Stringfellow Hawke knew it was a dream. He didn't exactly know how he knew but somehow, someway his conscious mind was telling him the truth. The Santini Air office around him might seem real; the table he was leaning against certainly felt solid enough and he'd almost burned his tongue on the hot coffee in the mug he held but…it was a dream…

He glanced at the office door. Something bad had happened beyond that door. His brow creased as he tried to remember what. Why wouldn't his head work?

'You OK, kid?'

Hawke turned at the voice of Dominic Santini and smiled at the old man who was a close friend, mentor and surrogate father all wrapped up into one. Dom was dressed in his usual garb; pale blue shirt, brown trousers, topped with a shining blue jacket inscribed with the Santini Air logo and a red baseball cap over his wispy grey curls. The familiar sight calmed something in Hawke.

'Just feeling a little groggy, Dom.' Hawke replied.

'You were injured pretty bad, String.' Dom reminded him. Injured…of course, he'd been injured…that's why he was dreaming and why this wasn't real. Dom gave Hawke a gap-toothed grin. 'Well, I've got to go now. I've stayed with you too long as it is, kid.' He stood up and made for the door.

'No!' Hawke panicked; he wasn't ready to lose him yet. He moved to block Dom's path, standing in front of him. 'Don't go, Dom. Not yet.'

'I have to, String, it's my time.'

Hawke held on tightly to Dom, tears already flowing down his cheeks as he begged the man who'd raised him not to leave him.

Dom patted his back. 'It's my time, kid.' He repeated and drew back.

'I can't come with you.' Hawke said.

Dom's large callused palm cupped Hawke's face. 'I know. It's not your time yet, String. You have Caitlin and your son to look after.'

Hawke nodded at the mention of his wife and their unborn baby. They needed him and he couldn't leave them; he'd promised Caitlin.

'It's time you returned to them and it's time for me to leave.'

'How am I going to do this without you?' Hawke asked roughly.

'You're going to be fine.' Dom kissed his cheek. 'I'm always going to be backing you, kid. Don't forget that.'

Hawke watched Dom slip through the office door and away from him…

It was the incessant beeping noise that brought Hawke back to consciousness. It broke through the insulating bubble that had protected him from the outside world and nudged him slowly but ruthlessly awake. He opened his blue eyes and immediately snapped them shut to block out the artificial light that flooded every corner of the room. He opened them again slowly, allowing them to adjust. He lifted his head and stopped as even that slight movement caused his senses to swim; his head felt heavy. His eyes rested on a monitor by the side of his bed. It was the source of the beeping sound. He scowled. He was in a hospital. His gaze drifted and careened to a stop at a woman slumped asleep in a chair by the bed.

Caitlin. His eyes scoured her appearance. She was dressed in blue jeans and an oversize pink jumper. Her red hair was caught in a messy ponytail with wisps escaping to frame her freckled face. The pale delicate features were screwed up into a frown as though her troubles had followed her into her dreams. His sigh disturbed her and she stretched, arching her back and displaying the pregnant profile of her body as she came awake. Her blue-green eyes flickered in his direction and caught his like a snare. For a long moment they remained frozen looking at each other.

'Hi.' His own voice sounded rusty with disuse.

'Ohmigod! You're awake!' Caitlin stumbled out of the chair and made toward the bed before changing directions abruptly. 'I have to get a nurse.'

'Caitlin, wait!' Hawke stopped her and she made her way back to his side.

'Are you real?' He asked hesitantly.

She smiled and laid her hand against his cheek, her thumb brushing over the stubble on his jaw. 'Is this real enough for you?'

Hawke raised a trembling hand to cover hers. He leaned into her. 'You're real. You're really real.'

'I'm really real.' The smile she wore shook and her eyes filled with tears. 'I thought I'd lost you.'

'I'm here.' Hawke said trying to comfort her.

'Yes, you are.' Caitlin leaned down to kiss his other cheek and he caught the hint of her perfume before she drew back. 'I need to get the nurse. I'll be right back.'

The next few hours sped by in what seemed to him a frenzy of examinations, of being poked and prodded, asked inane questions and embarrassingly having tubes removed from various places he preferred not to think about. He heard the doctor catalogue the list of his injuries in a state of disbelief; burned hands and arms that had healed without scarring; his lower legs had been badly cut and the blood flow compromised; they'd had to perform additional surgery to prevent the loss of his right leg. There had been spinal damage but the inflammation had reduced and it wasn't permanent. The worse news was the brain haemorrhage that had happened shortly after his arrival at the clinic…wherever it was; his hand drifted up to the side of his head where they had opened his skull to perform brain surgery. He'd slipped into a coma following the operation and apparently they had feared it would leave him with permanent brain damage.

Finally, he was tucked back into the bed and they left him alone with Caitlin. She perched at the side of the bed and he noticed the small white lines of fatigue and worry that lined her face. She'd been through hell worrying about him, he thought, and she'd had to endure it alone.

'You probably have a dozen questions.' She began. 'How much do you remember?'

'Bits and pieces.' Hawke burrowed back into his pillows. 'I remember the explosion and losing…losing Dom.' His voice broke and he took a moment to recover his breath. When he looked up he saw his own grief reflected in Caitlin's face. He felt for her hand and clasped it with his own.

'I miss him too.' She said.

They were silent for a long while as they mourned the loss of a man who had treated them both like his own children. Caitlin clumsily swiped at the tears running down her cheeks.

Hawke sighed. 'Cait, I remember after…I thought I was dying.'

She nodded. 'You were doing a pretty good job of it.'

His blue eyes focused on Caitlin again. 'I remember at the hospital…I promised to come home to you.'

She nodded and her eyes shone with tears again. 'I was so scared you were slipping away from me. It was the only way I could think of to keep you focused on fighting through.'

'God, I missed you.' He said quietly.

'We missed each other.' Her voice was a whisper. 'When you asked me to stay away…'

He flinched as though she had yelled the words at him.

'I couldn't bear not being able to be with you…' Caitlin's eyes filled with more tears and she tried to pull away.

Hawke kept a firm grip of her hand. 'I was trying to protect you, Cait, especially with the baby. I lost Dom, Cait. I knew I couldn't lose you too. That would have killed me for sure.'

'I know.' A tear made a lazy trail down her cheek.

Hawke reached out and wiped it away with his thumb. He left his hand cupping her face and slowly drew her toward him until he could kiss her softly on her lips. They looked at each other and he kissed her again, driving his fingers into her hair at the nape of her neck. He felt her palm against his bare chest and he broke away from the kiss to tug her closer, burying his face in the clean scent of her hair. They stayed that way for a long while until he eventually drew back.

'Are we OK?' Hawke pushed a lock of hair away from her damp face.

She sniffed and traced his rough jaw line with her finger. 'We will be.'

'I thought…at the hospital…' Hawke hesitated. 'I thought I saw Saint John.' His breath caught in his throat and he dimly registered that Caitlin was nodding.

'You didn't dream it.' Caitlin squeezed his hand. 'You have your brother back. Jo took Airwolf with Locke and an airforce major called Rivers to Burma. They rescued him.'

Hawke closed his eyes again and let the relief seep through him. It hadn't been a dream. Saint John was home.

'I called him.' Caitlin continued. 'He's on his way.'

Hawke opened his eyes and frowned at her. Jo was Dom's niece; they had been training her to fly Airwolf, the world's most technologically advanced and only mach capable helicopter, just before the explosion that had killed Dom and injured him. Jason Locke, he vaguely remembered the name…Archangel's replacement at the FIRM…no, not the FIRM any longer; it had merged with another, larger intelligence agency called the Company. Locke had taken over as Hawke's contact on Airwolf whilst Archangel, Hawke's friend otherwise known as Michael Coldsmith-Briggs III, concentrated on a project to build a new generation of the helicopter. Rivers…he didn't recognise at all. So if that was the team that had rescued his brother in Airwolf…his tired mind put together the missing pieces…

'The Company have Airwolf.' Hawke said dully. Caitlin nodded. He sighed and slumped back against the pillows. He would never have handed over the helicopter willingly especially with the development of her artificial intelligence but maybe it was good that it was finally over.

'Hey.' Caitlin's gentle tug of his hand brought him out of his reverie. 'It's not as bad as you think.'

He raised an inquiring eyebrow.

'We managed to transfer the artificial intelligence into the new ship,' Caitlin explained, 'and modified the programming in the old ship to prevent another intelligence from forming.'

'You mean the self-preservation code?' Hawke asked thinking of the part of Airwolf's programming that allowed her independent action.

'Yep. We removed it.' Caitlin said. 'The modified programming in the old ship doesn't allow the computer to learn from the memory logs or initiate any kind of self-preservation code.'

'So she's just like any other jet?' Hawke couldn't keep his disappointment from his voice.

Caitlin rubbed his hand comfortingly. 'Well, apart from the fact that the intelligence seems to have found someway of linking back to the old ship too. She's using her intact programming in the new ship to operate.'

'Linking back?' Hawke wondered if he was going to say something that wasn't a question.

'She seems to be able to transfer herself at will.' Caitlin smiled. 'It's driving Michael nuts.'

'I bet it is.' Hawke couldn't see his old friend being overly relaxed about an independent intelligence being able to roam from computer to computer without any boundaries.

'It's just as well though,' Caitlin commented, 'I think she's helping keep the new Airwolf team in one piece.'

'They're not doing so good, huh?' A small glimmer of satisfaction settled the knot of envy in his gut.

'They're not you and Dom.' Caitlin murmured. 'One of the side benefits of the linkage is apparently Airwolf is copying all the memory files over from the new missions in the old ship into the memory log in the new ship. I think it's the only thing preventing Michael from asking Karen to curtail her. I think he knows more about the Airwolf team's activities than the Company director at the moment especially given Locke's decision to keep Airwolf at the Lair and the location a secret from his superiors.'

'I didn't know Locke had it in him.' Hawke was surprised; his memory of Locke was as a Company man and a stuffed shirt; he hadn't thought Locke had the balls for that kind of decision. He felt a wave of tiredness descend on him and he stubbornly refused to give in to it. He rubbed a thumb across her knuckles as other details came back to him. 'Saint John got me out of the hospital?'

'With a little help from Marella. When you arrived at the cabin, I was waiting with Airwolf and brought you and Saint John here. Michael arranged everything. He'll be pleased to hear you're awake.' Caitlin said.

'How is he?' Hawke asked.

'Good.' Caitlin smiled. 'The new project is going well. He and Marella are definitely very much a couple. They visited with Angelina a couple of weeks ago.'

Hawke smiled at the mention of Michael's senior aide; Michael had admitted his feelings for Marella just before everything had happened and he was pleased to hear it was going well. It sounded like Angelina, Michael's ten year old daughter, was much more accepting of the relationship than she had been.

'They're taking care of Tet.' Caitlin murmured.

Hawke frowned mentioned at his dog. He wondered how much else he had missed whilst he'd been unconscious. 'I don't remember getting here. I don't remember much after seeing Saint John.'

'You were out cold the whole journey.' Caitlin looked back up at him and stroked a hand over his cropped brown hair, careful to keep away from the still livid scar from the surgery.

Hawke cleared his throat. 'So where is here exactly?' He gestured at the room.

'Switzerland.' Caitlin smiled at his shock. 'The clinic's the best in the world for treating major trauma victims. They've put a lot of time and effort into getting you well.'

'How long?'

'Just under two months.' Her eyes over spilled with tears again.

'Two months.' Hawke repeated the words. He felt the tiredness he'd been holding back descending on him like a tidal wave. He rubbed his free hand over his face.

'You're tired. You should rest.' Caitlin slipped out of their embrace and off the bed. She smoothed the blankets where she'd been sitting as he settled back against the pillows and he caught hold of her hand.

'Caitlin?' He asked as he felt the inextricable pull towards sleep. 'Stay with me.'

'I'll be here.' He heard her say as his eyelids shut firmly and he gave up his hold on consciousness.