Condemned...an epilogue
A/N: I do not own or profit from Airwolf or these characters in anyway. My muse just takes them off the shelf and plays with them every so often. We always put them back at least as good as we found them.
One of my favorite episodes has always been "Condemned" from the 2nd season. I really like the way that Cait and Hawke worked together and I felt there was a lot of interaction going on between them under the surface that could have been further developed. So this is just my take on what String may have thought during the mission and what I would have liked to have seen happen after they got back. Just a quick one-shot. I hope you like it. If you do, drop me a note and let me know :)
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"I learned not to underestimate other people. They might surprise you."
Hawke had said those exact words to the Russian Lieutenant in response to her comment about how surprised she was at what a worthy adversary he proved to be. Out loud he may have been speaking to the foreign officer but in reality, he had been looking directly at Caitlin, watching her dance with the Russian sailors and applying them to his red-headed co-worker when he said them.
In just the few short months since she had showed up un-announced at Santini Air looking for Hawke and that "big, black battleship with rotors", Caitlin O'Shannessy had become an integral part of Stringfellow Hawke's life. Maybe an even bigger part than he had cared to admit.
While they had denied the existence of Airwolf to Caitlin for a long time, finally Dom and Sring had had to add her to the team in order to save Archangel from East Germany when Dom was too injured to co-pilot the mission. Since that first flight, Caitlin had proved a quick and insightful student and had picked up quite skillfully on the intricacies of flying the technologically advanced helicopter. String had to admit that even he was surprised at how good of a pilot and flight engineer the former Texas Highway Patrol traffic pilot had become in such a short amount of time. It was one of the first and most important lessons he had learned about the freckle faced woman...Never underestimate Caitlin O'Shannessy.
The mission to the island in the Aleutians where the development of an antidote for a biological warfare agent had gone wrong, was really the first where Cait was a fully involved and integrated member of the Airwolf team. Knowing that what they were going to find might be shocking and difficult, Hawke had been a little reluctant to bring her along. Upon arrival, reality turned out to be even worse than either of them could have imagined, with all but one of the workers on the island having died horrible and violent deaths at each other's hands as a result of the side-effects of the biological agent and it's antidote.
Thinking back on it now, Hawke was amazed at how well Caitln had held up under the pressure. Not only dealing with her own possible death sentence when they were exposed to the chemical, but being the rock that kept Hawke alert and in control while disarming the missiles being fired by the Russian sub. Hawke had had no choice but to use Airwolf to combat the weapons being used by the sub even though he had just been given a tranquilizer a few minutes earlier. Without Cait in the engineer's seat, letting him know when to shoot and what was going on around him, he would have never been able to accomplish that feat and they might all be dead.
And those hadn't been the only examples of Caitlin's worthiness on this one mission. She had been the one to sneak up on and disarm the Russian sailor holding Hawke at gunpoint with one very quick and effective roundhouse kick and she had been the one to realize that there must be a fourth rabbit on which they were testing the antidotes. Caitlin was quickly proving to be a huge asset to the Airwolf team for both her mental and physical talents.
And speaking of the physical, Hawke silently mused that she was quite the beautiful woman to boot. At first glance, Caitlin O'Shannessy was a cute, fresh-faced, girl-next-door type. The more he was around her however the more Hawke had come to realize how beautiful she really was. Tall and slender with the perfect shade of strawberry blonde hair and the most amazing blue-green eyes he had ever seen, String was finding himself attracted to her more and more. While he never admitted his attraction to her out loud, he would always seem to find a way to be close to her when he could. If they were near each other, it just seemed natural for him to throw his arm around her waist or to find out a way to reach out and touch her. Something about being near her just made him feel at home. It wasn't a normal reaction for Hawke who was usually well-guarded in his emotions.
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After returning from the island mission, Hawke had invited Caitlin to spend the weekend at his mountain cabin to help destress from the horrors they had just witnessed. It was a normal activity that the team usually engaged in after such a mission but this time was slightly different. Dom wasn't with them. Dom was on vacation and wouldn't be back for another couple of weeks. It was why Hawke had taken Cait on the misson in the first place. It would also be the first time that Cait had spent time there alone with String.
String stood on the front porch and watched Cait as she walked the pier towards the lake. Since arriving at the cabin, she had been very quiet and aloof. String understood. He knew that she was processing all that she had seen and been through on the mission. Sometimes the silence was a better psychiatrist than having someone to talk to so he let her be, but not without keeping a close eye on her. Hawke was used to seeing such horrible things in Vietnam and in the numerous other missions he had flown for The Firm in Airwolf. For Caitlin, this was all new.
After watching her for a few minutes, String noticed Cait's shoulders began to shake. Whether from the cold or because she was crying he couldn't tell from this distance but he knew that either way he couldn't stand idlly by any longer. Reaching in the door of his cabin and grabbing his leather flight jacket off the hook, he took off towards the pier.
As he approached her from behind, he could see Caitlin quickly trying to wipe the tears from her cheeks so he wouldn't see. Respecting her privacy, he didn't let on what he had witnessed.
"I thought you might be cold," He said as he stood beside her and held out his jacket.
"Yeah, thanks, " she said with a slight smile as she took the jacket from him and put it around her shoulders. "I always forget how chilly it gets up here after sunset."
"I've got a fire going inside if you want to come back in," Hawke said as they both stood at the end of the pier looking out at the glass-topped lake in front of them.
"In a few minutes. It's just so peaceful and calm here by the lake. So unlike..." she faltered as thoughts of the dozens of dead bodies she had witnessed on their approach to the island laboratory flooded her memory. A shiver ran through her body and Hawke knew that this one had nothing to do with the temperature.
"Caitlin, it's okay you know," he said in a quiet voice.
"What?"
"To cry, Caitlin. It's okay," he said as he turned to face her. Seeing an uncontained tear fall down her cheek he couldn't stop himself from reaching up and gently wiping it away. "Tears are our way of cleansing our souls. At least that's what my mother used to tell us when we were kids."
"She did?" Caitlin asked as she allowed Hawke to gently take her by the shoulders and turn her towards him. While she hadn't wanted Hawke to see her cry and think her weak, she knew that what he had just shared with her was something sacred. Hawke rarely talked about his parents and only shared such things with the people he could trust and felt the closest too. She was honored that he would choose to do so with her. The least she could do is be honest about her feelings with him. After all, it was with String that she felt the safest. If she couldn't trust him enough to see her cry, then she couldn't trust anyone.
"Yeah," he answered back with a tender smile. "I think she was right, it can help when nothing else does. And you know, if you need a shoulder to cry on, I'm available."
Nodding her head in agreeement, Caitlin let go of her emotions and let the tears begin to fall. As she did, Hawke pulled her close into a tight embrace. "That's good, let it all out Cait," he soothed as he rubbed her back.
For several minutes, they stood wrapped in each other's arms as Cait let the tears and the sound of Hawke's heartbeat wash away all of her fears and bad feelings. When he could feel that the tears had stopped he started to disengage from the hug but as soon as he did, Cait pulled him back in. "Don't let go, String. It feels good to have you hold me," she stated softly hoping he would agree.
Smiling to himself, he pulled her back into his chest and kissed the top of her head. "Cait, there's something I've been wanting to do for a long time but wasn't sure how to approach it. I don't want to lose what you and I have right now so if I'm overstepping boundaries here, tell me okay?"
Her heart skipping a beat, Cait looked up into Hawke's steel-blue eyes. "What is it, Hawke?"
"Cait...I really want to kiss you but if you don't want..." Hawke started but before he could finish, Caitlin had reached up and with her hand around the back of his neck, pulled him towards her. The moment their lips met, Hawke knew that nothing else in his life had ever felt so right. Finally coming up for air several minutes later, Hawke looked into Cait's eyes and could see a look of pure love staring back at him. He knew that Cait was seeing the same thing in his.
Putting his arm around her waist and guiding her back down the pier towards the cabin, String felt happier than he had in a long time. "I've got a bottle of wine chilling inside. What do you say we go find a couple of glasses and make ourselves comfortable in front of the fire? I think we have a few things to talk about..." he said with a twinkle in his eye.
"Or...," Cait answered with a twinkle of her own, "we could just not talk at all..."
Once again, Hawke realized he should never underestimate Caitlin O'Shannessy!
The END!