CHAPTER 3

Michael walked in the front door and came upon Hawke sleeping on the sofa. 'Maybe he was more sick than he admitted,' Michael thought grimily, 'and what he had said didn't sound very good, but he had been know to downplay his injuries before, and being able to walk in on him was a very rare event.' Making himself at home, Michael poured himself a glass of wine and went to admire the artwork String had inherited.

String woke up and rolled painfully to his other side, no more running into the line of fine without a good reason, he told himself, ok he had had a good reason but he should've waited. Opening his eyes, he saw Michael. He hastily sat up, immediately regretting doing so. "What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd check up on you after you disappeared from the hospital last night. I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I'll live."

"You sure? Honestly, you don't look very good, and I didn't get any angry glares when I came in."

He got one now. "I said I was fine."

Michael still looked skeptical.

"Look, if you have something to say. Say it; otherwise you can go ahead and leave. You've done your good deed and now you can go tell everyone how bad I look."

"Marella went on a date last night, but swore she'd be on time this morning. On time was five hours ago and she's still not back."

Hawke nodded drearily.

"I think you need some medical attention, and I'll get a hold of the others to look for Marella."

"No medical attention."

"Hawke, go look at yourself, you need it."

"No. I promised Cait I would be fine and I would stay here. I intend to do both of those."

Michael shook his head. "Fine, but you aren't going to be there flying Airwolf. You're not in near enough good condition to fly so don't get any ideas, and please Hawke, take care of yourself."

"Thanks for your concern, but I'll be alright."

Michael climbed back into his waiting FIRM helicopter, and Lauren took off.

Alone again, Hawke let out a moan of pain; he couldn't understand why he wasn't healing as fast as he usually did. If anything, he felt worse. Maybe it was being off all the painkillers at one time, yeah that was it. He trudged off into the kitchen to look for some medicine; there had to be something useful in there somewhere.

\A/

"Marella's gone missing?" Marella knew too many secrets and too much about Airwolf to just go missing, and she had promised she'd be back on time; something was definitely wrong.

"She said she'd be to work before nine, and she never showed up," Michael explained.

"You don't have any clues as to where she might be?" Caitlin asked.

"She had a date last night at La Cachette Restaurant. That's the last thing I heard from her."

"Do you know who she was dating?"

"No."

"Alright. We can go check there, but without something else there isn't much chance of finding her."

\A/

Caitlin dressed up in a shiny green evening gown with strapped gold colored heels. She was just finishing her hair when Saint John returned to the hangar, dressed in a becoming dark suit.

"Ready?"

"Almost," she answered.

They planned to dine at the same restaurant Marella and her date had the previous night, hoping to dig for some clues without being too conspicuous. String wasn't well enough to go, or even babysit for that matter, so Dom volunteered to watch Le and Chance while Caitlin and Saint John went out.

It wasn't long before they were handed two menus. They ordered from the list of exquisite French entrees.

"It will be just a few minutes," the waiter informed them as he picked up the menus.

As soon as he was gone, Caitlin queried, "Where do you suggest we start?"

"Don't worry," Saint John answered, "I have a plan."

\A/

After dinner that night, they both climbed into Saint John's vehicle. Arriving back at the hangar, Saint John offered to fly Caitlin back to the cabin.

"Thanks, but I should be alright."

"I can fly you there and bring the chopper back," he said, "since we flew in together this morning there's still one at the cabin."

"Ok then."

Together they picked up the kids and flew toward the cabin. Darkness had settled over the area long ago, and the only visible light was a single light in the kitchen. "Maybe he already went to bed." She lifted Chance from his seat. "Thanks for the ride," she said as she headed in.

Saint John waited on the dock for Caitlin and Chance to reach the cabin, and then restarted the helicopter, about to take off when he heard a scream just beyond the door.