Chapter 8

Hawke drove the loudly painted jeep with Dom riding shotgun and Mike perched in the back to Santini Air. As they neared the city Mike looked about at the old style cars which were brand new. She then spotted loudly dressed teens carrying a large radio on their shoulder as they stood on a street corner. She gave a funny look.

Dom glanced back to gauge her reaction, "One good thing about them iphones you all have. It's quieter in the future."

"This is like a bad Rick Springfield video," she mentioned.

Dom grinned, "Yup!"

Mike suggested, "Maybe some of the electronics you have available in the eighties can help me analyze the data my laptop collected in Airwolf? Maybe we can get some answers to this anomaly before we end up who knows where next time?"

"That's an idea," Hawke agreed. He then pulled off the road and into a shopping plaza and parked before a Radio Shack store.

Mike sat bewildered, "What are we doing here?"

He suggested, "Between you and me, we can build something to help detect these things."

"Sure," she agreed. "But what are we doing at Radio Shack? They don't have anything we need. They went bankrupt."

Hawke smiled, "Your Radio Shack went bankrupt. This is the eighties!"

"They don't have anything but phones," she argued and then realized, "there isn't much for cell phones now. What did they sell back then?"

"Come on," Hawke climbed out of the jeep. He led them inside the store and right to the back where an array of parts could be found. As he looked over the parts his daughter browsed the store.

Dom stood near her as she gazed over the items, "String always liked stores with parts."

She gasped, "This place is so cool. What happened to it?"

Dom shrugged, "Don't know. There weren't any stores in your time that I saw."

"Hand held CB radios?" she chuckled looking at the stock.

"They can come in handy," Dom told her.

She picked up the display model, "Look the size of this thing. It's huge!"

Hawke looked over at her and cocked an eyebrow for the remark sounded rather dirty.

She read off the price tag, "A hundred bucks. Holy cow!"

Hawke gathered the parts and walked over to her, "A hundred bucks in our money. In your money about five hundred."

"That's as much as my phone," she gasped.

He smirked, "And doesn't need a network to operate too."

"But you got squat for range," she told him.

"Which is why Dom and I are both Ham radio operators," he grinned. "Come on!" He led his companions to the register.

Behind the register stood a man about twenty with short brown hair combed over to the side and a thin mustache. He wore a yellow polo shirt with a small green crocodile embroidered on the left breast. He sported thick rimmed black glasses and casually spoke to his customers.

"This it?" he asked them.

"That's it," Hawke told him and then read off the name tag, "Todd."

He pushed his glasses up and started ringing up the items one at a time by entering the long sku number into the register one digit at a time. After he got done entering the sku number he entered the price. The he started to do the same thing with next item. It seemed to go ever so slow.

Mike stood and cockeyed look, "You're not seriously putting in every number of that price tag."

"I have to for inventory," he told her and continued his long and boring job.

"Don't you have a scanner?" she gasped.

He motioned, "Scanners are over there."

She looked over to a wall of police scanners. She shook her head, "Not that type of scanner."

Hawke shushed her, "They don't have scanners here. Now be quiet." He feared she would say something to tip off that she was from the future.

"You just told me to shut up," she snorted.

Hawke looked to Dom, "Take her out of here."

Dom understood and motioned, "Come on, Mike. Let's go wait outside."

She shook her finger at Hawke. "Just because you are my fa…" she bit her tongue and turned red with annoyance for she could not say he was her father. She grew angry and miffed, "Bastard!" She then walked outside with Dom feeling rather upset.

The clerk glanced up from his work, "Little lady?"

He covered, "Sister."

He slowly nodded, "I see the similarities."

Short Time Later

They arrived at Santali Air in short time. Mike tried to let it go as Dom explained they feared she would say something to hint she was from the future. She reeled in her emotions and let the incident be forgotten. As Mike climbed out of the back of the jeep she walked into the large hangar behind Hawke and Dom. She then came to a dead stop as she spotted her mother standing by a pot of coffee, wearing grease stained coveralls and looking expectantly at Hawke. She was young and thin. Her hair was shorter and blonde in color. She had forgotten how pretty her mother was when she was younger.

Caitlin took one look at Mike and had no idea where this strange woman came from or why she was with Hawke and Dom. She slowly made her way over to them, "String! Dom! I see you have a guest."

Dom stated, "This is my niece, Mike."

Hawke played the part, "She's come to work here with Dom, Cait."

Caitlin held out a hand, "Nice to meet you, Mike. Is that short for something?"

"Michaela," she told her.

She smiled, "I always liked that name. So, you're a new pilot, huh?"

She slowly nodded, "For now."

"You fly choppers?" she wondered.

"Chopper, prop and jet," she nodded a bit nervous. She didn't know really how to act around her. She wanted to her to be her mother once more. She wanted to find her mom, wrap her arms around her and never let go but that was impossible for her mother had no idea who she was.

"Welcome aboard," she gave a nod in approval.

Hawke started, "We need to talk, Cait."

"I think you made your position pretty clear this morning, String." she rebutted rather hurt.

Mike shook her head, "No he didn't!"

Caitlin gave her a strange look, "Excuse me?"

She replied, "I know you two had a fight but he really wants to marry you."

Hawke scolded, "Mike!"

She retorted, "Hey, if you two break up now I am gonna be really pissed off."

"Dom," he pleaded with his friend.

Dom suggested, "I'll give ya a tour of the place, Mike." He led her away so Hawke and Caitlin could speak.

Caitlin wasn't sure what to make of the new woman, "She's different."

"You have no idea," he shook his head. He gave a sign and gazed upon her. "Remember when you asked me how I saw myself in thirty years from now?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

He confessed, "I can't imagine my life without you in it."

"Mean that?" she asked shyly.

"You know I do," he took the cup of coffee from her hand and tilted her dirty chin up. He softly kissed her lips ever so relieved to be home.

As Hawke made up with Caitlin, Dom walked Mike about the hangar. He spoke softly to her.

"I know this has got to be hard for you but we can't tell anyone who you are," he reminded her.

"This is so weird. She's my mom. She has no idea who I am. She treated me like a total stranger." she gulped.

"To Cait you are total stranger, Mike." he told her. "She hasn't met you yet. You haven't even been born yet." He then paused and asked "When is your birthday?"

She smirked, "About nine months from now."

He gasped, "You're mother is pregnant with you."

She nodded, "If they only slept together once and apparently that was last night for her…Then I'm just conceived."

He gathered, "Not only does she not know that you are her daughter she doesn't even know she's pregnant."

"You and my father came back and brought me with you," she reminded him. "I think we might have changed things."

"If we changed things would you know and have a memory of it?" he wondered.

"I don't remember having you or my father in my life," she told him. "I don't know how this time travel thing works. If we changed the timeline would we be immune to changes or not?"

"I don't know," Dom shrugged. "I suppose the only way to find out is to send you home."

"Right now we have no control over those weather anomalies." she reminded.

"We will figure it out," he assured her.

As they walked back around they came across Hawke and Caitlin still in their kiss. The stopped and watched for a second. Dom grinned happy they were together.

Mike soured, "They are gonna gross me out."

He reminded her, "You're life kind of depends on them being together."

She hollered, "Get a room!"

Hawke pulled away and gave his daughter a look, "How about you go to your room?"

Caitlin stood rather embarrassed, "I think we can pick up on this later, String." She stepped back away from his embrace and looked over at Dom. "I'm almost done with rebuilding the rotor box on the huey."

"Great," he grinned. "You know Mike is kind of new in town. Maybe you two gals could hang out and you can show her around."

"Okay," she agreed. "So what do you like to do, Mike?"

She stood baffled, "What do you mean? You know what..." she then caught herself and adjusted her thinking. "Um, I like music, movies, TV and computers."

Dom suggested, "Hey Mike! There's a drive-in theater in town."

She asked, "You mean one of those outside screens where people sit in their cars and watch a movie?"

"Ah-ha," he nodded eagerly. "Wanna go?"

"Sure," she agreed.

Caitlin smiled, "Sounds like you and your uncle already have plans for tonight."

Dom suggested, "Heck, you and String can both come with us."

Hawke shook his head, "I'm not going to no drive-in to watch some silly movie."

Mike asked, "What's playing?"

Caitlin grinned, "Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back is very big." She knew Dom would love to see the movie and figured he would drag his niece with him.

They both traded glances and didn't look all that enthused.

Caitlin asked, "I thought you wanted to see it, Dom?"

He spoke under his breath, "Seen it."

Mike added, "Like a hundred times."

Confused she asked, "How could have you have seen it already?"

"Netflix," Mike miffed.

She sighed unsure what was being said, "Well, I suppose you can always stay home and watch TV."

Dom assured her, "Mike and I will have a great time tonight. You and String have some things to talk about."

"Okay," Caitlin agreed. She looked over at Hawke.

"You're coming to the cabin with me," he agreed. He then looked at Mike, "You can spend the night at Uncle Dom's place."

She smiled and nodded and then whispered to Dom, "If I hack into that system the first thing I will get do is make sure we can text message again."

Dom whispered back, "I do miss that."