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// Sleigh bells ring, are you listening //

The obnoxious trill of the phone insidiously penetrated the fluffed up pillow covering the Dean's head. Groaning slightly, the sound muffled by the layer of goose down, the beleaguered administrator groped for the phone blindly, her hand flailing in the direction of the bedside table.

Swearing fervently as she inadvertently knocked the handset off the receiver, Caeryn batted away the pillow in annoyance as she half heartedly lunged after the precariously suspended phone.

As if it wasn't bad enough Jael had gotten the OG sick, thus resulting in the current quarantine, Emmy had promptly used it as an excuse to lock herself up with General Kenobi.

To say that the chief member of the faculty was irate would have been the grossest of understatements. With Kenobi locked up and the only other possible alternative quarantined, the Dean wasn't getting any...

And everyone knew exactly what that sort of thing led to...

Paddington just hoped his fur would hold out till the arrival of the new hockey coach the next morning. He sat watching from his vantage point on his own special pillow, strategically silent as his mistress finally managed to grasp the white plastic dangling from its looped cord.

"Yah..." Swallowing slightly against the taste incurred by inhaling through a pillow for the last few hours, Caeryn tried again as she rolled over to lay on her back. "Dean's room."

"Grrrrrrr....."

Pausing mid yawn, the still half sleeping Grrl froze as the Maintenance man's growl penetrated her smut deprived brain.

Paddington winced slightly as her suddenly raised voice echoed from the walls of her room.

"WHAT??????"

// In the lane, snow is glistening //

The Dean was trying. Really she was.

The casual observer would have to credit her with that much.

But the sight of the HSU Maintenance man with his black skirts tucked up around his waist fighting with the spray of water emitting from the errant plumbing was ludicrous.

Who knew he had toothpicks for legs? Well, Tasha probably did, but that was far more information than Caeryn wanted.

The surrealism of the tableau was almost enough to make her believe that she was still really asleep and would, at any moment, wake up to the strains of Normal Al's accordion penetrating her feather shield.

Almost.

Were it not for the ever deepening water sloshing around her hiking boots that was beginning to seep out the door and trickle down the main administration corridor.

// A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight //

"What do you mean, you can't get anyone out here for a week???"

Slamming the phone down in frustration, her arm jarring from the impact, Caeryn fumed for a few moments before stalking out of her office and into the hall.

The squish of her thoroughly drenched socks inside her hiking boots did nothing to lighten her mood.

No qualified plumbers for a week....

Perfect. Just bloody perfect.

In the mean time, they would all have to swim to their respective offices as the trickle was swiftly approaching the dimensions of a healthy stream

The creak of an opening door drew her gaze to the Office of Student Affairs just in time to see Crow poke his head out to see what was going on.

"Oh look...A river really does run through it..."

"YOU!"

Crow looked up in alarm as the eyes of the Dean narrowed to bare slits, her finger pointing at him accusingly.

"Uhhh...it wasn't me?"

"Shut it, strainer-brain. I want you and that refitted gum-ball machine to sand bag the bottom of the office doors and keep this impromptu irrigation in the corridor."

"Uhhh...wouldn't Vocab be a better...."

"DO IT!!! Or I will duct-tape you to a chair with your eyeballs glued forward and the BRADY BUNCH MOVIE on repeat!"

"Did you want white or brown sand in those sand bags?"

// walking in a winter wonderland //

"That's the water main for the entire admin wing...we can't turn it off for a week! Especially with the quarantine..."

"I'm open to suggestions...."

"Duct Tape?"

"Tried it...just slows it down some."

"Pipe it out to the gardens?"

"Not enough pipe."

"So it's either no water for a week or, as Crow put it, a river runs through it?"

"That about sums it up, yes."

Ellie looked from the Dean to the now sand-bagged and flooded hallway, then back to the Dean again. Sighing disconsolately, she flopped down onto the couch in front of the blazing fire.

"Too bad we can't just freeze it...."

Caeryn looked up from stripping off her wet socks, her eyes going wide. "What did you say?"

Ellie didn't look up, her brow creased in a frown as she held out her hands to dry in the heat of the fire. "You know...freeze it...I do much better with ice..."

Her voice trailed off as she looked up and met the gaze of the suddenly grinning administrator.

// Later on we'll conspire, as we dream by the fire //

"You think that'll do it?" Ellie shivered slightly as the cranked AC tripped into overdrive to lower the building temperature.

"By itself, no...but I put some mini cryo-freezers in a couple spots in the hall that should help it along."

"Excellent...how long before it's all iced over?"

"Not sure...couple hours I'd guess. It should be done by morning."

"Care for a game?"

Caeryn grinned at Darry's new Padawan Ho.

"Just as soon as I'm done with John's orientation..."

"Deal"

// To face unafraid the plans that we've made //

The alarm went off way too early given the midnight crisis handling session.

The Chief Administrator turned over in her bed, groaning slightly as a few itinerant rays of sun penetrated her shut eyelids. Shielding her eyes slightly with one upraised hand, she grudgingly opened them, wincing at how gritty they were.

Yet another beauteous day at the Galaxy renowned Ho State University Campus.

Joy.

General Kenobi being held in his office by one SupahDivah...check.

General Maximus quarantined in his tent with Jael of Arc...check.

One plumbing "situation" currently being patched with duct tape and a handful of portable cryo-freezing units...check.

One Hockey coach set to arrive.....

Caeryn sat bolt upright in bed as that last thought penetrated the morning fog in her brain.

John was arriving today...

Throwing aside the covers, she hastily made a dash for the bathroom, noting that the maxed out AC had definitely dropped the ambient temperature by several degrees in the building. Luckily the dorms were on their own system so the students wouldn't have to deal with frostbite. Just the faculty with suites in the main building would be effected....

And most of them would regard the cold spell as an excuse to give their respective EA's a good workout.

Humming happily to herself, she flipped on the shower, noting with a bit of a frown that the bust pipe had shot the water pressure to hell.

Oh well...at least it hadn't been the hot water pipes that had gone.

// Walking in a winter wonderland //

"Foul!!! High Sticking!!!"

Ignoring the outraged sputtering of Ellie's hockey hunk, the two grrls continued their battle for the puck...

Well...actually, it was the top to Tom Servo's head, but it made a surprisingly good puck.

The Dean and the Nurse's Apprentice fought savagely over the prize, brutally knocking each other into the walls as they tried to manoeuvre toward their way to the goal.

Or rather the two bags of jumbo size cat litter that were serving as the markers for the goal.

So intent were they on their battle that they failed to notice the new arrival watching them from the foyer in the company of Edmund and Baldrick...all being careful not to slip on the newly slicked surface.

Their attention was rather abruptly commanded as the two Ho's shoved each other further away from the goal...and right into the onlookers.

Caeryn felt her skates come out from under her as she collided with a solid form that shouldn't have been there. Scrambling desperately to maintain her balance, she failed miserably sending both herself and the person she had run into crashing to the ice.

"Aaaahhhhh...ooffff." Her breath left her as she landed on top of something soft. Wincing slightly from the force of the fall, she rolled slightly to see what she had hit...

Only to be met by a pair of astonished ice blue eyes...and an engagingly quirky smile. Her breath caught in her throat as his smile lit up his eyes. Finding herself grinning stupidly in response, she cleared her throat slightly.

"Welcome to HSU."

"My pleasure." The rich voice instantly wrapped itself around her testosterone deprived senses, sending a thrill coursing down her back. Licking her suddenly dry lips, she smiled shyly at him.

"Why don't we continue this in my office?"

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