Storm Surge - Part 2

Chapter Seventeen

KERRY BOARDED THE subway train with Andrew right behind her, her hands pushed into the front pocket of her hastily donned hoodie. One hand clutched the optic device as she was shepherded to a seat by her tall companion.

"This is a crazy thing." Andrew sat down next to her in the half full train.

"It is." Kerry was aware of every minute ticking by. "But Scuzzy said it would be faster to do this, than try to drive down there with everything going on. I trust her to know New York."

"Some right." Andrew acknowledged. "Lots of traffic now up there."

"Lots." Kerry sat back, feeling utterly exhausted. Part of that was the drug she was taking for her ribs she knew, but there was a bone deep tired along with it she hadn't felt for a long time. "You know, I said to Dar I was glad we were doing this."

"Not so glad now?" Andrew asked, watching her from the corner or his eye. "You don't look so hot."

"I don't feel so hot," Kerry admitted. "I think besides my ribs I'm coming down with something. I've got that ache all over feeling." She exhaled carefully. "Just my luck."

Andrew patted her shoulder. "Hang in there, kumquat. This here thing's about done ah think."

"I'll be glad to get on that darn airplane, that's for sure," Kerry agreed. "Bet you will too."

Andrew let his big hands rest on his knees. "That is a true thing. Place here's got some of the same things I saw some places I been." He continued in a reflective tone, "a lot of fussing with folks haids. Mad. Crazy. Sad. Hating."

"You mean places you've been deployed?" Kerry asked, after a pause.

"Yeap."

The train rattled through the tunnel, and pulled into a station. A few people got off, a lot of people got on. Most were quiet, as they settled in seats, or took hold of the bars. Andrew scanned them, and then he remained seated, pulling his boots in a little to keep them from tripping anyone.

Kerry checked her watch, and then shook her head.

"WELL, DAR, WE knew it would be down to the wire but--"

"Sh." Dar staked out a spot on the floor behind where Kannan and Shaun were feverishly working. "Don't get me wrong," She paused and looked over her shoulder, "I am deeply grateful to all of you for doing this, but if we don't get finished, it's not gonna mean much."

"Sure." Chuck found a spot near the wall. "Mind if we watch?" He indicated his companions; two men in khakis with tucked in short sleeve shirts and actual, real pocket protectors. They had glasses, and that intense look that rocket scientists have.

"No." Dar plugged her laptop into the router and started it up. "Sit down, it'll be a while." It was already stuffy inside the room without the extra people in it, and she felt the sweat gather under her jumpsuit adding to an already significant discomfort. "Hell."

"Dar?" Mark's voice erupted near her ear. "I've got good uplinks--you want me to--what do you want me to do up here?"

"Hang on." Dar unzipped her jumpsuit and pulled it off her arms and shoulders, exposing her tank top covered upper body to the sluggish air. She tied the sleeves off around her waist and retrieved the mic. "All right, listen. We're taking the whole stream from down there so when it starts up I'm going to have to parse it by IP and set up sub interfaces to route it."

There was a long moment's silence. "You're going to do that on the fly, boss?"

"Do you have another suggestion? Cough it up."

"Um."

"Aside from not trying this at all?" Dar exhaled. "I just hope we've got existing gateways to where this stuff's going." She scrubbed the hair out of her eyes with one hand.

"Wow." Mark said, after another long pause. "You want me to--"

"Capture everything so we can put it all back if this tanks? Sure." Dar logged into her laptop. "Wish me luck? Sure."

"Okay, will do." Mark responded. "I feel kinda lame up here. "

"Just hang tight," Dar said. "It's all in Kerry's pocket right now anyway." She set up her monitoring tools, opening a console to the router in one window and several sessions with the routing systems in the Miami office in others.

"Think we can get a case study out of this when we're all done,Dar?" Chuck asked, as he clasped his hands around his knees.

Dar gave him a sideways look.

"How about you keynote our next tech convention?"

"ONE MORE STOP." Kerry stood up as the train lurched into motion."Ready, Dad?"

"Right with you, Kerry." Andrew stood behind her, one hand resting lightly on her shoulder. They waited for the train to stop, then were the first ones out of the door dodging the rest of the travelers as they reached the steps and headed up them two at a time.

It was loud and bustling under the ground and Kerry got through the exit turnstiles yearning for a sight of the open sky again. She evaded crashing into two men rushing for the entrance and got to the steps outside, running up them and emerging into the open air.

It was gritty and dusty, but there was no time to worry about a mask as Kerry broke into a run toward the exchange. The jolting of her own footsteps sent shocks up and down her side, but she ignored them and focused on the gothic front of the now familiar building a short distance away.

There were people clustered in front of the main entrance. She saw police there, and the military. The streets were blocked off.

Men were yelling. There were two people being held by their arms.

"Kerry that does not look good." Andrew was keeping pace with her."Gonna be a fight."

It was. Kerry could see it. She glanced at her watch and knew they had no time for it. Twenty after nine.

A policeman spotted them running, and pointed. Two military men reacted, and started forward. Kerry took it all in a series of vivid impressions. She realized she had no time to make a decision; her forward momentum was taking her toward the main steps as fast as she could run.

Soldiers ran toward them. "You--have a card you can show them Dad?" Kerry felt her breath coming shorter, and the pain made flashes of black and red on the backs of her eyeballs.

"Lord." Andrew didn't sound happy.

Kerry prepared to haul up as they were intercepted, when a motion caught her eye and she looked down the street to the back entrance, spotting a cluster of suited figures shuffling from a set of black cars.

One moment. One view. Instantly, Kerry changed course. "Hold 'em off." She called back as she bolted down the side street.

"Lord." Andrew dug in his pockets for his identification as he came to a halt in front of the military men. "Whoa there, fellas, Hang on."

Kerry kept going. She ducked between two wrecked cars, her boots tossing up puffs of ash dust as she powered along the sidewalk toward the group of people. The guards at the top of the steps spotted her and turned, and the group on the steps turned to see what was going on.

"Watch it! Stop her!" One of guards yelled. A policeman standing nearby lunged at Kerry, but missed her as she ducked past. "Hey! Stop! Stop!"

The guards pulled their guns off their shoulders, one hopping over the railing and falling to the ground with a grunt as he tried to get in between this oncoming threat and the people on the steps. "Stop!"

"Kerrison!" Cynthia Stuart blurted in surprise, as Kerry closed in on them. "What on earth!" She pushed to the front of the crowd. "Wait, stop. That's my daughter!"

The guards hesitated, just long enough for Kerry to slide past them and get to her mother's side. "Wait-- ma'am!"

"Mother." Kerry got hold of Cynthia's arm. "I have to get inside. There's no time to explain." She uttered. "Trust me, please."

Cynthia stared at her for a long heartbeat as their eyes met. Then she blinked. "Well, of course. We must go. Excuse us gentlemen. Sorry for this disturbance. I'm sure Kerrison just didn't want to be late for the opening."

Nine twenty five. Kerry barely held her impatience as they filed in the door among the group of senators, most of them looking at her with varying levels of surprise and distaste.

No time. Kerry broke from them the minute they cleared the inner door, past the guards, past the security in black jackets, past the secret service stationed carefully long the walls. She dodged a set of outstretched hands and went down a hallway, hearing yells behind her.

Ignoring them. Down a set of stairs, around a corner, and she was in the lower level again. Two doors down on the right, and she was throwing her shoulder against the surface as her hands turned the knob, almost falling inside.

Men inside. Startled, they turned, hands outstretched.

Kerry avoided them, her eyes focused on the setup in the corner, the one they'd left there, blinking quietly untouched.

Untouched.

The men were yelling at her, but all she could hear was her heartbeat thundering as she dropped to the floor and slid the last few feet,her hands wrenching at the static wrapping around the module she'd brought.

Footsteps. "Don't touch me!" Kerry yelled in warning, as she felt people closing in and her fingers felt cold steel instead of plastic. She got the optic out and shoved it into place, then grabbed for the patch cable as hands grabbed her.

Digging her boots in she leaned against the yanking, almost blacking out as a jolt of fire went through her chest. "Ahhhh!"

The pull relaxed for an instant, just enough for her to fall forward on to the router and get the end of the cables into place, shoving them home with a set of soft, unremarkable clicks.

So close to her eyes, she couldn't make out the features. For a moment, nothing happened.

"What the hell is that crazy woman doing?'

Then a soft, green light came on. It lit her face up, and as she blinked sweat out of her eyes she swore she could almost taste the green on the back of her tongue.

"Leave her be."Andrew's voice cut in, loud and uncompromising."Let her loose fore I rip your damn arms off and choke you with 'em."

Nine twenty seven.

Kerry felt the grip come off her, and she rolled over to sit on the floor, legs splayed, breathing hard, and flashes of red in her vision timed with her heartbeat. There were three men in the room aside from Andrew, and they were in logo shirts and pressed chinos.

"It's that crazy lady," the tech who'd been in the room when she'd gotten hurt blurted. "What in the hell are you doing?"

Kerry licked her lips. "Finishing what we started." She got to her knees and then had to stop.

Andrew came over and held his hands out. "Here." He took her hands and lifted her up. "You done now? This thing working?"

Kerry turned to look at the router that was now flashing with a lot of activity lights on the front. "Something's going through. Whether it works or not is in Dar's hands now."

"Wait--are you saying you're fixing this thing after all?" One of the other men stepped up. "They told us you weren't. Some guy came in here and said--there was an FBI agent here asking questions, said they were--that you--"

The tech was looking at something on his screen. "Well, something's happening because all of a sudden this stuff's trying to work,"he said. "So if those guys are going to arrest these people they probably should wait a few minutes."

"I should call them--" The man hesitated. "But if you're fixing it--"

Kerry held her hand up. "Spare me the details," she said, exhausted. "We're doing what we can." She turned to Andrew. "Let's go find my mother again. She's going to kill me for using her like I just did."

"Wait, you can't leave." The supervisor started to block the door,then found himself against the wall, pushed there by Andrew's big fist. "Okay. Maybe you can."

"Smart feller." Andrew opened the door and guided Kerry out.

"LINK!" SHAUN BAWLED, shocking everyone in the silence that had fallen as the minutes ticked away to nothing. "LINK! We got a link!"

Dar felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on her head.She took a steadying breath and then dove into the console session, seeing the port come active and quickly surge with a stream of traffic.

Many streams of traffic. Dar threw a flow filter in place to sort it,searching for the largest ones first. She clipped and pasted into a note-pad file as she found them, her mind registering the networks involved. She dialed her cell phone and put it into speaker mode. "Mark, you there?"

"Here boss." Mark answered. "We got data?"

"We got." Dar rattled the keys. "Get ready for a set of IP's, see if we've got gateways. I'm setting up the interfaces."

"Dar, we've only got like two minutes."

"You're wasting them." Dar concentrated fully on the screen, blocking out the distractions of the room, and the men watching, the heat, and the pressing of the ticking clock against her shoulder blades. "Okay ready," Mark answered in a chastened tone."That's going to be interfaces zero one, zero two and zero three." "Got it. They're starting the speech up there," Mark answered. "Got gateways."

"Clear the ACL's for it."

"Done."

"Bringing the interfaces up." Dar muttered. "Ready for the next set?"

"Ready."

THE BUZZ OF voices was almost overwhelming. Kerry came in to the gallery pausing in the entrance and looking around to see if she could spot her mother.

On the floor below, the kiosks and stands were filled with traders, the atmosphere frenetic and with an air of almost desperation. She spotted her mother on the far side of the gallery. On the other side, she saw a group of men clustered tightly within the confines of heavy security.

Alastair was there. Outwardly as calm and composed as ever,seeming to ignore the presence of the security agents spaced around where he was standing.

"Kerr--y."

Kerry turned to find her mother approaching. She walked forward to meet her, Andrew right at her heels. "Sorry, Mother," she said, as they met. "I had to get something done."

"Good grief!" Cynthia whispered. "What on earth are you involved in? Someone just told me the FBI has your company under investigation? What's going on?"

Kerry held a hand up. "Give it five minutes, Mom. Then I'll explain everything."

Cynthia looked at her, and then glanced at Andrew. "Oh. Hello,Commander."

"Lo," Andrew responded.

"Well." She turned back to Kerry. "I'm sure there must be an explanation. This is all so--" She fell silent as the speaker went to the gavel across from them, and rapped for attention. "But I agree. Let's see this through, then we can discuss it."

They moved to the rail to listen. Kerry rested her hands on it, so tired it was hard to concentrate on what was going on.

Hard to stand there, and not know what was going on at the other end of the cable. No way was she going to call Dar, and break her concentration, or cause any seconds more delay in what had become the worst of her worst nightmare of a circumstance.

She could feel Andrew behind her, and her mother came to stand at her side, the other senators and dignitaries clustering around them.

"May I now have two minutes of silence," the speaker said and bowed his head.

It went absolutely silent. The only sound was the air conditioning and the soft squeak of a chair moving somewhere in the distance.

An American flag fluttered lightly in the fan breeze, rustling against the stone wall.

Kerry kept her head up and she let her eyes slowly scan the crowd,watching the traders below, heads dutifully bowed, but anxiety for the trade showing in the shifting of shoulders and clenching of fists.

On her level, the dignitaries all were standing in solemn silence, the men with hands clasped before them, and heads bent, the women mostly clasping their hands just over their hearts, some with lips moving in silent prayer.

Behind the pedestal, a group of firemen in their turnout coats waited, too tired to pray.

Kerry turned her head a little and found her gaze caught by a pair of gray ones in the cluster of business suits to one side of the podium. Alastair cocked his head just slightly in question, and she managed a tired grin in response.

What was he thinking?

One more minute. Kerry looked down at her hands, rubbing her thumb across a scrape that stung as she touched it.

One more minute.

"SIXTY SECONDS, BOSS. " Dar barely heard him. She focused completely on the screen, instinct driving her typing more than conscious thought. Flows and errors flashed in front of her, and she forgot where she was, and who was watching.

Focus.

She typed, and exported, and filtered and watched results as she fought to make the data streaming into her monitor go where she wanted it to go, alerts and warnings flashing by so fast they hardly registered.

"Forty seconds."

Routing. Rerouting. Redistributing directions from the machine under her hands to the big routers sitting quietly in the first floor of the Miami office that Dar would have teleported to if she could have.

Protocols stuttered and skewed, probably affecting traffic across the breadth of their network. Dar didn't have time to worry about it.

"Thirty seconds."

Too much data, trying to get to too many places, all of it critical.Dar muttered under her breath as she recycled the router for the nth time, and waited for it to boot. "Cross your fingers."

"Got everything including my eyebrows crossed," Mark said, nervously. "Twenty seconds."

They waited. Dar gazed at the blinking cursor as the boot screen scrolled across her laptop, checking ROMS and ASICS in a process thatseemed glacially slow.

"Ten seconds."

Router prompt. Dar rattled in a command, reviewed the results.

"Five seconds."

Another command and a refresh. Then five keystrokes and a slamming of her enter key so loud it startled everyone watching.

DING, DING, DING. The fireman released the striker, and let his hand fall, as a burst of noise suddenly exploded through the tall space.

Chattering. People's voices. Traders. The rattle of printers.

An LED sign burst into action, spewing out ticker symbols.

Everyone clapped.

Kerry felt her hands start to shake on the ledge, feeling light-headed. Anxiously, she searched the crowd, but the traders had gone to work and blocked out their watchers, busy at kiosks, busy in clusters, busy at terminals, busy at the business of making money.

Completely anticlimactic. Like nothing was wrong at all.

"All right now, Kerry." Her mother turned to her. "What is all this about?"

"Excuse me." Alastair's voice intruded.

Kerry turned and faced him. "Hi." She started to take a breath, then paused as she was enfolded in a heartfelt hug by her ultimate boss. She could feel the catch in his breathing, and felt the sting of tears in her own eyes, and it was all just so crazy and stupid.

She blinked a little."We couldn't let it go," she whispered. "We just couldn't."

"Meant a lot more than you think it did," Alastair uttered back. "Tell you all later."

"McLean?"

Alastair released her, and they turned to find the vice president there, with several of his entourage. "Well, hello, Dick." Alastair's voice was calm, but its usual amiable tone held a distinct edge. "Nice moment there, with the fireman."

"Beautiful, "the politician responded, aware of all the watching and listening ears. "Real testament to the resiliency of the American spirit.Can't keep us down."

"Absolutely."Alastair agreed. "I couldn't agree more."

The vice president turned and put his hands on the ledge. "Everything's in good working order I see." He studied the busy floor. "As it should be."

"Why yes, it appears that it is," Alastair said. "As you say, you just can't keep us down."

The politician turned back to him, eyeing him sharply. He straightened up and fixed his tie, notching it a bit closer to his neck. "Glad to see everyone pulled together to make it happen." He dismissed them. "Excuse me." He moved past them and joined some of the senators standing nearby trying to catch his attention.

Alastair and Kerry both exhaled at the same time. Then Kerry leaned back against the wall, as her knees started to shake. "Wow," she said, and then fell silent.

Cynthia cleared her throat. "Is--everything all right? I'm sorry, is it--" She peered at Alastair. "Mr. McLean? I believe I have seen you on the business news."

"Ah. Yes." Alastair nodded. "You must be Kerry's mother." He held hand out. "It's good to meet you."

Kerry let it all go past her. "I need to go make a phone call," she finally said. "Excuse me."

Alastair took her arm gently. "I think we all have to make that same phone call," he said. "Senator Stuart, would you care to come with us?I'm sure you have some questions about all this."

"Absolutely." Cynthia looked around to where her colleagues were clustering around the vice president, and the press. "I'd be glad to.Let's go, this way. It's shorter, and I believe, with less people."

"Damn good idea." Andrew finally spoke up. "Bet you got one of them limo cars outside there too."

"Well, yes, actually--it's shared but--"

"S'allright, we'll just borrow it," Andrew said, firmly. "Excuse us."

Kerry let herself be guided to the stairs, completely spent and wanting nothing more than a chair, her partner, and a drink; too tired to even feel triumph or satisfaction at a job well done.

DAR SLOWLY STRETCHED her cramped fingers, listening to the sounds of raucous yelling coming from the speakerphone. She turned her head slowly and looked at Chuck after a moment, letting out a long exhale. "Congratulations," she said. "You made that happen."

Chuck chuckled wryly. "Dar, these guys made that happen." He pointed at the optic unit attached to the router. "And by the way, fellers, what you just saw was the IT equivalent of this woman flapping her arms and flying to the moon."

The two visitors had settled cross-legged on the floor. "I've been in enough bullpen situations to know that was one of those two seconds to blastoff kind of things," one said, pushing his glasses up on his nose."Pretty neat."

Dar closed her laptop. "Let's go upstairs," she said. "I need a drink."

"Boy that sounds good." Chuck got up, and they all left the little closet and emerged into the shopping level.

Outside, the world coursed past them completely oblivious to the drama in their midst, only giving a passing glance to the engineers and the scruffy looking woman in a tank top and coveralls trudging past them.

"Long day, huh Dar?"Chuck asked.

"Long week." Dar admitted, as they headed for the elevators. She could feel her shoulders slumping, and she mostly watched the floor as they boarded the car, pausing only to punch the button for their level. "But you folks really did the job. That's an amazing feat of engineering."

"Well, thanks," one of the engineers said. "My name's Orin Wellings, by the way." He offered a hand, which Dar took. "We were glad to help. We found out some things that might help us in some other research, so it's all good." He added. "This is my colleague Doddy Ramirez."

Dar extended her hand. "Thanks."

"My pleasure." The man shook her hand. "Talk about down to the wire."

"Mm." The doors opened and Dar led them out, past the receptionist's desk. She pushed the glass doors open and headed down the hall to their client presentation center, marked by a set of teak doors and frosted glass windows. "C'mon."

They followed her inside. "Coffee and soft drinks over there." Dar pointed without looking. She headed for the couch on the far side, dropping into it just as her cell phone rang. "Help yourself to whatever you like." She didn't even check the caller ID. "Yeah."

"Hey." Kerry's voice sounded every bit as drained as Dar felt. "We're on our way back there. Me and Dad, and Alastair and my mother."

"I'm sitting on a couch in the press center waiting for you," Dar said. "But you can't bring the other three on the couch with you. They have to sit somewhere else."

Kerry managed a wry chuckle. Then she fell silent.

"You okay?" Dar asked after a moment.

Another hesitation. "I've been better," Kerry admitted. "Had a bit of a problem getting that part in."

Dar felt a jolt of concern that chased away the fog of exhaustion."Want me to meet you at the hospital instead?"

"No." Kerry answered immediately. "I just want to go home. We can go to Doctor Steve's as soon as we land if you want, but I'm not spending another day here."

Dar nodded to herself. "Hear ya."

"Have some chocolate milk waiting for me?" Kerry added, with a sigh.

"You got it." Dar waited for the line to hang up and then she closed the phone and rested it on her knee. "The rest of our team's on the way back. Our CEO's with them, I know he wants to thank you guys in person."

The engineers took seats across from her with cups and plates and pleased expressions.

Mark entered with Kannan and Shaun, tired, but visibly happy. "Hey boss. Welcome back from the pit."

"Hey." Dar lifted a hand and waved. "Good job, people."

Scuzzy entered. "Hey! You guys did it!"

"We did it." Dar agreed, gesturing around to include the rest of the room. "You did it." She pointed at Scuzzy. "Everybody needs to slap themselves on the ass for this one."

Chuck chuckled. "Boy, I tell ya, I don't get to hear that very often."He admitted. "Mostly it's can you give me a bigger discount, Chuck, or your damn service center blew me off, Chuck, or your competitors are doing more for less, and what about that, Chuck."

"Yeah, we get that too." Mark brought a bottle of soda back to the seating area and took a chair near where Dar was sprawled on the couch. "Dar, there was only one or two streams we didn't have a gate for. I called the endpoint owner and threw a tunnel up for them, and they're good now."

"You know what the sad part is?" Dar stretched her arm out along the back of the couch. "We're the only ones who are going to know we did this."

"Who the hell cares?" Mark slid down and took a swig from his bottle."I don't. I know I did it. That's all that matters to me."

Dar watched them all gather, and she let the conversation flow around her, as the rest of the team straggled in. She was tired, but at some level satisfied, glad the circumstances had arranged themselves to allow her to end this day with a sense of personal triumph.

It felt good. She was glad they'd done it.

She realized she must have faded out for a minute, because she looked up at the doorway just in time to see Kerry enter with her mother, and Andrew, and Alastair right behind her.

Dar got up off the couch as they approached, opening her arms up as Kerry walked right into them pressing her body against Dar's with a soft, guttural moan. She enfolded her partner in a gentle hug, oblivious to the room. "Hey babe."

"Ungh." Kerry rested her head against Dar's collarbone. "Get the jam, Paladar. I'm toast."

Dar stroked her hair. "You look it. Sit down on the couch and I'll get you your milk."

Kerry didn't move an inch. "Actually a protein shake would probably do me more good. Any chance of that?" She tilted her head and looked up. "My body's really bitching at me."

"Your wish is my command." Dar gazed down into her eyes, a faint smile shaping her lips.

Kerry's nose wrinkled just a little. "You couldn't care less if the whole room is staring at us, could you?"

"Nope."

"Me either." Kerry pulled herself up and gave Dar a kiss on the lips. "Fantastic job, boss. You brought it home."

"Likewise." Dar returned the kiss and then released her and bumped her very gently toward the couch. "Let me get you something to put in your stomach." She watched Kerry settle on the couch, and then turned to find Alastair in front of her. "Hey."

Alastair put his hand on her shoulder and just looked her in the eye.

Dar winked at him. "Sorry to ruin your martyrdom, Alastair."

She was not overly surprised when Alastair pulled her into a hug. She returned it without reservation, feeling a moment of true personal happiness."Bastards."

"We need to talk later," he uttered just loud enough for her to hear. "But thank you, Dar. From my heart, thank you."

Dar patted his back and released him. "No problem."

"No problem." Alastair clasped her shoulder, and made his way to an overstuffed chair, which he sunk into with a long, tired exhale."Anybody got a cup of coffee?"

Dar started to turn, only to find her father there with a bottled protein shake in his hand. "Ah. Thanks Dad. Did you--"

"Heard the kumquat ask you for it," Andrew said. "Think she's hurting. Was a hell of a thing getting to that there place, I will tell you, Paladar. That woman should be in a doctor's office."

Dar glanced at her partner, who had collapsed on the couch. "I know. But I promised we'd go home first. She said we can stop at Dr. Steve's on the way from the airport."

Andrew grunted.

"I'm not hypocritical enough to argue with her. Thanks for helping out, Dad."

Her father clapped her on the back. "Didn't do squat rugrat. Kerry done it all."

Dar took the bottle and returned to the couch, sitting down next to Kerry and opening it. "Here you go." She put her arm over Kerry's shoulders and sighed, as Cynthia Stuart finally got through the crowd and sat down on a chair next to the couch. "Hello again."

"Hello, Dar," Cynthia said. "I'm very worried about Kerry. She seems quite sick."

"Me too." Dar glanced down at her partner, who was sucking at the protein shake, her body pressed against Dar's. "She has some cracked ribs."

"Oh my goodness!"Cynthia blurted. "Kerry! Why didn't you say something?"

Kerry looked up from her shake licking her lips a little. "Didn't have time. Sorry. I guess we need to fill you in on everything else too."Her voice was husky. "Mom got me into the Exchange, Dar. They weren't letting anyone in the front door."

"Thank you." Dar looked at Cynthia. "We were running out of time."

"Well--yes, I could see that--but what exactly were you doing?"

Kerry's mother asked. "I kept hearing the oddest things, about some accident, and some problem or something." She added. "I was even told you were under some kind of investigation!"

Dar looked over at Alastair and raised an eyebrow.

"I think that was really more of a misunderstanding,"Alastair said, drawing Cynthia's attention. He put his hands behind his head, interlacing his fingers. "We got it sorted out--I hope."

"They asked us to help out with some connections to the Exchange," Dar offered.

"Yes, I remember Kerry telling me that." Cynthia returned herattention to them. "Some cables or something was it?"

Dar nodded. "We ran in to a lot of issues, and had to get these engineers from NASA to help us." She indicated the two men. "They came up with a solution at the last minute. That solution was what Kerry was carrying into the Exchange."

"Oh!" Cynthia looked at her daughter. "My goodness!"

Kerry gave her a brief smile. She turned slowly and put her legs up on the couch, putting her head down on Dar's lap. "Yeah, it wasn't really a well thought out plan, but we were out of time," she admitted."I'm really glad I spotted you going in. Wouldn't have worked otherwise."

"Oh, well." Cynthia looked more than a little confused. "Well, of course I was glad to help, but it was so curious that you were having problems with them letting you inside. Didn't they want this problem addressed?"

"Now there's the sixty-four thousand dollar question." Alastair mused. "I tell you, Senator. There were a lot of conflicting motives in that building today."

"Goodness." Cynthia turned toward Alastair again. "But why would that have been, Mr. McLean. Please explain it to me, because I can see no reason for this strange confusion, and I want to understand since I am sure this will come up between me and my colleagues."

"Well--" Alastair drew her attention, giving the pair on the couch some time.

Dar draped one arm carefully over her partner's body. "Feeling any better?"

Kerry turned her head a little, peering up at Dar. "A little." She lifted one hand and rubbed her eyes. "I just feel so damned washed out. It's driving me crazy. I can't think straight," she answered, in a low tone. "Not to mention my guts hurt." She put a hand on her chest. "And I can't get a deep breath because of it."

Dar smoothed the hair back out of her eyes. She could see a glaze in the green eyes looking back at her, and she frowned in concern for along moment before she pulled out her cell phone. "Okay." She dialed a number from the memory. "Second opinion time."

Kerry closed her eyes and let her cheek rest against Dar's belly. It felt good to be lying down, and even better to be lying down on top of her partner. She wrapped her fingers around Dar's arm and concentrated on breathing shallowly, as she listened to the phone conversation.

"Hey, Sheryl. It's Dar." Dar watched the twitching tension across her partner's face. "Is the doc in? Can I talk to him for a minute?" She waited through a few moments of Gloria Estefan hold music, and then a familiar voice answered. "Hi, Dr. Steve."

"Hey Dar. What's up? Where are ya?"

"New York. Listen, Kerry's here with me and she ran into some trouble."

Their family doctor chuckled wryly. "You're rubbing off on her."

"She got a couple of cracked ribs." Dar went on. "They said it was hairline, but she's feeling pretty bad right now. Says she feels drained and can't think straight."

"Where is she?"

"Lying in my lap," Dar admitted. "But I don't think that's causing it." That even got a smile from Kerry, who opened her eyes and peered up at her. "She's white as a sheet."

There was a bit of rattling and a scuffing noise. "Hang on," Dr. Steve said, his voice a little more serious now. "You know which ribs they are?"

Dar looked down at Kerry who shrugged faintly, and then casually unbuttoned her shirt.

"Go ahead and count. You can see where the bandages are." Kerry closed her eyes again feeling a bit of a draft from the room on her now exposed skin. "Glad I decided on a sports bra this morning."

Dar gently counted up from her waistline. "Six from the bottom," she spoke into the phone. "Somewhere around there."

"Uh huh." Dr. Steve grunted. "They said it was a crack?"

"Just a hairline fracture according to the guy at the hospital. He said to have her sleep sitting up and gave her a prescription for the pain. He sent the X-rays back with us."

"What drugs he give her?" Dr. Steve asked.

Dar pulled the bottle out of Kerry's pocket and examined it. "Oxy-Contin. We picked it up yesterday."

"Honey, throw that in the trash," Dr. Steve said immediately. "Where the hell are you? I'll call you in something else. That stuff's a pile of problems. She having any trouble breathing? Dizzy?"

Dar could feel Kerry's ribcage moving under her hand, and it seemed to her to be doing so with more effort than usual. "I think so."

"Don't let her take any more of that," their doctor said. "How long you going to be there?"

Dar felt a sense of relief. "We're heading back home at one. Can I give her some Advil until we get back?" She looked down into Kerry's inquisitive eyes. She held up the pill bottle and rattled it. "I'll make sure she doesn't take any more of this."

Kerry's face relaxed a little.

"You can do that, rugrat," Dr. Steve said. "I'll see you when you get here, right?"

"Right. Thanks Doc." Dar hung up the phone. "He doesn't like the script."

Kerry blinked a little. "That makes sense," she said. "I didn't start feeling this crappy until after I started taking it. When I got back from the hospital I was fine the whole night." She stifled a yawn and let her cheek rest against Dar's body again. "I'll be fine here until we leave."

Dar tucked the bottle of pills into the cushion. She glanced up as Cynthia returned her attention to them, apparently done with Alastair. She saw the woman's eyes fall on her partner's half bared chest and belatedly realized her tattoo was showing, the snake's head saucily exposed.

Covering it with her shirt would be only too obvious. Dar rested her hand on Kerry's bare belly instead, rubbing lightly the skin just over her navel.

"Kerry, is that--" Cynthia leaned closer. "Is that a tattoo?"

Kerry's eyes went wide, and her nostrils flared. Her hand twitched,as it lay right next to Dar's, and her breathing sped up.

"Isn't it gorgeous?" Dar gallantly came to her rescue. "It's an oraborus, a symbol of eternity, curled around my name." She lifted her hand and traced the design, moving the edge of Kerry's sports bra over so her mother could see it better. "Look at those scales."

"Ah." Cynthia edged closer and peered, not without hesitation."How interesting." She cleared her throat. "Angela did mention something about that."

"I can always count on Angie." Kerry now dared turn her head and peek at her mother. "She saw it when I stayed at her house last week. Was it last week?" Her brow creased. "Seems like a long time ago."

"Yes, it does." Her mother recovered. "It's quite intricate."

"You don't like it," Kerry said, in a mild tone. "It's okay if you don't."

"Well," Cynthia said, "no, I don't. I don't think it's right for a young woman to mark herself up in that way." She paused. "So, no, in fact, I do not like it."

Kerry felt refreshed by the honesty. "That's okay. I didn't expect you to," she replied with equal candor. "A lot of people don't."

Her mother paused for a long moment, and then shook her head. "Why did you do it then? I am curious."

Kerry looked back up at Dar. "Why did I do it?" She mused. "I think I just wanted that statement, that emotion to be as vivid on the outside of me as it is on the inside." She closed her eyes again and exhaled, another wave of lethargy passing over her.

"I see," her mother murmured.

"I heard Angie's good news." Kerry decided a change in subject was probably a good idea. She could hear her mother struggling to keep her thoughts to herself and she had no desire to spark an argument at the moment.

"Yes." Cynthia sat back, with a genuine smile. "I'm so pleased." She seemed glad of the change as well. "It was a great surprise, but a very welcome one."

Dar cleared her throat gently.

Kerry forced her eyes open to see the raised brows. "Brian proposed to my sister. Angie was as freaked out as you were when I proposed to you."

Dar produced a big grin at that. Then she glanced up at Cynthia. "Congratulations."

"Thank you," Cynthia said, taking a deep breath. "Well, I'm glad these things worked themselves out. I believe I must go back and meet with my colleagues, and then perhaps we might attend a working dinner with the vice president."

"By then we'll be home." Kerry exhaled. "Thank god."She turned her head and opened one eye. "Hope it turns out okay for you."

"And a safe trip to both of you as well." Cynthia concluded. "I'm sure we'll be speaking, Kerry. Angela has told me she wishes you to stand with her at the wedding."

Kerry nodded. "I told her absolutely," she said, getting a smile from her mother. "I'm really happy for her."

"As am I." Cynthia stood up. "Hope you feel better soon, Kerry.I'm sure you're well taken care of here." She gave Dar a nod. "And it was nice meeting you, Mr. McLean. Thank you for explaining things to me."

"My pleasure."Alastair was still sitting quietly in his chair. "Nice meeting you too."

Cynthia gave them all a wave and turned, making her way out of the room.

Dar gently buttoned up her partner's shirt and settled her arm protectively over Kerry's middle again. "Take a nap, champ," she told her obviously groggy companion. "I'll wake you up when it's time for us to leave."

"Gotta--" Kerry muttered. "Damn this stuff's kicking my butt."She gave in to the desire to sleep, as Dar's fingertips gently massaged her temples. "Dar, I'm gonna have to come up with something more radical."

"Huh?"

"I'm outta things to shock my mother with."

Dar chuckled faintly, and that was the last thing Kerry remembered before she let the room slip away.