To Make a Hawke Smile
Disclaimer—Don't own anything, as per usual.
A/N: This is another "Airwolf-ized" version of a NettieC story—Smile! (2013). I just thought it fit so well with Hawke that I asked her permission to borrow it, and I hope I'll do the original justice. Hawke and Cait aren't together in the beginning of the story, which takes place a few weeks after the S3 episode And a Child Shall Lead. Enjoy, and please, if you like it, review—robertwnielsen
"Smile, Mr. Hawke!"
"String, can't you smile...once?"
"I'm sure there's a good smile in there, Mr. Hawke...now, let's see it."
I'm not sure who I want to deck more, Stringfellow Hawke said to himself angrily as the photographer from the Van Nuys Gazette continued to work, Caitlin, or this photographer. Wait a second...never mind. I'd never hurt Cait—at least not intentionally—so I guess that means I deck the photographer by default, String grumbled to himself. But, I suppose, it's my own fault. He remembered the incident earlier this morning—he'd been walking across the street from a coffee shop, with doughnuts for Dom and Caitlin, when he'd heard a mother scream—her baby's stroller had rolled right into oncoming traffic, and there was a truck headed straight for it. Acting without thinking, Hawke had dropped the bags in his hand and run to grab the stroller, pulling it off to the side just seconds before the truck would have hit it. He returned the stroller to the anxious mother, who thanked him profusely once she made sure her baby was okay, and offered to pay to replace the doughnuts he'd been carrying. Hawke accepted and thought that would be the end of it, until the woman and her baby showed up at the hangar later that morning, along with the newspaper photographer.
Hawke had grumbled something about needing to do a check ride, but Dom was adamant. "It's good publicity, String," he said, knowing Santini Air needed all the press they could get. "So help me out, willya?" Reluctantly, Hawke had agreed—at the expense of a stack of paperwork that he needed to get finished before the weekend. But thanks to this fiasco, I'll be lucky to finish it by the year 2013, Hawke grumbled to himself.
"You must have taken a hundred photos already," Hawke grumbled out loud. "Don't you have a good one yet?"
"It's only been 25, Mr. Hawke," the photographer answered, then added, "and, no. I don't have the 'money shot' yet. Work with me here, would you please?" Begrudgingly, Hawke decided he would, if only for Dom's sake.
Another three hours later, Hawke was headed back to Dom's small office to get as much done as he could before the hangar closed, and Dom took him back to the cabin for the weekend.
"Uh-oh," Caitlin O'Shannessy said as she walked up to him. "You look upset. C'mon...the shoot wasn't that bad, was it?" Caitlin knew she was being facetious, at best—it had taken almost five hours altogether to get the 'money shot,' as the photographer had called it...and both Dom and Cait knew that Hawke was extremely frustrated at the length of time the shoot had taken. "Anything I can do to help?" Caitlin asked, startling Hawke.
"Yeah," Hawke replied, grouchily. "Stop telling me to smile."
"But you look so good when you smile, String," Caitlin sassed back at him, hoping to lift his mood. Even Bobby thinks so, she thought to herself, remembering Bobby Phelps' comment from a few weeks previous.
"I do not!" Hawke insisted, but Caitlin thought she saw a grin teasing the corner of Hawke's mouth.
"Are you sure there's nothing I can do for ya, String?" Caitlin called out just before Hawke closed the office door.
"Positive," Hawke growled, the tone of his voice startling Caitlin.
"Oh, come on, String," Caitlin said. "There's gotta be somethin' I can do to help." She batted her eyes flirtatiously at him.
"Yeah," Hawke said, "there is. Be in my bed naked." He slammed the office door behind him, anxious to get busy with the paperwork.
WHAT DID HE SAY? Caitlin asked herself, startled. Their relationship, at least, the one Caitlin wished they had, was on rocky footing to say the very least. She recalled inviting String to her apartment a few days after Bobby and his father had been rescued—she was going to cook him dinner, and she put on her most alluring lingerie underneath her tightest, softest jeans and the red T-shirt she knew Hawke couldn't resist. Unfortunately, just before she left to go home and get everything ready, a client came in needing an emergency charter flight, and Caitlin was forced to take it. By the time she got back, String and Dom were both long gone. Then, a few days later, Dom invited Cait and Hawke to his house for dinner—Dom noticed Hawke and Cait were touching one another more than he'd ever seen them, and when he caught Cait trying to steal a kiss and called them on it, rather than face the obvious, Hawke had bolted out the door to his motorcycle, headed for the hangar, and then back to the cabin, alone.
Still, Caitlin had been hoping to start a real relationship with Hawke, and unless she had completely misinterpreted what Hawke had just said, he felt the same way. She quickly finished up the few things she had left to do before she left for the weekend, then she told Dom what she was planning, and took a helicopter up to the cabin before they did. "And don't worry, Dom," Cait had told him, "I'll bring Hawke with me on Monday." Dom had smiled at her, even as Cait thought to herself—Assuming Hawke doesn't kick me out the minute he figures out what I'm doin' there tonight.
String noticed the helicopter parked a few feet away from the cabin when Dom landed on the dock later that night, but Dom wasn't talking. String glanced at his watch and noticed how late it was, and decided he'd turn in right after a quick dinner. His bad mood had been replaced by a bone-tiredness, and he quickly ate, then put the dishes in the sink to do tomorrow, and headed upstairs.
When Hawke got to the sleeping loft, the first thing he noticed was the lump in his bed—and he suddenly remembered something Dom used to tell both him, and Saint John. 'Do not operate tongue...unless brain is engaged.' And obviously, my brain wasn't engaged when I said...that to Cait this afternoon, Hawke said to himself as he noticed the lump moving. He suddenly remembered seeing a second helicopter parked outside the cabin. Aw, no. She didn't...did she? Hawke asked himself before flipping on the light on the nightstand next to the bed and pulling back the covers—to find Caitlin lying there, stark naked. Hawke couldn't help but smile as she turned and opened her eyes. Yep. She did, Hawke said to himself as he relaxed, and his smile grew wider.
"I knew this would get a smile outta ya," she said, sighing as Hawke quickly undressed and slid under the covers next to her. "And I—I want to tell you something, String. I—I love you. I have loved you practically since the day I saw you there in Bogan's jail cell." Caitlin moved closer and kissed Hawke anxiously, but was relieved when she felt Hawke's strong arms encircle her body and pull her closer to him, deepening the kiss until she was sure they would both pass out.
Finally, Hawke released her from the kiss and pulled back, gazing into her blue-green eyes and seeing the love there. As he rotated her onto her backside, Hawke smiled and said, "Caitlin, I love you, too. More than you'll ever know."
"Show me," Caitlin purred as Hawke moved inside her. His fatigue disappeared, and Hawke smiled all the while he showed Caitlin exactly how much he loved her, and he learned how much she loved him in return.
The next morning when Caitlin woke, she turned and saw Hawke lying next to her, still wearing a face-splitting grin—one that he wore all weekend long, and even kept until Monday morning, when he and Caitlin arrived at Santini Air together, both sporting grins that threatened to split their faces in two. When Dom saw them get out of their chopper and kiss, he smiled excitedly himself, glad to see String finally happy.
THE END?
A/N—I put "The End" as a question rather than a statement because, as I was running around this AM, I actually came up with TWO more chapters I could write...but, I'll leave that for my readers to determine...so please, read and review!—robertwnielsen