The night before had been rather.. Disconcerting for AJ. And for Cassie. Seeing Alain hurt was never something she looked forward to. So after AJ had been given something to calm her down, the two went to watch some fights in the Arena and chat. And thus an idea was born. S.P.I.S.D. needed redecorating! The walls were just too bland. And so was the rest of it.

The two of them went out shopping. Cassie had money of her own for the refurbishing of the office, so there was no need to use office resources and alert Alain to the changes that were going to take place. First was a hardware store; they needed brighter colours of paint! Then furniture. A nice loveseat for the reception area as well as a few rugs for various rooms, even a ficus to stick in the corner. Cassie found an Impressionist print to put in the reception area and for her own office, she got a print of Van Gogh?s Starry Night. They also bought a huge amount of sticky notes. Some other various odds and ends were chosen and set to be delivered to the office.

Cassie made sure Alain was busy at the Silver Mark before she and AJ got to work. Dressed in painting clothes, she was ready to move furniture and get to painting!

Now that they'd emptied the room, a job in of itself, they could start painting! "Alright then! Why don't you start on the ladder painting at the top, while I tape over the trim and start at the bottom, and we can meet in the middle?" It sounded like a good plan to Cassie.

"Okay, but you have to catch me if I fall off this ladder!" Cassie laughed and nodded her agreement to AJ's declaration, and dropped to her knees, tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth in concentration as she began the process of taping up the trim. That would stay white for the time being.

Once the taping was finished, Cassie poured half of the pale blue color in a rolling pan for herself and then passed the bucket up to AJ for her to dip into as needed, and then she grabbed her brush and started painting. After a few moments, "You know what we need?"

Score! They now had music to work with! And one of her favorite songs! Which, of course, meant that Cassie had to do an impromptu dance from her spot on the floor, snapping her fingers and wiggling around to the beat, laughing all the while.

"Nice moves there, Cass! Good thing the guys away, else they might've been scared off!" More laughter as Cassie tossed back a good natured insult and brandished her paintbrush in AJ's direction in mock threat. "Watch out you! I might miss the wall!" And with another laugh, she turned the paintbrush on the wall and put more color down. They definitely had a ways to go if they were going to get as much as possible done before Alain found out!

Cassie thought the best of AJ, but if AJ's ideas were anything like some of Cassie's, then well, they might be a bit disastrous. But it wasn't anything to be upset about! The brushes were helping paint!

"Oh! Oh! I have an idea, too! Can we leave this room, and the brushes keep painting, and start moving the furniture for the next? It could be like an assembly line, sort of." It sounded good to Cassie, anyway, and so she was already moving to her feet to prepare to decide upon the next room.

"Oh great!" Clapping her glee briefly. Not that Cassie hated work. It was just that with the two of them, there was a lot of it to do in a very short time! "Lucky you! I'm doing some laziness learning, but it's slow going." "You'll get there, just keep practicing."

She shuffled backwards with her end of the couch. The weight didn't bother Cassie all that much. Strength wasn't really a problem for her. It was simply the length of the couch having to be hauled by two women that made it awkward. The weight wasn't balanced in the couch. Foot meet doorstop, Cassie meet floor. Shriek! Somehow she managed to not drop the couch on herself, rolling her legs to the side, but now AJ had the weight of it!

Despite the fact that the couch had just tried to kill her, Cassie couldn't help but laugh at how red AJ's face turned, and even after confirming that she was fine, she had to lay there on the floor for a few moments before the giggles tapered off.

Finally she sat up. "Why didn't we just do that in the first place instead of trying to haul everything out? What kind of lazy people are we?? We're terrible lazy people!" Oops, there went the giggles again as she pushed herself to her feet. "Okay, let's finish clearing out and then put some more paint brushes to work!"

Cassie paused in her perusal at the question, thinking for a moment. "Well, I suppose now it's time to start arranging the new furniture and put the old stuff that isn't going to stay outside... And put your new sticky notes away, of course." Chuckling as she added on the last part, and then laughing when AJ joined in.

They got to work again, moving things around, making minor adjustments here and there and just generally restoring order to the office that they'd turned upside down. She took particular pride in the hanging of the print she'd chosen for her office. Cassie had always enjoyed Van Gogh's Starry Night and now she'd get to look at it while she worked.

Cassie didn't mind AJ being a little OCD in the office. Things were always tidy and well ordered that way, which was especially good considering neither Cassie nor Alain were exactly perfect house keepers.

"Oh yeah, we're done." She laughed and flopped down into her chair. "I think this calls for us going out somewhere and having dessert." "Well we certainly deserve it for all of our hard work!" They both laughed and Cassie stood again and headed for the door, urging AJ on after her for a minor race to the nearest ice cream stand. Reward for redecorating the office so nicely! The look on Alain's face would be priceless!