"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."