| The weather was worsening outside. Her windshield was covered in a half inch of ice - the de-icer she had bought previously in the day was not working as well as she had hoped. Driving home at midnight from work would be an ordeal, to say the least, but she had driven on ice before, even this Texas girl could take care of herself.
She returned to work after scraping the windshield and verifying that the car would start. She sat down at the computer and saw an Instant Message on the screen, from the person that had given her the most happiness and the most pain of her life:
It is getting worse outside, you come home now.
She messaged him back, telling him that she had to be here, because she was the only supervisor around for the particular group and it was not fair to everyone else if she left early. His consideration for her safety slowly gave way to anger, making idle threats against the company if they did not close their doors due to the weather, and then attacking her character.
Fuck the others! Who cares about the others?
I care.
Well, fuck you too.
Perhaps he really cared. That he was really thinking about her safety. But more likely than not, it was the first time she had ever said NO to something that he had told her to do. And she felt justified in it and somewhat proud. If she made a bad decision then it was totally hers, not because she was doing something that was commanded of her. But she knew what she was doing. She had driven on ice before.
What did all this mean?
One more battle in the power struggle.
One more fight to lose.
One more night without sleep.
One more day closer to eradication. | 
