Chapter 3.
Rescue

The C-17 travelled on through the night, changing flight crews during what would be a long 17 hour flight. The SEALS spent the flight sleeping, double checking there equipment and going over the rescue plans again. A couple of them had tried to engage Hawke in conversation, but when he simply gave one word answers or glared at them they had given up. They had taken quite an interest in Caitlin, she was the only women present on the flight. The two youngest members of the SEAL team had both quite openly flirted with her, both of them asking her out on a date.

Caitlin had felt String watching her as she had spoken to them. As time had gone on and she had settled down to sleep, knowing she needed to be at her best for the upcoming mission. She knew how important this mission was to both String and Dom. String got down beside her making a show of settling down to sleep himself. She felt his breath on her face just before he spoke.

"What did they want," he asked her quietely, so as not to let the others over hear.

She rolled herself over to her other side so she could look him in the eye. "They were asking me out on a date."

"You accept." He asked, watching her face.

"No." she replied. She watched as he nodded his head a small glint in his eye that showed he was pleased with the answer. She couldn't help but add. "Not that it's any of your business."

He didn't say anything, just glanced down her body to her flat stomach. He made his point anyway. He was making it his business, because she was carrying his baby. He looked back up to her face, just staring into her eyes.

"Don't do this to me String, especially not here, not now." She whispered with a shaky voice.

String nodded his head, and didn't say anything more. He rolled over, getting comfortable and settled down to sleep. Caitlin stared at his back for a few minutes, sighed and rolled over again so her back was to him. After a few minutes, she new sleep wasn't going to come anytime soon. Moving as quietly as she could so as not to disturb String, she got up and made her way over to Dom who was checking on Airwolf.

Dom gave Caitlin one of his gapped tooth grins as she approached him. "Can't you sleep Sweetheart." He asked in concern.

"Just got a lot on my mind Dom." She said as she ran her hand along the sleek black and white craft.

"Why don't you tell me about it. You no what they say about a problem shared." He said with a smile.

Cait just shook her head, not saying anything. Dom decided he'd just plow ahead anyway. He loved this girl as if she was his own daughter, and hated to see her hurting like this. That boy of his had a lot to answer to, and by good he'd make sure that he owned up to his resposibilites towards Cait. He knew Cait was in love with String, and he half suspected String was in love with her too. That's what made this whole mess so frustrating.

"Sweetheart, you know I'm real happy about the baby, don't you?" She just nodded but said nothing. "I'm looking forward to bouncing the little one on my knee, and spoiling it rotten. I'm not mad at you. I know what you said about raising the baby separately, I only want to see you both happy. I've seen you both with kids over the past few years, and your both gonna make the best parents." He told her.

"Thanks Dom." she said with a small smile." So you gonna be the sort of grampa that gets the kids high on candy before he brings them home, huh."

Dom chuckled, "I most certainly am. I'm glad your gonna let me be grampa to the kid as well." He was real touched that Cait thought of him that way, after all he wasn't related to either one of them.

"Ooh Dom, your Strings Dad. He might not carry your name, but he's more than just an old friend and you no it. Why do you think it was so hard for us both to tell you about the baby. I know you secretly hoped that we would get together, and I do love String, but you can't force him to do something he isn't comfortable with." she paused for breath, looking into Dom's eyes. "He's had too much hurt in his life Dom, he's not the sort to be content with settling down to the life with a white picket fence."

"I no what your saying Sweeteart, but I still believe he should own up to his resposibilities." He held up his hand when she opened her mouth to interupt. "Let me finish. I no you said it was mutual, and I no that boy of mine wouldn't have forced or coerced you. However he still slept with you, and you ended up pregnant because of it. Now call me old fashioned, but in my day, if you got a girl pregnant, you damned well better get a ring on her finger real quick."

Cait looked down at the steel plate beneath her boots, suddenly finding the checker plate pattern interesting. She felt Dom's finger under her chin as he forced her to face him. Sniffing back the tears that threatened to fall. He smiled a sad smile at her, and continued what he was saying. "I honestly believe that the both of you could make a marriage work. You have so many of the same interests, you like the same places, you understand each other, your also friends. Not many couples have that much in common with there partners. Think about what I've said."

"Ok." she said quietly.

"Good, now tell me what String said to you just now to get your tail in a spin."

"He was just asking me what those two Navy guys wanted." When he raised an eyebrow in question she continued on. "They both asked me out on a date, String wanted to know if I'd accepted. I told him it wasn't any of his business and he made a point of looking at my stomach." She stopped speaking as she heard Dom chuckling.

"I'm willing to bet he was jealous, Sweetheart. String cares for you a great deal and, I'd say he was making his feelings pretty clear. Your carrying his baby Cait, and god knows that boy will go out of his way to protect his family. Now I want you to go and get some sleep, you and that granbaby of mine are gonna need it." He said with a smile.

Cait rolled her eyes at him, checkily replying, "yes dad." Dom watched though as she returned over to where string was, and with her back towards his, she settled herself beside him. Just as she closed her eyes, she heard a very sofly spoken voice. "Night Caitlin."

She smiled, "Night String."

...

The Plane finally touched down on the runway of an abandoned airfield. It taxied towards a group of old run-down hangers at the far end before coming to a stop. As the cargo ramp lowered a flurry of activity began from the load masters as they began off loading supplies and personel. Airwolf was the first thing to be off loaded, and Dom and Cait began the task of making her flight ready. With a helping hand from Dominic, Cait had once again climbed onto the wing, and was busy working on the rotors as Dom passed tools upto her.

The SEALS had began checking there own equipment and began loading everything into the black hawke choppers they would use. The two choppers would take them part way towards the camp that they were about to liberate. The two younger ones had attempted to get Cait's attention as she worked on the massive black helicopter. When it was obvious to them that she was to busy to notice them, they had leaned back against the side of their chopper to watch her work. She was stretched out across the top of the air craft, her feet still firmly planted on the wing. They were admiring the way her flight suit clung to the curve of her body, and didn't notice String approaching them.

"Let me put this to you in a friendly manner. Keep clear, she's off limits." He growled, walking of. " Cait, how we looking." He asked in a completely different tone to which he'd spoke to them.

"All set with the rotors, we just need to run a system check." She said passing him the tools she'd been using. As she started to climb down from the wing he reached up to grab her by the waist lowering her to the ground. "Thanks." She told him with a warm smile.

String watched as Dom climbed into the back of Airwolf, seating himself at the engineers console as he began his pre-flight checklist. Caitlin was pulling herself into the countermeasures seat so she could run the system check and start her pre-flight checks. He watched her a moment longer, briefly wondering how he was going to keep her safe and possibly out of any future Airwolf missions. With a sigh and a shake of his head he pushed the thoughts aside and began walking around Airwolf as he completed his own pre-flight check. Once he was happy that everything was as it should be he slipped into the pilots seat and began going through his own checklist.

The SEAL team had already left the airstrip. They would be flying the 30 miles across the border before travelling the remaining couple of miles on foot. Airwolf would take off in the next half hour for the rendezvous with them. The Lady would be providing air support while the SEALS gained entry into the camp and liberated the 6 men inside. String longed to be on the ground team going into the camp, his brother was down there, this was the closest he'd been for the past 14 years.

Hawke flicked the velcro back from his wrist checking the time on his watch, Flicking the velcro back into place he pulled his helmet on. Cait and Dom followed suit, as he began flicking switches to get the Lady airborne. Dom and Cait comfirmed all systems were green as he waited for the rotors to reach the correct speed rotation for lift off. He grabbed the cyllic and working his feet on the peddles, lifted of the ground. He turned the Lady in the direction they were to travel in, pushing her speed forward as he heard Caits voice come through his headset.

"Coordinates are locked in." she informed.

"Give me Turbos Dom." He ordered.

"Turbos," Dom informed pushing the lever to give String the added speed. They felt the pull to their bodies as Airwolf shot forward into the late evening sky. Within minutes they were at there location.

"Dom start the thermal scans, lets see exactly what were dealing with. Cait get me Bear on the radio." He said referring to the nickname of the SEAL captain who would be leading the ground mission. He heard the mans voice come clearly threw the radio.

"Hawke, all my guys are in place. Best as we can tell the perimeter is only lightly gaurded. We can see two guard towers, 1 man in each and another 4 men patrolling each side of the fence." came the mans whispered voice. "No signs of the prisoners."

"We're picking up the thermal scans now. Confirm 2 in the towers and 4 patrolling the fence, also have 2 building's near the centre of the camp. I'd suspect the prisoners are in the east building, 6 heat signatures, less movement, and more closely grouped. The other building is north of that one, showing 14 heat signatures, more movement, a little more spaced out also. We haven't picked up any heavy artillery on radar, they seem isolated to hand held weapons."

"Copy that wolf. Will dispatch guards silently. Be ready on my order to provide air support." He said.

...

"Thumper, Ducky take out the gaurd towers, Scooter, Hershey, Snake, Bambi take out the gaurds." He said over the radio. He knew his men would be silently approaching the gaurds patrolling the perimeter fence, as Thumper and Ducky prepared to take out the two gaurd towers with a cross bow.

He heard his team, confirming they had taken out the gaurds, he gave the order to head to the building to the east end of the camp. He carefully made his way towards the building, joining up with his men.

They were able to get the door open fairly easy. Once opened they noticed the 6 men at the rear of the room, all wear lay on the floor and looked to be asleep. As Scooter and Hershey entered the room to wake the sleeping men, one of the men looked up. He stiffened as if in fear.

"Sir, we're here to get you guys out. My names Lieutenant Matt Henson, I'm a U.S Navy SEAL." Hershey said. The man blinked, and nodded.

"Major Saint John Hawke, 1st Air Cav." He acknowledged, before gently nudging his fellow prisoners awake. "Guys were going home."

...

Dom was watching the thermal scans from the back of airwolf. "They've located the prisoners. Looks like there getting ready to head back to the choppers." Dom said. "I sure hope they have our boy with them. Oooh String were picking up a chopper." He said immidiately keying the computer. "It's a Huey, loaded to bear."

"What's it's heading." String asked, pulling his eyes away from the night vision images that Airwolf was relaying through her on-board computers. He instantly began searching the sky for the armed chopper.

" Dead ahead, should have visiual any time." Dom replied already reaching for the weapons system.

"Give me full combat mode, Dom." He keyed the radio. "Bear we got company headead our way, get clear of the camp."

"Roger that, Hawke. Were just making our way back down the trail, just gonna take a while longer. Some of these guys are in pretty bad shape, bastards have worked them over real bad." He said as he helped one of the men down the trail."Make sure you send them to hell."

He heard the growl from the helicopter as it came in lower, flying over there heads as it headed towards the camp. The prisoners looked up at the sky watching as the chopper banked left towards the camp in a high arc. There mouths opened in amazement as it opened fire on the camp, destroying the building that housed the camp gaurds. It then turned again heading towards the approaching Huey.

"Give me a Maverick." String demanded.

"Maverick." comfirmed Dom busily flicking switches from his seat in the back.

"Chopper dead ahead," informed Cait. "He's got a missile of." She said watching the readouts in case String would need impact countdowns.

"Sunburst." He requested.

"Sunburst," confirmed Dom. "Didn't take, it's a sniffer."

String brought the chopper round in a wide arc, igniting the turbos and taking Airwolf into a 360% turn, and cutting the turbos. The missile shot past them for a moment, allowing String to get behind it. "Hellfire, Dom"

"Hellfire." Dom confirmed. Watching as there missile flew into the ground, exploding and the heat sauce drawing the enemy missile in to the explosion.

String pressed for turbo's, immediately going after the enemy craft. "Maverick." He said, lowering his targeting visor, and pressing the trigger. He watched in some satisfaction as the helicopter exploded, sending burning fragment of metal raining down on the enemy camp. "Anything else?"

"No, were clear." Dom said, not seeing anything else on the scopes.

"That was easy," Caitlin said. "What" she asked, when String turned to look at her.

"Your turning into an adreneline junky. " He pointed out.

"Humpth. Takes one to no one." She replied loftily.

"Guess there's no chance our kid will want a nice quiet life then." Hawke said with a grin, already turning his eyes back towards the sky.

Cait chuckled but said nothing. Dom was belly laugthing in the back of the chopper. "The kid will be flying before it's out of diapers, with you too as parents."

"Yeah, bet you that Grandpa Dom's gonna be itching to teach em to fly." String added, glancing at Cait who had turned to look at him with a broad smile.

"You no kid, that's the nicest thing you ever called me." Dom said with a grin on his face. A beep from Airwolf alerted them to a problem. "We got another 2 choppers closing in on our location. Both Hueys, loaded to bear."

"Give me full combat mode." String said, instantly switching his mind and body back into combat mode.

...

The SEALS had arrived back at the Black Hawke, loading the rescued men into it before setting of back to the airfield. They arrived back, landing the choppers near the air force C-17 before offloading the men into the care of two flight doctors. The Doctors instantly began assessing the men and ushered them into the safety of the one of the hangers to begin more detailed examinations. After a quick but extensive exam the men were escorted to shower facilities so they could wash the years of grime from there bodies. As each man emerged from the showers, they were given clean BDU's to put on and then fully treated by the Doctors.

All the men were under nourished and extremely malnutrioned, most showing signs of some sort of infection. They were all covered in a variety of bruises, varying in age and colouration. Each man was given a large dose of antibiotics and placed on a drip to rehydrate and start to re-nourish there bodies. Once they had all been attended to, the SEAL captain had entered the room and began asking each man for his rank and name, and year they had been MIA from. The information would be forwarded onto the Pentagon. Although they had information relating to each prisoner they had to make sure it was confirmed before notifications went out to the families. After everyone had been seen and spoken to they escorted everyone to the waiting C-17, the SEALS and Airforce personel noticed that Airwolf had not yet returned.

The Airforce load masters had already loaded all the SEAL teams equipment and were just waiting for the Doctors to finish up, then they could get all the medical equipment loaded. A growl came from the air, making everyone look up to find the source of the noise. The sleek black and white helicopter came into view, looking more like a snarling animal with her weapons systems on display.

Airwolfs tail section had obviously substained some damage as there were scorch marks on the tail rotor, the weapons systems was still showing on her under belly. She hovered near the back of the plane, lowering her undercarriage as her pilot gently touched down on the tarmac. The resued men stared in awe at the sleek black craft infront of them.

The crew powered her down and removed there helmets, and that was when Saint John Hawke caught the first proper glance of the pilot. He waited for the helicopters rotors to slow and then moved towards it.

String had scanned the crowd, looking for his brother as soon as he had powered the Lady down. He spotted him, moving towards Airwolf. He was painfully thin, the BDU's he was wearing hanging from his shoulders. String popped the door, quickly making his way around the nose of the Lady, and towards his brother.

They embraced, "Sinj, I thought I'd lost you." he whispered, fighting back the tears.

"Hey there little brother." He said, hoarsely. He pulled back from the embrace slightly, wanting to get a good luck at his baby brother. He was a little older than he remembered but everything else about him was the same. He saw movement behind String and glanced over to see two more people exit the helicopter. One was a really pretty red headed woman, but the person that caught his attention the most was an old man he recognised well. "Uncle Dom."

"Yeah kid, it's me. You got a hug for your old man?" Dom had a broad grin on his face, he just stood still with open arms waiting for Sinjin to step into them.

Saint John walked towards Dom as quickly as he could, embracing the man who'd been his father since he was 14 years old. He felt String's presence behind him, he began to break away from Dom's embrace, only to be pulled back along with String into a family hug. Saint John was overwhelmed with emotions. He had spent so long in captivity, hoping for the chance of freedom, to once again be with his family. He new he'd been gone for years, but he had no idea how long. "How long?"

"14 years." String answered. "I'm so sorry I couldn't get you out sooner."

"String, lets not do this now," he pleaded.

String just nodded his head. Looking up he spotted Caitlin watching them a short distance away, tears glistening in her eyes as she watched them. He beckoned her over. "Sinj, I'd like you to meet a good friend of Dom's and mine. Saint John Hawke, Caitlin O'Shannasey."

"Welcome home Saint John, It's a real pleasure to finaly meet you. These two haven't stopped yapping about you since I moved out to California." She said leaning forward and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks. It's real nice to meet you too." Sinjin was a bit moved with how open and honest she appeared, and he wondered how close a friend she was to his brother.

Anything else they would have said was interrupted by the arrival of one of the load masters. "We can load the bird whenever you ready, Sir."

"Thanks, were gonna need a little while to stabiliser her systems for flight and we have a problem with her weapons systems we need to check out first." String told him.

"No problem, do you need any help from our inflight mechanic." He offered.

"No thanks," he replied. "We've got it covered."

Sinjin watched as Caitlin and Dom walked back over to the chopper and began removing panels along the hull. The woman looked as if she had plenty of experience with whatever she was doing. Dom was cursing in Italian as he pulled the panels loose, pulling at the blackened wires he found inside. Sinjin grinned remembering it was something Dom had started doing when they were kids so they wouldn't pick up on any swear words. He turned to watch Caitlin as she sighed, lifting her head from the panel she was checking out.

"String, can you try to retract the ADF while I play around with the wires. Most of the system is burn't out, I'm gonna have to rewire around some of the auxillary systems."

"Sure," He said, walking towards the craft and motioning for Sinjin to join him. "I guess I should introduce you to Airwolf, or as we tend to call her, The Lady."

"You've named your helicopter," he asked in disbelief.

"The Lady isn't no ordinary helicopter Kid." Dom called from his panel.

"Airwolf is a Mach 1 plus, aerial assault, attack helicopter." String told him as he made his way to the rear of the craft.

"The rotors wouldn't handle that." Sinjin insisted. Surely tecnowledgy hadn't changed that much, not to mention aerodynamics.

"We can disengage the rotors and go to Mach almost instantaneous. Mach 1.5 is pretty much the norm for her. She has a radar suppression system, making her totally invisiable to radar. The wing mounts carry both chain guns and cannons. We have a selection of missiles at our disposal, Hellfires, Mavericks, Sparrow, copper heads and bull pups. She's also designed to carry 2 nuclear tipped Shrike missiles, but I've never wanted that type of fire power on her." String explained.

Most of what String had said, completely baffled him, he had a lot of catching up to do. He watched as String climbed into the back of the helicopter and flicked a few switches. The craft was like nothing he'd ever seen in his life. Banks of computers and electronic equipment were everywhere. "So who does what in this bird, I mean I no your the pilot. What about Dom and Caitlin, is one of them the mechanic or something."

String chuckled, "Airwolf has a 3 man crew. Flight commanders seat, Counter-measures seat and inflight systems specialist... engineering" String added at SinJins blank look. "We're all pretty versatile in what seat we take."

Cait stook her head in the doorway, "Only your brother doesn't let Dom and me play in the pilot seat to often. Think he has withdrawl symptons, either that or he doesn't trust us not to crash this baby." She teased. "ADF's are not retracting, I've tried everything, I'm gonna have to strip the whole system and I don't think the Airforce guys are gonna want to wait that long."

"We'll have to strip the armourment of her." He finished. "Get everything secured for flight, and I'll start stripping her. Were gonna have to turn her away from the plane while we work though."

"Yeah, think I'll go round up a bit of muscle this time." She ducked back out of the door and made her way towards the waiting personel. String moved around the seat and climbed out of the Lady.