Fly Beside Him

I was reading some Pearl Harbor stories and I read one that was very familiar so I was about to leave a review when I realized that I wrote that story a long time ago. I figured it was worth a sequel so here it is.

He used to be one of the best pilots in the air corp., he used to love to fly, he was part of a team that, he believed, could never be broken. That was then, now he did not fly, instead he taught younger men how. To be a team required the other half. To be a team required that all members be whole. Now there was only one member, and he was not even whole. He would sit in his office and watch the younger men as they flew their planes, seeing himself several years ago, doing those same moves, showing off and dragging his partner into the middle of it. His mind wandered back to the days when he and Danny would pull off dare devil stunts that no one else would attempt. That even he would not attempt now, not anymore…

"McCawley?" The questioning voice pulled him back to the present and his office.

"Yes?" This was good, but then again so was any distraction these days."Sir I have an official dispatch for you." Rafe nodded and held out his hand for the paper to sign. These kinds of messages were arriving all the time. Always telling him that they needed more pilots fast, to train them faster. But as he held the envelope in his hand he knew that this one was different. That somehow this one was going to change things, and he was not sure he like it.

"You what?" Evelyn's surprised question echoed the feelings he had felt a few hours before. "How can they call you back?" He had known she would ask, but he still did not know what to tell her, he was still trying to sort it out himself.

"I don't know, they have so I'll go." He sounded sure as he said it but inside he was breaking. How could he fly an airplane alone? He had hated it over in Britain but then he had known that when he came home he could play chicken with Danny, now it was to late, it would never happen. Now he would have to fly alone.

"That's Rafe McCawley?"

"He really did everything that people say he did?"

The whispers floated around him, he knew people thought he was good, but what they did not know was how much he depended on his wing man. They were in for a big surprise, very soon too.

"Rafe?" A voice, one he recognized this time, called him. He turned, seaking the source of it, and came face to face with Red, one of his flying buddies from the Doolittle Raid. "What are you doing here? I thought you had r-r-r-r-left." Red stuttered. Rafe shook his head, "I was teaching flight school, they decided they wanted me back I guess."

"Welcome to France gentlemen." A commanding voice silence the room. As they all turned to look at their commander everyone began to filter to the seats and prepare for the briefing. Rafe absentmindedly gazed about the room, some of the other pilots he knew, most he had never seen. Then with a twinge of loss he remembered that Danny was not here paying attention and elbowing him when anything important was being said so he began to listen to the instructions of his first mission since that one.

All to soon Rafe found himself going through preflight and preparing to take off. The absence next to him was becoming unbearable. He forced his mind to focus on taking off, that did not work to well considering he could have done it in his sleep. One good thing did come from his concentration though, he made the best take off of that flight, only cementing his legendary status in the minds of his fellow pilots.

Then he was flying. The sensation that he used to love filled him now not with joy but with intense loss and sorrow. The elation he once felt was now replaced with depression, a crushing feeling replaced the one of weightlessness.

"Bogies at 3 o'clock!" That announcement began to drive Rafe to a place he had not been in a long time. He ceased to think, acting instead on instinct. Doing his best to protect the all important bombers from the enemy.

Something went wrong. After it was all over he learned that there had been some surface guns that no one had known about, but at the time all Rafe knew was that they were being picked off like flies. He flew into some cloud cover and by the time he emerged, he was the only one left. Out of range of the surface guns but now under attack from planes, Rafe longed to fly has he had flown before, that was the only way he could be good enough to overcome this. Then the one thing he needed flew out of the same cloud he had, a fellow pilot had made it through. Though there was some damage to the plane, it still seemed to be in working order. Rafe tried to contact the pilot but received no response. So he simply began to fly.

He felt a charge he had not felt in a long time. A presence he had missed. A friend he had needed. Falling into formation the other pilot seemed able to read Rafe's mind, countering him, balancing him, challenging him to fly harder, completing his moves, guarding him, flying with him.

Then all at once, it was over. There were no more German planes and the bombers had dropped their payload. As the mystery pilot flew away, Rafe felt free, a kind of free he had longed for. A kind of free that he knew meant he had let go of Danny. Instead of feeling like their was a great weight on his heart where Danny had been he felt as if Danny were lifting him up and showing him the way. And Rafe knew, even though Danny was gone, even though he could never come back, even though he had finally let Danny go, Danny would always fly beside him.