“Hello, Ms. Roberts.” The man stuck a hand out within her reach. “My name is Richard Berger, and I’m going to be taking a listen inside you to see if your plumbing needs work.”

“All right.” Dar liked his frankness. “Lay off the pipe wrenches, though, huh?”

He smiled, then slipped his stethoscope into his ears, and warmed the end of it between his fingers before he laid it on her chest.

Dar liked that touch. A physician had once cheerfully told her it would only chill for a minute She’d answered by taking a metal bedpan and sticking it between his legs, right up against his testicles. It only chilled for a minute, she recalled, before the doctor had gone flying in the other direction.

She watched Dr. Berger’s face as he listened intently, his head turned—a natural human reaction to listening, even though the stethoscope was bringing the sound to his ears evenly. “Hmm,” he muttered, then picked up the wand and spread a gel-like substance on it, then on her chest. He pressed the instrument down, moving it in tiny circles as he glanced up at a monitor overhead. After a moment, he frowned down at her. “No offense, Ms. Roberts, but you have damn low blood pressure.”

Dar cocked an eyebrow at him. “Not my fault.”

“No, but it’s making it real hard for me to see anything. Can you, um, think of something that would get your heart pounding a little?”

“I don’t…well, I’ll try,” Dar closed her eyes in concentration. A thought came to her mind with surprising quickness and she let the image go, feeling her breathing increase and the blood start pumping faster, warming her skin in a soft blush. “How’s that?”

“Much better,” the doctor complimented, patting her shoulder. “Okay, just hold that thought. I want a few more pictures. Got it. Okay.” He half turned. “Did you get that on the EKG? Good.” He gave her a professional little smile. “All right, Ms. Connors here will get this stuff off of you, and you can get dressed.”

Dar gave him a puzzled look. “That’s it?”

He nodded. “That’s all I needed to see. I’m going to go review the tape, then talk with your doctor, okay? Get dressed, then we’ll chat in the consultation room.”

Her mind racing with possibilities, she swallowed hard. “Okay.”

He patted her on the shoulder again and walked out, carrying a cartridge he’d ejected from the machine.

The nurse closed in and reached for her. “Honey, let’s get you sitting up 158 Melissa Good here a minute so I can get this little old patch off your back, okay?” Dar ignored the outstretched hands and sat up, feeling the pull against her abdominal muscles as she leaned forward.

“My goodness.” The nurse, a tall, heavyset cherubic-looking blonde, laughed. “You must work out, right?” She plucked the lead off Dar’s back and touched her shoulder. “Okay, back down now.”

Dar laid back down, trying to empty her mind of tension as she waited for the idiotic woman to finish pulling off the electronic attachments. She suddenly had an unreasoning desire for a teddy bear to hug. She wished she could just leave, not go into that consultation room, and not listen to what the very nice and thoroughly terrifying Dr. Berger was going to tell her. She didn’t want to be sick. She hated being sick.

Dar swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, taking the clothes the nurse handed her with a brief nod. “Thanks.” She slowly slipped back into the familiar wool, tucking in her cream-colored shirt and zipping up the skirt, then hanging the jacket over her shoulder as she made her way out in the waiting room. Anxious green eyes met hers, and she felt a quiet warmth ease the fear a little. Kerry jumped up and trotted over, her gaze searching Dar’s face intently. “Well, it’s over,” Dar told her. “Now I have to go in and find out the bad news.”

Kerry hesitated, her lips tensing. “You think it’s bad news?”

Dar just nodded, a tiny bit. “Yeah, I think so.”

The younger woman reached out and circled her arm with warm fingers, rubbing her thumb against the soft hairs on Dar’s skin. “You…do you, um…want some moral support in there?”

The executive hesitated, drawing breath in, then letting it go. “Sure.” It felt good to have someone with her, and she gave a resigned little sigh before she motioned Kerry towards the small room to one side of the waiting area.

“Let’s get this over with.”

It was very small, in fact, almost claustrophobic—two chairs, a small desk for the doctor to sit at, and a print of three apples, two oranges and a banana above the desk. Dar sat down in one chair and folded her arms over her chest as Kerry took the other seat, tucking her feet under it and leaning forward a little.

Dr. Berger joined them, sat down and put a large envelope on the desk, and folded his hands over it. He gave Kerry a curious look but didn’t ask who she was. Instead, he focused his attention on Dar. “Well, Ms. Roberts, you are a very interesting case.”

Dar wasn’t sure how to take that, so she raised an eyebrow.

“You have a congenital valve malformation,” the doctor went on, fiddling with the envelope.

Though her face remained fairly impassive, Dar’s heart sank and she mostly felt like throwing up.

“However…” Dr. Berger glanced up. “Somehow, your body compensated for that, and developed a… Well, here, I’ll show you.” He pulled out a photo and pointed with his pen to an area. “Here. It’s almost like your body compensated by developing this muscle part here…and here.” He shook his head. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”


Tropical Storm 159

Dar looked at the picture, then at him. She was aware of Kerry’s nearby presence, also peering at the shadowy gray and black image. The iron grip that had seized her chest started to loosen a little. “What exactly are you saying? Is there something wrong with me, or not?”

A quick smile flicked over his handsome face. “There sure ought to be.”

He flicked his pen toward her. “But with all the tests I’ve done, there’s no impairment of the cardiac function in this little arrangement, so I don’t know what to tell you.” He glanced up at her. “I think the fact that you obviously live a pretty healthy lifestyle has a big part in it. You’re in very good shape, you take care of your health, and you have very low levels of triglycerides and cholesterol as well as low blood pressure.”

Dar and Kerry glanced at each other. “What am I supposed to do?” Dar finally asked.

He shrugged. “Live. Try to keep your stress levels down. I could put you in for an artificial valve replacement, if you really want me to, but your plumbing, though strange as hell, is working fine.”

There was a stunned little silence, then Dar slowly let out a long held breath. “All right,” she said slowly. “I’ll try to follow that advice.”

Berger held out his hand. “Mind if I write you up for the Journal of the AMA? This’ll make a test case they’ll be arguing over for months.”

Dar stood up and took his hand, shaking it briefly. “Be my guest. Hope you get a good paper out of it.” She gave him a brief smile, then followed Kerry out, neither of them speaking until they were in the elevator and the doors closed.

“Sonofagoddamnbitch,” Dar cursed softly.

Kerry smiled and impulsively put her arms around the taller woman and hugged her gently. “I’m so glad for you Dar.”

Dar went stock-still for a moment, then tentatively reached around and hugged her back, a little awkwardly. “Oh well, that was the nicest thing that happened to me all day,” she joked weakly as they parted, noting Kerry’s blush. “Thanks. Boy, what an unexpected end to that situation.”

“No kidding.” Kerry wiped her brow. “I thought I was going to have to call and place an order for that machine gun there for a minute. I’ve never been so relieved in my life.”

“Yeah.” Dar grinned then, in pure reflex. “Wow.” She felt a wave of feeling good wash through her, taking away the nagging anxiety of the past few days, and as the doors slid open, she turned to Kerry. “We’re supposed to be offsite until the afternoon at least. How about we do lunch?”

Kerry smiled at the high spirits that were echoing across her boss’s face, despite her attempts to quell them. “Sure, where’d you have in mind?”

“You like seafood, right?” Dar asked, a rakish grin twisting her lips.

“C’mon, it’s not far. We can have stone crabs.” She tugged Kerry’s sleeve.

“And a nice ocean view.”

The blonde woman grinned back. “That sounds great to me. Let’s go.”

KERRY HAD HER chair turned around so she could look out over the water, her body slouched into her chair and a sleepy, contented look on her 160 Melissa Good face. Lunch had been fantastic, but somewhat overfilling, and she’d topped it off with a glass of champagne that Dar had offered, which made matters worse. She felt like curling up in a ball and falling asleep, especially since she was watching the hypnotic shift and dance of the waves.

It had felt so good to see Dar happy. Though she was trying really, really hard to keep the lid on, she’d almost bubbled over with it. Not that Kerry blamed her; she knew the worry had been really eating at her boss, and she thought Dar had truly believed she was going to hear really bad news this morning.

Of course, even the good news had its not so good side, she reminded Dar. She really did need to relax a little more, and that half joking, half scolding comment had somehow turned into a conversation which had resulted in an invitation to go out on the boat again not next weekend but the following one. With an added dangling enticement of more diving. Like I’d say no to that.

“Ha ha ha ha,” Kerry chortled softly. “I don’t think so.” She glanced up as a tap came on the door, and she spun around, straightening up before she called out. “C’mon in.”

Maria slipped in and tip-toed across the floor, looking around like she expected spies to be hanging from Kerry’s mostly bare walls. “Chiquita, you know what Friday is?”

Kerry obediently clicked on her calendar. “Um, the Sixth?” she hazarded.

“Ay, ay, it’s Boss’s Day.” Maria waved a hand at her. “I was going to get her some little squishy balls, you know, or one of those crazy masks you put in the icebox, then on your face, but since she says everything turned out okay, I think maybe…I don’t know.”

“Well,” Kerry put some thought to the matter, “actually, they did say she had to keep her stress down, so those balls aren’t a bad idea but…hmm.”

Boss’s Day… She’d forgotten completely about it, or, to be more precise, hadn’t actually known it existed. A day for bosses? It didn’t make much sense, but, since she had one she liked, she might as well take advantage of the fact. She looked up. “Oh, I know what I’m going to go look for.”

“Oye? What?” Maria leaned on Kerry’s desk.

The woman grinned. “Toys,” she confided. “I know some great ones—

Nerf dart boards, that kind of thing.” She crumpled up a piece of paper, then tossed it at her garbage can, missing by several feet.

“Dios mío.” Maria covered her eyes. “Do not tell me.” She hurried out, closing the door gently behind her.

Kerry chuckled softly and turned her attention back to her computer, where her project list was waiting. “Add project.” She clicked twice. “Find some way to get Dar to relax.” She clicked again. “Priority, Urgent.”

“DAR, MR. HEAD of T-and-T on linea numero uno.” Maria’s voice broke into the executive’s thoughts as she looked unseeing out the window. The sunlight was reflecting on the sea, and she’d been counting sailboats crossing the bay while a report she’d been running completed itself on her computer.

“Okay, I’ll take it.” She punched the specified button. “Afternoon, Tropical Storm 161

Uthai.” A completely unintelligible mutter traveled through the phone.

“That’s nice, what can I do for you today?” Dar leaned back and studied her pencil, balancing it on the tip of her finger contentedly. Another, longer spate of gibberish. Dar glanced up as Maria entered, then propped her head up on her fist. “Sure, Uthai, just queue it to my work list.” A shorter burst. “Couple days, I guess.”

Dar exhaled quietly, stifling a yawn. The long lunch had definitely put her in a lazy mood, and it had been very difficult to drag herself back to the office, despite the heavy slate of projects she was working on. She really wanted to just take the rest of the day off, after the stress of the morning, and get the relief out of her system so she could get back to her normal business attitude. Instead, Dar listened to the gibberish. She was responsible for this place. “You’re welcome. Have a nice day, Uthai.” Cheerful, if puzzled-sounding, nonsense came back, then the line went dead.