Taste the Book: SU-MA

"Face it," Su-Ma muttered to herself, as she reached the three steps down to the next level of the third floor, leaving that wing of the house. "You're still a screw-up. Can't even handle the switchboard. No way anybody's giving you any road assignments further away than the garage." Taking deep breaths, she focused on willing away the throbbing in her leg. In her nightmares, a bullet drilled straight through the bone, leaving fractures like a windshield hit with a cinderblock.

In reality, the bullet had only chipped her leg bone and hadn't damaged tendons or ligaments. Her doctor and physical therapists had all told her just how lucky she had been, avoiding long months of rehabilitation. When her leg ached like this, Su-Ma wondered just how anyone could call it "luck." She had the choice of walking it off or giving in and taking a pain pill. A third option would be to go to the kitchen for an ice pack and one of Brooklyn's herbal tea miracles.

Neither the tea nor the ice pack would do much good without Brooklyn to give her some sympathy and a little humor-laced advice. Or even a lecture to help her straighten out her thinking. Brooklyn was still in Harper's Point, cleaning up the mess with the mayor, a drug operation, and her brother, the sheriff. It had gotten tangled enough to involve the DEA, FBI, Joan, and Nikki. Su-Ma still couldn't get over the concept that Brooklyn had a brother, and they had worked for MI6 together, when they were younger. That was much cooler than the hints of the dark past that Vincent and George shared with McAllistair, the man she had met in Greenleaf just before Mike McCoy shot her and killed BooBoo.

"Don't go there," she snarled, and stomped the last dozen steps to the stairs.

Su-Ma focused on the phone call. She needed to report to Elizabeth right now. Maybe she should call Xander, since their lawyer friend had the unpleasant task of dealing with this problem.

Her foot slipped at the top of the stairs. She clutched at the bannister as her heart hit overdrive for a few seconds, and scolded herself to slow down. That was the key to avoiding mistakes -- slow down. Look ahead. Think. Make lists. Listen. Pay attention. Keep quiet.