”Kerry, come on, stay with me here,” Dar urged. ”If you just knock it back in place it’s going to hurt a hell of a lot less.”

”I don’t think I can. God, Dar… ”

”Yes, you can,” Dar’s voice dropped. ”Come on now. It’ll just take a second. Grab it and twist.” She took hold of a nearby branch and clenched it as Kerry’s shaking hands fastened over the misplaced bone.

”That’s it, go on.”

Kerry closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, feeling the hard surface moving and slipping under her fingers. She fought down a queasy sensation and took as firm a hold as she could, tentatively twisting the bone out and down, conscious of the unmoving silence from her lover.

”Okay, hold on.”

She held her breath and pushed, then gasped as she felt the part slide into place. ”Did I get it?” Receiving no answer, she forced her eyes open to see a very pale Dar slumped against the debris, out cold. ”Oh shit!”

DAR BECAME GROGGILY aware of a dull, throbbing pain in her leg, and a warm tingling on her lips. She spent a moment deciding the two were probably not related, and let her eyelids drift open to see very concerned, very vibrant green eyes inches from her own. ”Uh.” She blinked and swallowed, running her tongue over her lips tentatively.

”Did you just kiss me?”

Kerry let out a shaky sigh of relief. ”Yes. I was trying to wake you up.”

”Mm. You know, shaking me would have done it too, but I’m not complaining,” Dar advised her wryly. ”Damn, sorry about that.”

”Wow, the pain must have been incredible, Dar, I...”

Her lover sighed. ”No, it wasn’t that. I mean, yes, it hurt, but not enough to knock me out.” She cleared her throat a little and struggled to sit up. ”It was the feeling of my bones grinding together. I used to pass out whenever they had to set something” She gave Kerry an apologetic look ”Should have warned you.” Her lips quirked. ”That, and long needles. Watch out.”

Kerry regarded her in mild surprise. ”Oh.” She sat back, rubbing Dar’s arm gently. ”I never would have guessed. I mean, you’re so, um...” She lifted a hand. ”You know.”

”Tough.” Dar smiled self-deprecatingly, as she eased her arms around her knees. ”I know. It’s a good act,” she acknowledged, straightening her leg carefully. ”That’s better,” she sighed. ”All right, where were we? Going to check for the others, right?”

Kerry sat back. ”Dar, why don’t you stay here? I’ll go check on 86

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everyone.” She got up, ducking under the branch they were sheltering beneath. ”Maybe I can find something for you to wrap around that.”

Dar reached over her head and grabbed the branch, pulling herself to her feet. ”No. I’d better find out now how—ouch.” She sucked in a breath, then exhaled it as she slowly put weight on her leg. It hurt, but it held, and she eased it up, flexed it a few times then put her foot back down again. ”Okay. I think that’s going to be all right.” She glanced out over the rubble. ”Jesus.”

The ground they’d been crossing had turned into a bowl like pit, with walls over thirty feet high all around them. The bottom was littered with rocks and shattered trees and a muddy seeping of water that Dar could feel chilling her soles.

A yell drifted over—her name—and they turned to see Mark climbing up on a half submerged tree trunk, waving at them. ”Come on.” Dar looked around, then picked up a broken limb to use as a support. “This could be our lucky day.”

“Lucky?” Kerry peered at her. “Let me check your head again.”

“Lucky because this pain in the ass exercise is over,” her boss clarified, “and we can go the hell home.”

“Ahh,” Kerry sighed. “Gotcha.”

They slowly made their way across the rubble, with Kerry managing to resist the urge to take Dar’s arm an entire five minutes before she gave in, gently tucking a hand inside Dar’s elbow as they went over uncertain footing. ”I know,” she started talking nervously, as she felt Dar take a breath. ”I know, and I don’t care, Dar. I’ll quit, I just...I don’t care if they know.”

Long pause. ”Um, actually, I was just going to remind you to watch out for those soft, white areas,” Dar replied gently. ”They’re limestone and probably slippery.” She paused, thinking. ”As for whether or not they know, I’m not going to worry about that right now. The important thing is for us to all get out of here.”

”Oh.” Kerry glanced down, and nodded a little. ”Okay. Sorry.” She felt a little silly. Of course Dar was right. No one would even be thinking about that now and she shouldn’t either. Duks’ comment had shaken her up a little, that was all.

Then she felt Dar’s arm shift and warm fingers curled around her own as she looked up, startled. Blue eyes gazed steadily back at her, a faint hint of challenge in the lilt of Dar’s eyebrows. Kerry smiled and gave the fingers a squeeze, then turned her attention back to finding a way across the slippery ground.

“HEY, GIVE ME a hand here,” Mark called over to where Duks was standing. ”Hold still, Mary Lou. Let me get this branch off you.” He gave Duks a nod as the Finance VP joined him and put a hand on the heavy limb. ”Thanks.”


Hurricane Watch

87

”Take it easy, Mary Lou,” Duks told the young woman as he and Mark pushed against the limb, trying to force it away from her body.

”Argh.” They shoved harder and managed to move the tree off Mary Lou’s trapped leg. ”There you go.”

”Augh.” The young woman crawled free and pulled herself to her feet. ”Thank you, thank you.” She gave Mark a grateful look as he took her arm, leading her over to where the rest of the group was gathering.

Dar was off a little ways, poking in the debris with her stick, while Kerry crouched next to Mariana, who had gotten a nasty cut on her arm.

Other than that and some bangs and bruises, they’d all survived intact, and now were standing or sitting in a rough circle, dazedly looking around them.

”Now what, Sherlock?” Steven came up behind Dar and glared at the walls blocking them in. ”You going to wave your damn broom and fly us all out of here.” He spat disgustedly. ”I can’t believe you got us into this, I think I’m going to—Urp.” The end of Dar’s stick was pinning him to a tree trunk and he struggled to breathe.

”You.” Dar pressed harder. ”Are.” She leaned closer. ”Getting.”

Her voice dropped, but somehow became more penetrating. ”On my nerves!” She paused, glaring. ”So shut up, or I’m gonna shove this stick right up your ass.” A deathly silence. ”Got me?”

Steven nodded once, then slumped as the stick was removed and he could breathe again. ”Bitch.” He rubbed his throat.

The tanned face creased into a feral smile. ”Jackass,” she responded, then turned and resumed her study of the wall.

”Oh, boy,” Mariana whispered as Kerry finished tying a bit of shirt sleeve over her cut. ”DR’s on the ragged edge, I see.”

Kerry glanced up at her boss, then exhaled. ”Yeah, but it wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t pushed her. He’s been doing that all weekend. I was sort of surprised she hadn’t said anything before.”

Truculent green eyes regarded Mariana. ”It’s not her fault.”

The Personnel VP allowed a weary smile to cross her face. ”Whose fault it is doesn’t impact the amount of paperwork I’m going to have to do for this little trip.” She nudged Kerry with her knee. ”Go see if you can settle her down a little. We don’t need police reports on top of everything else.”

Kerry blinked. ”Oh, no, Dar wouldn’t...” She paused, remembering Kyle. ”Okay. I see your point.” She stood, buckling her belt pack back around her waist and picked her way over to where Dar was standing.

Steven gave her a cold stare as she passed and she returned it with a charming smile, which seemed to annoy him a lot.

Dar was scanning the wall, her pale blue eyes flicking here and there as she rested her weight on the stick to keep if off her knee.

”That’s a possibility.” She pointed as Kerry came up next to her. ”It’d be tough, but I think we might make it, or at least a few of us would, and then we could go get help.”


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Kerry gazed up. ”You mean where those trees are hanging down?”

”Mm hmm.” Dar’s attention was tightly focused. ”Yeah, we could get a boost up there and use those roots as handholds.”

It was a possibility, Kerry reasoned. ”That might work, yeah.” She put her hand on the stick, covering Dar’s fingers, which brought the ice blue eyes down to fasten on her. ”You doing all right?”

A faint crease showed in Dar’s forehead. ”Hmm? Oh, yeah, my knee aches a little and I’ve got a killer headache, but I’m okay. How about you?”

Kerry let her eyes slide to where Steven was sitting dourly on a log, then move back to Dar’s face. One eyebrow rose in question.

Dar looked puzzled for a moment, then she rolled her eyes. ”Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I just let him get to me for a minute.” She dismissed the incident. ”We’d better get started.”

Kerry tightened her fingers on Dar’s hand. ”Maybe we should have our lunches first, give everyone a chance to calm down...hmm?”

Dar considered that. ”Maybe,” she acknowledged. ”Half an hour won’t make much of a difference, I guess.” She allowed Kerry to lead her back to the group. ”Okay.” She got their attention effortlessly. ”We obviously need to get out of here.”

”Yes,” Duks agreed. ”Quickly. This is becoming quite slimy and I suspect water will be making us float shortly.” He tapped his foot in a growing puddle of clear, cold water.

”Jesu.” José dabbed at a raw looking scratch on his head. ”We could have been killed.”