DISCLAIMER: 7th Heaven characters are not my creation. I'm just having fun with them. This story contains some suggestive content and may not be appropriate for younger readers.
***
No more Captain Smith. Or was it Captain Jack? Or just Jack?
Maybe that was part of the problem. She never knew what to call him. Slightly more than twice her age. Far superior to her in the chain of airline employee command. So kind and gentle and…fatherly. What was the proper way to address a lover who reminded her so much of her father?
Well, not exactly a lover. Maybe that was another part of the problem. At almost twenty-two years of age, Mary Camden still adhered to that oh-so-Camden principle of not having adult relations before marriage. She and Captain Smith…er, Jack, were so far away from marrying each other that sex just wasn't anywhere in sight. That had to be a major turnoff for the old man…er, the guy. Didn't it? It certainly was for her, although she never would have admitted it to anyone.
Of course, there was Ben too. In truth, she still had feelings for him – another thing she never would have admitted. Perhaps Captain Jack had been no more than a tool, used for the express purpose of chipping into that macho façade Ben had put on ever since her rejection of his marriage proposal. Seeing his old girlfriend again, really, what was up with that? What was he trying to prove? And what was Mary trying to prove to him in response, by going out with Captain Jack?
Robbie was right about all these things, and it was nice of him to call her to talk about it and set everything straight. She needed that in her life, Mary did. A man to set her straight. Just not Captain Jack. Not now, anyway.
***
The morning after their breakup – which Captain Jack had taken surprisingly well, so well in fact that one might even have called it a mutual breakup – was an exceptionally beautiful one for autumn in Fort Lauderdale. Temperatures hovered in the mid-70's and the sun shone brighter than it ever had in Glenoak. Birds, breezes, and bright blue skies greeted Mary when she stepped onto the balcony of her brand new single-bedroom third-floor apartment to drink her cup of coffee.
She absorbed her surroundings, admiring their beauty and tranquility. A feeling of newness wrapped itself around her like a plush bathrobe. New apartment, new town, new surroundings…new life. No family around. Not her parents, nor Matt, nor the Colonel.
Just Mary.
***
Her bliss proved to be short-lived. As soon as she arrived at the airport for work, her new supervisor pulled Mary into her office.
"What do you mean I'm fired?" she asked the supervisor. "I've only been at work here for three days. How can I be fired already?"
"Now Mary," said the woman soothingly. She was a kind but no-nonsense type probably in her forties, with shoulder-length blond hair, sensibly trimmed. "You know that when you signed the contract it said that we could terminate you at any time without cause."
"The contract? Nobody reads the stupid contract when they sign it. It's like, fifteen pages of tiny little print!"
"Look, Mary, I'm not really supposed to tell you anything other than that you have twenty minutes to collect your personal items and turn in your badge to me. Then you need to leave the airport."
"No."
"I'm sorry?"
"I said 'no'. I'm not leaving until you tell me why I'm fired."
"Oh, Mary, let's not do this. I'd hate to have to call security…"
"Go ahead. Terry and Reginald are on
shift right now, and I'm not afraid of either of them."
The supervisor cocked her head slightly and said, "OK, see, Mary, that's one of the problems right there. You've only been based at this airport for three days and you're already on such a * ahem * 'friendly' basis with the * ahem * young, male security staff that you know their names and their shift schedules."
Mary let out a disgusted snort. "So what? I'm a friendly, people person. I mean, hello! It's part of my job description as a flight attendant, you know? Since I like, have to serve people all the time and stuff."
"Well, see, that's another problem. We've had a number of complaints that you prefer to stand around and jaw with the passengers and flight crew about your love life when, in fact, you should be doing your job."
"What? Complaints from who?"
"Whom?" her supervisor corrected her, but Mary was on too much of a roll to notice.
"Look, passengers like to complain, OK? They're stuck in a tiny seat for a couple hours, we give them crappy peanuts and soda, they're a little edgy when they finally leave the plane."
"Actually, the majority of the complaints were from your co-workers, Mary."
This finally silenced her – for a moment anyway – until she continued, slightly taken aback, "My co-workers?"
Her supervisor just nodded, with a slight hint of empathy in her gaze.
"Gosh, and I thought I was doing so well. You know, they seemed really nice to me and everything. I would have thought they would have said something to me first, instead of, you know, getting me fired."
For the first time all day, her supervisor agreed that Mary had a point. However, she had her orders. She started to say something, thought better of it and held it back, but then decided to go ahead and say it anyway. "Honey, you can't skip the safety demonstration during the taxi to the runway, OK? It's an FAA regulation."
Mary looked at her dumbly.
"That means it's the law, dear. On your last flight, Teresa had to go and re-do the session to cover your section of the plane because you neglected to do it."
Mary grunted. "So what? I mean, it's not like anybody doesn't know how to buckle their seatbelt or put a stupid oxygen mask on. And the emergency exits? I mean, duh, can't these people read? It's a red sign, it says 'Exit' on it. How hard is that?"
Despite Mary's obvious lack of job skills, her supervisor couldn't help but admire the girl's spunk. The longer they chatted, the more difficult the firing was becoming for her. She hastened the process along by stating, "Mary, I'm sorry dear. You just don't get it. You need to get your things and leave now."
Reality set into Mary's face, bringing the empathetic look back to her supervisor's visage. "Well, what am I going to do now? I just paid the deposit on a new apartment and signed a six-month lease. I can't afford to break it, considering I'm only going to be able to cover it with three days' pay."
"I'm so sorry, honey. I wish there were some way I could help."
Dejectedly, Mary rose from the chair in which she had been sitting and dazedly departed her supervisor's office, back into the bland beige airport hallway, wondering what letdown life held in store for her next.