“I hate nightmares,” Kerry whispered.
“I don’t think anyone likes them, sweetheart,” Dar said. “I know I don’t.” She rocked Kerry a little, unsettled by the spate of bad dreams her partner had suffered from ever since they’d gotten back from Michigan. The worst of the recurrent nightmares was of Kerry watching her father die in the hospital, and Dar found herself wondering how long it would take for that horror to fade. “Was it the same dream?”
“Yeah.” Kerry lifted her head and rested her cheek against Terrors of the High Seas 51
Dar’s arm. “Bah.” Her voice had lost its hoarseness, though, and seemed more normal in tone. “What a way to wake up.”
Dar stroked her cheek. She could see the sparkling remains of tears caught in Kerry’s lashes, but her expression had relaxed and she appeared much calmer. “And here I thought I’d let you get a little extra sleep. Shoulda woke you up and made you go do calisthenics with me.”
“Mm. Yeah,” Kerry agreed with a wry smile. “Or at least let me watch.” She poked Dar in the belly, a reassuringly playful action.
“I don’t wake up like this when we wake up together.”
No, Dar realized. That’s true. “I’ll keep it in mind next time.”
She gave Kerry a hug. “Interest you in some breakfast?”
A green eyeball peeked up at her. “You cooking?”
“Yep,” Dar said. “Unless you think that might seem like too much of another nightmare.”
Kerry smiled wanly. “As long as it comes with some aspirin.
I’ve got a headache that would knock down an AS400 at a hundred paces.”
Dar slid her hands up to clasp the back of Kerry’s neck, kneading it gently. Kerry slumped against her again and her eyes closed as Dar carefully probed the tense muscles she found under her fingertips. “Hang on.” She eased a knot at the base of her lover’s skull and felt her vertebra shift. “Hm.”
“What’s the verdict, Dr. Dar?” Kerry asked.
Dar kissed her on the head. “Dr. Dar says you get to spend the entire day lazing around with me and relaxing.”
“Ooh.” Kerry exhaled. “That sounds like great medicine.”
Dar gave her a last rub and then got up from the bed. “I’ve got some water on. C’mon.”
Kerry willingly scrambled out from under the covers and followed her like a puppy, one finger hooked in the back of Dar’s swimsuit. She released her partner as they came even with the bathroom. “Let me just put something on, and wash the sleep out of my eyes.”
Dar kept going, ducking behind the counter and reaching for the rattling water pot. “Hush.” She scowled at it as she picked it up and poured the boiling water into the cups she had ready. She left the grounds to steep while she got out two bowls, then filled one from the box she’d gotten down earlier. She then removed some strawberries from the small refrigerator and set to work cutting them into slices, which she let fall on top of the cereal. She had finished several when Kerry appeared, her hair damp and her body clad in a T-shirt.
Kerry went over and leaned on the counter, resting her cheek against Dar’s upper arm. “Thank you for cooking my Wheaties, honey.”
52 Melissa Good Dar laughed silently.
“You made them just the way I like them.” Kerry plucked a flake from the bowl and put it into her mouth, chewing it. “Just right.”
“You’re welcome,” Dar drawled. “Want to go outside?”
“Sure.” Kerry turned and opened the refrigerator, removing a yogurt and adding it to the tray Dar had sitting on the counter. She put the two cups of coffee and some milk on it as well, then stepped back as Dar finished pouring her own breakfast into a bowl and picked up the tray.
She followed Dar onto the back deck, smiling a bit as the cool sea air blew against her. She waited for Dar to put the tray down on the little table, then she took her usual left hand seat and reached for her coffee. A few sips of the brew seemed to ease her headache, and she leaned back, propping one bare foot up against the footrest and gazing off toward the horizon.
The nightmare had shaken her. Kerry put down her cup and picked up her bowl, pouring some milk over the flakes and patting them down with her spoon. She took a mouthful and chewed, one ear cocked to catch the louder crunching as Dar munched on her favorite Frosted Flakes.
Watching her father die had been bad enough. But in her dream, after she relived that again, and again, and again, her father’s stiffened figure would be replaced with Dar’s, and the feeling of utter helplessness and the shock of loss drove her to wake screaming every time.
Kerry forced herself to swallow past the sudden lump in her throat.
“Ker?”
How does she know? Kerry glanced to her right. “Hm?”
Dar was watching her with an expression of concern. “You okay?”
C’mon, Kerrison, get yourself together and let it go. It’s just a damn dream. “Yeah.” She smiled at Dar, trying to convey her gratitude without saying it.
Apparently receiving the message, Dar’s face relaxed and her eyes gentled.
“So.” Kerry firmly shifted her focus. “Tell me more about Charlie and Bud.” She dug into her cereal again. “And Dad.”
“Mmph.” Dar swallowed a mouthful of flakes. “Long story.”
“My favorite kind,” Kerry said.
“They were in a special training class together,” Dar said between bites. “Dad says from the very start, Bud was always confronting him, challenging him, while Charlie was just the opposite.”
“Uh huh.”
Terrors of the High Seas 53
“So, after they graduated, the three of them plus about six other guys were assigned to a special ops unit, and they shipped out for six months,” Dar went on. “Dad said Charlie was a great guy, real friendly, all right to hang out with, but Bud was your typical antisocial, military hardass.”
“I see.”
“They were…somewhere…and ended up under fire,” Dar said.
“I don’t really know what happened, and I’m not sure I want to ask Dad, but they walked into a mine, I guess. They lost two guys and Dad ended up carrying Charlie out.”
“Oh.”
“After that, Charlie got discharged, and a month later, Bud didn’t re-up. They hung out around the guys at the base, though, and it came out that they were lovers.”
“Ah.” Kerry finished her cereal and started on her yogurt.
“So then, Bud accused my Dad of chasing after his partner. He somehow was convinced that the only reason Dad got Charlie out of that firefight was because he wanted to impress him and get between the two of them.” She shook her head. “Bud’s a couple chips short of a motherboard, if you ask me.”
“No.” Kerry disagreed mildly. “He’s just not facing the real picture.” She swallowed a mouthful of the plain dairy and pointed the spoon at her partner. “He doesn’t want to think about the fact that the guy he’s in love with is head over heels in love with your father.”
Dar stopped eating, the spoon still in her mouth. She turned round, almost comical eyes on her partner.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t know that,” Kerry spluttered.
“C’mon, Dar!”
Dar removed the spoon. “Kerry, it took a medical exam for me to figure out I had a crush on you. Gimme a break, okay?”
Suppressing a smile, Kerry went back to her cereal as she watched Dar process out of the corner of her eye.