It was after five, and the building was quieting down. The café on the ground floor was closed, and the cleaning people were beginning to pop out like night owls, starting the task of cleaning the place. Kerry walked across the mostly empty lobby toward the ground floor break room, giving the guard a wave as she passed his desk.
"Hey, Ms. Stuart." The man waved back. "You still here? Thought you were gone for the day. Michael passed by your office and said it was closed up."
"Nope." Kerry shook her head. "I'm working on a project in the main telco room." She pointed back the way she'd come from. "Probably be there a while yet. Was someone looking for me?"
"Yeah. Matter of fact a lady came to the front guard desk over there and wanted to talk to you. That's why Michael went up." He got up and met Kerry as she slowed down. "Here. She left a card."
Kerry took it, cocking her head a little puzzled over the name. It wasn't one she recognized, and she certainly had no idea what a real estate agent would want with her. "Um...okay." She half shrugged, and stuck the cardboard slip into her back pocket. "Thanks. I don't think I'm in the market for what she's selling, but who knows?"
The guard shrugged also. "Have no idea, ma'am." He cleared his throat. "Ah, do you know if Ms. Roberts is here too? I saw her car still outside, but her office is closed up."
"She's here." Kerry turned to continue her task. "We're working together on this project. You need her?"
"No ma'am." The man shook his head. "Is that the security zone in the inside corridor?"
"Yep." Kerry started to walk off. "We'll be there if you need us." She continued across the marble tile floor and into the inner hallway, pushing open the non-descript door and crossing from public splendor to linoleum tiled plainness in the space of a step.
It reminded her of the ship, a little--the difference between the passenger areas and the crew. Kerry stopped in front of the big soda machine, reviewing her choices. "Ah." She popped some coins in and selected a button, waiting for the bottle to drop before she added more coins, and made a second choice.
The bottle rattled down, and she opened the bottom flap to retrieve Dar's YooHoo and her own root beer. Whistling softly under her breath, she headed back out to the lobby.
DAR HAD SET her laptop down and now she was walking around, stretching her body out and easing the stiffness from sitting on the ground for so long. Above her head, the cable ladders stretched to either side, bearing their bundles of multicolor strands.
Experimentally, Dar reached up and grasped the ladder bars, pulling her body up and letting the metal take the weight of her body for a short time.
Satisfied the structure wasn't going to collapse, she took a better hold, then lifted herself up again and got her legs up over the top of the ladder, hooking them securely through the rungs.
Then she released her arms and hung down, letting her spine relax. "Ahh." She let her hands dangle as she flexed them, feeling the soft pops as her vertebra eased into place. It felt good, and was something she hadn't done in a long, long time.
Since the weekend she'd spent in this very room upgrading every piece of equipment in it, in fact. Dar swung back and forth a little, enjoying the motion and the memories. She'd just been a tech then, before she'd decided to move into management.
Looking back along that curve now, Dar found herself wondering a little if that move had been the right one after all. Here she was, years later, right back in this closet doing something she could have easily paid an entire roomful of programmers to do instead of getting involved.
So why was she doing it? Just to have something to do and stay out of Kerry's way? Dar grimaced. Oh that was an attractive thought. Maybe she'd let herself be promoted past her competency, like she was always accusing Jose of.
Ah, Dar. She sighed at herself. You can't really complain, can you? After all, if you'd stayed a grunt, chances are you'd never have met Kerry, right?
No, probably not. Dar swung back and forth a little more, and thought about how much more she'd gotten done after Kerry had joined her today. She'd been less restless, and more focused, and suddenly it occurred to her that the more she separated herself from her partner and her projects, the more antsy she tended to be.
It was so obvious, once she'd thought of it, that she almost slapped herself on the head. "Damn." In her efforts to distance herself from Kerry's efforts, and let her partner fly on her own--was she sending herself down the stupid path?
Didn't they really work better as a team?
Didn't they?
The outer door opened, and she was graced with the sight of her lover from an interesting perspective. "Hi."
"What are you doing?" Kerry walked in and set the sodas down before she came over to where Dar was hanging like a bat. "You have no idea how funny you look."
"Just stretching." Dar said. "It's good for your back." She reached out and gave Kerry a poke in the belly. "Join me?"
Kerry studied her, and grinned. "If you say so, honey. I'll take your word for it. Last time I did that I fell out of a tree and my mother nearly had me hogtied for a month. Wasn't a pretty sight."
Dar reached up and caught hold of the bars, reversing her position and letting herself down onto the ground again. She reached around Kerry to pick up her Yoohoo bottle, ending up in an intentional hug as Kerry bumped up against her. "You're always a pretty sight."
Kerry wrapped her arms around Dar and gave her a powerful squeeze. "And you're the best thing my ego's ever, ever had." She sighed. "Dear god, you make me feel ten feet tall sometimes, Dar."
Dar nodded a little to herself, and accepted the fact that her judgment had been off. It happened sometimes, but in this case, she had an idea of what to do to correct it.
"Mm." Kerry hesitated. "Dar..."
"I think I like it when we work together." Dar commented casually. "Even when we're not on the same project I like having you here."
Unexpected, but startlingly identical to the words running through Kerry's mind as well. "Wow." She murmured. "I was about to say the same thing." She let her hands rest on Dar's waist. "You know something? I think that's why I've been so rattled over this ship project." She looked up. "Dar, I don't need you holding my hand on it." A sigh. "But I want you there. I want us to beat them. Not just me."
"All right." Dar leaned her forearms on Kerry's shoulders and touched her forehead to Kerry's. "And I want you guiding me on this security package. I need your judgment."
The concrete and steel suddenly became magic, framing the moment indelibly. Kerry felt an impish grin forming on her lips, smothered a moment later when Dar kissed them.
She sincerely hoped there weren't any cameras.
"URGF." Kerry took a breath and continued her sit ups, the roll of thunder percolating into the island's gym. Behind her, she could hear the soft clank as Dar did leg presses. She resisted the temptation to move from her current exercise to that one.
Sit ups were definitely not her favorite things. They made her back ache, for one thing, and since she was now using an incline board, they were just plain hard to do.
Still, she kept them up, resolutely closing her eyes and concentrating on the positive results she knew she'd get by completing her self-imposed sets.
The rain outside had canceled their morning run, and they'd decided on a work out to replace it--possibly suffering from some mutual guilt brought on by consuming an entire baking pan full of rice crispy treats the night before.