"Who's in charge here?" Joey asked the librarian, who he found surprisingly enough in the library shuffling books. He'd made Becky as comfortable as possible in the front office before venturing back into the school to sort things out. With no exit out through the gym doors and a landslide blocking the front of the school, things were gonna get pretty hairy here real soon. He'd also checked the cracked screen of his cell phone, finding the frustratingly not un-expected no-signal warning.

Jill blinked at him owlishly through her sexy black rimmed glasses. More of her hair was askew from its clawed enclosure, but the shuffling of books seemed to be calming her. He'd ordered her not to move from the stage in the gymnasium, but obviously she had not listened. "I.. I.. I.." She stuttered.

Joey sighed. He knew he needed to let her finish her thought, but it was always difficult to wait. He tapped his foot lightly. Her eyes darted downward as if she noticed. "I only signed up for covering Dr. Matthews for the assembly." She finally explained.

Joey craned his neck around the open concept library as if by looking, he might find the missing principal. "Where is he anyway?"

"Lobbying in the capitol for state funding." She said curling her small hands over a shiny book jacket. "Becky is still here though." Jill blinked hopefully.

"Becky is unconscious." Joey informed her, raising a booted foot to rest on a tiny kids' chair.

"Oh." Jill deflated, slumping back against her own chair set at the short round table. At least she had her foot propped up on a short chair while she sorted. "That's a problem."

"We can figure this out." Joey spread out his hands on his upraised knee. Stressful situations with few resources was sort-of his jam. It was one of the things that attracted him to working in a small town. Fewer resources meant the need for creative solutions. "How many children do we have here?"

"We?" Jill's eyes rolled in their sockets. She stretched her neck forward as if swallowing were painful. She'd probably come here to sort books so that she could sort her thoughts, and he'd interrupted that calming repetition with his planning. Surprising him, she set down her pile of books, drumming her fingers over the top of a hard cover and answered him. "Seventy, if they're all here today. I didn't take a head count at the assembly but, Becky should have it."

He began to count the adults, adding them to the headcount, ticking them off on his fingers. "For adults, we have you, me, Becky, the gym teacher."

"Dave." Jill supplied.

"6th grade."

"Mrs. Capricorn."

"So, the gym teacher you address by his first name, but Mrs. Capricorn doesn't have one." Joey smiled at her.

Jill shuddered. "You'd understand if you met her."

"What grade does Arnie teach?"

"5th."

"And 4th?"

"I don't know. 4th had a Sub today." Jill rubbed her sore leg. It was a miracle she'd hobbled her way here after so little rest.

"Candace. I got her name when I fixed her arm." Joey supplied. He was reminded that he should probably check in the gym to see who else had stayed put. He'd gotten distracted on his way to the office looking for supplies.

"Carol teaches 3rd. Randall is 2nd. Mrs. Aaron, is 1st. Oh excuse me Sylvia." Jill clarified in a sarcastic tone. Joey smiled again. She would be a spit fire if given half a chance. Jill nodded. "Autumn has Kindy. And Claire Beale should have been in the kitchen, but I haven't heard from her." The kitchen was another place full of creative solutions. If they were stuck here for any length of time, the kitchen would be vastly important to ration.

"So that's eleven adults counting myself." Joey said. "I can work with that."

"How? We don't know what's going on, or when we'll be able to leave, or when the power will come back on." Jill pulled more of her hair from her claw in her frustration.

Joey laid his broken cell phone on the table beside her stack of books. She glanced at it and puffed out a sigh. Joey reached for her hand. "It'll be alright." Her eyes sparkled at him in the dim light, swimming with panic.

"Am I interrupting something here?" came a caustic voice. A bright beam of light flickered over Joey's face nearly blinding him.

"Twelve adults counting miss beauty pageant over there." Joey added the annoying blonde woman to his mental list, not that she'd be any help. "I didn't hear you approach without your high heels. Where'd you lose them?"

The beautiful stranger sneered. "I apologize for intruding, next time I'll wear a bell."

Joey knew her type. Primped, perfect, and extremely high maintenance. She smelled like expensive perfume even from this far away. He already couldn't stand her. What kind of person just abandoned another human being in the middle of medical treatment? The kind that was only out to take care of themselves that's who.

"Where'd you find that flashlight?" Jill asked.

"The janitor's closet." The primped woman bragged, flashing the light back in his eyes. Joey squinted and reached for it, but she set it out of his reach on the table beside Jill. "There were a couple more. I was hoping someone would have candles or a radio somewhere."

"We don't allow candles in school." Jill said wearily rolling the flashlight on the table top. "Who are you again?"

"Sarah, just passing through." She didn't look like a Sarah. In Joey's opinion Sarahs were sweet and frumpy and bashful. This woman looked like she could eat a Sarah for breakfast.

He looked down at her shoeless feet encased in silk taupe colored stockings. Little red toenails were visible through the netting. High maintenance for sure. His eyes traveled upward over her black miniskirt and silk blouse that looked like it had once had the creased lines of ironing. Her red perfectly manicured fingernails, painted to match her toes he was sure, drummed against a tool belt she'd slung low over her hips as if it were a fashion accessory. Her teeth were straight and white. Her pale hair looked like it too had been ironed. Her whole disposition screamed big city, and he was positive she would do anything to get back there.

"Well Sarah Just- Passing- Through, thanks for the flashlight, I'll take that tool belt too if you don't mind." She was probably expecting to keep that tool belt because it went with the outfit.

"Do you even know what to do with it? Aren't you a principal or something?" She bent forward and he couldn't help but notice the gape in her blouse revealing a tantalizing hint of lace from her bra.

Jill laughed. "Dr. Joey's not our principal." She fanned herself winking at him. "I imagine if he were, we'd all be having a lot more fun at work."

Sarah cocked an eyebrow at Jill's blatant admiration. He'd thought he didn't have a chance after the candy incident. It appeared that medical interventions were enough to raise in her esteem. He smiled meltingly at Jill.

Sarah cleared her throat with a disgusting mucous sound. "Doctor Joey? I came looking for you because you left a kid in charge of a bunch of patients. A kid!" Her emphasis on the word doctor made it sound like an epithet. Joey blinked at her, completely unprepared for an accusation of neglect. "Instead, I find you sitting here flirting."

Joey let his boot drop to the floor. What right did this woman have of criticizing him? She'd abandoned Becky in the middle of a treatment, not that he couldn't have done it without her, but what kind of a person just left. He knew exactly why she'd ended up in the gymnasium. She was no one to this community. "Well, Construction Barbie, I'm trying to develop a plan here that benefits, everyone instead of looking out for myself."

Her nostrils flared in her indignation, and her chest heaved. Joey was a redblooded man so he couldn't help the dart of his eyes over her rapidly moving breasts. As well as being a brat, she would have to be incredibly beautiful. "I'm not looking out for myself. I am looking out for some innocent children."

"Well, who asked you to?" Joey shot back irrationally. When his anger got the best of him, he could no longer speak in coherent arguments. He just felt flushed, saw red, and opened his mouth to let loose.

"Someone has to take charge of this situation."

"That's what I'm trying to do." Joey said.

"Thank you both." Jill said cutting through the stare down. "I think there might be a generator in the janitor's closet and a radio in the cubby behind the stage." She rubbed her puffy thigh again, then sighed. She was probably in pain now that some of the shock had worn off. "I would go but, I think I've done enough on this leg."

It hurt that Joey knew the woman was right. He should have gathered the nursing supplies immediately and returned them to the gymnasium. He'd gotten distracted, as he often did, by all the other things that needed doing. This was why Karen was still gainfully employed. He needed an assistant to keep him focused and on task. He'd always needed that. In tense situations, the focus came, but in the after math, the organization and prioritization skills he didn't have, those things were typically dictated by others.

He patted Jill's arm. "I'll go check out the generator right now."

"What about the gym?" Sarah accused.

"The kid's probably doing a better job than I would. You could always play sexy nurse for him, if you're worried."

Her lip curled in an unattractive sneer he felt privileged to see. "You're disgusting." She probably practiced beautiful pouts in her bathroom mirror daily and rarely let this face show.

Joey decided he didn't have time to banter with her anymore, so he began to walk toward the front of the building again before he lost more daylight.

***

Sarah was much more comfortable walking these halls in her stocking feet, and much quieter too. She'd thought he couldn't hear her. She'd thought wrong. "Why are you following me?" He asked.

"You're going the wrong way." The halls were eerily quiet, the doors to the classrooms must have had terrific soundproofing.

"So, you're an expert on the layout of this institution now? I thought you were just passing through."

She wasn't going to allow him to change the subject. "You're supposed to check on your patients."

"I'm supposed to check on the generator." He countered, still walking at a clipped pace.

"You're a doctor, what do you know about generators?"

He spun on his heel, nearly backing her against the cold wall. "I'm a man of many talents." He purred. He put a hand down the wall just beside her hip. He was so close that even though he wasn't touching her, Sarah's heart kicked up. She could feel it in the back of her throat. The instinct of prey meeting predator that for some reason set her hormones flooding.

This close up, the tension holding his wiry frame was undeniable. His hand shifted to her belt buckle. She could almost taste the air between them. Sarahs' throat dried. "And I'm taking this." He removed the tool belt she'd been wearing, slung it over his shoulder, then spun away from her.

Sarah pressed herself against the cold wall allowing herself a moment to catch her breath. Dr. Joey was a force. Perhaps she should have gone back to the gymnasium to wait for rescue, but she wasn't that kind of damsel. She was a fixer.