Chapter 2

Two hours after her dinner with Doc, Caitlin couldn't believe she was flying back to the west coast with him. She didn't know why it surprised her that he flew himself out to Florida. What really surprised her is that he came for her. He wanted her help. "Why? How can I help him?" she thought. The longer the trip went on, the more nervous she became. "I have so many memories there. So many things left unresolved."

Doc sensed her uneasiness. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Look, I'm sorry for all the secrecy. But, I promise it'll all make sense soon enough."

"Oh, it's not that. I know you wouldn't have come for me if it wasn't important." Caitlin tried to smile. "It's just that….I didn't leave on the best of terms."

Not sure on how to reply, Doc decided to choose his words carefully. 'Yeah, I heard that you and Hawke had a falling out of some sort."

Caitlin shifted sideways in her seat and grabbed a blanket that Doc had given her when they boarded. Doc was afraid he had overstepped his boundaries because she took a few moments before responding.

"Well", she said. "I think falling out is kind of putting it mildly. I'd say it was more like World War Three between the two of us."

"Why? What happened?" he asked

"I'm not really sure. I mean, things were going great. I was content. I loved working at Santini Air. I could've stayed for years. But, little by little I got the impression that Hawke didn't' want me there anymore. He became distant. He ignored me most of the time and then he just stopped talking to me altogether. When I tried to confront him, it got worse."

Doc glanced over at her. He could see the pain was still there. He could tell she was holding back tears. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said.

Caitlin took a deep breath. "Well, one night after a big blow out, Dom and I had a heart to heart talk. We both agreed it would best for me to leave. So, I packed up my things and moved back to Texas. I never even said goodbye. That was the last that I saw them."

"You were an important part of that team Caitlin," Doc insisted. "Don't ever forget that. You helped a lot of people. They couldn't have done half the things they did without you."

"I appreciate the vote of confidence," she replied. "It wasn't until I heard about what had happened to them that I finally got my butt in gear and moved on with my life. I guess you can say it fueled my decision to move to Florida and get a fresh start. I didn't really belong in Texas anymore and I realized I never really belonged in California either."

"Well, we're not exactly going to California just yet," he responded. "We have a stopover in Utah."

"Utah? Why, Utah?"

The way she said it made Doc laugh. "What so wrong with Utah?" he asked.

She pulled the blanket up tighter and shifted in her seat again. "Nothing, I just wasn't expecting that."

Doc smiled. "We are going to be staying with a friend of mine tonight. I'll give you more details of our mission tomorrow."

"Mission?" Caitlin thought. "That's the first time he used the word mission. What in the world is going on?"

"Tomorrow, you get to see an old friend," he continued. "A lady that you probably never thought you'd see again."

And there it was. The one question Caitlin had but for some reason was too afraid to ask. She was going to get a chance to fly in Airwolf again.