by Melissa Good
"I sure as hell can blame them." Alastair shot back. "Just because every jack one of you got caught bare assed is no reason to take it out on me."
"Alastair," the man shook his head, "you're not doing yourself any favors."
"I'm not looking for any favors."
The vice president exhaled. "You always were such a hard ass," he complained. "Al, this needs to happen."
Alastair shrugged. "Maybe you should have thought of that before you told everyone it was working yesterday."
"Figured I was safe. They told me you were handling it. We have to show how little this affected us. You know that."
"I know that," Alastair said. "So, back to my original question. "
"Oh for Pete's sake," the man said. "Give me a break, Al. Every single department in the whole government was thrown into a high speed reactive mode and told to not let anything stand in their way. This was no joke. This was not some half assed tornado we were responding to. People died."
"Some of mine did," Alastair said quietly. "I lost a good friend down there."
The vice president sighed. "So you won't do this?"
Alastair took the time to sip his tea again. "No. We've done what we could."
"You know you'll get blamed for this. You'll have to stand there and explain why you walked out on helping your country in this time of disaster." There was a perceptible touch of irony in the words. "You really want to do that? Do the people you work for really want that spotlight? You've got a lot of contracts with us, Al. More than most companies."
"The board's been advised." Alastair shrugged. "They agree with my decision."
His visitor looked surprised. "Would your stockholders?"
Alastair shrugged.
"I don't get it."
"Maybe I just don't like being pushed around." Alastair gazed steadily at him. "I'll be there. I'll be glad to stand by my decisions, and my people. If that frustrates you, Dick, sorry. Nothing personal. For what it's worth, I think we did a damn fine job for you through this."
The vice president nodded slowly, shrewd eyes watching Alastair's face with sharp intent. "Nothing personal, Al. I know our wives are close. But we'll bury you for this." He got up and waved, then headed for the door, zipping his jacket up as he gave the secret service man a nod."Let's go."
Alastair lifted a hand and waved back. Then he let his hand fall to his knee and took a sip of his tea.
After a long moment's silence, the doorway filled again, and he looked up to see Dar's tall form leaning against the sill, arms crossed, pale blue eyes watching him with intent question.
"Tea?" Alastair raised his cup in her direction.
Dar crossed the room and went to the credenza, opening the refrigerator and removing a chocolate milk. She brought it back over and dropped into a chair next to him, extending her long legs and bare feet across the carpet before crossing her ankles. "We in trouble?"
"We?"
Dar opened the milk and drank from it, swirling the liquid around in the container as she waited him out in silence, one eyebrow fully hiked.
"Nah, we'll be fine."
Dar's other eyebrow hiked to join its mate.
Alastair toasted her wryly with his tea, his face creasing into a rueful smile.
DAR WASN'T SURE what made her wake up. She lifted her head off the pillow, looking around in the darkened room. The clock on the bedside table blinked 4:00 a.m. She cocked her head to listen to see if some sound had broken through her dreams.
Nothing. It was quiet. Some soft mechanical sounds were evident-- the cycling of the air conditioning and the working of the elevator down the hall--but nothing else seemed to be stirring.
Dar turned her attention to her sleeping partner. Kerry was propped up half sitting against her nest of pillows with the blanket tucked around her, and her face relaxed in slumber.
Seemed like a good idea. She started to compose herself to go back to sleep when the dryness of her mouth annoyed her enough to spur her to get up and do something about it.
With a soundless sigh, she eased out of the bed, stood up, and then moved quietly across the room to the credenza. She sorted through the choices there, not finding anything to her liking.
Being a milk fanatic sort of sucked when you didn't have ready refrigeration. She picked the room key up off the counter and palmed it along with her PDA, giving herself a cursory glance at her reflection in the mirror, before making her way to the door, opening it and slipping outside.
The hallway was, not unexpectedly, empty. She crossed it and went down to the lounge where the big screen television was playing mutely to the audience of couches and chairs.
They'd left the sports on, but at this time of day it was soccer. Dar glanced idly at the screen as she headed for the service fridge, opening it and retrieving a bottle. She took it back over and sat down on the couch, the leather unexpectedly cold against the backs of her thighs. "Urg."
She opened the milk and set it down and turned her attention to the PDA that had displayed the stuttering red light indicating she had messages. She flipped the top open, wondering if it was her mother sending one of her infrequent notes.
Her eyes scanned it, and then scanned it again, more slowly. Then she took a deep breath, and released it. "Son of a bitch."
Hey Dar! Just a got a second to drop you a note before I head for the airport and a flight out there! Tried calling, your phone went to voice mail. But they did it! Those boys worked until their eyes were bleeding, and got that thing working. Couldn't believe it! Still can't! Got some special refractive diamond mirrors in the damn things, but I saw it myself, saw it link up at over a mile!
Shit. Dar knew a moment of total dismay.
Figure to land there around 8, realize it's cutting it close as hell, but it's the best they could do for a flight. Anyway, see you then, and I can't wait to see this thing work!
Dar set the PDA down on her leg and rested her elbow on the arm of the couch, leaning her head against her hand. Then she looked up, and tapped her fingers against her lips, staring blankly at the silent screen.
There had been very few moments in her career when she'd been caught in so complete a quandary as she was now, faced with a situation she hadn't really believed was going to happen. Of course, she could simply do nothing.
Let it all be for nothing. But she knew she should have called when Alastair pulled them out and told them to stop working on it and she hadn't. Hadn't even remembered, focused as she had been on Kerry's injury and taking care of her.
On a human level, she knew that was the right thing. Even if she told the men that, they'd agree. Family did come first and Kerry was her family.
Didn't make it any easier to take though. Dar rubbed her eyes, and exhaled. "Shit." She opened the PDA and tapped the reply key, pausing with the stylus held between her fingers as she tried to compose an answer.
"Couldn't sleep, boss?"
Dar's head jerked up and she looked at the door as Mark entered. He was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, and he'd obviously also been sleeping."Got thirsty." She held up her milk. "What about you?"
"Ops woke me up." Mark trudged over to the counter and took out a can of Coke returning to the seating area and dropping into a chair with it. "Freaking accounting jobs didn't run again. I hate those damned scripts."
Dar gave him a wry look. "Want me to rewrite them?"
He paused in mid sip. "Those are yours?" he asked, his eyes widening.
Dar let him wait for it, and then she smiled. "Nah. But if you want I'll redo them anyway."
Mark relaxed. "Man, you had me. I should have figured they weren't. They suck." He took a swallow of his soda. "They crap out at least once a week and we have to restart them. This time they tanked Duk's reporting and he bitched out ops."
"Reporting shit definitely rolls downhill." Dar commiserated."Speaking of which,"she held up her PDA, "c'mere."
Puzzled, Mark got up and edged over joining her on the couch. "What?"
&n
bsp; Dar opened the message and showed it to him, watching his face for a reaction. His eyes widened again and his body shifted, as he turned to look back at her.
"Are you kidding me? Is this guy for real?"
Dar sighed. "Apparently he is." She leaned back. "So now this guy's on the way here, ready to save the world and he's going to run right into a pissing match he had no part of."
"Wow."
"Yeah, wow." Dar closed the PDA. "Guess I'll wait until he lands then call him."
"Ouch." Mark murmured. "That's gonna suck." He glanced at his boss. "You didn't think they'd do it."
"I didn't think they'd do it," Dar confirmed, nodding. "Not only that, I didn't bother to tell them to stop trying once we did." She sighed again. "So I suck twice."
"You were kinda busy. I know if it had been my wife who'd broken a rib I wouldn't have thought a half second about work crap. So how's Kerry feeling, anyway?"
"Right now, hopefully she's not feeling anything since she was asleep when I came out here," Dar said. "Probably a good thing, since I know she'd be as freaked as I am about this note."
Mark remained silent sipping his soda. Then he cleared his throat a little and watched his boss out of the corner of his eye. "We could go do it, if you want."
Dar looked at him.
He shrugged.
"Alastair pulled us out. I respect that decision."
"Yeah," Mark agreed. "But we can do it. I know he had heartburn with the governor and all that stuff, but man, if those guys went to the wall for us, it sucks if we can't get it done. And it's really gonna suck for him tomorrow when that bell goes off and nothing happens."
"He knows that."
Mark shrugged again. "He's pretty cool. He's been all right to have with us here. I wasn't sure about it at first, but he's a good guy." He considered. "So we could make his morning, if you catch my drift."
Dar thought about that. It put the question into a different light than she'd been looking at, and she felt herself becoming attracted to the idea. "Alastair is good people," she finally said, in a quiet tone.
"He really likes you. He was talking to me and your pop yesterday and he was telling your pop how lucky he was to have a kid like you."
Dar blushed mildly. "I'm sure my father loved hearing that."
Mark laughed. "Yeah he did. He's a great guy."
"My father?"
"Yeah."
Dar took a sip of her milk. "We're surrounded by good people. You know that?" She mused, and then fell silent for a long moment. "You want to go do this?"
"Yeah," Mark said, without hesitation.
They both half turned at a sound at the door to find Andrew entering. He was dressed for the outside, unlike the two of them, and he slid the hood down on his hoodie as he crossed the carpeted floor. "Lo,there. You people never heard of sleeping?"
"Hi, Dad." Dar watched as he went to the refrigerator, retrieved a milk, then came over and sat down across from them. She lifted her own milk and toasted him with it. "Mark and I were just going to grab our tools and go fix the damn cables. Wanna come?"
Andrew paused in mid sip and lowered the milk. "Excuse me?"
Dar stretched her bare legs out and crossed her ankles. "Our vendor and his friends came through. They duct taped something together that's going to work."
Her father blinked. "I thought you all said you weren't doing this no more?"
"Me too,"Dar acknowledged. "But they did it, and I don't want to waste that. Those guys wore their asses to the bone for us."
Andrew studied his daughter's profile--despite the difference of age and gender--very much like his own. "So you all going to go do this thing, no matter what that flannel feller says?"
"Mm hm."
"What about all them gov'mint people? They were some pissed off at you all."
"I don't care." Dar was now at peace with her decision. "These people have been shoving us around since we got here. Maybe they have a good reason, maybe they don't, but I'm just going to take my team, and go do what we do, and at the end of it someone else can decide if it was the right or wrong choice."
Her father produced a wry grin. "Paladar, do you know ah once said something just like that. Turned out all right, I suppose, so ah will surely be going along with you to do this crazy thing."
"Thanks, Dad." Dar smiled at him "Sorry to make your retirement so contentious."
Andrew studied her and then burst into laughter, genuine and real,a happy sound the echoed off the walls of the lounge.
"Well, I'm gonna go wake the troops up." Mark got out of his seat, taking his coke can over and disposing of it. "Meet you back here,boss?"
"I'm going too." Dar got up. "Let me let Kerry in on what's going on and see if I can talk her in to staying here."
Andrew snorted. Mark shook his head. "Good luck with that, boss." He escaped out the door ahead of Dar's reach.
Dar tossed her milk chug and tucked her PDA in her pocket. "Don't tell Alastair if you happen to see him, Dad." She paused at the doorway. "He's setting himself up to take a fall for us, and damned if we're going to let him."
Andrew smiled at her. "G'wan, rugrat." He stretched his legs out. "Ah couldn't sleep fer nothing no how. Too noisy in this here place."
Dar waved briefly. She ducked out of the room and crossed the corridor, spotting Mark down the hall knocking on a door. She keyed her own open, and slipped inside, closing the door behind her and walking over to the bed.
Kerry was still sleeping. Her breathing was slow and deep, and Dar lowered herself to perch carefully on the edge of the mattress, reluctant to disturb her. She knew in the long run that it would be better for her partner to stay here, comfortably resting.
However. Dar reached over and took Kerry's hand, squeezing it gently. "Ker?"
After a moment, Kerry's fair lashes fluttered open, and her fingers returned the pressure. She blinked a few times, and then focused on Dar, taking in the darkness of the room with some alarm. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Dar leaned over and let her head rest against Kerry's thighs. "But something unexpected happened."
Kerry blinked a few more times, clearing the sleep from her eyes. "Like what? Are you okay? Did something happen to one of the staff?"
"No." Dar squeezed her fingers gently. "Those guys who were trying to help us? They did it."
"Huh?" Kerry's brows creased. "What guys?"
"Our network vendor."
Kerry was momentarily silent, and then her eyebrows lifted sharply. "They did it? They came up with something that works?"
"That's what they say." Dar nodded. "So they're on their way here."
"B..." Kerry started to sit up then bit off a curse, her eyes going wide. "Oh shit."
"Easy." Dar got up and reversed her position, putting her arm around Kerry's shoulders and supporting her until she could get upright again. "Forgot about that, didn't you?"
"Ooof. Yes." Kerry recovered her breath. "Stiffened up I guess. So--but Dar, why are they coming here? We didn't do the runs. They're going to do that for no reason." She paused, and then looked up at her partner, seeing the grave look in the pale eyes. "Uh oh."
"I told Mark about it. He wants to go for it. He's waking the guys up." She put her hand against Kerry's cheek. "You do not have to get out of this bed. I just wanted you to know what's going on."
There was a curious mixture of emotions on Kerry's face. "That's not fair letting you guys do all the work. I don't want to just sit here wondering what's going on."
"Honey." Dar stroked her cheek. "Please don't be an idiot."
"I'm not." Kerry frowned. "Give me those drugs. Let's see if they do anything useful."
"Ker."
"Don't Ker me. I've been through this whole thing with you. Don't ask me to sit out now." She took a cautious breath. "At least I can just go and be with you. I won't pick anything up."
"You're going to make it impossible for me to concentrate." Dar objected."C'mon, Kerry. This isn't anything to joke abo
ut. You could get really hurt."
"Don't give me that." Kerry reached up and took hold of Dar's jaw."Please don't even try that after what I've seen you go through in some of the crap we get into."
Dar sighed. "Now we're back into that if I'm an idiot realm again,huh?"
"Dar."
"Kerry, we're going to be crawling on the floor splicing cable. Is that something you really want to be a part of?" Dar asked, practically. "Tell you what."
"You're right." Kerry interrupted her. "I don't want to be on the floor splicing cable."
"Okay." Dar regrouped. "Well then--"
"I want to be with you." Kerry cut her off again. "Can I just go and watch?"
Dar sighed again.
"Besides, you never know. You may need someone to make a phone call, or type a message, or call a relative who happens to be in Congress." Kerry negotiated skillfully. "Besides, now that you woke me up, there's no damn way I can get back to sleep again."
Having known beforehand the argument was going to be moot, Dar was relatively satisfied with the compromise. "Okay." She kissed Kerry's shoulder. "Can't blame me for trying."
"I don't." Kerry responded with a smile. "Dar, I'm glad."
Dar rested her cheek against Kerry's arm. "Glad? That we're doing this?"
"That we're not just walking away. Even if it was for the very best of reasons." She patted Dar's cheek, and then kissed her on the nose. "Thanks for waking me up."
Dar gave in, nuzzling her and exhaling and enjoying a last moment of peace before the craziness started up again. "I'm glad too. Which makes us all nuts."
"Cashews."
"Gesundheit."
KERRY CLIMBED UP the steps to the bus, its engine idling in the quiet of early morning. She paused inside, spotting a familiar figure behind the wheel. "Hi Dad. You driving?"
"Yeap," Andrew said. "No sense getting that feller up out of his bunk. I know where that place is right well by now." He pushed a button, jerking a little as the windshield wipers turned on. "Whoops."
"Have you ever driven a bus before?" Kerry asked.
