"Reporting shit definitely rolls downhill." Dar commiserated."Speaking of which,"she held up her PDA, "c'mere."
Puzzled, Mark got up and edged over joining her on the couch. "What?"
Dar opened the message and showed it to him, watching his face for a reaction. His eyes widened again and his body shifted, as he turned to look back at her.
"Are you kidding me? Is this guy for real?"
Dar sighed. "Apparently he is." She leaned back. "So now this guy's on the way here, ready to save the world and he's going to run right into a pissing match he had no part of."
"Wow."
"Yeah, wow." Dar closed the PDA. "Guess I'll wait until he lands then call him."
"Ouch." Mark murmured. "That's gonna suck." He glanced at his boss. "You didn't think they'd do it."
"I didn't think they'd do it," Dar confirmed, nodding. "Not only that, I didn't bother to tell them to stop trying once we did." She sighed again. "So I suck twice."
"You were kinda busy. I know if it had been my wife who'd broken a rib I wouldn't have thought a half second about work crap. So how's Kerry feeling, anyway?"
"Right now, hopefully she's not feeling anything since she was asleep when I came out here," Dar said. "Probably a good thing, since I know she'd be as freaked as I am about this note."
Mark remained silent sipping his soda. Then he cleared his throat a little and watched his boss out of the corner of his eye. "We could go do it, if you want."
Dar looked at him.
He shrugged.
"Alastair pulled us out. I respect that decision."
"Yeah," Mark agreed. "But we can do it. I know he had heartburn with the governor and all that stuff, but man, if those guys went to the wall for us, it sucks if we can't get it done. And it's really gonna suck for him tomorrow when that bell goes off and nothing happens."
"He knows that."
Mark shrugged again. "He's pretty cool. He's been all right to have with us here. I wasn't sure about it at first, but he's a good guy." He considered. "So we could make his morning, if you catch my drift."
Dar thought about that. It put the question into a different light than she'd been looking at, and she felt herself becoming attracted to the idea. "Alastair is good people," she finally said, in a quiet tone.
"He really likes you. He was talking to me and your pop yesterday and he was telling your pop how lucky he was to have a kid like you."
Dar blushed mildly. "I'm sure my father loved hearing that."
Mark laughed. "Yeah he did. He's a great guy."
"My father?"
"Yeah."
Dar took a sip of her milk. "We're surrounded by good people. You know that?" She mused, and then fell silent for a long moment. "You want to go do this?"
"Yeah," Mark said, without hesitation.
They both half turned at a sound at the door to find Andrew entering. He was dressed for the outside, unlike the two of them, and he slid the hood down on his hoodie as he crossed the carpeted floor. "Lo,there. You people never heard of sleeping?"
"Hi, Dad." Dar watched as he went to the refrigerator, retrieved a milk, then came over and sat down across from them. She lifted her own milk and toasted him with it. "Mark and I were just going to grab our tools and go fix the damn cables. Wanna come?"
Andrew paused in mid sip and lowered the milk. "Excuse me?"
Dar stretched her bare legs out and crossed her ankles. "Our vendor and his friends came through. They duct taped something together that's going to work."
Her father blinked. "I thought you all said you weren't doing this no more?"
"Me too,"Dar acknowledged. "But they did it, and I don't want to waste that. Those guys wore their asses to the bone for us."
Andrew studied his daughter's profile--despite the difference of age and gender--very much like his own. "So you all going to go do this thing, no matter what that flannel feller says?"
"Mm hm."
"What about all them gov'mint people? They were some pissed off at you all."
"I don't care." Dar was now at peace with her decision. "These people have been shoving us around since we got here. Maybe they have a good reason, maybe they don't, but I'm just going to take my team, and go do what we do, and at the end of it someone else can decide if it was the right or wrong choice."
Her father produced a wry grin. "Paladar, do you know ah once said something just like that. Turned out all right, I suppose, so ah will surely be going along with you to do this crazy thing."
"Thanks, Dad." Dar smiled at him "Sorry to make your retirement so contentious."
Andrew studied her and then burst into laughter, genuine and real,a happy sound the echoed off the walls of the lounge.
"Well, I'm gonna go wake the troops up." Mark got out of his seat, taking his coke can over and disposing of it. "Meet you back here,boss?"
"I'm going too." Dar got up. "Let me let Kerry in on what's going on and see if I can talk her in to staying here."
Andrew snorted. Mark shook his head. "Good luck with that, boss." He escaped out the door ahead of Dar's reach.
Dar tossed her milk chug and tucked her PDA in her pocket. "Don't tell Alastair if you happen to see him, Dad." She paused at the doorway. "He's setting himself up to take a fall for us, and damned if we're going to let him."
Andrew smiled at her. "G'wan, rugrat." He stretched his legs out. "Ah couldn't sleep fer nothing no how. Too noisy in this here place."
Dar waved briefly. She ducked out of the room and crossed the corridor, spotting Mark down the hall knocking on a door. She keyed her own open, and slipped inside, closing the door behind her and walking over to the bed.
Kerry was still sleeping. Her breathing was slow and deep, and Dar lowered herself to perch carefully on the edge of the mattress, reluctant to disturb her. She knew in the long run that it would be better for her partner to stay here, comfortably resting.
However. Dar reached over and took Kerry's hand, squeezing it gently. "Ker?"
After a moment, Kerry's fair lashes fluttered open, and her fingers returned the pressure. She blinked a few times, and then focused on Dar, taking in the darkness of the room with some alarm. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Dar leaned over and let her head rest against Kerry's thighs. "But something unexpected happened."
Kerry blinked a few more times, clearing the sleep from her eyes. "Like what? Are you okay? Did something happen to one of the staff?"
"No." Dar squeezed her fingers gently. "Those guys who were trying to help us? They did it."
"Huh?" Kerry's brows creased. "What guys?"
"Our network vendor."
Kerry was momentarily silent, and then her eyebrows lifted sharply. "They did it? They came up with something that works?"
"That's what they say." Dar nodded. "So they're on their way here."
"B..." Kerry started to sit up then bit off a curse, her eyes going wide. "Oh shit."
"Easy." Dar got up and reversed her position, putting her arm around Kerry's shoulders and supporting her until she could get upright again. "Forgot about that, didn't you?"
"Ooof. Yes." Kerry recovered her breath. "Stiffened up I guess. So--but Dar, why are they coming here? We didn't do the runs. They're going to do that for no reason." She paused, and then looked up at her partner, seeing the grave look in the pale eyes. "Uh oh."
"I told Mark about it. He wants to go for it. He's waking the guys up." She put her hand against Kerry's cheek. "You do not have to get out of this bed. I just wanted you to know what's going on."
There was a curious mixture of emotions on Kerry's face. "That's not fair letting you guys do all the work. I don't want to just sit here wondering what's going on."