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				EXPOSURE by Fran Lavery Chapter Eight       Toni Thomas hurried out of the hanger at Noti Aviation as soon as the klaxon sounded. She bustled to her locker to grab her jacket and a brown paper bag marked 'reinforcements', and walked out onto the street, into the Washington evening. She had further to go tonight, so she couldn't waste time.       Her best friend had called in work sick that morning; possibly a twenty-four hour bug, but pretty unpleasant. It must've been, mused Toni, to keep her away from planes. She wasn't worried, but as soon as she'd heard, she decided to go visit, to cheer her up a bit. In the bag were two packets of popcorn, a home video of Happy Days reruns and six copies of Hot Magazine. If Toni knew, as she did, then they would do the trick.       She arrived at the apartment door and trilled the bell. A minute later, it opened, and she was greeted with a happy, perfectly healthy-looking smile."       "Hey, Toni! I'm so glad you stopped over tonight! Come in, come in."       "Hey, yourself!" Toni was confused. "I heard you were sick!"       "Surprise! I'm not." She grinned.       "Jessica Howe, you have a lot of explaining to do!"       One hour, a bowl of popcorn and half a Happy Days marathon later, Toni was all caught up.       "So, let me get this straight. This guy's smart, and funny, and cute…"       "Uh, huh!"       "… and he took you on two dates within three days …"       "Well, technically, I took him on the first."       "Whatever, but he called the next day and took you out again the day after…"       "Yeah."       "… and you met his family two days later …"       "Well, yeah, but for like the zillionth time in my entire life…"       "Whatever! So, you intended to stay the afternoon, but you stayed the night, then the next day and night too…"       "His family are wonderful! You remember me talking about the Tracy's I grew up with. They're like my family too."       "Whatever! So, he's eager, ("Yup!") he's smart, ("Yeah.") he's great at, er, shall we say, "boyfriend stuff" ("You have no idea!") and six years ago you let him go?!"       Toni was great. Gossiping about Scott was something she hadn't had a chance to do with any of her city friends, it'd all happened so quickly. On the couch, eating popcorn and watching Happy Days was the perfect way to wile away the perfect day.       Since she'd stayed that extra night on the island, and with Scott, she hadn't got home to her apartment until well after noon. Anticipating this, she'd called work from Tracy Island with an imaginary fever. She'd feel better tomorrow, spending an hour in sick bay for good measure, but would be fully revived by the day after.       She and Scott had figured out how best to fake illnesses in high school, truanting French. This way was the most convincing.       Toni had stayed until one, gossiping and giggling and making fun of The Fonz, before catching a cab home. Jess was very content, and not even a bit sleepy, since she'd got up late and napped all afternoon. She decided to do a little yoga to compliment her relaxed state of mind, and began to stretch.       Scott had called her that afternoon, and they'd had a lovely chat while Virgil drove them from a Seattle business meeting in a hire car. Scott said that it was funny she had 'caught' a fever today, since he'd been feeling like he had the beginnings of a head-cold coming on all morning.       "Wanna rub some Vicks on my chest?" he'd offered in that mischievous voice that did sound a little bunged up too. Poor baby!       "Mmmm! Mmmmenthol! Mmmmaybe next weekend, unless you feel like coming to visit me."       "Sounds great! But I'm only coming if this cold doesn't break out. I can't get you all sick too! Believe me, all my plans involve us getting far closer than cold-catching distance!"       She sighed happily, as she balanced herself on one foot and lifted her other leg to touch the back of her head. Then, she straightened out as the doorbell rang.       At one in the morning? On to Chapter Nine.