The other aides nodded.

Cynthia pursed her lips for a moment. "I do honestly think I'm very glad I was at home when I did hear," she said. "And that all my children were there also. You do worry about your family at times such as this, and we had so much going on."

Surprisingly, Kerry found herself in agreement. "I'm glad too," she said. "I'm glad you weren't in Washington, and I'm glad I didn't have to chase around looking for Mike and Angie to make sure they were okay, and that Mike wasn't off in New York on some promotion or other."

"Absolutely," her mother murmured. "Do you still have people unaccounted for?"

Kerry nodded. "But we hope it's just because so much communication structure is not working," she said, quietly. "Maybe we'll hear from them tomorrow."

A pensive silence fell. Kerry let her head rest against the window. Her eyes burned, and she checked her watch, seeing the hands pointing almost to midnight.

It had been a very long day. The time she'd spent doing crunches in the early morning light now seemed to be from a different time.

A different lifetime.

She glanced out the window seeing a blast of flashing lights. A line of police cars blazed past, heading in the opposite direction in an eerie, siren-less silence. She studied the buildings going past, most with darkened windows, some with entryways blocked by large, solid looking vehicles.

Under siege?

Kerry supposed that's what it must feel like. No one really knew if there would be more attacks, and if there were, what form they might take. Car bombs? Maybe. Human bombs? Happens in the Middle East every day.

"Crazy." One of the aides was also watching out the window. "What the hell's wrong with these people?"

"Well," Senator Stuart spoke up. "I would guess that they-whomever they are-probably are saying much the same about us, wherever they might be," she said. "There's just too much intolerance in the world. That's the real problem."

"Senator, these people are crazy. People who fly airplanes into buildings aren't intolerant, they're nuts," one of the younger aides said. "That's not human."

"They were celebrating over there. Did you see that on CNN?" the young woman aide said. "There were people over there cheering when they saw bodies dropping from the tower to their deaths."

Senator Stuart laced her fingers together. "Now, why would they do that?" she asked. "What kind of hatred can they have that makes them celebrate such a horrible thing?"

"I don't think I want to know why," the woman aide said. "There's no way to understand that. We should just send our own planes over there and get them back."

"Make them stop cheering," the young male aide agreed. "They're just animals."

Cynthia frowned. "I'm sure we will do something as a response." She sighed. "And yet, what will that bring in the long run? More disasters." She shook her head. "I fear though, you are correct. We have no common reference."

Kerry tilted her head to one side and poked her finger in her ear, wiggling it vigorously.

"Something wrong?" her mother asked.

"Sorry." Kerry gave her head a shake. "Thought I felt my brains leaking out there for a minute." She laced her fingers together in her lap. "Lack of tolerance and understanding is not unique to the people who drove those planes," she said. "I think it's something that's part of human nature, to not like, and fear things we don't really have a handle on."

Her mother's eyes narrowed slightly, but Kerry managed to retain a mild expression. "But still, there's no excuse for what those people did. There would be no excuse for us if we did it. Violence isn't the answer."

The senator nodded immediately. "Exactly what I meant."

"Especially not in this circumstance," Kerry went on. "Let's say we do send planes over and drop bombs. Then what? We don't know where the people who planned this are, so we drop a bomb and kill a couple thousand innocent people. How does that help? How does that make us any better than they are?"

"Well--" the woman aide said.

"So they just send more people to do more horrible things, and we send more bombs. What's the point? That doesn't get you anywhere." Kerry sighed. "My mother's right. We have no common frame of reference with this group of people who have been a civilization for twenty centuries at least. More than our country has even existed. They might as well be ET."

Cynthia looked a bit overwhelmed by the agreement. "Yes," she said, after a pause. "My point exactly."

Silence fell as they drove on past another block of police cars.

"That was a really good movie," the young male aide ventured. "ET, I mean."

It almost made Kerry giggle. She leaned against the arm of the limo door and rested her head against the glass again and hoped the hotel wasn't that far off. The conversation was veering toward the positively dangerous.

THE HOTEL LOBBY was definitely quiet. Kerry had her bag over her shoulder, and she headed for the reception desk where two receptionists were standing, backs turned to her, watching CNN on the television.

One of the aides hurried to catch up to her. "Listen, Ms. Stuart..."

"Hm?" Kerry turned her head and regarded him. He was a medium sort of person. Medium height, medium coloring, medium shade of brown hair. The only thing that stood out was a set of beautiful, long, well maintained eyelashes that looked very much like they were fake.

She hoped they weren't. "Yes?"

"Thanks for getting the rooms," the man said. "I wasn't looking forward to sleeping in the car."

Kerry's brows creased a little. "Don't you have an apartment here?" she asked. "You don't sleep in the townhouse garage, do you?"

The man chuckled. "No, there's a staffer's apartment building but it's right across the street from the Senator's place. We live there."

"Ah." Kerry removed her wallet as she approached the desk. "Good evening folks."

The two receptionists spun around. "Oh." The one on the left hurried forward. "Sorry about that. We were just--"

"We know." Kerry held a hand up. "It's okay. I have a reservation. Actually there are probably three of them under the name of either Stuart or Roberts."

The aide looked at her, his brows knitting over his outstanding eyelashes.

"My married name," Kerry was unable to resist, adding a smile as the man jerked a little. "I never know how Dar's going to book it."

"Yes, we do have them, Ms. Stuart," the receptionist interrupted. "I have two deluxe rooms with two beds, and the Presidential Suite." He glanced behind her. "Is there luggage we can take care of for you?"

"No." Kerry handed over her corporate card. "I have my overnight, and the rest of our party wasn't expecting to need a hotel. Do you have a sundry kit available for them?"

"Of course," the man said, instantly, handing back her card. "This is prepaid, ma'am."

Kerry rolled her eyes. "Of course it is." She chuckled under her breath. "Okay, we need two keys for each room, please." She tapped the card on the desk. "And could I get a pot of hot tea sent up to the suite? My head's pounding."

"Absolutely." The receptionist scribbled something on a pad. "Any particular type? We have a selection."

"Green Jasmine?" Kerry asked, hopefully. "With honey?"

"Not a problem."

"Do we want to mention--" The aide glanced behind them, into the depths of the spacious lobby where the Senator and the other aides waited

"Probably not," Kerry said. "No sense advertising, even if my mother's not really a hot potato on the international scene like my father was." She caught the receptionist's furtive glance, and smiled.

"Good point," the aide agreed. "Presidential Suite huh? I've seen pictures of that. It's swank."

Kerry collected the keys being handed to her. "After a while, they all just look like hotel rooms." She handed the aide the other keys. "No matter how nice, it's not home."

They walked back across the lobby floor to where the rest of the group was waiting. The other three aides stopped talking as they walked up and glanced at each other.

The female aide cleared her throat. "Basil, you want to share? We went to college together."

"Sure," the other younger aide said. "No problem."

The aide with Kerry passed out the keys. "That means I'll share with you, Robert," he said. "Ms. Stuart asked them to bring us up necessities."

"That was very thoughtful of you, Kerry," Senator Stuart said. "I am very glad I thought to bring my little overnight bag, myself."

Kerry hefted her own bag. "Okay, have a good night, folks. Time to get some rest." She herded them toward the big elevators, already imagining she could feel the softness of a bed under her back and the taste of hot tea on her tongue.

"Robert, please make sure my schedule is set for the morning," Senator Stuart said, as they entered the elevator and it started to rise. "I think we convene at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow"

"Yes, ma'am, that's correct," Robert said. "I'm sure the roads will be clear by breakfast tomorrow."

"I hope so."

The elevator doors opened on the fourth floor and the four aides got out. "Have a good night, Senator." Robert gave her and Kerry a little wave. "Ms. Stuart."

"You too." Kerry waved back, as the doors closed and they headed up to the top floor.

"Well," her mother said, as they exited and headed to the door of the suite. "This was certainly an unexpected end to a very unexpected day."

Kerry opened the door and entered, holding it for her mother. She detected the competing scents of fresh wax, steaming tea, and chocolate. Even she blinked at the grand entranceway and expansive stretch of the room they were staying in. "Wow."