"Well, here we go." Alastair turned, glancing behind him as if to make sure Dar was there. "Ready, lady?"

Dar wrinkled her nose at him, and chuckled.

"Gentlemen," the polite man opening the door paused, "ah, and lady. Please come inside. Welcome."

"That's twice in sixty seconds," Dar muttered, as she followed Alastair inside, the rest of the team deferring to her. She glanced around as she crossed the thick carpet, appreciating the high ceiling and expansive proportions of the conference room.

At the head of the table sat Sir Melthon Gilberthwaite, who was such a stereotypical forties movie style British magnate Dar half suspected there was a film crew around somewhere. Seated next to him was Hans, who solemnly winked at Dar as their group entered.

"Ah, Sir Melthon." Alastair advanced confidently. "It's good to see you again."

"McLean," the magnate barked gruffly. "Good start. You lot showed up on time. I hate slackers, like this godson of mine."

Hans smiled benignly.

Alastair reached the table and took Sir Melthon's extended hand in a firm grip. "We try not to slack, though I have to tell you this time difference smacks the heck out of us." He released the man's hand and turned. "Let me introduce my team here."

Dar stood quietly waiting, letting Alastair's genial introductions of the sales team roll past her as she waited her turn. She was pretty sure that he would introduce her last as he usually did when they were in a group. She wasn't sure if it was something to do with her being a woman, or just her being her, but she realized the magnate at the end of the table was waiting as well as he looked right at her the whole time.

"And of course, our Chief Information Officer, Dar Roberts," Alastair concluded, turning to give Dar a nod, "the architect of our infrastructure."

"Sir Melthon." Dar inclined her head in response, meeting his eyes. "It's good to meet you."

The magnate stood up and walked around the table to where she was standing, shooing the others out of the way. He stopped in front of her, his head nearly but not quite even with hers, and put his hands on his hips. "You the git who kicked my godson in the rear?"

"I am," Dar replied mildly, aware of Alastair's widening eyes behind him.

"You're one of those smart mouthed women, aren't you?" Sir Melthon accused. "One of them who think they know everything?"

"Absolutely," Dar agreed. "I wouldn't be here otherwise. I don't waste my time on small potatoes and two bit thinkers." She could hear the air being sucked out of the room around her, and wondered if the two European sales managers were going to pass out right on the conference room floor. "I don't think you do either."

Sir Melthon grunted. "Hah." He turned and went back to his chair. "What's the world coming to, hah?

Foreign women in my boardroom. Scandalous!" He looked at the rest of them. "Well, you idiots! Sit down! You think I'm going to talk to you getting a crook in my neck? Especially that smart mouthed woman! Sit!"'

Everyone hastily grabbed for a chair except for Dar, who meandered around to the other side of the table and set her laptop case down first before she took a seat in one of the comfortable leather chairs. "Nice," she commented to Hans in German.

"It will get better. He likes you," Hans advised her, in a low mutter. "I think perhaps he wants to take you to bed."

Dar nodded, steepling her fingers as the sales team prepared their presentation. "Did you tell him I was married?"

"I did so," Hans replied, in a regretful tone.

"To another woman?"

The German half shrugged. "Not so much."

Dar chuckled under her breath and removed her laptop from its case, opening it and starting it up. "This is going to be a party I can tell already. He's going to love it when Kerry gets here." Hans smiled and folded his hands over his stomach, beaming contentedly at the room.

"THAT IT?" Kerry nudged the box she'd carried and lifted into the flatbed of the pickup into place. She stood up and dusted off her hands, glad she'd decided to keep her tank top on to work in as the afternoon sun warmed her skin.

"Ugh. I hope so." Mike sat down on the tailgate of the truck. "That was hard work."

"You carried three boxes." Kerry took a seat on the edge of the truck side, resting her elbows on her knees and removing the pair of leather work gloves she'd put on. "Give me a break."

Mike looked up at her. "Hey. We're not all athletic like you are." He swung his legs a little, watching his sister out of the corner of his eye as they waited for Angie to join them. As he'd expected, Kerry did in fact have visible muscles, but they weren't the kind you saw on sports shows or in those freaky infomercials.

They were just there, along her arms and shoulders, under the skin where you could see them move when she did. They didn't look bad, he decided, and they didn't look like a guy's, either. But with her cropped hair they presented a picture of her that didn't match the one he'd held in his head for a very long time.

She leaned back and crossed her ankles, resting her hands on the truck side and tipping her head back to look up at the sky, and Mike felt suddenly that this was a person he really didn't know that much about. "Hey Ker?"

"Hm?" She rolled her head to one side and looked at him. "Just kidding, Mike. I'm glad you showed up even if you didn't carry a box. It's good to see you."

He grinned. "I was gonna say pretty much the same thing. So much crap has gone on the last couple of years, it's been a bitch, you know?"

"I know," Kerry agreed. "It's been tough for me--all that stuff."

"Yeah."

"I'm glad I have Dar's family around," Kerry said, gazing at her work boots. "I don't think I was ready to not have anyone but me and her. I missed having people around me and her folks are amazing. They're at our place now, dog sitting."

"They seem really cool," Mike agreed. "Dar's mom scares me."

Kerry chuckled. "She's hilarious. There's so much of her in Dar, and neither of them will admit it. Dar looks like her Dad, but really her wit is just like her mom's."

Mike got up and climbed into the bed of the truck with her sitting down next to Kerry. "We had some fun before, though. It wasn't all bad, growing up together. I didn't think so, anyway."

"There were good times," Kerry said. "I had fun with you and Angie. I wish we could have stayed like--around ten. Once I started growing up is when things got weird." She pondered the boxes around them. "I'm really glad I didn't figure out I was gay until I left home."

"That didn't go over really well," Mike agreed. "Was it weird for you?"

Kerry thought about those long, confusing days, and after a moment of silence, she nodded. "It was really hard. For a while I wasn't sure. I knew if I had to tell the folks it would be the end of me being a part of the family." She paused. "I thought a lot about whether it was worth it."

"Telling them?"

"Living," Kerry answered briefly.

Mike turned and looked at her with a shocked expression.

Kerry looked back at him. "You have no idea what it's like," she said. "Being hated that much for something you can't change."

Mike was silent for a minute. Then he nodded. "You're right. I have no idea what that's like. I think--well, I know the folks thought you were just being stubborn, or rebelling or whatever." He frowned. "It was like, why did you have to do that?"

"For a long time I didn't. I lived with knowing I was going to have to say something sometime, but I was too scared to take the next step, until the day I met Dar." She studied her hands, her thumb rubbing against her ring. "Then I knew I couldn't pretend anymore. I had to fish or cut bait, as they say in the marina."

"Ang and I felt..." Mike paused, "well, we kind of felt like you picked Dar over us."

Kerry glanced up at him. "Actually what I did was pick me over the rest of you," she answered. "I decided my being happy was more important than my family, and you have no idea how much it hurt to have to make that choice."

Mike was quiet for a few minutes. They both looked up hearing the house door close, and saw Angie making her way toward them with one last box. "I'm glad you picked you, Ker," he said, in a serious tone. "You're one of the few people I know who, honest to God, is happy."

"Hey you two." Angie thumped the box down. She was in jeans and a sweatshirt. "That's it. I'm over packing. Anything else goes to charity." She pushed the box into the truck and sat down on the tail. "Jesus, what was I thinking keeping all that stuff?"

"Eh." Kerry leaned back again, relaxing. "I have to admit, if I had to move now with all the toys and gear and what not Dar and I have, I probably would need to hire a moving company myself. So are we ready to get this stuff over to Mom's? I need some time to get changed for the shindig tonight."

"You going like that?" Angie pulled one knee up and wrapped her hands around it. "I have to bring the camera for Mom's face if you do."

Kerry considered it, then a cool draft hit her between the shoulder blades and she looked up at the sun. "Nah." She decided. "I'll throw a sleeved shirt on. I'm going to freeze my ass off if I don't and it's not worth the freak out." She got up and went to the other side of the truck, putting her hands on the side and vaulting over it to land with some grace on the other side.

"Okay, we'll wait out here for you," Angie agreed.

Kerry raised her hand and waved as she trotted off toward the house, taking her gloves off and stuffing them in her belt as she went.