Flameout – Chapter 5
The accident investigation board had conducted various interviews with the civilians in the nearby neighborhood of the crash, the commanders at the base that put this mission into place, and Ace.
The lead crash investigator asked Ace, "What was the purpose of this mission?"
"A new flight mission had been added to the competition that we attend every two years. Our Wing Commander had selected Copper and myself to represent our base in this competition. He felt that we would be able to score the best time in completing the mission. He had worked for weeks with our operations folks to find the best place for us to practice this mission. Copper and I didn't know about the mission until the day we performed it."
"Is that standard protocol for them not to tell you about the mission until it is time to perform the mission?" The investigator asked, already knowing the answer but he had to ask the question to get Ace's answer on record.
Ace knew that the investigator knew the answer to the question already. Having been a part of an investigation team before he knew that it was a standard question that had to be asked so he answered the question, "Yes, it is part of our wartime training. Often in a wartime setting you would not be aware of the particulars of your mission until it is time for the mission. We were given the parameters of the mission shortly before we conducted our first run. We were told that we would have five attempts to score the fastest time possible."
"How many times had you attempted the mission?"
"We were on our fifth and last attempt. We had achieved what we considered a pretty good time but we felt as though we might still be able to beat our previous time. So, we started our fifth and final run at the mission."
"If you had not been told how many attempts you had would you have continued to fly the mission?"
"Yes, we would have flown the mission several times in an attempt to achieve a better time. We concluded that five times was enough so as previously told that last run would have been our last. If we had not been told how many times, we could have attempted the mission we would have stopped at five. We would have gone back to base and went over all five runs to see how we might have achieved a better time. It would have been a waste or our time and resources to have continued beyond five attempts."
"Had either of your planes experienced any difficulty prior to the last flight?"
"No, both planes were functioning properly. We are both very thorough in our preflight inspections and following the rules."
"Thank you, Captain." The investigator extended his hand to Ace who shook it and left the room. Ace hoped he didn't have to get called in again.
The lead investigator was monitoring Jane's condition and checking in with the doctors to see when he would be able to interview Jane. Jane's interview was the last interview that he needed to wrap up the interview portion of his investigation. His team almost had the remaining parts of the plane put back together. At this point in time, the team still did not know what caused the F-16 to flameout.
Sunday morning, Maura had to leave before her children woke up, she kissed them both on the forehead as she did every time she came home or left when they were asleep. She left a note for them on the kitchen island reminding them that she was working today. Once a month she had weekend duty and this was her weekend.
She knew the children hated when she had to work on the weekend because that was the only time that they were able to spend the entire day with her. Before the children were born, she and husband, Sam, promised each other that one of them would always be with them on the weekend. They both had expressed that they wanted their children to know that they were loved and that they were a priority with them.
Since Maura was a young teenager, she was interested in forensic medicine. She wanted to become a medical examiner. Her boyfriend, Samuel, who later became her husband, thought that it was strange. They had met at BCU when she was a freshman. He thought she should be a pediatrician or a trauma doctor, something that would keep her interest and excite her.
She had graduated from high school at the age of 15 and attended BCU for her undergrad in premed. She went to Harvard Medical School and graduated at the age of 21 with honors. She was the top student in her class. She completed her residency at Massachusetts General Hospital as she wanted to return to Boston. She managed to complete residency requirements for both forensic and emergency medicine.
Her husband had died in an automobile accident right after she had completed her residency. She had planned on staying in Boston, but after the accident she felt as though she needed to go somewhere else. Everywhere she looked in Boston, she was reminded of Sam and she felt she needed a break. She needed to grieve and she needed to do that away from all the memories in Boston. She accepted a position at a trauma hospital in New York.
She took her two small children and moved to Syracuse, New York. They were small so they wouldn't remember Boston and probably not even remember their father. Charlie had just turned three and Bella was barely one. She needed a fresh start for her sanity. She didn't want to forget about Sam, she merely wanted to be able to learn to live without his daily presence. She needed to be strong for her two children.
Sam was a cardiologist. He was making a name for himself and according to his superiors he had great potential. Maura remembered one of the doctors from his team saying that at his funeral. She didn't remember too much about the service but she remembered the praise from that one doctor. Sam had such high goals for himself and that was one of the characteristics of him that she had loved so much.
Upstate Trauma Center was very pleased that she was interested in their hospital. They understood that she needed a little bit of time to sort out things in Boston and take care of her husband's affairs. She started one month later.
For seven years Maura had worked at Upstate Trauma Center, she loved it. She was able to work in both the trauma and forensics departments. However, she often thought about Boston and hoped to return someday. She would just have to think about when to move back. Enough time had passed that she felt as though she could go back to Boston.
She had talked with her nanny, Skye, who she had hired in Boston before she moved to New York. Skye was all for moving back to Boston. Skye loved New York but she was a Boston Red Sox fan and missed going to Fenway to watch them play. She loved working with Maura and was happy to be in New York or Boston, wherever Maura wanted to be she would go. She loved Charlie and Bella. She often felt like she was their big sister.
Maura had helped Skye obtained her bachelor's degree at Syracuse University and she was now completing her master's degree. She had just graduated from High School when she started working as a nanny for Maura. Skye is the daughter of one of the doctors that Maura had worked with at Mass Gen. Skye had babysat so that Maura and Sam could have their weekly date night. She loved Charlie and Bella and looked forward to Maura and Sam's date night each week so that she could spend time with the children.
When Sam passed away, Skye had no problem stepping up and helping Maura with the children. Sam's death was rough on Maura and Skye knew that Maura needed someone to help her out. When Maura offered her the job, she didn't hesitate to say yes. Skye's parents knew it would be a great situation for both Maura and Skye. Syracuse University had the program that Skye was going to pursue at Boston College so she filled out the application and a few weeks later she received her acceptance letter.
Jane had been given a small dose of pain meds the night before and had gone to sleep rather quickly but Sunday morning she had woken for a few minutes and then had fallen back to sleep. Frost and Frankie were talking in the corner of room where Jane couldn't hear them.
It was a beautiful day and Jane wanted to surprise Maura. She didn't want to tell Maura about the surprise. Jane picked up Maura and the children and drove them to the private hanger at the airport. The children were excited. They knew that Jane flew fighter jets but they didn't know that she could fly them in an airplane.
Jane was flying a small Cessna aircraft with Maura and her two children. She had flown them to Boston. Maura had been telling Jane all about her life in Boston and Jane wanted to show Maura her 'Boston.' She had purchased tickets for the four of them to attend a Red Sox game.
Before they took their seats, Jane took her guests to the fan shop and purchased them jerseys. It seemed to take Maura forever to pick out her jersey but after an hour the four of them walked out of the shop with their jerseys and were headed to their seats along the first base line.
The had enjoyed the game and then flew back to Syracuse. Both children had fallen asleep on the trip home. Jane carried Charlie while Maura carried Bella to the car. They took the children back to the house where Skye had agreed to watch the children overnight.
Jane took Maura to her studio apartment, so they could enjoy some 'adult time.' They were laying in the bed, Jane was curled into Maura's warm body. She could smell her perfume, it smelled like lavender. She didn't want to wake up, she just wanted to stay in bed curled up with Maura.
Maura starting rubbing small circles on her back. She quietly called out, "Maura" and smiled widely as the blonde turned so that they could face each other. "That tickles, Maura," she said as she burst out in laughter. After another minute or so she said, "Stop!" Maura stopped and then Jane's monitors started making tons of noise. Frost and Frankie both jumped up and ran over to her bedside.
The nurse ran into the room to see what was up with her patient. "Stop." Jane said again as everyone in the room froze. After a few seconds the nurse continued to walk over to Jane's chart. She annotated the monitor readings. Jane was asleep.
The nurse had just silenced the monitors when Maura walked into the room right as Jane screamed, "Maura!" Maura was shocked as she immediately raced to Jane's side where she then observed the huge smile on Jane's face. Maura touched Jane's arm and Jane's eyes opened wide and she stared at Maura. After a few seconds, Jane addressed Maura, "Hi, beautiful."
Maura smiled at Jane and said, "Good morning, Jane."
"It is now." Jane said as the nurse handed Maura Jane's chart and left the room. Frost and Frankie just smiled and took a seat in the chairs and waited for Maura to finish her observation of Jane. Jane squirmed as she continued to wake up. She was uncomfortable. The pain meds had worn off. She had just had the most beautiful dream about Maura. Jane continued to smile as Maura annotated her charts. "How are the children?"
Maura looked at Jane, "Children, what children?"
"Your children, silly, is Skye taking good care of them?"
"How do you know about Skye and my children Jane? We have never talked about anything having to do with my private life." Maura was a little concerned. She knew that she hadn't shared any details of her private life with Jane.
"I met them before we went to Boston for the Red Sox game." Jane informed her.
"Jane, I haven't been to Boston in over seven years. You have not met my children. What is going on here?" Maura asked.
"Maura, it was so real. I flew you and your two children in a private plane to Boston. We attended a Red Sox game and showed the children Boston and then we flew home. Skye took the children back to your apartment and then we … wait, are you saying this didn't happen? Did I dream this?"
"You must have been dreaming Jane. I have not shared anything about my children with you. Quite a bit of the staff here at the hospital do not even know that I have children. I am a very private person."
Jane and Maura were staring at each other and neither one of them said anything for a few minutes when Frost asked "Doc, why were Jane's alarms going off?" Maura was unaware of all the commotion before she walked into the room.
"What alarms?" She asked as Frost and Frankie smiled at her.
Frost informed her, "It seems as though Jane might have been dreaming about you."
"Hey, Frost, what are you talking about?" Jane asked not knowing that she had talked in her sleep and mentioned Maura.
"Jane, you were talking in your sleep and you were talking to Maura." Frankie added.
"I was not." Jane insisted as she looked away from Maura and gave her brother and Frost a death glare.
Frost and Frankie looked at each other and laughed. Frost then added, "Yes, Jane, it seems as if you were thinking about the doc in your sleep." A slight blush appeared on Maura's face as she glanced over at Jane who was now looking at Maura. Jane lowered her head as a blush appeared on her face, she now remembered dreaming of Maura tickling her as they laid in bed. Jane continued smiling at Maura as she thought, 'maybe if I play my cards right that dream could come true.'