Part Three - Stable, unstable, and neutral equilibrium.
Rachel Jones lived in the penthouse of the Gates
building erected early in 2005 after the Big Wave washed away Long Island and leveled
Manhattan and most of New York City. The coast of Connecticut had been saved by the
barricade of Long Island although the coast was eroded badly. It was what made Grace's
home prime beachfront realty. The Gates building was erected on the new coastline formed
when New York went out with the tide. Rachel Jones had purchased her place while it was
still being constructed and held onto it through masterful use of false identities and
hidden treasures while she was locked away in York after being caught with of all things,
a few kilos of cocaine she had bee driving through Connecticut for her long since fled
boyfriend Fred. The authorities did not know anything about her true crimes, which was
lucky for her, like hacking into financial databases and helping herself to a few loans
under assumed identities, primarily Bill Gates'.
Doc met her in the only place she could have over the past ten years, York penitentiary.
Despite a propensity not to socialize with any one, for she trusted no one, she had
approached the chatty, curly headed new fish one rainy afternoon in the mess hall, taking
a seat across from the woman. Doc asked for the ketchup to conceal the greenish tinge to
the beefy looking object on her tray. Rachel had observed the tall silent woman on several
occasions throughout the first two weeks. A few of the friendlier woman had answered her
questions when she inquired about people, one of which was Doc. She never would have
believed the woman was only nineteen. She carried herself like a woman of thirty or older,
knowledge etched deeply into the furrows of her brow. But she had the most incredible soft
blue eyes that dazzled when she looked at you which was not often.
Later that same day, Rachel approached Doc while most of the population were either
walking around the gravel track or playing basketball. Doc chose the track because lately
fights had been breaking out on the court more often than usual from the heat.
Rachel fell into step next to Doc. "I hear you like to read," Rachel opened.
"I hear you deal coke."
"You hear wrong."
"My ears are good, my eyes are bad."
"The coke wasn't mine, it was a friend's," she explained.
"Sounds like you got fucked then."
"I'll be out in three at the most," she said nonchalantly. "It'll give me
time to appreciate what I had."
Doc stopped and for the first time in years smiled, although only a little grin. Then she
began walking again. "If you don't deal dope, what do you do?"
"I'm a pirate of the cyberseas."
Doc smiled again. She pictured the woman in a childhood image, with a patch over her eye,
red balloon pants, a striped shirt, and a red bandanna tied on her head, as she swung from
a sail rope. "A hacker, huh?"
Rachel nodded.
Now computers, that caught Doc's interest. She wanted to learn about programming having
read about some of the newer computer languages in a recent copy of Time magazine.
"Do you know anything about TBD?"
"TBD is a dinosaur, Dear. We're into IDNO."
Doc's blue eyes gleamed with youthful interest.
"I created the language." Then the buzzer sounded and the inmates began to head
for their afternoon work. "I'll be in quiet hall during free-time tonight,"
Rachel said as the crowd enveloped them.
Rachel taught Doc as much as she could about computers and programming. They sat together
every night for several months. During the visits together, Rachel tried not to notice the
bruises Doc sported on her face and hands. She knew that Doc was fighting off Melanie
Gundy and her pals on a regular basis lately. She was never sure how successful Doc had
been, but the kid kept coming back for lessons night after night, no matter what happened.
Her intelligence was as astounding as her desire to learn, and the hacker's heart ached
with the knowledge that the young murderer was racking up the years with each new fight
body she sent to the morgue during the brutal struggles for her own dignity over the
years. Doc would never get out at this pace, even if she lived to be a hundred years old.
Then one night, Doc did not show up at quiet hall. When Rachel inquired before lights out
she was told that Doc had been severely injured when she was attacked by the Melanie Gundy
and her evil sister Ruel. She was found unconscious on the floor of the shower room with
six stab wounds and a broken jaw. They had Life-Starred her to Yale. No one expected her
to return. Melanie Gundy's neck had been broken and her sister had drowned in the toilet.
Sixteen months later, Doc reemerged at dinner mess, a lot thinner, pale, and as quiet as
ever. While the crowd murmured in disbelief, the tall raven crowned woman sought out the
seat next to Rachel and asked for the Ketchup to cover the blue tinge to her turkey.
"Are you going to be in quiet hall tonight," she asked softly.
"Yes," Rachel answered. She wanted to throw her arms around her and hug her,
tears filling her eyes.
"Good. So will I," Doc stated and offered no more.
Of course, Doc did not relate this story to her new companion. All she told her was that
Rachel Jones helped her publish her work on the world wide web, set her up with her
internet accounts, and taught her about computers, which was all true, but not the whole
story. But most importantly, Doc relayed that Rachel would likely help her hack into the
FBI DNA database and erase her records from the files.
They phoned the hacker from the corner of the New Park Avenue by the building entrance.
Doc figure that she would be home. It was a Sunday and she was probably watching the Jets
and eating Doritos.
The door man escorted them to the express elevator tipping his hat as Dr. Wilson thanked
him. Doc chewed her bottom lip as they zipped to the two hundred and fortieth floor. As
the doors flung open Doc looked into the awaiting smile of her teacher.
"As I live and sneeze, I never thought I would see your lovely face again,"
Rachel said blowing out a stream of cigarette smoke.
Grace was surprised to see a woman, shorter than herself, a little heavier, with long
blond curly hair, wearing the ugliest brown plaid bathrobe and carrying a huge glass mug
of clear liquid in one hand and a stubby cigarette in the other.
Doc stepped out onto the thick shag carpeted landing, nervousness radiating from every
pore.
"Come on in," Rachel instructed leading the way into her living room. The
football game, covered by three separate camera crews was playing on three large screen
televisions. The Jets were losing as usual. Rachel sat on the suede sofa tucking her bare
feet under herself.
"See what I meant about television," Doc said to Grace.
The hacker flipped two of the televisions' sound down. "Sit you two, there aren't any
formalities here."
Grace sat on the other end of the couch. Rachel leaned toward her and offered her hand,
"Rachel Jones."
"Grace Wilson," the doctor replied taking her hand.
"Sit down, Doc, you're giving me the willies."
I'm making her nervous? Doc thought, and found a place in a tall wing backed chair.
"I never thought I would see you again," Rachel commented, placing her mug down
and snuffing out her cigarette in a crystal ashtray.
"You know me and trouble," Doc wiped her damp palms on her pants.
Rachel touched her fingers to her lips and stared at the tall woman thoughtfully, then at
the young blond woman. "So what's going on?" she asked suddenly serious.
"I need your help."
"Uh huh." She lit another cigarette. "Well, I figured that much, but with
what, new hardware, software?"
Doc paused unsure of how to ask her to commit a crime. "I need you to hack for
me."
Rachel's brown eyes grew wide. "Are you shittin me?" She looked over at the
younger cautiously.
"You can trust her, Rach, I do." Doc bit the inside of her cheeks with her
molars, nervously waiting for Rachel to accept Grace. Finally, Rachel sighed and rolled
her eyes.
"And it's kind of a rush request."
Rachel laughed walk over to her computer, her flannel robe and tie trailing unevenly
across the floor. "Who are we hacking?"
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Rachel froze a moment, then continued to her machine. She clapped her hands twice and the
thing surged to power with the ding dong the witch is dead tune.
Dana looked to Grace with a raised eyebrow. Then she walked over to join the hacker, who
was giving the computer voice commands to start up several programs and plug-ins. She
acknowledged her with a tired expression. "What have you gotten yourself into this
time Doc?"
"The wrong place at the wrong time, I swear." They both looked back at the young
doctor, who wanted to join them but was not sure if she should. Rachel waved her over. And
she came quickly, the excitement and fear of committing a crime giving her the jitters.
"Right person I hope."
Dana looked at Rachel confused. Rachel looked away shaking her head. "I hope some day
you'll understand," she said, "And get some," she mumbled to herself.
"So any specific damage to be done, or would you like to crash the whole damn Federal
Net."
"I want to remove something."
Rachel made a big show of yawning and stretching. Then she waited, silently, for
instructions. She turned to the tall woman. "You need to be, oh, just a little bit
more specific, okay," she said in a sickly sweet voice.
Doc stifled a half-smile.
Rachel suddenly looked at her funny.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"What?" Doc was becoming irritated.
"I never saw you almost smile before is all."
"Humph," Doc replied.
"That's more the Doc I know. Now what database are we altering."
"The Genetic Catalogue."
Rachel spoke into her mouth piece running programs that would let her first access the
Federal Domain, then piggy-back in on a user that was logging onto the FBI's subdomain.
They had to wait for twenty minutes before a user logged on. "Are we removing your
chromosome map?" Rachel asked while they waited.
"Yes," Doc replied quietly. Grace gently touched her arm instinctively. The
stroke did not go unnoticed by the hacker.
"I can think of two approaches. One, I insert a virus, which will destroy the whole
database, although they probably have a backup copy, or two we wipe out the specific file
or part of the file. But they will have that on backup too."
"Would you load a backup if you did not know anything had been altered or
removed?" Grace asked.
"No, but I would have to make sure that no trace evidence existed of the file. I
would have to see how the information is organized, cross referenced, and then coded to do
that."
"Are we talking a couple hours, or days?"
"Hours. I have a program that will track all the cross references and the patterns of
the coding. We'll have to figure out what the patterns refer to specifically."
"And if they have already identified the sample?" Grace asked.
"And we wipe it out now, they will probably come back a few times notice the record
is gone, find the appropriate backup, and then start a huge investigation into how the
data was lost," Rachel explained.
"Check and see if my record has been updated or accessed, there must be a
history."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, back off will, ya," Rachel said shooing them away. "Go.
. .," she search for something lewd to say "eat something." Okay that could
be considered lewd.
Dana and Grace were sitting in a small Italian restaurant on the east side. Grace was
munching on butter drenched garlic bread from a red plastic basket.
"Your friend Rachel is nice."
Dana was spinning the parmesan cheese shaker on the table while they waited for their
food. She laughed to herself, not taking her eyes off the shaker. "She's been good to
me."
"She seems to know you pretty well."
"No she doesn't," Dana said curtly.
"I wonder why," Grace said just as aciduously.
Dana was tapping her black shoes on the floor.
"You seem nervous," Grace said stuffing a piece of bread in her mouth. It melted
causing her to moan with pleasure. Dana raised her eyebrows unconsciously and smiled.
"Here, try this," Grace said holding a piece out for her. Dana reached out and
took the bread and tasted it. She smiled at her acquaintance.
"What?" Dana asked at her staring partner.
"Nothing, I never saw you almost smile is all," she said mimicking Rachel's
midwestern twang, badly. Dana smiled again.
"So, how come you don't have an accent?" Dana asked, helping herself to more
bread.
"Oh, I cud, ifin, I wanted one, but I dunt," she said softly. "I worked a
long time at getting rid of it," she said without moving her jaw creating a clipped
Yankee accent.
"I thought you were proud of your roots."
"I am, but people tend to treat a southern woman differently up here."
"You're saying we are snobs?"
"Pretty much."
"But you pretending to be one of us?"
"Did I say being a snob was bad?"
"I don't think it's any better than being a beautiful southern belle. You should be
proud of your roots, what's his name? James Wilson, the statesman. He must be on your
father's side."
"Actually, both sides. I am from Kentucky you know." She smiled. "My
parents are very, very, very distant cousins. Kind of like the Roosevelts."
Dana chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"Did you ever wonder why the Roosevelts were so funny looking? Well, there's your
answer."
Grace's eyes narrowed.
"By the way, how many toes do you have?"
Grace became flustered. "Huh...why ten of course."
"Just checking for the Founder Effect."
"Kiss my ass, you... big...mouth...fat head!" Grace could barely spit the words
out she was so furious.
Ooops, I think I hit raw nerve, Dana thought to herself. "I'm only kidding," she
tried to sound soothing but it came out patronizing.
"It's not funny," she said angrily.
Dana sat back and scratched her neck nervously. She was new at this conversation thing and
obviously she lacked charm.
They ate in silence, Grace reeling over Dana's words.
Dana thought back to her early adolescence. She and the local boys would spend the day at
the wharf fishing and trying top the others' insults. It was obviously not something you
do as an adult, she thought to herself as she split a meatball. The nervousness had crept
back into their booth and sat clinging to Dana for the rest of the meal. Dana drank a few
glasses of red wine to try and relax, but it did not help. When the two looked at each
other, it would only last for a second. After eating her food, Grace left for the ladies
room. Dana sat twirling her nearly empty wine glass in her hand and wondering if Grace
would return.
When the waiter brought the check, Grace reached for it, but Dana was quicker and slid it
to her side. "Mine," she said commandingly. She paid the bill in cash and left a
tip of exactly fifteen percent. When they reached the Jeep, all Dana could think about was
once the DNA record was deleted, they should split from each other.
The Jeep shook as the two climbed in and slammed the
doors. Grace reached to turn the engine over, then stopped and looked at her companion.
"You know, Beth used to do that all the time?"
"Do what ?" She did not want to hear about Beth.
"Try and make me feel bad about myself and put me down."
Dana looked at her friend her mouth slightly agape. "I wasn't trying to hurt you
Grace, I was only teasing. You're the one who made the crack about being from
Kentucky."
"Yeah, well, I was born with six toes on my right foot, and I'm still sensitive about
it."
Dana leaned forward to look at the foot.
"Hey, it's gone now."
Dana sat upright. "What happened to it?"
"I had my brother chop it off with his Cub Scout ax when I was six."
Dana looked around fighting the temptation to laugh. "I'm not Beth, Grace, and if I
had known that I was really hurting you, I wouldn't have said anything. I have no
intention of trying to belittle you, and knowing I did that makes me feel even more
inferior, not superior."
"Even more inferior?" Grace asked as she slipped her glasses on her face.
"You and I aren't exactly of the same social class."
"We're Americans, there is no class system."
"Yes there is."
Grace opened her mouth to argue, but Dana stopped her. "You are an educated, kind
hearted doctor, from a strong southern family, with dedicated to education and community
service. I'm a dead immigrant fisherman's daughter, with no mother, no family history, a
non-educated, ex-con, murderer, loner whose only excuse for being with you right now has
to do with the fact that I am trying to avoid becoming a suspect in a brutal murder case.
Hell, we wouldn't have even met if you hadn't tried to stop a brawl, my being a main
participant in it. And that, my Dear, is why you are high class, and I am pond scum. Now
let's go and see if Rachel has managed to save my worthless hide."
Grace was shocked by Dana's self-opinion and refused to move. "Do you really think
that about yourself?"
When Dana looked at her, the pale blue eyes seemed distant and dark. "Just
drive," she said coldly. Yeah she believed that about herself.
"How's it going Rach," Dana yelled as they
reentered the penthouse.
Rachel made a big display of yawning as she lay stretched across the couch. I was done an
hour ago. Dana sat across from her on the cocktail table. Grace stood behind a chair using
it for support.
"So?"
"So what?"
"Sew buttons on tissue paper. What the hell do you think I mean?"
"Oh right. I couldn't remove your mapping because they had several cross referencing
id numbers and removing either from the file would create serial gaps unless I renumbered
them manually, and I couldn't possibly renumber the entire catalog of 13 million records,
twice."
Dana blew out a defeated sigh.
"Had her file been accessed recently?" Grace asked.
"Last access for query by identification number was August 23, 2016. So nothing
within the past month."
"They haven't had the sample that long," Grace relayed.
"So what I did was, I switched the data from your map with someone elses."
Dana shook her head. "I don't want somebody else to be blamed."
"Not even Ruel Gundy?"
"She's dead, Rach. And the Feds aren't stupid."
"Yes they are," Rachel said flippantly. "They haven't caught me yet, and
I'm living across from the Federal Building."
Dana walked away from her, her problem suddenly magnified exponentially. She tried to
think of all the possible courses of action that the authorities would follow when they
discovered Ruel's DNA was the DNA on the bloody gray T-shirt. "They're going see that
the files were altered."
"No they won't, I can control the alteration date," Rachel said smartly.
"Besides, how do you know Gundy is really dead?" she said wiggling her eyebrows.
"I know," Dana stated coldly. Grace caught her eyes for a moment but the pale
blue looked away in guilt. "Switch them back."
"No!" Rachel said defiantly. Doc glared at her gritting her teeth, working her
jaw, and clenching her fists. The color drained from Rachel's face.
"Can you think of another solution Dana?" Grace asked from behind the chair.
Dana did not answer and continued her intimidation of the hacker.
"Then I don't see how letting a dead woman's DNA stand for yours is a problem."
Dana finally turned to the doctor. "No? What if someone finds Ruel Gundy's DNA in an
unsolved case and it's linked to me. Or here's one, what if I'm picked up and identified
by my DNA as Ruel Gundy, serial child torturer?
"But you know what, that's not going to happen. What's more likely to go down is as
soon as they think a dead woman has murdered another woman, they will verify the data by
using the backups. Then they will know for sure that the database has been tampered with.
I will be charge with murder and the Federal offense of tampering with their
computer."
"There won't be a backup," Rachel muttered.
Dana spun to look at her.
"I put a virus in the loading program. Unless they're smart enough to use an entirely
separate network run the application on, they will end up with corrupted files of pure
nonsense."
Dana rubbed her temples and began to pace. "Great! Now you have the Feds believing
that a dead woman, my DNA though, is running around killing people on the eastern coast of
the United States. But, no, they are not going to believe that, not until they exhume the
body of Ruel Gundy from York cememtarty. Then they will run more DNA tests and find out
that that's not Ruel Gundy's DNA. Whose is it? they'll ask. They will interview the York
prison officials and cons who will testify that Dana Papadopolis was the convict who
killed Ruel Gundy, her sister, and a prison guard. And they will have a lead on who
switched the DNA in the database that has crashed whenever they tried to access archived
files. It will be two months later, the real killer will sill be out there, and I will be
the prime suspect." Worked up into a tizzy, she turned back to Rachel, "Bright
move, Genius."
"I'll switch it back," Rachel said clamoring over to the computer. With a clap,
clap, her machine was up and running.
Doc paced the room chewing on her lip as they waited.
"Shit!" she heard Rachel say. "The program is being queried."
Doc ran over to the work station. "Have they hit anything?"
"No, still searching."
"Put a bug in it, crash the search, time it out."
"We don't know if it's a related query."
"I can't take the chance. Time it out so they will come back later. We need
time."
When Rachel did not move quickly enough, Doc grabbed the keyboard and pressed a serious of
buttons to override the voice commands. She began to type furiously. "Come on, come
on, you stupid fucking machine."
Grace looked on in shock at the scene, the hacker was turning purple she was so angry.
"Who the fuck do you think you are, Doc, coming in here and taking over my
controls?"
.
"Shut up," Doc said a note of finality. She watched as the query tracking
stalled and then timed out in error.
"There was no time out on that program."
"There is now," Doc said wryly. "How did you cover the alteration
date?" She pinned Rachel with her eyes over the small frames of her spectacles.
Rachel refused to reveal her secret.
"Come on, work with me. I have and idea, but only you can make it work."
Rachel still bristled, but the Dana's sudden charm was working.
"They are querying again."
"I slowed their search rate by three trillion seconds. They will time out in ten
seconds," Dana said looking to Rachel to acquiesce. "Please."
"What do you want to do?" she said taking the key board back from Doc. Sure
enough the query timed out again.
Doc climbed off her knees, away from the computer table the keyboard rested on while she
worked. "I want to alter the DNA map."
"Alter the map? Grace asked finally feeling it was safe to assert herself. "You
have to understand the chromosomes to do that."
"Yeah," both Rachel and Doc respond at the same time knowingly.
"Is there anything you two don't know how to do?"
"I can think of something Doc doesn't know how to do," Rachel said wiggling her
eyebrows.
Doc looked at her in surprise.
"What's that?" Grace asked.
Rachel smirked. "Never, ever take a hacker's controls from her without asking."
"I know that," Doc muttered. "It won't happen again, I promise."
That seemed to placate Rachel. "So what chromosome would we like to mutate
today?" she asked as she cracked her knuckles.
"We should probably change three or four."
"Brown eyes?"
"Nothing too obvious, Rach."
"Huge breasts?"
Doc actually laughed.
"Twelve toes?"
Doc nodded and looked at Grace, "I always wanted twelve toes."
Grace covered her mouth with her hand as she laughed. "Give her an overbite
too."
"Hey!" Dana said returning with a huge hard bound green text book. "This is
the Merck Gene Index Manual. It was published in 2002 depicting where each gene resides in
the 32 pairs of human chromosomes and what each attribute looks like chemically.
Specifically, the length and order of the nucleic acids in codon form, and the order of
the codons in the chain. I figured we could use this to decider how the numeric program
that stores my sequences." Grace had never used the Merck Index but had heard of it.
It had been used in more important purposes such as describing the genes for genetic
diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis or Huntington's Disease. That was why Dana had originally
discovered the book, to find out how she can use nano technology to repair the mutated DNA
and cure the diseases on the genetic level. The book held so many possibilities, unpursued
possibilities.
"Okay, kids, we know the attributes, now let's find the right chromes and swap a few
nucleotides, shall we." She opened to the index and looked up skeletal structure to
find the appropriate chromosomes those genes resided. Meanwhile, the techs on the other
end had given up trying to query.
The three woman spent the next three hours deciphering how the chromosomes were coded in
the applications numerical language. This was primarily Rachel's job. She succeeded by
matching the language to the output. She chose a section of code and translated it using
the application's own retrieval system to view it as the texts would eventually be
translated into a video image on the fourth tier . That way she could derive the
character's that stood for bonds and the different nucleotides, and the codes for
numbering the chromosomes. When she had her Rosetta Stone she opened up Doc's file. One by
one, they located the chromosomes they wanted to manipulate. "So this is the real
you?" Grace whispered and nudged her arm.
Dana smiled at her. "Stop there, Rach! Take that code out and replace it with the
code for two guanine, guanine, cytosine. Take that whole line out!" Dana kept Rachel
busy cutting and pasting code. "Good, now you can delete this whole section,"
she pointed to the screen. "Put a stop right there." They worked that way for
several more hours altering Dana's genetic makeup. "
"No take that out," Dana said after Grace instructed her on a chromosome she was
recoding.
"Why?"
"Because you just gave me three buttocks. You two need to be a little more careful
with the Copy command.
"Oh wow," Rachel said looking at the code.
"Yeah," Dana chuckled, "a few too many thyamines in there."
Dana was growing tired as they reached the last
chromosome they wanted to alter. Dana and Grace argued about swapping a cytosine with an
adenine. Dana agreed after Grace showed her in the text her wrongful choice.
"Looks like you picked a smart one," Rachel said. And brave too, she thought.
When they had altered all the genes that affected the number of toes, and buck teeth, oh
yeah, and potential breast size, which actually amounted to several genes for each
attribute, to make it appear human, in case someone with knowledge in genetics ever looked
at it closely would be fooled. Rachel saved the file and covered the alteration date with
the original input date.
"This reminds me of `Weird Science'," Rachel said taking a swig of clear liquid.
Grace giggled, "I loved that movie."
"Me too," Rachel said laughing.
"What's that?" Dana asked.
"Well it ain't no whales dick, honey," she
said and began to laugh with Grace.
Doc watched the two passing movie quotes and laughing hysterically.
She had never seen the movie, and would have felt left out if the two had not looked so
ridiculous as the rolled around the living room, contorted with laughter.
"Rachel, do you mind if I take the time out program out?"
"I'll do it," Rachel said rolling to her feet and trying to stop laughing while
she wiped tears from her eyes.
Grace was still giggling.
"What did you call it?"
"Time out Program."
"I swear you have no imagination," Rachel said. She found the electronic file
and removed it trying to leave no electronic footprints. " I guess I should take out
the backup virus?"
"No, leave that in, for now, just in case they try to load it after today's problems
querying."
"They should know its the query software and not the database."
"You're assuming they know the difference. Leave it in."
Grace and Rachel decided to spend the evening drinking the clear liquid house beverage and
watching "Weird Science" which they digitally downloaded from the great
satellite movie store in the heavens to the television's computer.
Dana was thumbing through the Merck Index for mistakes they may have made, trying not to
notice the two women becoming drunker as they sipped and giggled. They were close together
on the couch, and Grace was doing that touchy feely thing that Doc had noticed that night
Sully's when she went to hear the Blues band. This time though, she did not find herself
admiring the easiness that Grace had with others, especially Rachel. She tried to
concentrate on the book in front of her, but could not keep her attention from the two
women. Some feeling was swelling inside of her that she did not recognize. She looked up
from the mapping of Cystic Fibrosis when she finally realized the laughing noises had
ceased. She gasped at the scene. Rachel had her hand wrapped in Grace's long hair and they
were staring into each other's eyes. She watched as Rachel slowly leaned in and kissed
Grace on the lips. And then she began to eat her face, that's what it looked like to Doc.
Doc stood abruptly, suddenly overwhelmed with embarrassment and anger all at once. She
must have made a racket, although she could not tell, her head was thumping with the
pounding of blood through her veins. Both women broke from the embrace and stared at her.
"Jumpin Jack Flash, Doc's, what's the matter?" Rachel asked, a little woozy from
the moonshine.
" I'm going to get some fresh air," she said, palms sweating.
Grace blushed.
Rachel approached Doc, her robe halfway down her back. "Is this okay with you?"
she asked quietly.
"Sure, why wouldn't it be?" she answered curtly.
"Because you look upset." She surveyed Doc's strong features. She spoke quietly
so that Grace could not hear her, but being drunk, she was too loud. "I figured, you
know, you weren't interested in relationships."
Doc was growing warmer. Grace looked on in astonishment as the dark haired woman blushed.
"I had know idea you liked women. You never showed any interest in York."
"Yeah. like I would want any of those women," Rachel said. She shivered in
disgust. "You were the only good looking one in the bunch, and you weren't exactly
approachable."
Doc's face took on its hard lines. "Don't say another word."
"I can understand if being around us makes you uncomfortable," Grace said.
Doc's blue eyes were dull. "I'll give you two some privacy," she said grabbing
her sweatshirt from the couch and bustling to the elevator. Rachel and Grace looked at
each other in surprise at the fluster. "Come on you fucking elevator," Dana
cursed as she waited for the doors to open. Grace and Rachel followed her. "Come
on!" she screamed, as the doors hissed and moan to open.
After Dana had disappeared, Rachel turned to Grace and smiled widely. "Doc likes
you."
Grace nodded back, astonished by the discovery.
Rachel took her hand and led her back to the kitchen. She let go once they were inside.
"Let's make some popcorn then watch Monty Python, shall we?" Grace nodded, but
looked back towards the elevator.
Rachel poured kernels into the air popper, "Do you know what's funny about this whole
situation?"
"What?" Grace melted a stick of butter in the microwave.
"Doc has no idea what she's feeling. I could see it in her face. She was so jealous
because I was kissing you and she wanted to."
"You talk about her like she's a kid."
"Gracie, I don't think Doc's ever been with anyone, by choice."
"Huh?"
"She had some really bad stuff happen to her in York. For years, from what I could
tell when I was there. That kind of experience doesn't disappear once your released. She
keeps her distance physically and emotionally."
"She mentioned she has intimacy issues."
"Issues? She has an encyclopedia." Rachel took a moment to formulate the next
unselfish statement. "If she's interested in you and you are in her, I don't want to
get in between you. Well I would consider it, if you asked," she added naughtily.
"You like her that much?" Grace asked.
"Yeah, I do. Even though she could crush my windpipe with her pinky finger."
"You know her a lot better than I. How should I approach her?"
"Never from behind. Seriously, I have no idea. If you want to fall in love with her,
you're on your own. That's unchartered territory."
"She is really smart."
"Yep."
"Kind of honorable."
"In a completely criminal sort of way."
"And funny."
"Are we talking about the same person?"
"And really, really beautiful."
Rachel smiled. "I bet she went to G'Williker's for a drink."
"Where?"
"Two blocks North," Rachel said, grabbing the bowl of popcorn and dousing it in
butter.
"How do you know she went there?"
"It's the only bar she knows within walking distance."
"Do you think I should. . ."
"Go? Yes, I do." Rachel walked over to the couch with her bowl of popcorn ,
snatched up the remote, and began to channel surf. Grace grabbed her car keys and her
fleece coat and had boarded the elevator long before Rachel had settled on the Cartoon
Network.
Grace had to look around the seedy bar twice before she located the lone dark figure in
the far corner. Her feet cracked the peamnut shells on the floor as she walked over to her
table, the knot she called a stomach tightening with each step. Dana had watched her the
whole way, and knew she was there long before Grace had seen her.
"Are you still angry?"
"Angry?" Dana asked. "I was never angry."
Maybe Rachel was wrong. "Did we weird you out up there?"
"No. I've seen it before," Dana was staring at the clear golden brew in her
Pilsner glass, a nice white froth clinging to the sides.
Grace sighed. Here goes, striaght forward is the best way, never from the behind.
"Have you ever . . .uh."
Dana's head snapped up at the attempted question. Dana's eyes dropped again. "No, not
really."
Grace slipped into the seat across from her. "Would you like to?"
"I'm not comfortable being close to people, Grace," she mumbled unable to look
up.
"I would really like to help you with that, if you let me, if you want me. Rachel
seems to think you do."
"Rachel?" Dana laughed. "Rachel thinks she knows how I feel?"
"And what do you know about your feelings?"
"I don't have feelings."
"Yes you do. Look at me!" She waited until Dana did. "I think you like me,
and you were jealous that Rachel kissed me because you want to do it yourself."
"My, you are full of yourself, Dr. Wilson." SHe finished her beer in one long
swallow.
"Tell me to my face that you aren't attracted to me."
Dana looked into her gentle, sweet face, the light making her green eyes a dark hungry
hazel. She opened her mouth to speak then snapped it shut.
"Let's go home, where we can talk about this," Grace recommended, extending her
hand to the speechless woman. After a moment of hesitation Dana allowed herself to be led
out of the bar by the hand, unconscious of the eyes that followed.