Airport 2000
By Jaye Reid.
Written: 22.01.2000
Disclaimer: They are mine… yes they are… what do you mean Hal owns them? No.. THEY ARE MINE…. [knock knock]… hmm who is at the door… oh some lovely men and they have some new clothes for me… Hey guys so nice of you to send me pressies… but umm the white cardy… well it buttons all wrong… they are at the back and well umm the sleeves are a bit too long too… Guys?.. umm guys.. help they are taking me somewhere.. guys? Help?
Authors notes: Just when you thought it was safe to get back into the sky…. Guess what inspired this one! Dedicated to the Apprentice Rat, she knows who she is. Without her this story would not have been possible. g
~*~*~*~
Airport lounges.
Rows of seats, clusters of people.
Bloody boring places.
Fine if you are going somewhere, but when you were waiting for someone? Hell it was even worse when the flight was delayed.
Jack stood up from his seat and decided to go for a walk.
Again!
Rachel's flight.
He knew what time he had to be there. He made sure he was early. God help him if he was late and she had to wait. He checked his watch as he parked the car. Good. Three quarters of an hour to spare. Plenty of time to grab an over priced coffee before the plane landed.
He checked the arrivals screen as he entered the terminal. Yep, there was the flight, QF 331, scheduled 1430… What! Due 1626? Shit… delayed two hours? Ah hell he had thought. After getting out of the office in such a damn rush and then getting there in heaps of time, he'd have to kill another 2 hours?
So he grabbed his coffee and one of the daily newspapers. Might as well find out what had been happening in the rest of the world.
Well that filled in the original three quarters of an hour.
What now?
He had sat back down in one of the chairs, all joined together in rows. Watching the people come and go. A group of men in green blazers assembled through the terminal. Hmm, gold stars on the pockets. Ah yes, the Pakistani Cricket team. That's right, Day/Nighter at the S.C.G. against the Aussie XI tomorrow. He glanced at the arrivals board. Yep, plane from Melbourne had landed. They had played their yesterday. He had watched highlights on the late news from the game when he had finally made it home. Wonder about our guys thought Jack. Well most of the team were N.S.W. boys anyway. All the good ones were from N.S.W. he grinned. They were probably already home.
"Bored, bored, bored," Jack mumbled to himself.
Why couldn't she have just got a taxi home from the Airport? He should have told her that when she left to go see Frank.
Bloody Frank Holloway!
Jack had even taken her to the damn Airport, watched her get on the plane and fly off to see Frank? Hell, where was his brain he thought. She had given him a friendly kiss and a wave and then she was gone. Two weeks she was gone. Two weeks usually flew by, but the last two? They had dragged so slowly. The workload had been light for just Reilly and himself.
That had made it worse.
Now she would be back.
He had glanced at the digital clock on the wall again.
1508.
Hell.
That's when he decided to go for another walk.
He wandered around. Glancing in the illuminated windows.
'Downtown Duty Free' that looked interesting. Rows and rows of bottles of alcohol stood on glass shelves in the windows, lit up by spotlights. Giant bottles, the sort that you wouldn't find at your local bottleshop. Hmm, 'Johnnie Walker Black Label', a mere $199 duty free for 4 and a half litres. Shit that was a serious quantity of Whisky!
He wandered inside.
He knew his tastes were expensive, they always had been.
Watches.
'Tag Heuer', very nice. Chunky silver band, just the sort of look he liked. Hmm a measly $1595 duty free. He grinned to himself. His tastes were expensive, but nope, not *that* expensive for a watch. Not even on his Sgt. salary. You'd have to be on the take to live a lifestyle that allowed *those* sort of niceties.
Jack glanced at the whisky on his way back out and smiled. He should have got Rachel to get him some on her way out. Nah, wouldn't have worked. Her and bloody Holloway would have polished it off before she got back. All he would have got would have been the empty bottle! Maybe they could go for a drink when she finally got in? Nah, he already knew the answer.
Shit after a two hour delay she would be pissed off to the max. and really wanting to get home. Mentioning going for a drink would only aggravate her further. And after two weeks of not being able to gaze at her across the room, hell that was the last thing he wanted to do.
She had been mentally exhausted after that damn passport investigation. After she had shot that wimp Denton at the power station, she needed a break. They had been going to have a talk about 'things' but with everything that night it had been put on hold. And on hold, and on hold.
They still were sleeping together, but just not talking about it.
And then a couple of months later she had said she was going away for a couple of weeks. Great he thought, just what she needed. That was of course until she happened to mention where and with whom she was going.
Back at the row of seats.
1610.
Not long now.
The row of seats that he sat in now must have been missing a bolt that attached it to the floor. Huh! So much for Airport maintenance. The guy a couple of seats along kept fidgeting, causing the seats to rock. Bloody hell Jack thought, once more and he'd… urghhhhh… right!
Move seats!
Jack looked around at some of the people also sitting there. They had been hanging around earlier, obviously waiting for the same flight.
They looked bored too.
He watched a young woman try and keep control of two little kids who had lost their patience. They were climbing all over the seat, all over her. She had been protesting and telling them to behave earlier. Now, she tiredly let them do what they wanted. Much to the annoyance of others waiting.
1618.
Hmm, perhaps it was time to wander down to the arrival gate? Wait for her there, just in case she got the idea that he hadn't turned up to get her. Others around him seemed to be having the same idea.
He walked down to where the security point was. Metal objects. Hmm, perhaps he should say something to them first? He approached one of the security officers and took out 'Freddie' to show them before taking his gun from its holster. Didn't want to set them into major security alert. The badge made life easier.
Okay Gate 3.
There were plenty of people waiting. Hmm, didn't want to see too keen he decided. Just hang back a bit. That would be the idea. Casual, yep casual was the way to go. Hell she was going to be in a foul mood. She liked everything to be meticulously planned, and a two hour daily would throw her right out of sync.
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
Finally the doors opened.
The pilot first.
He didn't look too concerned.
How many flights were delayed like this Jack wondered.
Passengers filed out. Greeted with hugs and kisses by those waiting. Hell what should he do? What would Rachel expect him to do? Hmm, wait for her to act he thought, that would be best. They never had that talk. About what it had all meant. What *they* had all meant.
He sighed, hell were was she?
Heaps of people had already got off. Now the unaccompanied kids were coming out. God at least half a dozen of them. That would have been a bloody brilliant flight to have been on. Kids travellin' by themselves, NOT!
Okay, kids by themselves, usually the last off, so where was she?
Hell, she would want to have been on this flight or he was going to be majorly annoyed. He didn't think about checking when he got there he just assumed. Damn what if…?
"Jack?"
There was a woman standing in front of him. He hadn't noticed her at first but…..
"Rachel?"
"Yeah, who did you think I was, the toothfairy?" she grinned.
"Rachel? Eh… ummm, you look ah…"
"Different?" she replied.
"Ah yeah… different." Jack was almost stuck for words. What the hell had she done?
"Well," she said, "I decided I needed a bit of a change and well I used to have my hair streaked lighter when I was still in Uniform. And the sun, well it lightened it even more."
"Ah yeah, I just …. Yeah." was all he could seem to manage.
"So what? Do I get a hug or what?" she asked brightly.
"Of course," he smiled, wondering where the *real* Rachel Goldstein had got off the plane. Maybe she never got on the plane.
He hugged her tightly, he could feel her skin warm beneath the flimsy fabric of the tie dyed top she was almost wearing. But hell, it matched the extremely short tie-dyed mini skirt that she was wearing, lovely frayed edge look to *it*. She had legs were tanned and seemed to disappear all the way….
Hell, she wore short skirts to work. But always with stockings and sensible shoes. This was bare legged and sandalled and whoaaa…..
Where was the *real* Rachel Goldstein, he wanted her back!
"The look surprise you a bit Jack?" she asked with a grin as she broke free from the embrace.
"Ah yeah… just a bit," he replied. "You and Holloway been smokin' some wonder weed or somethin' too?"
She laughed. "Ah Jack come on… you know me. That would be illegal and I would have to arrest myself!"
Well thought Jack, *could* be Rachel Goldstein. She still remembered at least one law and what she did for a living.
"So did you have a good time?" asked Jack as the started to walk back along the corridor to collect her bags.
"Hell yeah… kicked back, drank more booze in two weeks than I think I have for a damn year. The liver is probably shot now but what the hell. And I can still drink that bastard under a table."
"Hmm you and Frank under a table eh?" Jack joked.
Well half joked.
"Now, now Jack don't be like that! He and I are mates, buddies. And he's still a smart-arse bastard!" she laughed. "So don't go sounding like a jealous boyfriend to me thank you very much."
They waited at the luggage carousel for her bags to appear. He glanced at her a couple of times while she casually waited.
Casual?
Rachel?
Hell she looked relaxed. Obviously the break had done her some good. Her cheeks had colour in them and he doubted that it was sunburn. She actually looked happy. Happier than he had seen her in a long time.
"So what did you do while you waited? I assume you didn't know we had been delayed?" she asked looking back at Jack.
"Ah you know, wandered around," he replied. She didn't seem to perturbed about the delay so he thought he would risk asking. "Did they say why you were delayed?"
"Apparently," she grinned, "well the *official* line was that a pet, a dog, managed to free itself from the cage it was in. I thought they were meant to be sedated, but hell I guess they were a bit light-handed on the drugs with this one. Anyway it got loose in the luggage area and it took them two hours to apprehend it."
"Yeah? Two hours, one dog eh? Gees I coulda got it quicker," Jack offered.
"Yeah well, me too," she smiled. "But I left the gun at home!"
Hmm thought Jack, yeah… Rachel was lurking in there somewhere.
There didn't seem to be anymore luggage appearing. What was going past on the conveyor had already been around, more than once.
"Ah Rach. I hate to draw your attention to this *minor* detail, but your bags don't seem to be here."
"Well, I think you might be right," she replied noticing that the conveyor that was bring the luggage out from behind the wall had stopped. "Okay, where is the damn baggage services area?" Rachel glanced around. "Ohhh there it is. You coming?"
Jack followed her. Hell if her bags didn't show, hell…
She wandered over to the counter and waited behind some other customers as the woman behind the counter tried to pacify them.
Then it was Rachel's turn.
Jack braced himself for the explosion.
"Hi, I was on Qantas Flight 331, and my baggage doesn't seem to be here," she informed the service counter attendant.
Jack looked at her with a puzzled expression. She was calm? Shit! She was here, her bags God knows where and she sounded calm?
Rachel listened and smiled as she was told she wasn't the only passenger on that flight with this predicament. Apparently, the attendant told her, that there was another flight into Sydney and with the two hour delay of *her* flight, they ended up leaving at virtually the same time. It was assumed that the missing luggage would be found on the other flight. Rachel's flight had gone direct to Sydney, where as the other one went via Brisbane, and hadn't arrived yet.
"Half an hour?" repeated Rachel to the Attendant.
"Yes, we are sorry for the inconvenience," was the reply.
"Okay Jack," she said, not looking flustered at all. "Half an hour to kill. What's say you and me go get a drink?"
"Ha, now ya talkin' my language," he laughed.
"Yeah I can tell you all about my holiday," she offered.
"So you gonna wear that gear into the office tomorrow?" Jack quizzed with a comical look on his face as they headed for the Bar.
"Nah, don't think so. I don't think Jeff is ready for *this*," she laughed. "Nah, look Jack, give me a couple of days and I'll probably be back to *normal* whatever *that* is."
"Oh well… you never know," replied Jack.
"Yeah look, I'll probably even lose the belly button ring," she grinned as she slipped her arm through his.
"YOU GOT WHAT?!" exclaimed Jack stopping them dead in their tracks. Hell, warning, this *couldn't* be Rachel Goldstein.
"No bloody way known! Belly-button pierced? Nah.. you didn't? You wouldn't have? Did you? This I gotta see Rach."
"Hah… play your cards right Jackie boy and I might just show ya tonight!" she teased. And then she kissed him firmly on the lips. It was a brief kiss, but the few seconds shocked the hell out of Jack. "We've got some serious catching up to do," she added as she put her arm around him.
Hell he thought as they continued to the Bar, he didn't know where the *real* Rachel was lurking. In there somewhere he suspected, but he reckoned he could make do with this one for awhile!
The End.