NOTE - Apologies for the longer wait life has been more challenging to juggle leaving less creativity time.. but here we are again at last another installment.

REVIEWERS/READERS - THANK YOU! all of you that are reading along I appreciate the support.

I do not own Arrow or Thunderbirds... unfortunately.

CHAPTER 42

Jeff Tracy had a lot to answer for. Felicity did believe him when he'd said that there was no way to repay her for what she had done. For a crazy second she had believed that her argument of its what she signed up for and she'd do it again in a heart beat for them, would have shown that a thanks or repayment wasn't needed. At all. She had accepted that he wanted to take on the father of the bride responsibilities been graceful in accepting. She had even just let it slide what he had done about granting her Tracy rights within the company hierarchy. He managed to find yet another way to go beyond and that was placing her as VP in charge of the Applied Sciences of the joint Tracy Engineering & Palmer Technologies branch at QC. She had her own floor, her own executive assistant, flexible working where no questions asked if she vanished and this was her main role within the family business. Any of her advancements for their organisation could be rolled out through the Applied Sciences division along with many other areas of interest for the population not just International Rescue. Ray was stupidly excited to work with Felicity and he had accepted all the flexibility without question, so long as project deadlines were met he didn't care if 'Felicity was remote working' she and Jeff had a side glance at one another at that.

This happened just days after Jeff arrived in Star City and Felicity jumped in straight away. Things were pretty quiet with Arrow work and John was immensely capable of single manning Thunderbird 5 that it only made logical sense that this be Felicity's role.

Jeff stayed the week before returning to Tracy Island and things just ticked along quietly. Oliver had decided he wanted to go to Thea and Felicity tracked her phone to Corto Maltese but there were no records of Thea Queen there and rather than spend an age waiting on searches she got in touch with Lady Penelope. She had an answer within hours, Mia was her chosen alias. Oliver, Diggle and Roy went chasing off while she held the fort and fully settled into her new job.

On Oliver's return along with Thea, Scott arrived in Star City with Laurel, it was a flyby visit as Felicity was returning to Tracy Island. Oliver was moody about the whole thing but she assured that they could handle it and if they really did need her she could be there in a micro second. On Oliver's week off Felicity had installed a hard light setup above the area between the computer stations. It would allow her to still be there for the team when on Tracy Island. She just didn't want to go into the specifics with Oliver given his projected mood. It was mostly an amicable truce between them at the moment after Sara's death, Felicity guessed It would only last until they found her killer.

John had a few days before his rotation swap and Felicity spent the time on Tracy Island. She had bought some things back from her house in Star City to make her mark on their room, nothing bold just some knick-knacks she had collected over the years.

Gordon worked more with her on the mornings building up her strength and even gentle sparring Felicity didn't always want to be the damsel in distress when she found herself in trouble.

Mid mornings she spent checking in on QC and making sure she didn't fall behind on any paperwork.

The afternoons were interesting, Scott and Virgil were taking it in turns to teach Felicity to operate the small planes, not that any of them minded chauffeur duty but Felicity having the ability to come and go as she needed was only fair to her.

Felicity now she was over the fear of being up so high and all the what if's that could go wrong in a plane was finding the challenge of learning to pilot fun. It was much more difficult than expected a lot of theory and more dials and buttons in the cockpit than has any right to be but then again the Thunderbirds cockpits were even more complex.

She was getting the hang of it though the basics were just that easy it was all the things to do in situations like weather changes, and take off and landings had a lot more involved with them.

Weirdly enough she was understanding the theory and instructions it was just practice and recalling which was more what was happening now. Felicity was grateful that she had the skill of learning.

When she was ready she would have to sit exams both paper and practical and Virgil had taken on the role of giving her test questions and scenarios. But everything was being kept quiet from John as a surprise.

Her evenings she spent up with John, they continued working on coding the security system, it was progressing well, Felicity was amazed at how it responded and behaved and hoped that it could be operational in a few more months. They were both already talking about how a similar version could be rolled out through QC Applied Science for organisations like emergency services to protect from hackers in the future.

PAUSE

Felicity waited outside Thunderbird 3 underground silo, she had watched the red craft return to the Island from the beach. It was the first time she had seen any rocket launch in person and it was amazing to view how the library sectioned and opened up followed by the bright red streak soaring out with the flames and smoke trailing behind. The return was much more subdued, as the red craft flew into view horizontal circling around into position above the library and slowly dropping down. It seemed completely wrong that the craft could manoeuvre in such a way.

Felicity understood now that all of the craft had a lot of sensors build into them along with the different hatches to allow them to be manoeuvred so efficiently and accurately into these areas. It was something Scott had shown her and explained as he was replacing a sensor array in Thunderbird 1 while she helped. He had then taken her into the cockpit and shown the display output as he ran the new array into the system checking it was fully operational.

As the red craft lowered out of sight Felicity walked back up into the Villa and through into the 'Thunderbird area' she had called it, 'lower levels' was just boring. It was a maze of different doors and corridors leading from the main medical areas, storage areas, workshops and the silos for each Thunderbird.

The light above the entrance to 3's silo was on red, which each silo had to indicate that no person should enter as the craft inside is in operation. The light turned off eventually and Felicity entered into the silo. She walked out onto a metal gantry around the outer wall of the silo, it was just over half way up the length of Thunderbird 3 with a bridge out towards the hatch that was currently open. Along the gantry almost opposite the walkway was the chute directly connected to Jeff's office and the emergency way down with the flight suits hung up along side with an array of locker style cupboards.

There was a duffle bag on the floor in the middle of the gangway and a metal box storage box along side it. Felicity heard the maintenance elevator clatter upwards Felicity turned back towards the way she had walked from and off to the wall was a cut out of the floor with railings around and as she watched a quiff of shock blond hair popped up though the hole followed by a tired looking John still in his flight suit.

Felicity smiled excitedly and went to meet John off the platform, he hadn't noticed her but her footsteps were a little louder than the platform noises and it caught his attention. His face turned towards the noise and a huge smile broke across his face at seeing her.

He strode off the platform as it stopped in place and scooped up Felicity into his arms. She was solid and warm and he buried his face into her neck as he firmly squeezed her.

Felicity sprung into John's arms so happy to hold him properly, feel him under her hands and buried her hand into his hair as he tucked into her neck. His suit was soft on her skin and it surprised her again how soft the material was. She relaxed into his sturdy hold of her turned her head towards him and gently peppered kisses on his cheek while she stroked fingers through his hair.

Time didn't really exist as they held onto each other, John turned his face towards Felicity capturing her lips, he was gentle and slow savouring the warmth and feel of her lips, something he had missed and was lacking when she was a projection on Thunderbird 5.

Felicity pulled back when she needed to catch her breath and she rested their forehead together, "Missed you." She whispered.

John breathed a soft chuckle that was an understatement, he was so lucky to have such a beautiful and intelligent woman but also one who would wait for him in this crazy lifestyle they had. "And I love you so much." He replied, leaning in for another kiss. A month was not going to be long enough he thought.

"As much as I want to hold you tight and not let you go for quite a while Thunderbird 3's Silo is not the place." John said breaking away from Felicity. "Let's get up into the Villa, I want a hot shower, fresh food and you."

Felicity giggled at John, he had a very valid point and as much as she didn't want to really let him go it was only fair to at least let him settle in before she monopolised him at least for the remainder of the day. Maybe tomorrow too but after that she'd have to share John with everyone else. She slid her arms slowly back down from being wrapped around John's shoulders and into his hair and settled for holding his hand. "I guess your right." She heavy sighed in mock upset, causing John to laugh and kiss her once more before her guided her over to his duffel bag and picked it up.

"Everything is sorted here anyway so onwards." He added. Felicity didn't want to let go of John so she went to lift the box and hook it under her arm. "I got it." John interrupted Felicity seeing what she was about to do. He swung the duffel bag up on his shoulder and stooped down lifting the box. As he righted himself he jutted his arm out a little allowing Felicity somewhere to still hold on now his hands were occupied. She obliged.

They headed towards the door Felicity came through, she skipped ahead to open the door and John slipped through followed by Felicity. "Did you have a good re-entry?" Felicity asked and laughed a little to herself at the craziness of it.

John looked down at Felicity as she laughed and laughed himself, this was so surreal for him, there wasn't usually anyone waiting for his return unless a prank was afoot. Not only did he have someone greeting him but asking the most normal of questions about his trip with the absurdity that that trip was actually returning to earth.

"Well there was no traffic, and best of all someone waiting for me." He replied with a smile and winked when Felicity glanced over to him.

They turned into the main corridor and John went towards another set of doors Felicity hadn't been past yet. "One stop off in here." John said and Felicity got the door for him.

He put the stuff on a counter top just inside the room. Felicity glanced about as she let the door close, she was confused as it looked like a utility room, there were a set of washer machines, and tumble dryers along the one wall. A pile of blue suits on the far end of the counter that John had placed his items on. A doorway through into what appeared a tiled room with a racking system on the wall full of product items. Along the remaining wall was a line of cupboards similar in design as to what Felicity had seen in the Silo's with the Thunderbird uniforms hanging from.

"There's a laundry room?" Felicity blurted looking at John confused.

John turned to glance at Felicity and smirked, "No uniforms in the Villa, just a precaution for many reasons but the main one is visitors. Most of the time we just change down here and wash up upstairs but on the extra dirty ones we can wash down here. No one can carelessly wander down here but if they went snooping up top we'd have a big problem."

John answered as he started unzipping his suit. "That makes sense, like you have to think of everything and this is honestly not something that exactly springs to mind as being an important detail that could like give away the biggest secret." Felicity babbled as she realised what John was doing. She felt her face heat and started to look back around the room but her eyes kept wandering back to John sneaking peaks.

"Well it is the little things that catch you out." John agreed. He glanced over at Felicity as he shrugged out of his suit and saw her looking over at the lockers and a red flush to her face. He felt the heat rise to his cheeks as he realised he had just gone about his usual return routine as if he were by himself. Too late to do anything about it and also knowing that they were now officially sharing a room it didn't matter but Felicity being so modest and embarrassed had made him think more.

"Can you grab me a set from the locker." He asked hoping it would distract Felicity while he finished getting out of his suit. He was at least in underwear, his old suit he would have had more undergarments on but the new suit had been upgraded with a flexible sensor array fitted into the material allowing his health to be monitored at all times.

Felicity practically leapt forward to the lockers, she hesitated up closer as to which one she should be heading towards, almost about to ask she realised that the furthest away from the door had a J on it, the next had a 1, and so on until 5 with the last two displaying an F and then T. Felicity quickly realised it was initials and thunderbird numbers so she went for 5 and opened the door. It had shelving inside with a different clothing on each one. She grabbed a tee and joggers, turning to take them over.

Felicity will deny that she ever ogled John as she walked over. She looked over every inch, eyes lingering on the visible scars scattered about and especially the one on his torso, the one that almost took him away from her. Her shyness almost completely subsided being reminded of that time she handed the clothes over to John in exchange for his suit he was now holding crumpled up and she moved towards the array of washers and dryers the one machine already had some suits inside it was about half way full. "Do I just put in with these others or…" Felicity asked.

"Put in the empty one I have a duffel full to add to it." John answered as he pulled his joggers up then moved onto his tee.

Felicity did as told and added, "Want me to put the cleaners in?" She asked hoping to be useful, looking around the room for where they might be stored.

"Sure, over here." John agreed, he moved along the counter and under where the folded uniforms were opened the door to reveal several containers of powders and liquids. He gave instructions to what to use in what quantities and where in the machine tray. They bought industrial products to deal with the muck and grime of the worse calls and then a different set of products for the less grimy, which he explained to Felicity. As he did that he grabbed the duffel bag moving it to in front of the machine Felicity had picked and started to unload it's contents into the machine, the bag was pretty much almost empty once the last suit went in just underwear left which would go upstairs for washing.

He had a suit a week roughly to work with seeing as the environment was automatically controlled to be ambient and scrubbed clean continuously there was no dirt or getting dirty so not a lot of need for changing too regularly especially as storage is minimal and no washer facilities. The sensor array was made up of the sensor probes, fibre-optic cabling all set in medical grade silicon which allowed for it to be soft, flexible and washable.

He closed the door and set the machine up to go. He slung the bag over his shoulder and held his hand out for Felicity to take. They left the room, John stopped by his locker to grab a set of slip on loafers from the bottom to put on before finally leaving. He'd pop back later to do the rest and drop the box into the workshop.

They had about an hour before lunch time so they went to John's room, their room, Felicity reminded herself again. John had led her in front of him to the door and she went in first and he followed with their hands still joined.

John looked about eager to spot any changes in the room, he knew Felicity's place was nice and well kept but there hadn't been a lot of things out on display it was minimalistic of sorts. It seemed that that was just her as not much in the room had changed, it was as he'd left it except there was now a second laundry hamper by his own, Felicity's laptop on the desk with a pile of papers and some new additions to his shelves with his trophies, projects and pictures.

John moved further into the room releasing Felicity's hand and dropped the duffel with the laundry hampers before heading over to the shelves to take a closer look.

Felicity nervous as she watched John move toward the shelves where she had stashed her knick-knacks, she shut the door to the room and started to fidget with her hands awaiting his reaction.

On the shelves Felicity now had a few photos, from her school and college graduation, John was surprised that he hardly recognised Felicity in what he guessed was her school graduation ones, she had a very dark gothic look going on compared to her college ones that more resembled the Felicity of now that John knew with her blonde hair and bright clothing. There were several mugs that had silly quotes on that Felicity loved and a soft toy bear. The mugs John found to be very funny, one quoted, 'I can explain it to you. But I cannot understand it for you.' Another had, 'Tech support checklist. Before you bother me: is it plugged in? Is it turned on? Are you sure? Seriously go check.' Another that caught his attention had, 'WiFi went down for five minutes, so I had to talk to my family. They seem like nice people.'

"I hope it's okay to put them up amongst your things. I like your things I didn't want to move any so I just filled in the gaps a little." Felicity explained her logic, worried how quiet John was being while checking out the shelves.

John turned back to Felicity a smile on his face amused at the little bits of Felicity amongst his own, very much like how their lives had become, she had fit into the only gap in his life that he hadn't even known was their waiting to be filled. He moved back towards her and she seemed to follow to meet him. He cupped her face making sure she was paying absolute attention. "You are perfect, if these are important to you we can sort a shelf out just for them but honestly they fit into the gaps as perfectly as you have fit into my life."

Felicity looked into John's eyes his words made her heart flutter and she leaned into his touch more, he was so sincere and she loved that honesty. "Like two jigsaw pieces." She added completely agreeing with what John meant. John leant down and kissed her, slowly and lovingly.

When they broke apart neither one really wanted to part but lunch time was rolling round and if they skipped there would be no end of comments let alone John really wanted a proper meal. "I'm going to grab that shower, and at some point you're going to tell me all about gothic Felicity." John said. Felicity rolled her eyes trust John to notice, but she decided that she should reveal that part of her, she had already eluded to it when they were at the conference.

She explained all about the hacking she did, why she did it and who else had been involved, while John showered she had sat on the counter in the bathroom. When finished John was dressed and he had already joined Felicity on the sofa, "Sounds like it was a huge defining point for you." It went unsaid that John was relieved that Felicity hadn't taken the fall for her now ex's poor choices.

"Yeah and something I don't want to relive too often it's in the past and staying there." Felicity said. John linked their hands together and Felicity dropped her head onto his shoulder.

"Well I've got three weeks rostered off if that suits you I have a few ideas of what we can do for better memories and to give you more." John switched the topic back on to brighter things.

Felicity shot up in surprise at what he said, "Are you sure? Three weeks is so long and especially to be short a hand. No… You can't… Can you? We shouldn't, I brought work back with me well some to do so I don't fall behind and I set up a hard-light array in the basement just incase I'm needed…. I'm babbling right?" Felicity went on the shock and worry causing her brain to shut down and mouth to just keep working every thought just came out. Seeing John's face go neutral and staring intensely at her she slowed and realised what she was doing. John nodded with a smile and she felt the heat creep up her face in embarrassment.

"Are you going to let me finish?" He asked with a chuckle. Felicity just nodded not wanting to start talking and go off again. "Dad already agreed to it, everyone else is fine with it too. If you don't want that long we don't have to it's just there if we want it." John explained.

"You are sneaky and sweet, of course I want to spend as much time with you as possible, if it fits in with your mysterious ideas I want to visit central city, Barry is out of his coma and he didn't call me he called Oliver so I need to go and see if he really is alright, plus there are those rumours of the streak and I want to test a theory." She smirked, she had her suspicions who the streak was. "And I have some things around my old house to take care of. Team Arrow should be fine though for maybe a week, longer if Oliver doesn't upturn any big gangs." Felicity rambled a bit.

"I'm sure a stop off in Central City can be arranged but be prepared for Alan's onslaught of questioning. As for the house sure are you moving things to the penthouse or here? We can just go with the flow where Arrow is concerned." John reassured. "Come on its almost lunch time I am so ready for real food." Felicity laughed at John's desperation she couldn't imagine not having easy access to normal food, though she knew what John had supplied on 5 was better than anywhere else.

PAUSE

The week had passed so quickly Felicity felt like she had whiplash. Time spent with John had been great, his first night back he had taken Felicity out to the observatory. They star gazed, chatted and just enjoyed the feel of being a couple spending time together without the intrusion of their responsibilities weighing on them. Felicity hadn't wanted to leave so they spent the night under the stars until the sun rose almost exactly as the first night Felicity had had on Tracy Island.

Felicity did her swimming routine while the boys took their run on the mornings, she insisted John join them as usual and that she was perfectly capable of swimming by herself. John did join her in the gym for her session with Gordon on the first morning but he drove Felicity crazy hovering about watching so she banned him from any other session… Ever. Gordon found it extremely hilarious and continually poked fun at Felicity until she tackled him to the mat and pinned him down on the last session that week. Felicity found that more satisfying than when she had hacked his bank account.

Thunderbird 2 was scheduled for its remote controller fitting and while Virgil, Brains and Fermat worked on the craft John was tasked with the controller units. While John was distracted Scott continued flying lessons with Felicity for a few more days until John's workload was complete. The lessons were a little shorter than they had been so that Felicity could easily explain her time away with QC meetings. She would then join John for the later half of the afternoons and assist or continue working on the security firewall coding project.

The last full day they had on Tracy Island had been spent testing Thunderbird 2 followed by a family barbeque on the evening in celebration of a successful Thunderbird 5 deployment into service Thunderbird 2 upgrade and of course the belated engagement of John and Felicity.

The flight over to central city was eventful. Felicity played on her old fears and convinced John she'd stay in the main area watching TV. In truth she wanted to surprise him so thirty minutes into the flight Felicity let herself into the cockpit much to the shock of John.

She opened the door and slipped into the cockpit behind John and the co-pilot seat, John had his headset on and it must have blocked out the door noise. Felicity slipped between the seats and plonked herself into the co-pilot seat slipping on the headset she said, "Hey John."

John was speechless. He resembled a rabbit caught in headlights, eyes wide and frozen looking at Felicity. She giggled, "Scott and Virgil are going to be so upset to have missed your reaction." She said.

John seemed to snap out of it and what Felicity had said processed. "What… When… How?" He tried to work out which question to prioritise first.

Felicity buckled herself in and explained, "Well flying isn't so bad, I went out with Tin-Tin and I sat up front. After that rickety plane to get Oliver, and riding shot gun in Thunderbird 1 this should be easy. I told you Scott's been teaching me the theory while working on Thunderbird 1, what I didn't say was that he has also taken me out flying." She waited for John to realise what she'd said.

"Wait, so you've been sneaking about with Scott?!" John accused.

"When you put it like that it's so not what it sounds like, I swear. Virgil has been helping too he has been giving scenarios and testing what I've learnt and kind of invigilating when I've been flying." Felicity felt mortified that john would see it as her sneaking behind his back, she knew that technically they had but it was for a nice surprise, which is not how this was going.

"VIRGIL too!" John raised his voice a little at hearing Virgil was involved as well.

Felicity panicked this was not the way she had planned for this surprise to go and she was terrified that John was not understanding. "John I swear I just wanted to surprise you with being able to ride up front and keep you company at first, then when Scott was talking about flight theory it was interesting and challenging, I thought being able to fly myself would take the responsibility off of everyone else chauffeuring me back and forth. I can always…" Felicity talked so fast trying to make John understand what had truly been going on and that it was nothing like what John was believing.

A snigger caught Felicity's attention halting her mid-sentence, she glared in the direction it had come from to see John trying to hold back from laughing, he was half looking over at Felicity as well as still paying attention to the plane.

"JOHN TRACY!" She screeched realising he must have been tricking her and she had played right into it. A full joyous laugh erupted from John at her outburst he couldn't hold back any longer she was just too adorable. She grumbled, "You can stop liking people you know." She folded her arms across her chest and sat back in the chair salty. "Try and do a really nice special surprise and this is what I get."

John laughed even harder with Felicity's grumbles, she was adorable, and he loved her dearly, he never doubted her whether she was spending time with one of his brothers or a person whom he did not know he trusted Felicity implicitly, but a little teasing wouldn't hurt. "You did make it a little to easy to get you." He replied.

"Shhh you." She continued to sulk. "Shouldn't you be paying more attention to flying than teasing me."

"Don't worry your in safe hands, we have a few hours of cruising over the ocean before I have anything more demanding." John deflected Felicity's concerns. He paused for a few minutes waiting out Felicity but she remained silent. "So are you going to show me what my brother's have been teaching you?" He tried to suck up to Felicity feeling a little bad that he had upset her this much, to be getting the silent treatment.

Felicity smirked, if John could trick her she could do the same back, she wasn't really mad at him, she might have been slightly annoyed that her well thought-out surprise hadn't gone the way she wanted and that he had managed to actually trick her but his acting skills were apparently to convincing. "Well I guess if you really want to know." She teased sounding put out.

"Okay, okay truce. I'm sorry for spoiling your surprise." John broke he now felt worse about what he had done.

Felicity genuinely smiled, "So you should but two can play your game." She teased back, sounding like her usual happy self.

"I uh… What… You know what it's a truce we are moving on." He conceded before things went in circles. "Exactly how many hours have you logged flying?" He asked curious.

Felicity slipped her phone from her pocket and accessed her logging app. "I have ten hours of flight time logged as under instruction with Scott's Pilot In Command authorisation. I also have fifteen hours logged for theory with Virgil's authorisation." She answered.

"I have done take off and landing on Tracy Island, radio transmissions, basic instruments and visual flying. Virgil gave me theory on what to do in the event of turbulence, engine failure over sea and land so far. Scott talked me through the basics of plane physics for flight. I am also working through the Air Pilots Manuals and have the Private Pilots Licence practice exams bundle for when I'm done."

"Scott and Virgil both explained that they both along with Fermat and you all have your trainer qualification as part of other commitments." Felicity surmised her knowledge, what she didn't say aloud was that to operate is their secrecy but still conform to all set flight regulations they carried out internal assessments and submitted regular reports to the FAA which had been accepted under the International Rescue name without requiring specific names. It had also been explained that within the Federal Aviation Authority the highest ranking inspector was also an agent to provide assurances for both organisations of adherence and secrecy.

It has also been explained to her that the cockpit had a microphone and was recording as soon as the battery isolation switch is engaged. This was all part of the safety features linked to the flight recordings as required by the FAA regulations. Felicity had made the connections quite quickly that Tracy family planes were not an International Rescue safe space.

"I see you have all been busy and that's quite a chunk to have covered already when did you start going out?" John asked.

"I took the yoke on the last return trip once we were over the ocean and Scott instructed me for an hour before taking back over. Then every afternoon we went out for an hour, even after you'd returned home." Felicity answered proud of her sneaking skills.

"I'm so proud of your progress. This isn't going to be a regular occurrence, sneaking around, it's worthy of Gordon maybe I need to have a word or two with him about encouraging you." John joked.

"I won't make a habit of it but it is fun to surprise you, I don't like the Uno reverse though." Felicity replied.

John chuckled, "I am sorry and not sorry. Would you like to get some more flight time logged?" John offered, he was excited to see how far she'd come, it was already amazing seeing her in the cockpit with him. Arriving in Central City was too many hours away John just wanted to envelope Felicity in his arms and show her exactly how proud he was of her and how much he loves her.

"Sure." Felicity ignored John's non-apology, she was excited to show him her new developing skills set. It felt so good to have someone that took notice in her and her achievements, that lived in the present and wasn't afraid to care.

She slid her phone back into her pocket and settled back into the seat more comfortably. She glanced about the control panel noting the cruising altitude, speed and other details that she would need to keep constant. Then she settled on the yoke, taking it gently she then adjusted her seat position to be closer to the yoke and then nodded. "Ready." She stated.

John acknowledged. "Switching to co-pilot controls." He flicked a switch on the control panel and then released his hold on the yoke in front of himself. "You have full control Felicity." He confirmed.

Felicity acknowledged and she focussed on the plane and watching between the control panel and outside.

John pulled out the plane records and noted down the time and that Felicity was training pilot.

The hour passed pretty quickly and there was not much talking between them as John allowed Felicity to concentrate. The plane radio came to life with a transmission which made Felicity jump a little as she had not been expecting it. "This is ARTCC you are entering East Coast air space. Confirm flight details. Over."

"This is Juliet Tango 5 receiving East Coast ARTCC. Flight number 070623, departing Tracy Island, arrival Central City. Current air speed 450 knots, cruising altitude 40,000ft. Over." John replied without missing a beat. He gestured for Felicity to continue as she was.

There was a long pause while the information was processed before a reply was received. "Received and acknowledge. Flight plan is granted, weather is clear skies no amendments required. Over."

John made a note in the plane log and responded. "Received and understood. Over and out." He finished the transmission. They were cleared for the next stage of the flight.

"You want to carry on?" John asked, they would be flying over land shortly. If Felicity didn't feel comfortable yet he'd take over again.

"I can do some more it's not exactly been complicated yet. Scott and Virgil had me doing a lot of maneuvers to understand how it affects the plane. The one session was just take off and touch downs on repeat. That was exhausting." Felicity answered.

"Okay it'll take about 45 minutes to cross over into the next Air Route Traffic Control centre, I'll take over as we will be dropping altitude and moving onto the Terminal Radar Approach Control. Unless you feel ready to take on a mainland airport?" John explained what was coming up.

"Yeah no you can have control back, besides I have yet to see your piloting prowess." She teased.

"Oh I see how it is." John said some ideas floating about his head to really show Felicity his piloting skills. She will more the likely murder him afterwards but worth it, he thought.

They discussed the theory of radio usage and the procedures for the different control centres that operate and when each one would be needed. John even covered the situation for may-day and pan-pan. Felicity had never come across pan-pan and found it funny at first, it was in fact for an emergency non-urgent call compared to may-day of emergency distress. John had said that too many people didn't know the difference and a lot of holiday boaters use may-day for breakdowns.

After half an hour John took back control of the plane in ready for approaching Central City and Felicity completed the digital log she kept and would update her paper copy in her bag when they landed, John could sign both then as well. John passed her over the plane logs and he instructed her to complete her finish flight time and to note the transmissions on the radio when they happen, on a solo flight they would surmise the transmission logs at the end. It would be good practice for Felicity.

The landing was uneventful, it was the quite period for the private landing area and they came straight down and taxied to the holding area. John took Felicity through the end flight shutdown and paperwork including completing her flight log, before they disembarked the plane together.

NOTE - I really hope Felicity learning to fly isn't too out of character, I felt her progress would lead to this point being with the Tracy family, she wouldn't give up on a challenge. I appreciate any feedback as those reviews feed the muse :)