Angie looked at the picture, and then she looked at Kerry, who smiled charmingly at her. "You're lucky you're my sister, and I love you."

"Can I Mom?"

DAR SPREAD HER arms out across the bed and let her body relax, wincing a little as the stiffness from sitting as long as she had eased.

It felt very, very good to just lie down and do nothing. The day had seemed to her to last at least a week, and to have it be quiet, and still with just the sound of a ticking wall clock around the corner was a wonderful thing.

Her neck ached. She debated if she should get up and go to her briefcase that held a supply of pain killers to address the problem along with her customary bottle of water.

Deciding that getting up and undressing while doing that instead of falling asleep was easy. Dar rolled over and pushed herself up to her feet, standing and trudging over to the mahogany sidebar where she'd tossed her case.

She unzipped it and took out the bottle of Advil and the water. She opened her suitcase and took out a long shirt to sleep in. She draped it over the nearby chair and turned, leaning against the wood as she opened the bottle and shook out a few pills.

The room was a relatively pleasant space to spend the night. It had a small bathroom with an old fashioned tub in it, a decent size bed long enough for her legs not to hang off, and a rich tapestry on the wall that featured dogs and horses in unlikely poses that made Dar smile.

She swallowed her pills and washed them down with a mouthful of water. Then she picked up the shirt and walked into the bathroom, glancing in the mirror as she unbuttoned her shirt. She pulled the fabric off and crossed her arms, studying her mostly naked upper half with a thoughtful expression.

A game she played with herself, lately.

Tattoo or no tattoo? That was the question. With a wry chuckle, Dar studied her tan skin, trying to imagine what it might look like with the sort of colorful decoration her partner now had spread across her upper chest.

It felt good to waste some brain cells on triviality after the long day. It was like a tiny slice of normality in what had become a morass of uncertain stress.

Would she do it? Dar rubbed her thumb over the skin on her chest where Kerry's mark was. She found the tattoo sexy, and not even because it incorporated her name. But if she had to choose her own, she knew it wouldn't be anything like what her partner had.

What would it be?

Dar studied her skin, and then shook her head and laughed. "I have no damn idea." She finished changing and brushed her teeth. She then went to her briefcase and pulled a diving magazine from it, settling down in the leather armchair near the window where the light from the lamp would allow her to comfortably read.

She was tired, but not sleepy yet. There was a small television set in the corner of the room, almost hidden, but she had no desire to turn it on and listen to yet another retelling and see again the terror and the destruction she'd lived with the entire day.

It was good just to sit, sipping her water, and looking at pictures of colorful fish and clear blue water, reading about live adventures and what the price of a good rum drink was in Roatan in the spring. She leaned back and turned the page, losing herself in the text as her mind remembered the rich tang of salt air and the deep, rumbling sound of underwater breathing.

A soft knock at the door made her jump. She put her water bottle down on the desk, and looked up at the door. "C'mon in."

The door pushed open, and Alastair's head poked around it. "Hey, Dar I--oh, my gosh. Sorry. Didn't realize you were--ah--"

"Wearing a T-shirt?" Dar gave her boss a wry look. "Relax. It's more than I wore to that damn Halloween party that time."

Alastair cautiously entered. "Just thought you'd like a nightcap." He held up a bottle. "Our host had this delivered. It's good stuff."

"Sure." Dar closed her magazine. "Last time I shared whisky with you I was resigning. We should find happier occasions."

Alastair walked over and sat down in the chair opposite Dar. He was still in his slacks, but had his shirt untucked and the sleeves unbuttoned and partly rolled up his forearms. "I do remember that," he said, pouring a measure of the golden liquor into one of the two glasses he'd brought and handing it to Dar. "Wasn't fond of how that day started."

"Me either." Dar waited for him to pour his own glass, and then lifted hers. "Here's to better times."

"Amen." Alastair reached over and touched his glass to hers, then sat back and sipped it. "I just talked to the missus," he said. "Seems a neighbor of ours was in the North Tower and can't be reached."

Dar shook her head.

"Nice feller," Alastair said. "His family's in tatters, of course. My wife said she'd never been so glad to have me out of the country as she was this morning." He studied the whiskey in the glass. "Could easily have been otherwise. I was in New York last week."

"Could have," Dar agreed quietly. "We all travel a lot. It was just a toss of the dice." She considered. "But then again, so is driving to work every morning in Miami." She sipped the whiskey, the unfamiliar burn making her nose twitch.

"Well, that's true, or so I've heard," Alastair said. "It's not so bad in Houston, but still." He leaned back. "You think though, so many of us work like dogs so we can retire and take it easy, and those boys in New York work harder than most, and then something like this happens."

"Sometimes it takes something like this happening to make you take a step back," Dar said, after a sip of the whiskey. "We get so damned focused sometimes." She held the glass up to the light, admiring the honey color. "Some times you have to stop and live. You miss out otherwise."

Alastair smiled. "Learned that relatively recently?"

Dar's eyes twinkled wryly. "You could say that."

Her boss chuckled. "What are you reading there?" He took the extended magazine and turned it around. "Ah--your crazy hobby." He flipped through the pages. "Those islands do look nice, but the missus won't hear of it. She wants to go see Niagara Falls on our next trip."

"I've seen them," Dar said. "Alastair, take her someplace you can spend more than ten minutes. The falls are nice, but unless you're going to go over them in a barrel they're not much fun."

"Have you?" Alastair asked. "Gone over them?"

Dar's brows shot up. "How nuts do you think I am?"

"Just asking." He chuckled again. "We usually end up at tourist central locations like Vegas. I don't mind exploration, but I like mine to come with a scotch and sour and a limo driver, I'm afraid."

"Well." Dar extended her legs and crossed her ankles. "We call our cabin down south Microsoft Rustic for a reason. Ker and I talk about going camping and hiking in the Grand Canyon, but I had my fill of that as a kid and I'd rather call room service myself if the truth be known."

"Camping in Florida?" Alastair asked. "And you lived to grow up?"

Dar smiled. "We were actually going to take a trip around Europe when we were done here. See the Alps. See if I'm as bad at skiing as I was the last time I tried, and maybe end up down in Italy." She exhaled. "Kerry was really looking forward to it. She never got the chance to travel much."

Alastair set the magazine down and cradled his glass in both hands. "Chance will come again soon enough," he said. "I know we've got a rough patch to get over now, but the world will keep turning, y'know? We'll get through it. Then you two can take a month and see the place the right way."

Dar cocked one eyebrow. "I'm going to hold you to that," she warned.

"Deal," her boss said. "Say, what do you think about Key West?" he asked. "That was the missus other idea. She got some brochures from a little place down there on the water. I'd like to try some fishing myself."

"That's the place for it." Dar turned her head as she heard her cell phone ring. "Uh oh." She got up and reached across to the sideboard, grabbing the phone and opening it. "Ah." She recognized the number. "Hey hon."

"Hey." Kerry's voice came through the phone. "Were you sleeping? Sorry if you were."

"Nah." Dar sat back down. "Alastair and I were having a nightcap and talking about our vacation plans. What's up?"

"I had to call you. Danny just called from the Pentagon, and he said one of the techs there came to find him, because someone wanted to get a message to you."

"Yeah?" Dar didn't hear any upset in her partner's tone, so she reasoned it was probably good news. "What was it?"

"General Easton," Kerry said. "He just said to say he said hello, and that he needs to talk to you when you can get through to him tomorrow."

Dar felt a sense of profound relief. "That's great news," she said, glancing at Alastair. "Gerry Easton's okay. He wants me to call him tomorrow." She turned back to the phone. "Why aren't you sleeping, by the way?"

Kerry cleared her throat. "Um-- well, I was playing with my niece and then we got into a game of hide and seek."

"You and your niece?" Dar asked.

"Me and my brother and sister," Kerry muttered. "It ended up with a broken table leg. Don't ask."

"Um-- okay."

"Listen, when you talk to the General, can you find out if his dog's had puppies again?" Kerry asked. "My sister wants one."

"She does?" Dar's brows knitted. "She didn't seem like a dog person to me."

"She isn't. Yet."

Dar decided ignorance was probably better at this point. "Okay," she said. "Listen, have a good flight, and let me know when you land," she said. "Be safe."