The flight itself was uneventful, unless you count the sleazeball
across the aisle that kept bugging Spitfyre to come sit by him and let
him initiate her into the mile high club. She was so mad you could
actually see her tremble with the effort of keeping it hidden.
"Do you remember how we first met?" Grand Slam leaned over and asked her, trying to distract her.
She looks up at him. "Yeah. It was the Valentine's Dance and I wasn't too happy about being there. You had gotten back that morning from a mission and you were over in the corner with Eric, Tony, Clay, Lonzo and Edwin, and you guys were talking. All of y'all had just gotten back from a mission that morning, and none of us was expecting any of you to be at the dance. I was over in the opposite corner with Allison, Courtney, Taffy, Paige, Bree, and I think Shana was there too, for a little while until Conrad came and talked her out on the dance floor. One by one, all of the other girls were asked to dance, until there was just me left, alone in the corner, like usual."
"You were under orders that night, weren't you? I heard somebody somewhere say that Hawk had to order you to go, for whatever reason."
"Because he knew that I hated Valentine's Day and that all I would be doing that night was probably lock myself in my room and read and feel depressed, and something was likely to be broken, most probably my own neck. Yes, he ordered me to go, and I was just about to say the heck with it and go back to my quarters when you came over and asked me to dance. There's a reason that I try not to be around people on that day. Let them be happy. I don't want to bring them down with the way I feel"
"I knew that I had to come ask you to dance because when you were the only one left, and you looked so lonely and forlorn all by yourself in that corner; like a lost little girl. I would have sworn that you looked like you were going to cry when Taffy went to dance with Tony, leaving you standing there all alone. What was the name of the song? I can't remember, now. All I remember about it is that you were a very talented dancer, and you were as beautiful up close as I thought you were from where I was standing. Eric and Tony were already giving me a hard time about it, because I had asked them who the hottie was, standing over there in the corner with the rest of the females. They said that they had wondered if somebody would ever catch my eye." Cadence blushed; no one had ever said anything about her like that.
"It was "The Time of My Life" from "Dirty Dancing". That was the first time I had ever danced in front of anybody, believe it or not, and I can remember that everyone else cleared off the dance floor and let us take center stage. We appeared to have some kind of psychic link, according to Taffy. We both looked like we knew exactly what the other one was going to do, and moved accordingly to match it. And actually, what I was about to do was go outside, sling the glass up against the wall and growl at the unfairness of the universe. And most probably, tears would have fallen and blood would have been shed. Especially when I would quit bitching and began to pick up the pieces of glass."
"Oh Yeah. Now I remember. General Abernathy looked like he'd been poleaxed when he heard you laugh for the first time, when you slipped and I barely caught you that time. I got a really funny feeling when I heard it, myself. Kind of like the feeling that I have right now." He leaned over to her, softly traced the visible parts of the hideous scar that marred the right side of her face, running from her hairline to her chest, and feathered his lips against hers in a very soft kiss.
She would have been beautiful except for the presence of that scar. She couldn't even claim that she had earned it in a fight. No, she knew that it was a symbol of shame. It served as a reminder that she was nothing more than a worthless piece of gutter trash that someone had thrown out on the side of the highway. Her own parents had not wanted her, and they tried numerous ways to kill her, but somehow, she'd survived. The scar was the symbol of the last time she'd ever seen her family, before she was run off like some hideous monster. It was her birthday, a day that was supposed to be a special day for her, instead it was one of the more painful days for her to recall.
When he draws back, he watches for her reaction.
She sits there, surprised. He watches cautiously as she reaches up and gingerly touches her lips, and a slow grin starts to form on her face. He knew what the consequences could be if he had just made a huge mistake. He might not make it off of the plane alive. His face shows an answering grin when she chances a look at him.
"No one's ever done that before. Thank you," she tells him, simply.
"It was my pleasure, little one. You're just so kissable, so lovable. Such a wonderful little weaponsmith should be kissed long, deep and often." He leans over and kisses her again, this time a bit harder and with a lot more passion.
As his lips meet hers, she has a flashback to when she was a child. She stiffens in her seat, and he quickly draws back, looking closely at her to see if he can determine what it was that he had done to hurt her. He soon realizes that it's not him that has done something to her, but something else entirely, as he sees the faraway look in her eye. He wonders if it is some of her blacked-out memories that have suddenly awoken in her mind.
"Momma, no! Please don't make me go with him. I don't like it when he tries to kiss me." The blue eyed, blond, little girl, no older than five or six years, struggles with her mother as she tries to force her into the man's car. "I don't like how he touches me. It makes me feel dirty," she protests. The woman slapped her soundly against the head with the cast iron skillet in her hand and shoved her into the car. The little girl presses her body up against the door of the car, tears streaming down her face. "But, Momma, don't you love me?" she asked. The woman sneered at her. "No. And I never did. You were just a mistake that never should have happened, and now you have to be punished for it." The man hands the woman some money and drives away with the little girl to a secluded spot, where he rapes her small, undeveloped body. He has to hit her hard to get her to submit to him, and even then he had a hard time of it.
All of a sudden, Cadence comes back to herself. When James sees the pain and agony in her eyes a heartbeat before she shutters them, hiding the pain, he realizes what must have happened. She had had a flashback to whatever had happened in her past that had scared her badly.
"I won't hurt you, Widget. And I won't let anyone else hurt you, anymore, either. I'm sorry I scared you." He leaned over and placed his hand on her shoulder. She covers it with her own.
"I know you won't, James. It's not your fault. There was no way you could have known about what happened in my past. One day, I'll explain it all to you, but for right now, please don't force me to tell, alright?"
"It's a deal, honey. You can wait as long as you need to. I understand."
The sleazeball across the aisle started snickering at the exchange between the pair. "Yeah, I bet the reason she ain't telling you what she was thinking of is because she was fantasizing about being with another man, namely me."
James leaps to his feet and steps towards the guy, intent on doing some damage. He had finally had enough of the man bothering the two of them. Cadence also leaps to her feet, and gets between the two highly charged, aggressive men. She puts her good hand on James's chest, literally putting all of her slight weight into pushing him back.
"Grand Slam! There's no need for you to get involved. Don't lower yourself to his level. He's not worth it. He's insecure, and therefore can't handle the fact that you're with a woman and he's alone, wishing he had someone to be with."
The man gets up, angry at her statement because it's too close to the truth than he would have liked, and grabs her from behind. James smiles evilly, and holds his hands up in mock surrender. "Now you've gone and done it. He's all yours, Spitfyre."
"Thank you, Grand Slam."
"Honey, you're quite welcome."
The stewardess comes to find out what is going on. James tells her to stay back, that he and his friend are military officers and are working on a case. Cadence starts to loosen her body and the guy takes advantage of it and tightens his grip on her. All of a sudden she stiffens and uses her body to flip the guy over her shoulder and onto the floor, hard. She then puts her foot on the guy's throat, threatening him without saying a word.
James steps up quickly before she can do some real damage and picks her up, dropping her into his seat and sitting next to her in hers, blocking her view of the jerk. The stewardess helps the guy up and back over to his seat. He's yelling at the top of his lungs about pressing charges against James and Cadence. Cadence sits there and rolls her eyes, mumbling under her breath about stupid men and the punishments that they deserved.
A young man comes up from behind and stops to talk to James and Cadence. "Um, miss? I think you should have this. I was testing out my new video camera, and I got all of that jerk's actions on tape. If it makes you feel any better, everyone behind y'all on the plane knows that he provoked you two first." He hands her a videocassette that was marked with the date, time and the flight number, and James slides it into his duffle bag. "Thank you," he says, meaningfully. The man just nods.
Cadence leans over to him and tries to explain what had happened during that aborted second kiss, but she is interrupted by the pilot's voice on the intercom, telling them that they are getting ready to land and that all passengers should strap themselves in. As they both straighten up in their seats and put their seat belts on, James leans down to his partner and tells her that he has a place that they can go by themselves, where she can tell him what she was going to earlier. She agrees, but gets a bit internally focused as she thinks about how to tell him. She was afraid that he would find a way to send her back to the base, alone.
"Do you remember how we first met?" Grand Slam leaned over and asked her, trying to distract her.
She looks up at him. "Yeah. It was the Valentine's Dance and I wasn't too happy about being there. You had gotten back that morning from a mission and you were over in the corner with Eric, Tony, Clay, Lonzo and Edwin, and you guys were talking. All of y'all had just gotten back from a mission that morning, and none of us was expecting any of you to be at the dance. I was over in the opposite corner with Allison, Courtney, Taffy, Paige, Bree, and I think Shana was there too, for a little while until Conrad came and talked her out on the dance floor. One by one, all of the other girls were asked to dance, until there was just me left, alone in the corner, like usual."
"You were under orders that night, weren't you? I heard somebody somewhere say that Hawk had to order you to go, for whatever reason."
"Because he knew that I hated Valentine's Day and that all I would be doing that night was probably lock myself in my room and read and feel depressed, and something was likely to be broken, most probably my own neck. Yes, he ordered me to go, and I was just about to say the heck with it and go back to my quarters when you came over and asked me to dance. There's a reason that I try not to be around people on that day. Let them be happy. I don't want to bring them down with the way I feel"
"I knew that I had to come ask you to dance because when you were the only one left, and you looked so lonely and forlorn all by yourself in that corner; like a lost little girl. I would have sworn that you looked like you were going to cry when Taffy went to dance with Tony, leaving you standing there all alone. What was the name of the song? I can't remember, now. All I remember about it is that you were a very talented dancer, and you were as beautiful up close as I thought you were from where I was standing. Eric and Tony were already giving me a hard time about it, because I had asked them who the hottie was, standing over there in the corner with the rest of the females. They said that they had wondered if somebody would ever catch my eye." Cadence blushed; no one had ever said anything about her like that.
"It was "The Time of My Life" from "Dirty Dancing". That was the first time I had ever danced in front of anybody, believe it or not, and I can remember that everyone else cleared off the dance floor and let us take center stage. We appeared to have some kind of psychic link, according to Taffy. We both looked like we knew exactly what the other one was going to do, and moved accordingly to match it. And actually, what I was about to do was go outside, sling the glass up against the wall and growl at the unfairness of the universe. And most probably, tears would have fallen and blood would have been shed. Especially when I would quit bitching and began to pick up the pieces of glass."
"Oh Yeah. Now I remember. General Abernathy looked like he'd been poleaxed when he heard you laugh for the first time, when you slipped and I barely caught you that time. I got a really funny feeling when I heard it, myself. Kind of like the feeling that I have right now." He leaned over to her, softly traced the visible parts of the hideous scar that marred the right side of her face, running from her hairline to her chest, and feathered his lips against hers in a very soft kiss.
She would have been beautiful except for the presence of that scar. She couldn't even claim that she had earned it in a fight. No, she knew that it was a symbol of shame. It served as a reminder that she was nothing more than a worthless piece of gutter trash that someone had thrown out on the side of the highway. Her own parents had not wanted her, and they tried numerous ways to kill her, but somehow, she'd survived. The scar was the symbol of the last time she'd ever seen her family, before she was run off like some hideous monster. It was her birthday, a day that was supposed to be a special day for her, instead it was one of the more painful days for her to recall.
When he draws back, he watches for her reaction.
She sits there, surprised. He watches cautiously as she reaches up and gingerly touches her lips, and a slow grin starts to form on her face. He knew what the consequences could be if he had just made a huge mistake. He might not make it off of the plane alive. His face shows an answering grin when she chances a look at him.
"No one's ever done that before. Thank you," she tells him, simply.
"It was my pleasure, little one. You're just so kissable, so lovable. Such a wonderful little weaponsmith should be kissed long, deep and often." He leans over and kisses her again, this time a bit harder and with a lot more passion.
As his lips meet hers, she has a flashback to when she was a child. She stiffens in her seat, and he quickly draws back, looking closely at her to see if he can determine what it was that he had done to hurt her. He soon realizes that it's not him that has done something to her, but something else entirely, as he sees the faraway look in her eye. He wonders if it is some of her blacked-out memories that have suddenly awoken in her mind.
"Momma, no! Please don't make me go with him. I don't like it when he tries to kiss me." The blue eyed, blond, little girl, no older than five or six years, struggles with her mother as she tries to force her into the man's car. "I don't like how he touches me. It makes me feel dirty," she protests. The woman slapped her soundly against the head with the cast iron skillet in her hand and shoved her into the car. The little girl presses her body up against the door of the car, tears streaming down her face. "But, Momma, don't you love me?" she asked. The woman sneered at her. "No. And I never did. You were just a mistake that never should have happened, and now you have to be punished for it." The man hands the woman some money and drives away with the little girl to a secluded spot, where he rapes her small, undeveloped body. He has to hit her hard to get her to submit to him, and even then he had a hard time of it.
All of a sudden, Cadence comes back to herself. When James sees the pain and agony in her eyes a heartbeat before she shutters them, hiding the pain, he realizes what must have happened. She had had a flashback to whatever had happened in her past that had scared her badly.
"I won't hurt you, Widget. And I won't let anyone else hurt you, anymore, either. I'm sorry I scared you." He leaned over and placed his hand on her shoulder. She covers it with her own.
"I know you won't, James. It's not your fault. There was no way you could have known about what happened in my past. One day, I'll explain it all to you, but for right now, please don't force me to tell, alright?"
"It's a deal, honey. You can wait as long as you need to. I understand."
The sleazeball across the aisle started snickering at the exchange between the pair. "Yeah, I bet the reason she ain't telling you what she was thinking of is because she was fantasizing about being with another man, namely me."
James leaps to his feet and steps towards the guy, intent on doing some damage. He had finally had enough of the man bothering the two of them. Cadence also leaps to her feet, and gets between the two highly charged, aggressive men. She puts her good hand on James's chest, literally putting all of her slight weight into pushing him back.
"Grand Slam! There's no need for you to get involved. Don't lower yourself to his level. He's not worth it. He's insecure, and therefore can't handle the fact that you're with a woman and he's alone, wishing he had someone to be with."
The man gets up, angry at her statement because it's too close to the truth than he would have liked, and grabs her from behind. James smiles evilly, and holds his hands up in mock surrender. "Now you've gone and done it. He's all yours, Spitfyre."
"Thank you, Grand Slam."
"Honey, you're quite welcome."
The stewardess comes to find out what is going on. James tells her to stay back, that he and his friend are military officers and are working on a case. Cadence starts to loosen her body and the guy takes advantage of it and tightens his grip on her. All of a sudden she stiffens and uses her body to flip the guy over her shoulder and onto the floor, hard. She then puts her foot on the guy's throat, threatening him without saying a word.
James steps up quickly before she can do some real damage and picks her up, dropping her into his seat and sitting next to her in hers, blocking her view of the jerk. The stewardess helps the guy up and back over to his seat. He's yelling at the top of his lungs about pressing charges against James and Cadence. Cadence sits there and rolls her eyes, mumbling under her breath about stupid men and the punishments that they deserved.
A young man comes up from behind and stops to talk to James and Cadence. "Um, miss? I think you should have this. I was testing out my new video camera, and I got all of that jerk's actions on tape. If it makes you feel any better, everyone behind y'all on the plane knows that he provoked you two first." He hands her a videocassette that was marked with the date, time and the flight number, and James slides it into his duffle bag. "Thank you," he says, meaningfully. The man just nods.
Cadence leans over to him and tries to explain what had happened during that aborted second kiss, but she is interrupted by the pilot's voice on the intercom, telling them that they are getting ready to land and that all passengers should strap themselves in. As they both straighten up in their seats and put their seat belts on, James leans down to his partner and tells her that he has a place that they can go by themselves, where she can tell him what she was going to earlier. She agrees, but gets a bit internally focused as she thinks about how to tell him. She was afraid that he would find a way to send her back to the base, alone.