The portal made a lot of things possible, one of them was the ability for Ajay to pop over to see "little sister" whenever he wanted. Something that Aja needed to adjust to.

She was working in her office, getting ready to head out to the construction site, when Ajay came into her office.

"So. This is your office." he said making her turn while she drew her weapon. She lowered it seeing him stand there. He put his hands up. "Whoa"

"And that's a good way to get shot." she said holstering her weapon. "Do not sneak up on me."

"Are you ever going to feel safe?" Ajay said coming into the room, looking at her with concern.

"Maybe one day." she glanced at him then went back to sorting her paperwork.

"But not today?"

"Apparently not." Aja said moving to her file cabinet and putting the files away. "Not that I'm not happy to see you or anything." she started as she moved to go to the door, pausing to kiss his cheek. "But aren't ya supposed ta be in Ballentine doin da king thing?" she then went out the door, pausing to put some files in the holder outside of Rico's door.

"I can't take a little time off to come see my baby sister?"

"Oh dear god. What went wrong?" Aja cracked a grin at him as she moved across the hall and put some files into the holder outside of Tristan's door. "Did JiJi go and do something?"

"You need to start being nicer to your sister."

"Yes, Dad." Aja grinned and headed towards the stairs.

"I should've thrown you both in the dungeon." he muttered as he followed her.

"And I would've been able to get out of there too, J." Aja gave him a cheeky grin as she stopped at reception and handed the rest of the files in her hand to Amy. "And these, all have notes on them as to where they go and what ta do with them."

"Alright." Amy gave her a smile then got to work on the files.

"Ballentine will get along fine without me for a day." Ajay said then as he walked with Aja outside. "I wanted to see what you did all day."

"I hope ya ate yer wheaties." Aja gave him a grin and then looked him over. "And these clothes" Are they important?"

"They're casual."

"From your normal, yeah. But, are they aren't going to be any good fer where we're going." Aja gave him a grin. "Come on. We got a stop ta make "fore we go any further." she got in the cart and waited for Ajay to join her.

"Are you always on the go?" Ajay asked as she drove them out of the yards and down the main street.

"Uh, yeah." Aja responded while waving at people as they passed them. She parked in front of a man's clothing store and shut off the cart. "Come on. Let's get ya something more appropriate ta wear, yeah?" Ajay sighed and got out. He followed her, stopping when she did when a citizen stopped her.

Ajay observed the woman, She had wide eyes, the color of blooming violets. Her shoulder length wavy, brown hair worn in a handsome style, flattering her angular features. Her skin tone and color, spoke of someone who spent a great deal of time outdoors. And she wore a simple green sundress with sandals on her delicate feet.

"Miss Bird. I hate to be a bother..." the woman was saying.

"Meg, it's no bother. What can I do fer ya?"

"I noticed some strange men come into town earlier. Dark hair, with a lot of tattoos. They seemed to be rather sketchy individuals."

"How much earlier?" Aja pulled her phone off her belt and her fingers starting typing on the keyboard.

"About a half hour ago." Meg answered then turned to point in the direction where she had been walking from. "They were down there." Ajay noticed Aja glanced up, looking that way, her fingers still going on that keyboard of her phone then look back to what she was typing.

"Alright. Thanks, Meg. The guys are..." a couple of carts sped by with a few guards in each. "On it." Aja grinned and put her phone back into the holder.

"Thank you, Aja." Meg looked relieved and then nodded to Ajay. "Pardon my interruption."

"It's quite alright." Ajay gave her a warm smile. They watched Meg walk away, Aja glanced down the street then nudged Ajay. "Come on. We got stuff ta do."

"You don't need to check on the situation?" Ajay asked as they entered the store.

"No. It's what I have the guard units fer." she replied and then eyed up her brother before selecting a t shirt from the rack and moving towards the cargo shorts. "They're pretty well trained."

"Aja. How delightful to see you." The man who spoke to Aja, reminded Ajay of a curious cat. He had wide black eyes like two spheres of night-black marble. He had thinning short dark hair. He was a little shorter than Ajay himself but obviously was well fed as he had a plumper build.

"It's good to see you, Lincoln." She smiled at the man. "I need some some clothes fer my brother ta wear ta go ta da construction site with me. I'm thinkin cargo shorts, some work boots. Can ya help us out here?"

"Of course, of course." Lincoln said and then turned his attention to Ajay. "Mr. Bird. It is an honor to meet you." He extended a hand to Ajay who shook it with a smile. "Lincoln Wallis at your service."

"Nice to meet you, Lincoln. Call me Ajay."

"Let's get you properly attired to accompany your sister on her rounds, shall we?" Lincoln motioned over to the dressing rooms.

"And let's not take all day about it, boys. I got stuff ta do." Aja reminded them while she held up a long sleeve shirt and inspected it.

As the men neared the dressing room, Lincoln had picked up some clothes for Ajay to try on. "Here. Go ahead and see if these are to your liking. I shall go get some boots for you to try on."

"Alright." Ajay accepted the clothes and went into the dressing room.

Fifteen minutes later, the pair of siblings left the shop with Ajay now dressed in a style Aja thought more appropriate for a construction site. He had to admit he was far more comfortable in these clothes given Arcadia's tropical climate. He gave his sister's wardrobe a look. She wore a tank top, a light over shirt, and her leather pants with her knee high boots. He had always assumed it was a look meant to convey a certain attitude, but now he had to consider it had more to do with what she did all day.

They rode in the cart again, this time heading to go past where the guard units were escorting some rather unpleasant looking men to a wagon. Aja gave her men a nod and turned down a street away from them.

"Where are we going first?" "I have to settle a dispute with Mrs. Johnson and that damn tree again." she sighed. "The woman is like a pug with a bone." she turned them onto a quiet little street lined with big trees, flower beds and Victorian styles houses. Stopping in front of one that was light purple with white trim.

"It's about time you got here." The elderly woman said as Aja and Ajay neared her. Aja glanced over to the men next door then at the large tree between the violet house and the white one next door and then at the elder woman.

"Edna. What did I tell ya about this tree and da next time ya called me about it?" Aja stood with her her hand on her hip looking at Edna sternly.

"Surely you were kidding about that." The woman seemed stunned.

"I really wasn't. So decide right now what you want." Aja said sternly to her. "The tree up, or down. Either way, I'm perfectly fine with it."

"I don't want it down, I just want them to clean up the mess it makes."

"Hire a gardner, Edna. Since the mess and half the tree is on your side, it's yer responsibility." Aja pointed at the tree. "And if you call me one more time about this, I'm bringing a chain saw."

"You wouldn't."

"Bet me and lose, Mrs. Johnson. I have more things ta do than constantly come over here and placate you about this damn tree." Aja stood up straight then. "Now. Go inside and dial the number I gave you for the gardener. I have things to do."

"But..." Edna started to say Aja pointed towards her front door.

"Go. Dial. Hire." Aja said gruffly and gave the woman a hard stare. "Enough is enough." she lowered her hand giving the gentleman next door a wave then turning back for the cart. "I'm going to find my chainsaw now and put it in my cart in case you give me any more grief."

The woman huffed and went back to her house, Aja glanced over her shoulder and grinned. "Well, that oughta take care of it fer at least a month or two." Ajay just stared at her in awe, and hadn't moved from where he was standing. "Ajay, let's go. We got stuff ta do." she called at him snapping him out of his daze.

He got into the cart and stared at Aja for a long minute. He would've never handled a situation like that, it wouldn't occur to him to do so. But Aja it seemed to have a different approach with the citizens under her care. Like that of a stern parent with limited patience for misbehaving. He was now understanding what Ajia would mean when she said that Aja always treated her like a child.

Aja pulled the cart up to a construction site in town, one of a smaller scale, so he knew it wasn't for the zoo. This seemed to be for a series of houses on a nearly empty street.

"What's this?"

"More resident housing." Aja said as she got out. "We've got people moving here all the time to get away from RhyDin City."

"You don't let them build their own houses?" Ajay asked as he kept up with her.

"They can, but then I wouldn't get to play with different styles." Aja grinned at him as they walked to the foreman's trailer. "And I like that part."

"Then you just charge rent?"

"Uh, yeah." Aja said lightly as if it was something she wasn't familiar with. "Teddy handles all that though."

"Teddy's the lawyer?" Ajay clarified.

"Yep."

The foreman stood outside of the trailer at a table, Ajay observed him carefully him as they walked up to him. He was a tall man, with a stocky build from years of manual labor. The man turned to greet Aja, and the lines around his dark brown eyes revealed that he did smile a lot. He had short, straight hair the the color of fine gold and when he greeted Aja, the deep voice had an edge of humor to it.

"And the boss lady appears." he was saying with a smile.

"Ah, stop it, Jamie." she laughed. "Jamie Barrett, this is my brother, Ajay Bird. Ajay, Jamie." she motioned between them. "Ajay's hanging out with me today."

"Nice to meet you, Ajay." Jamie shook his hand firmly.

"Nice to meet you, Jamie." Ajay shook hands with the man giving him a smile. Aja stood patiently off to the side and waited for them to finish the pleasantries.

"So. What sort of setbacks are going to make me crazy today, Jamie?"

"None so far, Boss." Jamie went to the blue prints. "This style of house is going up smooth as silk." he then pointed off to the house nearest to them. "And having the assembly line style of building is working out well. They get faster on each house."

"Assembly line?" Ajay asked curiously.

"The crew is split into groups." Jamie explained while Aja went to the first house that was near completion. "The first group digs foundations, second goes in lays pipes and sewage system, third puts up the frame and so on."

"Sounds efficient." Ajay commented looking over the blueprints.

"It was her idea." Jamie motioned to where Aja was now helping putting up storm gutters.

"Does she always do that?" Ajay asked watching his sister work alongside the men.

"Yes she does." Jamie responded with a smile. "Come on." Jamie handed Ajay a pair of gloves. "You're going to want to wear those."

"Ray, swing it to yer left." She was saying as she held one end in place. "Yer other left, Ray." she corrected when the man went the wrong way. "Hold it there, Ray. Dean, hit it." Another man on the roof with a nail gun went into action then and quickly went about putting nails in where they needed to go. "Nice." Aja grinned and came off the ladder, she gave Ajay a smile as she passed him to the pile of gutter pipes. She selected a long one and carried it over to the corner. She looked up at where it would need to connect to the corner and sighed. "Crap. Ajay' Bring me dat ladder, eh?"

For the better part of two hours, Ajay worked with Aja and the crew putting up storm gutters on the houses. He couldn't remember a time when he had done this much manual labor. His days were spent delegating responsibilities, where his sister was more of a "hands on' sort of leader.

When they couldn't do that anymore, Aja nudged him and motioned to the cart. "Jamie, we're heading off to the next site. Ya need anything, call."

"Will do, Boss." he said. "Nice to work with you, Ajay."

"You too, Jamie." Ajay quickly caught up to Aja and got in the cart.

"We'll go get a snack and head to the next one." Aja started to drive down the street, one hand reached into the bag she kept slung across her body, it looked small but she withdrew items from it that were much larger than the bag would indicate. In this case, a tablet.

She tapped the screen, bringing it to life. Ajay watched as she brought up what looked like a "to do' list, and it wasn't a short one. He looked at her, she was looking at the road ahead, and then she slowed and parked in front of a busy little marketplace that held a coffee shop, a bakery, a sub place and a couple of clothing stores.

"This is cute." he remarked to the style of the building as they disembarked the cart.

"Ajia designed it, Padriq and his crew put it up." Aja was saying as she walked around the cart and started for the coffee shop.

"Really?"

"Yeah." She gave him a look. "Why are you so shocked?"

"She never told me she could do that."

"Ya didn't ask either did ya?" Aja grinned at him. "Now ya can." as she tugged the door to the shop open. "Now ya know she can probably do a world of good fer Ballentines marketplace. Replace some of dem unstable huts with something more substantial and she'll even make it pretty."

He started to think about that as they made their way to the counter. Both his sisters were constantly surprising creatures to him. Aja gave a smile to the girl behind the counter.

"Beth, my usual and Ajay' How ya take yer coffee?"

"Cream, two sugars." he replied.

"Bah, give him a latte. Just don't jack it up like ya do mine." she gave Beth a wink.

"You got it, Aja." Beth laughed a little. The boys in the shop were already making the drinks, so Aja turned to Ajay. "Ya do alright at construction sites."

"I feel like you're setting me up for a joke." he gave her a smile.

"No. No. I'm serious."

"Here you go, Aja." Beth said, Aja turned, noticed her name on one of the cups. She handed to the other to Ajay and then nodded for the door.

"Ya do ok, J." Aja hip checked the door open and went out with Ajay right behind her. "Ya wanna grab a sammich now or later?"

"When are you eating?" he asked and she glanced at her watch.

"Uh...later." she grinned at him and headed towards the cart then, drinking her coffee along the way. She sat in the drivers seat, tablet in one hand, coffee in the other. He couldn't help but smile at the image she made. "Hold dis." she handed him the tablet and then started the cart. They drove down the road, she made a left into a little subdivision that looked recently finished. These houses were all bungalow stye of varying colors. The yards were all beautifully landscaped and freshly planted trees ran along both sides of the road.

A truck was outside one of the houses. She pulled up behind it and got out of the cart. "Frank!'she yelled and then stood there, looking around while drinking her coffee.

"Yo!" came a reply then a serious looking man with a clipboard came out of one of the houses. As he got closer, Ajay could see he had green eyes and short black hair under the hat he wore. He had a neatly trimmed moustache, that fit his slender face.

"These ready ta roll?" Aja asked, her free hand waved over the rest of the houses.

"Inspecting the last one now."

"I'll come with ya." she said. "Oh, Frank, this is Ajay. Ajay, Frank." she said as they walked towards the last house on the street. "He inspects all the houses that get built before we let anyone move inta "em."

"Nice to meet you." Ajay said and Frank nodded with a smile.

"Likewise." Frank opened the door allowing Aja to step in first. She looked around slowly then turned into the living room, giving it a once over.

"Looks good. Nice. A family will be happy here." she took a quick look into the kitchen then turned back to Frank. "Alright then. I'll leave ya to it."

"Ok. See you later, Boss." he gave them both a wave and Aja went out the door. Ajay followed quickly still holding the tablet.

"Was that it?"

"Fer me?" She asked as she got in the cart and put her coffee in the holder before holding her hand out for the tablet which Ajay gave over to her. "Yeah. Frank does a very detailed inspection. Tests the outlets, water " the whole shebang. I stay out of his way."

"So you just check in on everyone, make sure their doing their jobs."

"Yeah. Same thing you do. I jist go to the sites to do it." she grinned at Ajay then went back to checking things off her list. Once she was done with that, she put the cart in gear and turned them back to the main street and turned right. They rode along the lush, wooded roadway, passing a few pedestrians and bicyclists on the way to what Ajay assumed was the next site. Just past the bridge to Avalon, she parked the cart and grabbed her coffee. Ajay followed watching Aja put that tablet into her bag as she walked towards a dock with a motor boat.

"We're taking that now?" he asked warily. Aja in a cart was alright. He was comfortable on the Breeze with her, but this smaller craft was a new experience.

"No. We're jist gonna look at it." She quipped and started to undo the ropes holding it to the dock.

"Aja..." Ajay sighed and went to help.

"What?" she grinned and got into the boat. She waiting for him to be in and near his seat before firing it up.

"Must you always be a smartass?"

"Must I" No." she backed away from the dock. "I jist enjoy it immensely." she grinned at him as she gunned the motor making them fly along the coast line. She veered off to the left, going around the islands that belonged to Arcasa and kept going.

Ajay enjoyed the sights along the way to wherever it was they were heading now. When she started to slow down, he noticed a crew across the harbor from where they were docking.

"What are they doing?" he pointed and Aja looked back after she had tied off the bow of the motorboat.

"Water filtration and treatment plant." Aja said matter of factly and went about mooring the boat. "It's not too far to run pipes along the bottom of the bay here between those two points and the zoo site."

"Why not put it on this side?"

"Further up the coast it gets pretty rocky, mountainous and there's some indigenous tribes living there. They're ok with all this," she waved a hand towards the inland. "but I don't want to totally disturb their lives with some monstrous filtration plant."

"Just how big is that going to be?" Ajay asked her curious as they disembarked the motorboat. Aja thought a moment.

"Uh...It'll handle something like two million gallons a day." she rubbed at her head recalling the meeting about it. "Which we'll need with the aquarium and botanical garden."

"Two million gallons?"

"Well. Yeah. There's going to be a theme park, a hotel...the zoo, the aquarium.." Aja was ticking off the things that were being built. "the botanical garden. All of them are going to require clean water, and a way to deal with the waste." they walked along the docks. "And I don't want people getting sick from the water."

"You really think about all the contingencies, don't you?"

"Yes. Don't you?" Aja asked as they walked along to the cart garage.

"I have advisors that make most of the plans."

"Now, see" I could never do that." Aja said as she motioned to one of the carts. "I'm the one they all depend on to keep them safe. I have to know exactly how that gets done."

"That's a lot of pressure on you, isn't it?" he got into the cart she indicated and watched her get settled behind the wheel.

"Nope. Cost of being the leader." she shared a look with Ajay. "It's my job to make sure these people are safe. Protected. Or I need to go far, far away and let someone else step in."

"Aja..."

"No, Ajay. Don't argue. I've seen poor leadership. I've seen what the wrong person in charge looks like." she shook her head as she drove them inland. "I won't let it happen to Arcadia."

"Ok. Ok." He backed off the argument. He knew that tone of voice from her. It meant that nothing he could say would change her mind. It was firmly set in that belief.

They rode along in silence. When they came upon the construction site, Ajay just sat in awe of the massive scale of it. It looked like it went on for a couple miles in each direction. Sections being worked on by a lot of men.

"Holy gods."

"Cool, ain't it?" Aja stopped the cart and grinned looking it over. "And it's only partly started. Jist wait til the buildings start to go up." she gave him a bright cheeky smile and got out of the cart.

All day long they worked next to the construction crews, laying pipes in, mixing concrete, setting the foundations. At lunch time, they ate with the crew, swapping stories and jokes as they ate. Then went right back to work. It was hard but rewarding work for Ajay. It also gave him time to think of ways he could change Ballentine for the better.

By the time they were in the motor boat and heading back to Arcadia, Ajay felt wiped out. He kicked his feet up and leaned back. Aja looked over at him, she chuckled at him.

"Tired big brother?"

"Lords yes. You're not?"

"Nope. Now I go get cleaned up and go pick up some late shipments, stop by Paco's Tacos and go to the Island fer Taco Tuesday!"

"Ajia's right. You are a little crazy."

"Bah. Ya two are light weights." she laughed at him. "My day won't end fer another couple hours yet. But yer certainly welcome ta stay the night. Use da hot tub and have Maria spoil you with a great meal."

"That I will not complain about." Ajay groaned as he moved to sit up so he wouldn't fall asleep. "Are you sure you're not tired?"

"I'm used to this, Ajay." She smiled pulling into the lagoon at her house. She watched the gate go up and maneuvered the boat into the slip under the house. She cut the engine and grinned at him. "Go on. Get cleaned up. I'll let Maria know you need a tasty dinner."

"Alright.? He got out of the boat and went into the house. She took care of mooring the boat then went to get cleaned up herself.