I hope that this chapter answers a lot of your questions. This seemed like the appropriate place to put this in.

I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play.

Chapter 7

Stringfellow Hawke had been flying Airwolf for about 20 minutes. During all of that time, he had been reviewing what he had to do on this mission for everything to work. He was finally satisfied that he had everything down that he figured he'd have to face. Now came the difficult part… How to kill the time between now and when he landed at Scottie's Castle?

His mind started to drift—drifting back to ten months ago. Back when he and Cait had gone on the mission to South America to save the diplomat, her husband, and their two young daughters. They'd arrived in the vicinity of the mansion and had landed Airwolf nearby. After securing her, they'd made their way to the mansion. It had seemed strange that no one was guarding the mansion, but when they'd made their way inside, they understood… No one was guarding the house because everyone inside was dead. He and Cait had moved the bodies to Airwolf to transport them home for burial. Moving the two adults had been difficult, but nothing compared to moving the two little girls. They'd only been 3 and 5 years old!

After they'd dropped the bodies off at Knightsbridge, he and Cait had put Airwolf back in her Lair and then retreated to the cabin to try to make sense out of what had happened.

Neither of them felt like eating anything, so they'd just sat on the couch. Finally, Cait couldn't take the silence anymore so she had started talking about what had happened on the mission. Wondering if they'd been earlier, would everyone still be alive? Cait kept trying to make sense as to why the family had been killed, but they couldn't make any sense out of it. She'd started crying and Hawke had held her. Running his hands down her back gently as she cried. When she was all cried out, he'd kept holding her as if he needed something to ground him.

It had gotten late, but when Cait moved to get up, he'd held on. Turning her around, he'd kissed her. That was the start. The kiss had opened up the passion and need for one another that they'd been denying since they'd met. After making love, they'd fallen asleep where they were on the couch. Waking up again in the middle of the night, they'd moved upstairs and reignited their passion—looking to each other for comfort from the horrible scene they'd been a part of earlier in the day.

Hawke had woken up the following morning with Cait in his arms. It had felt right. Lying there in his bed holding onto her. He'd watched her sleep. When she'd finally awoken, they'd made love again. Hawke was ready to tell Cait that he loved her, when they were interrupted by a call from Archangel requesting that they come into Knightsbridge for a debriefing. They'd gone into Knightsbridge and been so deflated when it was over that they'd each gone their separate ways. Pulling back into themselves to try to mask over the pain that they still felt.

It had gone on like that for five months—until Caitlin had left. Now he knew why she had left. She must have gotten pregnant five months before and she'd been afraid to tell him. Afraid that Hawke might suggest that she have an abortion. Hawke remembered a few times when she had spoken to him about children and how he'd said that they were out of the question for him because they could be used against him while he was flying Airwolf.

Why hadn't he told Cait that he loved her and that he always had that day even after they'd been interrupted by Archangel? It had been the perfect opportunity, but he'd let it go. Now he had to set things right because he and Cait had a son, and he did love Cait—had always loved her.

Thinking back to the pictures of Nicky that Dom had shown him back in Van Nuys brought a grin to Hawke's face. It looked like Nicky was going to be just like him—at least as far as looks were concerned. Hawke and Cait would have their hands full if his personality was anything like his had been when he was growing up…

Just then a call came in from Archangel interrupting his thoughts.

Taking a deep breath, Hawke growled out, "Yeah. What do you want?"

Taken aback by the tone, Archangel responded, "Hawke, are you ready for what you're going to face when you get to Scottie's Castle?"

"Yeah…," he paused and took a deep breath. "I'm going to get Nicky back for Caitlin just like I promised her I would," he said as he resolved things in his mind. Hawke's mind was now once again on the task at hand. He quickly shifted the other thoughts into the back of his mind to be dealt with later when this was all over.

"Do you need anything?"

"No."

Archangel was not thrilled to hear Hawke becoming so business-like, but he guessed that he knew what he was doing. "Good luck and we'll see you on the other side."

Hawke turned off the radio because Scottie's Castle had just come into view.