Even the slight sound was enough to get a response from Kerry, however, who murmured and opened her eyes, reaching instinctively out as Dar shifted. “Hey.”

“It’s okay. I’m just stretching,” Dar reassured her, seeing the sleep fogged and slightly dazed eyes peering anxiously back at her. “How are you feeling?” She cleared the very disheveled hair out of Kerry’s eyes and watched her blink a few times in confusion. “Ker?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kerry’s brow creased slightly. “Mmph.” She cleared her throat slightly and tentatively shifted. “Not too bad,” she murmured, in a surprised tone. “What time is it?”

“Five.”

“Jesus.” Kerry swallowed. “No wonder my mouth feels like cotton wadding.” She drew in a breath and rolled over onto her back, stretching out cautiously under the covers. Other than her sore shoulder, everything 404 Melissa Good seemed to be pretty much okay, and she wiggled her toes, feeling a hundred times better than before she’d gone to sleep.

Except for one thing. “I’m starving,” she informed the popcorn ceiling. “Are you starving?” She laid her hand over her very empty feeling stomach.

“I dunno. Let me get enough kinks out to stand up, then I’ll let you know.” Dar groaned, as she slowly extended her legs and arched her back. “Son of a…” She felt like one huge cramp. “Ow.”

Kerry patted her thigh. “Easy there, tiger,” she murmured. “I can’t believe we slept so late. I wonder what’s going on.”

Dar slid out from under the covers and got to her feet, rubbing the back of her neck and walking gingerly. “I’ll turn on the news.” She limped over to the connecting door between their room and her parents and stuck her head inside, smiling at the dark, quiet room with its sleeping occupants. She drew back out and shut the door carefully. “Still snoozing.” She yawned and scratched her belly, then hit the remote for the television and trudged towards the bathroom. “I think I am hungry, now that you mention it.” Walking around loosened things up a little, though her back was still protesting.

“Good.”

Dar listened to Kerry rustle around for a minute, then she used the restroom, ran water in the sink, and splashed handfuls of it over her face.

It was cold and faintly metallic smelling, but it worked to wake her up.

She patted her skin dry and regarded her reflection, smoothing her dampened hair back off her face. “Mmm.” One finger touched a bruise covering half her cheekbone. “Last time I had one like that, I was still in high school.”

She met the eyes in the mirror for a moment, then turned the light out and reentered the room to find Kerry sitting up in bed, cradling her arm. “Oh, wait.” She grabbed the sling and held it up. “Need this?” She walked over at Kerry’s nod and adjusted the canvas support around her, then sat down on the bed and glanced at the menu Kerry had open in front of her.

“Ooo.” She made a grab for the folder, spotting something interesting.

“Ah ah.” Kerry tugged it back one handed. “Dinner first, then dessert.” She scanned the choices, then picked up the phone and dialed room service. “Hello…ah, yes, it is.” A pause. “Thank you. Um…I’d like to order something for dinner?” She scowled at the television, which was on a shopping channel. “Put on CNN, will you?”

Dar keyed the remote, but left the sound down.

“Yes, thanks. Um, two of the clam chowder.” She put the phone against her chest. “How do ribs sound?”

Dar tickled hers lightly. “Fine.”

“Stop that.” Kerry hissed. “Two orders of the ribs. No, the full rack.”

A pause. “Do you have anything bigger? A what? No. No. That’s okay.

I’ll pass on the cow.” She rolled her eyes. “Baked potatoes sound great Eye of the Storm 405

and the salads, yeah.” Another pause. “A large pot of coffee, and um,”

she flipped the page, “two of the Death by Chocolate Killer Mountain Brownies with vanilla ice cream and fudge sauce.”

Dar scratched an ear. “When you put it like that, it sounds so excessive,” she muttered.

“It is.” Kerry smiled. “Yes, thanks, that’s great.” She hung up the phone. “About thirty minutes.” She reached over and turned the sound up, as a familiar scene appeared.

“The explosion, believed to be centered in the middle of the seventh floor, set off a chain reaction when it touched off the gas supply inside the hospital,” the announcer said gravely. “Two hundred people are believed dead, and today the FBI has started investigating, citing a tip they received that this horrible tragedy might not have been an accident.”

“Two hundred people.” Kerry breathed. “Oh my god, Dar.”

“Senator Roger Stuart, in Washington for Senate hearings on his conduct was an eyewitness. Seen here, as he assisted in evacuating victims from the floor worst hit, he stated that so far as he could tell, there was no warning, just a huge explosion that shook the entire building.”

Kerry stared at the screen, seeing her father’s battered face and burned clothing through a faint haze of memory. The camera showed the firefighters perched outside the broken window, and what was, unmistakably, her father’s outline as he handed out one of the children.

Through a billow of smoke she could also see Andrew’s distinctive form, but it seemed like a dream to her, not something that she’d lived through only half a day prior.

Dar blinked at the screen, which showed further film and a close up of the window as a thick puff of black, oily looking smoke poured out.

“Damn.” She watched a dimly seen figure holding onto one of the women, as they climbed into the firefighter’s basket and it occurred to her suddenly that she was watching herself. “Is that…”

“You,” Kerry murmured. “Yeah it is.”

The film cut to Dar clambering over the edge of the basket herself, then all of them ducking as an explosion shook the screen, sending a fire-ball out inches from the erratically weaving platform.

“Oh my god. You just...” Kerry’s eyes widened. “Dar.” She turned her head.

“Yeah.” Dar put a reassuring arm around her. “It was kinda close. I made Dad go before me. I wanted to make absolutely sure he was okay.”

Kerry leaned her head against Dar’s shoulder. “I’m glad I didn’t realize how close you came. I’d have had nightmares, I know it.”

“I thought I was going to have nightmares but I didn’t.” Dar sighed.

“I think I just want to forget the whole thing.” She looked down at her hands, which were covered with tiny cuts and scrapes and really stung.

“It’s sort of a blur already.”

Kerry thought about that. “I remember you being very brave,” she commented softly. “I remember you saving my butt a few times along with some other people’s.”


406 Melissa Good

“I just wanted to get you out of there,” Dar replied. “I didn’t really care about those other people.”

“That’s not true. You cared about your parents,” Kerry objected.

“Well, yeah.”

“You cared about those kids.”

Dar didn’t answer.

“Dar, why is it so hard for you to accept your own heroism?” Kerry asked.

She didn’t get an answer for a while, then Dar shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know.”

Kerry tucked a hand inside her elbow and studied Dar’s face, its battered profile still and somber. “This really rocked you, didn’t it?”

Dar nodded.

“You want to talk about it?”

Dar drew in a breath. “Not yet.” She gave Kerry a brief, honest look.

“But I will…and you’ll be the first one to hear it.”

Kerry smiled at her. “Fair enough.” She leaned over and kissed Dar’s arm. “How are you feeling?”

Now she got a bit of a wryly raised eyebrow.

“Like a truck ran over me,” Dar answered honestly. “I think I pulled a few things. My back’s really hurting.”

“Maybe they can slide a few x-rays on you when they get my shoulder tonight,” Kerry stated pointedly. “I’m not surprised your back hurts.

You carried my butt for fifteen minutes. Good grief, Dar. I’m surprised you didn’t get a hernia on top of it.”

That even got a smile. “Didn’t even occur to me. I wasn’t in a reasonable frame of mind, I don’t think.”

The television caught their attention. “The Senate committee investigating Senator Stuart has informed CNN that they have postponed further hearings for a short period—perhaps until after the holidays to allow the senator to recover from his ordeal.”

“Oh my god. Did he just say we can go home?” Kerry blurted.

“Yeah. I think so.” Dar now smiled again in frank relief. “Maybe you don’t have to come back.”

“In related news, International Logistics Services confirmed that two of the survivors from the explosion were ILS CIO, Dar Roberts, and Director of Operations, Kerrison Stuart, who is Senator Roger Stuart’s daughter. Both were reportedly there visiting Ms. Stuart’s sister, who was in labor at the time.”

“Ew.” Kerry scrunched her face up. “I don’t like being a sound bite.”

“According to Chief Executive Officer, Alastair McLean, both employees were among the group rescued from the seventh floor, and he identified Ms. Roberts as the person CNN has been showing in this spectacular piece of footage all afternoon.”

“Ew.” Dar covered her eyes. “Alastair, did we need the publicity that badly?”

“Mr. McLean stated that he was not surprised at the heroism shown Eye of the Storm 407

by Ms. Roberts, a fifteen year employee of ILS, and that he was glad to rush ILS resources to the scene to assist the injured.” The announcer cleared his throat. “CNN featured Ms. Roberts in a Businessline interview only this morning, regarding the ATM outage the previous day.”