Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or back story of Airwolf. All characters are property of Bellasario, CBS and whoever else created them. I only borrow them for short periods of time, harass them and put them back on the shelf My stories are for entertainment purposes only.

Survival

Chapter 6

Monday 8:45 a.m.

Dom and Hawke had flown directly to the spa to see if they could gain any more clues as to where Caitlin had gone. Unfortunately no one they spoke to had seen or heard from her since she had made the reservation several weeks earlier and could give no further insight as to why she hadn't shown up. Finally, as they were about to give up, a young woman in her 20's came up and introduced herself to the two men.

"Excuse me? My name is Wendy and I'm the weekend receptionist here. Did you say your friend was supposed to come in Saturday night?"

"Yes, do you know something?" Hawke asked rather abruptly, apparently giving the young girl a fright with his intense stare as she almost jumped back from him.

"Uhm, don't mind him ma'am…he's just had a long night. Believe me his bark is much worse than his bite, " Dom jumped in trying to ease the girl's nerves as he shot Hawke an exasperating glace. "It's just that we really need to find our friend, we're afraid something bad may have happened to her…is there something you can tell us?" he gently asked.

" I'm not sure it will help…"

"Please, ma'am, anything you tell us would be appreciated," Dom encouraged.

"Well, we had a couple of other cancellations for Saturday night, too. See, there was this rock slide out on the mountain road leading up here and people couldn't get through. When Ms. O'Shannessy didn't show, I just figured she had gone back to Santa Fe and had gotten a hotel room for then night like the others did. They had the road cleared by lunchtime on Sunday and she should have been able to get through then but I just figured she decided to go back home or something."

"Where exactly was this slide?" Hawke asked quickly.

"About 10 miles back down the mountain."

"Would there have been any other way around?" Hawke asked.

"Not really. I mean there used to be an old logging road about a ½ mile from there that would have taken you around but that hasn't been used in years and it wouldn't even be passable for someone in a regular car anymore. As a matter of fact the county is supposed to be closing it off completely because it's too dangerous to pass…full of ruts and rock slides and parts of the road washing away completely during the rainy season," Wendy explained. "Oh No, you don't think…"

Dom and Hawke glanced at each other, each realizing that that was EXACTLY what they were thinking. Cait would have tried to find her way around and in doing so may have gotten herself into a real messy situation.

"Thanks, Miss," Dom yelled over his shoulder as he and Hawke immediately took off for the clearing where they had left Airwolf. "Dammit, Dom…I've got a really bad feeling about this," Hawke said as he climbed into the helicopter. "If she went over that mountain side…" Hawke couldn't even finish the sentence.

"Yeah, I know, me too," Dom agreed. "But don't give up on her, Hawke. We don't know for sure that's what happened and anyways, Cait's a smart cookie. She knows how to take care of herself," Dom said, probably trying to calm himself as much as Hawke.

An hour after leaving the spa, the two were still searching the area as best as they could but the rough terrain and copious underbrush was making the search difficult, even with all of Airwolf's technology. The two men weren't sure whether they should be relieved that they hadn't found anything or even more worried than before.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Cait had been signaling for what seemed like hours. What she had started with some semblance of hope was now turning into frustration, fear, and desperation. As much as she tried, it was getting harder and harder for her to stay positive. She was exhausted, in pain, dehydrated, and hungry. Truth be known, she had probably slipped into shock a long time ago. The only thing that had kept her going this long had been the thought of staying alive for Hawke. But as the hours passed, the thought of trying to make it another 24 hours or more on the side of that mountain seemed an impossible task…no matter how much she wanted to she just wasn't sure she had the strength to keep on.

"I've got to stop thinking about the pain and just focus on the signals," Cait realized. "This is going to work…it HAS to! In the meantime you have to think about something else." Cait's mind began to wander back to another time when she was frightened. She was on the contaminated island with Hawke and they were searching through all the dead bodies in the facility. He had told her that she should sing a song to get her mind off of her surroundings. Caitlin had been unable to think of anything but Mary Had A Little Lamb and thought it was quite silly but started singing anyways. Hawke had been right…for a few moments it took her mind off the horrors around her and did help in calming her nerves. "Maybe that will work now," she thought.

Taking as deep a breath as she dared, she started to sing as she continued with her signals. Her voice was low and very hoarse but concentrating on the words and the tune were enough to help ease her nerves a little. She smiled a little as she continued to sing…"Damn Hawke, you're saving me again…aren't you?". If she only knew…

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Hawke and Dom had decided to make one last pass over the logging road and surrounding area before figuring out their next move. Hawke had been so sure he was right…he couldn't understand not finding Caitlin. And if she wasn't there, then where in the world was she? He had no more clues on where to look. It was beginning to feel like SinJin all over again and that was a feeling that scared the hell out of him.

"What the…?" Dom suddenly exclaimed with a puzzled tone in his voice from his position at the engineering console. He had been scanning the ground the best he could with both visual and audio scanners for hours but to no avail. As much as he would never admit it, he, too, was beginning to get a really bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew if they didn't find Caitlin soon…well, it wasn't something he wanted to think about. But then he heard the faintest of sounds coming through his headset…something just a little different than he had heard before. Scanning through the frequencies and trying to clear the static out of it, he couldn't quite believe his ears.

"You got something, Dom?" Hawke asked half-heartedly, by this point not allowing himself to expect much.

"I don't know, kid…I mean it doesn't make much sense…" Dom said perplexed as he made some more adjustments on his instrument panel. "I think I've listened so hard trying to find something that my hearing must be playing tricks on me."

"Well…you have something or not?" Hawke asked getting more frustrated by the moment.

"Well…you're going to think I'm crazy…but I swear I heard "Mary Had A Little Lamb. It was faint and really rough but I think someone was singing Ma…."

Before he could finish his sentence, Hawke had turned on his headset and ordered Dom to send the signal to him. Hawke knew in his gut that it had to be Caitlin…but he had to hear for himself. "Dammit, Dom, I don't hear anything….Find that signal!" he ordered.

"Really, String…I'm not even sure that's what I heard. I mean it doesn't make any sense…"

"Yes, it does, Dom. It's Cait…we just have to hone in on that signal. I don't care how faint it is…FIND IT!"

Dom had no idea why Hawke was so sure it was Cait but he knew better than to question the younger man. "Got it!" he said as he dialed in another frequency. Sure enough, Hawke could just begin to make out the most beautiful sound he thought he had ever heard; an out of tune, hoarse, throat-catching rendition of Mary Had A Little Lamb. Hawke couldn't help the tears that started running down his cheeks.

"Dom, get me the coordinates on that signal! It's Caitlin."

"Mama Mia!," Dom exclaimed as he worked to find the coordinates of the audio signal. "She sounds horrible, String."

"Yeah, but she's alive. Right now that's all that matters. We've got to get to her."

Within minutes, Dom had the coordinates marked and he and String were headed that way.

"There!" Dom announced as he studied the ground radar. "Mother of God," Dom barely whispered as he closed in on the area. Bringing up the camera view, they could see the bottom half of Caitlin's overturned car and zooming in…they could finally see her trapped under it.

"Get me a place to land!" Hawke ordered once he was able to get his breath back after seeing the scene below him.

"Dammit, String. There's no way we can land The Lady on the side of this piece of rock. There's just not enough room and it's too steep!" Dom bemoaned as he searched frantically for someplace to set down.

Without hesitating, Hawke began removing his helmet and turned control of the aircraft over to Dom. "Give me the first aid supplies, Dom. And some water."

"What do you think you're doing, kid?" Dom asked, afraid he already knew what the answer was.

"I'm going down. You're going to get me as low to the ground as you can and then we'll lower me by rope. As soon as I get down…you're going to fly out of here and get us some help to get Caitlin out of here."

"That's pretty dangerous, kid…" Dom started to say but was quickly interrupted by Hawke.

"If you think I'm leaving her here alone any longer…just get me the first aid kit, Dom. She doesn't have time for us to argue about this…"

Dom knew that Hawke had a point. Judging by what he could see, Cait needed help sooner than later and there wasn't any option. Anyways, he knew there was no way he'd be able to change String's mind. "Just be careful, String…I don't need to come back and rescue two of you!"

Within minutes, Hawke found himself on the ground about a quarter of a mile from Cait . He turned and gave Dom a high sign to indicate he'd made it down safely and then turned and headed towards the wreckage…praying he still had time. "Just keep singing, Cait…I'm coming."

TBC…

Okay folks. That's my second chapter for the day. I'm sorry to leave you hanging right before the reunion but I may not have time to get anything else up today or over the weekend. But I promise I'll try and do my best to get something up as quickly as possible