Author's Note: Thanks to Leigh Ann (leighann415) for nudging me to watch "Around the World in 80 Years," which planted the seed for this. I thought it would be interesting to see what went through Joe's mind after he saw Helen in her dress!

It was all Brian's fault. That one thought kept running through Joe's mind as he lay awake. It had been Brian's idea – Brian's stupid idea – to convince Helen to change her dress for the callback she'd gotten. Instead of wearing something tasteful and simple, she'd chosen to cheapen herself with a skimpier dress. When she lost the audition, she was left wondering whether it had been her dress, or her playing that had prevented her dream from coming true. After Joe saw the outfit, there was only one conclusion he could come to: the conductor must have been blind!

For most of Joe's life, Helen had been his best friend. As kids, they used to play tag in the yard with Brian. Then, as adults, they had settled into a comfortable relationship as they both worked at Nantucket's one and only airport. Everything was going along fine. Joe kept his modest little business going, and Helen continued to offer snacks to commuters in the terminal waiting area. But Brian's return to the island had turned everything upside down. The younger Hackett brother seemed determined to change every part of Joe's carefully ordered life. Re-arranging furniture had been one thing, but now Brian had gotten Joe to think of Helen in a way he never had before. Of course he knew she was pretty. Losing all of that weight had been an amazing accomplishment, and it had certainly gotten her noticed by other men. But to Joe, she'd always been a friend. Nothing more.

Now here it was three am, and Joe still could not get that dress out of his mind. He kept picturing himself taking Helen into his arms and kissing her the way people did in movies. There was a war going on inside his mind. The logical, rational part told him to just forget what he'd seen and go on with his life as normal. No need to change things when he was happy just as it was. But then there was another part.

That part wondered what it would be like to wake up next to her each morning and kiss her before going off to the airport. As much as he tried to ignore those thoughts, there was something nice about that image. Sandpiper had always been Joe's passion, the thing that drove him. But the reality was, it was a single-plane airline that did little more than shuttle people back and forth to Boston. As long as Roy Biggins remained in business, he would never fulfill his dream of running a real airline. Which meant he'd have to find something else. Most people had jobs, maybe not their dream job, but at least something which paid the bills and allowed them to do things they enjoyed during their off-hours. But Joe had poured everything he had into Sandpiper. It hadn't amounted to much.

Suddenly, Joe was short of breath, and his palms had begun to sweat. It was easy to figure out why. He was actually considering doing the unthinkable: asking Helen on a date. His immediate instinct was to think about the pros and cons of this course of action. As a pilot, he knew that planning was crucial. But then he thought again of Brian.

To Brian, life was about nothing more than making passes at women who passed through the airport. Schedules and rules meant little to him. And, for some reason, he seemed perfectly happy. Was it possible that there was more to life than security and routine? It was a bit like flying. He would never have known what it was like to soar above the ground like a bird if he hadn't been willing to leave behind the safety of the runway. Never for a second had Joe regretted his choice of career. The thrill of flying was more than worth the risk.

Maybe love worked the same way.

The End