“I am so sorry to hear that, Dar.”

“Me, too.” Dar nodded. “I dropped her at the airport before I headed here.”

Her secretary frowned. “Should you not have gone with her?

That is terrible, to have someone so sick.”

Dar glanced at her. “Her family’s not fond of me.” She felt herself blushing a little at discussing something so personal.

“They’re already stressed—I don’t think my being there would help matters.”

“Ah.” Maria folded her hands. “Si, that is right. I remember now.” She seemed at a loss for words. “I feel for Kerrisita, though.

She has always felt such trouble with her family. Is there something we can do? Send something to them?”

Dar paused in the doorway to her office, considering the question. “For them? No.” She gave Maria a direct look. “But call the Marriott in Saugatuck and make sure Kerry gets treated to the best service they have there. I booked her a suite, but upgrade her Thicker Than Water 39

to the best they have, and have them stock it with the works.”

“Si.” Maria smiled. “I will do that, Dar.” She glanced at the door, where voices were growing louder. “Now, I think you maybe will change, yes?”

“Yeah.” Dar grimaced and swung the door closed after her.

“Before they start snapping pictures.”

KERRY TOOK A deep breath as she walked down the airline ramp from the plane. It had been two uneventful flights, and now that she was finally there, she wished they’d been longer. The white of the ramp gave way to dull brown brick and the familiar sights of the airport near her home.

A quick glance around told her she wasn’t being met, not that she’d expected to be since she hadn’t informed Angie of her flight plans, but part of her felt a tiny bit disappointed, all the same. On second thought, maybe that was for the best, Kerry decided, as she shouldered her bag and headed off towards the rental car counter.

Best for me to do this on my terms, right? Isn’t that what I told Dar?

She thought about that as she walked. Keeping a little distance from everyone seemed like a good plan, especially since tensions would be high, the press would probably be present, and the last thing anyone needed was a family spat right in the middle of a crisis.

In fact, on the way up, not going at all had crossed her mind several times. It was only Angie’s quiet finality that had pushed her forward, knowing in her heart that staying away and letting her father die without at least saying goodbye to him was something she just wasn’t capable of.

Or am I?

Kerry sighed unhappily and stepped up to the counter. “I’d like a car, please.” She’d picked the chain ILS usually used from habit.

“For how many days, ma’am?” the young man behind the counter asked politely.

Good question. “A week.” Kerry supplied her credit card and Florida driver’s license.

“Thanks.” The man took them and keyed in something, then paused, evidently surprised at something. “Oh, Ms. Stuart. We already have a reservation here for you.” He handed back her card. “ILS is taking care of it.”

One of Kerry’s eyebrows lifted. “They are, huh?” She found herself unable to be upset with Dar. “Okay.” She took the prof-40 Melissa Good fered keys and went outside, wincing as the cold wind bit her face. “Ugh. Forgot about that.”

She tugged her jacket closed and zipped it, then searched out her assigned car and opened the trunk to toss in her bag. Hospital first, she decided. Let’s find out the bad news. She got in the car, then drove carefully out of the parking lot and onto the icy streets.

It wasn’t that big a town and the drive to the hospital was fairly short. At midday, the place didn’t seem that busy, and she parked in the half empty visitor’s lot. She spotted a news truck parked near the back entrance, though, and several cars haphaz-ardly pulled up near it, and her suspicions were confirmed when she entered the main doors and saw the cluster of men and women, complete with cameras, standing nearby.

Will they recognize me? she wondered. The national news people had pegged her in DC, but it had taken a while, and these locals hadn’t seen her in a few years, if at all, given the turnover rate.

Certainly, if they were old timers, they wouldn’t expect the girl they’d known in lace blouses and knee length skirts, with carefully styled hair and a model slim build, to have morphed into the muscular figure in jeans and a leather jacket she knew she presented today.

Her attitude had changed as well. Kerry had studied Dar’s use of her considerable charisma and personal energy when she interacted with others, and she’d tried to inject a little of that dynamic into her own personality. Part of it was self confidence, which success at her job had given her, and part of it was an awareness of herself and her effect on other people. “Excuse me.”

She moved past the reporters with a polite nod.

They didn’t even give her a second glance. Kerry repressed a smile as she went to the reception desk. She waited for the woman behind the desk to look up, then leaned forward a little. “Could you tell me where in CCU Roger Stuart is?”

The woman gave her an immediate, guarded look, and glanced behind her at the reporters. “Are you family, ma’am?”

Kerry removed her driver’s license and showed it to the woman. “Yes.”

A quick look at the license, then at Kerry’s face, and the receptionist replied, “Hold on a moment,” as she got up and motioned for a guard. “George will take you up. George, CCU 4, okay?”

“Yes’m.” The tall, red haired guard nodded. “Come this way, please.”

Kerry followed the man through a restricted access door and down a long hallway to where a small elevator was located. Very Thicker Than Water 41

few people were in the hall, just two orderlies pushing beds and one man with an X-ray machine. She followed the guard into the elevator and waited while he inserted a key and pressed a floor.

“You part of the senator’s family?” the guard asked.

Kerry nodded. “Yes. He’s my father.”

“Hm.” The elevator reached its destination and he held the door for her. “Second alcove on your right, ma’am.”

Kerry stepped out and walked quietly across the tile floor.

Her heart pounded and shivers went up and down her spine. She could hear, faintly, the sounds of machinery around her—beeps and the gurgling of oxygen and it reminded her unpleasantly of Dar’s stay in the hospital down south.

Outside the room she paused, hearing voices. One was her mother’s. It didn’t sound good.

Oh boy. Kerry steeled herself, then took a deep breath and forced her legs to move forward into the room where a circle of strange, familiar faces ringed a bed full of lines and machines, and the almost hidden form she realized was her father.

Eyes shifted and looked at her, some in surprise, some in distress, as the doctor who’d been speaking broke off his speech and turned. “Are you part of the family here?”

It was a very awkward moment. Kerry had no idea what the real answer to that question was.

“That’s my daughter,” Cynthia Stuart murmured. “Please, go on, Doctor. Kerrison, come here.”

There wasn’t much else she could do. Kerry walked across the silent room to her mother’s side, shocked when her hand was grabbed and held in desperation. She felt Angie move closer to her as they turned and faced the somber looking man in the white coat.

“Ms. Stuart,” the doctor said gently, “we were just going over what we mean when we talk about a coma.”

DAR ALMOST HAD to laugh when she looked up to see Mark peeking cautiously around the door to her office. “Yes?” she growled.

“You…um…ready to review that firmware?” Mark asked.

“I’ve got my whole bunch of guys reviewing how something got upgraded and we missed it.”

She picked up her cup of steaming coffee and sipped it.

“Sure.” Now soberly dressed in her iron gray suit and silk shirt, she leaned back and watched as he entered with a clipboard. “So, how’d we do?”

Mark took a seat across from her. “I have no clue.” He 42 Melissa Good grinned briefly. “Here’s the network paths to the dump; I figured you’d know what to do with them.” He handed the clipboard to Dar. “There you go.”

“Thanks.” Dar accepted it and reviewed the page, then glanced up to catch Mark intently studying her. One of her eyebrows lifted. “Something wrong?”

He hesitated, then gave her a slight shrug. “Didn’t expect to see you here so early.”

“Earlier I start, earlier Alastair has his answer,” Dar replied.

“Why don’t you take off?”

“I got some sleep in the center,” Mark said. “What about you?”

Dar sighed. “Kerry had to fly up to see her family. Wasn’t much time to sleep.”

Mark nodded. “I saw on the newscast he was sick. Stroke, they said, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That sucks,” Mark said. “I know stuff is all screwed up between her and her family, but it still sucks.” He glanced around.

“Listen, Dar, if you want to head up there, I can try and…”

It was almost funny. Dar rubbed her temples with the tips of her fingers and wondered how she had managed to get her entire staff to morph overnight into solicitous nannies. “Mark, get your ass out of here and go figure out how the hell we slipped up by not testing that new release before it got put into production.

Something got missed.” She pinned him with a look. “Now!”

He jumped. “Okay.” One hand lifted. “Okay, I get the message, boss. No problem.” He slid out of the chair and ducked around the door, leaving Dar in peace.