"East side Hyatt." Dar felt slightly sheepish. "Sorry, it's late."

"You got it." The man opened the door with a flourish, and removed Kerry's bag from Dar's shoulder. "Gwan, get in there. I got better places to be than LaGuardia, that's for damn sure."

Kerry scooted in first, and waited for Dar to join her and shut the door before she edged back across the seat and snuggled against her partner with a contented sigh. There was a faint scent of oregano and garlic clinging to Dar's T-shirt, along with the touch of spice that was their mutual body wash. "You smell good," she commented, resting her head against Dar's shoulder. "Damn, I missed you. I thought I was going nuts. You've only been here a couple days, but I feel like it's been forever."

Dar was startled to have her own feelings articulated so precisely. "Yeah," she uttered. "Just real stressful days, I guess."

"Mm." Kerry rubbed her thumb lightly over Dar's belly. "You know, they really were. So much crap, and that damn power outage. Jesus."

Dar watched the lights of the city flash by, the driver surprisingly silent up front. It was amazing how much friendlier New York looked from inside the car with its present occupant wrapped around her. "Well, it's over," she said. "And who knows? Maybe we can have a little fun here."

"I'm having fun now." Kerry closed her eyes. "Dar?"

"Yeah?"

"We're a little nuts, y'know."

"Yeah, I know."

"Do you care?"

"Hell no," Dar said. "Do you?"

Kerry drew in a lungful of air infused with cotton, spice and love. "Oh no," she whispered, a smile pulling at the muscles of her face. "I'll take crazy any day."

They both fell silent, the restrained classical music becoming audible for the first time as the car raced toward a tunnel and the skyline of Manhattan spread out before them.

KERRY FINISHED ADDING her bathroom doodads to the sink shelf as she listened to Dar ordering them something from room service. The hotel room was big and very nice, but she could really have cared less as long as it had Dar in it, a shower, and someplace for them to sleep.

Even the second thing wasn't really a requirement, if she was honest.

With a smile, Kerry ducked back into the main room, pausing to lean in the door way and watch Dar as she paced idly back and forth in front of the desk.

"Thanks." Dar put the phone down and turned. "Twenty minutes. Did you get Advil?"

Kerry held up the small bottle she'd taken from Dar's kit. She uncapped it and removed a couple of the brownish pills, crossing to the pitcher of water sitting on the side table and pouring herself a half glassful. "That's a nice looking bed there, Paladar."

"Mm." Dar came over to her. "Too big for one person, though," she said. "Had a tough time getting to sleep in it," she admitted.

"Guess we've got the solution to that problem." Kerry swallowed her pills, dropping her head forward as Dar's hands gently kneaded her neck. It felt incredibly good, and not just from the warmth. "Know what?"

"What?" Dar's breath tickled the edge of her ear.

"My life suddenly got really good again." Kerry's tone was quietly serious.

Dar leaned against Kerry's back. "Mine too," she replied. "I missed you."

"I felt really lousy when I woke up this morning," Kerry mused. "I'm glad I'm here."

"So am I." Dar sounded just as serious. "So." She wanted to get this out of the way first, to untie that one knot of uncertainty deep in her guts so she could deal with whatever it was, and get past it. "Kerry."

"So, Kerry what?" her partner asked curiously.

"So. What is this thing you did that I'm going to kill you for?" Dar got the words out in a stolid rush, chasing the last one out of her mouth and clamping her jaws down after it.

Kerry turned, letting her hands rest on Dar's hips as she looked up. "Huh?" she queried. "What did I do now?"

A wrinkle appeared in the skin above Dar's eyes. "Ah...you...said you...the other day?"

"The other day." Kerry's gaze slid to one side, as she thought. Abruptly her expression cleared, then took on an immediate look of embarrassed chagrin. "Oh." She lifted a hand and half covered her eyes. "Yeah, that."

"That," Dar repeated, reassured. If Kerry had forgotten all about the damn thing, how bad could it have been? "Which is...what?" she asked, a touch hesitant.

Kerry had completely forgotten 'that', and now she felt like an idiot. With a sigh, she took Dar's hand and led her over to the bed, sitting down and waiting for her partner to take a seat next to her. "You really are going to think I'm a nut."

Dar's eyes fastened on her partner's expressive face intently. "I am?"

"Yeah." Kerry rubbed her nose. "I think you are."

Dar waited, but nothing more seemed forthcoming. "Well." She cleared her throat gently. "Why don't you give me a try and see? I mean..." She examined her partner. "You don't usually do nutty things."

Kerry took a deep breath, and looked Dar squarely in the eye. "I did this time," she admitted. "I...um..." She took another breath. "I got a tattoo."

Dar's face remained very still for a long, long moment. Then she blinked several times. "You did?"

Watching her face anxiously, Kerry nodded. "Yep, I did." She didn't see the little signals she'd learned were disapproval from her partner, and it gave her the courage to continue on. "You know I've been sorta thinking about it..."

"I know," Dar finally managed to get a few words out of her shocked throat. "You said a few times, but I um...a tattoo?"

"A tattoo," Kerry confirmed, peeking sheepishly up through her bangs. "It was a spur of the moment thing."

"Wow."

"Anyway, after that night with the gang, I was talking to one of the guys about it and he said his friend was a great tattoo artist, so..." Kerry grimaced a bit, half shrugging one shoulder. "So I went to talk to him and I saw his stuff."

"Nice?" Dar asked.

"Gorgeous," Kerry admitted. "We got to talking, and I told him what my ideas were and he drew this thing and..." She let the words trail off, sneaking another look at Dar's face. The pale blue eyes were focused on her face, a look of mild intrigue mixed with curiosity in them.

Not disgust. Not disapproval. Kerry felt a little better. "I guess I decided to do it before I thought about it and chickened out."

Dar absorbed this. Of all the possible things Kerry could have thought she was going to kill her for, this was by far the least of anything she could have imagined. Why would Kerry have thought she'd be upset anyway? "Ker, it's your body," she said. "You could paint it orange and I'd be fine with it."

Kerry didn't respond to that for a moment. She took Dar's hands in hers and squeezed them, her eyes fastened on their tangled fingers. "I just thought it was a pretty radical thing for me to do."

"Nah," Dar disagreed. "If you'd gotten your face pierced, I might have freaked out. But tattoos...hell, I wanted one when I was a punk. Why not?" She watched a smile appear on Kerry's face. "So...um..." The green eyes lifted to hers. "You going to let me see it?"

Kerry nodded. "Absolutely."

"Where'd you get it??

Slowly, Kerry released one hand and lifted it, tapping her chest lightly.

Dar winced. "That must have hurt."

"Eh." Kerry exhaled, responding to a gentle pressure on her shoulder and lying down on her back on the bed. "This is where I'm supposed to carry on the grand tradition and prove my primal womanhood by telling you it didn't"

"Ah." Dar brushed Kerry's hand aside and unbuttoned her shirt, reclining next to her as she started to pull the fabric back.

"But it's not true." She forced herself to relax, letting her arm fall to the bed and focusing on Dar's face as that warm touch brushed across the skin under her shirt. "It hurt like hell, and I betrayed tough chicks everywhere by screaming like a weasel when he did it."

Dar chuckled softly, finishing her unbuttoning and pulling aside the left side of Kerry's shirt, exposing her shoulder and chest. A flash of color met her eyes, and she leaned closer staring at this new and very different thing with intense curiosity.

Kerry held her breath.

"Wow," Dar murmured. "It's...beautiful." She edged a bit closer. "Is that a rope or..."

"No, it's a...um...it's a snake," Kerry uttered softly. "You know, it's that Celtic thing, the one with its tail in its mouth?" She hesitated just an instant. "The one that means eternity?"

"Oh...yeah!" Dar now found the pattern. Each scale of the snake's body had been outlined and done in a different color, and the effect was truly striking. The snake was winding itself in and out of a darker pattern and Dar had to stare at it for several seconds before her mind resolved what the pattern was.

It was her name. Dar put the word 'eternity' and those letters together and slowly lifted her head to stare into Kerry's eyes.

After a moment of utter silence, Kerry managed a smile. "No offense, sweetheart, but I'm really glad you shortened it. I don't think I could have handled the long version of your name."

It was stunning. Dar felt short of breath. It was overwhelming. She blinked and felt the surprising sting of tears. Her head jerked a little, and the droplets scattered over Kerry's bare skin, trembling as Kerry drew in a shaky breath.

With a little sigh, Dar just buried her face into Kerry's belly, giving her mind a little space to absorb this most explicit of messages.

Well, I don't think she's mad. Kerry reached up and ran her fingers through the dark hair draping over her middle, scratching Dar's scalp with her fingertips.

In truth, she'd forgotten completely about her anxiety over the damn thing, too, and the sudden stress after the long day was leaving her feeling totally wasted. But it had gone off rather better than she'd expected, so maybe not preparing for it was the way to go.

Anyway. "I know you know how I feel about you," Kerry ventured. "So it's not a big shocker, but..." She felt Dar exhale against her skin. "Now I want to find an excuse to wear a strapless gown so everyone can see it."

Dar's body twitched as a tiny chuckle emerged.

Kerry stroked Dar's hair gently, loving the feel of it against her skin. The pain, she decided now, had indeed been worth it, and her last doubt drifted away as Dar turned her head finally and their eyes met, and she saw the wonder and the tears there.

Definitely worth it.



Chapter Seventeen



DAR WOKE MERE seconds before the alarm went off and hastily silenced it before it could rattle its way across the nightstand. It was just dawn, and she spent a moment catching her breath from her abrupt wakening before she settled back down and resumed her position snuggling with Kerry.

A roll of thunder boomed overhead, and a quick look verified the lash of rain across the hotel room window. Dar regarded the storm peacefully, however, since she was in a place right now that no weather could touch, regardless of the severity.

She didn't even care that she was in New York. Dar tilted her head and studied Kerry's profile, trying to remember when they'd fallen asleep last night. The last thing she could clearly recall was sharing a fudge brownie as they lay together watching the news, then...

Then she woke up, a minute ago, crashed in the middle of the big bed with Kerry wrapped around her in her usual way, with her head pillowed on Dar's shoulder and one arm draped over her as though she was nothing but a big, animated body pillow.

Just how Dar liked it.

Curled up as she was, her new adornment wasn't visible, but Dar found herself thinking about it anyway. Though still a bit red and not quite healed, she could see the tattoo was, in all truth, a beautiful design. The man who had done it was no question an artist.

Dar was flat on her back flabbergasted over it. The thought and emotion behind the tattoo filled her with such a sense of awe, and surprisingly, excitement. She found her breathing speeding up again just thinking about it.

My name. Dar gazed up at the dark ceiling. She put my name on her body. Holy crap. She had never looked for that kind of commitment from Kerry. The rings and the ceremony they'd shared had seemed enough, hadn't they?

She blinked. Maybe Kerry had felt she needed to take that one step farther. Maybe she'd...maybe she'd sensed how her partner had been feeling these last couple of weeks and this was her way of saying Dar was stuck with her.