Meanwhile, Back on Earth . . .

-Cassie-

I got a phone call around 4pm while I was cleaning up my clinic. I'd started my own Wildlife Clinic after I finished vet school. My parents kept theirs too, so between the two of us, we were able to rescue pretty much all the injured wildlife in the area. There was also a Raptor Rehabilitation Center (RRC) in a nearby town, so my Dad's and my centers focused mostly on smaller birds and other injured animals.

Jake was training morph-capable soldiers during the day and I had moved into his house after we got married.

Anyway, I put down the broom I was using to clean the floor and walked over to the phone.

"Cassie?" Someone said on the other end of the line.

"Speaking." I replied, unsure who would be calling.

"It's Chris, from the RRC? We've got a hawk down here, and we can't seem to do anything with him. He's been biting anyone who opens his cage, so we can't feed him or anything."

"Oh dear." I said. "How long has this been going on?"

"Only a couple days, but his cage is getting really dirty and his water is almost gone!" he replied. "He was so passive before – we've had him for about forever and he only has one wing, so we can't let him go. He's been a pet here for so long that I've grown attached to him. I'd feel awful if we had to put him down."

"I'll see what I can do." I said. "I'll try and come by in about 45 minutes, ok?"

"Sure." he replied. "Thanks Cassie." He sounded relieved. I'd worked with Chris before, so he knew I would do anything I could to help an animal. Unfortunately, this meant I might not be home for dinner. I had to call Jake.

I called Jake on his cell phone. "Jake?"

"Cassie! Hey, what's up?" He said in his easy-going voice. He sounded happy to hear from me. Too bad I was going to burst his bubble.

"There's a hawk over at the RRC that's causing problems. I'm going to go over and see if there's something I can do."

"Oh. But that's a half hour drive and it's supposed to snow this afternoon!" He said, no longer sounding so happy.

"My truck has 4-wheel drive. I'll be fine. They really need my help." I patiently explained.

"Can I come with you?" He asked.

"I was going to leave in the next 15 minutes." I answered. "If you can leave work and get here by then, ok." He was being overprotective. It was just snow, for Pete's sake!

(A/N: Does it snow in Northern California? I'm not sure, but it does in this story!).

"I'll be there." He answered. "Love you."

"Love you too." I answered. "Bye."

"Bye."

He showed up in about 14 minutes, gave me a kiss, and we got in my truck. I pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. Flurries were just starting to come down.

Jake gave me an "I told you so" look. I ignored it. I merged onto the highway and the snowflakes started getting bigger. Great. Now I was glad Jake was there. We might be stuck here all night if the snow didn't quit.

We kept going, but it was after 5 when we finally got there. We walked into the center and Chris met us at the door.

"Wow, I'm glad you made it. It's really coming down out there!" he said.

"Yeah. I'm here. Jake came to help too." I said. Chris had met Jake at our wedding. "Where's the hawk you were talking about?"

We walked into another room full of cages. There was a red-tailed hawk with only one wing in a large cage in the corner. I walked over to it.

The name plate said "Jet." "Is Jet the hawk causing the problems?" I asked looking at the beautiful bird. How sad it was that he only had one wing.

Chris followed us and Jake hung back, watching. "Yeah." He said. "I hope you can at least get him out of there so we can change his water and clean his cage."

I looked at the hawk. "OK, buddy, let's see if you like me any better than Chris." I muttered to the hawk. I pulled on a pair of huge leather gloves and started to open the cage.

"Careful." Jake said.

I gave him a look. I'd done this tons of times, so there wasn't much that could happen that I didn't expect. Or so I thought.

The hawk looked up at me when I opened the cage and sort of shuddered. –Cassie?- I heard in thoughtspeak. I lost my grip on the latch to the cage and took an involuntary step backward, nearly running into Jake. I stared at the hawk. "It can't be." I whispered.

-Jake-

Cassie was standing there about 2 feet from the hawk's cage with the latch left undone, just staring at the hawk, like she'd seen a ghost. I wasn't going to just let it get out, but I heard the thoughtspeak too. –Cassie?- it had said. It wasn't possible, was it? Tobias was dead – we'd seen him get shot by the dracon beam.

If he were alive, he would have found one of us, wouldn't he?

I put a hand on Cassie's shoulder. "Are you ok?" I asked. She was still staring at the hawk. I moved around her to relatch the cage, and the bird looked at me. –Jake?- it said. Now I was staring at it! "No way!" I said in the same shocked whisper Cassie had used. It was a red-tailed hawk, I was sure. I'd seen Tobias enough times to know exactly what he looked like, but he looked so different with only one wing!

"T- T- Tobias?" I whispered, vocalizing both Cassie's and my disbelief.

-Yeah, it's me.- He answered. –Boy, am I glad to see you!-

We had to figure out what to do next. I figured the best plan would be to try to take Tobias back to Cassie's clinic so we could let him demorph and he could tell us what he'd been doing for the past 8 years. But how to do it? I glanced out the window. It was still snowing. I didn't think we'd want to drive home tonight anyway.

Cassie looked at Tobias and whispered. "Can I pick you up so they can clean your cage?"

-OK. I'm so tired of being stuck in here!- Tobias answered.

Cassie put the gloves back on, reached into the cage and lifted Tobias out. Chris came up and took the cage. He looked back at Cassie holding Tobias. "Wow." He said. "Thanks!"

I overheard him mention to one of the other employees "I told you she could do it."

I spoke quietly with Cassie and Tobias while Tobias' cage was being cleaned. Cassie said she thought she could convince them to let us take Tobias back with us, if Tobias acted like he was sick. We couldn't do anything that night, so I called a nearby hotel and Cassie and I went there for the night, leaving Tobias behind and promising to be back in the morning. He planned to feign being sick in the morning so they would ask Cassie to come back."

We went into the room and sat down on the bed, Cassie still looked shocked. "Who would have ever thought?" She said.

"I know," I replied. "I wonder how he survived? And why he didn't contact any of us? Especially Rachel!"

"I don't know." Cassie replied. "But we'll find out tomorrow, I'm sure. Let's get some food – I'm starved!" She grinned at me and I put my arm around her and kissed her. "Room service?" I asked, "Or should we order a pizza?"

"Oh, I don't care." She said sighing and leaning into me.

We spent the evening eating pizza, watching movies on TV, and just snuggling. It was very relaxing and nice. I was so glad I'd decided to go with Cassie to the RRC.

The next morning we woke up to a phone call from the RRC. "Cassie?" a voice asked. "Hang on a sec." I replied. It was Chris. Does that guy live at the center? Wow. I nudged Cassie awake and handed her the phone. "Hello?" she said stifling a yawn. "Uh, Yeah ... Give me an hour or two, I haven't gotten up yet ... ok ... bye." She looked over at the clock. It was 8:15.

Cassie handed me the phone and I hung it up. "Tobias . . . I mean Jet . . . is acting weird. Chris wants me to come examine him this morning - that ok?"

"Everything as planned." I replied smiling into her dark brown eyes. She turned over to go back to sleep, but I put my arm around her and leaned close. "We should probably get up, though." I whispered in her ear.

"Just a half hour more?" She begged. She turned to look me in the eyes again and her lips brushed across mine. I started kissing her and we got a little carried away. I don't know how much time passed before we finally got up. By 10, though, we were both showered and at the RRC ready to rescue Tobias.

-Tobias-

So Jake's plan was for me to fake being sick in the morning so they'd have to come back and take me to Cassie's clinic. I had been biting people because they were ticking me off. I was trapped in a little cage! I couldn't fly or move around. It was tiresome. So in the morning, I lay on the bottom of the cage, flapping my wing a little and kicking my legs a little so they'd know I was alive. I hoped I looked sick.

A few hours later, Cassie and Jake showed up with these kinda goofy grins on their faces. Gee, I wonder what they'd been up to? Someone had called Cassie, Dr. Berenson, so I assumed she and Jake must have gotten married at some point. Hopefully they'd be able to convince the RRC employees to let me go with them.

Cassie put the gloves on and picked me up out of the cage and pretended to examine me. Then she put me back and walked into another room to talk to the employees. I couldn't hear her excuse, but obviously it worked because the next thing I knew, my cage was being hoisted into the back of a pick-up truck.

A couple minutes later, the truck stopped and Cassie and Jake came around the back to talk to me. "Do you want to tell us what happened on the way back to the clinic?" Jake asked me.

I morphed human and they let me come into the front of the truck with them. It was surprisingly roomy. I explained everything to Jake and Cassie, including when I heard about Rachel and Marco's wedding on TV and suddenly realized who I was. They sat listening patiently. When I mentioned the part about Rachel and Marco's wedding, they exchanged a glance, like they were hiding something from me. When I asked about it, they just said it was nothing.

So we got back to Cassie's clinic, I demorphed and flew up into the rafters where I'd spent so much time when I was younger. This wasn't the same barn, but it felt the same. Cassie said I could live in her barn as long as I wanted, but I wasn't sure I wanted to stay.

All I really wanted to do was talk to Rachel, though. She was on her honeymoon and basically unreachable, so I'd have to wait until she got back. Who ever heard of taking a space ship on a honeymoon anyway? And Marco? She'd married Marco? I'd had plenty of time to dwell on that, so I could plan out what I was going to say. Congratulations? Maybe. I'm happy for you? Yeah, that was a lie. Who was I kidding?

Maybe I could at least talk to Ax? I hadn't spoken with him in forever. Neither had Jake or Cassie. Over the next few days, Cassie told me what had happened since the end of the war. Rachel and Marco were secret agents for the government and had done all kinds of spy missions.

At least I could fly again. That felt good both to the human me and to the hawk. Since I wasn't crippled anymore, I started hunting again, but I noticed something. It was a lot harder than I remembered. My reflexes weren't very good. I mentioned it to Cassie and she said that I was probably nearing the end of the hawk's life. It had been 11 years since I'd acquired it, and it was probably 5 or 6 at that point in time. That was a shock to me. I'd have to morph human and stay human sometime soon.