Paving the Road Home - Chapter 11

When the rest of Ghost Team arrived at the base, one of Sinjin's men ran up to him laughing.

"How in the hell did you get here so fast?"

Sinjin laughed and pointed at Airwolf. "That's all her and the crazy pilot of her, Major Chris Champion I'd like you to meet my baby brother, Captain Stringfellow Hawke, his team works for the NRO and was our backup tonight," he explained and Champion smiled hugely.

"You're his brother? Oh hell, man that, wow. Great to meet you, I've covered your brother's six for about 8 years now. Heard all about you," Champion said happily.

"Thank you for keeping him out of trouble for so long," Hawke told him and Champion laughed.

"That ain't an easy gig either, they are going to take the prisoners in for interrogation with the CIA dudes, you want to sit in or just let the CO handle it?"

"I think I'd rather sit it out, I'm not feeling too friendly toward Mr. Magasawai," Sinjin said and Hawke smirked. "Besides, I'd like to take a little time to catch up before the NRO yanks them back to California."

"No problem," Champion answered and then spotted Caitlin a few feet away. "Oh, hello there, are you the one with that pretty southern accent who was helping us out?"

Caitlin laughed. "Yes, sir."

"I ain't really worth a sir but would you mind sharing a really bad cup of coffee?" he asked.

Caitlin shook her head. "Sorry, I'm spoken for," she told him and he shook his head.

"Well damn, all the pretty ones are, aren't they? It was nice to meet you….what was your name again?"

"I don't think I gave it, but it's Caitlin O'Shannessy."

"Irish to the core, huh? Nice to meet ya' ma'am!" he said as he ran back over to the group escorting the prisoners into the hanger.

Hawke was giving Champion a slight glare and Sinjin laughed. "Champ is nothing but hot air and a flirt is all," he assured his brother.

"Hmm," Hawke murmured and reached out to tangle his fingers with Cait's. She just smiled at him as they headed into the facility.

"Come on, I need to change out of all this mess, you guys can grab some coffee in the cafeteria while I get cleaned up," Sinjin told them as he led the couple into the hanger and then went through a door on the opposite side from where his team had gone.

"Ghost Team, huh?" Hawke asked with a smirk.

"On account we are all 'dead' to the rest of the world," Sinjin told him. "Military has never been terribly creative with names."

"You're Army but I noticed Champion's insignia was Marines," Hawke stated.

"Yeah, we are a mixed bag, our corpsman is Navy, Champ is a Marine, two others besides myself are Army, one is Air Force Special Tactics and one is a Navy Seal. We work exclusively with DIA these days," he explained as they entered into a hallway and he led them to the cafeteria.

"Here we are, you guys can get some coffee, hot meal if you need it and I'll join you in about 20 minutes," Sinjin told them and headed back down the hall presumably to wherever his bunk was.

"How are you feeling?" Caitlin asked as they entered the cafeteria and headed for the coffee.

"Like I'm in some surreal dream," Hawke told her and she laughed.

"I thought earlier that this sure wasn't how I expected this day to end," she said with a grin. "Happy about it though."

"Me too. I just…God, he's just. He's really good at what he does. I watched them, watched him on the video feed when I could. I know he loves to fly as much as I do but he is a great ground soldier too. You know he kept tabs on every one of his guys, you could see it, the way his head moved the entire time, he was keeping count. Watching his men closely," Hawke said a little in awe of his big brother. Caitlin smiled at him.

"That's his job and he obviously loves his team plus…you do the same thing," she said as she filled her cup.

"What do you mean?"

"You do the same thing, String," she said with a laugh. "You don't realize it I guess but you do the exact same. Anytime we are on the ground during a mission you are constantly watching for Dom or myself or whomever we are working with. You count too, I've heard you. You tick off seconds as we work, you watch and critique. How many times have you given Dom hell about watching his left side? Or me watching my back, telling me to keep my back to obstacles so no one can sneak up on me?" Caitlin told him.

"Oh, I guess I just never realized I did that," Hawke said remembering that he did do those things but they just came second nature to him.

"Your training is a part of you, String just like it is with your brother. His probably even more so after being over here in the thick of things for so long," Caitlin said with a shrug as she added some sugar and creamer to the coffee. It was far too strong for her straight.

Hawke grinned at her doctoring up her coffee. "Military still can't make a decent cup of coffee," he said gesturing at her cup.

"It's awful," she laughed.

Hawke settled in a chair next to her and reached up to cup her chin. "Thank you for doing such a great job tonight, finding them a way out and keeping me focused," he told her and then brushed his lips lightly against hers.

Caitlin pulled him closer and gave him a deeper kiss, much to his pleasure.

"I love you, Stringfellow Hawke," she told him and he smiled.

"I love you too."

They heard the door open and looked up to see Sinjin in civilian clothing heading their way.

"I almost feel human again," he announced as he headed for the coffee pot. His blonde hair was still damp and Hawke thought he looked so different with that beard on his face.

"Army regs don't apply to your team?"

"Hmm? Oh, the hair and the beard? Yeah, we have to try to blend in with the locals if we can. Course my hair color is not real conducive to that," Sinjin said with a laugh.

"You look like a mountain man or something," Hawke teased him and Sinjin sat down across from them.

"Yeah, itchy as hell too but you get used to it. So, you and Cait are living together now? Man, that happened fast, I only met miss thang over here 4 months ago," Sinjin teased and the couple both laughed.

"Things and priorities changed when I found you were alive and well," String answered.

"I'm sorry about that. I really am. I swore I thought my first messages had gotten to you guys. I'd never have left you and Dom hanging like that, despite the damn rules you guys are my family. I'm not the only one of the guys in our team who have tried to get at least some messages to their families," Sinjin admitted. "We've all sorta broken a few rules there."

"Sinjin, were you AWOL when you met me in Egypt?" Caitlin asked quietly.

"Eh, um. Yeah," he admitted with a sheepish look on his face. String just laughed.

"You idiot," he told him and Sinjin shrugged.

"Champ knew where I was and covered for me," Sinjin said and took a drink of his coffee.

"What are your plans? You said this might be the end of your operation, will you come home now?" Caitlin asked and Sinjin sighed.

"I want to. I'm getting a bit old for this crap and to be honest, I never planned for it to go on this long," Sinjin admitted. "I'd like to go home and have a life, find someone like your Cait here and make some babies. There has to be more to life than getting shot at every day in this shit hole that's for sure," he added.

Caitlin looked down at the table when Sinjin talked about babies and felt her heart constrict a bit. She certainly wanted that with his brother too.

Hawke chuckled a little. "You think you can handle civilian life after all the time you've spent here?"

"God, I dunno. You transitioned, didn't you?"

"Well, I'm not exactly working a 9 to 5 job either," String told him and Sinjin laughed.

"How'd you end up with the NRO anyway?" Sinjin asked as he shifted sideways and straightened his legs out, crossing them at the ankles.

"I got shot and was recouping in Rammstein when a DIA guy came in and offered me a job. He was a real arrogant prick too so I tossed his card and then later that day another guy came in. His codename is Archangel, his name is Michael Coldsmith-Briggs III of all things but despite the snooty sounding name he was a pretty decent guy. Asked me to come to work for them, didn't lean too heavily on me about it, stroked my ego a bit about my piloting skills and said he had a project he'd like me to work on with him. I told him that I would think about it. He left a folder with a drawing of Airwolf, I think he knew that would get me," String explained.

"You always did fall for pretty birds," Sinjin teased him and winked at Caitlin who blushed.

Hawke grinned and shook his head. "Yeah, anyway if you did want to come home I'm sure we could find you a spot on our team. Dom's been complaining about his back a lot lately and he is 66 years old. I think he's wanting to slow down a bit," Hawke told him and Sinjin looked over his mug at his brother in concern for their foster father.

"That bad?"

"Yeah, he begged off this mission and the last long mission we had. He'll take the short hops but lately anything over 24 hours and he won't do it. Says his back bothers him too much these days. I've been worried about him, Cait has been too," Hawke explained.

"He just doesn't seem to have the energy he had just a year ago," Caitlin said softly. She loved Dom like a father.

"Then I think maybe I need to have a talk with my CO," Sinjin said with finality in his tone. Dom wasn't getting any younger and he damn well wasn't going to stay until the old guy up and keeled over before he got to see him again.

"You sure, this isn't just a spur of the moment thing because we're here, right?" Hawke asked, a little worried his brother, despite how much he wanted him to come home might regret making a choice too fast.

"Oh, I'm sure of it. When I caught up with Cait in Egypt, I knew after we talked on the phone that I was more homesick than ever. Seeing you now and hearing about Dom…I want to be there for you guys. I've missed far too much and I'm tired, String," Sinjin explained with a heavy sigh.

"Well, we'd be happy to have you. You know Dom's kept your old room exactly the same. Posters and all," String told him and Sinjin laughed.

"I figured he'd have turned it into some sort of library or something," he said with a grin.

"Nah, he hasn't even changed my old room for some reason," Hawke said with a shrug.

"My mom is the same, she hasn't changed my room a bit, always freaks me out when I go home and have to sleep in a pink canopy bed," Caitlin said with a laugh.

"You, little miss tom boy had a pink bedroom?" Hawke teased her and she shook her head.

"Not by choice, mom tried so hard to make me more girly by making my room all pink and frilly, buying me dresses and I'd just put shorts on under them and play with the boys anyway," she said with a laugh. "Imagine me in a frilly pink lace dress, mud boots and playing in the creek with my brothers catching frogs. Mom was furious."

Both brothers laughed at the very image of a little red headed girl with freckles, mud on her face and all over a pink dress with Wellington boots standing in a creek with a frog in her hand. It was a pretty vivid picture for both of them and Hawke wondered if his and Cait's daughter would be like that. Whoa…his and Cait's daughter? Hmm, he'd thought of kids with her before. Maybe one of these days.

"You guys want to stay the night here on base? We have the room and you can fly back out fresh tomorrow or…if you can stay a few days or something," Sinjin offered not knowing what their schedule was.

"Well, let me get in touch with Michael. You, you use Cait's phone and call Dom," String told him and Sinjin nodded.

Caitlin handed over her phone and Sinjin took it with a grateful nod and moved over to another table to call Dom while String called Michael.

Caitlin watched the way both brothers sat and realized they shared the same mannerisms. Even with them apart from one another for so long, they sat the same way and even held their phones in the same way. It amused her a little how much alike they were despite the time apart.