CHAPTER 1
The rain fell in torrents, so thick and heavy she could hardly see the road two yards in front of her. Man, she would be so glad to finally get out of this, Ellie thought to herself. Visiting Tesa and coming to see her new Italian home had sounded like a brilliant idea, but that was before she'd spent an eternity stuck in the storm of the century. Only two more miles. Rounding a corner, carefully and slowly to avoid hydroplaning, she came head to head with another vehicle racing in her direction, the blinding lights the last thing she saw other than her life flash before her eyes as it slammed into her car head on, sending it in a mad spin, and finally coming to rest on the edge of a half filled ditch.
\A/
"Now String, please promise me next time you'll at least warn me before gallivanting off to some foreign country with Airwolf."
"I did have reasoning for going alone you know."
"Yeah, I figured as much, but please promise me. I don't want to lose you Stringfellow Hawke," she said seriously.
"You don't believe me when I said I always come back?" he teased.
"I'm being serious. Last time you said that you almost didn't come back."
"But I did," he pointed out.
"But you almost didn't. I'd like to at least be told, surely you can understand that. I want a proper goodbye not some half legible note scribbled down at the hanger and hidden under a pile of paperwork."
"Alright, I might be able to manage that."
"Thank you."
"Since I'm now telling you before I leave, are you about ready to go yet? I've got a stunt to fly in two hours and Dom's going to getting grumpy if I don't show up soon."
"You have a stunt this morning? Where?"
"Oh, about an hour and a half away by helicopter from the hangar."
"Then you should've left an hour ago!"
"Sorry, we were having a very serious conversation about not just disappearing and I didn't figure you'd like me disappearing in the middle of that particular conversation."
"You are incorrigible, Stringfellow Hawke, simply incorrigible."
"I try," he replied with a self-satisfied smirk and planting a kiss on her forehead.
"Oh, get going."
"Yes mam."
\A/
Dominic looked down at his watch after completing a thorough pre-flight check and wondering where in the world String was. He should've been here long ago and the scene was due to be shot in five minutes.
"Santini, are you ready yet? We're on in five," the director's assistant said.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll be ready." It looked like he was on his own for this one, then he would be off to find out where the hell String was.
"Hey, Dom. Sorry I'm a little late," Hawke greeted, coming around the corner and stopping next to his surrogate father and employer.
" A little late? Hmph. You should've been here when I showed up. An hour ago!"
"Sorry. Cait and I had some things we had take care of."
"You've had the last two weeks to take care of whatever you had to do. Now your brother's taking the day off and you said you'd be back today. I even offered to reschedule if you weren't up to it, but no. You assured me you would be here."
"Done now? I'm here now. How long before we shoot?"
"Three minutes." Dominic answered a little snappily.
"Three minutes? Wow, I have more time than I though I would," Hawke said to himself as he left to go suit up and prepare for the stunt.
"Wow. I've got even longer than I though," Dom mimicked, shaking his head. " And I leave my life in his hands on a regular basis." But even as he said it, he knew he couldn't think of a more capable person.
\A/
Standing next to the director, Dom watched the Hughes 500 fling itself around the corner of a tall building and spin around on its own axis, rocking haphazardly as the gunship sped past. By the time the Hughes had righted itself, the other helicopter hard started shooting, supposedly hit the tail rotor, and the Hughes began letting loose a trail of smoke, spinning around a few times then spiraling down towards the ground where a huge explosion went off, giving the impression the Hughes had been blown into a million tiny pieces.
He could see something like that happening, actually witnessed it a couple times from Airwolf's cockpit; only normally it was String turning around and triumphantly leaving the scene instead of crashing and burning at the bottom of the canyon. Just the thought sent shivers down his spine. They'd had a few close calls in Airwolf, but obviously they were still both here today. String did a good job protecting them and never even thought about putting his own life above any of theirs', again he found himself being was glad it was String. Maybe it was because he was practically a son, but always he would be proud of him, son or not. Whether right or wrong, he wasn't so sure he could so easily trust anyone else with his life, some days not even himself.
\A/
"You ready to go Dom?" String asked, startling him.
"Yeah, yeah," he replied, bringing himself back into the present. "Nice flying up there today, kid."
"I had a good teacher."
Dominic took the jeep while String flew back to the cabin to pick up Caitlin and Chance then up to the hangar again arriving about the same time as Dom was pulling up.
"So you're all good now?" Dom checked.
"Yeah. Time to finally get back to work."
"And you've gotten the doctor's all clear?"
"Shouldn't you have asked all this before I flew the stunt?"
"Yeah, but I didn't. So do you or not?" It would be the first time he'd been flying against doctor orders, but things like that worried him. For one, there was usually a reason the doctor didn't want him flying. And secondly, he could loose his license.
"Since when did I start listening to doctors?" Hawke joked.
"String," Dom warned sternly.
"None of the doctors even know about my little mishap."
"You never went to see the doctor?!"
"Cait took good care of me. I didn't need to go. Besides, wasn't Michael's agent supposed to be some kind of doctor? And she said rest would be the best thing for me."
"But also suggested you see a your own doctor once you arrived back in the states."
"I decided not to take her suggestion." He shrugged, unconcerned. "Dom, I'm fine. I'm due to take my pilot's physical not too long from now anyway. If I'm not fit for flying I'm sure they'll let you know."