Dar was very dependable that way. “Cornerstone of my life.” Kerry murmured, ruffling Chino's fur. “What would I do without her, Chi?”
“Growf.” Chino put her head down on Kerry's leg.
“Damned if I know.” Kerry let out a breath, rubbing her temples. Then she opened her eyes and looked around. “Where's Mocha?”
Chino's eyebrows twitched.
“Mocha!” Kerry called out, then cocked her head to listen for puppy toenails. “Oh crap.” She hauled herself to her feet and started looking around. “Mocha!”
Chino hopped down and trotted after her, sniffing around in a puzzled kind of way.
“Where is he...” Kerry checked around the kitchen, then went back and stuck her head in Dar's office, and then the bedroom. Nothing. “One place left to check.” She went back into the kitchen and opened the back door into the garden, immediately regretting it as the brisk air hit her lightly clad body. “Oh crap.. Mocha!”
“Growf!” Chino bolted down the steps and across the grass, being met halfway to the gate by a small, dark form. “Growf!”
“Yap!” Mocha galloped towards the steps, his small ears flapping
“Get up here.” Kerry patted her leg, waiting for him to patter past before she closed the door again. “You little bugger!” She rubbed her arms “It's cold out there!”
“Yap!”
Well, at least it had taken her mind off her nightmare. Kerry went to the hall closet and got out a sweatshirt, pulling it on over her head and then laughing softly as it came down to her thighs and the sleeves went past her hands. She pushed the sleeves back up to her elbows, then went back to the table where she'd left her hot milk.
Only to find a white stained brown face looking at her, licking it's lips.
“Mocha.” Kerry put her hands on her hips.
Mocha licked his lips again, and got his front paws down off the table, seating himself and looking innocently up at her.
Kerry picked up the cup and took it back to the kitchen, rinsing it out and refilling it. She put the cup back in the microwave then crossed her arms, trying to figure out what to do next.
Finish the milk, she decided, then maybe catch a nap on the couch. Maybe think about the first time she'd slept there, on that stormy day way back when.
She smiled, remembering how carefully she'd printed out all the material she hadn't even really looked at, just to prove to Dar that she'd stuck around for legitimate reasons. What had they been? She still didn't remember, and looking back she was pretty sure neither of them were fooling either themselves or each other as she pictured those blue eyes watching her as she entered that kitchen wrapped in Dar's blanket.
Nothing of business in them. That faint little smile, that knowing arch of that dark brow and Kerry had known herself lost. Even now, as she exhaled she could feel it, a rolling, sweet richness of the soul and she somberly realized she might have found the genesis of her nightmares, this understanding of what she had and was unconsciously so afraid of losing.
Well. Kerry removed the cup of milk and brought it back into the living room. At least that was a damn good reason. She sat back down on the couch and put her bare feet up on the low table, idly watching Chino and Mocha play with a tug toy. She sipped from the cup and put her head back against the cushions, feeling the last of the twisting leave her guts.
Her mind shifted to another track. Would Dar have felt it, when she woke from the dream? Sometimes, it seemed like she could, in that odd, rarely spoken of synergy between them. But surely her partner had been sound asleep herself, tucked into bed up in Washington.
Surely. But Kerry wondered, if she went up and retrieved her new gizmo, if there wouldn't be a note there for her. With a wry grin, she put the cup down on a higher side table this time, and got up, stepping over the tussling Labradors and walking up the steps.
She felt a tickle of anticipation in her stomach as she went into the bedroom, looked at the Handspring on the bedside table, and saw the stuttering red light of a message waiting. She picked up the device, and glanced at it, shaking her head a little when she saw Dar's name outlined in the back light. “Maybe it's just a coincidence.”
She opened the note, saw the single word, 'nightmare?' on it, and abruptly sat down as her knees threatened to unlock and refuse to hold her. “Holy shit.”
Dar had known. Without a question, no doubt at all this time, sharp as a laser point. “That's so creepy.” She whispered. “But I guess in a good way.” She hit reply and answered the note. Honey, I don't know how you know this stuff, but yeah. Freaked me a little, so me and the kids are downstairs and I'm drinking hot milk and thinking about you. I was remembering that first day I fell asleep on this couch, and it made me feel a lot better. Go back to sleep!
She sent the note and studied the device, shaking her head a little. For someone as relentlessly logical as Dar was, to have this odd sense be a part of her .. well, really, be a part of both of them did seem weird and strange. It went against everything her mind told her was rational, and edged into the sort of thing she regarded as 'out there'.
Dar, of course being the logical person she was, simply accepted it and said it didn't bother her since it wasn't like something she had any control over.
Kerry wasn't bothered really by it either, she supposed, she was just curious about how it all worked. “I wonder.” She mused. “Maybe when we go out to the Grand Canyon, around those places a lot of people are into that stuff. Maybe we could ask someone.”
The Handspring sputtered red again. She chuckled and opened the response from her apparently still awake partner.
I don't know. I just get this feeling in my gut when you're freaked out and given what time it was, and the fact you were safe at home I figured it had to be a dream.
Elementally logical. Kerry smiled.
I remember that day. I remember watching you sleep there and wanting to crawl into the couch with you. You probably would have freaked out.
Ooh. Hon, maybe, maybe not. Kerry laughed silently By the time I was offering to cook for you I'd sorta figured it out.
I probably would have freaked out. But it ended up all right anyway. You go back to sleep too. See you tomorrow, hon. Miss ya. Love ya. DD
Kerry read the words a few times. “Cornerstone of my life.” She mused “Okay well, I should get back to bed because otherwise tomorrow morning's going to be a real bitch. “ She got up and went back downstairs to rescue her milk, draining the cup and bringing it back into the kitchen.
Then, with a soft grunt of decision, she turned and crossed the living room again, but this time she went into their bedroom, and rolled herself into the water bed, turning up the heater a trifle before she pulled the covers over her and closed her eyes.
Waking up a few hours later was still a little crunchy, but a cup of coffee resolved most of that and Kerry got herself, and the dogs into her car and on the road in relatively good order, though a bit later than the previous day. She settled her sunglasses on her nose for the ride, the weather being bright and sunny, with just that winter chill that convinced South Florida it did, too, have seasons.
There were already a half dozen cars in the parking lot by the time she got to the office, and as she pulled up Mayte came out to greet her. “Morning.”
“Hello, Kerry. May I take one of the doggies?” Mayte promptly responded. “You have your hands so full.”
“Sure.” Kerry amiably handed over Mocha's leash, not in the least fooled by the excuse. “Things quiet this morning?”
“Oh yes. Much more than yesterday.” Mayte said. “The new security man is here, and he is very nice.”