March 8, 2004

Manassas Regional Airport – Manassas, Virginia

1248 Eastern

Harm stretched out after the drive down from State College. He'd picked Rebecca up from her condo at 8 and stopped outside of Frederick to fill up the tank. Rebecca had brought a book along to read, while also carrying on a conversation with Harm throughout the drive. So, the time passed relatively quickly, all things considered. As for the weather, it was absolutely gorgeous and would be perfect for the flight back.

The only possible downside was if it got dark earlier than Harm thought they would get to State College, he would be facing the prospect of a night landing on an unfamiliar field. Still, the airport was fully manned and the runway would be lit, so he would be able to find it once they got close. And while the Stearman might lack modern conveniences like a GPS or radio navigation system, Harm was more than well trained in the plane and navigation. So, he foresaw no problems getting home.

Once they were out of the car, Harm and Rebecca removed their bags from the back seat before walking through the gate and heading for the hanger housing his aircraft. As they got closer, they could see that the yellow biplane had more than her fair share of admirers watching as the plane was fueled. One of the men saw them approaching and moved towards them.

"Good to see you again, Mister Rabb. We've got her just about fueled, so give us 10 minutes and we'll have you on your way," he said.

"Much appreciated, Mister Boyd. While you're finishing up, I'll head into the office and take care to the bill," Harm replied.

"Barb's got it all ready for you."

Harm and Rebecca went through the door marked 'Office' and saw that Barb was indeed ready for them, with a smile on her face and a credit card machine by her side. Harm and Barb went over the bill, with Harm nodding as she pointed various items out. Then he removed his wallet and handed over a card for her to run. Once it went through, he signed for the charges and thanked the woman before leaving.

When they returned to 'Sarah', Harm helped Rebecca get dressed for the flight. Last weekend, he taken her shopping to buy a few things he knew she'd need. Now, he had her take off her coat and put on a flannel shirt over her shirt and then put the coat on over that. He also had her put on gloves and a stocking cap. Once she had that all on, he made sure that he skin was completely covered before turning to his own preparations, which were almost identical to hers.

With that all done, Harm helped Rebecca climb into the front cockpit and got her strapped in tight. He then showed her how to put on the radio headset and work the microphone, telling her not to touch it until they were well in the air as he would need to talk with the tower as they taxied and took off. Rebecca nodded her head as she looked at Harm with slightly wide eyes, the excitement of the moment getting to her.

Once he was certain she was ready, Harm climbed back onto the ground and began a detailed walk around. Only when he had checked everything and was satisfied that the plane was safe did he climb into the rear cockpit and get himself set up. Looking out, he was relieved to see that everyone had moved away. Still, he called out the customary command of "Clear".

"Clear," came the immediate response for Mister Boyd.

Harm pressed the starter and listened as the plane came to life. To his ear, the engine sounded sweet. He felt five times more alive than he had just moments ago, as the excitement built to a roar within him. This was what flying had always done for him, something that no one else had ever understood except for his fellow aviators.

"Manassas tower, Stearman N53153. On the ramp, requesting taxi and takeoff for VFR flight, over," Harm called.

"Stearman 153, Manassas tower. Copy. Take taxiway 3L to runway 34L. You are number 1 for takeoff. Following takeoff, climb and maintain 3,500. Over," the controller called back.

"Taxiway 3L to runway 34L. Number one for takeoff, climb and maintain 3,500. Roger."

With that, Harm began the slow Stearman crab off the ramp and down the taxiway to 3L, where he turned for the runway. He could see that the tower had some experience with either Stearmans or something similar, since he had been assigned the shorter of the two runways. Still, Harm knew he had more than enough room, so he lined up with the centerline and stood on the brakes while he ran up the engine to full power. The yellow trainer shook a little, but Harm concentrated on the sound of the engine. The last thing he needed was something to go wrong on takeoff, when he didn't have the speed or altitude for recovery. After a moment, he was satisfied that everything was as it should be and released the brakes.

After takeoff, Harm brought the plane up to 3,500 and leveled her off, while also steering a course towards State College. When he had 'Sarah' on roughly the right course, he reached into his coat pocket and removed the folded up map he had brought. It was liberally covered with notes he'd made over the weekend as he had plotted out the flight, bearing in mind the restrictions that covered the Washington area. In a few minutes, he'd have to turn west so that he could avoid restricted airspace and fly that way for about ten minutes, then he could turn back to the north.

"How you doing?" Harm called over the intercom, raising his voice to be heard over the sound of the wind.

"Oh my God! This is unbelievable," Rebecca called back. "I've never flown in a small plane before, just airliners."

"You want to do some acrobatics along the way?"

"Yes, please!"

Harm decided to start slowly, so that he could try and gauge how his passenger was handling the experience. First, he did a couple of rolls, then leveled off. The grin he saw in her mirror reassured him, so he moved on to doing a loop followed by a stall. The scream of delight she gave brought a huge smile to Harm's face. He gave her a couple of more loops, then some more rolls before knocking things off.

It was getting later and Harm needed to start watching his fuel. That little playtime hadn't made a huge dent in the fuel, but he didn't want to be too low when he got near State College. A dead stick landing wasn't something he wanted to do today. Plus, he had to factor in the deviation west into his mental fuel calculations. While his Stearman had a 46 gallon tank, he knew from experience that he really only had 39 gallons available. The plane burned 12 gallons an hour cruising at 95 mph, so he had a range of roughly 300 miles. Manassas to State College was right around 230 miles, so about 2 and a half hours. Harm then added in the about thirty minutes he'd spent doing acrobatics and knew he was cutting things close.

Looking at the map, he saw some options. He could land in a number of places along the way, starting with Hagerstown or Frederick, and put on some gas. The problem with that was the time. Harm wanted to reach State College before it was dark and if they stopped for gas, that wouldn't be possible. Looking past Rebecca's head, he could see the sight gauge for the tank. Nodding his head, he looked down at the map and started searching for landmarks. After a few moments, he spotted a pair of rivers off to his right. Looking back at the map, he smiled as he recognized it as Hagerstown.

Putting the information together, he knew that fuel wasn't going to be the problem he'd thought it would be. He was surprised at how far west of his intended track he was, before realizing he'd never corrected for having to fly west around the Washington area to avoid the restricted airspace. So, now that he knew where he was, he adjusted his course a little towards the east. He figured about an hour and a half would see them to their destination and leave about a half hours' worth of fuel remaining.

"Is this what flying does to you?" Rebecca asked from the front cockpit.

"What do you mean?"

"I feel more alive than I have in forever, yet I also feel totally relaxed, too."

"I agree on the feeling alive. I feel that way every time I take off. Relaxed, not so much. Maybe it comes from being a pilot, but I'm almost always totally focused when I'm in the air. One mistake up here is one too many."

"I can understand that. It's that I'm just enjoying the experience, not having to figure out where we are and how long until we get where we're going," Rebecca said.

"Well, we've just passed Hagerstown. I put us about ninety minutes or so from State College, so we should be home in time for dinner," Harm told her with a laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Just that I'm coming to think of Belleville and State College as home. Even when my grandmother was alive, I never thought of it in those terms."

Rebecca decided to remain silent while Harm processed that thought.

"Home wasn't really anywhere, when I was growing up. I never really accepted that my dad was gone and when mom married Frank, I began to look for any excuse not to be home. In the summers, mom would send me to Grandma Sarah's just to have some peace, I think. And as much as she loved having me there, I know it hurt her sometimes too. Especially as I got older and looked more and more like my dad. She cried the day I told her I was going to the Academy, even though she tried to hide it from me," Harm said.

"I know you said your dad was shot down in Vietnam, but you've never talked about your grandfather. What happened to him?" Rebecca asked.

"He was a naval aviator too. He was shot down at Midway in 1942."

"No wonder your grandmother was upset about you going to the Academy. She'd already lost her husband and son in the Navy, she didn't want to lose her grandson too."

Harm didn't respond to that, having no real answer to the truth he had just heard. Besides, it was something he'd already known. Her fears had been similar to his mother's, about the thought of another young Rabb making the ultimate sacrifice for his country. Harm had at least managed not to continue that tradition, though he had come close a time or two. Or ten.

University Park Airport – State College, Pennsylvania

1621 Eastern

Harm stretched after helping two mechanics push 'Sarah' into the hanger he'd rented. The flight had been uneventful, with not a single problem from the plane. So, he took the log from the luggage compartment and noted the flight, giving the date and time and both departure and arrival airports. Looking things through, he saw that a hundred hour inspection was coming due, so he made a note to have the mechanics handle that while he and Rebecca were gone for the week. That way, he could go flying again when they returned.

Harm had checked his schedule and knew he'd have plenty of time available to go up, either on the days that he actually taught or on his days off. Now that he'd seen how Rebecca had taken to it, he would have to make certain to include her in some of those flights. For now, he joined her by the doors and picked up her bag. Together, they walked over to the gate in the fence that allowed pilots to leave the airport and enter the parking area. However, since Harm had picked her up that morning and his car was down in Manassas, they kept walking over to the passenger terminal. There, they caught a taxi over to Rebecca's condo. Getting out, Harm paid the taxi while Rebecca went to her door and opened it.

"Well, after that long journey, how about we call for some delivery and just relax?" Rebecca said to him.

Harm just looked at her for a moment before nodding his head and walking to her door. This would be the first time he'd ever been into her residence, something he considered a major milestone. Once he crossed the threshold, he sat the bags on the floor and looked around. The living room was very minimalistic, with only a love seat and recliner for sitting. Both were angled to face the television, sharing an end table between them.

Through an opening in the wall, he could see into the kitchen. The walls were a light beige, with a lower half that was woodwork. The floors were hardwood, he thought. Or possibly laminate.

"Why don't you sit down, Harm?" Rebecca asked.

"Thanks," he said as he took the love seat, leaving her the choice of joining him or taking the recliner.

"I'll be right back with the menus I have."

Harm watched her go into the kitchen, from which she returned shortly with a cordless telephone and a small stack of paper menus. She gave them to Harm, since she knew most of them by heart. Rebecca had never found much joy in cooking for one, so she often ordered in.

"How does Chinese sound?" Harm asked.

"Great," Rebecca told him. "What sounds good to you?"

"I'll have an order of the vegetable lo mein. How about you?"

"I think I'll have Beef with Broccoli and fried rice."

Rebecca called the restaurant and ordered for them. Harm reached for his wallet but Rebecca ignored him as she paid for the order with her credit card. She smiled sweetly at the look on his face, well remembering his thoughts about who paid when they were together. As far as she was concerned, she was the one who'd invited him in, she was the one who suggested they order in and she would be the one to pay tonight.

Harm saw the look on Rebecca's face and correctly guessed her thoughts. He was fine with letting her pay tonight, since he'd paid for the trip down to Manassas as well as their upcoming trip to Orlando. If he kept paying for everything, eventually she'd burst in frustration.

"Are you all set for Disney World, Becca?"

"I've been packed since Saturday. I'm so excited, nervous, scared…."

"I can understand the excited, but why nervous and scared?" Harm asked, although he suspected the reason.

"I've never gone away for a weekend with someone before," Rebecca confessed as she looked at her hands.

"Well, let's review, alright? We're going together, but I've reserved separate rooms for us. So, see, there's no pressures, no expectations. Remember what I told you when we first started dating and you told me what happened? You set the pace on this, so until you tell me you want to go from two rooms to one, I'm going to assume two."

"Harm, you're too good to me, with my damage and baggage."

"Rebecca, nobody gets to our age without some baggage. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others, some have more to try to carry. So don't go thinking I'm perfect or too good for you, because I know I'm far from either," Harm told her.

The doorbell rang before she could ask the questions that had flooded her mind at those words. Getting up, she answered it and collected their dinner, making certain to tip the delivery person. When the door was closed, Rebecca carried the packages into the kitchen. She got a couple of plates from the cupboard, then transferred the food onto them. By the time she had that done, Harm was standing next to her and took the plates over to what he had initially thought was simply a way to see into the kitchen was, he now realized, in fact a countertop that Rebecca used to eat from. A pair of barstools faced it, so he took one and waited for Rebecca to join him with a couple of glasses of wine.

"What's your baggage, Harm?" Rebecca asked as she joined him.

"Lots of different things. My father was probably the biggest for a long time, until I finally learned the truth. Then there was my ramp strike and Mace's death, Diane and her murder. For a while after her death, I tried not to let people get close to me, because it seemed like everyone who did I ended up losing."

"Who was Diane?"

"She was a classmate at the Academy and eventually a bit more than a friend," Harm said cryptically.

"A bit more?" Rebecca asked, realizing she was pushing but sensing something that needed to be brought out in the open.

"We were going to meet the weekend she was killed, see if we could figure that out. See, when we graduated from the Academy, she went to cryptography school and I went to flight school. Too much time apart, too much distance and things just drifted. Then, after my ramp strike, I went to law school and on to JAG. Finally, I thought, we had a chance. So, we were going away together to see if we really did."

"I'm sorry, Harm."

"So am I. It wasn't until after she was gone that I realized how much she meant to me," Harm said. "But, if things had been different, I never would have met you."

Rebecca gave him a little smile of gratitude, while reaching over.

"Saying I'm glad sounds so wrong, but I am. I didn't realize how much I was missing until I met you, Harm," she told him.

Harm just nodded at her before taking a drink from his glass and starting to eat again. Rebecca joined in, so that they each finished at roughly the same time. Rebecca collected the dirty plates, taking them to the sink to rinse off before loading them into the dishwasher. Harm, for his part, collected their glasses and the bottle of wine and took them into the living room. He put them on the end table, before sitting back down on the love seat.

Finished in the kitchen, she came out to join him. Snuggling up against him, she curled her legs underneath herself. Harm wrapped his arm around her, drawing her closer. Rebecca no longer even flinched at his touch, something that they both regarded as a major achievement, and she was even coming to welcome his close embrace.

The pair of them just sat this way for a long time, simply enjoying each other's company and relaxing. All too soon, though, it was time for Harm to leave. He planned to be back in the morning, however, for their flight back down to Washington and part two of the week.