by Melissa Good
“Dar...” Kerry took a breath to continue their argument.
“Please?” Dar heard the break in her voice and winced. It had its effect, though, because Kerry paused, exhaled, then put a gentle hand against her chest. “First thing tomorrow, I promise. We’ll go right over to Dr. Steve’s and let him take a look.” She gazed hopefully at Kerry.
“Okay?”
Kerry gazed unhappily at her. “No.” Her lips tensed. “Not okay, because I hate seeing you in pain.” Her shoulders dropped. “But I guess it’ll have to do. C’mon, let me help you get into bed.” She glanced through the open bedroom door. “You want a heating pad or an ice pack?”
Chino was already in her basket, her soft brown eyes watching Dar with a worried expression. Andrew and Ceci had followed them almost home, then had driven on toward the marina, accepting Kerry’s assurance that there was no problem, Dar was just tired.
Now Kerry was beginning to doubt that reassurance. She’d tried a dozen ways to convince her stubborn lover to let her drive her over to the nearby hospital, but Dar steadfastly refused, preferring to suffer from the noticeably swelling injury rather than submit to the emergency room’s tender care.
On the other hand, she had to admit, as she helped Dar lay down in the waterbed, her lover looked completely exhausted; and with their luck, they’d end up sitting in the waiting room for at least three hours, probably more. Kerry pushed Dar’s disheveled bangs out of her eyes. So maybe she had a point. “Ice pack?”
Dar closed her eyes and luxuriated in the simple pleasure of lying down. Her body relaxed, and that helped with some of the pain. She 196 Melissa Good was very glad to be home, and still, and away from the uneasy company they’d spent the evening with. Though the atmosphere had relaxed a little as dinner progressed, the pain and the sullen looks from Chuckie were enough to want to make her stand up and just chuck something.
Like her beer glass. “Ice pack.” Dar opened one eye and considered the concept. “Yeah.” She gave Kerry an apologetic look, very much aware of just how unhappy her partner was. “Thank you.” Her uninjured hand reached out and slid up Kerry’s bare thigh. “I know you think I’m being an idiot.”
Kerry sighed. “No, I don’t, but I won’t lie and say I really understand it,” she said. “It’s what hospitals and doctors are for, Dar.
That’s why they get the big bucks, remember? I wish you’d let me take you over; they’d have given you some painkillers, at least.”
Dar stroked her leg. “I’ll be fine,” she said. “It feels better already, just being still,” she objected stubbornly.
Her lover folded her arms. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Anything you like.” The unrepentant blue eyes studied her.
“Except take me to Sinai at midnight.”
“You could have let me tell your folks.” Kerry frowned. “What was the point in keeping this from them?”
Dar chewed her lower lip. “They worry.” She shrugged her uninjured shoulder, then averted her eyes from Kerry’s intent ones.
“And, um...my dad tends to be a little overprotective.”
“Really,” Kerry murmured. “Imagine that.”
Dar gave her a quick look. “I never told him when I got into fights if I could help it. He...” She paused. “He’d sometimes go a little nuts, if you know what I mean.”
Kerry considered that. “You mean he’d have gone after the little wiener?”
Dar nodded.
“Where’s my cell phone?” Kerry started to get up. “I’ve got their number on speed dial—”
“Kerry!” Dar grabbed for her leg. “C’mon now.” She was surprised at her lover’s aggressive reaction. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“Wasn’t that bad?” Kerry sat down and gave her a severe look.
“Don’t give me that patootie, Dar. I saw that arm. That jackass deserved to have his damned bat shoved so far up his...” She left the sentiment unfinished and sighed loudly. “It pisses me off!” Her voice rose into an aggravated shout.
Chino whined. Dar caught Kerry’s hand and held it. “I know,” she replied seriously. “But I want to handle this, Kerry. Okay?”
“Mm.” Kerry looked unconvinced. “All right.” She patted Dar’s leg.
“Well, let me go get that ice pack. Don’t go away.”
Dar watched her leave, then exhaled and let her eyes close again.
What a completely jackass day. She mentally reviewed the compound disasters of the last twenty-four hours. Damn. Her shoulder was Red Sky At Morning 197
throbbing. She could feel the swollen pressure that occasionally shot prickles of pain all the way up her neck and down to her fingers, and she shifted, trying to find a more comfortable spot for herself.
Was she being idiotic? Dar reviewed her reasoning again. Should she have just let Kerry take her to the damn hospital? Kerry was upset, and Dar hated when Kerry got mad at her, especially if it was for a good reason. Glumly, she opened her eyes and reviewed the off-white popcorn ceiling. She has a good reason. No, she has several good reasons to be pissed off, because I am acting like a stupid adolescent again, aren’t I?
“DAMN, DAMN, DAMN,” Kerry muttered to herself as she walked through the living room and entered the kitchen. “What in the heck’s wrong with her, Chino?” she asked the Labrador, who had followed her. “I swear, she’s got a streak up her back this wide...” Her hands spread apart, and she let out an exasperated gust of air. “Jesus!”
Chino sat down in front of her cookie jar and looked up expectantly. “Gruff.”
Kerry allowed herself to be distracted for a moment. “Oh, you think I came out here for you?”
“Gruff.”
“Hang on.” Kerry went to the refrigerator and took out one of the frozen gel packs they kept ready for overly rambunctious gym sessions.
She set it on the counter, then retrieved a cookie from its jar and held it.
“What do you say?”
Chino obediently sat up, lifting one paw and placing it neatly on Kerry’s knee. “Aorgh.”
“Good girl.” Kerry gave her pet the treat and watched her crunch it contentedly. “Why can’t you teach Dar to do that, huh? She never listens.”
Her conscience nudged her as soon as the words slipped out. That’s not true, Kerry, and you know it. She sighed and went to the pantry, retrieving a soft, fluffy maroon towel from the laundry area. Dar did listen to her. “I got her to try green beans the other week, right?” she commented to Chino. “Maybe it’s because she usually does listen to me that this is driving me so nuts.”
Kerry leaned against the counter. “Or maybe it’s because it just doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Chino nuzzled her knee and gave it a lick.
“But you know what, Chino, me yelling at her isn’t helping,” Kerry admitted quietly. “It’s just making her tense and giving me a stomachache.” She squared her shoulders and folded the towel around the ice pack. “Time to go make nice and have a snuggle. You with me?”
“Gruff.” Chino wagged her tail.
“Good girl. C’mon.” Kerry released a deep breath and let the irritation wash out of her. A smile returned to her face as she started back toward the bedroom.
198 Melissa Good Dar raised her head as footsteps approached, and girded her loins.
Metaphorically. “Kerry, listen...”
“Here you go.” Kerry reentered the room and sat down on the waterbed railing, carefully leaning over and placing the wrapped ice pack against Dar’s shoulder.
“And here.” She set a glass down by the table. It had a straw sticking out of it, the kind that bent. “In case you get thirsty.” Kerry brushed her fingertips over Dar’s lips. “You know something, I forgot it was Friday night.”
Dar’s fine, dark eyebrows knit together over the bridge of her nose.
“Huh?”
“It’s Friday night,” Kerry repeated. “We’re not a drug overdose, a multi-car accident, or an attempted homici
de. We’d have been sitting in that waiting room until well after dawn.” She put the tip of her finger on Dar’s nose. “So I think it’s for the best we did this.”
Slowly, a faint grin spread over Dar’s face. “And here I was about to give in and meekly let you drag me off there,” she admitted, a huge wave of relief almost making her shiver.
“You? Meek?” Kerry leaned over and replaced her finger with her lips, kissing Dar gently. “Never.” She pulled back and went nose to nose with her lover. “Besides, I’m really tired.”
“You look it,” Dar replied. “C’mon into bed.” She reached out and doused the bedside lamp.
Kerry nodded in agreement, then stood and walked around to the other side of the waterbed, getting in carefully and squirming under the freshly laundered sheets until she felt the warmth of Dar’s body very close by. She put her head down on the pillow and folded her hand over Dar’s as it lay on the taller woman’s stomach.
Their fingers twined.
Kerry could see Dar’s profile in the dim starlight from the window, and the faint curve of her ear close by. “Dar?”
There was a soft crackle of movement as Dar turned her head, and the light now reflected faintly off her open eyes. “Hmm?”
“I love you.”
The face opposite Kerry dissolved into a grin. “You even love me when I’m being a stubborn cranky bitch?” Dar asked in a low drawl.
“What’s up with that, Kerrison?”
“I’m a sucker for a cute face,” Kerry smiled, “and a bad attitude.
What can I tell you?”
Dar kissed her soundly. “Thanks,” she murmured into Kerry’s half-open lips. “I love you, too.” She felt Kerry smile before her kiss was returned in equal measure.
“HOLD STILL.”
“I am holding still,” Dar answered through gritted teeth.
Red Sky At Morning 199
“Dar, you are not.” Dr. Steve circled the X-ray machine and nudged her over a little. “Now, will you stop wriggling?”
Dar’s lip twitched into an almost snarl. She’d been under the device for hours, at least, and the hard table was stressing her to her limits.
“Wasn’t three hundred pictures enough? You going for a record?”
“Dar.” Dr. Steve leaned over and put a hand on her forehead with surprising gentleness. “It’s only been five minutes. Give me another five minutes, and it’ll be over, okay?” The doctor gave her a pat, then went back to adjusting the X-ray machine’s aperture. “Kerry, keep her busy while I do this, willya?”
“I’ll try.” Kerry walked to the end of the table and pressed her body up against Dar’s socked feet, which only just rested on its padded surface. Toes flexed against her belly, and she rubbed them through the cotton, smiling down the length of the long denim-covered legs stretching before her. “Hey.”
Grumpy blue eyes peered back at her. “It felt better this morning,”
Dar griped.
Kerry laughed softly. “Dar, you are something else,” she said. “I swear, if someone poked you through the belly with a spear, you’d call it a flesh wound and stick a Band-Aid on it.”
“Oh, she told you that story, huh?” Dr. Steve looked up from his settings. Usually a trained tech would perform the procedure, but the doctor knew his unruly patient better than to subject one of his innocent staff to her. “It’s hereditary. Her daddy’s the same damn way, and believe you me, Kerry, it used to about drive me insane to take care of these two.”
“Hey,” Dar objected. “We weren’t that bad.”
“Yes, you were,” her family physician corrected her. “Be still, Paladar Katherine, or I’ll tell Kerry about you and that tailpipe.”
Kerry watched her lover’s eyes widen in alarm, and she stifled a giggle. “You know,” she cleared her throat. “I only wish I’d had a doctor like you when I was growing up. The practice that my family used was about as patient friendly as those open-back hospital gowns.”
The doctor looked up at her and grinned. “That right? Bet they made a hell of a lot more than I do, then.” He adjusted one last dial.
“Okay, behind the shield, Kerry.”
Kerry gave Dar’s toes one last squeeze, then joined Dr. Steve behind the lead shield. “Remember to get her neck while you’re in there,” she whispered to the gray-haired man. “She’s been having backaches.”
“Got it already,” Dr. Steve whispered back.
“What the hell are you two whispering about?” Dar growled.
Kerry and the doctor exchanged amused glances. “How cute you look in your sports bra, hon,” Kerry piped. “Didn’t want to embarrass you.”“Got it,” Dr. Steve managed to say around a snicker. “Okay, Dar.
200 Melissa Good You’re finished.” He removed his apron and pulled the machine arm back, freeing his very reluctant and now noticeably blushing patient to sit up. “Hmm. Guess I don’t have to check your cardiovascular system; seems to be pumping just fine.” He pulled the X-ray plates out and winked at them. “Lemme go get these processed.”
Kerry waited for him to leave before she circled the table and faced her lover, who was now sitting up with her legs dangling off the table, cradling her injured arm with her good one. “See? Not so bad.” She deliberately sidled between Dar’s knees and gazed into the stormy blue eyes facing her. “C’mon, Dar, don’t you want to feel better? I know you can’t be comfortable with that.” She touched Dar’s elbow, where the lurid bruise had extended to during the night.
Dar sighed. “I know,” she muttered. “I just—”
“Hate doctors,” Kerry finished for her. “Honey, it’s almost over.”
She stroked Dar’s cheek gently. “Just relax.”
“Easy for you to say,” Dar grumbled. “You’re not sitting here half-naked, having people whisper about your sports bra.” She slid off the table and stretched, sidling away from the X-ray machine toward the large louvered window in the examination room.
Kerry took the opportunity to admire the body under the garment being discussed, and smiled. She walked up behind Dar and slipped her arms around her, hugging her and planting a kiss right between Dar’s shoulder blades. “Mm.” She breathed out softly, watching goose bumps travel over the skin her cheek was pressed against. “I’m glad you decided to get checked, Dar.”
Dar peered over her shoulder at her engaging blonde limpet.
“Yeah, well, maybe he’ll give me a pat on the head and a bottle of Percodan. You going to help me analyze that base data when we get home? Typing’s going to be hell.”
“Of course.” Kerry released her and stepped back as they heard Dr.
Steve coming down the hall. “You really think there’s something there?”
Dar’s face grew quiet and rather grim. “Yes.” She looked up as Dr.
Steve entered. “If you’re back for more pictures, forget it.”
Her old friend whipped his hand up and focused. He snapped a picture of the surprised and very off-guard Dar, then grinned at her.
“Gotcha. Okay, kiddo. C’mon down the hall, and I’ll tell you the bad news.”
“What was that for?” Dar objected, pointing at the camera.
“Family scrapbook.” Dr. Steve picked up her shirt and tossed it to her. “Here, don’t scandalize the nurses. They’ve got delicate egos.”
Dar allowed Kerry to help her ease her shirt on, and then they followed Dr. Steve down the hall to his office. This was a fairly large room, lined with book-covered shelves and an impressive set of diplomas scattered over the wall. On the opposite wall, pictures took pride of place—of Dr. Steve and his family, and some of him at a much Red Sky At Morning 201
younger age in uniform.
He also had nice, comfortable leather chairs. Dar sat down in one and leaned back. Kerry studied the pictures, reacting a little when she found one with a familiar, if younger Andrew Roberts in it. “Hey. It’s Dad.” She half turned. “Ooh...he was a cutie.”
“Kerry, if you’d just con
sent to repeat that if I dragged that old sea dog in here, I’d pay you, big time.” Dr. Steve laughed, then put his hands on his desk. “Now, young lady,” he fixed his eyes on Dar, “you have a nasty bone bruise.”
Dar eyed him warily. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” the doctor replied. “You’re a very lucky little munchkin, my friend. If it wasn’t for the fact that you have a nice, big, juicy deltoid muscle there, you’d be looking at a fracture, and putting a cast there ain’t fun.” He stood and walked over to the X-ray box, pointing at a dark spot in the long bone of Dar’s arm. “Right there.”
Kerry and Dar peered at it. “And?” Dar finally asked. “What’s the treatment?”
“Amputation.” Dr. Steve turned and gave her a deadpan look, getting a halfway hysterical giggle from Kerry. “You get a sling which you will keep on, young lady, a bottle of blood thinner in case anything in there is considering doing something icky like clotting, and some painkillers.” He pointed at Dar. “I want you off your feet and doing nothing stressful for at least the rest of the weekend.”
“Okay,” Dar agreed readily, having planned to spend the day on the couch with her laptop anyway. So far, it didn’t sound too bad, and as long as the process did not involve plaster or fiberglass in any incarnation, she was happy. “That it?”
Dr. Steve sat on the edge of his desk and leaned forward.
“Sweetheart, I mean it.” He reached out and traced a line from the injury up Dar’s neck. “Do you see how close this is to your noggin? I don’t want any clots getting any ideas and sending you into the hospital with a stroke.”
Dar blinked. “A stroke?”
“You heard me,” Steve stated. “So I want you to make like a vegetable for the next few days, and take those damn pills. I wish you’d called me yesterday.”
Dar drew breath to answer him, but Kerry got a word in first. “It was late,” she told him, leaning over Dar’s chair. “We got home near midnight.” She tousled Dar’s hair. “We thought about going over to Sinai, but—”
“But you’d still be sitting there, with a sore butt and the same problem,” Dr. Steve finished. “Yeah, well, next time, forget the hospital, just give me a call, hmm?”
