Part 26, Payday.

Payday for most people is usually a good day, and for Nina West this was very true.  Generally not a greedy person, she still liked receiving that envelope every two weeks, and visions of her next shopping trip danced behind her eyes.

Nina had a routine for payday.  She would head out on her lunch hour to her bank, where she would deposit her check into her growing account, before spoiling herself with a lavish, fattening meal.  Most often, she would do this with Helen, but even alone she enjoyed the ritual.

Things were somewhat different now.  Working in the new offices meant a change of routine, because for starters, she had no clothes to wear for that walk to the bank, and she wasn't about to do it nude.  Nina stared at her check and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Helen asked, sipping at a cup of coffee and looking over at her naked friend.  The two women were sitting in the break room, each looking at their newly earned fortunes.

"How am I supposed to get to the bank today?" said Nina.

Helen smiled a soft smile.  "It's only two blocks away now, I would have thought it would be easier!"

"Ha, ha.  Very funny!"  Nina replied.

Helen grinned.  When Helen had first heard about Nina's new dress code here at the new offices, she had been shocked and quite honestly scared.  Helen had expected at any time to be told the same thing by their boss, but it hadn't happened.  Sarah DID tell Helen, rather quietly, that she wasn't completely immune to being stripped, but she was to keep herself presentable as per the NORMAL firm dress code.

Helen was very relieved, especially with Donald Bell working with them.  He was a nice man and Helen did NOT want to strip in front of him.  How Nina managed was beyond her.

But as the last few days went by, Helen grew somewhat amused by poor Nina's situation.  In the morning, Helen would drive by Nina's to find her waiting at the front gate, partially hidden from traffic.  Nina would then make a brave run, quite nude, across to Helen's car, jumping in before anyone could see her.  She would then slouch down and try to hide from the rest of the morning traffic as Helen drove them to work.  In the evening, it was the same thing in the opposite order.  Helen was concerned that Nina had to go through all this, but also relished the time she had to spend with her nude friend.  She really was beautiful.

"I could take your check in for you," Helen said.

Nina frowned.  It wasn't that she didn't trust Helen to do it; she just enjoyed the ritual of doing it herself.  "No, thanks.  But I'm going to go talk to Sarah; maybe she'll let me go do it myself."

"I wouldn't count on it," Helen said, standing up and heading back to her desk.

Nina didn't hold out much hope either.  Still, she made her way upstairs to Sarah's office and knocked on the door.

"Come!" said a voice from inside, and Nina entered her boss's sanctum.

Sarah Wickland had decorated her office to look much like her old one at the firm, although being smaller it lacked the cozy living room set the old office had.  THAT furniture was out on the landing in front of the law library.

Sarah was at her desk reading some papers and looked up with a smile at the entry of her nude paralegal.  "Yes, Nina.  What can I do for you?"

"Hi, Sarah.  It's about my check.  You know I usually go out at lunch to deposit it.  Well..."

Sarah leaned back in her chair.  "I understand.  You can't exactly go out in your present condition, can you?"

Nina shook her head.

"Your bank is only a couple of blocks away, I think you could make it if you tried!" Sarah chuckled.

"Sarah!  You WOULDN'T!" cried out Nina.

Sarah laughed.  "Maybe someday I just might.  But not today.  Is it important you do it now; can't it wait until you are able to go?"

Nina shrugged.  "I guess I can wait, it's just that I usually did it now.  Could I please have something to wear so I can go?"

Sarah stared at her for a moment before getting up.  She walked over to her closet and unlocked it (no unsecured clothing allowed in the building by her order), taking out a coat and a pair of heels.  "Here, you can wear these."

"Sarah, I can't go to my bank wearing nothing but a coat!"

"Would you rather go naked?" Sarah asked her.

Nina bit her lip.  "No, I wouldn't."

"Well if you want to go now, this is how you dress, your choice."

Nina sighed and reached for the coat and shoes.  She was surprised to see they were her size.  "Thank you."

"Don't mention it, enjoy your lunch!"

Nina left carrying the coat and shoes; she knew she wasn't to put them on until the last minute.  She went back downstairs to Helen's office area.  "The Legallady came through, somewhat," she said, showing her friend what she had been given to wear.

Helen tried to suppress a chuckle, although a smile broke through.  "Gee, I haven't seen you that dressed up in a while!"

Nina couldn't help smiling herself as she saw the humor in her situation.  At least she had SOMETHING to wear, and with luck, no one would be the wiser.  "Care to come along, moral support?"

"Sorry Nina, I HAVE to get this report typed up for Mr. Bell.  Rain check?"

"Sure, rain check.  How about I bring you something back to eat and we can eat here."

"Sounds good," Helen said, picking up her coffee cup and sipping at it.  She watched her friend walk out to the front of the office, slip on her coat and high heels, and pause for a moment before leaving the building.  Through the floor to ceiling tinted glass windows, Helen could watch Nina walk nervously across the parking lot and on toward her bank.  Helen chuckled and put down her mug, not looking where she was placing it.

"OHSHIT!" she exclaimed as the mug hit her stapler and went sideways.  The dark brew inside spilled right across her desk, soaking the paperwork she had placed there, the paperwork she and Donald Bell had been working on for the last three days.

"OHMYGOD, OHMYGOD!" cried the girl as she tried to pull documents out from under the mess, but it was too late for most of them.  In a panic, Helen turned to run to the break room for a towel and saw Donny standing on the stairs watching her.  He looked pissed.

"What the hell have you done?" he said loudly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry.  I spilled my coffee.  I need to clean it up!" Helen replied.

"Damn right you do.  Go get a rag!"

Helen rushed back to the break room and Donny moved forward to see what he could salvage.  He saw that most of the paperwork simply needed to be printed again, but several sheets were documented originals and not easily replaced.

"Stupid girl," he muttered, attempting to pick up the pieces.  Donny actually had a high opinion of Helen's work ethic and competence, but he was a man who had little patience with stupidity.

"What happened?" said a voice from above.

Donny looked up to see Sarah leaning over the balcony of the level above him.  "Helen spilled coffee all over her desk," he said stiffly.

"What was ruined?" Sarah asked.

"Some interview notes from Cronenberg, a discovery list, various shit.  It'll put us back a couple of days, depending on how much Helen managed to get transcribed into the computer."

"Can you handle it?"

"Of course I can handle it!" Donny said testily.

"What about Helen?" Sarah asked.

"What about her?  She'll have to clean her desk before she can use it again."

Sarah sighed; it was a day for it.  Helen suddenly appeared with a few towels in her hands.  "Oh man...I'm sorry.  Let me wipe it up!"

"You shouldn't have coffee at your desk," Donny said, "that's what the break room is for."

"Sorry," Helen said, patting the soaked paperwork dry with a towel.

"Now clean this mess up and see what you can salvage.  Evidently we're going to have to do some reconstruction later."

"Yes, Sir," said a very nervous Helen.

Donny was about to move away when Sarah stopped him; she had come down the stairs with the intention of showing Donny how he SHOULD have handled the situation.

"Helen!" she said sharply, making the girl jump.

"Yes, Ma'am?" Helen said, turning to see her boss.  Helen didn't like the expression on Sarah's face; she knew she was in for it.

Sarah walked up to the desk and looked it over, most certainly a lot of work needed to be redone.  Sarah was pissed at the extra work, but also glad for the opportunity to put pressure on Helen.  Sarah had a deal with Nina, and despite her reputation, Sarah never went back on a deal.  In exchange for Nina's special obedience, Sarah agreed to lay off Helen, unless Helen brought her actions upon herself, as she just did.

"Helen, I'm very disappointed in you.  I can't let this go without impressing upon you how disappointed I am."

Helen stood silently, scared.

Sarah looked at her.  "Considering that it was the Cronenberg case you ruined here, I think your punishment is most apt.  Remember that weekend when I put you under Cronenberg rules so you could see what it was like?  Well, consider those rules renewed."

"Please no," Helen whispered.

"Oh yes, and not just for a couple of days.  From now on, for as long as you work in this department, you will work under Cronenberg rules.  You are responsible to both myself AND Donald, which means we both have the authority to sentence you!"

Helen looked from Sarah to Donny and back again.  Both lawyers looked angry, although Donny seemed a little taken aback as well.

Sarah turned to him.  "You are familiar with Cronenberg School's rules of behavior, aren't you?" she asked him.

Donny was.  When he had been given the file a few days before, he devoured the material on Cronenberg.  It wasn't quite his cup of tea, but close enough.  Still, the thought of actually being able to USE them!  He nodded.

Sarah raised an eyebrow before smiling and moving away.  "I'll leave her to you then, Donald.  Let me know later what the total damage to the file is."

"Sure thing, Sarah," he said.  He waited until Sarah started back up the stairs before turning to face Helen.  She looked very, very nervous.  She looked up at him, hope on her face.  Donny's heart was thumping furiously in his chest.  Could he do this?

"Helen...give me your blouse, please," he said, trying to hide the tremor in his voice.

"But...please, Sir!" Helen said, crossing her arms in front of her.

"Your blouse, and your skirt.  Another word of protest and I'll ask for more!"

Donny watched, wondering what Helen was going to do.  He knew that most women under the same circumstances would turn and walk out, in turn suing the firm for sexual harassment.  But he didn't think that was going to happen here.  He figured Sarah had something on both Helen and Nina, like she had something on HIM.  He didn't know what it could be, but it had to be something big.

Helen began to move.  She slowly undid the buttons of her blouse, pausing for a moment before slipping it off her soft shoulders.  She wore a tan, strapless bra underneath which gave her breasts some lift.  Helen then undid a clasp at her hip and pulled a zipper so she could step out of her dress.  Her panties were pink and quite respectable.  Shaking, Helen held out the two pieces of clothing and Donny took them.  He was amazed that Helen actually complied, and the possibilities echoed through his head.  He tried not to think about his wife and family at home.  "You get these back at close of business today.  But for the next three...no, five days, you work in your underwear only.  Got that?"

"Yes, Mr. Bell," Helen said quietly.

"Now clean that mess up.  I want to know what we need to replace so I can start making some calls."  With that, he turned and went back to his office, taking Helen's clothing with him.

Helen sighed and went to work.
 
 

---***---
 
 

Nina made it to the bank without very much trouble, although she did get a few strange looks from people wondering why she was wearing a coat in such warm weather.  Nina just smiled and hugged it tighter to herself.

Now she stood in line, her check in her hand, waiting for her turn at the window.  As she stood there, she frowned.  There was something familiar about the figure in front of her.  The figure turned to look out a window.

"YOU!" Nina exclaimed.

"Oh!" said the blonde, instantly recognizing who was standing behind her.

"Jenny!" Nina said, horrified to see this dangerous woman in her present condition.

"Hi Nina.  Look, I'm sorry about what happened at BAREASS!"

"So you keep saying, Jenny," Nina replied, stepping back from the blonde.  The last time Nina had run into Jenny, she had ended up stuck up in a tree, naked, with her and a guy on a motorcycle.  It took over an hour before they were rescued.

"It's not my fault," said Jenny.  "Sometimes these things just happen!"

Jenny had such a sorry look on her face, that Nina couldn't stay upset with her.  "It's okay, Jenny.  You do have some bad luck sometimes, but I guess it isn't really your fault."

"Thanks Nina.  I hate it when I get other people in trouble," she said with a happy smile.

Nina chuckled.  "Well, that's not likely to happen today.  What could possibly happen in the middle of a bank?"

There was a commotion at the door and a woman screamed.  Several men all dressed in black burst into the bank brandishing firearms.  "THIS IS A STICK UP!  EVERYBODY ON THE FLOOR!" one of them yelled.

"Oh no," said Jenny, "not again!"
 
 

---***---
 
 

The robbers sealed all the exits and started to strip all the customers of their valuables, which apparently included their clothes.  Nina sighed and looked up at the ceiling, berating herself for not running as soon as she saw it was Jenny she had been standing behind.

When the robber in charge got to Nina, he saw there wasn't much for her to remove.  "Hey guys," he said to the others that weren't working on the bank's vault, "this one's naked already under her coat!"

"Sure is a beauty!" another said as Nina shrugged her coat off.  She blushed as the robbers and many of the customers took in her nude body.  The guy in charge took her coat and shoes away from her, including her paycheck, and made her stand and show herself off.  Nina thought she might have been more humiliated than she felt, but she was used to being gawked at by strangers now and felt more angry than scared.  Like the others before her, she was told to sit down again, and she eased her bare butt down on the cold marble floor.

"Now THIS one's stacked!" he said, pointing at Jenny.

"Oh PLEASE, don't make me take my clothes off...PLEASE!" Jenny begged.  All it did was make the men laugh.

"Come on, Honey, get those clothes off!" one of them told her, pointing his rather large weapon in her direction.

Jenny sighed and pulled at her thin sweater, tugging it up over her head.  It got stuck part way up with her head and arms trapped in it, and the men were treated to Jenny jiggling around trying to get free, her large breasts only barely contained by the flimsy bra she wore.

So entranced by her dance were the robbers, that had a customer decided to snatch a gun and take control of the situation, he could have done so easily.  Unfortunately, the customers were all watching Jenny as well.

To their collective dismay, Jenny finally pulled her sweater off, but to their collective satisfaction, she soon pulled off her tight pants and started work on her bra.

"Please?" she begged once more.

"All of it," replied the robber.  He was soon treated to the amazing sight of Jenny topless, it almost made him forget the robbery.  When Jenny bent over to slide off her panties, his gun pointed straight up!

He gathered her clothes and made her sit, and got on with stripping the rest of the customers and employees, but it just wasn't the same and his eyes kept drifting back to Jenny.

Nina, watching how the men stared at Jenny, just shook her head and sighed.

"Alright," he said when the last one was stripped, "let's get them tied up."

Several men dug coils of rope out of their packs and began pairing off the naked captives.  The leader himself approached Jenny and Nina and motioned them together back to back.

"Oh please," Nina said, "could you tie me to someone else!"

The man chuckled.  "What are you, jealous?"

Nina wasn't jealous; she just knew that being stuck to Jenny meant more trouble for herself.  But it didn't stop the robber from tying them together, and when it was done Nina and Jenny were securely bound from the waist up, back to back, their hands tied together far from any knots.  The leader took the opportunity to give Jenny and Nina a quick grope each, before moving on to tie someone else.

"The cops are showing up outside!" one of the other robbers said.  Through the glass front of the bank, police cars could clearly be seen pulling up.

"Get 'em to the windows!" yelled the leader, and the naked captives were hauled to their feet and pushed toward the front of the building.  Aware that whoever ended up facing the window would be exposed to everyone outside, many of the bound couples tried to turn to place the OTHER one in that predicament.  Nina, somewhat stronger than Jenny, managed to do the same thing, and the helpless blonde found her large breasts pressed against the glass at the end of the line of nude hostages.  She of course almost fainted with embarrassment at the sight of all the police out front staring right at her.

The police started yelling official type stuff on their loudspeakers, and the leader of the robbers yelled back from the doorway from behind the body of an attractive naked teller.  It was all very confusing, and Nina knew it couldn't end happily.  When the robber yelled out something about a bus for all the hostages and a plane to South America, Nina knew she had to find a way out of this.  She didn't want to fly to another continent completely naked and tied to Jenny.

Then, opportunity presented itself.  During all this, there was a team working on the vault, which the manager had managed to close and lock the moment he saw the men with guns.  This team had wired the vault door to blow, and right at the height of the negotiations with the police, they decided to blow it.

They misjudged the charge, and the boom echoed through the building, followed by a lot of smoke and ash.  Nina noted that a robber who had been guarding a side passage out of the lobby had come running at the sound of the blast, leaving his post unmanned.

"Come on!" Nina whispered, yanking on the ropes holding her to Jenny.

Jenny was glad to be pulled away from the window; she had spotted some media people setting up their cameras, but she was confused by the blast and by Nina pulling on her.  "What's going on?" she yelled, ears ringing.

"This way, this way!" cried Nina, trying to pull Jenny toward the unguarded exit.  But Jenny was fighting her, not understanding Nina's intentions, and generally acting like her blonde self.

In frustration, Nina bent forward and actually lifted Jenny's feet from the ground.  Nina was strong due to her regular workouts, but she knew she could only carry Jenny a little ways before her strength gave out.  She made a dash for the unguarded hallway and hoped the smoke filling the building would mask their escape.

It did for a few seconds, but one of the robbers spotted the fleeing pair and gave chase.

"Run, RUN!" yelled Jenny.

Nina didn't have the breath to reply.  She carried the naked Jenny as fast as she could past some bathrooms toward a fire exit at the far end of the hallway.

"Stop, I'll shoot!" yelled the robber, but Nina didn't.  She was determined to win.

Later, when interviewed by the police, the robber was asked why he didn't fire.  His response was that he just couldn't bring himself to shoot at such hot naked chicks, especially the way Jenny's legs waved in the air as Nina carried her.

Nina, almost dying from the strain, hit the door running and it burst open, triggering a siren.  Amid the whooping, Nina ran out onto grass that sloped down a hillside away from the bank.  Unable to stop for several yards, she kept on going, not looking at what was around her while Jenny yelled at her to stop.

Nina finally stopped and looked up, and almost died.  She had run right in front of where the media had set up, and cameras from local and national news stations were suddenly focused on the nude duo.  There were even a few TV helicopters crowding the sky, cameramen leaning far out into the air in order to capture on film the naked escapees.

Nina squealed as flashes erupted from the banks of newspaper photographers and she spun around so that Jenny faced them instead.  She couldn't hold the blonde up any longer though, and as soon as Jenny's feet touched the ground, Jenny tried to turn Nina.  As the two women fought to hide from their exposure, the press circled round until there was NO place to go.  More footage was taken of the struggling females than of the subsequent capture of the robbers shortly afterward.  Certainly more seconds were devoted to showing them on TV later that night than the robbers got, although the video was carefully blurred in just the right spots for family viewing.  There were rumors of a bootleg video circling around, but it was denied by all involved.

No one made a move to cover or help the two women until the police got there minutes later.

A cop threw a blanket over both of them and led them behind police lines, where the other hostages were being gathered now that the police had stormed the bank.

Paramedics were working on untying the hostages, and Jenny and Nina had to wait patiently for their turn.  Of course, their blanket slipped off, leaving both girls helplessly nude once more.  Activity all around them actually ceased for a few brief seconds at the sight of Jenny and Nina bound together, then a female paramedic rushed over and covered them up again.  Moments later, they were freed, and Nina took the opportunity to get as far away from Jenny as she could.

She was treated for rope burns, given a jump suit to wear, and interviewed by a detective before being finally released and driven back to work.  By now, she was tired, angry, hurt, and humiliated at the prospect that her naked body was going to be on the 6 o'clock news.

"What happened to you?" said Helen, standing at her desk in just her underwear.

Nina looked at her and blinked.  "What happened to you?" she asked back.

The tales were told in the break room...over coffee.
 
 

End of Part 26