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“Yeah, but only every other one is manned. Personnel shortages still,” he patted her arm to reassure her. “It’s getting better though. More shadows coming up every year. Oh, and I wired up to IT about your meeting.”

“I actually feel a little better now…”

Joseph interrupted her. “Until you stand up, you probably will. First things first. Let’s get you in there and onto a couch for a proper rest. This landing can’t be comfortable.”

With each of them supporting one of her arms she stood up carefully. The pain in her foot those first few steps was so bad that she shuffled along like an old woman. She didn’t want to but couldn’t stop herself. They slowly crossed the landing and by the time they had entered the main doors, they were bearing almost all of her weight. She dropped to the couch like a sack.

Sela let out a puff of air with the release of her weight and said, “Mom, I’m sorry. I guess you really are hurting.” For the first time, she looked concerned and she turned to her father, “Is she really going to be okay? You’re sure this isn’t serious?”

He shook his head, poured a cup of water from a pitcher considerately left for them and passed it to his wife. He helped her lift her legs onto the couch since the groans that came from her trying to lift them on her own were pitiful. When she sighed in relief at being still and lying down he answered his daughter.

“No, not serious as in permanent or crippling, but it really is painful. Anyway, they can do some things that will get her back on her feet if we’re careful and she limits herself. You’re just lucky you’re young.”

“Why? I don’t remember you ever having anything like this.”

“No, not yet.” He looked at her, grinned a little and said, “But you’re looking at your future if you stay a deputy long enough. It happens to us all eventually. Some sooner than others. Porters too, now that I think about it. That’s how they know it’s getting time to look at when they’ll transfer to Maintenance.”

Sela blanched and looked at her mother again. “You’re just saying that, right? Joking?”

He shook his head slowly and a bit mischievously, “Nope. Not even a little bit joking. You can’t stay on your feet forever.”

From below them on the couch, Marina said, her eyes closed and her voice droll, “It’s so nice that I can be an object lesson for others regarding their future degradation and how they’ll fall apart.”

All three of them laughed a little at that but it was a short lived respite. A young man wearing Turquoise and not wearing a shadow patch, much to Marina’s secret relief, came in a few minutes later. He gave her an injection for inflammation and pain that worked to send it to the background quickly.

He examined her feet and her boots and tsked at the deputy for not doing this prior to a climb with someone who didn’t normally spend much time on the stairs. From his pack he pulled out some felted pads and stuck those in her boots. He also gave her two small vials of pills to keep her pain and swelling at bay.

Once she had her boots on her feet, now including the wonderful pads, and confirmed she could walk, he demonstrated how she should climb the stairs for the time being. It was embarrassing to think of walking like that, flat footed and so careful, in front of all the people that would travel the stairs around them.

He must have seen this on her face because he became stern then, the look incongruous on his smooth young face. He advised her of exactly how bad it could get if she didn’t take great care now. She had no desire to be trapped anywhere for a week without the ability to walk back home. Better embarrassed than stuck, she figured.

The final instruction from the medic made Sela’s face fall in disappointment. Marina was to climb only one level at a time upward and 3 downward. That was for her thighs as well as her feet and she must rest and sit before taking the next bit of stairs. Even she couldn’t hide her disappointment at these words. At that rate it would take far too long to do all that they had planned. There was also no way she was going to be able to investigate her find.

The medic saw this. He must have been all too aware of her predicament because he said in a more gentle tone, “I see this more than you think. People who go a few levels at a time each day, at most, suddenly have to pack in as much as possible in a few days. Some I see after trying to make it seventy levels or more. You should see what shape I find them in!”

Marina could only imagine and said nothing.

“The point I’m trying to make is that it’s not the end of your vacation. These two are doing fine,” he stopped speaking and looked them both over, a quick appraisal in the look and asked, “You are fine, right?”

Both of them nodded and he returned his kindly gaze to Marina, “Since they are in good shape, they can do some of the running around. What you need to do is figure out what’s most important for you to do and then plan a way to get that done. If you want to see the Up-Top Screen, you still can. You just won’t see it today and you may have to skip something else. You want to shop in the Garment District? You can do that too, so long as you plan correctly. Okay?” The last he said with a paternal pat on her shoulder, the action again at odds with his boyish face.

She gave him a faint, disappointed nod but said nothing and he removed his hand from her shoulder to pull a little clipboard full of papers out. He scribbled on one and then another before handing both to Marina.

“One of those is a Rest Chit. I made it for a week but if you need it longer you can go see any medic. It will give you access to one of the rooms at the way stations on every third level so you can rest and put your feet up.” He turned to Joseph and said, “And I really recommend you make sure that happens.”

Marina smiled at the guilty look on Joseph’s face and was about to tease him about making her do anything but the medic continued.

“The other one is a Berth chit. I don’t know all your plans but that will get you a bunk for the night at any Medic Station. That’s also for a week. There aren’t many, some just have two fold down bunks, so try to get a message to whatever level you’re going to need well ahead of time. You certainly can’t traipse about back and forth to the hotel if you go too far up or down.”

When the medic finally left and the family was left alone in the room with only the whisper of the ventilation to break the silence, Marina tried to re-work their plans in her head. It was no use and no matter which way she figured it, she wound up costing her family important vacation time. Joseph and Sela were seated on the other couch in the room and both seemed to be thinking gloomy thoughts as well. Finally, Marina broke the silence.

“Okay. This stinks and I’m sorry. Let’s figure out how to fix this or at least not let it mess up too much of our vacation.”

After an extended bout of negotiation and comparing notes, the family wound up with a list and a workable plan. The list was messy, some things crossed out and others cramped in between those lines, but everything that was really important would happen, even if it was without Marina.

For herself, she became far less interested in shopping when the whole purpose of this trip, her investigation, would be in jeopardy. She had no idea how she would ever arrange such an opportunity again and her priorities had changed.

She tried, despite her own desires, to keep the needs of her family at the top of her mind, but she also realized that she had been given a little gift in this unexpected injury in some ways. Her family would need to do some things on their own and leave her behind. She could then follow the trail of her investigation without much interference. She tried not to smile as she carefully copied out the final list so that both Joseph and she could have a reference for where the other was.