"Guess not," she replied cheerfully, and was rewarded by seeing her boss roll her eyes. "Past performance indicates that I cannot ever wake up early enough to get here on time."

"Ever heard of an alarm clock?"

"I have one of those. They get tossed out of the room before I manage to wake up."

Her boss sighed and rolled her eyes again. "Why don't you just try to surprise me, and arrive on time someday, okay?" She moved out of the doorway, allowing Anne to pass.

Anne ducked her head in apology, and passed by. She rolled her eyes as soon as she was sure she wouldn't get caught. Making her way to her office in the back, she was met by her friend Effie. A true friend, she had a cup of hot, still steaming coffee in her hands. Anne accepted it gratefully, sipping at it gingerly, then blowing on the surface to cool it some.

"You are wonderful," she breathed as she waited for it to cool.

"And don't you forget it," she was reminded. "Another late night?"

"Aren't they always?" was the wry reply.

"With you, yes. You look terrible."

"Thanks." She sipped at her coffee again, then set the mug down on her desk.

"How late were you up this morning?"

"Three. I think."

"If you aren't sure, you're staying up too late. Try taking a night off, sleeping an actual eight hours."

"Life's too short to spend one third of it asleep."

"You always say that."

Anne yawned. "There's no fighting the need to work through some ideas. The only reason I'm not fired is because so much of my late night work is thinking through stuff I use the next day."

"That and this whole division was practically your idea. You genius lady, you."

"Stop that. It's too early for sarcasm. You sound like a sycophant."

"It's never too early for sarcasm. And the day I suck up to a wretch like you…"

"…is the day that the suns rise?"

"Never. Death first."

"Death tends to come before never."

"Huh?"

"I'm being obtuse again. Ignore me."

"If you ladies wish to chat, try arriving before work begins," came the terse voice from behind them.

"Yes'm," they chorused, Effie leaving for her desk, and Anne reaching down and powering up her computer. She heard her office door close quietly behind her, and turned to meet the concerned gaze of her boss.

"She's right; you do look like crap. If you need to take the day off…"

"I'm okay," she rushed to reassure her boss. "I'll sleep more tonight. Promise, mom."

She sighed. "We do care. And you seem to push yourself harder here than anyone else. Taking days off is not a bad thing. That's why you get things like sick days and vacation days. So you can rest."

"I'd love to take a day off. But try turning my mind off… At least when I can come in here, I can work through whatever kept me awake the night before. It's cathartic."

"Maybe. But if you don't start looking better, and arriving on time, I'm going to force you to take some days off."

"Yes'm. I'll try to get some more sleep."

"It's not just sleep. You've been working here for two and a half years, and you've never missed a workday. Been late, yes, always. But entirely missed? And all the weekends you work? You need to take some time off."

"That sounds nice, but when am I supposed to do that? Our next trials come up in a week and a half, and hopefully we'll have enough of the bugs worked out to begin to move into production. That's sure to find a few more problems."

"Contrary to your firmly held opinion, we are able to function here without your presence. You may be the senior research tech, but you are not the only one here with a functioning brain. You take a few days off and things will not fall to pieces."

"So you think," she muttered.

"So I know. No one here is a moron. If problems arise, we can find answers, too. You don't have to do everything."

"Only if I want it to be done right," she pointed out.

"Only if you want it to be done your way. There are many solutions to problems. You have a flair for coming up with some of the simplest, but you aren't always right."

"Mostly right."

"True. Which is why we put up with you." She changed tactics. "After we hit production, I think you need to take a break. Go… visit your family or something. I'm sure they're dying to see you; it's been how many years?"

Anne sighed. "Almost four. I don't… think they miss me. I may not have been to see them, but they could have come to see me, too."

"So, what do you have to lose? Or, you could spend the time practicing with that band of yours. Don't you have a few dates coming up?"

"Singing in bars is hardly a way to spend my vacation. If I take one."

"You will take one. I'm going to make sure of that."

"Oh, thanks," she said, slightly sarcastic.

"It's for your own good. Now, get to work. I hope you figured out some way around the linkage problem last night, because we're running short on time to get the patch in production."

"I think I have, but I'm going to have to mess around with some modeling before I'm sure."

"Well, you get to that. I'm going to go crack the whip. Christie and Shanelle just don't seem to realize how close we are to deadline." With that, she left. Anne glared at the closed door, resenting the thought of being forced on vacation. Then she pulled up the wiring schematics and started trying to see if her idea would work. She picked up her coffee and sipped at it while she tweaked things a bit.