CHAPTER 5

"Should be fixed now," String announced, replacing the toolbox in the back.

"Should be?" Saint John questioned. "One emergency landing was enough for me today."

"Just some nuts and bolts that had worked themselves free, as far as I can tell."

"Great," Saint John replied, realizing he had gotten what he deserved. In a hurry to find Le and Nikita, he had been anxious to skip the pre-flight check – something simple that probably would have saved them the last hour's worth of events and crawling around the helicopter trying to find the problem and do a proper pre-flight check.

Ironically, he could have saved himself a lot of stress if he had just agreed to get back to flying like String had suggested so many times before. Thankfully, he remembered when it counted, but despite his trepidation, he realized String was right. If he was going to continue hanging around and working at Santini Air, he did need to know what he was doing, for all their sakes.

They had been back in the air less than ten minutes when Dom's voice came over the radio "You boys there?"

"Yeah, Dom, we're here," String answered, continuing his sweep over the area.

"Well why the heck aren't you here? You said you were going to be late, not taking the day off. You know it's almost three?"

"Sorry, Dom."

"Sorry Dom? I want a better explanation than that."

"Le and Nikita have been missing since this morning. We waited a while thinking they went for a hike or something, but they didn't take a radio, and we didn't want to leave without hearing from them."

"Oh. Should I call Lexa and head over there?"

"It might not be a bad idea. I'd like to have them back before dark and that's not so far away anymore."

"Alright, I'll be over as soon as I can, and let me know if you find anything."

\A/

The Santini Air helicopter flew overhead again, but this time Le didn't even try to get their attention. He had tried several times before and it hadn't worked. Now it was beginning to drizzle, and they were almost back to the cabin anyway.

Stumbling over a tree root in the path, Le inadvertently woke Nikita again.

"It's wet," she said, stating the obvious. Last time he stopped, Le had pulled up the hood on her jacket, but it only worked so well.

"Yeah, but we're almost back."

"I know, I can see it," she answered, more lucidly than any of their previous conversations. "I can't believe you carried me that whole way."

Le didn't reply. In a way, he was surprised he had managed it. He just knew he didn't want to leave her alone for hours while he went for help. With his concerns she might have a concussion, he was made even more sure of that choice.

At last, he reached the steps of the cabin, leaning on the stair rail heavily to keep his balance with Niki on his back. Soon they were inside and he took their wet jackets to be hung up and made some hot tea and sandwiches.

Both of them greedily gobbled the late lunch down before realizing no one else appeared to be home.

"Do you think they went up to the hangar without us?" Nikita asked, "because I think I was supposed to go home today."

"Maybe," Le answered, but he was pretty sure they hadn't. He knew he was supposed to take the handheld radio whenever he was going to be gone more than an hour, but since Nikita had packed the bag, he never thought about it until it was needed. More than likely, he was going to be in a lot of trouble and the others had been looking for them. Remembering the helicopter he had seen several times earlier, he guessed they had been looking for quite a while.

"Let me see if I can reach them on the radio."

Almost instantly he received an answer. Saint John confirmed the message and said they were on the way back to the cabin.

Within ten minutes Saint John and String were back at the cabin with Dom and Lexa no far behind.

"What do you think you were doing? You can't just run off all day without letting anyone know you're leaving. We were all worried."

"And what did you do to yourself?" Lexa asked, referring to the half-covered injury String had overlooked as he moved into protective parenting mode.

Realizing the oversight, String pulled back the blanket that partially covered Nikita's injured leg. "What did happen?"

"I fell," Nikita answered succinctly.

"Care to share any other details?" Saint John queried, joining the conversation.

"I fell off a rock," Nikita answered.

"And how big was this rock?"

"I don't know, pretty big. I probably fell about twenty feet."

"And I see you planned very well for this little excursion," Lexa rebutted sarcastically, "you didn't even take a first aid kit or radio. What's it going to take for you to realize things don't always go like they're supposed to? You have to plan for that."

"Oh, like you do?" Nikita shot back. "You can't even let your wrist heal before you're on to the next thing. I've seen the way you come home all shot up and broken then act like nothing happened. How is this any different? I'm fine now, isn't that what matters?"

"It's part of the job."

"And what kind of job do you expect I'll one day have? What else have you taught me is normal?"

A brief frustrated glance beside her gave away this wasn't exactly the argument Lexa wanted to be having in front of everyone at the moment, but here it was nonetheless.

"What is it you want me to do? Take you to the doctor to check your leg, pack your lunch and take you to school tomorrow? To tell you it's okay, that everything's alright and I'll be home by dinner every night like a good 'normal' mom?"

"No."

"No what?"

"That's not what I want. I know you aren't a 'normal' mom, you aren't even my mom. I don't expect you to act like someone you're not. I just want to have some fun too. Hanging out with Le has been the first time I've gotten to hang out with someone close to my age without being afraid that next week we'd be somewhere else with other people. I don't want you to chance – I want the exact opposite – I want everything to stay the same."