Finding Normal

A/N: I do not own or make any profit off of the Airwolf name or any of the characters involved within. My stories are for entertainment purposes only. .

Chapter 10

At the direction of Johnston, Hawke had landed the chopper near an abandoned house just inside the American border about 15 minutes earlier. As soon as they landed, he and Dom were forced out of the chopper and sent to sit on the dilapidated front porch of the building where their hands were bound behind their backs.

"Now what?" Hawke asked sardonically as he watched their two captors nervously pace the grounds in front of them.

"Now you make peace with your maker because as soon as the Man gets here, you're both dead," Carelli said as he pointed his gun at Hawke and tried to sound tough although Hawke was quick to notice the sweat on the would-be informant's brow.

Seizing upon the man's fears, Hawke decided to goad him a little. "You know, I'm curious Carelli, just what makes you think that 'the Man' as you call him isn't coming to take you out as well? I mean, you were the one that was going to roll-over on him."

Dom cut his eyes over at Hawke, trying to convey his thoughts that Hawke better not push the nervous criminal too far. Hawke caught the look but ignored it, continuing on. "I mean, who knows, maybe this was all an elaborate plan on Johnston's part to turn you over. Maybe Johnston's actually the one carrying out a contract on you so he can get in good with the so-called "Man."

Hawke saw that his words had the desired effect. Carelli immediately looked over to Johnston with deep suspicion as Johnston, being caught off guard, tried to convince the other man that such an idea was ridiculous. "Really, Carelli? You're going to listen to this guy? He's just trying to save his own ass," Johnston said as Carelli closed in on him.

"Maybe," Carelli countered back. "But he does make some sense, how do I know that you're not just using me? Trying to get into "the Family" and take my place?"

Hawke winked at Dom as their two captors continued to argue. "You think that was a good idea, String?" Dom asked in a whisper, worried that the anger may soon spill over onto them.

"Just the distraction needed so Cait can get The Lady in position to pick us up," Hawke said as Dom stared back at him in surprise.

"The Lady?"

"Yeah, I heard her fly in a few minutes ago. Cait must have activated the homing beacon on the chopper," Hawke advised the older man. "Now, how you feeling? You up for a little action?"

"Sure kid but it's going to be kind of tough with our hands tied," Dom observed.

"Actually, mine are pretty loose. I think if you turn your back this way you can reach back and get them the rest of the way untied. Just try to keep it inconspicuous, okay?"

Sliding over and turning so that he could reach the ties, Dom made pretty quick work of String's constraints who then returned the favor. Keeping their hands behind their back so as not to alert Johnston and Carelli to the fact that they were now free, Hawke decided it was time to give them a reason to come over.

"Hey Carelli!" he yelled.

"Shut the hell up!" Carelli yelled back turning his attention back to the Johnston.

"Okay, I just thought you might want a safe way out of here. There's still a perfectly good chopper and couple of pilots here but if you'd rather trust your partner there, fine," Hawke said non-chalantly.

That seemed to get both men's attention. Both headed over, guns pointed directly at Hawke and Dom. Just as Hawke was thinking that maybe he'd pushed them a little too far, the unmistakable sound of Airwolf's screech came screaming through the air as the intimidating helicopter flew overhead causing both Johnston and Carelli to look up.

"NOW!" Hawke yelled to Dom as both men quickly rose and jumped off the steps, each tackling one of the criminals to the ground.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

"Looks like you were right, Cait," Michael said from the ops position as he took note of the action on the infrared camera. "Dom and Hawke have them down."

"Good. I sure hope they can keep it that way but right now we've got a chopper to take care of. Give me their position, Michael," Cait instructed.

"They're at twelve o'clock Cait and closing fast. Dammit, they got a missile off!" Michael informed her.

"Release a sunburst!" Cait instructed as she started defensive maneuvers to avoid the oncoming missile.

"Got it!" Michael advised as he watch the copperhead take the bait and explode in the night sky.

Finally coming within visual range of the opposing helicopter, Caitlin opened her communications channel. "Hughes helicopter...set her down, now!"

"Not a chance," was the only response she received.

"Damn!" she said as the Hughes suddenly appeared behind Airwolf, ready to fire.

"Turbos Michael!" she quickly ordered. "If he wants me, he'll have to catch me first!"

Just before the Hughes fired, Airwolf took off like a shot ahead of them. It only took a second for the Hughes to take up the chase however.

"Okay, Michael, on my mark you're going to give us a full power down on the turbos…got it?"

"Cait you can't be serious?" he said.

"I am. We have to get behind them. Full stop will cause him to fly right over and we can take care of him before he even knows what happens," she explained. "Trust me, she'll hold, I've seen Hawke do it."

"All right, I guess I don't have a choice," Michael acknowledged as he shook his head.

"NOW!" Caitlin yelled and Airwolf jerked to an almost complete stop as Michael reversed the turbos. Sure enough, the Hughes went flying past them allowing Caitilin to get back in behind.

"This is your last warning," she announced through her comm channel. "Either set it down or I'll do it for you!"

Receiving no response, Cait hovered her finger over the trigger for only half a second before pulling back and releasing a Hellfire. Both she and Michael winced slightly as the chopper blew into a thousand pieces in front of them.

"C'mon, let's get back and make sure Hawke and Dom are okay," Caitlin said as she swung Airwolf back around.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Dom was just finishing tying up Johnston and Carelli as Caitlin landed Airwolf gently down next to the Santini chopper.

Hawke was tugging open the door to the massive black machine before Caitlin even had a chance to finish removing her helmet.

"Caitlin? You okay?" Hawke asked with concern as he climbed up next to her.

"Never been better!" she said with a huge smile as she finished removing her helmet and leaned over to give him a kiss. "And I think it's me that should be asking you that question. You and Dom okay?" she asked giving Hawke a quick once over to make sure he hadn't suffered too much damage in his struggle with Johnston.

"Yeah, we're fine," he said as he took her hand and helped her out of the helicopter while Michael climbed out the other side and came around the nose of the bird to meet them.

Seeing the spy, Hawke suddenly went into protective mode. "Dammit, Michael! What in the hell were you thinking letting Caitlin fly Airwolf?"

"Like I could have stopped her," Michael told him. "I figured it was better to come along and help then have her do it on her own which she would have done. Anyways, this lady's one hell of a pilot!" Michael said with pride. "And I would think you would be happy that she was here to save your butts!"

"Well, I sure am!" Dom said as joined the group and gave Caitlin a big bear hug.

"Well thank you Dom and Michael," Caitlin said, making sure to completely ignore Hawke. "At least some people around here appreciate me!"

"Cait, I appreciate what you did but you were in no shape to fly Airwolf alone when I left," Hawke said as he looked at her with concern. "If something had happened…."

Cait wanted to be mad at him, but when she saw the scared look in his eyes, she just couldn't bring herself to yell at Hawke. "You're right, Hawke, I probably wasn't but when I heard my guys were in trouble then I knew what I had to do. You would have done the same for me. Anyways, I wasn't alone, I had Michael and I had a little more help, too."

"Yeah, what was that?" he asked as he slid his arms around her waist and pulled her close.

"I was flying on 'The Wings of an Eagle' ", she said with a smile as she reached up and caressed his cheek. "And the eagle, just like you, never lets me down."

Hawke smiled at her reference. As worried as he had been, he knew that Caitlin had just made a huge step on the way to her recovery. Leaning down he placed his lips on hers and kissed her passionately.

"MMMM HMMM" Dom cleared his throat after the two young pilots had been caught up in their embrace for almost a full minute. "If you two think you can pull apart from each other long enough, I'd sure like to get home. I've had enough fun for one day."

Blushing as she pulled away from Hawke, Cait giggled as she looked to Dom and Michael who both had huge grins on their faces. "Yeah, I think we can do that," she said.

"Actually, I'll stay here and wait for our guys to pick up those two over there," Michael said as he indicated Johnston and Carelli. "Dom, Laura's coming down and she can fly your chopper back to the hangar if you want to go back with Cait and Hawke."

"Sounds like a plan! Thanks, Michael!" Dom said as he was already headed towards Airwolf.

Turning towards the spy, Caitlin took both of his hands in her own. "Thanks again, Michael, I don't think I could have done it without you."

"The pleasure was all mine, Caitlin," he responded with a smile as he gave her a peck on her cheek. "Like I said, Hawke, she's one hell of a pilot. I'd keep an eye on her…the committee might just try to steal her from Santini Air," the spy added with a wink.

"Uh-uh, Michael, not a chance in hell," Hawke said as he put a possessive arm around her shoulders. "She's staying right where she belongs, with me."

"Yeah, somebody's gotta keep an eye on him, Michael," Caitlin said with a grin as they waved goodbye to the spy.

As they headed over to Airwolf, Hawke started to guide Caitlin towards the pilot's door.

"That's okay, Hawke you fly her back," Cait said as she went around and climbed into the counter-measure seat. Dom had already positioned himself at his usual spot at the engineering console.

"Ahhh, this is nice," Dom said as he looked around the cockpit. "Finally everything and everyone is back where they belong."

"Yeah, I think we've finally found our way back to normal," Caitlin agreed. "At least until the next time."

THE END.

A/N: So another story ended. I have not decided whether or not to continue on this arc of stories or not with a fourth installment. It seems pretty well wrapped up here but who knows…it might happen. I have an idea for a one shot next, so regardless that will come first.

To Mychand: it occurs to me that my last several stories have all been 10 chapters long. This was not in any way intentional and I hope you don't think I'm copying your style. It just seemed to work out that way..lol. I'll at least try for an odd number on the next one!