Chapter 7
"Hawke, have you been with a lot of women?" asked Caitlin.
String stopped walking and turned to her. Even when she had her memory, Caitlin never asked him anything like that. "Why do you want to know that?"
"Oh, sorry, I don't mean to get too personal. I was just wondering if you were the playboy type," she replied.
Caitlin couldn't tell him that she wanted badly to find out something negative about him. Up until now, he seemed like a great guy. No one could be that perfect. There had to be something bad about him.
"I guess I've been with my share," he replied, hoping she wouldn't probe further into that topic.
She placed her hand on his arm coaxed him into continuing their walk. Her touch made him relax. "This is Cait," he thought. "You love her and someday she'll remember that. Tell her what she needs to know."
"So why aren't you married?" she asked.
"Well, it's a long story," he replied. "I guess you can say that fate and destiny haven't been very kind to me over the years."
The two walked down to the lake and sat down by the edge of the water. String told her about all of the losses he'd experienced and about his brother. He skipped a lot of the details about Gabrielle to avoid bringing up Airwolf. Still, she understood the magnitude of pain he had suffered. She had really already known that from the poetry book she found the night before.
"Are you ready to go back to the cabin?" he asked.
"Sure, I could use something to drink." Caitlin said as she stood up. For a moment, she became dizzy and nearly collapsed. String caught her and helped her stand.
Hawke's concern grew. He knew it was still too soon for her to be doing too much after the accident but he didn't think a walk would cause any problems.
Caitlin seemed to be in a momentary trance. Flashes of memories came to her and left just as quickly. She saw herself hiding in Airwolf and Hawke shooting Dom. She had a flash of her sitting on the floor with Hawke and he had tears in his eyes. None of it made sense to her. But she had a question she needed answered.
"Caitlin, are you okay?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied. "I'm okay. I think I'm getting flashes of memory."
String smiled. "Cait, that's great. Maybe it'll all come back to you soon."
She interrupted him. "I just need to know Hawke. I see it in my mind. That big black helicopter that you say doesn't exist. It's real, isn't it? If not then I think I'm going crazy."
She hated to play with on his sympathy that way but Caitlin felt that might be the only way to get him to tell her the truth.
"Let's sit back down," he said. He eased her back down to the ground and supported her back with his arm before continuing. "It's a long story Caitlin. There is a helicopter but I feel that for your safety, we should wait until you get your memory back to discuss it."
"Look Hawke, I'm not some weak little girl," she replied. "I can handle the truth, whatever it is."
"Caitlin, I don't want to argue with you but this isn't something I'm going to discuss with you right now. You're just going to have to trust me on this one."
"I want so badly to trust you," she thought to herself. "I feel so close to you. But how can I trust you if you're not honest with me?"
"Okay," she finally replied. "Let's go back to the cabin now. I'm really tired."
Caitlin didn't say another word on the way back to the cabin. When they got back, she went straight to her room and lay down. She wouldn't even look at him.
String felt bad for not telling her the whole story. He wanted badly to tell her everything about Airwolf and their relationship but out of instinct he felt it was best to wait. He had no idea how tired he was when he plopped down on the couch and swung his legs up to lay down. He adjusted the pillow behind his head and slowly drifted off to sleep.
While lying in bed, Caitlin's flashes of memory continued. She saw herself flying in Airwolf with String and Dom. She recalled being locked up and strapped to a bomb. Then it came to her. She remembered where Airwolf was kept. "Whatever is going on here is dangerous," she said to herself. "I'll give you that much Hawke. But these memories don't show that you were all that concerned about me before now. I know where you're keeping that big black helicopter and I'm going to go and get it."
