Hawke shifted in his seat, looked out at the blue sky in front and inwardly sighed with contentment. There was nothing like flying for making everything, anything seem possible. It was cramped in the small two-seater plane they'd hired but he didn't mind the close quarters. He glanced over the cockpit at Caitlin sitting beside him and wondered again at how lucky he was. With her red hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing jeans and sweater under a brown leather flying jacket, she looked younger than her years. Her freckled face with its delicate features and curious blue-green eyes did nothing to detract from the impression of youth and for a moment Hawke had to remind himself that the age gap between them wasn't a chasm. Thinking he was too old for her had been one of the reasons why he'd initially resisted a relationship with Caitlin.

Caitlin's eyes flickered to him as though she was aware of his regard. 'You want to take over?' She was currently at the controls.

Hawke shook his head. 'Nah.' He smiled at her. 'I was just enjoying the view.'

She smiled. 'You know we could have stayed another hour if you'd wanted.'

He shrugged. 'I'll see Jo when we get back.' Dom's niece hadn't arrived by the time they'd left.

'You've never really said how well you know her.'

'She lived with Dom for a while when we were all kids. Her father Tony is a bit of a flake; a nice guy but a flake and a bit of a gypsy. Her mother couldn't cope with his absences at times…'

'So Dom stepped in?' Caitlin asked.

Hawke nodded. 'She came to live with him the first time the summer after we lost our folks. Mostly she was like a pesky younger sister. She worshipped Saint John, followed him around everywhere, but we were all pretty close back then. Dom taught us all to fly.' He shook his head, dislodging the pull of childhood memories. 'It was a long time ago. We've kind of lost touch except for the odd Christmas card, that type of thing.'

'What does she do?'

'Freelance stuff mostly according to Dom.' Hawke said. 'Flying but interpreting, mainly; she speaks some ridiculous number of languages, travels around a lot.' He gave a small huff of laughter. 'As much as Dom would like to deny it she has as much gypsy in her as her father.'

'It sounds like she kept her word and pretended you didn't have anything to do with her coming to visit.'

'Yeah.' Hawke nodded. 'I'm just glad she agreed.' He glanced across at her again. 'I wouldn't have felt right leaving Dom on his own after what happened with Rosa. He says he's fine but I can tell it hit him hard.'

'We could still go back.' Caitlin said with a smile.

'Nice try,' Hawke said, 'but we're going to your sister's wedding.' He sighed. 'Besides, Jo's real fond of Dom. She'll make sure he's OK.'

'She sounds nice.' Caitlin said.

'You'll like her.'

'I hope so.' She murmured a little uncertainly; the last niece of Dom's she'd met, Holly, had tried to kill her.

'Don't worry,' Hawke said picking up on her worry, 'Jo's completely sane.'

'Well, that's a good start.' Caitlin grinned at him. 'You know,' she said thoughtfully after a few moments silence, 'Dom never talks about Holly.'

Hawke raised his eyebrows in surprise at her comment. 'Well, I think it's kinda because he's worried it'd upset you.'

'She wasn't well. I understood that.' Caitlin said.

'Yeah.' Hawke sighed deeply.

'It's funny, though.'

'What?'

'Well, the reason why she tried to hurt me was because she thought you and I were going to end up together…'

'…and now we have?' Hawke finished.

'Hmmm.'

'I guess she saw the chemistry between us better than we did.' Hawke said quietly.

'We were both trying to pretend it wasn't there.' Caitlin pointed out.

'That too.' He admitted ruefully.

'In fact I had to get shot before we stopped pretending.' She continued.

'Don't remind me.' The image of her lying motionless on the ground, blood seeping from the gaping bullet wound in her shoulder flashed in front of his eyes and his heart lurched with the momentary panic that he would lose her like he'd lost so many before. He took a deep breath; steadied himself.

'I've been thinking that finding out about what I really do after I got shot has a lot to do with my parent's attitude towards us being together.' Caitlin commented. 'They never really liked the fact that I wanted to be a cop and when they found out I was doing something similar…'

'I think maybe it was that you got shot.' Hawke pointed out.

'Maybe.' Caitlin sighed. 'And it probably didn't help that I chose to return to LA against their wishes afterwards.'

Hawke sighed. After the shooting and strongly encouraged by her mother, he'd told Caitlin to stay in Texas where she was safe; his fear of losing her raising its head. He'd hurt her badly although she'd given into his request, thinking it was what he really wanted. He'd lasted a month before he realised that his decision had caused him to lose her anyway…he'd been about to leave for Texas to ask her to come back when she'd turned up at the airfield. Her mother had confessed to interfering and Caitlin had decided that she had nothing to lose by returning to LA. Their reunion had been the start of their relationship.

Hawke frowned. 'Dom reckons they just need to see us together.'

'He does?' Caitlin worried at her bottom lip with her teeth. 'I hope he's right.'

Hawke silently agreed as he realised that her face was pinched with tension. 'It's going to be fine.' He assured her.

Caitlin looked over at him. His blue eyes were hidden behind the aviator sunglasses but she figured they were fixed on hers. 'You're right; it's not too late to turn back.' She joked.

'Why don't you brief me on your family?' He asked trying to distract her from worrying.

She rolled her eyes. 'I've told you all about them a dozen times.'

'Well,' Hawke said firmly, 'just assume I wasn't listening before.'

Caitlin gave him a sharp look; she had a feeling he was actually telling the truth.

'Come on.' Hawke encouraged her.

She sighed. 'Well, my eldest brother Brian works on the ranch with my Dad. He's married to Elaine and they have two children…'

'Jacob and Rebecca.' Hawke interjected smoothly.

'So you have been listening.'

He glanced across at her and quirked an eyebrow upwards, not admitting to anything. 'So your eldest brother…'

'He's a good guy, a little reserved. He was always serious because of knowing he'd take over the ranch from my Dad.' Caitlin paused for a moment as she adjusted their course. 'He served in 'Nam and came back even more serious.'

'It had that effect on a lot of people.' Hawke said quietly.

Caitlin nodded and cleared her throat. 'His wife's OK. They were childhood sweethearts. She's very religious. '

'Kinda got that from the names of the kids.' Hawke gestured. 'What about your other brother?'

'Callum's only a year younger than Brian. But he was the one all my friends swooned over; school quarterback, Prom king, class president. He works for my grandfather's business now and before he got married to Jenny he was a bit of a…a rake. He's been married a couple of years now, seems to have settled down.'

'The kids aren't his, right?' Hawke murmured.

'Right. Emily and Justin are Jenny's from her first marriage.' Caitlin confirmed. 'Nice kids though. Jenny's very grounded.'

'You like her.' He commented.

'Yeah, I do.' Caitlin agreed. 'Then there's Erin.'

'Your elder sister.' Hawke had met Erin in the hospital when Caitlin had been shot. He'd liked her; she'd been the only one who'd been friendly towards the Airwolf team and she'd reminded him a lot of Caitlin.

'Erin's only a year older than me.' Caitlin continued. 'She's married to Paul who's a nice guy even if he is a little dull and the baby is very cute.'

'What did they call her again?'

'Sophie.'

Hawke mentally counted up the siblings. 'Which leaves your younger sister.'

'Yeah, Fiona.' Caitlin sighed. 'She's five years younger than me and I think she was a bit of a surprise to my parents. She's spoiled and a brat but I love her anyway.'

'And the guy she's marrying is your ex?' Hawke was still astounded that her sister had hooked up with someone Caitlin had dated. There had always been an unwritten rule between him and his brother that they avoided each other's exes. He'd thought the rule was standard in most families.

'Kinda.' Caitlin gestured weakly. 'Tom's from the neighbouring ranch. We're the same age, grew up together. Our families always joked about the two of us getting together but I think they kinda expected it. We dated in high school, went to the prom together, exchanged friendship rings.' She hesitated. 'He proposed to me when we graduated.'

Hawke yanked his sunglasses off to stare at her. 'You haven't told me that before.'

'I know I…' Caitlin shrugged awkwardly and glanced over at him apologetically. 'I wasn't sure how to bring it up.'

'So you turned him down?'

'We were eighteen. Neither of us was ready for that kind of commitment.'

'You guys must have been serious though for him to have proposed.' There was a question in the statement and Caitlin bit her lip.

'Actually, I think he proposed mainly because he wanted to have sex and thought that was the only way he was going to get it.'

'You guys didn't…' Hawke let the question trail away; he wasn't sure whether he wanted the answer.

'No.' Caitlin quickly confirmed. 'We didn't do more than some heavy…' She stopped as Hawke's searing blue gaze met hers. 'Anyway, we were teenagers. We might have thought ourselves in love but we were only playing at it really.' Her heart sank at his stern profile. 'Hey.' She waited until he glanced over at her again. 'Compared to how I feel about you, well, there is no comparison.'

Hawke took a deep breath and reached across to squeeze her shoulder. 'Sorry. I guess the proposal thing kinda threw me.'

'I should have told you about it before,' Caitlin admitted ruefully, 'but really both Tom and I put the whole thing behind us years ago. We're friends, I mean we're not close, but friends enough that it wasn't going to be awkward if we bumped into each kind of friends, and we're kinda nostalgically fond of each other but nothing more than that.'

Hawke briefly wondered if Tom felt the same way before he mentally kicked himself; the guy was about to get married to another woman, Caitlin's sister no less. If Tom had any residual feelings for Caitlin they'd obviously been sorted out long ago. Maybe. He found he was suddenly looking forward to the wedding and seeing the other man get hitched.

'So…anything else I should know about?' He asked dryly.

Caitlin pressed her lips together. 'Well, I guess I haven't really explained about my grandfather.'

'I get the feeling I'm not going to like this either.' Hawke said sighing at her nervous tone.

'My grandfather's Chester Mitchell.' She confessed.

'Chester Mitchell.' Hawke repeated. 'The Chester Mitchell? The oil tycoon?'

Caitlin nodded. 'My mother's his daughter.' She explained hurriedly. 'But it doesn't really make that much difference. He might be very rich but we aren't; my Dad was pretty insistent that he wouldn't let him get involved with the ranch or help out at all. The only thing he agreed to was letting Grandpa put us all through college.'

'He'll be at the wedding I take it?' Hawke asked.

'Yeah.' Caitlin sighed.

'How did your folks meet?' Hawke asked curious. Chester Mitchell was Texan high society; he couldn't quite work out how his daughter had ended up marrying a rancher.

'My Mom was on her way to a ranch my grandfather owned near by and decided to take a detour. She broke down at the bottom of our ranch drive. My Dad helped her out and by the time she got back on the road, she knew he was the man she was going to marry.' Caitlin shrugged. 'Apparently, she and Dad got married in secret and there was a big estrangement for a while until Brian was born.'

Hawke glanced over at her. 'Any more big secrets?'

'That was the last one.' She promised. Her eyes caught his. 'Do you have any I should know about?'

The corners of his lips tilted upwards. 'Well, you know about my uncle Alex and he was pretty much the family secret.' His mother's brother had been a spy who'd deserted the orphaned Hawke brothers; he'd turned up a couple of months before claiming to have found Saint John only for Hawke to discover that it was a con to get Hawke to save Alex's son, a cousin he hadn't known anything about. Alex had been killed in the rescue.

'How did your folks meet?' Caitlin asked.

Hawke smiled. 'Alex. He and my Dad were in the army together with Dom. They were injured and brought back to a VA hospital to recover. My mother was visiting Alex and was introduced to my Dad who is in the bed beside him. Two months later they were married.'

'Wow.' Caitlin said. 'That was fast.'

'My Dad said he wanted to get the ring on her finger before she had a chance to change her mind.' Hawke remembered fondly. 'He used to tell the story of how he proposed every year on their anniversary.'

'I wish I could have met them.'

'Me too.' Hawke said.

They smiled at each other before she returned her attention to her flying.

Another thirty minutes passed and Hawke took over the controls to give Caitlin a break. He'd been flying for only a short time when he frowned suddenly and turned his head.

'What's the matter?' Caitlin asked.

'Do you hear that?' He responded.

Caitlin rolled her eyes. 'Sure. I developed super-hearing overnight.'

Hawke shot her a look. 'There's a plane.'

'Where?' Caitlin glanced out at the blue sky, craning to spot the plane. 'I thought air traffic told us we had a clear path.'

'They did but this guy's definitely above us.' His eyes were glued to sky trying to peer into the blue above. 'Getting closer.'

'Real close.' Caitlin frowned. 'I can hear it now.'

Hawke's whole body was tense with anticipation; there was something very wrong…the plane was too close.

'Doesn't he know we're here?' Caitlin asked. Her heart pounded in her chest as the noise of the light plane engine got louder and louder. 'He's right on top of us.' She switched on the mike. 'This is Sierra-Delta-Foxtrot to the plane at angels-twenty. We are directly below. Do you copy?'

There was no reply but the sound of the plane engine filled the cockpit.

'This is Sierra-Delta-Foxtrot. Do you copy?' Caitlin said urgently.

'Hold on.' Hawke saw the shadow of the plane and reacted without thought, veering left suddenly. It was an instinctive move that saved their lives as the plane nosedived on their right side, slamming through the space they had just occupied, and close enough that Caitlin cringed away from the door. There was a horrible crunching sound and their small aircraft spun and lurched. Hawke wrestled with stick trying to keep them steady; Caitlin desperately gripped her seat, her knuckles turning white as she looked out the side window and swallowed; the right wing was mangled.

'He caught the right wing.' She fought to keep calm and then felt the engines stall. She reached forward tried for a restart. The plane rocked precariously, losing altitude.

Hawke swore loudly and tried to keep them level, fought against the pull of gravity and physics as the plane tilted ominously; the engine restart was unsuccessful. He could dimly hear Caitlin calling through the mayday on the radio giving their last known coordinates but his whole being was focused on controlling the machine, trying to keep her straight, trying to keep her balanced, trying to glide her down in a controlled way. He used every trick he could to slow the descent and desperately searched for a landing site in the rocky, mountainous ground below.

'There!' Caitlin pointed at a tiny strip of flat land in the barren landscape. He steered them towards it and knew they were going to hit the ground too fast.

'Brace yourself!' He yelled roughly, still wrestling with the controls, still trying desperately to make the landing.

The plane's wheels hit the rocks below; they bounced once; twice. He got the plane down; it jolted hard as they landed throwing them forward. His expression tightened at the sight of the stony wall racing up towards them and he hit the brakes hard. The plane skidded over the ground, barely slowed. They both threw up their hands protectively as the nose hit the wall, crumpled. The plane gave a wrenching screech and came to a sudden stop. The cockpit was silent except for the harsh pants of their shallow breathing.

Hawke immediately turned to Caitlin. 'You OK?'

She nodded and sniffed the air, her eyes widening at the smell of fuel. 'We need to get out. Now.' Her hands shook as they unlocked the straps holding her.

Hawke tried his door; it was jammed. 'Out your side.'

Caitlin shoved against her door. 'It's not moving.'

Hawke frowned and leaned back almost in her lap to get enough room, enough purchase to kick his door open. He jumped out and reached up to help Caitlin. She threw out a rucksack of emergency equipment stowed in the cockpit before she followed him out. Hawke grabbed the bag and Caitlin's arm. They ran away from the plane. It exploded suddenly behind them; the force lifting both of them off their feet and sending them sprawling.

Hawke hit the ground hard, felt the breath leave his body in a rush. He shifted and looked back at the burning debris of their aircraft briefly before his eyes sought Caitlin. She had landed close by him and she was in a similar position; her shocked blue-green eyes pinned to the wreckage. He crawled over to her and she reached for him, hugging him tightly. Hawke could feel her body trembling against his and wrapped himself around her; he couldn't seem to get close enough. They stayed that way for a long moment; both needing the reassurance of holding the other to steady them.

Hawke eased back and kissed her before he pulled away just enough for his eyes to lock back on hers furiously. 'Marry me.' It was a demand.

Caitlin's eyes widened and she reached up to brush his fringe out of his stormy blue eyes, her fingers lightly touching his face as she cupped his cheek in the palm of her hand. It wasn't how she'd imagined and she figured he would probably change his mind once they were safely home but it didn't matter, it wouldn't change how she would answer. 'OK.'

He breathed out in relief and kissed her again. They might have stayed locked in the embrace but for a cold brush of wind that sharply reminded them of their situation. They eased away from each other ruefully and gingerly made to stand up.

Caitlin's face blanched white as a flash of pain shot up her leg and she yelped, staggered. Hawke's arm immediately locked around her waist and he lowered her to sit on a rock as she hopped keeping the weight from the injured ankle. He crouched down next to her and put the ankle through a couple of simple physical tests without removing the boot; if it was broken or sprained it would provide her with support.

He looked up at her. 'I think it's a sprain.' He said finally.

Caitlin nodded. 'I must have landed on it badly. Damn!' Her eyes smarted suddenly and her shaking fingers wiped away the tears that spilled onto her cheeks.

Hawke framed her face with his hands. 'Hey.' His eyes held hers firmly. 'We're going to get through this.'

'I know.' Her voice was thick with emotion. She took a deep, wobbly breath and breathed out slowly. 'I'm OK.'

Hawke saw the resolve creep back into her eyes, start to push out the shock. He gave a small sigh of relief and glanced around at the surroundings. The landscape was mainly grey rock with brown dry ground peeking out here and there with green brush breaking up the unremitting barrenness.

'Do you know where we landed?' Caitlin asked.

Hawke sighed. 'We were clipping the top of the White Sands Missile Range over the San Andres Mountains when we got hit by that plane. It's possible we've come down just inside the boundary.'

'Maybe the military picked up on the mayday.' Caitlin said hopefully.

'Maybe.' Hawke gestured at the smouldering wreckage. 'Staying in the plane isn't an option and we can't stay with it; this place is too exposed.' Another gust of harsh wind underscored his point and had them both shivering.

Hawke reached for the rucksack and pawed through the items to find the map. He spread it out on the rock next to where Caitlin was sitting. 'What were the last coordinates you radioed?'

She gave them to him and he stabbed a finger at the location. 'That's where we were.' He took out the compass, checked his watch and the position of the sun. 'I think we're here.' He traced a finger across the map; they'd drifted a good fifty miles from their last known position. It was going to take time for any rescue party to find them. He frowned. The nearest road was a good twenty kilometres away over rocky and barren terrain; the nearest town wasn't even a remote possibility. His eyes drifted to Caitlin. She couldn't walk on the ankle, at least not far.

'We need to find some shelter close by and wait for them to come get us.' Caitlin surmised. She could read the map as well as he could.

Hawke nodded.

'Or…' She took a deep breath.

'Or?' Hawke asked wondering what other option she figured they had.

'You could leave me. You'd make good time walking out on your own…'

'No.'

'Hawke, you'd be able to bring a rescue team back within twenty-four, forty-eight hours tops.' She argued.

'I said no.' Hawke caught her eyes in a fierce gaze. 'I'm not leaving you.'

She nodded slowly. She knew his answer was rooted in the memory of leaving his brother behind and losing him. 'We need to find some shelter then.'

'I need to find us some shelter.' He corrected her.

She raised an eyebrow. 'What happened to the 'I'm not leaving you' position?'

He sighed and gestured at her. 'You need to rest that ankle and I won't be gone long. Whatever I find has to be close by.'

'I can help…'

'Caitlin.'

The slightly exasperated tone had the words dying on her lips.

He looked around. 'I'm going to help you over to the wall. It'll give you some protection. You stay on the radio and have the flares ready if you see a rescue plane.'

It only took a few minutes to make his words a reality. He handed her the radio, the flare gun and a water bottle. He hesitated by her side.

She'd been involved with him too long not to see past the impassivity and pick up on the minute clues to how he was feeling. She caught his hand in hers. 'Don't worry. I'll be fine.' She attempted a wry grin. 'I'm not going anywhere.'

Hawke didn't smile but he dipped his head and kissed her. 'I'll be back soon.' He let go of her hand and walked away before he could change his mind.