CHAPTER 8

LADIES AND REPAIRS.

String heard the tell tale sound of the shower coming on in the bathroom, and turned back to the stove to start on breakfast. He had a smile on his face as he remembered waking up with Caitlin in his arms, and couldn't help the feeling of how right it felt. After a very leisurely early morning round of love making Caitlin had snuggled into his side and drifted back of to sleep with a content smile. He'd finally slid from the bed carefully so as not to wake her, and after getting the fire started in the bedroom to ward of the early morning chill he had slipped into the bathroom to shower and dress.

Le had been eager to stop over at the home of one of his old school friends. String had been more than happy to let him have a sleep over. It had given Cait and himself a chance to have a nice quiet evening alone at the cabin. String was starting to realise how hard it was going to be juggling his nephew and Caitlin, they had both agreed that they would keep there relationship from Le for a while longer. They both wanted to make sure things were going in the right direction and wouldn't effect Le, god knows he'd had plenty of upheaval in his life already.

He looked up as he heard Cait coming down the stairs. He grinned as he took in her appearance, she had pulled on the shirt he had been wearing the previous day. She had turned the sleeves up a little, but the tails of the shirt brushed at her naked thighs. "Morning Caitlin, I think you'll find that's my shirt your wearing."

"I thought I'd borrow it for a spell, course if you wanna come and reclaim it, I won't put up a fight." She said with a grin, slipping onto the stool infront of him. He placed a plate of toast and scrambled eggs in front of her along with a mug of tea.

He leaned over the bar, and after a quick glance down the open neck of the red shirt he gave her a kiss on the lips. "Might let you keep it for a while, it would be too distracting trying to eat breakfast without it on."

Cait giggled, and tucked into the breakfast he'd placed in front of her. She'd spent plenty of time up at the cabin over the last couple of years, and couldn't help but feel at home here. They always came up here after a mission, it was an unspoken rule with them. Michael was always waiting to debrief them at the cabin. So it had become something of a ritual, String would always grumble about Michael making himself at home, drinking his wine. Then after dinner the Michael and Marella would leave, and the 3 of them would settle down for the night. Caitlin always took the floor, allowing Dom the use of the couch to sleep on, while String would head up to the loft to sleep in his own bed. Tet would trot up the stairs after him, but by morning would be fast asleep curled up beside her with his head resting on her hip.

Cait couldn't help but wonder how things would change now that String and herself were dateing, would he expect her to sleep in the loft with him. She wasn't comfortable being up there while Dom was sleeping downstairs, it would be like sneaking around in your parents home, and now there was Le to think about aswell. Guess I'll have to see how things turn out, once String does those alterations to the cabin.

He'd informed her last night during dinner, that he'd had plans drawn up to add another 4 bedrooms and a bathroom to the cabin. He'd explained that Le needed his own room, and he wanted Sinjin to feel that he was welcome to stay at the cabin as much as he wanted. Although the cabin had been left to String by their grandfather for when he turned 18, they had both spent there childhood at the cabin. Dom had brought the 2 of them up here as often as he could when they were younger, knowing the 2 of them loved spending time in the outdoors. It had always been their safe haven, a place they could both feel nearer to their parents and String didn't want his brother to feel like it wasn't his home anymore now that they had grown up. The third room would be for Dom, when he slept over. String had pointed out Dom really shouldn't be sleeping on the couch with his back. The sleeping loft would be extended and a wall put in. There would be a small bedroom attached to it that he was planning on them turning into a nursery. String had pointed out that it would give them more privacy and they'd have more room once the baby was here.

Cait remembered his response when she'd asked him, 'You asking me to move in with ya, String.'

He shook his head, and replied with 'Not yet, but I hope you say yes when I do eventually ask. '

She'd smiled back at him, told him, 'Better make sure there's a large closet in them plans.' and let the subject drop, happy he was looking at a future with her and the baby.

They finished there breakfast in comfortable silence. When they had both finished she stood and started to clear away the pots, only for him to stop her. "I'll do that, you go get dressed. I want to head out to the Lair, make a start on some of the repairs to the Lady."

"Okay," she said, moving to slip past him. She giggled as he slipped his arms around her, pulling her in for a toe curling kiss. His hands slid down her back coming to rest on her bottom, pulling her body more flush to his. Cait groaned into his mouth at the contact. God she loved this side of him.

String pulled back from the kiss, resting his head on hers, as he tried to get control of his breathing. "You really need to get dressed, before I change my mind about heading out to the Lair."

"Yeah... I'll just go..." she said indicating to the stairs as she pulled away from his embrace and headed towards his bedroom to dress.

...

"Hey kid, I thought you might of wanted to take her to RedStar get Michael's people to do the work." Dom said as he drove the jeep through the barren landscape towards the Lair. All of them were huddled into warm jackets, to ward of the early morning chill. Cait was sat in the front passenger seat, where String had settled her, before climbing into the back of the jeep as they'd left the hanger.

"No, I'm not ready to trust the FIRM with her just yet. I'd rather we fixed her ourselves, that way we know she's not been tampered with." String said in reply.

"You think Mr Clean's gonna go back on his word!" Dom questioned.

"No, I trust Michael. He's not going to go back on his word about Airwolf. I'm more concerned with members of the committee trying the same thing as Zeus. We could quite easily of lost you Dom, if Cait hadn't shouted you back to take that call." String shuddered, remembering all too clearly the sounds of the explosion. If he closed his eyes, he knew he would be able to see Dom's body being flung across the concrete, the flames and the smoke. It was etched in his mind, he'd almost lost the man who'd been his father for the past 24 years. Caitlin's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Dom, pull over," she said, then ordered when he didn't. "Now."

Dom stopped the jeep and Caitlin jumped out, quickly heading towards some bushes just away from the track they were driving on.

"Hey, what's up Sweetheart," Dom called after her retreating back. "You seen something."

String chuckled as he climbed out of the back of the jeep, grabbing a bottle of water. "More like morning sickness Dom." He said, heading towards Caitlin, who was leaning forward. He arrived at the spot beside her, rubbing her back as she vomited. When she was finished, she straightened and he passed her the bottle of water. She smiled her thanks at him, and he dropped a kiss on her forehead before returning to the jeep to let Dom know all was well.

"Cait, Ok." Asked Dom as String returned to the jeep.

"She's fine Dom, like I said morning sickness. I thought we'd skipped that part today." He said climbing back into the jeep, waiting for Caitlin to return.

"Ooh...so it's just the bambina," Dom said, turning round to look at String, who nodded at him. "I remember when Lyla was pregnant with Sally Ann, boy was she sick. I sure hope Cait ain't gonna suffer like that."

String didn't answer, he just looked across at Caitlin as she made her way back to the jeep. She had a bit more colour in her cheeks than a few minutes ago, but she still looked a little more pale than usual.

"Hey Sweetheart, you Ok, now." Dom asked in concern as she climbed back into the front passenger seat.

"Yeah Dom, I'm fine." She said giving him a smile as she reached into her pocket pulling out a packet gum.

Dom smiled at her and after giving her a pat on the knee, he started the jeep and continued there journey.

...

Dom pulled the jeep into the Lair, switching of the engine. He sighed, a grin on his face, as he looked at the sleek black and white craft before him. "Doesn't she just take your breath away?"

"She sure does." Said String as he climbed from the jeep, and turned back to look at Cait as he opened the passenger door for her.

Dom chuckled as he saw where String was looking, and the blush that spread across Cait's face at his words. 'Mamma mia,' he thought to himself, it sure looks like things are going to be ok. "Guess we better make a start on The Lady, she isn't going to fix herself, are you baby." Dom said, walking towards her and patting her lovingly on her nose.

String just shook his head at Dom's antics, grinning as he called out to him. "She's just a machine Dom."

"Don't you listen to him baby," He said soothingly as he opened the door, a hiss escaping in response. "See, you've hurt her feelings."

"It's just the cabin pressure, Dom." String said with a chuckle as he walked to the back of the jeep and started removing the box of tools and parts they'd brought with them. Cait made to help him, and he waved her off. "I've got it."

Dom was already inside Airwolf, unscrewing panels to get to the circuits beneath. He began removing the screws that held the wires in place, carefully pulling out the small components and setting them aside, to test later. He noticed a couple of loose wires, deeper inside the panel he was working on, stretching as much as he could to get to them. He swore in frustration as the screw holding the wire in place was in too tight a spot for his hand to reach. His hands were too big to get to it, meaning he'd need to ask Caitlin to help. "Cait, can you give me a hand." he shouted out to her.

"Sure, Dom." She shouted back, a moment later her face popped into the open door. "What do you need?"

"There's a couple of loose wires at the back of the Turbine panel, I can't get my hand in there. You think you could tighten them for me sweetheart." He explained.

"Sure," She squeezed into the space beneath the engineering console, took the screwdriver from him, and took a look at the wires Dom had mentioned, before she leaned in to tighten them. "That should do it." She said slipping back out from under the panel.

"Thank's sweetheart." He said as she climbed back out of Airwolf and returned to where she was working on the rotar syncrinisation system.

String was busy, working on the underside of Airwolf to fix her faulty weapons system. Although Caitlin had managed to get the ADF pods to retract during the flight, they couldn't risk trying to fix anything else inflight. They had stripped all her weapons from her, but given that there was a posibility that she might have had a stray round left in her chain guns, the risk would have been to great.

He'd removed some of the panels, to get a better look at the problem, only to find there wasn't anything wrong with the main part of the system, it was an internal malfunction. He sighed, looked like this was going to take a lot more time than he'd originaly thought.

...

Dom pulled himself out from under the engineering console in the back of Airwolf, groaning as the muscles in his back complained. He looked at his watch, noting they'd been at this for the past 4 hours. He climbed out of The Lady, stretching to ease his aching muscles. Looking around he spotted the rotors laid out on the cold rock floor of the Lair, Caitlin was stood on the wing wrench in hand as she tightened the bolts.

Sensing she was being watched, Cait looked up, smiling as she caught sight of Dom. "Hey Dom, you get everything done inside." She said, as she climbed down from the wing. Dom supporting her arm to steady her as she did so.

"Yeah, her circuits are as good as new." He chuckled, "course a lot of them are. How you getting on?"

"The rotor power system was completly out of of sync, I've had to realign it. I just need to refit the rotors, gonna check them over first though." She said, making her way across the cave where the rotors lay.

Dom just nodded his head, deep in thought, something was niggling at the back of his mind. It came to him, Cait had removed the rotors. "You didn't take them of your self did you?" He demanded, worried about her lifting the heavy parts on her own in her condition.

"No Dom, I didn't. String lifted them down for me." She answered knowing exactly where his thoughts had taken him.

"Damn right I did," String added hearing the conversation from his position beneath Airwolf. "If I hadn't have spotted her removing the bolts, she would of done it herself though."

Cait tipped her head, not meeting there gaze. String had been mad at her, he hadn't shouted, just growled, 'Caitlin' and she'd realised, with the baby she couldn't do half the stuff she used to. He'd helped her to remove the rotors, setting them down on the ground as she'd mumbled 'Sorry, I just didn't think. It's something I'd normally just do on my own.' He'd just nodded his head, kissed her and left her to carry on her repairs.

Cait figured they all needed to discuss the baby, but she'd leave it for now. She had to make String and Dom realise that they couldn't wrap her in cotton wool, she would be continuing with ALL her work comitments. No way was she giving up flying, the studio work or Airwolf till a Doctor told her she had too. She had fought to long to get to where she was.

Dom's voice broke her out of her thought's. "How about we take a break. My back is telling me it's had enough and I sure could do with some food."

"Nothing new there, then." String said, grinning.

"Why you..." Dom said, threatening String with a back hander.

String just chuckled and headed back to the jeep to pull out a cooler Dom had stashed in the back before leaving the Hanger. Cait had retrieved the bedroll's from the camping supplies that they kept at the Lair. Laying them out on the cold dusty floor, the trio made there selves comfy and began tucking into the sandwiches, and bottled water. They spent the next hour eating and discussing what repairs they still needed to carry out on Airwolf.

...

"Well I think that should do it," Dom exclaimed as he refitted the last panel on Airwolfs hull. He pulled a rag from his back pocket and wiped the greasy finger smudges of her sleek sides.

"I hope so. We'll take her up tomorrow, check we got everything." He said looking at his watch, noticing it was 1600 hours. "I need to pick Lee up from the Hendersons."

"We can get him on the way back to the hanger." Dom said as they made there way back to the jeep.

String reset the perimeter alarm as they left the Lair. "I was going to swing by the hospital this evening, see how Sinjin's doing. You up for a visit Dom?" He asked as he climbed into the back of the jeep.

"Sure, Kid. I'm gonna get me a proper meal and a shower first though, I'll meet you there. " Dom replied.

"Ok, Dom." He said, then leand forward slightly, placing a hand on Cait's shoulder. "How about joining me and Le for dinner." He asked.

"I thought we agreed to keep our relationship from Le." She said as she turned to look at him.

"Yes we did, and I still want us to play it that way for a little while. Le isn't going to question you joining us for Dinner, Cait. It's something we've done loads of times before." He said, grinning at her he added. "I promise I'll be the perfect gentleman."

Dom grunted, "You better had be, Your dad and me raised both you boys to know how to treat a lady."

Cait chuckled at the look on Strings face, as he scowled at the back of Dom's head. He turned his attention back to Cait, smiling at her, almost pleading with his eyes. "Ok, I'll follow you in my car, that way you won't have to worry about dropping me home afterwards."

"Great." String said, quickly dropping a kiss on her lips, before settling back into the back seat of the jeep for the ride back into Van Nuys.