Nickolette made her way down the narrow staircase and into the living room. The place certainly was a mess. A mess she would be happy to deal with for only $200 and half utilities a month for the next six months. The toilet not working, she was less enthusiastic about.

“Is it electric or gas?... Is there a large break for it, or a pipe that goes into the ceiling above it?” Jake said, talking to someone over the phone while leaning against the counter. Nickolette looked out the large front window and at the houses on the other side of the street as she absently listened to the conversation.

“And there's nothing wrong with the old one?... Okay. I would call the local home improvement store, tell them what you want and make sure they know it's electric and the breaker size… Right double 40… Yep. Have them deliver and send me a message. I'll do it $100 and the old one… Yes… I happen to really need one right now so win-win… Right… Talk to you later… Yeah, thank you.” Jake ended the call and looked up. “Well?”

“Sure is a mess.” Nickolette replied.

“Yeah.”

“What about the water?”

Jake pointed to the table he had piled with tubes and a bucket of tools. “I'll get cold water going today. Hot water might take some time.”

Nickolette crossed her arms and nodded. As long as the toilet and sink worked, she could deal with the mess. She could buy a real bed to sleep in instead of savin06up for an apartment.

“You get the toilet and sink working and I'm in.”

“All-righty.” Jake picked up the bucket and the tubes and headed to a closet. The open door revealed a very narrow set of stairs that went into a dingy looking basement.

“Want some help?” Nickolette asked. She'd already finished work and had the day off from her second job.

“I won't say no. It'll certainly go faster just having someone to hold the light.”

He dropped the tubes and handed Nickolette a flashlight once they were both under the house. Nickolette would have expected him to follow Any of the pipes that were above their heads, but he instead made his way to the electrical box. She almost giggled at the way Jake had to duck his head, but managed not to. The tips of her horns almost hit a low hanging pipe so being a hair too tall might be just as annoying as being too short.

“See this wire?”Jake said pointing at a thick copper wire without the plastic coating of normal wires. “We're looking for where it connects to the pipes.”

“Why would it connect to a pipe?” Nickolette asked. Because common sense said it was bad to mix water and electricity.

“It grounds the system. They don't do it that way anymore.”

“Is that it?” Nickolette asked, pointing the beam of her flashlight at a spot where the wire was clamped onto a pipe.

“That's it. Now let's see if we can follow the pipe back to the main shutoff. Should be easy. We’re just making sure it's attached.”

The two of them made their way over to the main waterline while following the pipe, which got bigger as they went.

“Good. No problems there then.”

Jake placed a small red colored tool onto the pipe above the valve, tightened a screw thing, and started rotating it around the pipe.

“What are you doing?”

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“Cutting the pipe. Can you find the sandpaper? In the bucket somewhere.”

Nickolette fished through the bucket. She knew what sandpaper was, if not the other things. The pipe snapped apart and Jake rubbed the lower end of the cut pipe until it was shiny. He pressed a small tube thing with brass ends onto the now clean pipe.

“I need those clamps now.”

“Clamps?”

Jake looked into the bucket and pulled out two copper clamp looking things and a small roll for the same thick copper wire that ran out of the electrical box and attached to the pipes. He clamped one end of the wire to the lower pipe and the other end to the pipe that was now separated.

“We need to make sure the electrical can still ground to the outside.”

Nickolette nodded in acknowledgment, not that he could see it with the lights pointed elsewhere.

“Okay, now we take this three quarter inch pipe.” Jake picked up one of the rolls of blue tubing and walked over to a damaged looking water heater. “Can you hold this while I run it over the existing pipes?”

Nickolette took the roll and Jake took the end, lifting it over the old pipes and threading through all the way to the water valve where he shoved it into the coupling he had put on earlier. All Nickolette had to do was unravel the roll as he went.

“Alright, dig my finger cutters out the bucket.”

“Finger cutters?” Nickolette asked, hoping that wasn't what the tool was actually called.

“They're red, large blade on one side.” He said with a chuckle as he pulled a brass fitting out of its bag.

Nickolette found the tool. It did look like it could cut fingers off. Handing it to Jake, he snipped the blue tube with the tool as if it were butter. Warm soft butter, not cold refrigerator butter.

“Okay. This is a three quarter inch ring.” He said holding up a black piece of metal resembling a crude ring. I'll need another one in a minute.”

Jake put the ring on the tube, shoved the brass fitting into the tube, then used a large pliers-like tool to clamp the ring down. “Ring please.” Nickolette handed him another ring and he repeated the clamping procedure with the other side of the fitting.

“Why'd you cut the pipe just to clamp it back together?”

Jake rotated the fitting so she could see the smaller branch of the fitting. “This goes to the kitchen sink.”

“Ah, I didn't see that side.”

She followed Jake back to the other end where he put a similar fitting on followed by a valve. They then ran a thinner tube from the fitting over toward the bathtub area.

“Can you go upstairs, next to the toilet is this pipe.” He tapped the copper pipe he was cutting. “Pull it out and put the blue one I have up there in the same hole.”

Nickolette gave him a nod and a word of acknowledgement before running to the main floor and doing as asked. “Do you want me to come back down?” She yelled at the floor.

“No, one minute… Open the vanity.”

Nickolette shifted over to the sink cabinet. One of the pipes was moving, after a moment it fell, then was pushed up.

“Can you grab that?” Came Jake's muffled voice. Nickolette compiled and was momentarily shocked when a blue pipe snaked up from underneath, filling the same hole. The next pipe over started moving and she pulled it out when it fell, but a new pipe didn't show up to replace it. She waited a bit, but no new orders came she met Jake at the stairs as he was coming up.

“What's next?” She asked.

“Hmm, wanna start taking apart that box.” Jake pointed to a large box with a picture of a toilet on it. “Old one's probably fine, but it's not something I want to gamble on.”

Nearly as soon as Nickolette had all the small toilet components out of the box and on the kitchen table, Jake came through carrying half of the old toilet. “Door please.” He grunted.

Nickolette opened the door and Jake grabbed the new porcelain throne on his way back. “That small box there, grab that.”

Jake scraped away a disgusting goopy substance from the tube that all the shit went down before opening the small box and sticking a new goopy ring on the bottom of the new toilet bowl. He rotated the whole thing, lined it up with a couple of bolts and set it down over the hole, squishing the goop ring. Once settled in place, Jake began tightening it down.

“Wanna grab the tank and bag of hardware?”

“Yeah sure.”

With the tank in place, a tube connected to the pipe they had put in earlier and the flushing mechanism put into place, Jake slowly turned on the water. Nickolette was upstairs with orders to scream if water started shooting out of anything. Nothing was leaking. They both watched the toilet fill up and flush appropriately. Jake checked some other pipes for leaks, but found none.

“All right. A few more fittings and I'll have the sinks working.”

“Get me the ability to take a hot shower and I'll blow you.” Nickolette responded.

Jake laughed. “Don't make promises you don't intend to keep. I was just talking to a guy who wants his water heater replaced. Old one works, it's just too small. On that note, would you be willing to drive, and me here. I can't carry a tank.”

Nickolette chuckled at the thought of Jake hauling a large metal tank down the sidewalk. “Yeah sure. If it gets me a shower here instead of the gym.”