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

Chapter 9

Caitlin O'Shaunnessy set down the plate of food in front of Dominic Santini and took her seat. Both of them just stared at the food instead of eating it.

Getting up from the table, Cait started pacing the room. "Why hasn't he called?" Cait asked out of desperation. "It's been two days since he left. I would have thought that we'd of heard from him by now!"

Dom stopped pushing his food around and got up to stop Cait from pacing. "You know that he'll call as soon as he can. He knows how important Nicky is to you."

Cait hung her head and replied, "Yes, I guess that he does. I just wish that he'd call."

Dom took hold of her arm and steered her back into her chair. "You need to sit down and eat something so that when String does call, you'll be able to do something about it. Right?"

Cait looked up at Dom and smiled. "Yeah, I know that you're right."

"Okay, so let's dig into the food."

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Stringfellow Hawke slowly regained consciousness—or at least he thought that he had. Wherever he was, it was as black as night. He couldn't see a thing. The first thing he did was to try to assess his situation. He couldn't find any wounds on his right side, just a large welt. 'I wonder what caused that?' Not finding any other injuries, he slowly stood up and moved forward until he ran into a wall. Running his hands along the wall, he went around the edge of a very small room.

'Well, I don't know where I am, what day it is, or even what time it is. At least I'm not dead,' he assumed. 'This isn't getting me anywhere! I need to find out where Nicky is and get him out.'

Hawke found what he thought was the door and started pounding on it. After pounding for 15 minutes, he gave up and sat down on the floor.

After a while, he found that he couldn't tell when he was awake or when he was asleep because of the darkness. Time just stood still.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Hawke was jarred awake when the door opened and let some light into his cell. He didn't know how long he had been asleep, but he was up in an instant and went over to the door to see who had opened it.

When he got out in the hallway, he put his hand up in front of his eyes because he couldn't see anything because of the bright light.

Next, he heard someone's voice saying, "Follow me."

Hawke blinked a few times and started to follow the man down the hallway. Finally, he was shown into Horn's office to face Horn.

"Sit down."

Hawke sat down in the chair facing Horn waiting to hear what would happen next.

"Are you ready to start piloting Airwolf wherever I want you to?" Horn asked.

Knowing that he had no other choice, Hawke said, "Yes."

"Good. I want you to pilot Airwolf down to Columbia to deliver some money to some business associates of mine and bring back a package," Horn paused as what he said sank in with Hawke. "Any problems?"

Hawke knew what his answer had to be, "No."

Horn looked at Hawke and said, "You're dismissed."

Hawke knew that now was the time to bring Nicky into the discussion so that he could see if he was really here. As he stood up, he said, "I want to see Nicky before I fly Airwolf anywhere. Once I see him, I'll fly your mission for you."

Horn turned around to face him as he commented, "How do I know that you'll fly the mission after you see him?"

Hawke thought for a moment, "You don't."

The two men stared at one another—each one daring the other to blink first.

Finally, Horn said, "I guess it won't hurt for you to see him." He motioned for one of his guards to go out and get Nicky.

A few minutes later, the guard returned ushering a young woman in with a toddler in her arms. The young woman went over to where Horn was standing. Horn looked at the toddler and then told the woman to leave the room.

"All right, you've seen him—so now go and fly my mission."

Hawke turned around to face Horn again and bit out, "That wasn't him. I'm not going to fly your mission until I know for certain that Nicky is here. Produce him for me now!"

Horn came over to where Hawke was standing and taunted him by saying, "How do you know that isn't your son since you've never met him?"

"I know," Hawke growled out.

Horn again signaled for the guard to go out and bring in Nicky. This time when the young woman came in, she had Nicky in her arms.

Hawke started to move towards him, but stopped immediately when the guards raised their guns and pointed them at Nicky.

From behind him, Horn said, "I would stop unless you want him shot."

Hawke turned back to face Horn and said, "I don't want anything to happen to him."

"That's good because then he's a good bargaining tool for me to have," he laughed. "Take him out."

The young woman left with Nicky leaving Hawke behind with Horn and a few guards. "Have I made myself clear about what will happen to him if you do anything wrong?"

"Perfectly," Hawke paused then decided to push on. "I'll fly any missions for you as long as I get to see him for a half an hour each day and during that time we can call his mother so she can see for herself that he's okay."

"Why would I agree to that," Horn asked skeptically.

"Because if you do that, then you won't have any problems from me. I just want to spend some time with my son," Hawke answered truthfully.

"We'll see," he said. Then turning to the guards, he yelled, "Take him out to Airwolf and get it ready for the mission. Two of you are to go with him to be sure that he does it right."

With that, Horn dismissed Hawke.