"No one knew what to bring. No one had any idea of what the heck was going on. It was like a teacher's workday in Idiotville. She complained. "I'm glad you woke me up. I was just getting to the point where I was going to start..."
"Throwing food?" Dar suggested. "Seems to be a standard practice in our circle."
"Ahem."
They both chuckled. Then Kerry sighed. "Well, I'm up now." She lamented. "You?"
"Yeah."
"How about we have a biscuit on the porch and watch the sun rise then go over to the gym?" Kerry said. "I grabbed a new flavor coffee at the market the other day and I've been meaning to try it."
It sounded pretty appealing to Dar, who gave up on her snoozing plans with only a faint regret. She reached over and turned on the bedside lamp, which produced a soft glow calculated not to shock the eyeballs. Kerry had selected the appliance replacing a somewhat brighter one that had been a holdover from Aunt May's day. "Go go go."
Kerry waited for Dar to roll up out of the waterbed before she followed suit, rubbing her bare arms as the chill air hit them. She grabbed the shirt Dar tossed her and slipped into it, then briefly wished for a pair of slippers as she followed Dar out of the room.
Chino was already waiting at the back door, tail wagging gently as they entered the kitchen. Dar detoured to let the Labrador out, and paused on the steps to watch the pre-dawn stars twinkle in the sky.
The air was warm and full of moisture, and the scent of salt water and grass was thick. Dar sucked in a lungful, almost able to taste the richness on the back of her tongue as a breeze brushed over her body. She could remember air like this as part of her world from the time she was old enough to recognize anything. She spared a brief moment of nostalgia for a time when all it would have meant was another lazy summer day full of thunderstorms and dust, and maybe some coconuts to break open.
With a faint sigh, she turned and leaned on the door jamb, watching Kerry as she measured coffee from a lidded container into their coffee machine. Despite the faded shirt and sleep disheveled hair, or maybe because of it, she found herself smiling at the sight.
"So." Kerry leaned on the counter and watched the water start to percolate through the grinds. "We've got an executive meeting at nine. What's the angle you're going to put on that, Dar?"
"Shh." Dar circled her and kissed her on the back of the neck. "I don't want to talk about angles until we're in the car on the way there."
Kerry turned her head and peered up at her partner. "Just trying to mentally prepare," she protested mildly. "It's going to be a free for all, y'know."
"I know." Dar rested her chin on Kerry's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. We'll just take it as it comes. Now," she bumped her lightly, "what was that about sunrise and a cookie?"
"A biscuit." Kerry bumped her back with a tolerant grin. "I think I have some whole wheat crackers we could try."
Dar snorted.
"Yeah, okay. Grab the banana nut cakes from the fridge and I'll get the coffee." Kerry acknowledged. "And I'll figure out something safe to talk to you about."
Dar paused in the middle of removing a package of muffins, and looked at her. "That's not what I--"
Kerry raised her eyebrows.
"Ker, it's going to be an entire day of that crap. Any reason to start it early?" Dar asked plaintively.
"Yes." Kerry looked back at her seriously. "I want to be ready for it, and I want a comfort level with how you feel about all this stuff before we go in there. It would make me feel a lot better."
Dar blinked. "Oh."
"You asked." She shrugged slightly, a faint twitch starting at the corners of her mouth. "But I like being able to answer you honestly, and not have either of us freak out, you know that?"
On the verge of slightly freaking out, Dar relaxed instead. "Yeah," she agreed. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking." She put the muffins down and removed a package of whipped cream cheese, setting it down as well. "Story of my life lately."
"That's the second time you said that recently." Kerry poured the now finished coffee into a carafe and snagged two cups. "C'mon." She led the way to the sliding glass doors to their porch and paused, as Dar reached past her to unlock them and push them open.
They walked outside and settled down at the table, the sound of the surf now more audible as a fairly strong breeze fluttered their shirts against their bodies. "Oo." Kerry set her burden down and walked to the balcony, enjoying the fresh air.
Dar took a seat at the table and poured two cups of coffee, fixing Kerry's and setting it next to the other chair. She removed a muffin from the container and cut it in half, studiously covering both the flat surfaces with cream cheese.
Kerry came over and sat down, taking her cup and sipping at it. "Thank you."
Pale blue eyes flicked up and regarded her. "You're welcome." She handed Kerry half the muffin and took the other half for herself. "You know something?"
Kerry nibbled at her muffin. "You have no clue what you're going to do in that meeting," she stated, eyes twinkling very gently. "I figured that out while we were walking out here because if you did know what you were going to do, you'd have said it already instead of pushing me off since yesterday."
Dar took a bite of her muffin, more than a little disconcerted. "Um..."
"Am I wrong? It's okay if I am. I was just--" Kerry half shrugged. "You know." She slid one foot under the table and rubbed Dar's with it. "I don't want to rattle you, hon. I just feel rattled myself, and I hate that."
Dar, of course, hated it also. She wasn't really feeling rattled as much as she was feeling like she was not in control of whatever was going on and she hated that even more. Things were happening that surprised her, and knocked her off guard, and it was difficult to keep having to adjust her inner plans to account for totally bizarre?
Off balance. It struck a chord somewhere, and suddenly Dar remembered exactly why she hated feeling that way, and exactly when she'd been taunted about her reaction to it. "Huh."
"Dar?"
Everything had conspired lately against her, but was it just the vagaries of fate, or did she detect a subtle, long finger nailed hand behind it?
"Hello, Dar?" Kerry reached over and curled her fingers around Dar's wrist. "Earth calling?"
Dar cocked her head to one side. "I was just remembering something," she murmured. "Anyway, yeah, I think you're right, Ker. I mean...I know basically what we're gonna do." She leaned her elbows on the table and nibbled her way around the edge of her muffin. "We're gonna cancel that meeting."
"Uh?" Kerry got caught in mid-sip. "What?"
"You and I are just going to concentrate on the ship," Dar said firmly. "We've got a project to complete, and the rest of the stuff going on can wait. Duks can handle his security breach, and our security department can handle the cleaning staff."
Kerry rested her chin on her fist. "Um...okay."
"It's a distraction." Dar looked her right in the eye. "Someone's trying very hard to keep you, and I, off balance and not concentrating on this project." She bit her muffin in half, and watched crumbs litter the table. "We're not going to let them do that anymore."
Mental whiplash was no kinder than the physical kind Kerry discovered. She studied her partner for a minute then merely shook her head. "Whatever you say, boss," she replied. "So, you want me to send a note to..."
"The battling burritos, yes." Dar sounded much more decisive now. "Tell them we'll be at the ship all day and nothing short of a hurricane better interrupt us." She sliced the other muffin in half and adorned it, then nudged Kerry's hand. "C'mon, we've got crunches to do, treadmills to pound...start chewing."
Obediently, Kerry did, glad at least that some sort of direction seemed to be coming back into her partner's attitude. Whether that direction was going to take them both off the road into the water, she didn't know, but heck.