Author's Note: This story is for Clyde...you better not be reading this until your concussion gets a little bit better.
It's All Fun Until Someone Gets Hurt
The smokejumpers knew something was terribly wrong the moment that Cabbie cried out. When the jump plane came to an abrupt stop on the runway moments later, the smokejumper captain started to mutter under his breath and trying to get information over the radio…all his calls were met with silence, which only deepened everyone's level of concern.
After what seemed like an eternity, Cabbie moved once again, but instead of down the runway, he seemed to be making a beeline to Maru's hangar. The big plane still wasn't talking, but from the smokejumpers could hear Maru squawking the emergency channel informing the Chief that Cabbie and the Jumpers weren't going to be joining them on this fire. When Chief Ranger tried to find to get more details, Maru had snapped back that he would pass on more info as soon as he got it. Then Cabbie came to a complete stop, Maru swore…and that method of find out information also went quiet.
The Smokejumpers waited in the darkness of Cabbie's hull for what felt like yet another eternity. They did their best to not get too wiggly, but it was so hard to be stuck in one place, not knowing what was going on. Eventually, the Captain gave out a long sigh and called Maru over the radio.
"Is there a reason you are keeping us in here? Or can we be sent on our way?"
Maru let out another string of colorful language and Cabbie tentatively opened his beaver tail door. When the smokejumpers rolled out onto the tarmac then instantly tried to figure out what had gone wrong. It didn't take them long. Maru had pushed one of his ramps right up to Cabbie's face. From their angle on the ground, the jumpers could glimpse a spiderweb of cracks spreading across his right eye. They could also see fluids leaking from Cabbie's damaged eye as he tried to keep them open for Maru, and not all of the fluids looked like tears.
"Neither Cabbie nor I need an audience right now. Scram." Maru spoke, and while the smokejumpers wanted to protest, but the dangerous purr on the edge of the mechanic's voice prevent any possible argument from crossing their lips.
So, the smokejumpers headed across the runway in an attempt to give Cabbie and Maru space, but they watched the whole situation out of the corner of their eyes. The mechanic tapped the plane's bad eye shut, dosed him with something that clearly tasted nasty, and then led the C-119 to his hangar. Once the aircraft was bedded down, the smokejumpers decided it was finally time to get some answers. They rolled up on Maru with pleating eyes.
"I will meet you all in the Smokejumper hangar in 15." Maru sighed heavily as he waved the smokejumpers off. "I need to speak with the Chief first."
The wait for Maru, once again proved to push the smokejumper's patience to their limits. But true to his words, Maru rolled in. A tired expression on his face.
"Do you know what this is?" Maru balance a single yellow bolt on his tine. All of the smokejumpers stared at the bolt not sure if it was a trick question or not. Maru rolled his eyes clearly annoyed. "This is a bolt and given the color, it is probably a bolt that was knocked loose of one of you. I pulled this bolt out of Cabbie's eye this afternoon. His right windshield is a lost cause…" Maru squeezed his eyes shut, clearly trying to keep his anger under control. "But we were lucky. So lucky. If this would have gotten into Blade's or Chrysler forbid Windlifter's engines we wouldn't have been so lucky."
"We…" The smokejumper captain started, but Maru quickly cut him off.
"I really don't want to hear your excuses. The FOD walks are the smokejumper responsibilities. I fully realize that they are not fun to do, but you just saw, failing to get foreign objects off of the runway puts all of our operations in jeopardy. Now, get your afts into gear and clean up the mess you left on the tarmac."
No one argued about participating in the FOD walk this time. They rolled along staring out the ground without distracting each other or suggesting another activity they could be doing. They did an exceptional job cleaning the runway, but they couldn't help but feel hollow about completing the task. The rest of the afternoon the base was painfully quiet. Patch had pulled the music in an attempt to make it easier to sleep which meant if you listened hard enough you could hear Maru making phone call after phone call trying to find Cabbie a replacement windshield. The silence only served to deepen the smokejumper's guilt. Finally, around dusk, the Chief got tired of the smokejumpers moping and sent them all to bed early.
All the smokejumpers were restless when they racked out. But one newest member of the team was particularly agitated. Avalanche kept trying to keep his eyes shut, but every time he did the events from early ended up running on repeat through his head. And every time it repeated Avalanche kept feeling worse.
"SHOULDN'T…SHOULDN'T WE GO APOLOGIZE TO CABBIE?" Avalanche asked the darkness.
"We can think about doing that tomorrow." The Captain said with a long yawn.
"BUT…"
"Go to sleep 'Lanche." The Captain practically growled. That was enough to cause the dozer to quiet for a few long moments. Then Avalanche got his engine into gear and started rolling towards the door. "Avalanche, where do you think you are going?"
"…I NEED TO USE THE LATRINE…" Avalanche mumbled. It was not a particularly convincing performance.
"Fine." The Captain sighed heavily after the dozer refused to provide any additional information. "But no detours."
"YES, SIR." Avalanche straightened up a bit at the words and made a beeline to the door.
As you would expect, as soon as the hangar door was shut, Avalanche ignored the latrine in favor of heading directly towards Cabbie's hangar. Gingerly the little vehicle pried open the hangar door and peered inside. In the shadows, he could see the big plane resting on a sleeping mat. One eye was taped shut and his whole face was creased with pain. For a few engine beats, Avalanche thought that he had made a terrible mistake. He moved his blade to close the door so that he could slip away back into the night, but then Cabbie's left eye cracked open.
"Maru…is that you?" The plane asked, clearly having a hard time focusing one good eye.
"NO…" Avalanche tried to say quietly, which went about as well as you would expect.
Cabbie winced slightly at the noise, but he did his best to hide his pain from his voice. "What do you need Avalanche?"
"I…" The dozer started before completely bursting into tears.
Cabbie gave a long sigh, then raised his wing. Avalanche might be new to Piston Peaks, but he knew exactly what that motion meant. Rushing forward, he tucked himself firmly under the big plane's wing and pressed himself against the Cabbie's left landing gear. In this position, the little dozer could hear the woosh and hum of Cabbie's systems. It was a soothing sound, one that slowly quieted Avalanche's sobs.
Once the little vehicle's whimpers had stopped, Cabbie spoke again. "So, do you want to take about it?"
"I…" Avalanche started. He could feel the tears trying to well up again, but he squeezed his eyes shut and powered forward. "I…THIS, THIS WAS ALL MY FAULT. WE WERE PLAYING WHEN WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING OUR FOD WALK. WE DIDN'T DO OUR JOB AND IT CAUSED YOU TO GET HURT. AND IT IS ALL MY FAULT!"
With the words said the Avalanche once again dissolved into sobs. The little dozer just sat and wailed as he poured out all the anxiety and guilt that had been building up all afternoon. Cabbie, for his part, didn't try to stop Avalanche's tears. The old plane gave the dozer the space he needed to safely pour out his emotions while doing his best to provide a comforting grounding presence.
Avalanche had nearly cried himself to sleep when he felt Cabbie shift his weight slightly. "You can come in if you would like."
"I…" Dynamite's voice filled the silence. "I was just trying to find Avalanche. He went to go to the bathroom a while ago and didn't come back…"
Cabbie just smiled at the clearly flustered ATV sitting just outside of his hangar, and he raised is right-wing. Dynamite didn't need any more prompting as she slipped in and under the comforting shelter of their jump plane's body.
"So." Cabbie paused for dramatic effect. "What did we learn today?"
"I…" Avalanche hiccupped. "WE LEARNED THAT PEOPLE CAN GET HURT, LIKE REALLY HURT IF WE DON'T DO OUR JOBS RIGHT."
"Very good." The C-119 spoke with a level of warmth that surprised both of the smokejumpers. "Next question, what are the two of you going to do with your newly gained knowledge?"
"Um…" Dynamite pawed the floor nervously with one of her front tires. "Well, I know that I am going to make sure that my chores get done before participating in any of the games with the team."
"ESPECIALLY IF THE CHORE HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH BASE SAFETY." Avalanche added emphatically.
"Then today's incident was worth the pain." Cabbie spoke with calm finality.
"THAT MEANS YOU ARE NOT MAD?" The dozer stammered in shock.
"And that you forgive us?" Dynamite added with timid hope.
Cabbie sagged slightly at the two vehicles' words. He closed his good eye and took a couple of long breaths. "I will admit, I am angry. But I am less angry with you than I am with your elders. The more experienced members of the team should have taught you the importance of a FOD walk so you didn't have to learn from experience. That said, I am slagging sure you will not make the same mistake twice. If the two of you promise that you will do your best to make sure that this doesn't happen to another aircraft on your watch, I will forgive you without any reservations."
"WE PROMISE." The two smokejumpers said in unison, though Avalanche pretty much drowned out Dynamite's voice.
Cabbie allowed the two vehicles to sit and just soak in the moment for a while. When the plane was pretty sure that the smokejumpers emotions had settled, he spoke again. "Well, now that that has been taken care of, it is probably best for the two of you to get back to your hangar and get a good night's sleep."
The only sound that greeted the C-119's ears was the calm steady rhythm of Avalanche's and Dynamite's breath. The two had clearly drifted off to sleep. Cabbie once again sighed and settled heavier on his tires. There was nothing left to do, but allow himself to drift off to sleep as well.
The next morning Maru came to check on his patient, only to find his hangar door was slightly ajar. Peeking inside he saw the reason why…Cabbie was no longer the only vehicle in there. Sometime during the night, the Smokejumpers had apparently all wandered over and bedded down with their plane. But the thing that caused a smile to curve across the mechanic's lips was the fact that the Smokejumpers weren't sheltering themselves under the big plane's wings like they did when they were seeking comfort…instead each of the little vehicles had found a patch of open skin among Cabbie's fuselage and were cuddling the old plane just like they cuddled one of their fellow jumpers when they were injured and disoriented. It was quite honestly, one of the cutest scenes that Maru had witnessed at Piston Peak.
For a few long moments, Maru considered running back down to the hangar and grabbing a camera to record the scene for all posterity. Then Cabbie's left eye cracked open and locked on to Maru. It was clear that the action caused the plane a great amount of pain, but somehow the plane was able to communicate so much with the small action. Mainly, I am fine and bugger off, I am trying to sleep.
Maru felt an amused smile twitch at the edge of his lips as he started to pull the hangar door the rest of the way shut. As he did, he saw Cabbie settle back into the shadows, leaning into the smokejumpers who surrounded him, letting the little vehicles provide him with the grounding his eyes were currently incapable of giving him. Maru didn't bother trying to keep the smile down anymore as the door snicked shut.
Whistling quietly to himself, Maru went to get Blade and himself a tall mug of coffee. Then went to go park himself on the tarmac. The mechanic wanted to make sure that he caught the helicopter as soon as he came back from his patrol, because Maru was pretty sure that Blade would be amused to witnessing Cabbie's moment of 'weakness'. Because as much as Cabbie would deny it, he really was everyone's uncle and relished being cuddled/cared for just as much as the rest of them.