"…Aloft Airlines welcomes you aboard our non-stop flight from Seattle to Florence… Our approximate flight time will be eleven hours and thirty-one minutes…"
"…Good evening everyone, this is your pilot speaking…"
Carly shut her laptop. She couldn't watch anymore. It was simply too hard. She felt that familiar tightness in her chest. She knew what was about to happen and she knew she couldn't stop it, even if she wanted to. This was just too difficult. Her heart was racing. Her palms were slick. She knew very, very well what was next.
"…Mehhh…"
The Colonel had been away so long that he couldn't fully appreciate what she was feeling.
"…Mehhh!..."
The Colonel was concerned, but he was at a loss. He touched his daughter on the hand. He was doing his best.
"Sweetheart?..."
Carly didn't answer. She had begun hyperventilating. The flight was still boarding, so she made the only play she could. She was, of course, the daughter of a military officer. He had raised her to see things from his point of view. This was different, however. There was no time for military strategy. Carly Shay was not – at this moment – a human being. She was simply a high-order primate who felt threatened. This was biology at its most basic. This was Fight or Flight, literally. She chose to flee.
In a rush, she undid her seatbelt, grabbed her laptop, and headed into the aisle, toward the front of the plane. There was no turning back now, not that she wanted to. She simply ran until her circumstances changed. She could hear her father calling after her, but she didn't care.
"Carly… Carly! Carly!..."
The beautiful brunette ran, clutching her laptop to her chest. She sobbed, though she didn't take any notice of the fat tears rolling down her cheeks. She no longer cared. She fought for breath as she raced the wrong way through the concourse, past airport security, and she did not stop until she had nowhere else to run. She hit the doors, which electronically slid open and out of her way.
She was now out in the open air. She finally felt like she could breathe. She was out in the cold, crisp, fog was was her beloved Seattle. It was cold and rainy and beautiful and she had no idea what possessed her to ever want to leave. She stood there a long moment, trying to catch her breath when she saw it.
A jet black 1964 Sterling motorcycle sat idling at the door, its rider screaming at the airport cop, who threatened to have the bike impounded if it didn't move immediately.
Carly didn't stop running until the rider had dismounted the bike and was holding her tight. The brunette sobbed into chest and shoulder and jacket sleeves.
"I… I just couldn't….I…"
A familiar voice came, the rider's face partially obscured by riding goggles. Carly didn't need to see. She knew. She talked over the cyclist. She needed to be heard.
"Drive…drive… drive… get me outta here…"
The cyclist corrected her.
"This is a motorcycle… you don't really 'drive'…"
"Whatever! Drive, make it go, whatever!..."
Sam Puckett smiled a familiar, slick, stupid grin.
"…Away we go, Cupcake…"
Carly sat bolt upright in bed. She was sweating profusely. She cried, the world of her dreams still commingled with the present. She was terrified, but the real world hadn't yet come into focus.
"SAMMMM!"
Sam Puckett was still half asleep, but she did what needed to be done. She wrapped her naked wife in her arms, her hands coming to rest below Carly's breastbone. She pulled naked Carly to her, soothing her with gentle words.
"Shhh, Cupcake… go back to sleep… Mama's right here… It was just a dream, not real…"
Except that it had been real. It had happened. That was the single moment that Carly realized that she needed to be with Sam, though she hadn't yet put a name to her feelings. It was the turning point in Carly's relationship with her father. Carly wasn't certain what her feelings meant, but she thought she knew.
Sam Puckett held Carly tight. She knew what this was. This was Carly's routine nightmare, followed by one of her Cupcake's panic attacks.
"Carls, shush… it's okay… I promise you…"
Carly rocked, but Sam held her safe and sound.
"Cupcake, it's me… it's okay…"
Carly thought she was coming unglued. She was regressing, but this wasn't uncommon, Sam knew. If Carly needed to suck her thumb for a few minutes in order for things to subside, she knew it was alright. She brought Carly up to speed.
"Carls, it's okay… you're home safe with me, our girls are asleep down the hall, just the same way it's been for years… it's okay, honey…"
Carly's breathing had begun to sound relatively normal again. Sam knew what she needed to do. She reached for her cell phone on the bedside table along her side of the bed.
"Relax, Cupcake, Mama promises it'll be okay. I'm gonna call The Doc, okay?"
Carly nodded, knowing Sam had her best interests at heart. She allowed herself to fall back into her pillows, but snuggled herself into Sam, allowing their bodies to come together again. This felt perfect. She was home.
Sam waited for the phone to be answered. She felt awful in waking Carly's shrink at seven in the morning on a Saturday, but her wife was what was important.
"…This is Doctor Niles Crane…"
"…'ey, Doc, Sam Puckett… Sorry about, you know, wakin' you, but… yeah, uh-huh…"
Sam finished consulting with Carly's doctor. She had made an appointment for later in the day, as usual, for the doctor's home office in one of Seattle's most prestigious high rise condominiums. The doctor preferred things this way, and Sam wasn't one to argue.
HALF AN HOUR LATER…
Carly was finishing in the shower off the master bedroom. Sam knew very well that the warm water relaxed her wife after an incident like this. She turned her attention away from her phone call and shouted over the running water in the direction of the master bathroom.
"Okay in there, Cupcake?"
The water cut off. Sam could hear the distinctive rustling of towel over beautiful, wet, dark hair. God, how she wanted to be on the other side of the bathroom door at this very moment.
A brief moment later, Sam heard the sound that brought a song to her heart.
Carly was giggling.
"Yeah… I'm good, thanks… are my glasses still out there, on the thingy?..."
Sam chuckled, returning to her phone call for a brief moment.
"…Gotta run… Carls is gettin' outta the shower… yeah, yeah, whatever… Bye…"
