Simon, looking a bit warily at Zak, was preparing to go visit his buyer. He'd showered, shaved and dressed - a pair of loose slacks and a black shirt.  He held a perfume bottle in his hand.

"So," Bobbie said, a half smile on her face.  "If you get hurt, I'll hurt you worse."

"If this goes wrong I won't feel it, so not to worry," Simon replied.

"Just zap the hell out of there if it goes wrong," Zak replied. "You really don't want to be in the middle of a djinn battle.

Nian nodded.  He's right.  Don't try to be a hero."

"What he said," Bobbie added.

"Trust me, I'm an abject coward,"  Simon replied fervently.

"Then hurry home honey," Bobbie said, kissing him swiftly.

Zak made a face. "Come on, save it for later."

Simon nodded, looked at Bobbie one last time and winked out. Zak and Nian followed as streaks of fire.

Jasper VanKort was at his desk, reviewing agricultural reports.  He glanced up as his secretary came in.

"Baptiste is here.  He's got another bottle," the man said.

Jasper smiled thinly.  "Then show him in."

Simon sauntered in, his hands relaxed at his sides, the hint of a smirk on his lips. "Jasper. Still in the market, then?  I just never pictured you as a collector of perfume bottles."

"Hello Simon.  Nice to see you," he said, coming out from behind the desk.  He lifted a bottle and at Simon's nod poured hem both a drink.  "I see them as an investment, actually, like Faberge Eggs and Dresden figurines.  I expect them to appreciate significantly in the next few years."

"They are exquisite I'll give you that," Simon replied, and then two streaks of fire zoomed into the room with him and were already closing in on Jasper before they'd metamorphosed into human shape.

He started to yell, and found he couldn't.  His throat felt like it was filled with glue, packed solid, and the words were trapped on the bottom.

The two djinns wrapped him in fire and carried him off. Simon looked around and decided exploration might be wise. Hmmm. If he wanted a djinn what sort of container would he use that wouldn't look suspicious?

Billie looked up as Zak and Nian reappeared, sans Simon but with the Buyer.  "Room's already for him, boys," she said cheerfully.  "Take him straight on up.  Leroy's waiting."

Leroy was indeed waiting. The room didn't look frightening. But he'd zapped out all the furniture except a table and four chairs.

"Hullo!" Leroy said. "I'm Leroy and I'll be conducting your out-briefing."

Nian stifled a snort and declined a chair in favor of holding up a wall behind Jasper's presumptive chair.

"What the fuck is this?" Jasper demanded.

Nian supposed the humor was over his head.

"We're going to free your djinns," Leroy explained patiently. "We're offering you a chance to tell us where the bottles are.  I personally hate it when things get messy, brains spattered about and all, but hey, I do what I can to change the world."

"What djinns?" Jasper asked.

Nian grabbed him by the hair on the back of his head, jerking him backwards.  "Don't even try it, asshole."

"You've got his girlfriend, buddy," Zak commented. "I wouldn't push him if I were you."

"I don't got anyone," Jasper said.  "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about."

"Look at that," Leroy said warmly. "We're communicating. What do you mean you 'don't got anyone'?"

"He just accused me of having someone's girlfriend.  And I'm telling you I don't have anyone."

"Simon sold her to you," Nian said, jerking his hair again.  "So cut the crap."

Zak eyed Jasper for a bit struggling to keep his temper, then said to Leroy, "Check his jacket pocket. I can't touch it but you can."

"Touch what?" Leroy asked as he got up and walked around the table to pat down Jasper. "Well, lookee here," Leroy said, holding up a tiny pill bottle. "Wonder what might be in here? We always used plastic film canisters back in my day, but whatever...  So, if I open this up..."

Jasper's eyes went hard.  "It's a bottle."

"Open it Leroy," Nian said, his grip on Jasper's hair tightening.

Leroy pushed down and turned the top. He lifted it away. Zak and Nian stared.

The djinn exited like Old Faithful erupting.

Nian's hand twisted savagely in Jasper's hair.  "Where is she?" he snarled, bending him back again.

"Hello," Zak said to the djinn. "Behold your new master. Leroy, hold up the bottle so he can see it."

Leroy did so. "Uhm, I'm not crazy about being a master."

"It's only temporary," Nian said.  "And was this you're old master," Nian asked the djinn.

The djinn spat in Jasper's face.

"I'll take that as a yes," Nian said.  "Now where are the rest of them."

"So since I'm your new master, can I ask a question?" Leroy said looking at the newly released djinn.

The djinn's eyes glittered, swirling blues and yellows.  "What," he said, his voice tight.  "My name?"

"Hell no!" Leroy yelped. "I want to know where your old master always hid his most valuable and protected property."

The djinn's eyes swirled faster.  "In plain sight," he said.  "Glamoured and warded."

"Let's say we leave this guy here, bound, gagged and magicked all up and we go see what we can see," Leroy suggested.

Zak hit Jasper with a spell that knocked his brain into another universe.

"Ouch. Or, that works. Let's get the others and go see what we can find."

All of then stood in Jasper's study, looking around, having already secured the house.  "Nice place," Billie commented, righting a chair that had been knocked over in the melee with the servants.  "Bet he used a bedroom, this room and the dining room."

Nian was already pulling out desk drawers, searching them.  "It was a plain, ordinary bottle."

Billie looked at Bobbie.  "Pantry."  And she and Bobbie went looking for the kitchen.

The found Simon in the bedroom, he'd emptied every bottle in the room and in the master bath. So far, no djinns.

"Did you get anything out of him?" Simon asked, watching Zak dump Jasper on hard ceramic tile and watching the head bounce without an ounce of sympathy.

"Well," Leroy said. "He had a djinn on him. According to my new slave," Leroy looked back Zak and stepped further away, 'the bottles, if they are even bottles, are warded, glamoured and in plain sight."

"So, we're not necessarily looking for bottles then," Simon said glumly.

That was when they heard the rattle of automatic weapons fire from downstairs.

Nian was gone in a streak of flame.

Billie Jo had her back to the wall, her gun in her hand, looking across the doorway at Bobbie.  "Ready?" she asked.

Bobbie, reloading, nodded.  "Go!" she hissed and opened fire again while Billie dove across the doorway and into the breakfast room, upending the table for cover.  The crash of the tile topped table was the signal for a renewed round of uzi chatter.

The two djinns zoomed in just before Leroy and Simon came streaking down the stairs following the sounds. The two found cover, and Leroy already had his own weapon drawn. "How many?" Leroy called from where he'd taken cover behind a nice and thick wall.

"Bobbie?" Simon called out.

"Dunno," Bobbie called back.  "Both sides of the hallway."

"No, are you all right?" Simon wanted to know.

"Yes," she said as the gunfire started again and she ducked back.

"Leroy," Billie hissed, low and calm, from behind the table.   "Drop back to the front hall and come in through the dining room."

"Right," Leroy agreed and began working toward that goal but having to dodge gunfire to do it. "You guys could do something you know," he hissed at the djinns.

"Waiting for direction," Nian said.

"Take out the bloody bad guys," Leroy shouted.

"Right," Nian said and flamed his way into the dining room.

Leroy and Simon were on his heels but didn't have a lot to do. The bad guys took one look at the djinn and booked.

Zak, was holding up a wall in the kitchen when the two women came out from behind their makeshift barricades and the two men rushed in.

Billie ran her eyes over Leroy.  "You okay?" she asked, putting her gun away at the small of her back.

"I'm good," Leroy replied pulling her into a hug.

Simon, his eyes huge, walked over to Bobbie but didn't reach out to touch her.

She smiled.  "I'm fine,' she said.  "Just a little dusty from the floor."

"Good. Good. That's good," Simon replied.

Her brows knit together.  "Are you alright?"

"I need to look for the bottles, or cans or whatever else he used," Simon replied, turning on his heel.

"The pantry," Bobbie called after him.  "Was he into home canning?"

Simon whirled around. "I seriously doubt it."

Leroy headed toward the closet too.

"Are we letting Jasper get away?" Zak asked.

"If those are the bottles, then as far as I'm concerned," Bobbie said, watching Nian, "he's yours."

"Good." Zak was gone without a sound or a noise to mark his leaving.

Billie shook her head and went to check the pantry.  "Well?" she asked.  "Don't just look at them.  Open one."

"Where's my djinn?"  Leroy asked.  He looked at Billie and shrugged. "I forgot I had one."

"Touch the bottle and tell him to come," Billie suggested, amused.

Leroy pulled out the bottle and said to the air, "Yo! Big guy!"

A swoosh of flame an instant later answered him.  "Yes?" the djinn said, eyes swirling, arms folded on his chest.

"I just want you to watch, okay?"  Leroy asked him. He reached up and took one of the quart bottles and smashed it on the floor.

The djinn's eyes opened wide and another djinn emerged.

"I won't hurt the djinns if I wreck the bottles right?" Leroy asked,

"No," the djinn from the pill bottle said, dazed.

"Good.  Billie, let's blow the whole fucking pantry to bits." Leroy suggested. "Oh, and," Leroy stomped on the pill bottle. "You're free too."

"Go for it, sugar," Billie said.  "Sounds like you need to vent."

"Oh yeah." Leroy picked up an Uzi one of the bad guys dropped. "Wanna help, Simon?" he asked, holding the weapon out to the thief.

"Oh yeah. Oh yeah I do."

Billie looked at her sister and shook her head.  Then they both gave them room.  "We're ready,"  Billie said, her hands over her ears.

The two boys let fly with the uzis shooting the hell out of the pantry. Djinns flew out of the wreckage. Most just zipped off.

Nian stood watching them emerge, his face expressionless.  One of the last to emerge made his face crumble.  He met her eyes, his own softening and when she flew to him he opened his arms and drawing her close, burying his face in her hair.

"See, that's what I'm talkin' about!" Leroy whispered to Billie Jo wrapping an arm around her.

They left Jasper's house the wreck it was to his henchmen and headed back to the beach house on Hilton Head - they being Bobbie, Simon, Billie and Leroy.   Zak was long gone, with Jasper. No one was asking out loud what would happen, or perhaps already had happened, to Jasper. No one really didn't want to know.

Nian and his love had left not long after their reunion, and the other freed djinn had left with them. Leroy, it should be said, was very happy not to have a djinn any more.

What with talent, magic and a bit of elbow grease, they got Simon's place back in shape. The moment that was done, Leroy looked meaningfully at Billie.  "We should get back and report something. We can wing it, right?  And we'll say Bobbie is clearing up some loose ends."

Billie nodded.  "We can call.  The rest can wait until morning,' she said firmly, giving him a look.

"So uhm, we'll see you guys, yeah?" Leroy asked grabbing Billie's hand and winking them out of there.

Simon, who'd said little during the last few hours, either during the freeing of the djinns and since cleaning up his house, swung his eyes from the empty space where Billie and Leroy had been to Bobbie Jo.

"So," she said, "I should go too."

"Yes, probably for the best. But.. I wish you'd stay."

"Do you?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied simply.

"Are you asking me to?  I mean, I barged in here.  It seems as if it's not someplace you want me to be."

"Yes, I'm asking you to stay. Please."

Her hand gripped the chair next to her, her knuckles turning white.  "Simon, I..." she got out before her voice broke, shattering on a sob.

He closed the distance between them in one heartbeat and wrapped her up in his arms. "I love you," he said, kissing her forehead and stroking her hair.

She couldn't help herself, either to keep from crying or from pressing as close as she could get to him.  "I thought I was stronger," she said, "that I could do this for as long as it would take."

"I've never been anythig other than a thief, and a confidence man, Bobbie. I don't know how to change that."

"Jesus, you still don't get it? Do you?" she said, her temper flaring.  "I can deal with that.  I can't deal with being shut out, with being allowed in only a small compartment of your life.  I can't stand that Smitty..."  she gulped, the tears accelerating again.  "I can't stand that he knows you and I'm not allowed to."

"I know. It's .. I'm ashamed for you to see me as I am. I keep .. Never mind," Simon added, looking away.

"You keep what?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter," he replied.

"Yes it does, damn it," she said, her voice harsh.

"It doesn't matter because I'm not strong enough to give you up," he explained.

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" she asked, fury licking at the corners of her control.  "That you would if you could?  That you wish you could?  But I'm like an addiction and you're powerless over me, your life has become unmanageable?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. The only thing I do know is that I love you."

She closed her eyes against the pain.  "What are we going to do?" she asked after an eternity of silence.  "Do you want me to walk away?  End it because you can't?"

"No. I want you to give me some room to finish wrapping up some loose ends. I've been trying to back away from things. It's just that it's complicated. Too many people I owe, people who owe me. The problem with just walking away is they'll come looking for me eventually."

"Then we deal with it," she said.  "Just don't take too long.  I don't think I can do this again.  It hurts too much."

"No, I won't. I promise. And for the record I had no intention of taking off until a djinn showed up ready to boil me in oil."

She sighed, the sound almost a moan, and leaned her forehead against his shoulder.  'I'm not strong enough to give you up either,"  she told his shirt.

"I'll find a way to make sure you won't have to. I promise."

She fit herself to him, clinging, her arms tight.  "Take me to bed," she begged.

He slipped a hand behind her knees and picked her up in his arms.

"I love you, Simon,' she said, almost as if she were surrendering something.

He zapped them to his bedroom, a room with huge window walls looking out across the Atlantic. "I know," he said as he laid her gently down.  "I know." And he kissed her.

She started crying again, kissing him through the tears, knowing he would taste them on her mouth, just as she could, like the bitter herbs of Passover.

"Hush, beautiful woman. It will be all right," he whispered.