Chapter 51: Home Again and Back to Work.

The alarm went off at an unreasonably early hour, or at least it seemed to be unreasonable. Kay didn't move so I tried shaking her lightly. "Kay, Kay honey, you've got to get up."

She groaned before saying, "Do I have to?"

"Vacation is over and it's time to return to the working world, or in your case, the learning world. Doesn't today start your last two weeks in the internship?"

"Yeah, there is that."

I got out of bed and made my way to the bath to relieve myself. When I returned to the bedroom Kay was still lying there, bare from her hips up. I went to the kitchen and grabbed an ice cube and then returned to the bedside. "Kay, you HAVE to get up."

"I will." It sounded like someone was dragging the words out of her.

"Kay, please remember I love you." I held the ice cube to her stomach.

She screeched as she brought her knees up and sat up at the same time trying to pull herself into a ball. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?" As soon as I pulled the ice cube away she flopped back down onto her back again.

"I'm helping you get up and moving. You have to go in today. They're expecting you and you have to show up. If you don't get out of bed right now I'm going to have to put you in the shower and turn it on, full cold." I reached for her.

"Stop, stop, that's not necessary, I'm getting up. I'm getting up." She swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat up. "You don't play fair, Rob."

"All's fair in love and war and I love you, so anything I do is fair."

She was grumbling as she went past me heading for the bathroom and shower. I gave her a swat on her bottom as she passed.

"Eep! Brute! We're only married fifteen days and already I'm suffering from spousal abuse." She exaggerated her injury, rubbing her bottom with one hand and glaring at me over her shoulder, as she went through the door.

I called after her, "If you had gotten up when the alarm went off instead of lollygagging in bed I might have come in there and abused you some more, to amuse us both. If I do it now you'll be late, now get your hustle on."

She blew a raspberry at me from inside the bath.

I went back to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee and make up a sack lunch for Kay. I set out some breakfast. We were back to cheese or fruit. After the last two weeks and all the rich foods we'd been eating, we needed to cut back some, at least I did.

Kay came into the kitchen; she was wearing a skirt and blouse. "How do I look?"

"Scrumptious, you look good enough to eat for breakfast; come over here, so I can take a bite."

"Stop that and answer my question. "How do I look?"

"As I said, you look good."

"That's not exactly what you said but I suppose it's close enough."

"How come a skirt and not slacks?"

"Two reasons, it fit, my slacks are a little too tight and the three of us are together again for office type work for these last two weeks. I'm not sure what we're going to be doing but I know there isn't any sort of dirty work involved."

She sat at the table and pulled some fruit onto her plate. I poured her a cup of coffee and slid it over to her.

"I'm probably going to be on the phone most of today. First I have to call William and talk with him to see if there were any significant issues while we were gone and then I've got to contact all of my long term clients and let them know all is well. It's customer service in the form of hand holding." I ate some of the fruit with my coffee.

"So one more phone call during the day is okay? I can call you during my lunch break."

"I'd like that. After the past two weeks I've kind of gotten used to being around you all day every day. A phone call will ease my withdrawal."

"Then that's what I'll do. Now, I've got to run." She took her plate and cup to the sink.

I filled her travel mug and handed it to her along with the sack lunch. "Have a good day. The blue ice will keep your cheese until lunch."

"Thanks, Rob, I love you." She turned for the door.

I went with her and gave her a kiss good-bye. I stayed at the door and watched her drive off before I returned to the kitchen for my own second cup of coffee and to clean up from breakfast. When I was done, I went to my office.

I sat down at my desk; I had avoided it until now. I pulled up the computer logs to review them while I called William.

Mary answered the phone, "Hello there, newly wed. We had a wonderful time at the wedding, Rob. That was a heck of a party, too bad you missed most of it. Kay's family was very kind to us while we were there with your parents. Janice and Reyna made a heck of a breakfast for us before we left Monday morning. Please tell Kay she looked absolutely radiant in that dress. How are you finding things as a married man?"

Obviously, she looked at the caller I.D. before answering the phone. "I'm finding them the same way I found them before I was married, by looking for them."

"Not that you were ever a horn dog but now there's one thing you don't have to look for anymore." She chuckled.

"I never knew you cared about me that way." I returned her jibe. "Is William available to get on the phone with us?"

"Aw, I don't get to tease you anymore? I've been so looking forward to it."

"I'm sure you have but if you're not nice to me, I won't tell you about the cruise."

"Okay, I'll be good. The question is, was Kay?" I could practically hear her smile.

William came on the line. "I thought you'd be calling today. Are you ready to get back to work?"

"No, but I have to anyway. What have you got for me?"

"Hold on while I get your files up on screen. Has my lovely wife been giving you a hard time?"

"No, I haven't, but I'm sure he's been giving one to Kay." Mary laughed outright.

William joined her laughter and after a moment I did, too. When I finished my short laugh I had to go back at her. "Mary, I don't remember your mind being so deep in the gutter."

"In the gutter? It's not in the gutter, it's in heaven, just as I'm sure yours has been, at least a few times in the past couple of weeks with your new bride. Is she there? Can I talk with her?"

"She's at work, so no, you can't talk to her, at least not right now. If you'd like, I'll have her give you a call when she returns tonight."

"I'm ready to go over the files with you, Rob, if my wife will let us."

"I'll be good while you two go over the files. Is it okay if I speak when I have something to say about a client?"

"Thank you, Mary. William, let's go over the clients one by one, if you have the time."

"That'll work; I haven't got anything pressing right now."

We spent the next two hours reviewing each of my client's files and logs. Mary behaved, for the most part. I found that there had been only two problems William had to deal with and he was able to take care of them from his office. He never even had to call a client. Our conversation went well and when we had our business done we started talking about the cruise. I didn't want to steal Kay's thunder so we ended the conversation but only for the time being. I promised we'd call later.

When I hung up with William and Mary I started making the calls to my clients. I had let them all know I was getting married and was going to be gone on my honeymoon before I left. My phone calls took me the rest of the day. My only interruption was when Kay called me at lunch time.

Kay's turn:

I didn't want to get up this morning but I had to. Thank goodness for Rob's persistence in dragging me out of the bed. The ice cube was a dirty trick and I'm going to have to get him for that but that'll have to wait. I pulled into the parking lot and there was something different; it took me a minute to figure out what it was. There was a new fence that went all the way around the parking lot. The only break in the fence was at the two entries to the lot and there were cameras mounted at the entry points. Interesting.

I walked into the conference room and found Ryan and Linc already there. "Hi, guys."

"Welcome back, Kay. You don't look any different, does she, Linc?"

"Nope, still the same ol' Kay. I'm still glad to see her."

He came over to me and gave me a hug, when he stepped back Ryan gave me one, too. Lyndsi came into the room before Ryan stepped back. "Hey now, none of that, we can't have any claims of sexual harassment popping up."

It was a serious topic but we could tell she was joking with us. "Hi, Lyndsi," I said.

"Hi yourself, you old married lady. You don't look any the worse for wear." She had a big smile on her face. "Are you ready to get back to work?"

"No, but I have to anyway. What've you got for me?"

"Did you notice anything different when you drove in this morning?"

"You mean the fence? That wasn't put up because of me, was it?"

"Not really, it was something on the long term project list. What happened to your car had the company move it up to the top of the list. There's still some discussion going on about whether they want to put up gates or not but if they decide on gates it won't take long to get them up, too."

"I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. I told you, it wasn't done for you or because of you. It was something that was going to happen anyway. Don't even think about it anymore."

"If you say so."

She changed topics on us. "All three of you are going to Engineering for the next two weeks. You're going to be working for Mister Benjamin Kramer, the Engineering Department manager; he'll be here shortly. Your last afternoon will be back in here with me. I hope you all have your notebooks, you'll need them in Engineering."

Benjamin Kramer came into the room and greeted us. "I see you're all here, good. I'm Benjamin Kramer and I'm the guy you're going to be working for over the next two weeks days. I'm also the guy you'll work for if you come here to work after you get your degrees. I know there was some sort of blow up about our company's yearlong internship program. Let me clear a little of the air about that. No decision has been made about it or who is going to be offered it. You are all still under consideration for the position and there is only going to be one opening so stay on your toes."

Lyndsi broke in, "The decision won't be made before you return to school. There will be a management meeting to make that decision. Once the decision is made, you'll be informed through your school. With that being said, I'll now leave you with Mister Kramer." Lyndsi left us.

"Okay, you are all now in the Engineering Department. If it's just us, in a conference room, in my office or in the department spaces you can call me Ben, everyone else will. Save the 'Mister Kramer' stuff for when there're people NOT from our department around. Grab your notebooks and come on. I'm going to link you each with one of my engineers to act as your mentor.

"You are going to work for them, everything that gets assigned to them you're going to do, as much as you can. They'll watch over your shoulders to see what you do. They're going to want to know why you do things the way you do them so talk as you go, let them know what you're thinking and be prepared to defend your choices. They'll ask as many questions as they have to if you don't explain enough as you work."

I asked, "Are these real projects or just exercise projects?"

"They're as real as they get. They're regular projects out of Design and Planning."

Linc asked, "What if there's something we haven't seen before or are not familiar with?"

"Then I expect you to figure it out. If you need something from Research, order it. If it's something in another department and you need to call there, make the call. Do whatever you have to do, as if you were working on a production project for the company, except I want you to think out loud so your mentor knows your thoughts and thought processes. If you need to ask me something as the head of the department, come to my office and ask me. I'll give you the same answer as I would any of my other engineers and tell you to go look it up."

Ryan asked what I was thinking, "What if we screw something up? How'll that affect us and the score or whatever it is you give us or do for us?"

"That's why you're here, to learn how things work in the real world and to show us how you work and work through problems. We won't let you wreck anything, I promise. Now, let's go and meet the people you need to dazzle with your brilliance so they'll tell me how great you are and how the company won't be able to survive without you. They'll tell me that or that you're not worth the air you're breathing." He smiled broadly, so I was pretty sure that last part was a joke. I'd have to remember it though.

The Engineering Department offices were on the second floor of the building and they occupied nearly half of the floor at one end of the building and they had their own coffee area. Ben had his own office, next to the coffee area; everyone else shared the big communal office. It seemed like a comfortable working area since there were no desk dividers or cubicles. Everyone had their own desk and the desks were arranged in groups of two or four. The engineers could talk with each other as they worked. It made collaborating on projects easier.

I noticed there was what sounded like light classical music, playing loud enough to be heard but soft enough so that it wasn't distracting. Ben raised his voice and called for everyone's attention. When everyone was looking towards us Ben introduced us as he indicated who we each were. "This is Ryan Edwards, Lincoln Palmer and Kaitlyn Sandersen, or is it Lister now?"

"Everything I have still says 'Sandersen'. I was planning on changing everything over as school got going."

"Okay, then. Everyone this is Kaitlyn Sandersen. They're going to be with us through next Friday morning, so please introduce yourselves as you work."

"Run while you have a chance," someone called out and everyone laughed.

"Troy, raise your hand please," Ben said.

A guy in the corner closest to the coffee area raised his hand.

"Kay, Troy is going to be the guy watching over you. Go ahead over and he'll set you up. You'll work for me but through him. He's done the mentor thing before and knows what to do. He'll answer any questions you have."

I walked over towards Troy. Ben continued making the same type of introductions and assignments for Ryan and Linc. When I reached Troy at his desk he held out his hand and I shook it.

"I'm Troy, how do you want me to call you, Kaitlyn, Kay, Miss Sandersen, Missus Lister or what?"

"I'm not used to Missus Lister yet and everyone else is using first names so Kay or Kaitlyn will do. I normally go by Kay."

"Kay it is, then. This desk, next to mine is yours while you're here. You should find everything you need in it. If you need something that's not in it, ask me. You can have coffee or anything else to drink at your desk, if you want but it has to be in a cup with a cover to limit spills. We discourage eating at the desks."

"Do we have a project to work on?"

"I have one and I have one for you. That's the folder on your desk. Read everything that's in the folder and then talk to me. Tell me all the things you have to do and in what order you need to do them in. Don't worry about finishing or not finishing the project, just complete what you can on it. If you finish it, great, if you don't I'll take it over when you leave. How you do things and the reason you do them is the most important part of your time here. If you know what to do, what sequence to do it in and how to do it, that's what we want. Speed will come with time."

"Is it okay to get coffee?"

"Anytime you want. The first cup is free, after that it's a dollar a day. There's a contributions can by the pot and we're on the honor system." He smiled.

I refilled my travel mug and sat down at the desk. It was a fully adjustable chair, so the first thing I did was adjust it until I was comfortable. I positioned the monitor and key board where I wanted them. The next thing I did was look through the drawers to see what was in them. It was all the usual office things, pens, mechanical pencils, an engineer's rule, a stapler, a pair of scissors and a few pads of lined paper. I opened the folder and decided to try Rob's system of reviewing technical articles. I started the first quick read through.

I was just finishing my first read when the buzzer over the door went off. Troy turned to me. "Break time, Kay. Come take a walk and talk with me."

I set down the folder and stood up. I stretched by leaning backwards and when Troy walked off I went with him.

"I take a walk around the building at break times, as long as it's not raining. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure, I can use the exercise and don't need the calories."

We went out the front door and turned to walk around the building. "So, what's the story, Kay? What's with the Sanderson and Lister thing?"

"It's Sandersen, with an 'e' not Sanderson, with an 'o'. It's my maiden name. I was married two weeks ago, yesterday."

"I guess congratulations are in order, then."

"Thank you. Ben knows my husband."

"Ben Kramer knows your husband?"

"Yeah, a little, in a roundabout way. My husband is a computer networking guru and this company is one of his clients. Jim Pietro from the I.T. Department has been to my house. I got my interview for this internship through my husband talking to Jim. Jim spoke with Marcus Peoples in H.R. and he spoke with Ben to find out if there were any internships still open. There were and I had an interview with Marcus and Ben for a position. They liked me and offered me one of the intern positions."