Red Sky at Morning

Chapter

Two

KERRY SETTLED BACK in her seat and debated whether or not to take out her laptop. When she traveled alone, she was always conscious of who was sitting next to her—idle eyes that might take in whatever her laptop screen had on display—and while the chances of her being seated next to a competitor were fairly slim, she never knew.

Her seatmate this trip was a bookish-looking young man with heavy glasses and an academic air about him. She spared a moment to imagine what his profession might be, a game she often played with herself while traveling. Professor? Probably not old enough. Research scientist? Maybe. The man solved her musings a moment later, when he tugged a pad from a notebook and started scribing lines on it in a familiar programming language.

Kerry smiled and leaned back. Figures. Another nerd. She lazily eyed the dark window, observing the clearly not twinkling stars outside. She leaned a hand against the glass to shade the light and peered out, amazed as always at the complete explosion of lights spread so thickly across the sky. Below her stretched only dark land, an occasional brief island of light indicating a city. Far off in the horizon they were traveling toward, she could see a line of darkness shot through with lightning that had to be the storm front the Weather Channel had promised.

A slight clank caught her attention, and she turned her head to see the stewardess standing there, waiting to take her dinner order. “I’ll take the filet, thanks.” Kerry gave the woman a brief smile. “And if you have a beer?”

“Heineken all right?” The woman wrote down the order. “Be right back. And you, sir?” Kerry’s seatmate ordered the filet as well, with a whiskey and soda. That was interesting, Kerry thought, as she folded her hands over her stomach and stretched her legs out, crossing them at the ankles. Whiskey and soda always sounded like something her father would order, not someone of her own generation or younger.

“Do...you fly much?” the young man asked diffidently.

“Unfortunately, more than I’d like to,” Kerry replied politely. “It’s not for pleasure.”

“Oh.” The man wiped his hand off on his neatly pressed wool pants Red Sky At Morning 21

leg and held it out. “Josh Abbot. I just started working for Intelsat, and this is my second trip in a week. I’m not sure I like it.”

Kerry took his hand and returned the grip. “Kerry Stuart. I work for ILS.”

He brightened. “Really? Wow! So you’re headed to Chicago for the snafu with that new data center, huh?”

Blonde eyebrows shot up past Kerry’s hairline. “I wasn’t aware we’d released that to the press,” she commented.

Josh at least had the grace to blush. “No, well, I...um...” He looked up in startlement as the stewardess offered him a hot towel, taking it mechanically and looking at it as if it was a small dead white animal. “I heard my boss talking about it. I’m sorry; I should have watched my mouth.”

Kerry took her towel and carefully washed each finger with it, considering her options. “Well, it’s a small industry, right?” She gave the man a reassuring smile. “Who’s your boss?”

Josh chewed his lower lip unhappily. “Is he going to get in trouble?”

The green eyes facing him twinkled a little. “How intimidating do I look?” Kerry chuckled. “No. He won’t get in trouble.”

With a sigh of relief, Josh glibly coughed up the name of his boss, his boss’s boss—who’d told his boss—and the secretary who worked for the boss’s boss who was married to an ILS admin fairly high up in their sales department. Jose, you are so dead meat. Kerry decided, handing her now cooled towel back to the stewardess. “It’s not as bad as it sounds, really...just some incompatibility with infrastructure.”

“Oh.” Josh nodded. “So, you’re going to go fix that?” He gazed at Kerry with new interest. “You one of their tech people?”

“Something like that,” Kerry agreed solemnly. “You’re a programmer?”

He nodded again. “Yeah. I just graduated from Georgia Tech. I’m working on this neat new application for the control of our sats, so they can squeeze more bandwidth out of them.” He held up his pad. “I kinda hit a snag, though. I’m not really sure how to write this one little routine.”

Kerry gave him a suggestion. “Try that. It’s what we use on our big routers.” She sat back as her dinner was delivered, opening her lap tray and spreading the provided linen napkin neatly across her thighs. Hmm.

She reviewed the tray the stewardess set down. It contained a plate with a petit filet mignon on it in some kind of nice smelling burgundy sauce, and what looked very much like a decent sized blob of whipped mashed potatoes. And a broccoli floret, for those who had inescapable attacks of food guilt. Kerry solemnly consumed the broccoli, then turned her attention to the steaming beef.

“Wow, that works. Cool.” Josh laughed. “Hey, Ms. Stuart, are you married?”

22 Melissa Good Kerry’s hands stopped in mid-cut. “Why?” She gave him a look.

“You wanna be? I think I love you,” Josh burbled contentedly, making scratch marks on his pad.

A sigh slipped out. “Sorry, I’m taken.” Kerry resumed cutting her meat and took a bite.

“Yeah, yeah, but do they appreciate you for your mind, like I would?” Josh seemed totally absorbed in his program now, hardly aware of what he was saying. “Or are they just out after that pretty face?” His tie drooped into his burgundy sauce, but the sartorial accessory could have been a cobra for all he’d noticed.

“Well...” Kerry drawled, taking a swig of her beer, “my girlfriend thinks I’m sexy, but says she married me for my brains.”

“Damn. Just my luck.” Josh scribbled a few more symbols, then stopped cold, blinked, and turned his head slowly to look over at her.

“Did you just say what I think you just said?”

Kerry nodded and smiled, curious to see what his reaction would be. She wasn’t generally so out there about her relationship, but since they were 35,000 feet up, and he was proposing...

“Ever consider a threesome?”

Ooh. It was Kerry’s turn to be surprised. Imagine that. I thought he was a pinhead. “No,” she laughed, “but that’s a great answer.” They grinned at each other, and Josh sat back, putting his pad away and starting in on his food. After the stewardess removed their trays, they talked about programming, comparing techniques until Kerry was suddenly distracted by a flash just outside.

“Whoa.” She had turned to peer out the window when the plane dropped out from under her and rocked to one side, sending people and crockery flying. Kerry felt her stomach flip as the craft leveled, then a scary vibration started, and the plane rocked from side to side as lightning flashed past the window.

Oh boy.

“Hang on, everyone!” the lead stewardess yelled. “Hang on!”

“SO,” BOB STROLLED along next to Dar, having coaxed her out for a short walk near the hotel, “you don’t like cities, huh?”

Dar dodged a stumbling man who was singing to himself and moved smoothly up onto the sidewalk. “Not particularly. We don’t have a city in Miami, just a banking and government center surrounded by suburbs.”

“Ah.” Bob spread his arms out. “C’mon, you can’t beat this atmosphere. This is the most exciting, most vibrant city on earth.” He pointed. “Look at that building. Isn’t it incredible?”

Dar obediently tilted her head and reviewed the building in question. It was large, yes, and the twenties architecture was eye-catching, but... “You know what I hate about cities, Bob?”

Red Sky At Morning 23

“What?”

“They smell.” Dar rubbed her nose. “And as big as these damn buildings are, all the rooms in them are smaller than my bathroom at home.”

Bob put his hands on his hips and regarded her. “Boy, you really know how to take the wind out of a guy’s sails, you know that, Dar Roberts?” His face curled into a rueful smile. “Here I am, trying to paint a lovely, romantic vision of my favorite place, and all you can think of is a few measly scents and floor space?”

Dar shrugged one leather-covered shoulder. “I’m not really the romantic type,” she drawled. “Will you settle for dinner and a drink with a nice view?” She pointed to a second-floor dining room that overlooked the busy street.

“Oh, that place?” Bob waved her off. “C’mon, you’re more adventurous than that, I bet. Here’s where I was going to take you. It’s a great little place. Fantastic food.” He pointed her toward a tiny stairwell in a dark corner that led below street level. Dar stopped cold and felt him run into her back. “Hey!” Bob bounced off, surprised. “What’s wrong?”

“That goes underground,” Dar stated flatly.

Bob glanced at it, nonplussed. “Well, sure. It’s in the basement.”

“I don’t do basements.” Cool blue eyes flicked to his face.

“What do you mean, you don’t do basements? What the heck do you do at home when you have to go below the bottom floor, Dar?” Bob seemed thunderstruck.

“I swim. We have no basements in Miami,” Dar told him crisply. “If you think you’re gonna get me to go down those stairs, think again.”

There was a pause. “And before you think again, I bet Alastair never mentioned my interest in martial arts.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, take it easy, lady.” Bob held up both hands and laughed. “Okay, I got the message. C’mon...I know a good hot dog stand out on Fifth Avenue that’s got a great view and no enclosed walls.” He put a careful hand on Dar’s back and guided her back toward the street. “And no, he never did mention that, as a matter of fact.”

Dar relaxed a little and spared him a half grin.

“He never says much about you at all, you know...just that you have more brains than is really safe for one person, and you take the word ‘attitude’ to a new level of meaning.” Bob chuckled. “You willing to be more forthcoming than that?”

“No,” Dar replied coolly. “When I talk about my personal life, I usually get the specifics thrown back in my face at a staff meeting sometime. No, thanks.”

Bob sighed. “All business. Your reputation’s completely intact on that front.” He gave her a resigned grin. “How about a burger and fries?”

“Lead on.” Satisfied with the acceptance of her ground rules, Dar 24 Melissa Good put her hands behind her back and strolled after the sales executive, watching the stream of people crowding the street.

They walked down a set of shallow stairs and ended up in an outdoor café, small tables on a patio that faced Rockefeller Center.

Dar eyed the handwritten menu and chose a sandwich and French fries, giving Bob an agreeable nod when he suggested a bottle of wine to go with it. She let her eyes drift across the scene, taking in the noise and the lights and the people going by. Now they, she acknowledged frankly, were interesting, and very different from what she was used to in Miami. The voices around her were different as well, sharper and more staccato.

“Dar?”

Dar turned and graciously bestowed her attention on her host.

“Sorry, did you ask me something?”

They talked about business for a while as they munched their way through the very good sandwiches and half of the wine. Dar managed to relax a little, aware that the almost overwhelming intensity she’d felt from her co-worker the previous night was muted, and he was, to her surprise, on his very best behavior.

She remembered Alastair’s warning and wondered. Her hand shifted, swirling the sweet, heavy white wine in its glass, and she took a sip, enjoying the taste she seldom indulged in. “Did you see the presentation today?”

Bob laughed, leaning back and crossing an ankle over his knee.

“Definitely unconventional, I’ll give you that, Dar. Most of the time, I sleep through three-quarters of Al’s speeches. I know them by heart. We did this for the quarter, we were supposed to do that, we took this charge, made that bonus...” Bob swallowed a mouthful of wine. “Not like he comes in and says, well folks, this quarter we lost the farm, don’cha know.”

“Not if I can help it, no.” Dar smiled. “It’s my job to make sure he doesn’t ever have to.”

The sales exec nodded thoughtfully. “That’s true, and boy, does he rely on that,” he said. “You’re one key player.”

Dar shrugged. “I do what I have to do.”

He chuckled. “And God help any of us that get in your way. You’ve pinned my ears back a time or two.”

“Nothing personal.” Dar’s eyes twinkled slightly.

“Hmm.” Bob cleared his throat and changed the subject. “You definitely perked up the stockers, that’s for sure.” Her dinner companion let his eyes, finally, wander over her. “You’re much nicer to look at than Al is, and you know your stuff. Nice work with those offshore investors. They were trying to nail you.”

“I’ve faced a lot worse.” Dar paused as she felt a chill run down her back. It was the oddest feeling, and she just barely resisted the urge to look behind her. Abruptly, her stomach tightened, and she felt a knot Red Sky At Morning 25

form in her guts. What in the hell?

“Dar?” Bob caught the change and sat up. “You okay?”

No. Dar felt the blood drain from her face, and her heart started pounding. Was it the wine? She set the glass down. “Yeah, I’m all right...” Her throat went dry, and she felt a surge of anxiety almost make her start shivering. “I think.”

Bob put his glass down and reached over, touching her shoulder carefully. “You’re pretty pale. Maybe you should put your head down.”

“No.” Dar suddenly had the urge to be up and moving, an animal reflex fed by nervous energy that made her thighs twitch and tighten.

The fear now gripped her guts, and she was afraid she was going to throw up. “Listen, maybe I had something that didn’t agree with me...”

“I’ll get a cab.” Bob stood decisively and walked to the curb, snapping his fingers expertly. He motioned the waiter over with his other hand and handed him a bill, then walked back over to where Dar was just standing up. “Let’s go. I’ll get you back to the hotel.”

“It’s all right—” Dar started to protest.

“Lady, your well-being is important enough to make Alastair P.

McLean say the word ‘fuck’ to me,” the sales exec told her firmly. “You are going to let me get you back to your room, and I’ll call in a doctor if I have to.”

It would have almost been funny if Dar hadn’t felt like her insides were clawing their way up, eager to erupt from every body orifice she had. “Okay.” She let herself be bundled into the cab and concentrated on taking deep breaths, trying not to throw up.

KERRY HUNG ON to the seat arms, one hand jerking free to tighten the seatbelt she’d prudently left fastened across her lap. Josh sat beside her, gasping as the plane bucked in the air, his fingers white with the strain of clutching the leather cushions.

“Folks,” the captain’s voice sounded strained, but calm, “I know it’s pretty scary back there right now, but you all just hang on, and we’ll be through this in a bit. Storm front caught us by surprise tonight, so just hold on tight and keep calm.”

Okay. Kerry’s heart was hammering so hard, she could barely hear the man’s voice. Her entire body was tense with fear, and she closed her eyes as the plane dropped unexpectedly, making her weightless for long, long seconds. Then the sensation stopped abruptly, and the plane lurched, tipping on its side and shuddering.

She had to focus on something, so she chose the most vivid thing in her life, clamping her jaw down tight as she pictured her lover’s face, trying to let the image fill her mind’s eye and push out the horror all around her.

The shaking went on for a lifetime. She heard things fall in the galley and the flight attendants cursing, then soft, faint echoes of some 26 Melissa Good kind of alarm behind the closed door of the cockpit.

The fear was almost choking her.

And then it stopped.

The violent shaking settled to the odd bump, and the labored sound of the engines evened out, still sounding rough but no longer giving the plane-sickening surges of speed and slacking.

Slowly, Kerry opened one eye, then the other. Her dinner was chatting with her tonsils, and she hoped like crazy that no one was going to ask her to either think or speak until it decided if it was going to go any higher or not.

She looked out the window, and her heart almost stopped again.

They were between two layers of roiling gray clouds, ducking between shooting streaks of lightning, a moment’s peace between two slices of hell.

DAR THANKED BOB, reassured him for the tenth time that she’d be all right, then closed the hotel room door and escaped into the peaceful silence within.

It was dark in the room, and she only turned on one small light before she trudged across the carpet and collapsed on the bed, her body curling instinctively into a ball as she lay there trying to figure out what the hell had happened to her. For the moment, she was merely sick to her stomach and had a pounding tension headache. The frantic anxiety had faded, leaving only a knot in her gut that simply refused to loosen.

“What in the hell was that?” Dar spoke aloud, her voice slightly hoarse. “What’s wrong with me?” She was scared, she admitted to herself, vague snippets from popular magazine articles about anxiety attacks flashing into her memory. Stories about people who couldn’t even leave their houses. “No.” Dar let her eyes close and she rested, forcing herself to breathe slowly and calmly. “That is not what’s wrong with me. I won’t put up with that.”

After a few moments of simply lying there, she pushed herself upright and got to her feet, glancing at the clock as she did so.

Instinctively, her hand went for her cell phone, and she opened it, dialing a number by heart and listening to the ring.

Voice mail. Dar’s brow creased, then she shrugged. “Guess you forgot to turn this back on, huh?” she spoke into the phone. “Listen, something weird just happened to me. I...” Dar hesitated. “I’d like to talk to you about it. Give me a call as soon as you get this, okay?” A pause. “Okay. Talk to you later.” She closed the phone, then went over to the desk and sat down, activating her laptop and telling it to make a network connection.

A few clicks later, the light from the laptop’s active matrix screen lit her features with a ghostly glow, her face still as her eyes flicked back and forth, reading data. Another click, then she entered Kerry’s Red Sky At Morning 27

flight number and hit enter.

En route—delayed.

“Delayed.” A thousand thoughts sped through Dar’s mind. “Why?”

Suddenly, her guts clenched again and she doubled over, grabbing the edge of the table as a wave of fear almost swamped her. It forced a tiny cry from her throat, and she took a deep breath and held it, forcing the emotions down as she struggled to regain control.

It was tough, but she managed to do it. After wiping the sweat off her fingers, she refreshed the screen, watching the words refuse to change. She looked at the clock and calculated times. Then she picked up her cell phone and dialed a number.

It rang. A voice picked up, relatively cheerful given the time of night. “I need status on one of your flights. It’s listed as delayed.” Dar spoke slowly and clearly. “I need to know why it’s delayed, and you’re going to tell me specifically, or I’ll go up your chain of command until I wake up someone high enough to come down to that center you’re sitting in and use a fire hose to make you give me the information.”

Pause. “Is that clear?”

Dead silence. “Yes, ma’am,” the voice finally spluttered. “Can I have the flight number?”

Dar gave it, aware of a shiver working its way through her.

There was quiet, save for the distinctive clicking of a keyboard.

“Okay...um...Ms...”

“Roberts,” Dar provided softly.

“Right...Okay, well, from what I can see here, that flight hit some bad weather over Virginia...um...”

“Specifically,” Dar reminded her.

The clerk sighed. “Ma’am—”

“I am the chief information officer of ILS. I can, if I have to, break into your reservations system and get the information myself, but it’s going to take longer, and I’m not in the mood. So just tell me,” Dar bit the words out, “what...is...the...problem?”

“It’s not—well, they’ve got some damage to the aircraft, but the captain thinks he can land it okay. The problem is they’ve got to go through another storm first. They’re trying to land in DC.”

Dar clamped an arm across her stomach and bit the inside of her lip. She had to take several breaths before she could speak. “Okay.

Thanks.”

“Ma’am?”

Dar just closed the phone, and let her head drop forward to rest against the laptop’s cool edge.

KERRY WRAPPED HER arms around the pillow she had in her lap and just kept her eyes closed as the plane rocked and yawed its way through the clouds. She could feel little shudders running through the 28 Melissa Good frame of the aircraft, and she managed to compose a tiny prayer, which she sent outward, asking for nothing more than to hear Dar’s voice again.

That was all.

She felt a touch on her hand, and she jerked her head up to see Josh looking back at her, his face white as a sheet and looking very young.

She managed a smile for him. “We’re gonna be okay.”

“I know you’re an old, married lady, but can I hang onto your hand?” Josh asked. “I’m so scared, I think I just saw my left testicle float past my earlobe.”

That forced a breath of laughter from Kerry, and she reached over, clasping his hand with her own. “Sure.”

“Folks...” The pilot’s voice drew their attention. “Here’s the situation. We got hit by lightning and lost one of our engines, but don’t get excited. We have three.”

“Easy for him to say,” Josh muttered.

“We were trying to make it out to Chicago, but there’s a really big front ahead of us in that direction,” the pilot went on. “Washington is already closed, so we’re gonna swing out east and try to get into New York.”

New York. Kerry hung onto that one tiny sliver of very good news.

New York was where Dar was, and right now she very, very much wanted to be there.

“But we’ve got to get through this storm cell to do that. It’s going to be a little scary, but you all hang on, and we’ll get you down all right.”

“A little?” Kerry felt like throwing up. “I wonder how long it’ll take?”

One of the flight attendants, harried, coffee-stained, and exhausted, heard her. “Thirty minutes.”

“Thanks.” Kerry gave her a grateful smile. “Have you ever been through this before?”

The attendant, a slim, middle-aged woman with salt-and-pepper hair and an interesting face, nodded briefly. “Twice. Every time, I swear I’m retiring.”

Kerry felt an uncomfortable pressure building in her ears, and she sighed, hugging her pillow with one arm and keeping a grip on Josh with the other. The plane began to rock violently again, and the murmur of voices, which had risen, fell again to silence. The cabin lights flickered off, leaving only the indirect lighting on, and the lightning outside brought lurid flashes of silver darting unexpectedly into the cabin.

“I hate this,” Josh whispered. “I’m quitting the minute I get on the ground, I swear. I’ll go into business with my Uncle Al back home.”

Glad of the distraction, Kerry licked her lips. “What does he do?”

“Pizza parlor,” Josh yelped, as a bang sounded and the plane tilted to one side. “Oh, my God.”

Red Sky At Morning 29

Kerry exhaled, keeping her eyes glued on the window. The clouds were so thick and dark outside, she could only see the edges when lightning flared within them, or when the faint lights from the plane’s leading wing edge broke free of the clinging mist.

It was like being inside a bag, rolling down a mountain. She couldn’t see anything, she had no sense of where the ground was...

Kerry felt like crying. The fear was so overwhelming, it made her want to scream, but she bit down on the inside of her lip and simply bore it—time running so slowly it was as if every minute was lasting an hour. Fifteen of them passed before something else changed.

The nose lifted, then plunged to one side, throwing the stewardesses. It hung at that angle for an eternity, then slowly straightened out and jerked downward. Kerry started shivering.

The plane kept rocking and bucking, so unstable it made her dizzy as her sense of balance fought to compensate for the movement.

Suddenly, she felt a difference in pressure, and she jumped, looking up and half expecting the panel to drop masks at her.

But it didn’t.

“Depressurized the cabin,” the flight attendant called to her seatmate. “We must be below 10,000 feet.”

“Is that good or bad?” Josh asked nervously.

No one answered him.

They all almost screamed when the engine sound changed and the plane slowed, its wallowing becoming far more apparent. Then another sound, a louder one, and Kerry just barely kept herself from total panic by realizing the sound was the landing gear extending. That meant—her frazzled mind clung to the rationale—that meant the noise before that was the air spoilers, slowing the plane for landing.

Right? She never remembered them being that loud, though.

The plane yawed and wobbled, the nose dipping, then the speed cutting back drastically. Outside, she could still only see clouds. She stared at them, willing them to part and show her something other than muddy darkness around the plane. “C’mon...c’mon...”

Lower and lower, until Kerry was sure they were going to crash.

She closed her eyes and thought of Dar and fiercely told herself that when she got to heaven—because God damn it, that’s where she was going—she’d be so careful to watch over Dar, and make sure she was never alone.

She bowed her head.

Then the darkness on the other side of the window dissolved—into rain, and lashing wind, and the lights of a big city, flashing by quickly as the big plane stumbled and rocked its way onto the runway, landing to one side, bouncing, then landing again, this time solidly on all of its wheels.

The engines reversed, and the blur of the lights turned into the solid outlines of a terminal, then exploded into color as a cadre of 30 Melissa Good emergency vehicles whizzed around them, circling the plane as it limped its way toward the buildings.

Kerry felt all the tension rush out of her, leaving her limp in her seat and completely exhausted. Not even the rattle of sleet against the window stirred her as she simply closed her eyes and gave a quiet, heartfelt thanks.

The plane rocked to a halt. Kerry reached for her cell phone.

IT WAS HYPNOTIC. Dar stayed crouched over her laptop, continually hitting the refresh button and attempting to change the indicator on the page by sheer force of will. “Change, damn you,” she whispered under her breath, slamming the button on the mouse for the thousandth time.

And it did. The page redrew, and the Delayed status morphed before her startled eyes to Arrived—Newark.

“Newark.” Dar blinked. She clicked on it again and watched the same results occur. Again. Same thing. Her shoulder muscles relaxed and she slumped over the desk. Then she sucked in a breath and closed her hand around the cell phone and started to lift it. It rang as she did so, causing her whole body to jerk in shocked surprise. The cell phone went flying and Dar dove after it, tripping over the laptop’s cable and sprawling across the carpet in an undignified tumble.

Her head struck the bedside table and she yelped, but her fingers found the buzzing phone and she managed to get it open and to her ear without further injury. “Yeah?”

“Sweetheart, you have no idea what I’ve just been through.”

Dar rolled onto her back and sucked the voice in, every muscle going completely slack in utter relief. “Uh?”

Kerry sighed into the phone. “We just landed. We hit this huge storm, and the plane was rocking all over the place, and we lost an engine, and I think my stomach’s going to resign and find a better job somewhere else after that ride down.”

Dar placed a hand over her own belly and blinked. “Yeah. I know what you mean,” she murmured softly into the phone. “Glad you’re okay.”

“I’ve never been so scared in my life.” Kerry’s voice was shaking.

“I bet,” Dar murmured. “I bet it felt like your heart was coming out your ears.” She rubbed one of hers, then let the hand fall to the carpet limply.

“Yeah,” Kerry sighed. “I’m still shaking.”

Dar lifted the errant paw again and watched it tremble. “Hmm.”

She let it drop with a thump. “Ow.”

“What’s wrong?” Kerry asked. “We’re stuck in here for a few minutes. They’re trying to get the jetway working. It’s all iced, I think.”

“I bumped my head,” Dar told her. “So, you’re in New Jersey?” She Red Sky At Morning 31

had hardly a notion of what she was saying, merely pushing words out to fill the quiet. “You didn’t get hurt or anything, did you?”

“No.” Kerry sighed. “Just scared. I want off this airplane; and I hope I am stuck overnight, because let me tell you—I’m not anxious to get on another one of them right now.”

“Mm...yeah. I can understand that. Boy,” Dar exhaled, “wish I’d been there with you.”

Kerry was very quiet for a moment, and when she did start speaking, there was a distinct catch in her voice. “I wish you were, too.

Just before we landed, I...” Kerry stopped, then went on. “I was so scared.”

Dar rolled onto her side and curled her hands around the phone, wanting to reach right through it. Maybe she could squeeze through if she really tried hard. “Sorry you had such a rotten time, Ker. Hang in there, okay? I’ll come get you.”

A shaky sigh answered her. “You okay? You sound kinda washed out.”

Like a limp dishrag. Dar now had an excellent insight into that hoary old saying. “I’m fine, just tired; and I think this damn New York food knocked my system for a loop.”

“Oh. Where’d you end...” Kerry paused. “They got the door open; I need to get out of here. Sweetie, I’ll give you a call back as soon as I figure out where I am.”

“Sure. Talk to you soon,” Dar answered. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Kerry’s voice, finally, sounded a smile at her. “I can’t wait to see you.”

Dar let the phone drop onto the carpet and just lay there for a moment. Then she rolled to her feet and grabbed the room phone in one hand and her sneakers with the other. The operator came on. “I need to go to the airport.”

“Which airport, ma’am?”

“The one in New Jersey.”

“Newark?”

Dar spared the receiver a disgusted look. “Is that in New Jersey?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Then that’s the one.” Dar got her sneaker on and was tugging the laces one-handed. “I need to go now.”

“Ma’am, there are no planes leaving at this time of night. We’d have to call for a special driver.”

Dar sucked in a breath and counted to ten. “Then call one,” she ground out. “Now.”

THE AIRPORT WAS in chaos. Kerry eased to one side of the jetway and pressed her back against the wall, letting the flow of people from the plane push past her. The storm had closed a lot of air routes, and the 32 Melissa Good place was packed with stranded, angry travelers.

Her fellow travelers clustered around an airline representative.

Most of them were upset and still shaken, and the voices Kerry heard were strident and loud.

Her own knees were shaking. She trudged over and sat down in the one vacant seat near the gate podium, letting her briefcase drop between her feet as she rested her elbows on her thighs. She was sure everyone was frantic to get rerouted or obtain free accommodations or demand compensation from the airline.

Kerry didn’t need any of that. She was simply glad to be on the ground in one piece. She folded her hands together and leaned her head against them, taking a moment for a few whispered words of gratitude to the Lord who had surely been watching over her.

A hand on her shoulder made her jerk and look up. “Oh.” She straightened as an airline rep knelt next to her. “Hi.”

“Are you all right, ma’am?” the woman asked kindly. “I know you had a rough trip in.”

Kerry glanced behind her, where their plane was now surrounded by emergency vehicles and flashing lights. “You could say that.” She managed a smile. “I’m just waiting for the crush to disperse over there.”

Her eyes went to the crowd around the other representatives.

The woman patted Kerry’s briefcase, glancing at the small platinum tag attached to the case buckle, then back up at Kerry. “Why don’t you come with me, and we’ll get you taken care of,” she suggested casually.

In the maelstrom inside the airport, with all the upset people and canceled flights, the last thing Kerry would have thought of would have been to claim privilege. However, since it was being offered, she wasn’t about to turn it down. “Sure. I’d love that.” She stood and picked up the case, following the rep as she eased through the crowd and worked her way past the other irate customers.

Kerry caught sight of Josh just as she cleared the crowd. He was waiting his turn rather forlornly, and he gave her a weak smile as their eyes met. “Looks like we’re getting floor space,” he commented. “No flights out until tomorrow.”

“I wasn’t in the mood to be on another one anyway,” Kerry admitted. “Chicago can wait.”

“Not for me.” Josh shook his head. “I meant it. I’m going home.”

Kerry fished in her pocket and pulled out one of her business cards, which she handed to him. “If you really decide to quit, give me a call.”

He glanced at the card, then looked more closely at the title, his eyebrows jerking up in a way that was comical. His eyes widened and he looked back at her. Kerry winked at him, gave him a pat on the side, then turned and continued after the fidgeting attendant.

“Nice-looking guy,” the attendant commented.

“Yeah,” Kerry agreed, distracted by the speakers echoing loudly around them.

Red Sky At Morning 33

“Did you want to bring him along? We could squeeze him in with you if you—”

“Huh?” Kerry’s head snapped back, realizing what the woman was saying. “Oh, um, no. No, thanks.” She ran a hand through her hair.

“He’s not my type.”

“Oh.” The woman glanced behind them. “Maybe I’ll go back and get him later then.” She gave Kerry a wicked grin. “If you don’t mind.”

Kerry nodded amusedly. “Be my guest.”

They ducked down a small, unmarked hallway, and the woman unlocked a plain door with her keycard, pulling it open and allowing a gust of cool, brandy-scented air to hit Kerry in the face. “Go on in and relax.”

Kerry stepped inside the Platinum Fliers Club door and was glad to hear it close behind her. She trudged to the courtesy desk and set her briefcase down, pulling out her wallet and handing her club card to the woman behind the desk. It was quiet inside the club, though many travelers were already taking sanctuary there, and she could hear the faint clink of glasses from the bar and a soft murmur of voices around the bank of modem-jack equipped cubes.

“Thank you, Ms. Stuart.” The woman gazed kindly at her. “Were you on the flight to Chicago?”

Kerry nodded.

“Would you like a drink?”

Kerry nodded again.

“C’mon.” The woman rose and took her briefcase, motioning her to follow. “You going to need a hotel room?”

“No.” Kerry found herself smiling. “Someone’s picking me up.”

The urge, at that moment, to see Dar’s face was so overwhelming, it almost made her cry. “But thanks for the offer.”

“No problem.’ The agent smiled at her. “You’re lucky you know someone in town. Hotels around the airport are not much fun to stay in.”

Kerry rubbed her hands, which had finally stopped shaking. “I certainly am lucky,” she agreed. “You think the storm will last ’til tomorrow?”

The woman led her to a nice, comfortable looking chair. “No, don’t worry. It’ll be nice weather tomorrow. You’ll get your flight out, no problem.”

Kerry sat down and sighed, having a flashback to her younger days wishing for snow to close school. “Okay. Thanks.”

DAR RESISTED THE growing urge to just tell the driver to shut up.

He wasn’t a bad sort, but he’d started talking to her the minute she’d gotten into the Lincoln, and all her attempts at not providing any conversational feedback had gone completely unheeded.

34 Melissa Good

“You been here before?”

“Yes.” Dar leaned her head against the glass window and watched the dark buildings go by.

“You like New York?”

“No.”

“Aw, really? Hey, it’s not so bad. People say stuff about the crime and stuff like that, but it’s really a great place.” The driver got into a groove. “We got lots of stuff to see; you been to the Statue of Liberty?”

“Yes.”

“See? That’s a great place, and Ellis Island, too. You been out there since they redone it?”

“No.”

“You should go. It’s great stuff. You been to the Empire State Building?”

“Yes.”

“That’s some place, huh?”

“It’s got rats.”

“Huh?” The driver turned to look at her, despite the fact that they were driving over a very large bridge.

“Rats.” Dar muttered. “They eat the damn cables.” She willed the car to move faster.

“Oh, well, y’know, we got them all over,” the driver apologized.

“They live here too, y’know?” He turned around and weaved his way through the traffic. After a moment of blessed, pensive silence, he spoke up again. “You an exterminator?”

Dar looked at the back of his head, willing it to explode. “No.”

“Oh. I figured maybe you were, since you knew about them rats,”

the driver commented. “My cousin Vinnie’s an exterminator. They make good money, y’know?”

The traffic was thinning out now, and they made better time. Dar saw a sign for the Newark airport, and she felt her pulse pick up. Before she’d left, she’d swallowed a few aspirin to try and kill the headache Kerry’s scare had given her, but the back of her head still throbbed.

The car pulled up to the terminal entrance a minute later, and she gladly got out, pulling up the zipper on her leather jacket. She leaned on the window and handed the driver the fare, giving him a dour stare in the bargain. “Thanks.”

“No problem! NO problem.” The man grinned at her. “Hey, you goin’ back to the city?” He asked. “You ain’t got no luggage, so I figure you gotta be picking somebody up, right? You want me to wait for you?”

Dar glanced around, gauging the lateness of the hour against the annoying nature of her friend the driver. “Yeah, all right,” she decided.

“Wait here.” She turned and headed for the terminal, breaking into a jog as she dodged the stream of people heading in the opposite direction.

The terminal felt overheated. Dar unzipped her jacket the minute Red Sky At Morning 35

she cleared the doors and plowed through the crowd inside, heading for the security gate in front of the terminal she knew Kerry had to be in.

Impatiently, she dropped her cell phone and pager into the small bucket, then walked through the metal detector as the guard waved her casually by.

She grabbed the electronics and moved on, pausing in the center of the terminal and looking around in mild dismay. It was a zoo. There were people piled everywhere, and angry, tired faces seemed to fill every available space. Dar pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open, then closed it again as a thought occurred to her.

She turned on her heel and headed toward a bank of elevators.

KERRY CURLED HERSELF up into a ball in the comfortable leather chair. She had one hand clasped around a glass of cognac, and she sipped slowly from it as the tension in her body very gradually unwound. All around her were trapped travelers, most on cell phones, none of them happy people.

They were all trying desperately to get somewhere else, and it felt odd to know that she wanted nothing more than to stay right where she was. She took another swallow of the good cognac, feeling the light buzz starting as she sat quietly and let the chaos in the room fade a little.

How long would it take Dar to get to the airport? Kerry tried to think about how far the city was, and how bad the weather seemed. She resigned herself to the wait, curling up a little bit more as the door opened and more disgruntled travelers entered.

Would Dar be able to find her? Kerry set her glass down and opened her cell, then cursed softly as the battery indicator bleeped reproachfully at her and the device shut down. “Damn it.” She tapped the cell against her chin, then put it back in its case. “Guess I’ll wait another fifteen, then go see if I can find her.”

The lights flickered briefly, then steadied, causing a momentary hush in the room before the conversation picked back up again, not without wary looks toward the ceiling.

“Great.” Kerry muttered. “Just make it harder, why don’t you?”

She was facing away from the entrance to the club, looking out the plate-glass windows at the busy terminal on the level below. Suddenly her senses prickled and she felt a tingling sensation between her shoulder blades. Instinctively, she turned in her chair and looked up, startled at the sudden feeling.

And there was Dar, her tall frame outlined in leather and denim, walking toward her through the crowd. Kerry put down her glass and untangled herself, nearly tripping as she stood up and reached for Dar’s already outstretched arms. “Oof.” Off balance, she landed in an embrace that fairly lifted her off her feet anyway. “Oh, boy, am I glad to 36 Melissa Good see you.”

Dar simply hugged her in silence.

“They just brought my bag up,” Kerry murmured.

“So I see.” Dar eyed the leather overnighter. She sniffed curiously.

“What was in the glass?”

Kerry licked her lips. “Cognac,” she admitted. “I was tied up in knots from that damn landing.”

Dar rubbed her back. “Did it work?”

“No.” Kerry peeked up. “But you did. I feel great now.” She smiled.

“Thanks for coming after me. I realized after we hung up I could have just taken a cab to your hotel.” She reluctantly released Dar. “Then I realized you would never know where I was and tried to call you back, but my cell’s dead”

“Bah.” Dar picked up Kerry’s bag. “And had me miss a ride with a prize New York cab driver? C’mon.” She put her arm over Kerry’s shoulders as Kerry retrieved her briefcase. “Let’s get out of here.”

Kerry blew out a breath. “I guess I can keep tabs on the flights from the hotel, right? So I know when I have to come back here.”

Dar glanced at her. “Uh-huh. Let’s worry about that later.” She steered Kerry toward the door, ignoring the envious looks from those obviously destined to spend the night right where they were.

THE STORM HAD settled in overhead by the time they pushed the doors open to the outside of the airport, and Dar blinked as wind driven rain dusted her face. She tugged her zipper up a little and then shaded her eyes from the rain, peering around for her cabbie friend. “Figures.”

“What?” Kerry was buttoning her own jacket. “Here, I can get that.” She reached for her overnighter, only to find it held up out of her reach. “Dar!”

“Leave it.” Dar sighed, watching the jam-up of cars on the ramp, a solid block of traffic honking and blaring their horns. “Lost our cab.”

Kerry glanced around. “Well…” She peered down the slope nearby.

“Hey, there’s a cab stand down there. Let’s go for it.”

Dar abandoned searching and resigned herself to a wet walk, putting her arm around Kerry as they emerged from the overhang, and the cold rain spattered over them.

They left the crowd behind quickly, no one else apparently willing to brave the weather in return for a shorter wait for a ride. The slope led them down toward a set of bus shelters, where a broken down city bus was standing with several people around it.

“Yeesh.” Kerry turned her collar up. The combination of the cognac and her recent experience had her knees feeling a little unsteady, and the long slope downward didn’t make that any better. She wrapped her arms around Dar for support and sighed.

“Did you get dinner on the plane?” Dar asked.

Red Sky At Morning 37

“No.” Kerry paused. “Wait, yes I did,” she corrected herself. “But even if I hadn’t, this headache’s making me sick to my stomach. I’d settle for a cup of hot milk and you.” She wiped the rain out of her eyes.

“How did your dinner with what’s-his-name go?”

Dar guided them both around a group of men standing under the bus shelter, catching a whiff of long stale urine and marijuana coming from it as they passed. “Nice.”

“What?” Kerry eyed her in puzzled bemusement. “After all that doubting?”

“Um…dinner was fine.” Dar cleared her throat. “We grabbed some sandwiches. He wanted to take me some place underground but I wasn’t going for that.” She hesitated. “Didn’t last long.”

“I bet.” Kerry glanced around at their darkened surroundings and began to regret not waiting up at the top of the ramp. The cab station, which had seemed so close from up there, now was across a dark stretch of underpass and the rain had started to come down harder. “This wasn’t the best idea, apparently.”

“Eh.” Dar was glad enough to change the subject. “I’ll take your cup of milk and raise you a blob of chocolate syrup in it.”

Her partner chuckled a bit, but then a soft sound behind them made Kerry glance back. Of the group near the bus, two had separated, and were strolling casually behind them, their faces hidden in hoods they had up against the weather.

She looked ahead again, then she looked up at Dar. Her partner was walking with her eyes on the ground in front of them, a faintly troubled expression on her face. “Dar?”

“Mm?”

“Is it totally WASPy for me to think that just because two guys are following us, we could be in trouble? Or has it just been that bad a day?”

Dar looked behind them. “Maybe they’re heading for the cab stand too,” she reasoned. “Bus’s broke down.”

“Mm.”

Dar abruptly changed direction, taking them into the street as she headed across it toward the sidewalk on the other side of the road. She felt her heartbeat increase as she heard footsteps on the tarmac behind them, and felt a lump in her throat as she realized her lover’s instincts were probably correct. “Got your cell?”

“Batteries dead,” Kerry muttered back. “They following us?”

“Yes.”

“Got yours?”

“Yeah, but it’s in my pocket can you…”

“Hey, babes, where ya going?”

“Shit.” Kerry felt an unreasoning wave of anxiety. “Let me get your phone and I’ll call 911.”

Dar handed her the overnight bag as she released her arm and 38 Melissa Good started to turn. “Hold this. Let me see what the hell these idiots want.”

She slowed and swiveled her body, as the two men following them came up behind them. “What do you want?”

“Hey, that any way to talk to a man?” the nearer one said. “Chill your jets, baby.” He had his hands in his jacket pockets and now one emerged with a dark solid block in it. “Now you and little blondie just dump your wallets on the ground, quick!”

The other man got between them, and the crowd left around the bus, blocking their view. “That’s right. Hurry up! We ain’t got time to mess around here!”

Kerry’s heart almost stopped as she recognized the shape of a gun pointed at Dar’s chest. She took a breath to stammer a reply and reached for her wallet, but froze when Dar stepped in front of her and squared her shoulders defiantly. “Dar!”

“What the hell do you think you’re going to do with that, you little jackass.” Dar answered him. “You think you’re gonna shoot me? You’re not near a man enough to do that.”

“Hey!” The gun wielder shoved the weapon forward. “Shut the fuck up! Put your wallet down or I’m gonna kill you, you stupid bitch!”

“Dar.” Kerry felt a sense of panic overwhelm her again. “For the love of God, please, just give him the damn money. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Dar mentally knew Kerry was right, but her nerves were close to snapping after the long day and she took a step toward the robber instead. “Yeah?” She growled. “C’mere, asshole. I’ve had a bad day and you’re gonna be the bright spot at the end of it.” She gently pushed Kerry behind her as she made her choice and started moving, heading for the robber and keeping her eyes fixed on the gun.

She could feel a hot bolt of fear hit her in the guts, and it almost made her waver, but the robber was raising the gun and now she was out of time.

She launched into an attack, committing herself to the motion as she saw the other man start to run forward, then hesitate as she set her body and whipped her leg around in a roundhouse kick just as the man with the gun went to pull the trigger.

“Hey!”

Her foot struck the weapon as it fired, and it spun out of his hand to land past where Kerry was standing. Dar didn’t wait for him to react.

She back kicked him as she continued around in a circle, then straightened and reached for his arms as he reeled, grabbing him and turning to throw him over her shoulder to the ground.

Kerry broke out of her frozen fear and ran over to the gun, kicking it as hard as she could and sending it spinning away from them over the edge of the overpass where it skipped down out of sight. She turned to find the two men running away, back toward the bus, and a pair of headlights headed straight for them. Then Dar’s arms enfolded her and Red Sky At Morning 39

they were on the side of the road, safe for the moment, though her heart was beating so fast she was lightheaded. “Oh my God.”

“That’s it.” Dar sounded a bit out of breath herself. “I’m taking today off the damn calendar.” She glared past Kerry at the oncoming car. “Stupid city. Stupid bastards. Stupid…”

The car pulled even with her, and the sheets of rain parted to reveal a cab. “Hey! There you are!” The cabbie stuck his head out of his window. “I was lookin for ya! They made me get off the ramp, you know?” He looked around. “You shouldn’ta come down here, y’know?

It’s dangerous.’

“Thanks.” Dar opened the back door and threw Kerry’s bag in, then ushered her partner in after it. “Think you can get us back to my hotel without anything else happening?”

The cabbie rolled his window up and gave them a dubious look in the mirror. “I dunno, lady. It’s New York, y’know?”

“Yeah, I know.”

He put the car in gear. “You wanna stop by the corner there at the liquor store?”

“No.”

“You sure? You look like you could use a drink.”

“They probably don’t sell milk.” Dar propped her head up on one hand as Kerry curled herself up next to her and buried her face against Dar’s chest. “Thanks anyway.”

The cabbie looked at her in the mirror again, but just shook his head instead of answering and got down to the business of driving.

Dar exhaled, and rested her cheek against Kerry’s damp hair. “You okay?”

“No, I suck,” Kerry replied. “But if I can stay like this until we get to the hotel, I might be able to get up to the room without freaking out.”

She slowly let out a long breath. “Uuuuhhhhggggggh.” She felt Dar give her a kiss on the head and for a minute her world narrowed down to the sound of her lover’s heartbeat as she let the blare of horns and the sound of the rain fade out.

Dar felt her tension ease as Kerry relaxed against her. She pushed the wet hair from her eyes and stared unseeing at the passing lights, hoping the rest of the night would hold far more comfort and far less excitement.

What was it about her life anyway? Couldn’t she even have a damn business meeting go on without six kinds of calamity happening? “Hey Ker?”“Mm?”

“You think I attract trouble?”

Kerry was silent for a long moment. “Well,” she finally said. “You attracted me.”

“Ah.” Dar grunted softly. “Good point.”

“I can’t even imagine what that says about what I attract.”

40 Melissa Good

“Hey!”

They both chuckled tiredly, and sat back to watch the city go by.

“THANKS.” DAR SCRIBBLED her name on the room service bill, then shooed the waiter out, shutting the heavy door behind him. She turned and regarded Kerry in silence for a moment, and then walked over to the tray on the table. Kerry was curled up in one of the leather chairs, propping up her head with one hand as she gazed out the windows at the city lights.

“Ker?” Dar picked up a cup of hot chocolate and walked over to her, holding it out invitingly.

“Mm...thanks.” Kerry accepted it, turning in the chair to face Dar as she sat down next to her. “I think my insides have stopped shaking, at least.” She raked her fingers through her hair and sighed. “God, I’ve never been so scared in my life, Dar. What a night.”

“I’ve had a couple of moments in the air, but nothing like that,” Dar said. “Makes you glad to be on the ground though.”

Kerry took a sip of her chocolate, licking her lips free of the foamy topping. “Boy, does it ever.”

Dar pulled her knees up and circled them with one arm, sipping on the glass of milk she held in her free hand. “Yeah. I...” She hesitated, and then shook her head. “Been a long day for both of us, huh?”

“Between my flight and you beating off armed robbers? Yeah.”

Kerry eyed her partner. “Should we call the police?”

Dar just looked at her.

“Yeah, I know. Two guys in hoods, with a gun, and you beat them up and made them run away. We’ll be at the station until tomorrow morning.” Kerry sighed, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. “You scared the hell out of me.”

“If we’d have gave him our wallets, we’d have had to walk back to this God damned hotel and I just was not in the mood,” Dar replied.

“Stupid stockholders, pain in the ass New York salesmen, my…” She paused. “Too long of a damn day.”

Kerry watched her over the rim of her cup. “I picked up my voice mail. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?” she said, changing the subject. “You sounded weird.”

Dar got up and walked over to the table, selecting a shrimp chip and scooping up some crab dip with it. She put it into her mouth and chewed slowly, aware of the curious eyes on her back. Her attack of nerves had now taken on another, even stranger cast, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to talk about it. “Ah...I just had a strange idea and I wanted to run it by you,” she answered casually. “Nothing important.”

There was a rustle of fabric and leather, then the soft sounds of bare feet on carpet before a warm hand touched her back. Taking a breath, Dar turned and faced Kerry.

Red Sky At Morning 41

“Well...it’s important enough for you to lie to me about it,” Kerry stated with quiet bluntness. “And I, um...don’t think you’ve ever done that to me before.” She laid both hands against Dar’s stomach and leaned into her. “Honey, don’t do this to me right now. I can’t handle it.” She said. “Just tell me. Was it that guy? Did something happen?”

“What guy?” Dar frowned. “Oh. Bob? No.”

Kerry lifted her head and peered up at her.

Dar inhaled sharply, responding to the look in Kerry’s eyes. “It’s not...what you think. I just...right before I called you, I had this...this fit,” she said. “It was like I was going nuts or something.”

Kerry’s expression altered into one of mild alarm. “A fit?”

Upset, Dar sat down on the arm of the nearby chair and ran her hand through her hair. “It was like a..a panic attack or...but I’ve never had that before, and I know I’m not...”

Kerry slid between her lover’s knees and let her forearms rest on Dar’s shoulders. “Were you scared?”

Dar nodded unhappily. “I was totally freaking out,” she said.

“Right in the middle of dinner with Bob. He drove me back here, must have thought I was losing my mind.”

“Wow,” Kerry murmured. “That’s really not like you.” She leaned against her partner as she felt Dar’s shoulders tense.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Dar put her hands on Kerry’s hips. “So I called you, but when you didn’t pick up I went to check your flight and saw you were delayed.”

“Did you know why?”

Dar nodded. “I called and bullied the airline into telling me,” she admitted. “I just felt like there was something wrong and frankly it got my mind off my going crazy.”

“You felt like there was something wrong…you mean, with me?”

Dar nodded, then frowned. “That sounds weird. I don’t mean…hell, I don’t know what I mean.”

Kerry took out her cell phone and examined the memory. Her brow creased. “When did it happen?” she asked suddenly. “Do you remember what time? When you got…when you freaked out?”

“Um...after eight, I guess. Quarter after, something like that.” Dar shrugged.

“Quarter after?” Kerry said. “Quarter after eight?”

“Yeah.” Dar nodded. “Why?”

Kerry’s gaze went inward for a long moment. “That’s just the time the plane got into trouble,” she murmured. “And I was scared poopless.” She looked up into Dar’s eyes, searching them. “Did you know?”

Dar frowned. “Kerry, I’m not a psychic,” she protested. “I’m not even a good guesser.”

“No, I know.” Kerry leaned her forehead against her lover’s. “It’s just a very strange coincidence, don’t you think? I mean, there I am, up 42 Melissa Good in an airplane, nearly out of my mind I’m so scared, and thinking about you, and here you are...”

“Urmf,” Dar grunted. “That is weird.” She considered in silence for a bit. “Hell, I’d rather think it was that than I was going nuts, though,”

she admitted. “I thought maybe I was starting to lose it.”

Kerry rubbed her thumb along Dar’s scalp, just behind her ear.

“Have you ever had a panic attack?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so. You’re just not the type.” Kerry managed a chuckle. “Though I know you’ve been a little stressed lately.”

“Mm.” Dar circled Kerry’s waist with both arms and pulled her close.

“Now, I’ll admit to having several panic attacks on that plane. All I could think of was never seeing you again,” Kerry whispered into her ear. “And I wasn’t nearly ready for that.” She put her head down on Dar’s shoulder, a perceptible catch in her voice on the last few words. “I wasn’t near as worried about dying as I was about leaving you.”

“Ah, Ker.” Dar could feel the shaking in her partner’s body, and she sat back, pulling Kerry into her lap. “Easy, babe. I’m here.”

Dar’s nerves had settled now that she had an odd, though infinitely preferable alternative to her recent fears. She dismissed the concern and concentrated on soothing Kerry, rubbing her back with gentle fingers.

“Oh, sweetheart,” she murmured, feeling the jerks as Kerry started crying. “It’s okay.”

Kerry buried her face against Dar’s shoulder and simply let it all out as Dar rocked them both in a careful rhythm. “Oh my God, that so sucked.” She exhaled. “Ugh.”

“Yeah, I know.” Dar gave her a hug. “Just let it go.”

She finally ended up with a headache but a lot less stress wound up in her body, and she rested against Dar for a while after the tears had dried. “Wow,” she sniffled. “Sorry. I got you wet.”

“No problem.” Dar gave her a kiss on the forehead. “I’m glad I was here for you. Okay now?” She rubbed the back of Kerry’s neck and felt the tension relax under her fingers as Kerry let her head fall to rest against Dar’s shoulder.

“Yeah, now.” Kerry circled Dar with both arms and hugged her.

“Maybe I’ll get lucky and that storm’ll never stop.”

Dar returned the hug, her eyes studying the outside darkness thoughtfully. “Want me to go instead?” she offered. “I’m sure it’ll just make their damn Thanksgiving having me show up there.”

For a long moment, Kerry didn’t answer. Then she drew in a deep breath and let it out. “No,” she said. “It’s my job, Dar. I’ll take care of it.”

Dar gave her a gentle pat on the side. “Well, bad as it was, at least you ended up here. Wanna watch the meeting and critique me again?”

“Sure.” But Kerry showed no signs of wanting to move out of Dar’s Red Sky At Morning 43

arms, and they nestled quietly together with just the sound of the ticking wall clock behind them, as the rain continued to beat on the window outside.

KERRY LEANED BACK against the wall, letting the fragrant steam fill her lungs. One thing about the Marriott, she acknowledged; they always had nice hot showers. She let the pounding spray thrum along her back, easing the headache she still had even after a good night’s sleep.

In Dar’s presence.

Kerry exhaled. She’d called the airport and found that the airways were open again. A flight was available for her at noon. She’d booked it, but with a reluctant heart and a sense of trepidation she tried hard to hide from her lover.

You’re not a baby, stop acting like one, she told herself sternly, picking up Dar’s tube of body wash and squeezing some into her hand.

A blast of cool air made her pause, then smile as Dar joined her in the shower. The clouds of steam parted and writhed around the tall, tanned form, and instead of putting the gel on herself, Kerry applied it to her showermate. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Dar amiably reciprocated, scrubbing the back of Kerry’s shoulders. “Weather’s cleared.”

Kerry swallowed. “I know.” She drew in a breath. “I...um...booked a noon flight out to Chicago,” she said. “Hope I have better luck than I did last night.”

Hands cupped her face and she had to look up to meet pale blue eyes peering down at her through the mist, and she felt as though Dar could see right through her, to the fear she was holding inside, and it made her feel a little ashamed of herself.

For heaven’s sake, Kerrison. It’s just a damn airplane, her conscience chided her. You’ve been on dozens of them and that was the first time anything had ever happened, so what the hell’s the problem with you?

Damn nightmares. Kerry exhaled, swallowing a sudden lump in her throat.

“You don’t sound thrilled,” Dar commented.

“I’m not,” Kerry admitted softly. She hesitated a long moment, and hated herself for the weakness. “Dar, can I ask you a favor? As my boss?”

Dar looked down at herself, then at Kerry. She smiled.

“I’m serious.”

“Sure,” Dar answered.

“You know I never ask you to butt in.”

“You never do.”

Kerry studied the angular profile watching her, knowing the words would be a disappointment. “I’m asking,” she said. “Can you fix it so I 44 Melissa Good don’t have to go out there?”

Dar considered the request very seriously. The situation needed resolution and they were out of time for temporary patches. Alastair even knew about it, and she’d committed to resolving the problem in front of him, and Bob. What was it she’d said, that her people expected to have to travel? She looked down into Kerry’s eyes and saw the shame there, and the awareness of what she was asking.

And lurking in the shadows, a lingering fear. “Yes, I can fix it,” Dar replied easily. “Just leave it to me.” She took Kerry’s hands and squeezed them. “You’ll come home on my flight tonight.”

Kerry leaned against her, almost dizzy with relief and more than a touch of guilt. “I’m sorry.”

Dar simply embraced her. “Don’t worry about it.” And in a strange sort of way, she felt glad that Kerry could come to her, knowing what she was asking, and still ask it, knowing that Dar would take care of it for her and not think the less of her for asking. “I’ll work it out.”

“I know it sounds stupid,” Kerry muttered. “I feel stupid even asking but I just…my guts are in knots from what happened last night and I need to chill out from that.”

It was a curious crossing of their professional and personal lives, and Dar recognized that. They’d both worked hard to keep those two parts separate, and she knew this was the first time Kerry had knowingly crossed that line with her.

Scary, but gratifying, as they took an unexpected fork in the road they were traveling together. “No problem, hon.” Dar leaned over and kissed her. “Now, where were we?” She turned the shower up a little.

“C’mere.”

Still feeling a little ashamed, Kerry set her troubles aside in the meantime as she fit her body to Dar’s under the driving spray, taking solace in her partner’s familiar touch. “At least we’ll get our Thanksgiving.”

“Mm.” Dar nibbled the edge of her ear. “I can already taste those taters.”

“Dar!”

“Yum.”