DAR HAD LONG ago decided that everyone just naturally hated going to the doctor’s office. She knew she wasn’t alone in that, and she suspected it had more to do with the loss of personal dignity than anything else. She closed her eyes and tried to call up some patience, while she sat in the examining room in a gown half the size of a cocktail napkin.

The door pushed open and Dr. Steve came in. He was an older man in his sixties, with a kindly, sweet face. “Well, well. Look who we have here.”

Dar sighed. “Hi, Dr. Steve.” She managed to keep a wry grin off her face.

The older man had been her family doctor for years and still treated her as though she were a gawky adolescent.

He assumed his stethoscope and laid it on her back, then moved around to her chest, listening with that annoyingly omniscient manner developed by Tropical Storm 103

most doctors. “Breathe.”

She obediently did so, flexing her arm a little against the pain from three bouts of blood-drawing.

“Okay, lie down.” Dr. Steve proceeded to gently examine her, his fingers steady and professional as they poked and prodded. “You’ve got a bruise here.”

“Just from the gym,” Dar said, untruthfully.

“This too?” He picked up her right hand and examined the faded bruises along the knuckles. “You’re not going back to your scary younger days are you, chipmunk?”

Dar chuckled wryly. “I’m long past that, and you know it.”

“Mmm.” The older man felt up along her neck carefully, rolling her head to one side and then to the other. “Pretty stiff.”

“Part of the problem, I think,” Dar acknowledged ruefully. “That’s where the pain usually starts.”

“Uh huh. How’ve you been sleeping?”

A shrug. “All right. About the same as always.”

“So still doing the four or five a night, huh?” Dr. Steve remarked dryly.

“You’d do yourself a favor if you’d sneak in an extra hour or two.”

Dar exhaled. “I tried. I just can’t fall asleep. And if I do, I wake up early.”

The older man leaned on his hands and studied her. “No, you never could. Your daddy was the same way.” He sighed. “How are you feeling otherwise?” He put his stethoscope against her chest and listened. “Any flutters? You feeling out of breath anytime?”

Dar thought about that. “Not that I noticed,” she replied slowly. “When the pain’s really bad, I’m more conscious of my heartbeat, feels like it’s causing the throbbing.”

“That’s natural,” Dr. Steve told her. “Sit up.”

She did so, reaching up and running a hand through her hair. “So, what’s the story? Am I dying?” The comment about her heart made her a touch nervous, and it showed. Her mouth went dry, and she swallowed uncomfortably as she waited for him to answer.

The doctor rolled his eyes. “If you are, you’re the healthiest dying person I’ve ever examined.” He leaned back against the wall in the small room. “Your blood work’s a mess, Dar. Your white cell count is down, every stress indicator we know of is up, and I’m a little worried about some of the things I see with your pressure. I scheduled you over to Miami Heart for a stress test.

No, don’t argue with me, all right? Humor me, I’m an old man, Dar. I really think you need it.”

Dar let her head drop and exhaled. “I don’t have time for that.”

He gently reached over and tipped her chin up to face him. “You don’t have time not to do it, sweetheart. Come on, they’re not busy today. It’ll take an hour, and then you can tell me you told me so, okay?”

“An hour, huh?” She hesitated, then surrendered. “All right, but I think you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

“Uh huh, and you got your medical degree where?” the older man inquired pointedly. “Of course, we could dispense with all this if you’d just take my advice and take a week off, go bum around in the Keys or out on the 104 Melissa Good boat somewhere.”

A crafty look entered the pale blue eyes. “Oh, so all I have to do is agree to go on vacation, and I don’t have to go over to the Institute?”

Dr. Steve wagged a finger at her. “Oh no, you tricky little girl you. I know you, you’ll agree, then you won’t go for two years.” His voice gentled. “Dar, please. I hate to see you doing this to yourself.” He cocked his head. “It’s not going to get better, honey. It’s just going to get worse, unless you start taking it easier.”

Dar was silent for a bit, then she finally nodded. “All right, I get the message. I’ll arrange, somehow, to take a few days off.” She paused.

“Meantime, can you give me something for the damn headaches? I’ve been taking over the counter, but…”

The older man nodded. “You go to the Institute, I’ll give you a scrip for a combination painkiller and muscle relaxant. That should help. Deal?”

Dar hesitated, then capitulated. “Deal. Look, I know I feel lousy. Hey, I even got myself an assistant. How do you like that?”

“Did you?” Dr. Steve glanced up with a surprised smile. “You found someone who could put up with you? Virgin Mary, it’s a miracle.” He laughed at the look on her face. “He must be a saint.”

A dark brow lifted. “She.” Dar felt her face creasing into an unexpected smile.

His own grizzled eyebrow edged up. “Ah. I see.” He patted her knee gently. “You’ll have to introduce me to this modern day Job-ette sometime.”

Dar snorted. “C’mon, I’m not that bad. Kerry deals with me just fine.

She’s a nice kid.” Another smile.

Dr. Steve leaned back and regarded her wisely. “If she makes you smile like that, she must be nice,” he teased, watching a faint blush color her skin.

“Now I really want to meet her.”

“I’d better get dressed and get outta here if I have to go across town. “

Dar ignored the prodding. “I’ve still got stuff to do back at the office.” She hopped off the table, grabbed her clothes and the prescription the doctor held out. “Thanks, Dr. Steve.”

He stood and patted her arm. “Good seeing you, my friend. I’ll call you when I get the results of the stress test, okay?”

“Right.” Dar sighed resignedly. “On my way.”

“HELLO, MARIA.” KERRY slipped in the door and gave the older woman a smile.

The secretary looked up from her task. “Ay, chica, come in here.” She waved Kerry in and patted the chair next to her desk. “What have you been doing? I heard two people in the lunchroom saying very lovely things about you.”

Kerry obligingly dropped into the chair. It had taken a day or two of them gingerly feeling each other out, but she felt that Maria and she had decided to like each other. Apparently Maria had felt Dar needed some help for quite some time, but she resented the usual parade of applicants, who tended to treat the secretary as...well, like a secretary. Kerry had taken her cue Tropical Storm 105

from Dar and accorded Maria a high degree of respect, deferring to her whenever possible. “Oh, this and that. Trying to get some of my work list done, you know.” She smiled. “Anything hot you need taking care of with the boss out of the office?”

Maria rolled her eyes. “When is there never hot things? You might could take a look at this.” She handed Kerry a folder. “Customer Service sent over and put it right on my desk.”

“Okay.” Kerry took it, then she glanced around. “Is Dar coming back today?”

Maria looked around as well, though they were both quite alone. “Si, she’s supposed to, but she’s at the doctor’s.”

Green eyes widened. “Just a check-up, or…”

The secretary hesitated, torn between her knowledge of Dar’s intensely private nature and her need to share her concerns. “It’s the headaches. She gets them so bad, she went to have them check her out,” she finally said. “But, shhh, she doesn’t like to talk about it.”

“Yeah, I noticed she takes a lot of aspirin, but her job’s enough to give a rock a headache.”

“Ay.” Maria sighed. “Is good you help her out. It’s terrible the way they expect so much of her.”

They both jumped a little as the door opened and Dar slid inside, giving them both a look of mild surprise. “Afternoon,” she muttered as she walked through the outer office and pushed her own door open. “Anything going on?” Kerry and Maria exchanged apprehensive glances. Dar’s demeanor was quiet and grim, and her blue eyes lacked their customary sparkle. Kerry stood up and held up the file. “Just some stuff from customer service. I was going to take care of it.”

Dar regarded her for a moment, wrestling with her conscience, then gave her assistant a nod. “Good.” She turned and went into her office, putting her briefcase down and dropping into her chair. Instead of glancing at her monitor, though, she turned her seat and gazed out of the window, watching the slow drift of clouds across horizon in the east.

A soft knock made her look around. “Yeah?” The door edged open, and Kerry poked her blonde head in. Dar exhaled and lifted a hand, motioning her in. No sense in taking out my nerves on the kid, right? “C’mere.”

Kerry obeyed, moving across the carpet and settling in the chair across from Dar’s desk, the folder clasped in both hands. She looked uncharacteristically nervous. She took a breath. “Everything okay?”

Dar spared her a wry smile. “Does everyone in the building know where I went?”

“No, just us, I guess.” Kerry obviously meant herself and Maria. “Don’t be mad at Maria for telling me, she’s just worried about you.”

Caught between annoyance and embarrassment, Dar compromised by rolling her eyes.

“Please forget I asked,” Kerry stated hastily. “Next topic. I think the whole Tucson thing is going to work out. Infrastructure was able to complete the T3 circuit on time, now they’re just waiting for the installers to get there.”