by Melissa Good
"Ungh." A small sound escaped her as Dar's fingers traveled gently up her spine, kneading the knots she could feel along it. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Dar, breathing in her scent and reveling in the heat of her body against the cool of the air conditioning. "You are walking wonderful."
Dar wrapped her arms around Kerry and lifted her up a little, tilting backwards until she felt Kerry's back relax. Then she let her down and gave her a hug, ruffling the hair on the back of her head as she gave her a kiss on the top of it.
Kerry felt awash in affection. It was a very nice feeling, and she smiled giddily into the skin near Dar's collarbone. "Boy that feels great," she said. "Glad we came home."
Dar steered her out of the closet and drew her over to the waterbed. She released Kerry's hand and dropped down onto the bed's surface, rolling onto her back and regarding her partner with half lidded eyes. "I'm glad too."
Kerry unbuckled her belt and slid off her pants. She started to fold them, then found them yanked from her grasp and tossed against the far wall. "Hey."
Dar crooked a finger at her. "C'mere."
Jesus. Even after all this time, it made her go weak in the knees. Kerry climbed into bed to prevent herself from collapsing into it and took a spot next to Dar in the hollow her weight made in the surface. "Okay. I'm here."
"Know what I was thinking?" Dar rolled half onto her side and traced a teasing line down Kerry's belly.
Thinking was probably down on her list of things to be doing at the moment. Kerry reached over and threaded her fingers through Dar's hair pulling her gently closer and kissing her.
"Ah. Reading my mind." Dar chuckled. "That's exactly what I was thinking."
It felt amazingly good to be right where she was. The linen was clean and smelled of sun and sea air. The room was cool and dark, and Dar's lips were nibbling along the edge of her jaw as her hands stroked Kerry's skin.
Something occurred to her, however. "Hey," she whispered. "What about your foot? Shouldn't we take care of it?"
"It's fine." Dar growled softly into her ear.
Oo. "Oh." Kerry laid her hand along Dar's cheek. "Was there really something wrong before?"
"No."
"You just wanted to come here?"
"I just wanted to take you home." Dar kissed her on the lips. "And take care of you."
"Of me?"
"Of you." Dar enfolded Kerry in her arms.
Oh. Kerry smiled giddily for a completely different reason. "Thanks." She rolled over and snuggled up to Dar, letting her body press against her partners. "I'm not sure what brought that on, but I'm not complaining."
Dar dismissed the bid without much further thought, assigning it to that category of problems that she had limited control over. Whatever happened now happened, and she wasn't going to waste time worrying about it. She had something more concrete to worry about wrapped up in her arms right here.
This mattered.
She slid her hands under Kerry's bra strap and released it, smothering a faint chuckle as Kerry tickled her, returning the favor.
Kerry's hand touched her hip, fingertips sliding under the fabric of her underwear and easing it down. Then her hand stilled and Dar heard a faint sniffle.
She eased back a bit, cupping Kerry's cheek and finding the faint dampness of tears sparkling in her eyelashes. "You all right?"
Tired green eyes peered back at her. "Perfect."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Kerry turned her head and kissed Dar's palm, and then let
her touch slip lower, giving her body over to the passion building in it. Everything else would wait.
THEY ENDED UP passing on the hot tub. Kerry was laying on the couch, one bare knee propping up her diary as she wrote in it when Dar came back from the kitchen folding her cell phone up. "Nothing yet?" Kerry asked, as she reached out to scratch Chino's ears.
"Nothing yet." Dar confirmed. "And I just spoke to Alastair."
Kerry nibbled the end of her pen. "Yeah?"
Dar dropped down onto the couch near Kerry's socked feet. "Yeah. I told him what's going on." She paused. "Well, I told him a little of what's going on. He knows we completed our part of the deal, and that we've had a ton of challenges."
"What does he think?"
Dar slouched down and put her feet up on the coffee table. "He doesn't understand why this has been such a tough case."
Kerry put her diary down on her chest and stared at Dar.
"Told you I didn't get into details." Dar idly plucked at the toe of Kerry's sock. "But I thought I owed him a heads up."
Kerry studied her partner's expression which seemed quite relaxed, almost mellow. "Is he worried?"
"Eh." Dar grunted. "I hinted to him that it might not be a good idea to hang so much off this one. He said it wasn't Quest he was concerned with."
"The other guys."
"Mm."
"Well." Kerry pressed her foot against Dar's thigh, pushing gently against her. "All we can do is our best, Dar. I think we've done that."
"Have we?"
"Yes." Kerry sounded quite positive. "Outside my not accepting a dinner invitation here and there, I don't think there's anything I would have changed in terms of business decisions. Would you?"
Dar gazed across the living room, staring pensively at the far wall with its neatly framed pictures. "Besides socking Quest in the kisser when I first met him, no, probably not," she admitted. "You're right, Ker. We did a good job."
"We did." Kerry agreed. "We pulled together the bid requirements, implemented them, and achieved our goals within the time limit, despite having to practically FedEx ourselves to hell and back doing it. I say that's pretty damn good, Dar."
Dar draped her arm over Kerry's legs and patted her knee. "Know something?"
"What?" Kerry favored her with an indulgent grin.
"You really did a hell of a job the last few weeks," Dar responded seriously. "From taking care of that power outage, to setting up the pier, to working with the guys to get everything set. Very well done."
Kerry smiled even more broadly. "Thanks, boss."
Dar returned the smile. "I watch you do your job and it makes me damn proud."
Kerry's nostrils flared a bit, and she shifted, visibly surprised. "Gee, honey," she murmured. "It really wasn't that spectacular, y'know."
The cell phone rang. Dar glanced at it, debating with herself on chucking it across the room. Then she sighed and opened it, checking the caller ID and finding Mark's name there. "Hell."
"DR?" Mark ventured.
Dar's inner child whined, not wanting to go back to work. "Yes, hello." She sighed. "They make any progress?"
"Um...no, listen, Dar...I think we've got, like a big problem here."
Another one? "And that would be?" Dar gave Kerry a warning look.
"That engineer guy, the one everyone was talking up? He took off," Mark said. "They can't find him, and nothing's getting done here."
Oh, crap. "When did this happen?" Dar covered the speaker of her cell with her fingertips. "Your fugitive ditched us.
Kerry sat up abruptly, putting her diary aside. "What?"
Mark sounded half disgusted and half embarrassed. "Beats me. I just heard a couple of them come through here yelling about ten minutes ago. I guess they thought he was getting some parts or something. They're pretty pissed. That captain guy actually came off the ship and was looking around."
Dar took a breath, held it briefly then let it trickle out of her lips. "Okay." She finally intoned crisply. "We'll be right there. See what we can do."
Kerry swung her legs off the couch and stood up, reciting several carefully enunciated curses that certainly would have surprised her Midwestern family as she headed for the bedroom and presentable clothing.
"Thanks. See ya." Mark had the grace to sound apologetic. "I know this sucks, boss."
"Yeah, it does." Dar stood up and examined her reflection, then shrugged and sat back down, picking up a sneaker from w
here it had migrated half under the couch. "But that's the breaks. See you in a few, Mark." She closed the phone and dropped it on the table, then concentrated on putting on her shoes. "No, Chino. You can't help me. Thanks anyway." She nudged the Labrador out of the way, getting a wet kiss on the nose in return.
"You going to wear that?" Kerry queried from the doorway.
"Uh huh."
"Dar."
"What?" Dar got the other sneaker on and carefully tightened the laces around her still tender foot. "There aren't any holes in it, are there?" She glanced down at her ragged and cropped coveralls.
"Huckleberry Roberts." Kerry sat down on the loveseat and pulled on a boot, her legs now covered by sedate denim. "Put some pants on, will you?"
"But I already have my shoes on." Dar frowned. "C'mon. I don't give a crap. It's a damn shipyard."
Kerry gave her a plaintive look, but merely shook her head and continued tightening her laces. It wasn't that Dar looked bad; on the contrary, the faded shorts overalls were stunningly adorable on her--at least to Kerry's eyes.
It was just that they were going to work after all. She spared another glance at her partner, who was once again sprawled on the couch. Oh well. If anyone could carry off being an outraged executive in cutoffs, it would be Dar. "Okay, let's go." She stood up and ran her fingers through her hair. "You think he's really gone?" She asked suddenly looking up into Dar's eyes.
Dar pursed her lips briefly then she put her hand on Kerry's shoulder and turned toward the door. "Let's go find out. He could have taken off any time before now, Ker."
"But he didn't." Kerry sighed, as she reached for the door latch. "Goddamn it, I don't want that on my conscience for the rest of my life." She walked down the steps and headed for the car. "I'll drive."
"Okay." Dar gave the now woebegone Chino a sympathetic look as she closed the door. "Be good, Chi. We'll be back soon. Promise."
"Whine."
Know exactly what you mean. Dar locked the door and followed Kerry to the Lexus, getting into the passenger side of the already running car. She settled her sunglasses onto her nose and closed her eyes as she began the familiar process of considering their options.
If, of course, they still had any.
THE TERMINAL WAS in chaos. Now that a good percentage of the IT people had left, the crew had wandered in out of the heat and into the air conditioning, and had taken over most of the big room near the back. Most were sitting on the ground with their backs to the walls, some had cards out, and some were merely sleeping, oblivious to the commotion around them.
Mark was behind the desk on the raised platform, and he looked up as the door opened for the nth time, on this instance finally revealing the outlines he was waiting for.
He started around the edge of the platform then halted, gazing in bemusement at Dar's more than casual outfit. "Hey boss," he continued on regardless. "Glad you're here."
"I'm not," Dar told him. "You send everyone else home?"
"Sure," Mark said. "No sense keeping them here."
"All right." Dar looked around the room giving her head a little shake. "Let's go find our friend, the captain, and see what the hell he's doing about this cluster." She headed for the back door, clearly expecting them to follow her.
They did. "Hey," Mark whispered. "She wear that just to tweak these guys?"
"Don't go there." Kerry held up a hand.
"Okay." He cleared his throat. "Missed you guys at lunch."
Kerry glanced at a sleeping lump of humanity, and realized there were three heads entangled in the sheeting. "Uh, we did Thai," she murmured, an eyebrow lifting. "Then we swung by home."
"Ah." Mark murmured.
"Wish we were still there."
Mark looked at her in surprise.
Dar hit the back door and powered through it, angling across the bleached white concrete toward the gangway at the side of the ship. There was little activity around the opening, unlike in previous days. In fact, only a few workers sat around the ground near the ramp, most giving her cursory looks and then double takes as they approached.
Okay. So wearing cutoffs that short was a stupid idea. Dar marched up the metal ramp and into the ship, putting that thought firmly behind her. The heat inside the ship immediately vindicated her choice, however, and she heard the grunts of displeasure from her companions as they started up the steps.
It was dark, it was stinky, and she was over it.
Over it, over the project, over the ship, over its crew, over the heat, over Quest, and about to go over the top. Just finish it, Alastair had said?
Well, all righty then. She would.
THEY DIDN'T HAVE far to go this time. They could hear the yelling in the atrium as they climbed up the stairs to the seventh deck. Dar headed for the sound, her sneakers giving her stride a touch more bounce than usual as she strode through the archway and rounded the center column.
Kerry kept right on her heels, already feeling a touch breathless from the oppressive heat and the fast climb. She hoped whatever Dar had in mind to do she'd do quickly, so they could get the hell out of the ship and back outside where, at least, there was a little bit of a breeze.
"Are you telling me you don't have a single person on this damn ship that can get it working?" Peter Quest was facing off against the captain, his arms flailing in time with his words. "What kind of bullshit is that?"
For once, Kerry found herself in total agreement with the man.
"Come now, Mr. Quest." The captain, however, remained calm. "You knew when you purchased these vessels, that they were old and their technology out of date. That was no secret to anyone, else why would you have gotten them so cheaply?"
Abruptly, Kerry found herself switching sides, as she agreed with the captain wholeheartedly too!
"That's not the point!" Quest argued. "You're responsible for keeping the damn things running! That was the deal I made with your prior owners."
The captain shrugged. "You made the deal with them. Not with me. Or my crew. They are not indentured slaves, Mr. Quest. If they decide to leave, they leave."
Dar had pulled up near the circular stairway, and now she stood quietly listening. Kerry was glad to join her, putting one hand on the relatively cool brass railing and easing her foot up onto the first step. She was a little surprised that her partner had put a hold on all that angry energy, but she understood that this conversation they were listening to would probably dictate what Dar would do next.
"You have to get this ship running," Quest stated. "Get one of the engineers off those other ships."
Ah. Good idea. Kerry complimented him silently.
"Yes, we are attempting that." The captain agreed. "But they also are busy, and in any case, our electrical systems are not like the others."
Figures. Kerry sighed.
"Bloody hell!" Quest barked.
"Something like." The captain seemed unperturbed, despite the fact that he was in full uniform and it was stained horribly with sweat. "My prior company purchased the electrical systems for this vessel from a shipyard in Romania, and they were--how shall I say--made with a horseshoe."
Quest's eyes seemed about to bug out. Dar took the opportunity to move closer and join in the conversation. "You mean shoehorn," she said.
"Yes."
"Ms. Roberts." Quest almost seemed glad of her presence. "Maybe you can offer some helpful suggestions on how to resolve this."
"Me?" Dar's eyebrow cocked. "I'm an IT executive, Mr. Quest. What makes you think I have any suggestions, helpful or otherwise, on how to get forty year old diesel electric turbine converters working?"
"Because your reputation depends on it," Quest responded. "If you don't show me the goods, it's as good as you not doing it." He held up a hand. "Don't bother whining to me about how unfair it all is. I've heard it all before."
Kerry rested her chin on the railing and simply listened.
Dar put her hands on her hips, but her expression was thoughtful rather than pissed of
f. "Know what I think?" she asked.
Both men looked at her in question.
"I think you're a horse's ass," Dar remarked. "And you're not worth my standing here sweating. I couldn't give a damn if you get this piece of floating garbage working or not." She exhaled. "I'll send a bill for my time, my gear, and my removal costs to your headquarters Monday morning. Until then, Mr. Quest, you can most cordially kiss my ass."
With that she turned and started heading back to the stairs, extending a hand toward Kerry as she did so. "C'mon, Kerrison."
Kerry knew her eyes must have been the size of tennis balls by Dar's expression. She straightened up and started to move toward her, her ears ringing with what she realized was the end of the project, and quite possibly, the end of their tenure at ILS.
No matter what their history, Alastair couldn't stand by this time. Even she realized that.
"Ms. Roberts!" Quest spluttered finally. "You've got to be kidding!"
Dar turned her head, expression still quite mild. "Nope." She clapped a hand on Kerry's shoulder. "I've had enough. Enough of your games, enough of the press, enough of the bullshit, enough of the shady dealings going on around this port. Enough. I did what you asked. It's not my problem if you can't produce enough power to see the results. That's your problem, mister."
"My problem!" Quest said. "The hell it is! You have to prove you finished, or you don't make the terms of the deal, Roberts!"
"Your problem." Dar confirmed, half turning. "You're the one who didn't fulfill the terms of the contract, Quest. Maybe you should read it. You agreed to provide sufficient physical plant for the installation." Dar gestured at the ship. "You didn't."
"He didn't!" Quest pointed at the captain. "I had nothing to do with it!"
"I didn't sign a contract with the captain, Mr. Quest." Kerry spoke up for the first time. "I signed it with you." A loophole. Had Dar found really found one? "Dar's right. It's not our responsibility to make sure the ship works. It's yours."
