Technical Difficulties

Home : Stories by Zippit : The K. D. Harvey Show : Technical Difficulties

Summary: The start of every new adventure has its rough spots.

AUTHOR: Zippit
EMAIL: zippit@cryptoffic.com
RATING: PG-13
SERIES: The K. D. Harvey Show
CHARACTER: Kevin Harvick, DeLana Harvick, Kevin POV
PROMPT: Taming the Muse #129 - Black Out (2.1)
COMPLETED: January 19, 2009
WORD COUNT: 1,296
DISCLAIMER: If you recognize anyone in this piece, I am in no way affiliated with or know them personally. I am neither making a profit nor plan to do so. This is nothing more than an exercise in fiction. This is a result of an overactive imagination and I claim no truth to these words.
BETA: Thanks to Catw00man for the beta. All other errors are mine.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This has been rattling around in my head for a while now. I just hope I can do it justice and have the willpower!
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Pre-Production – Week 1

Harvick Household - Kernersville, North Carolina – January 6th, 2009

D said they’d sent over idiot proof instructions and since I’m her resident idiot it was up to me to put it all together. She didn’t particularly want a bunch of tech guys swarming around our house. I didn’t either especially considering that Sirius might’ve made us spring for it. It was free of charge for Operation Wax Smoke but times have changed. Crawl out from under the table where the last plug has finally gone in and get to my feet, looking at D. “We set?”

“Yeah, we should be unless you managed to screw something up.” She flips through the instruction sheets as if they’ll flash bright red and tell her what I might’ve missed installing our broadcast setup.

“I thought you said they were idiot proofed?” She gives me a withering look before she flips through the sheets once more. I just grin. Wouldn’t be right if she wasn’t here making sure everything’s in order. She’s the queen of this household and I just make messes to keep things interesting.

“Do we need anything to keep the animals from getting into it?”

“We didn’t last time. Don’t see why we would now and it’s not like it’s an issue.” Plop down into the rolling desk chair I hauled in earlier and kick my feet up on the desk. “Stewart’s got almost as many pets as we do and we never heard of any catastrophes occurring. Even those cats that destroyed his coach didn’t wreck anything.”

Watch her walk over to the big hulking switchboard machine I set up in the corner and turn it on while I do the same for the machines we plugged in over here. A low resonating hum rumbles to life as everything powers on. Exchange a smile with D when the lights flicker. Scramble out of my chair and catch D whirling back toward the switchboard with the same idea as me but before either of us can hit any switches the darkness descends with a whirring silence.

“Damnit! Kevin, go fix this.”

“Why me? I didn’t do it.”

“But you were the one that wanted the show!”

“We have the time. Not like we’re jetting off places every week.”

“Ke-vin.”

“Alright, alright.” Pull out my cell cause the damn thing’s bright enough to be a flashlight in and of itself. Make my way past her and she’s probably gonna go find the dogs. They don’t do well in the dark. LO doesn’t anyway and she’s liable to get run over by Endy and Bebe right now. Where the hell is the circuit breaker…? I may have designed this place but that doesn’t mean I still have the blueprints memorized.

“C’mon, c’mon, where are they.” They can’t be all the way in the basement cause that would be stupid. Personally I’d put them in the hall closet right when you walk in the door. Easy access and no need to go to the damn basement to solve things. Skim my hand over the banister as I make my way down, having to press a button repeatedly on the freaking phone to keep the light coming. There should be a setting that keeps it on all the time.

Pull open the hall closet and have to shove through a million jackets, most of which are probably mine. I’ve lived here long enough to pick up the accent but I’m still not used to the damn cold. Can’t really see since the hand holding my cell is pushing back the jackets, maybe if I angle it just right…. My fingertips glide over cool metal and there she is, our circuit box. I really hope I don’t have to flip them all back on.

Let the jackets fall back into place so I can see what exactly I’m hitting. Somehow I don’t think D would take too kindly to me setting off an electrical fire when we’ve barely been in here long enough to call it home. But she had to have her perfect house and I always wanted to give her everything. Run a finger over the switches, reading the labels before I even think about pushing any.

Five bedrooms. Clickclickclickclickclick. Upstairs hall. Click. Bathrooms. Clickclickclickclickclick. Offices. Clickclick. Man cave. Click. Living room, kitchen, den, patio. Clickclickclickclick. Hit the rest and pop my head out of the closet to see the chandler in the entrance hall is back on then shove the cell into my pocket. Walk to the bottom of the stairs and holler up, “D? The animals ok?” She comes into view with LO shaking in her arms while Endy, Bebe, and Mills run around her feet.

“LO’s going to need some cuddling but otherwise they’ll be fine in a bit.” I walk up to join her as she comes to lean against the rail. “Any clue what caused it?” Take LO from D and look into LO’s eyes. She’ll be fine. She just shakes a bit. Cradle her in my arms before I look at D and shrug.

“Not really. We might have to call the guys at Sirius so they can get us set up to where we won’t blow the breakers every time.” Brace a hand against the rail and look down the entrance hall where Mills has taken up residence under the table.

“No, Kevin, all we probably need to do is call an electrician and see what--.”

Look back at her and say, “D, that’s gonna cost us. If we just tell our big shot producer, Michael, he can have someone come check it out with no cost to us. They’ll just need to patch something in or give us a different extension cord.” Stroke a hand over LO’s head and nudge Bebe away when she tries to weave her way between my legs. “Relax, we’ll be ready to go when the season rolls around. Our first broadcast’s not ‘til the Shootout, remember?”

“I know, I know but things are going to get busy and I wanted it all done before they do. Fan Fest is next week and we have testing the same weekend as the All Star Showdown in Cali Ron's doing.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’ll get done. Let’s go call him and see exactly how much sway he has by how soon he can get a tech out here to sort this for us.” Wrap my arm around her shoulders and guide her back to the bedroom we’ve converted for this operation. We’ve left the bed in here cause I figured we could lounge around on it if we ever got bored of sitting at the table.

“He knows we only want an hour long show, right?” Guide her over to the bed and hand LO to her while I fish out my cell again and pull up Michael’s number. He said to call him anytime we needed his help with something and it is still office hours.

“Yeah, he does.” Sprawl on the bed next to her as I put the speaker phone on. We don’t have the time to do a two hour show like Tony had and half an hour just seems too short especially if we’re doing it all ourselves. More than that, I don’t think D or I could sit still long enough for two hours. She’d always find something she should be doing instead while I’d want to go hang with the guys.

Run my fingers over LO’s head until Michael picks up. This isn’t something we’ve done before but hey, it’s another new adventure and it sure as hell was fun when we were on Stewart’s show. It’s gotta be eating up him and Earnhardt that their shows got canned but I have mine. Maybe I’ll make them our first guests.

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Zippit - zippit@cryptoffic.com