~CHAPTER TWO~

Kyle Pratt stood watching her daughter sleep, not quite ready to wake her for the day.

Julia had done so well in the last few months. She carried no horrifying memories of her kidnapping and the hijacking in which she nearly died. Why had Carson chosen them? Why had it been her husband who'd had to die?

It no longer mattered. All that mattered was that she and Julia, with the help of her parents, were making a fresh start. Julia was in school, making good grades and lots of new friends.

Kyle was finally making her peace with what had happened as far as the airline had been concerned. Carson had worked them all extremely well, and the fact the truth had won out in the end had returned her daughter to her.

She fully expected to see Captain Malcolm Rich again; out of the entire crew he and flight attendant Fiona Lopez had been the only ones to step forward and acknowledge they'd been wrong.

Later on, she'd realized his apology was somehow deeper as if he could relate to her situation. The tenderness in his eyes as he looked down at her daughter. She'd tried after it was all over to look at the incident from his perspective, given the responsibilities that rested on his shoulders and she could not fault his actions. He'd been proceeding on false information. No wonder he'd looked at her with such contempt in the last minutes aboard the plane. His patience was exhausted, bitterly twisted by Carson's lies.

She had the next few days off. The airline had given her the week off for the trial. She was working on a special project now, new safeguards, to prevent such events from happening again, but it was difficult given that so much in additional security had already been done in the aftermath of 9/11.

Further lockdown of systems could actually hinder passenger service and safety. It simply was not prudent to put coded locks on every accesss through out the plane. Each plane would have to have different codes and such and pilots and crews changed planes so frequently. If things needed to be accessed, in particular in avionics, quick access would be required, the precious time needed to make an adjustment could prove devastating in the event someone needing access forgot this week's codes for example.

Coding packages were being worked on, hoping to provide specialized, self-programmed computer disks for each pilot who would have set his own personal access codes, which could be inserted into the airplane's central computer and then would be erased come the end of each flight, thereby thwarting anyone trying to hack into the system. But it was still in the exploratory phase, and was still as yet an unviable solution.

Julia stirred in her sleep, and Kyle leaned down to kiss her daughter's forehead, "Come on baby, time to rise and shine."

Half an hour out of New York, Malcolm's co-pilot Damian Martinez, turned on the 'fasten seat belt' sign and made the announcement that they would soon begin final approach to New York's Laguardia airport.

Another knock came on the cockpit door, and Malcolm replied, "Come on in, Fiona,"

It seemed that Fiona Lopez had volunteered to serve the crew for this flight. And Malcolm had seen the passenger manifest and he knew why. She'd felt so guilty about Julia Pratt that she was actually uncomfortable when there was more than a couple of children on a flight anymore. He'd discussed it with Fiona more than once, but she had some sort of block about it. It had nothing to do with disliking children and entirely too much with caring too much. At least she was able to continue to do her job.

Fiona was brisk, all business, yet friendly all the same-as usual, "Anything else for either of you?"

"Not for me" Malcolm replied, "You Damian?"

"Nothing." As the door closed behind her, Damian cast a glance toward Malcolm. "You seem to be on rather friendly terms with Ms. Lopez, Rich, what's up with that?"

"Don't even go there, it's not what you think—not even close. We shared a mutual horrifying experience is all. She's a nice young woman, if you're thinkin' about gettin' involved with her, you better be good to her or you'll answer to me."

"Geez, Rich, didn't mean anything by it, she's seems really sweet, and she's pretty, soft and rounded in all the right places. What are you her brother or something?"

"There's worse things I could be, but the facts are simple, she's been subpoenaed to testify just like I have in the Stephanie Bradford trial. She's more than a soft and rounded body, and she's not got a lot of self-esteem. We're co-workers and friends, we've shared some confidences and she's had her share of hard knocks. So if you're out looking for a casual lay then I suggest you back off. She's not a casual sort of woman." Without missing a beat, Malcolm contacted the tower, "Alto Air Flight 2-3-5-7, requesting clearance to make final approach…"

The radio crackeld back. "Alto 2-3-5-7 cleared for final approach."

With new thoughts to consider about Ms. Fiona Lopez, Damian made the announcement to the cabins –"All flight personnel take your seats and strap in for landing…"