Chapter 9

Her eyes hurt.

Now that she thought about it, her whole body ached something fierce, as if she had been smacked against a concrete wall, over and over again. But most of all, it was her eyes that bothered her; a gritty, stinging feeling beneath the lids.

A cough welled up in her throat as she gasped for air, hacking and choking, water spilling forth from her lungs and onto the sand beneath her as her body was rolled slightly to let it out.

Sand?

That would explain what was going on with her eyes.

She gasped again, this time filling her lungs with warm, fragrant air, sucking it in gratefully even as she reached up to rub weakly at her eyes.

She blinked blearily, an image in front of her slowly coming into focus.

"Joe…"

"I love you too, Kelly."

Those few words revived her instantly, sweeping away all pain and discomfort as she gazed at the bedraggled man hovering above her. He smiled, and suddenly Kelly had never felt better in her life.

"I didn't know if you were going to wake up." he confessed, "and I promised myself that if you did, I would tell you how I felt."

"I'm glad you did." she replied softly.

Kelly attempted to lift her body, struggling to sit up and look around. Joe supported her, putting his arm around her shoulders as she surveyed the surrounding area.

They were on some kind of beach. Other than the smoking remains of Waspagon, there was nothing visible on the water in front of them: no land, no boats. Only a clear, blue sky, marred slightly by the dark, oily clouds billowing up from the mecha's debris.

Looking behind her, Kelly realized that she and Joe were on a small island, not much more than a sand bar really, with a small grove of palm trees, and not much else.

"What happened?" she asked. "Last thing I remember, the mecha was falling apart."

"It did fall apart." Joe confirmed. "We fell into the water, and I got us here." The Falcon shrugged casually, but the Dove saw the tightening behind his eyes, and heard the words left unsaid.

"It seems that I should be thanking you, again." she murmured.

"We're a team, Kel." Joe replied. "You did your part, and I did mine."

"A team… the two of us…" she mused. "I like that."

"It sounds good to me, too." Joe agreed. "I'm glad you were with me for this, Kelly."

"Didn't I say the same thing to you?" she smiled, the moments before the mecha had exploded replaying themselves in her mind.

"True," Joe admitted, "but this is different."

"How so?"

The answer came not in words, but in the form of a tender kiss brushing her lips and sending tingles down her spine. Eagerly she responded in kind, entwining her arms around Joe's neck and running her fingers through his damp, singed hair. Gently, he eased her back down to the sand, his hand tracing the curve of her hip through the remnants of the sodden green uniform she wore.

A small flame flickered inside of Kelly, steadily growing stronger as Joe carefully tended to it, until it burned of its own accord, being sustained by the physical and emotional response the Dove was having to the Falcon's actions.

Kelly sighed throatily, voicing her pleasure in the moment and in this newfound closeness she was sharing with Joe. He responded by deepening the intensity of the kiss, stroking and caressing her mouth with his until she was left gasping for air.

Joe pulled away slightly to catch his breath, gently tracing the line of Kelly's cheekbone with a single finger, staring into her heavy lidded eyes intently. In his face, Kelly saw a naked vulnerability that she had never expected in someone as independent as Joe was, and silently she communicated her intention to him: to never betray the enormous faith he was placing in her.

"I think I'm going to like being on this team." she smiled, running her hand lightly along his arm and over his chest.

"It's just as well." Joe replied, taking her fingers and pressing them softly to his lips. "You're stuck with me, Kel."

"Funny, I was going to say the same thing about you." Kelly laughed. "I don't think you're ever getting rid of me now, Joe. I love you, and I'm never going to let you forget it."

"I love you too, Kelly."

They gazed upon each other for a moment, a sense of awe rising up in them at the rightness of those simple words in describing the relationship between them, and both were incredulous that they had never realized it before.

"At least I did something right today." Kelly said, still smiling at Joe. "Everything else I was involved in just turned out to be one big mess."

"Quite a spectacular mess." agreed Joe, nodding at the smoking remnants of Waspagon visible on the ocean waters in the distance.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it, Joe." the Dove chided him gently. "There were too many close calls, today."

"I know." the Falcon admitted, clutching her tightly against his chest. "I should have thought things out better."

"It's not that, Joe." Kelly said quietly. "What we really needed was some help; not to do everything on our own."

The Dove didn't say anything further, but it was clear to both of them what she was thinking.

They had needed the other Eagle Riders.

Joe bowed his head, silently admitting that she was right. If they had only had their bracelets, they could have transformed to Eagle Mode and more easily escaped the doomed mecha. If they had had the others to assist them, they might not have been caught in such a terrible hand-to-hand battle with the Vorak soldiers. As it was, neither of them had any idea how they were going to get off of this scrap of land in the middle of nowhere.

"Kelly, when we get back, I…"

The rest of Joe's words were lost as a thunderous roar heralded the arrival of something neither of them had expected.

The Ultra Eagle.

The warship rapidly decelerated from what had obviously been its top speed. The Ultra Eagle circled the wide swath of floating debris from the ruined mecha, before suddenly turning and making a beeline for the tiny island on which the Falcon and the Dove stood.

Slowly, the Ultra Eagle descended to the water's surface, three winged figures rising to the top of the hull before leaping upward, flying through the air and gliding to the sand in a graceful arc.

"Hunter…"

Joe greeted the Hawk casually, as if there were nothing unusual in his Commander's sudden appearance. The Falcon's arm rested in a familiar fashion around the Dove's shoulders, neither of them in the least shy about their newfound closeness.

"It looks like you two have been busy." Hunter remarked, his tone unreadable.

Kelly glanced down at the torn, sodden green uniform she wore, and the damp, charred remnants of Joe's own borrowed garments.

"You could say that." Joe laughed.

"How did you find us?" Kelly asked curiously, looking at her three former teammates. "Or is this just a coincidence?"

"We were just about to return to Gateway City when we got word of a strange message they had received." Hunter replied. "It came from roughly these co-ordinates, and was sent on a Vorak frequency. Dr. Keane got suspicious and checked it out. He told us that the two of you were in the area as well."

"But, how…?" Kelly was confused.

"Locators!" Mickey blurted out gleefully. "In your shoes!"

"What the hell?" Joe asked angrily.

"Apparently, Dr. Keane installed special locator devices in the shoes of our civilian uniforms." Hunter elaborated. "I didn't know about it until today, either."

"Yeah, Joe, after the battle with the Vorak where you disappeared…" Ollie stopped speaking when Hunter shot a stern look in his direction.

"They usually aren't active," the Hawk said, "but Dr. Keane figured that in an emergency it might be important to know our exact locations."

"So, he activated these devices?" Joe surmised.

"We were worried about you!" Ollie rushed to respond. "We didn't want you going off again, like you did after…" The Owl's voice trailed off as he realized that he was approaching a sensitive subject.

"You can say it, Ollie." Joe said grimly. "After I became a cyborg. Dr. Keane didn't want anything like that happening again."

"To be fair, Joe," Kelly said softly, looking up at the Falcon, "It killed us not knowing where you were; never finding your body."

To everyone's surprise, the angry lines on Joe's face immediately softened, and he bowed his head apologetically.

"I guess I can understand that." he said.

For a moment, everyone stood in shocked silence, and then Hunter spoke again, clearly making an effort to act as if nothing at all unusual had just happened.

"When you left, you forgot something."

The Hawk's blue glove flashed as he pulled something out of his belt pouch and tossed it into the air.

The item split in two, the pieces falling toward Joe and Kelly. Instinctively, they caught the objects, glancing down at their hands to see their bracelets glinting up at them in the sunlight.

Kelly looked over at Joe, her eyes questioning.

The Falcon stared at the Dove, knowing what she wanted him to do, and understanding in his heart that it was the right course of action. He realized that she would stay with him, regardless of what he decided to do, but if he had learned anything today, it was that he didn't want to be alone, in any sense of the word.

"Thanks, Hunter." Joe said quietly, snapping his bracelet around his wrist. Kelly beamed at him, fastening her own bracelet on her left arm.

The two of them changed to Eagle Mode together, stepping forward to rejoin their team.

"It's good to have you back on the team, Joe." the Hawk said.

"It's good to be back on your team, Hunter." the Falcon replied, offering his hand to the other man. They clasped hands tightly, before letting go.

Mickey cheered and Ollie grinned from ear to ear, while Kelly simply smiled and softly squeezed Joe's hand.

"Thank you, Joe." she whispered to him, as the others moved off to check out the tiny island.

"I didn't do it for you."

Joe stared intently at Kelly, his grey-blue eyes deadly serious as he spoke again.

"I did it for me."

"I'm glad." Kelly replied. "I just want you to be happy, Joe."

"You make me happy."

"Did it take quitting the team to make you realize that?" Kelly laughed.

Joe nodded, a slow grin manifesting itself on his otherwise stern face.

"Then, I'm glad we did." Kelly winked.

The Falcon's response was to bend his head slightly, lowering his mouth to hers. He swore softly as his visor met that of the Dove, thwarting his intentions.

"I knew coming back would have its downside." he lamented.

"We'll figure it out, Joe." Kelly promised, a flirtatious smile crossing her delicate features. "Together."