Kerry leaned into her touch. "I know she hurt you."

Dar blinked a few times. "She almost made me miss out on meeting you," she replied quietly. "Kerry, I hate her. I can't pretend I don't." She exhaled, feeling a sense of almost absurd relief from saying the words, and even more so when she saw the understanding in Kerry's eyes. "I know this is business, but I can't do it."

The cell phone still clipped to Dar's discarded jeans buzzed, but Kerry took both of Dar's hands in hers and ignored it, looking her partner squarely in the eye.

Her breath almost stopped in her chest, seeing an expression on that face she'd never seen before. Then Dar blinked, and it was gone, but Kerry knew she'd gotten a glimpse of the confused young woman who had gotten kicked in the head by love all those years ago.

It stirred a feeling inside her, deep and powerful, and she pressed her body against Dar's, slipping her arms around her partner's sturdy form and pulling Dar close. "I understand." She tilted her head to look up. "We'll deal with it. You be as nasty as you want to be. I'm right there with you." Her arms tightened. "I'm right here for you."

Dar sighed. "Boy I must sound like a nitwit," she murmured softly.

"Never," Kerry replied.

"Yeah, I do." Dar rested her cheek against Kerry's head. "But what the hell. They expect me to be an asshole. I'll live up to their expectations." She half chuckled, a tiny, wry sound. "But no more breakfasts. I'm not wasting one more cent of my expense account getting indigestion."

Kerry dropped her hand down and gave Dar's belly a rub. "Did you really?"

A sigh. "Yeah," Dar admitted.

"Okay." Kerry took a deep breath. "Here's what I'd like you to do. Will you think about it at least before you start making those grunting noises?"

Caught in the actual act of preparing to do just that, Dar cleared her throat instead. "Um. Sure."

"I'd like you to crash here for a bit, and let me show my title off at the show for a while." Kerry said. "Would you do that for me?"

"I don't need you to do that."

"No," Kerry agreed. "But I'd like to anyway. Please?"

Dar considered the request seriously. Her first instinct was to refuse, and she mulled that over as her fingers sorted through Kerry's hair, watching the gray illumination outside catch light and dark shadows in the soft locks. The pros and cons sorted themselves out as easily, and after a brief pause, she nodded "All right."

Kerry smiled at her.

"On one condition."

The green eyes rolled. "Always a condition."

"If anyone asks you where I am..." Dar clasped her hands and put them behind Kerry's neck.

"Mm?"

"You tell them you wore me out last night and I had to take a nap."

Kerry produced a noise somewhere between a sneeze and a cough, both of her eyebrows hiking up. "Dar!"

At last, her partner laughed softly. "Just kidding," she relented. "Actually, I'm going to boot up and start some deep research on Telegenics." Her brows contracted. "If we missed who was behind them, we might have missed a lot more. You know how much I hate surprises."

"Sounds like a plan." Kerry plucked at the waistband of Dar's briefs, a spiffy blue pair covered in grinning goldfish. "You could lay out on the balcony in these. Everyone would think it was a swimsuit. No one would know."

"I would know," Dar objected. "My daddy didn't raise me to show my drawers in public, you pithy little Yankee." She nudged Kerry a little. "G'wan. Eleanor is probably getting so nervous her eyelashes are touching her navel."

Reassured by her partner's tone, Kerry moved to the closet to get her suit out. When she turned, Dar had tugged a pair of shorts on and was sprawling onto the bed, already pulling her laptop over to her.

Satisfied with her plan, Kerry grabbed the hanger with her suit, a new silver blue one with a deep aqua silk blouse that she'd picked up not long before. She spent a moment attaching her favorite pin to the lapel, and then studied the results.

It would do. She glanced over her shoulder at Dar, whose half bare body was vividly outlined against the white sheets and spared herself a moment of envy, and then she started dressing for the show.

"Hey, Ker?" Dar interrupted her. "You should keep that T-shirt on."

Kerry paused and glanced at the garment. "Oh, that'd make a great impression, Dar." She laughed, a touch embarrassed. "Were you thinking I could open my jacket and flash anyone who pissed me off?"

Dar rolled onto her side and crossed her ankles. "Hm."

"I was joking." Kerry tossed the shirt at her, landing it on her head and watching in amusement as it draped half over her face and obscured one pale eye. "I'm not wearing a shirt that says RTFM to a trade show."

Her partner wiggled a sock covered toe at her. "Yeah," she agreed. "You'd spend your whole damn time explaining what it meant."

Kerry chuckled, removing her jeans and reluctantly replacing them with the austere, straight-line skirt that came to a respectable knee level and the light, silk shirt that was thankfully sleeveless. She tucked the blouse into the skirt's waistband and buckled the integrated belt, picking up her shoes and taking them to the bed with her as she sat down to put them on. "I think I like the one you have better," she said. "The programming one?"

Dar chuckled. "I like the 'no, I won't fix your damn computer' one myself." She rested her head on her fist and ignored her laptop screen. "Hey, Ker?"

Kerry fastened her watch around her wrist and stood, turning to face the bed. "Hm?"

"Thanks."

"For?"

The visible blue eye twinkled. "Being my best friend."

Kerry picked up her jacket and walked over to the side of the bed, leaning over to kiss Dar on the lips. "And what a pleasure it is to be that," she whispered, nudging aside the still draped shirt so she could look into both eyes. "I'll give you a call when it's time for you to make your grand, triumphant entrance, okay?"

"Okay," Dar agreed. "Have fun."

Kerry shrugged into her jacket, twitching the light linen fabric straight and fastening the single button. It was cut somewhat low, accentuating her tapered physique, and she gave Dar a wink as she accepted the frankly admiring gaze turned on her. "Look okay?"

"You look better out of it," Dar replied. "But it'll do for now." She watched Kerry check her image in the mirror, then pause to clip the cell phone to her belt. "Give them heck."

"Do my best." Kerry went to the door, looking back as she opened it and leaned against the jamb. "Will you..."

"Keep my eye on the pipes?" Dar swiveled her laptop around, displaying a screen full of jumping gauges. "Nah."

Kerry grinned and ducked out the door, letting it slide shut behind her.

Dar let the echoes fade before she turned the laptop around and minimized the displays, bringing up another screen and keying in a terse request. "All right...let's see what the hell we've got here," she muttered to herself. "Before anyone other than me realizes how frigging embarrassing it is that I let these guys stomp all over us and didn't even pay attention to it."

She set the request to run and lay back against the pillows. After a few moments the silence of the room started bothering her and she reached for the television control, flipping on the room's set. After browsing her choices, she settled on ESPN and let it run in the background as she opened her mail program.

The inbox filled with black lines that she glanced over, dividing her attention between the headers and the women playing volleyball on the screen. After a few minutes, however, she abandoned the mail and watched the game, tucking Kerry's discarded T-shirt under her head as she put it down on the pillow. In her peripheral vision, a thin line of alert gauges winked reassuringly green.

IT WAS A short trip, but Kerry was glad it was over. Driving through a downpour heavy enough to drown lobsters with nervous tourists wasn't her idea of fun at any time. She was more than happy when she parked Dar's big Lexus near the front of the building and bolted for the door.

A small crowd was milling there, and as she ran her fingers through her hair to shed the rain from it, the guard spotted her company badge and politely cleared a path. Kerry gave him a gracious nod then realized belatedly it was the same guy as the night they'd arrived. Her face crinkled into a wry grin as he held the door for her. "Thanks," she addressed him pleasantly. "Sure beats coming in the construction entrance."

He froze, but she didn't give him a chance to answer as she strode inside and headed for the show hall. Now, the lights in the outer lobby were on, and a buzz of conversation filled the high ceiling'd space. Banners were strung across over the doorways and company representatives were everywhere, passing out marketing gimmicks and the occasional business card.

It was all too familiar to Kerry. She'd attended more than her share of trade shows on behalf of ILS, and as she made her way through the crowd and was recognized, she returned the greetings with pleasant good manners.

It was ironic in the extreme that her early training in her father's household now served her so well, making her responses gracious and automatic and completely forgettable. Kerry excused herself from between two of her major distributor's sales directors and escaped into their booth, giving the techs and the salespeople a brief wave. "Hi guys."

"Kerry!" Mark appeared from apparently nowhere, dressed in a crisp company shirt and black pleated slacks. "Glad you're here."

"Uh oh." Kerry brushed a last droplet off her sleeve. "What's broken?"

Her MIS manager put his hands on his hips. "Does it have to be a bad thing that you're here?" he asked plaintively.

"No," Kerry smiled at him. "True disasters wait for Dar." She glanced around at the crowd. "They about to open the doors? Lot of action going on around here."

"No shit," Mark agreed. "Hey, you know who's here?" His voice dropped, and he moved closer to Kerry.

Kerry gave him a wry look.

"Guess you do."

"We had breakfast with them." Kerry ran her eye over the interior of the booth, and gave the approaching Eleanor a quick smile. Everything looked ready, and she exhaled out that tiny bit of apprehension still tensing her guts from their abandonment of the prior day. "Morning, El."

"Good morning to you too, Kerry." Eleanor was in a good humor. "Fricking weather's going to knock us on the ass for a while, but that's a good thing. Start slow, less bull." She leaned against the counter next to Kerry. "Where's Rambo's worst nightmare?"

"Chilling." Kerry watched a group of salesmen from their biggest network equipment supplier break out of a huddle and make a beeline for her. "She'll be by later."

"Good." Eleanor spotted a slow, but steady flow of people into the room. "Let's keep them waiting... I know there's at least four big talkers around who were looking to meet her." Eleanor brushed her hands together. "All right folks--it's showtime. Let's go get 'em."

Mark eased back in next to her as the marketing people cleared out, starting to filter through the crowd with their bags full of ILS stress balls and the rather clever little beanbag monitor perchers that resembled a cartoon Rottweiler theoretically watching over you. "Man, there were people talking all over the place today," he told Kerry. "Those lowballers were telling everyone they're the new power players around here."

Kerry scratched her nose. "They do talk a lot," she agreed.

"They came over here talking shit, but I ran them off," Mark added. "Pain in the asses."

"Mm." Kerry folded her arms across her chest. "They tried to recruit us the other night."

Mark laughed. "Yeah, the boys told me," he agreed. "Bet he's going to crap when he finds out who he was talking to."

Kerry spied their little friend in question and chuckled under her breath. 'Yeah." She pushed off from the console and strolled off. "I bet he is."

THE SOFT CHIME of her laptop slowly penetrated Dar's idle, formless dreams and after a few moments of confusion, she opened her eyes, blinking them a few times to regain their focus. "Umph." She lifted a hand and scrubbed her face, putting her head down and almost letting the warm comfort of her pillow reclaim her.

One hand lifted and touched her track pad, and she studied the results of her query in silence. One eyebrow slowly lifted. She rose up on one elbow and typed another request in one handed, rolling the pointer over and clicking to submit it.