The next thing he knew, Roger was waking up in his own bed. He was feeling even worse than those first few minutes in the warehouse. The warehouse. Did that really happen? The details got clearer instead of fuzzier. It had happened. The next, maybe bigger surprise, was Nancy McGill seated in a chair in the corner of his room. She watched him struggle to find his senses for awhile and then Roger bid her "good morning" as if this happened everyday. That was all it took for Nancy to reel off about a thousand questions, if Roger's count was accurate. "What happened? Where have you been? What do you remember? When did you get back here? Who were they? What did they want? Did they hurt you?"

Roger had made it to his feet and was heading to the kitchen with his eyes pressed shut and his hands over his ears. Nancy trailed close behind with details of police reports and Melanie's condition and maybe some other stuff that Roger successfully blocked out altogether. He was glad to hear Melanie was okay though. His kitchen objective was the 500 count bottle of aspirin he kept in the refrigerator. Offering some to Nancy he swallowed two and chased them with a drink of water off the faucet. He turned and made a bee-line back to the bedroom. Again Nancy was on his heels and getting even more demanding. Roger spun a one-eighty at the end of his bed and there they were, face-to-face. At the end of the bed.

The sudden change in direction caught her off guard. Nancy suddenly realized she was holding her breath. And then she noticed Roger's smirking smile. It was implying he had her in some kind of romantic swoon. Three heartbeats into the stand-off, she slapped him right across the face. Roger new he'd been caught so he did the only intelligent thing he could do. He changed the subject by telling her he had big news for Spike. It was too long a story to tell twice though. She was welcome to listen in when he talked to Spike.

Nancy thought about slapping him again for implying her participation was optional and was up to him to decide. Who did he think was running things around here? But she forgot all about it when Roger leaned over and pulled open a small trap door on the floor. He flipped a switch on the under-side of the door and the room below was lighted and showed a narrow ladder leading down about ten feet. Nancy recognized the hum coming up through the opening. Computers. Roger was already on the ladder and moving down. She followed as she spouted another string of questions.

Roger had logged in and was putting the finishing touches on an e-mail to Spike by the time Nancy completed her first-pass look around the workroom. She always has had a real soft-spot for hardware. Roger hit the send button. Now they just had to wait a few minutes for Spike to respond by linking into the address Roger sent. Nancy stared at Roger with her hands on hips. He knew waiting for Spike and not talking in the meantime was driving her crazy. She'd have to wait.




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