.
You have to learn to size 'em up correctly. Ms Houghton-West, for example,
knows grovelling when she sees it, and she has a lot of other names for it,
none of them what you call complimentary. For discerning clients like her,
we send the people who *are* sincere and straightforward."

           Raye looked at him.

           "Just sound and be sincere when you apologise. The key thing is 
to
be really sincere. Look it, breathe it, think it, be it," he went on, 
warming
happily to his theme. "Don't forget--"


           Someone knocked on the door and they both stiffened. Raye was 
frozen,
but Jadeite leaned over and in one swift movement, had flipped open the 
files
and was studying them with bent head and apparently deep concentration, from
which only WWIII could remove him.

           The door was pushed open. "Jadeite? Raye?"

           Raye was still frozen.

           Jadeite, on the other hand, looked up composedly, his face bland.
"Oh-- hi, Mr Marthez." He gave Raye a quick nudge with his foot as he rose.
Numbly she followed his lead. "Did you want us, sir?"

           "Yes. I have just been informed that Serenity Houghton-West 
stormed
out of this room twenty minutes ago. What happened?"

           Jadeite frowned. "I believe she received an urgent call from her
secretary, sir. Possibly urgent matters called her away. She, uh, was not
too pleased about the call, as far as I gathered, sir."

           "I see." There was a pause. "Ah, you are studying the Asia files.
Is there anything else to report, Miss Hilton?"

           Raye forced her lips apart. "No, sir," she managed to answer.

           "Good. Carry on."

           The door closed.

           Raye sank into her seat and groaned.

           "What's the matter?"

           "Headache," she mumbled.

           "Take two aspirin and call me in the morning!"

           She peered at him through her fingers, uncomprehending.

           He sighed and threw up his hands. "It's a joke," he told her.
"Okay, I get it. Aspirin jokes not welcome on this side of the Atlantic.
Right, the important thing is to get us out of trouble."

           "Us?"

           "Now you're sounding like a comic strip. Us. When Serenity gets
mad, you don't think I'll get away from censure by the top, seeing that I'm
supposed to be your supervisor, in a manner of speaking?" He looked at his
watch. "All right. It's eleven oh-six. Why don't we look through these files
for an hour and then take a longer lunch break to figure out how you can
apologise with decent humility and sincerity to Ms Houghton-West?" He 
paused,
then looked at her anxiously. "This little altercation between you two-- it
*is* apologise-able, isn't it?"

            Raye didn't reply. "You were lying when you said that you once
screwed up this way too."

            He was unabashedly unapologetic. "Of course. It's the right
thing to say, like telling a woman in labour not to worry and it'll all be
over soon, when you know right well it's going to take over ten hours
and she'll be screaming her throat hoarse."

           Raye didn't know whether to laugh or chuck the files in his face.
He was so annoyingly self-assured and...well, cool.

           "And you can stop looking at me with those lovey-dovey eyes--"

           This time she did throw a file in his face.

           Later, she would wonder how she had become so comfortable with 
him
that she had dared to hurl a file at him.




(c) Copyright 2002 Alsepang Tyun