Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or back story of Airwolf. All characters are property of Bellasario, CBS and whoever else created them. I only borrow them for short periods of time, harass them and put them back on the shelf My stories are for entertainment purposes only.

Survival

Chapter 8

The next three days passed by in a blur for Hawke and Dom. Upon arrival to the hospital in Santa Fe, Caitlin had immediately been taken to the trauma unit and then into surgery. It was the wee hours of Tuesday morning before Dom and Hawke received any type of word on Caitlin's condition from the doctors.

"I'm not going to lie, it was a little dicey," explained the surgeon that had come in to speak with the anxiously awaiting pilots. "However, I think that with some intensive rehab and good support, she'll make a full recovery."

"Well, thank God for that!" Dom had exclaimed. Hawke had been unable to speak and simply collapsed into a chair behind him.

"You can also thank the fact that your friend was driving a car with a soft convertible top," the doctor had gone on to inform them. "When the car rolled over onto her legs, the top molded around her limbs instead of completely crushing them. I'm not saying there wasn't a lot of damage done but it could have been a lot worse."

"Can we see her?" Hawke asked softly, still in a fog from all that had occurred in the last few days.

"Not now," the doctor advised. "She's still coming out of anesthesia and she needs her rest. And from the look of things…so do you two. There's nothing you can do for a while anyways. I'm going to keep her under sedation for the next 24 to 48 hours. Her body needs the recovery time and I want to monitor her fluid intakes and get her hydrated again. She'll be in ICU for a couple of days at least."

"I'm not leaving," Hawke said simply. Dom had started to protest but one look at the younger man and he realized it would be like arguing with the wall behind him.

"Any place you can put us up, doc? We wanna stay close. I'm sure you'll understand," Dom pleaded with the doctor.

"Well, it's not usual…but sure. I'll have the nurse clear out a room for you. Once you get some sleep, I'll arrange it so you can see Ms. O'Shannessy in the morning."

The doctor had been true to his word and for the next two days, Hawke and Dom had taken turns sitting at Cait's bedside. Even though she was still sedated, Hawke had needed the reassurance of just watching her breathe…he was having a hard time convincing himself that Caitlin was going to be okay after what he had witnessed at the crash site. She had been so pale and weak…it had scared him more than he had even admitted to himself.

Dom watched with worry over his surrogate son as Hawke kept vigil over Caitlin. Even though the doctors assured them that Cait would be okay, String seemed to withdraw more and more into himself with each passing hour. Dom knew he had to do something.

"Dammit, String…Caitlin's going to be fine! Why won't you believe that?" Dom had chastised Hawke one afternoon as they sat in the cafeteria where Dom had eaten but Hawke had done little more than push the food around on his plate.

"Not until I see it with my own eyes, Dom," Hawke had responded. "I believe in results, not promises…"

"Oh for heaven's sake, kid…Caitlin isn't Gabrielle!" Dom had made the comment hoping to get through to the younger man and it certainly seemed to strike a chord.

"Don't you dare drag Gabrielle into this, Dom!" Hawke had retorted sharply. "She has nothing to do with this!"

"That's exactly right, String. Gabrielle, your parents, Sinjin…none of them have anything to do with this! So quit being such a martyr and feeling sorry for your damn self and start thinking about Caitlin in there. She's the one going through hell…not YOU! Hmmph!" Dom said with an exasperated sigh.

"How dare you…" Hawke began to argue back but was interrupted by the older man before he could say anything further.

"No, Stringfellow Hawke…how dare YOU!" Dom said in an angrier voice than Hawke had ever heard from the man. "That girl in there fought through 48 hours of pure hell to stay alive for you. You told me yourself that she said never gave up because she wanted to prove to you that that curse of yours is nothing more than poppycock. And you repay her by sitting here feeling sorry for yourself! Well I for one am glad that Caitlin isn't awake to see you in this state! As a matter of fact, I don't want to be around you right now, myself. I'm going to sit with Cait. Whenever you get your head on straight, you're more than welcome to join me, but not a second before!" Without another word, Dom turned and left Hawke sitting dumbfounded at the table.

Hawke had spent the next hour and half just walking around the hospital grounds and doing a lot of thinking. Maybe Dom (and Caitlin) were right…maybe it was time to move on from his belief in this stupid curse that everyone he loved too much was taken away from him. After all, Dom was still around after all of these years and Caitlin had gotten out of more than one scrape just to keep coming back to him. It was just that he had lived with his belief for so long, he wasn't sure how to let go and allow himself to start trusting again. But he knew that if he ever wanted a life with Caitlin, he'd have to find a way, she wasn't the kind of woman to just wait around for him to come to his senses. And he did want a life with her…or maybe more appropriately put, he knew he didn't want a life without her.

Knowing what he had to do, he headed back inside the hospital and to Caitlin's room in the ICU. But when he arrived, his heart stopped for several beats as he saw Caitlin's bed empty and a nurse stripping the sheets off the bed.

"Where is she!" he yelled as tears began to fill his eyes. To the nurse's surprise, he grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her demanding to know what had happened to Caitlin.

Hearing the commotion, Dom had come running from around the corner. Grabbing the distraught man from behind, he pulled him off the frightened nurse.

"String! Stop it! She's alright! Do you hear me? Caitlin's alright!"

"Don't lie to me, Dom!" Hawke said, his voice breaking with sobs.

"String…look at me, son! Caitlin's fine. As a matter a fact, she's more than fine. She's awake and they are moving her to a regular room. She's asking for you, String…do you understand me?" Dom pleaded with Hawke as he shook him back into reality.

"She's awake?" Dom's words finally registered with Hawke as he looked hopefully into the older man's face.

"Yeah, and she wants to see you. Your name was the first thing she said when she woke up," Dom said with a grin. "Now get yourself together and let's go see her, huh?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry Dom, it's just when I saw the empty bed…"

"I know kid, it's alright. Although, you may have an apology to make to that sweet little nurse that you just scared half to death."

"Yeah, I guess I should, huh?" Hawke said with a half grin.

Putting his arm around the younger man, Dom let out a hearty laugh as he led String down the corridor to Caitlin's new room.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Entering Cait's room, Hawke saw the most beautiful sight he could ever remember seeing…Caitlin was propped up in bed, smiling at him. She was still pale and weak, but some of her color was returning, as well as the sparkle in her eyes.

"Hey there," she said as String walked over and sat gently on the bed next to her.

"Hey there, yourself," he said back with a slight smile.

"You know, we really have to start finding time to spend together when one of us isn't in a hospital bed or hurt. I mean I love that you want to be protective and take care of me but I'm hoping our first official date is something a little less adventurous and more romantic," Caitlin teased with a gleam in her eye.

"Date, huh? You sure you still want to do that?" Hawke asked, only half-joking.

"Are you kidding, why do you think I went through all of this? You promised me dinner and dancing and I wasn't about to let you renig on our deal. You don't get out of it that easy, Stringfellow Hawke!"

"Dancing, huh? I was kind of hoping you had forgotten about that part of it…"

"Nope, no way Hawke. As soon as these legs of mine are working right again, you're taking me to the fanciest place in town for dinner and dancing. No backing out on this one!"

Hawke's response sounded like a chuckle but Cait could see the doubt and worry in his eyes.

"Cait…you don't have to…."

"Nope..stop right there, String!" Caitlin ordered as soon as she heard the protest in his voice. "I meant it when I said you're not getting out of this. We have a date and I plan to keep it and I plan to have a lot more after that one. We've worked too hard to get to this point…unless of course you've changed your mind for some reason? And honestly, Hawke, I don't really think you could come up with one GOOD reason to back out on me now…can you?" Cait challenged.

Looking deep into her eyes, Hawke suddenly realized that she was right…there was no good reason; no curse, no challenge they couldn't handle together, and certainly no lack of love. Whatever had happened in his past, was just that…his past. Cait was his future and he could make that whatever he wanted as long as she was there with him. Leaning forward he gently embraced her and gave her a light kiss on the lips.

"Uh-uh, mister…I don't believe that was good enough," Cait said with a giggle as he pulled back from her. "I think we'd better do a second take, don't you?"

Hawke grinned as he leaned back in and gave her an even better version of the movie set kiss they had shared so long ago. And this one would have definitely made the director proud….

The End.