He remembered watching her sit at the counter in their tiny kitchen down south in just such a pose, pouring over a comic book or a new magazine as she waited for them to have dinner. The look of absorption hadn't changed, or the rapid flicking as her eyes scanned across her subject with an intense focus he'd recognized as something he'd seen in himself on occasion.
It had always made him feel good...that echo. Andy knew he wasn't a stupid man, but he knew as well he wasn't no scientist and he'd taken a lot of pride in his daughter's accomplishments specially knowing he'd contributed to a bit of it in his own way.
Mah kid. He smiled, watching Dar shift restlessly as she wrote, recognizing the fidgets as well.
"All right." Dar finished writing and straightened, ripping the top sheet off the pad of paper and handing it to a waiting tech. "Get these units together, and get 'em on a flatbed. We'll start at the top of the ship and work down."
"Not from the bottom first, ma'am?" the tech queried. "Wouldn't it be easier?"
Dar leaned on her arms and pinned him with a cool, blue stare. "You think it's gonna be easier to carry those things up eleven flights of metal stairs now, or this afternoon?"
The tech looked at the list, then at Dar. "Oh." He scratched his jaw sheepishly. "Sorry, yeah. You're right. No elevators in there, huh?"
"No."
"Gotcha, on the way, ma'am." The tech trotted off with his list.
Dar shook her head and went back to her pad, then paused and turned her head, as though sensing her father's eyes on her. "Hey." She put her pencil down as she spotted him.
"Hey there, Dardar." Andrew came over and rested his forearms on the desk. "How are ya?"
Dar drummed her thumbs on the bad faux wood Formica. "Wanting this damn circus to be over. How's it going in there?"
"Not bad," her father said. "Saw Kerry go on up in there. She all right with them guys?" He expressed a little doubt. "Got some roughneck types up in them spaces up a ways."
Dar frowned. "My guys?" she asked incredulously. "Dad, most of them won't even cough hard in her presence."
"Naw, them contractors." Andrew shook his head. "'Lectricans and what all." He glanced around. "Not these here fellers. I figure they ain't most of 'em dangerous as bugs."
No, probably not. Dar glanced at the back door. "Well." She drummed the table again. "There's always a chance, I guess, but she's got some of the techs with her, and I'm not gonna be the one to tell her she can't be in there."
"Heh." Andrew chuckled shortly. "Well, I'll keep an earbug out."
He turned and looked around. "How's your laig?"
"Ick." Dar answered honestly. "Thanks for asking."
Andrew gave her arm a pat. "We'll get this thing done, Dardar. Don't you worry." He turned and headed for the back door, threading his way through the techs that all turned and looked after him.
Dar exhaled. She pulled her PDA out and tapped out a message, then unclipped her cell phone as it rang and checked the caller ID.
Duks.
With a sigh, she answered it.
"OKAY, LET'S START with the number one room." Kerry threaded her way through the hall, dodging rolls of carpet and stacks of steel supports. The two techs followed obediently after her, carrying the first of their heavy pieces of gear between them.
The hallways flickered with intermittent power, and they were full of workers all trying to get their part of the job done at the same time and mostly in the same space. Tempers were hot, the air was hotter, and Kerry already felt sweat making her t-shirt cling to her torso.
Not a nice feeling. Kerry had never enjoyed sweating though she didn't mind it in small doses, as when she was in the gym or if they were outside on the beach. But she liked the opportunity to limit it and have copious amounts of some kind of water at close hand.
At first, she'd thought she was being just too preppy about it, and for a while after they'd moved in together, she hadn't said anything about it one way or another to Dar, until she realized one morning that it was so muggy outside the windows in the town house were completely fogged over...
"Ugh." Kerry pressed her hands against the sliding glass doors, feeling the chill of them against her skin. "I'm sweating already."
Dar walked up behind her and looked over her shoulder at the misty scene. "Ah. Summer."
Well, Kerry told herself, buck up. It's only an hour, and you can't show your northern stripes yet. She straightened up a little and pushed off from the window. "Time's a wasting." She started for the door, only to be brought up short as Dar caught her around the waist with one long arm. "Urf?"
"You want to go running in that?" Dar queried.
Kerry peeked up at her. "Um...there's a choice?"
Dar leaned her arms on Kerry's shoulders and gazed into her eyes. "Sure," she said. "There's no rule that says we have to do anything we don't want to do, Ker."
"I thought you liked running."
"I like fitting into my clothes," Dar replied frankly. "Only idiots like spending the morning in air thick enough to make soup from, running in circles."
"Ah." Kerry felt better. "So you don't like sweating that much?"
"I don't like sweating at all." Dar grinned. "Or didn't the 65 degree constant AC in here tip you off to that?" She indicated the windows. "How about we go swimming instead?"
"Swimming?"
Dar nodded. "The big pool's great for laps."
Cool water and Dar in a bathing suit. Hmm. "You don't think I'm a wuss? Or a pathetic snowbird?"
Dar snickered. "We could start the morning off right and skinny dip."
"C'mon." Kerry turned her back on the fogged window feeling much friendlier to the humidity all of a sudden. "Race you to the pool."
"Ma'am?"
Kerry looked up and wiped the smile off her face, along with a healthy dose of perspiration from her forehead. "Sorry. What?"
"We have to take this upstairs, right?" the man asked. "Like, by walking?"
Kerry gave him a sympathetic look, as they edged past stacks of metal poles. "Unfortunately, yeah," she said. "I'll give you guys a hand going up with it," she offered. "I know it's heavy."
The closest tech released one hand off the switch and waved it at her. "Oh, no, no, that's okay, ma'am. We're fine! Honest."
"Yeah." The other tech grunted. "We can handle this."
Kerry gave them both a dubious look, and kept her comments to herself. She led the way to the wide center stair case and started up turning to keep an eye on the two techs as they trudged upward.
The steps had been stripped of carpet and were a treacherous combination of cracked wood and treading strips. Kerry could feel her boots sticking to them a little, and she kept her eyes on the ground trying to spot dangerous items like upward facing nails.
She was fairly sure her thick soled shoes would stand up to it, but given the accumulated grime in the stairwell, a puncture could possibly be life threatening.
A new frame had been welded in place for a handrail, but the top was still open metal studded with bolts. Kerry was very cautious in taking hold of it, and as she climbed upward, the light started dimming so she retrieved her flashlight from her back pocket and turned it on. "Careful," she warned. "I think they're welding up here."
"Great," one of the techs muttered.
Kerry paused on the landing as her PDA chirped. "Okay, let's break for a rest here a second." She stepped to one side of the landing and flipped the device open, as the techs let the switch rest on the steps. They were sweating, and breathing hard, and Kerry debated as to whether she should call them out on their macho.
Hey. Watch out for the tradesmen in there. Dad says they look like a rough bunch.