Dar paused indecisively, considering ignoring the crowd at the door.
Kerry apparently sensed that because she looked up and managed a grin, raising one hand and flicking her fingers at Dar in the direction of the door.
Reassured, Dar turned and started a somewhat dignified marching limp toward the entrance, gathering an annoyed attitude around her until by the time she got there, people were taking tiny steps backwards and gaining looks of alarm.
"Something I can do for you folks?" Dar asked, stopping in front of them and adopting as aggressive a posture as she was currently capable of.
"Hi." The woman nearest her took the lead. "My name is Elecia Rodriguez, and I'm a reporter for the Miami Herald."
"Good for you." Dar gave her no quarter.
"I'd like to speak with Kerry Stuart, please." The woman apparently had faced down unwilling participants before, and her tone didn't alter a whit.
"She's busy."
"She's sitting over there, not looking busy at all. Can I speak with her please?" The reporter replied calmly. "It's really in her best interests."
"No." Dar answered back, just as calmly. "It's in her best interests to just be left alone right now."
The reporter locked eyes with Dar. They stared each other down for a few minutes. The woman was about Dar's height, and roughly her size and Dar wondered for a minute if she was going to make a rush past her toward her quarry.
Several ILS security guards edged up around them, apparently having the same thoughts. Dar relaxed a bit, reassured that the reporter would surely not be stupid enough to risk that major of a scene no matter how juicy the story she was following was.
"Ms. Roberts, you really do want your side of the story presented here." Rodriguez finally said. "I appreciate that there's a lot going on, and you've got no reason to either want or trust the press at this point but we're not part of Mr. Quest's circus. We're local, and you're the local team. Get my drift?"
Dar paused, hearing a thread of sincerity in the statement. The woman was also being neither overbearing, nor craven, instead she was just being very straightforward and suddenly Dar remembered where she knew the reporter's name from. "That was a nice story you did on the behind the scenes of the sports industry down here," she said. "I liked it."
Caught a little off guard, the woman smiled and her body posture altered a bit. "Thanks. You have no idea how much my company hated me for it though. We lost comp tickets to almost every game in town."
Hmm. "All right." Dar paused to think. "If you can rest your laurels a few minutes, I'll see if Kerry's willing to chat with you." She pointed toward the catering table. "Help yourselves."
The reporter didn't really react, but the three men she had with her, including the camera man, lit up like Christmas trees at the sight of free food. Rodriguez regarded them with a tolerant look, then nodded at Dar. "Fair enough, and at least it's air conditioned in here. Take your time while I feed my starving wolves."
Dar gave them all a brief, last regard, then she turned and retreated back toward the shadows.
"Nice." The cameraman complimented his colleague. "Didn't think we were going to get anything there for a minute."
"Me either." Rodriguez sighed, as she led the way past the watchful guards. "But I've done this long enough to know when you're dealing with someone that smart, just drop all the bullshit and let them make the choice."
"Way different than those other guys." The man agreed.
"Way different." Rodriguez agreed. "This is going to be a good one."
DAR CROUCHED NEXT to Kerry's chair, positioning her body so she was blocking the view of anyone watching them. She put a hand on Kerry's knee and squeezed it gently. "Hey."
"Hey." Kerry responded readily.
"You doing okay?"
"My brain hurts."
Dar chuckled wanly. "My foot hurts. We're even."
Kerry reached up to ruffle her partner's hair. "So."
"So."
"You let the vandals in at the gates, I see."
Dar nodded. "It's a reporter from the Herald." She confirmed. "She wants to talk to you."
"Ah." Kerry sniffed reflectively. "Interview with a rebel biker chick on tap, I guess?"
Was it? Dar suddenly gave in to the discomfort of leaning on her injured foot and sat down instead, pulling her legs up crosswise under her. "I'm not sure." She countered. "Sounded like it was a tie in with this whole deal, but I've seen some of the stuff this one's written and it's pretty even handed."
"Hmm."
"Yeah, I thought the other reporter was all right too, I know." Dar admitted. "But I've actually read her articles. She does business angles, and she managed to take sides with Janet Reno and hasn't been ridden out on rails yet."
"Ah." Kerry leaned on her elbows again, her head resting against Dar's, not caring who was looking or not. "I feel really unbalanced right now. I'm not sure talking to a reporter is a good idea."
"Okay." Dar accepted that readily. "I just told her I would ask you." She wrapped her hand around Kerry's leg, stroking her calf gently. She could feel tension there, a rapid flexing and releasing that paid testament to her partner's rattled state. "Want something to drink?"
Kerry twirled a bit of Dar's hair around one finger, remaining silent. She tuned out the rest of the room, and just concentrated on the touch of Dar's hand around her leg, and the scent of hickory smoke that lightly clung to her from where they'd had dinner.
It was hard for her to say, really, why she was so shook up. After all, she'd acted on her conscience, and she'd turned out to be dead on right, even in Dar's eyes. So, what was her problem? "Dar?"
"Hmm?" Dar seemed quite willing to sit there as long as she was required, completely ignoring the room at her back.
""Why am I so freaked out?"
"I don't know, Ker." Dar replied honestly. "You did the right thing."
"I know I did," she whispered.
Dar leaned her chin against Kerry's knee. "Were you freaked out by my father wanting to ditch the stuff?"
Kerry was thoughtfully silent.
"He's not much into playing by the rules," Dar said, after a slight hesitation. "I mean...I guess I mean he's willing to go to any length for what he thinks is the greater good."
"Yeah." Kerry nodded. "Maybe that's it. I knew he wanted to do that for us. But it was just...it was..."
"Wrong." Dar supplied.
"Yeah."
Dar shrugged a little. "Shari and Michelle would have agreed with him in a heartbeat."
Kerry lifted her head and gazed into Dar's eyes, visibly more collected. "Oh, I know," she said. "Hey, listen." She hesitated.
"Want me to arrange to give them this stuff while you go talk to the reporter?" Dar suggested.
"You're reading my mind again." Kerry lifted her hand and rubbed a smudge of dust from the bridge of Dar's nose. "Do you know half the room is watching us?"
"And?"
"I don't care either." Kerry relaxed at last, leaning back in the chair and extending her legs out past Dar's knee. "Okay. I'll go wrangle with the Herald, and you can smirk and make Michelle feel like an idiot while you turn over these boxes. Here she comes."
Dar patted her leg, and got to her feet, catching her balance against the boxes and straightening up as she spotted Michelle's short figure headed in her direction. "Didn't bring her entourage."
Kerry also got up and headed off, giving Dar a gentle slap on the butt as she went by. "Of course not. No fun in being filmed eating crow."
No, of course not. Dar squared her shoulders and waited as Michelle approached, wrestling a deadpan look on her face. "Evening."
Michelle stopped, glancing past her at Kerry's retreating back. "She drops the bombshell; you get to bask in the stink?"
Dar leaned against the boxes. "The only stink around here is coming from you," she replied bluntly. "Where's your box mover? Or are you planning on dragging them back yourself?"