CHAPTER 3

The Jet Ranger landed smoothly outside the hangar and Hawke pulled off his dark aviators.

"See? Not so bad."

"Yeah, not so bad," she agreed reluctantly even as she released his arm from the white knuckled death grip she'd been holding for the last ten minutes.

"We can talk inside."

She looked ahead and vaguely remembered the hangar she had just seen before passing out.

"You're sure it's ok? I mean, I wouldn't want to be intruding..."

"It's fine," he assured her. "I'll go tell Dom I'm back then we can talk in the office."

\A/

Dante brushed back long brown bangs out of her eyes only to have them fall back down again while she awaited Hawke's return in the office he had shown her to. Getting a her hair done again hadn't been top priority with the way things had been lately but it was truly annoying now and this brown color wasn't really her either. Oh well, it could wait, it didn't matter how your hair looked if you were dead.

Soon Stringfellow Hawke rejoined her, with a warm streaming cup of coffee. "Want some?"

"That would be great," she smiled in appreciation. If nothing else he seemed to be a pretty nice guy.

"So what did you want to talk about?"

She hesitated briefly, wondering if was really such a great idea to be sharing her problems with a complete stranger. He seemed to be a good guy, to be here to help, but….

"I've had a few problems the last few weeks," she explained, overriding her initial hesitation and trusting her instinct. "I don't know exactly what I did, or didn't do, but everyone seems to be after me. I've been beat multiple time, there was even a bomb left for me in my office - luckily if didn't go off - but that's not all."

"What else?"

"I've been followed, chased, drugged, and shot at. So far I've been lucky and managed to avoid most of it, but they're catching up or else there are just more of them. I already tried going to the police, but it was one of them undercover. He beat me, knifed me, and when I tried to get away started shooting. That was right before I met you," she finished, sobbing.

"And you have no clue who is after you?"

She shook her head adamantly. "I did have a boyfriend a while ago, he was so mysterious and enchanting. I enjoyed it at first, but he kept so many secrets and worked late at night. He was hardly ever around and when I asked him he said no more questions or there would be consequences. That was my only guess but that has been a while."

"What kind of consequences?" he pried.

"I don't know. After trying to make it work a little longer I finally broke up with him, haven't even seen him in two and a half months."

"Is that when you first started having the problems?"

"Nothing serious happened until about four weeks ago."

Hawke was silent, trying to think of what the best plan of action would be.

"You can help, can't you, Hawke?"

"I don't know yet, but I can tell you this much - I'm going to try. And if I can't, I know somebody who probably can."

"I'd prefer it if this could, you know, stay on the down low. I haven't exactly had very good luck when dealing with others on this one."

"I can understand that, but if I'm going to help you have to understand now that others will be involved. I have to tell my wife, Saint John, and Dom and Michael probably. I'm sure it will be ok though."

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure; these people are my family and I've worked with them for years. Michael may like to bend the rules a little occasionally, but I'd trust him with my life," and frequently have, he added silently. "I've been working with him for the last six years and a while before that."

"Daddy," Chance called as he pushed open the door to the office. "Want juice," he said, shaking his empty cup.

Hawke smiled. "Meet my son Chance," he introduced as he rifled through the mini fridge.

\A/

Caitlin finished fueling the Jet Ranger and moved out of the way so Saint John could take off. Everyone was feeling better today and it looked like things were going back to normal. Saint John would take that charter this afternoon, the rest of them would take care of the business, and she and String would watch Le tonight until Saint John came back the following day. Speaking of String, where was he? She hadn't seen him all morning; Dom had been on the phone with him earlier, a little upset sounding at first, but he hadn't said anything about it."

Dominic walked by with a box of new parts.

"Hey Dom."

"Yeah?"

"Do you know where Hawke is? I haven't seen him since he left the cabin this morning."

"I talked with him while he was up at Foxridge, but don't worry, he's fine. Evidently we had a visitor this morning that needed some medical attention and he flew her up there, but they got back a few minutes ago. I think they're in the office now."

"Dom," String said, coming out of the office, " I need to borrow the jeep to take Dante to see Michael."

"Now or after work?"

"I think now would be better," he answered, suddenly feeling guilty for skipping most of the day's work. I will be here and work hard tomorrow he mentally promised, I will.

He was going to make this work for everyone.