Dar blinked, and leaned forward a little. Despite the distance and the darkness, she recognized them both, a knowledge that brought a faint grimace to her face and a knot to her stomach.

"Dar?" Kerry called her.

"Yeah." Dar slid into the driver's seat. "See that?" She pointed to the two figures. "Recognize them?"

Kerry peered through the glass. "Um...not really...oh." She sat up. "Isn't that Michelle Graver?"

"Uh huh." Dar nodded. "Sure is."

"Didn't she go into business on her own? You told me that, I thought."

"Uh huh," Dar said again. "Found herself a new partner, apparently." Her face could have been cut in ice, the angles were so cold. "They might even deserve each other." She started up the Lexus, and put it into gear. "Looks like Shari's finally found a kindred spirit."

Kerry's jaw clicked shut audibly.

Dar pulled out of the parking spot and drove slowly past the parked car, which bore a blazon on the driver's side door. She chuckled humorlessly as she read it, and heard a sound of mixed consternation and disgust come from Kerry.

"Son of a bitch." She picked up speed and drove past the front door, where the guard was courteously opening the glass for the two women. "Telegenics."

"Holy crap," Kerry uttered. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Now isn't that a kettle of stinking fish." Dar tapped her thumbs on the steering wheel. "Why is this such a damn surprise?"

"Something wrong, boss?" Cody asked hesitantly from the back seat.

"Oh, no." Kerry leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. "Everything's peachy." Her eyes slid to Dar's profile. "Juuuust peachy," she repeated. "You don't think they'd mess with our stuff, do you?"

Dar paused at the exit to the lot, leaning on the steering wheel and considering. "No." She continued her turn, moving out onto the main road. "They probably don't think they need to right now."

"But you'll set up a monitor when we get to the hotel."

"Yeah," Dar muttered. "We better send someone in early to check the setup. Just in case."

Kerry sighed. "This is going to suck."

"Oh, yeah." Dar smiled grimly. She relaxed, and leaned back, the knots in her gut easing. "Ah, hell with them. Wait till they see the wreck their booth's in." She changed the subject, aware of the techs listening.

"And the wreck ours isn't in." Kerry grinned.

"It would almost be worth being there to see their faces. Almost," Dar acknowledged, glad of the car's cold air conditioning against her, and looking forward to the shower she knew was at the end of the ride.

Kerry reached over the seat divider and laid a hand on her knee, the green eyes full of a promise she knew was also waiting there.

To hell with them. "Let 'em sweat. I turned off the A/C before we left."

Kerry muffled a laugh. The techs joined in, not really sure what was going on, but willing to follow Kerry's lead anyway.

They drove on into the night, leaving the blazing lights of the convention center behind them.

"THANKS." DAR PASSED the valet a tip, shaking her head when he went to remove her luggage and Kerry's from the back. "No, that stays with us." She shut the hatch and walked around to the driver's side door.

"Aren't we staying here?" Kerry laid one hand on the frame of the car door, giving Dar an inquisitive look. "I thought we had reservations." She glanced up at the tall, respectable looking hotel they were parked in front of, having let the techs out.

"No." Dar got in and closed the door, waiting for Kerry to do likewise. "I have other plans."

"Ah. Okay." Kerry got in and leaned her elbow on the seat arm, watching her partner's profile as Dar pulled out of the Marriott's driveway, and headed back out onto the mostly empty roads. "I see." She evaluated the half hidden smirk, and decided whatever Dar's plan was, she'd appreciate it. "Telegenics. Big surprise, huh?"

Dar snorted. "You'd have thought the detail analysis Mark did would have tossed THAT little bit of intelligence up to the top. Did we miss it?" she wondered. "No way. He'd have flagged it, at the very least."

"Yeah, I don't get it," Kerry agreed. "How did that slip past? Maybe not Shari, but definitely Michelle should have been in the filters. Right?"

"I don't..." Dar paused, as she thought. "Maybe not, Ker. Did we consider them a business threat? Personal pain in the ass for us, yes, but for the company?"

"Good point." Kerry reached idly over and pushed a bit of Dar's hair back behind one well-shaped ear. "I'd say they targeted us, but you know they didn't. There've been other companies hit by them too."

"Exactly." Dar nibbled her lower lip a she thought. "Didn't think Shari had any interest in the IT field."

One of Kerry's blond eyebrows lifted. "I'd say she had a very significant interest in a specific part of the IT field," she remarked dryly. "Maybe she saw an opportunity to poach two eggs in one cup."

Dar looked at her. "You calling me an egghead?"

They both laughed, relieving the tension. "Ah." Dar shrugged. "So it'll make it interesting. Helps, sort of. At least I know some of their motives and more than one of their tactics." She wrapped her hands around the steering wheel and flexed her fingers. "A tisket a tasket..."

"Pair of bitches in a basket." Kerry warbled back at her, joining Dar in another round of pretty darn close to giddy laughter. "Jesus, it's late." She finally sighed. "I'm losing it. We're losing it." Her fingers curled around Dar's bicep, and she leaned her head against her shoulder. "So, where are we going?"

"Same place we went last time," Dar said, "for a lot of reasons," she went on, evidently realizing Kerry was staring at her. "First off, if I want to ravish you on the balcony, then I really don't want to worry about someone whose paycheck I sign watching from the next one." She cleared her throat. "Second..."

"Ahahahaha." Kerry reached over and covered her mouth. "Whoa. That one's enough for me."

Dar smiled, feeling the pressure as Kerry's fingers gently tweaked her skin. After a moment, she was released. "I want to wake up with you wrapped around me, and not have you almost pass out from the horror of it all."

"Ahhh." Kerry chuckled softly under her breath. "Oh, do remember that." She half covered her face with one hand. "If I could have crawled through the floor of that room, I would have." She reminisced wryly. "You have no idea how I almost levitated off the bed when I woke up--only thing that kept me from freaking out was knowing I'd wake YOU up if I did."

Dar turned onto the access road that led to their destination. "I think I knew, even in my sleep," she said. "I was dreaming about snuggling."

Kerry peered at her from the corner of her eye. "Were you really?"

Dar nodded. "It felt wonderful. Then I woke up, and it was gone. I was pissed."

"I remember." A slow smile crossed Kerry's face. "You said it was a hangover." She paused. "Wait a minute--how did you know? I never did ask you that...was it only a lucky guess?"

Dar reached out and riffled her fingers through Kerry's pale hair. "You left evidence," she replied. "But yeah, it was half a guess. You were acting like you'd gotten caught in the cookie jar."

"Hmph." Kerry managed a dignified look, which swiftly dissolved into a sheepish grin. "I felt really, really stupid."

Dar pouted.

"No, not..." Kerry drew her knee up and wrapped her arms around it as she watched the quiet streetlights whisk by. "I felt like I was out of control... like I had my heart pinned on my jacket lapel or something."

"So..." Dar drawled, "my hoodwinking you into sleeping in my bed didn't clue you in that I wasn't in any better shape?"

Kerry thought about that for a while as they drove through the vast Disney property, toward the large, white, spread out Grand Floridian hotel. "Did you?"

"I enticed you with chocolate," Dar reminded her, with a smile. "Remember?"

How had she ended up in Dar's bed, anyway? They'd been watching the news, and she'd gotten sleepy. She remembered the sweet taste of hot chocolate on her lips, and then the cup had been taken and the covers pulled up around her.

"I could have gotten up and gone to my own room," Kerry mused.

"Uh huh," her partner agreed. "You could have."

"But I didn't want to." The memory surged sweetly over her. "I wanted to stay there with you. I didn't want to be alone."

"Me, either." Dar skillfully navigated the big Lexus into the driveway of the hotel, pulling up at the stately Victorian styled portico and putting the car in park. "I wanted you to stay there with me."

"Ah, I see." Kerry had to smile.

A valet trotted alertly out to meet them. "So I wanted to come back here, and revel in the fact that what I felt that morning..." Dar opened the door and gave the valet a slight smile, then ducked her head back inside the car. "Was dead on real."

Kerry felt, and suspected she looked, slightly wide-eyed at Dar's sudden and somewhat unexpected headlong dive into rampant romanticism. "Okay, honey," she agreed. "I'm all for it!'

Dar's face split into a grin, and her eyes twinkled before she disappeared again and went to open the trunk for the valet. Kerry sat for a moment, and then simply shook her head, opening the door and hopping out.

The hotel hadn't changed. Kerry drew in a breath of warm air scented with night jasmine as she joined Dar in walking toward the door. This late, it was very quiet, a soft hint of music from the speakers and the clatter of cleaning crews was all that accompanied them to the door.

A blast of chilled air met them as they entered, and they strolled across the beautiful lobby that almost succeeded in bringing them right into another world. Kerry allowed herself to be entranced, and she spent a few minutes simply looking around at the soaring ceilings as Dar worked out the details of their room.

"Let's go." Dar put a hand on her shoulder, and smiled.

Kerry took her hand and held it as they walked from the front desk, and strolled across a silver ribbon of their own memories.

"MM. PRETTY." KERRY gazed outside, watching the small, blinking lights as a boat crossed the lake toward the pier in front of the hotel.

Or maybe it was the back of the hotel. It was hard to tell, though the views on this side had it all over the ones on the other side. Kerry leaned against the chilled glass, her breath fogging it slightly as she exhaled. Below them, she could see a few, lone figures walking down the paths, and on the end of the pier two figures sat together, apparently simply enjoying the view as she was.

She watched them lean together, against each other. It made her smile because she knew exactly how good that felt.

Her shoulders ached, and she felt tired from the long day and their active evening, but she wasn't sleepy. Behind her, she could hear Dar rattling around in the bathroom and she spent a moment contrasting the reality of her now, with the memories of the past.

It was almost too disparate to compare. Then, Dar's every motion, every sound had flicked against her unsure awareness, making her heart jump.

Now, they made other parts of her jump, and her heart merely beat calmly, waiting for its other half to finish fussing and come to join her. Kerry could already feel the warmth of Dar's touch and she divided her attention--half to the glistening castle seen in the distance past the glass, and half in the reflection of the room behind her, waiting.

Dar finished arranging their toiletries and re-entered the room, watching Kerry press her nose against the glass sliding door. "I think I remember being suckered into those pretty lights last time I was here."

She flexed her bare toes against the carpet. "By that same look, too."

Kerry had turned and was grinning at her. She was draped in her old, worn Pooh T-shirt, her hair damp from the shower they'd shared. "You didn't take much suckering," she said. "It was just a tiny appeal to your pride, and presto." She snapped her fingers. "Instant monorail ride."

"Oh yeah?"

"Oh yeah." Kerry cheerfully nodded. "Although I did keep trying to convince myself I was doing it to help you relax, and it was for your own good."

"Mm." Dar stretched her body out, popping her shoulders into place. "It was."

"For your own good?"

"Oh yeah." Dar joined her at the glass and slid an arm around her as Kerry turned and they gazed out over the dark water, to the brightly lit theme parks beyond. "I'm damn ticked."