(Stephanie's Pov)
When Les and I made it through security, we made it to our gate and sat down to wait for our flight to be called. Sitting there waiting for our flight, I watched out the big plate glass windows that surrounds the airport at all the different planes landing and taking off. Streams of people walked up and down the hallway hurrying to their gates or hurrying off to collect their bags. I watched the people that would walk by me and not one of them looked like I felt, they all seemed so happy and relaxed to be coming to or getting away from Jersey. Not me however, my insides felt like mush and I was not happy or relaxed at all.
Beautiful stop doing that" Lester said to me and I looked over at him confused. What was I doing? All I knew that I was doing was thinking of the flight and watching the people who would walk by.
"What?" I finally asked him
Lester reached over and took a hold of my right hand and held it up for me to see. What I saw clued me in on what I was doing.
"Sorry nervous habit: I said looking at the three jagged chewed nails
"I always thought you had pretty fingers" he said rubbing over the bitten nails and then bringing my hand up to kiss it
My heart leapt up in my throat and I felt warm all over when Lester's mouth made contact to my hand. I then felt a huge wave of guilt that I allowed him to touch me like that when I remembered Ranger and then the sadness when the realization that he was gone came creeping back in. When my mind seemed to clear and Les had let go of my hand, the nerves I had over the flight came back. I was trying to figure out something I could do to get my mind off of flying, so after a trip to the bathroom which helped for a few minutes I came back and sat next to Les to wait.
Looking over I found a magazine that was laying in the next chair, picking it up I started to flip through it. I was quietly looking over some pictures that were in the book when I felt a hand slide over my thigh. Nearly screaming from the unexpected contact, I jerked the magazine up, looked down at the hand that was near my knee, and followed the arm up to the face of Lester.
"You were shaking" he said and I just looked at him "you were shaking your leg up and down, up and down"
"Sorry I just really hate to fly" I told him
"It's really gonna be fine Steph"
"I hope so"
"If this is really bothering you, you could always take one of the pills that Bobby gave you"
"No I'll be fine"
(Lester's Pov)
Stephanie got up and walked over to the windows and put her back to me ending all further discussion on if she should take a pill or not. Getting up to go over to her and try to sooth away any hurt or angry feelings my trip over was cut short by the lady coming up to the podium of our gate and announcing that our flight was ready to board.
"Steph" I called out to her as I turned back and grabbed our tickets "That's us come on"
Steph met me at the podium where the lady was standing taking our tickets. I gave Steph her ticket and she handed it over to the lady who tore it in half and sent the other end through her machine.
"Have a good flight" the lady told Steph and I could see that she wanted to say something back to her but Steph rethought it and just smiled walking on into the door that lead to our plane.
As we got on the plane and in our seats, I opened the over head compartment and got out a blanket and pillow for Steph to relax in and hopefully get some sleep. Handing it over to her she placed it into the empty seat next to her and began buckling her seat belt around her. When I sat down I placed the seat belt around myself and caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Looking over Steph was taking the end of her belt and pulling it as hard as she could.
"What are you doing?" I asked watching her
"Making sure the belt is as tight as it can go so if we crash I won't go flying out of the seat and all over the plane"
"We aren't going to crash" I said rolling my eyes at her
"You don't know that" she said "you've seen the news before when a plane crashes"
"That's because a plane is a big deal so it gets coverage"
"Well" she said and yanked on her belt one more time
"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to US flight 1567 to Tennessee. We are honored that you chose to fly with us today" the flight attendant said over the speakers in the plane. She then went on and showed us the safety procedures as the plane started up and began taxing down the runway.
When the captain came on and told the flight attendant to get ready for take off, I looked over at Steph and she was breathing deep and white knuckling the arms of her seat. I leaned over and asked her again if she would like to take one of her pills that I had a bottle of water she could have to take one and she shook her head adamantly at me.
"Steph you're dieing here, they will help you make it through the flight" I told her as the plane started barreling up the runway
"No I'll be fine as soon as we are in the air" she said but I had my doubts "it's the taking off and landing that always is the worst part"
"Ok" I said shaking my head a little as I felt the plane lift off into the sky and then heard the landing gear come inside the plane. I could only ask her to take the pills but I couldn't force her too. I only hope that if it gets really bad on her that she will just come to her scenes and take one.