Greetings from Café Café on the promenade. Okay, not really, but it is a good place to start this story off…

Chapter One - 17th June, 2003:

She stared out of the window, another person lost in her own mind and memories. The coffee placed in front of her had become cold half an hour ago, but none of the waiters had made any attempts to remove her from the restaurant. Whenever they tried, she always came back exactly half an hour later, ordered another coffee, and sat there, letting it grow cold.

"Hurry, the building's going to explode!"

Moving her hand from the coffee cup handle, she idly traced a scar across her left arm, half-healed and slightly raised.

Like her, the scar was numb.

"You were lucky, a few more inches to the right and you would be dead by now."

There was no sensation whatsoever on the scar, the only item revealing its presence was the unmarred, slightly tanned and whole skin on opposite sides. It wasn't the only scar she had, nor was the scar caused by someone new. She had two – no, the arm scar made three – scars from him, yet she had only managed to pay him back completely for one.

"I thought Ma-Team Steel was trying to track down Psycho."

She glanced slightly to the right, barely able to see the window out of the corner of her eyes, and vaguely noted that the sun was starting to set, sending lines of orange and gold across the sky. Grabbing her purse – more of a small backpack than a handbag – she dashed out of the restaurant in a hurry, causing both the customers and the waiters to look up in surprise as the doors slammed shut.

"I need to get back there, I'm going to be taking a couple of weeks off work."

"First time I've seen her rush out of here like that," one of the waiters muttered as he picked up the cold coffee and the tip she'd left behind. "Normally she stays for as long as she can."

ooooooooooooooo

She briefly shivered as the air-conditioned air his her bare arms, and she absent-mindedly rubbed them, trying to affect her circulation and warm her up, however slightly. She'd arrived at this very place five days, possibly a week ago, and yet the people who were waiting for delayed flights seemed to still be waiting, still curled up underneath the same jackets, using the same sweaters as pillows.

"Why?"

Children were still screaming at their parents, wanting their candy/GameBoys/attention, and their parents ignoring them for the most part, which just caused them to scream even louder. The woman sighed, pressing a hand to one of her temples, wishing that she hadn't left her aspirin back at the place she was supposed to call home.

"Weren't you the one who ran from him, giving him no other options but to try and forget you."

Finding a relatively quiet place to wait, she looked up at the arrivals board, seeing planes incoming from Sydney, Toronto, Zurich, Cape Town…but not from the one place she was looking for.

"Del Oro Bay? That spot ain't no good for nobody but adrenaline junkies, no place for a woman like you."

Finding her way over to yet another coffee place, she ordered a small cup and positioned herself so that she could attempt to drink it while keeping an eye on the arrivals board. She managed about three sips before giving up and abandoning the cup in the middle of the table.

"Maybe I'm not the kind of woman you think I am."

Coffee had never been her drug of choice, preferring instead to drink water. She never touched beer, never touched wine, never even touched coffee…except when trying to combat the inevitable. The last time she'd touched alcohol there had been a very nasty accident, the details of which are better left to the imagination.

"You need to calm down on missions, the last thing you'd want would be to die, right?"

She started at the sound of the intercom chiming, announcing the latest flight to have arrived before calming back down again. The flight was from Tel Aviv, nowhere near the place she was looking for.

"'Calm down'? You really don't know me if you think saying that will achieve anything."

"Flight BA284G from Orly Airport, Del Oro, is now disembarking at gate 17. If you are meeting anyone, please proceed to the arrivals gate…"

That was her cue. Grabbing her bag and leaving her unfinished coffee yet again, she wandered over to the arrivals gate, knowing full well that it would take an hour or so for the passengers to get off the plane, find their luggage and make it all the way to the arrivals gate. Good thing she had the foresight to bring a book with her, although she knew full well that she'd spend the next hour starting at the same page.

"He's not going to feel the same way after all this time, you know that?"

A few stragglers were still milling around the arrivals gate, families and friends talking to each other after what seemed to them like an eternity apart, but in reality was more like a couple of weeks.

"Nothing's ever definite, nothing's ever set in stone."

She looked up from her book almost exactly an hour later, having heard the noise of hundreds of footsteps approaching. Putting her book away, of which she was still reading page five, she tried to look casual as she scanned the civilians for a familiar figure, succeeding a few minutes later.

Fighting down the urge to rush over to him and explain breathlessly that she was coming back for good, she instead settled down for walking towards him, making their paths converge. Falling into step behind him lightly, she smiled at the fact that he hadn't even noticed her. Sure, she'd allowed her hair to grow out, but surely that hadn't changed her appearance too much, had it?

Taking a deep breath of air, she tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned around almost instantly, surprise registering on his face when he saw who it was.

"Hello, Mr. Steel."

"Rachel…"