"Dar?" Kerry's touch became firmer against her cheek and there was a rustle of bedclothes as she shifted and brought a comforting body of warmth into the sudden chill around her. "Hey."
Dar opened her eyes. "Sorry." She didn't bother to dissemble. "Just freaking out a little."
"About the fiber?" Kerry sounded confused, and a touch distressed.
"No."
Kerry eased over and put her arms around Dar. "Did I do something?"
"No." Dar returned the embrace. "It just hit me." She paused, as her throat tightened. "All those people who had people they loved never come home that day."
Kerry's breath caught. She swallowed audibly.
"Could have been any of us," Dar whispered. "What a crappy world this is sometimes."
"Sometimes," Kerry finally replied, her voice rough. "Do you know how glad I was it was you who told me what was going on? That we were on the phone no matter if you were thousands of miles away? "
"Wish you'd have been there with me," Dar said. "I was so damn scared something would happen to you before I got back."
Kerry buried her face into Dar's neck feeling a shiver go down her spine. "Likewise. I don't know what I would have done if anything had." Tears welled up that had been trapped inside her for days. "Oh my god, Dar."
Dar returned the hug. "Longest few days of my life." She drew in a shaky breath. "Damn, I can't wait to go home. I want out of this." She couldn't quite stifle a sniffle.
"So do I," Kerry whispered. "It's been making me crazy."
They were both quiet for a moment. Then they both exhaled at almost the same time. "Wow." Dar cleared her throat. "Sorry this got so lousy."
Kerry shook her head a trifle. "I'm not. I'm glad I said that to you. I've been wanting to before we let this all pass. We've been up to our eyeballs since it happened and I've got all this stuff bottled up making my guts ache."
Dar slid her hand up along the back of Kerry's neck kneading the muscles there with gentle fingers. She felt the warmth as Kerry exhaled against her skin, and blinked her eyes to clear the tears from them.
She didn't cry often. Dar suspected the stress wasn't doing her any favors and she could feel the shivers rippling through Kerry's body."Let's table it for a few hours." She pulled the covers over both of them. "We'll be okay."
Kerry relaxed against her. "When I'm right here, I'm always okay. Hope I find out why that bird was so damned funny." She closed her eyes and kissed Dar on the collarbone. "Love you."
That made Dar smile again, finally. "Love you too." She tuned out the muted sound of the air conditioning and the far off grind of elevator machinery letting the darkness and the rhythm of Kerry's breathing lull her back into sleep.
Maybe, she mused, it was a cuckoo bird.
"NOT A GOOD morning." Dar followed Alastair into the conference room that already had a half dozen people in it.
Angry looking people. Dar gathered up the gruffest of her attitudes and put them in place before she took a seat at the end of the table, while her boss circled and went to the center. She put her forearms on the mahogany surface clasping her hands together.
"All right folks. Let's sit down and talk." Alastair took the middle seat and waited for the rest of the people in the room to follow suit. "I understand everyone's pretty upset."
"Upset?" The man directly across from him leaned forward. "McLean, that's not close to what I am. My business is dead in the water, and what do I see on the news last night? You giving cookies to firemen."
Dar propped her chin on her fist and decided to remain quiet. She had certain sympathy for the customers who had come to complain, but she also had sympathy for Alastair, and couldn't really think of anything to say that wouldn't piss off either one or the other.
She wasn't even really sure why she'd accompanied Alastair,except that he'd asked her to, and it delayed her needing to go take Mark aside and confess about the fiber before he caught up with the cable layers, or went to the Exchange and found out for himself.
"I can understand that," Alastair said. "But the fact is I'm not the fella who's going to fix your problem, so I don't really see what the harm is in my answering questions about our community relations group." He added, "it's not as if my being interviewed is stopping anyone from working."
"That isn't the point." The man stood. "All I am hearing about is how you're helping the government, helping the rescuers. I hate to be crass, but what about us?" He pointed at himself, then at the rest of the people who apparently were content to let him speak for them. "When do we get help?"
"Well--"
"Come on, McLean," the man said. "You've been here for days. It was all over the news. When do we get some attention? Or are you all about the publicity and kissing the governor's ass?"
Alastair looked over at Dar. "Wanna give me a hand here?"
The tableful of people turned and looked over at her.
"I could undress and pose on the table." Dar suggested. "That help any?"
Alastair had the grace to look scandalized. "Dar." He sighed, missing the sudden reactions to the name from the rest of the table. "It's not funny."
"I wasn't joking." Dar shifted and rested her weight on her elbows. "Listen," she addressed the customers, "if there was something we could do to fix everyone's issues, don't you think we would be doing it?You think we like being in this room getting yelled at?"
"But what about what you're doing for the government?" One of the other men spoke up. "Why can't you do that for us? My business is on the line between the closed zone, and they told me I wouldn't have service for months. Months!"
"Because we haven't done that much for the government," Dar replied"Who are, by the way, as much our customers as you are." She stood up and circled the table ending up next to Alastair. "Do you know how much damage was done around the area of the Towers? Do you know how much infrastructure, electrical, telecom, plumbing, you name it, was destroyed down there?"
"Of course," the man said. "I watch CNN same as you."
"Have you been down there?" Dar asked.
"They won't let us," the first man answered, frustration evident in his tone.
"Want my advice?" Dar sat down next to her boss. "Get your asses out of there. I've been in the area. Cut your losses. Find other space."
The men looked at her.
"I'm not kidding," Dar said. "If you want me to tell you I can put a satellite rig in there to get your systems up, and backhaul your traffic that way, I will. I can do that." She looked at each face in turn. "But if you want your business to survive, if you depend on walk in traffic, on people coming to you, then get out. "
"But--" the leader said, and then fell silent.
"Thousands of people died there," Alastair said quietly. "I was down in the area myself, along with Dar here--and by the way, sorry. My manners went out the window. This is our Chief Information Officer, Dar Roberts." He paused. "In case you didn't guess."
"I guessed." The man murmured.
"How are we supposed to just move?" the second man asked."Don't get me wrong, Ms. Roberts. You're not the first person who's told me that, but we've been there for twenty years! How do we leave our customers behind like that?"
"Some of them will be moving too," Dar said. "It's a matter of survival." She looked at them with some sympathy. "Come up here. I'm sure Alastair can negotiate good rates here at the center for our valued customers. Right Alastair?"
Alastair's wry look said it all. "I'd be glad to work on that, absolutely. I know they've got some vacancies here, and we've got bargaining leverage with the management." He paused. "Let me know what kind of space you're looking for, and I'll do my best."
"That's crazy. I can't afford these rents," the second man said. "I don't think I can afford you now."
A silence fell after he finished talking, and the men on the other side of the table looked suddenly uncomfortable. "Well, matter of fact,I've been leaving messages here about that subject." The spokesman said. "Haven't gotten a call back. Is Bob in the office? I'd like to talk to him."