CHAPTER 1

Hawke sat out on the dock with his cello, playing as the sun slowly sank beneath the horizon, leaving only a few rays of light behind. Inside, Caitlin, her mother, and Marella were finalizing wedding plans. They seemed to be enjoying it between fights, and by staying out of it, he didn't have to listen to the women who had invaded his cabin squabbled about what color the flowers should be.

Saint John walked out to join him on the dock. "Sounds pretty good," he commented, "a lot better than when we were kids at Dom's. It was about the only thing other than flying you'd stick with, but it sounded as bad as…..Oh never mind. It just wasn't good."

"Thanks, I think."

"So you wanna come to dinner with Dom and me tonight? It doesn't sound like they'll be done anytime soon. Honestly, I didn't know planning a wedding could be so complicated, but I think that if there is the wrong amount of dew on the grass they'd freak. Maybe they're taking it a little too far."

"I'm not taking part in the extraneous details, so I guess it couldn't hurt."

String had just set his cello inside when the red, white, and blue Santini Air Jet Ranger came careening around the mountainside. It slowed only as it reached the dock. A moment later, it landed heavily on the wooden dock. Dom climbed out and walked toward the cabin where Saint John and String were already waiting.

"You in a hurry or something, Dom?"

"I was just trying to make up some lost time since I was late. Now are you guys ready?"

"Yeah, we're ready."

"Let's go then."

The Jet Ranger rose up off the dock and back into the ever darkening sky.

"So where are we going?" String asked casually.

"It's a surprise," Dom answered with a chuckle.

\A/

"Thanks for all the help," Caitlin said as she collected the bits of paper, with final details and preparations to be taken care of, to be put away.

"Let me get those," her mom admonished. "I'm sure you could find something more interesting to do and as a wife and eventually mother you'll get plenty of time to pick up after others. You've only got three days until you're married; enjoy them."

"Oh mom, you make it sound like being married is terrible," Caitlin complained.

"Well, I can't honestly say that I don't think you could've chosen a better man, but at least you picked a nice cabin to rent for the wedding, and I have to admit, the view is stunning."

"What do you mean rent a cabin?" Caitlin asked confusedly. She hadn't remembered renting any cabins, but with all that had happened in the last few days, she could've bought a yacht and have it sitting right outside her window and she wasn't sure she would've noticed.

"Here. I think you said it's on Eagle Lake. Are you sure all your guests can get in though? I know you said that you wanted a very small wedding, but helicopters are the only way to get in, don't you find that a little too obscure?"

"Mom, I said small and I meant really small, and this cabin isn't rented. It's Hawke's."

"Really small- that is such a pity." Caitlin's last sentence started to sink in, or at least she thought it did. "He has his own cabin out here? That's really nice; you can come out on the weekends and-"

Caitlin interrupted. "Mom, it's not a weekend thing. We live here and every morning fly into town for work."

"He lives out here?! No. You are not going to live in the mountains with some….I don't know what he is…. Some oversized violin playing loony."

"It's a cello and I find it relaxing, and so does Chance." 'Oops,' she thought. 'Maybe now wasn't a good time to introduce her son.' She tried to move the conversation on. "It's a cello and I am going to live out here, just like I have for the last year."

He mom looked back at her, stunned. "I think you need to take some time to think this out. Last time I heard from you, you were shot doing something for this stranger and now you're living with him in the middle of nowhere- Wait. You said Chance finds the 'cello' music relaxing too. Who is Chance?"

Caitlin's cheeks flushed. She knew eventually the truth would have to come out, but they didn't get along well and she kind of avoided talking to her unnecessarily very often. "String's not a stranger. I love him and yes we, all three of us, are going to live here whether you like it or not. Chance is a gift, he's..."- memories came flooding back…

Dom climbed out of Airwolf, a look of sadness and despair heavily cloaked his face. Why she didn't know, but the mission had been successful, that's what mattered right? Soon her ideas of what mattered where changed when she heard Dom talking to Le.

"I'm sorry kid, String's gone and he's not coming back…"

"I thought he was String's last gift, but he is more than that. He's our son."

Her mother's confused look immediately told her that she needed to explain better, although, String almost dying during a mission she couldn't give many details about wasn't going to make her feel any safer about having Hawke as her husband.

"String was on a job, but when Dom came back without him we all got kind of worried. Dom said that he'd been killed, and that's what we all thought for the next three months. During that time, I found out that I was pregnant. At my birthday dinner, I planned to announce the news as String's last gift, but he was still alive, standing on the doorstep, that's when he asked me to marry him."

"This incident that had you all thinking he was dead, did he get seriously injured in it?" he mother questioned with a hint of added worry. She had already noticed the limp and what if this man had acquired some injury that would impair his ability to take care of her daughter and new grandson?

"Yeah," Caitlin answered slowly. "He couldn't even fly again until for the longest time we, but we worked though it together."

"So, Chance does it have a special meaning or something?" Caitlin's mother inquired about her new grandson.

"It does," Caitlin answered happily. "I have to give him credit for trying, but, ugg-gh, he mad me so mad. How could he think I'd leave him just like that?"

"Want to explain?" she asked, still trying to make sense of the random statements.

"He got out of the hospital twelve weeks later, but he still had a really bad limp and the second and third degree burns had left very little feeling in his hands and arms. He finally told me that I should find someone else, that he loved me but couldn't take care of us as well as we deserved. In the end, he had to work past his fears because I wasn't about to leave him, and when I asked him what he wanted to name the baby, he said Chance because we got out second chance, and I took one on him."

Her mother nodded in acknowledgement. She didn't know much about this Stringfellow Hawke her daughter was insistent on marrying, especially his line of business, which worried her greatly, but at least he was responsible and tried to do what he thought was best even if it wasn't to his benefit.