Second Chances Part 2- The Trouble with Teenagers

Second Chances Part 2 - The Trouble with teenagers by Bethhawke

Chapter 2

They all worked for a couple of hours in the hanger, then Hawke and Dom took the Jeep to the Lair to work on Airwolf. Cait stayed behind to get the paperwork up to date.
As they approached the Lair, Hawke noticed tire tracks.
“Dom, stop!” Hawke shouted, gesturing with his arm.
Dominic slammed his foot on the brake pedal and they skidded to a halt.
“What's wrong!”
“Tire tracks, looks like a motorbike, and heading towards the lair.”
“So I didn't really need the emergency stop then?” Dominic looked at Hawke in mock exasperation.
Hawke looked sheepish, “Sorry Dom, I guess I overreacted. But it could be serious. Follow the tracks, I want to know exactly where that bike went.”
The tracks ended a few feet from the entrance to the Lair and were replaced by two sets of footprints. Hawke measured his foot against the larger of the two prints.
“Smaller than mine. What do you make of the other prints?”
“They're tiny, no one has feet that small,” the older man replied, puzzled.
“Wait, look over here. They must have stopped, the prints are clear. It looks like...”
“High heels!” interrupted Dom, “a small man and a lady?”
“Or a boy and girl. Teenagers, old enough to ride a motorbike.”
“Still could be trouble, String. Let's search the area.”
They cautiously entered the lair and stood still, listening.
“They're long gone,” said Hawke, “I don't sense anyone here now and there's no sign of a motorbike. Let's do the work on Airwolf then I'll camp here overnight, in case they come back.”
“Not on your own String, what if they bring friends back with them?”
Hawke sighed, he had been hoping for a peaceful night on his own.“OK, you go back and get Cait, see if she's willing to stay too, and we'll all stay and take it in turns to sleep.”
“Will Beth be OK with you staying out all night?”
Hawke glared at the older man, “She's gone back to her apartment.”
Dominic guessed from his friend's expression that there was more to it than he was saying but decided to leave his questions for another time.


When Dominic returned with Caitlin, Hawke had the place looking quite cosy, for a cold damp cave. He had built a small fire, enclosed with large stones, and had set out camping equipment and blankets which they kept in the Lair for emergencies like this one. A small pan was bubbling away on the camp stove, with water for coffee, and three cups were waiting to be filled. They sat around the fire drinking coffee and making plans. They took a gun and a flash light each and Dom was voted to have the first sleep, while Hawke and Caitlin took first watch.
When Dom was safely inside Airwolf, probably snoring although he couldn't be heard by the other two, Cait decided to quiz Hawke again. They were sitting close together, wrapped in large blankets. It was cold now the sun had gone down and the fire only gave a small amount of heat. Hawke had his eyes closed, enjoying the peace while it lasted, for he knew Cait would soon get bored and start talking. Sure enough after about five minutes of peace Cait spoke.
“Hawke, are you asleep?”
“Nope,” he replied, keeping it short and simple in the hope that Cait would take the hint and shut up again.
“Is surveillance always this boring?”
“Yep.”
“Wanna talk?”
“Nope.”
Caitlin was silent was a few more minutes, then she started fidgeting.
“Hawke?” He opened his eyes and sighed, resigned to the fact that he wouldn't get any more peace. “That's better, I was beginning to think I was alone here. We are supposed to keep watch together.”
“Nothing to see, I was listening,” he explained patiently.
“Can we talk?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No,” Caitlin grinned.
“Well I guess we talk then, but keep it quiet, I need to listen out for intruders.”
“About this morning, when you were late for work, is everything OK with you and Beth, I mean.....” She broke off, not sure what to say next. She wanted to know what was wrong but didn't want to annoy him if it meant she had to spend the night with him in a bad mood.
“Cait,” his voice held a warning.
“Hawke please, we worry about you, Dom and I, and who else are you going to talk to if something is wrong?”
“Who says I want to talk to anyone?”
“Well you should! You keep everything bottled up inside and that's unhealthy.”
Hawke sighed and turned his face to look at Caitlin. “I fucked up as usual and she left,” he grimaced, “happy now?”
“Of course not!” she sounded angry at him, then her voice softened, “I'm sorry, Hawke, I know how you feel about her.”
“Do you?” he couldn't quite hide the pain in his voice.
She hugged him and fell silent. There wasn't much she could say and they sat in silence until it was time to change shifts.

Now that Caitlin had got her questioning out of the way, Hawke knew he would have time for his own thoughts. And he had plenty of those. The week alone with Beth had been blissful most of the time. There were a few problems, like the time Marella came over to prepare her report for Archangel. Beth had completely lost it that evening, letting all her emotions out in a barrage of tears and tantrums and neither of them knew what to do with her. It had taken an hour to calm her down and then Marella had sedated her so she could get some sleep. The next day Beth had been withdrawn and lost in her thoughts, but come evening she had perked up and that night their lovemaking had been intense. She was still taking control and he had let her, knowing that it could be a while before she felt comfortable relinquishing control. Hawke smiled faintly as he recalled their passion, then quickly straightened his face in case Caitlin noticed and questioned him. Remembering that night, he wondered how he could have let her go, they were so good together. Their relationship was volatile in every way, not just in bed, but there was a connection between them, an honesty that he hadn't felt before with a woman. A lot of their problems seemed to stem back to Archangel and, not for the first time, he wished he hadn't introduced them.
Realising that he had been lost in his thoughts for quite a while he glanced at his watch. It was time to wake Dom.
“You want to wake Dom up?” He asked Caitlin with a grin.
“No way!” she exclaimed, “he's grumpy when he's woken up.”
Hawke stood up and stretched, “OK I'll do it. But it's your turn if there's a next time.”
Hawke opened Airwolf's door, the noise waking Dominic abruptly. He climbed out stiffly, calling for coffee, as Caitlin took his place.

Dom chatted away cheerfully for a whole hour, much to Hawke's disgust, until Hawke angled his head to one side, listening to a sound in the distance.
“What is it?” asked Dom.
“Motorbike. Put out the fire.”
Dominic doused the fire and ran to Airwolf to wake Caitlin.
They took up their previously agreed positions, Hawke at the cave entrance and Dom and Cait inside on opposite sides.
The moon was covered by thin clouds and gave a small amount of light making the Valley of the Gods look eerie and full of shadows, not somewhere you would want to be at night. The single headlight of the motorbike could be seen in the distance but as it got closer it was switched off. The terrain was uneven and the bike slowed now the rider couldn't see where he was going. It stopped in almost the same place as before and a girl climbed off, shivering. She was small, several inches shorter than Cait, Hawke estimated, and not suitably dressed for riding pillion. She was wearing a mini skirt, a t-shirt and ridiculously high heeled shoes. The boy was a little taller than the girl in her heels, but not much. He took her hand and they cautiously approached the cave entrance. She was struggling to keep her footing on the uneven ground and tripped. She would have fallen in the boy hadn't caught her arm.
“I told you to wear flat shoes,” he said quietly, “you had the same problem last night.”
“They wouldn't go with my outfit,” she replied peevishly and quite a bit louder then he had spoken, “and why are you whispering? There's no one here.”
“There wasn't last night, but that helicopter didn't get in there all by itself, did it?” he explained with exaggerated patience, as though they'd had the discussion before.
At the cave entrance they paused and at that moment the moon moved from behind the clouds giving Hawke a clear look at them. They were teenagers, no older than 17 in Hawke's estimation and didn't look dangerous. But looks could be deceptive and Hawke wasn't going to take any chances; he stepped out from the shadows, gun held menacingly in front of him. The girl screamed and clutched her boyfriend tightly.
“What are you doing here?” Hawke demanded.
“We're not doing anything wrong,” the boy answered defiantly.
Dominic and Caitlin moved out of the shadows to stand by Hawke. The teenage girl moved even closer to the boy, looking very frightened.
“Cover me Dom, I'm going to search them,” Hawke shoved his gun into his waistband and patted down the boy; all he had on him was some loose change and his keys. He moved towards the girl and was about to search her too when the boy grabbed his arm.
“Don't touch her!”
Hawke gestured for Caitlin to search the girl and as he suspected she was also unarmed.
“OK, now we talk,” said Hawke, pushing the couple into the Lair. “Sit!” he gestured to the ground by the extinguished fire and they sat down.
“Right, start talking or I start shooting,” he took his gun out from his waistband.
The girl started crying. “We've done nothing wrong,” she sobbed, “we were just looking for somewhere to be alone and we found this cave.”
“Come on Hawke, they're just kids,” Cait decided it was time to intervene, “tell us your names.”
“I'm Katy and he's Cody,” Katy replied, gesturing towards her boyfriend who looked mad at her for telling.
“Now you know our names, how about telling us yours,” he gave Katy a look that said 'say no more'.
“I'm Caitlin, he's Dom and the mean guy is called Hawke. Now, tell us how you found this place.”
“She told you the truth,” Cody blurted out, “we were just riding around looking for somewhere quiet and warm to .....well you know,” he looked at Hawke, willing him to understand and believe him.
“Let's go outside and have a chat, man to man,” Hawke suggested, pulling the boy up.
Caitlin continued to question Katy.
“You know, if you aren't telling the truth, Hawke really will hurt him.”
“We are, honest. It's like he said. You see my parents don't like Cody so we have to meet in secret somewhere we won't be seen. We found this place last night and it was perfect, blankets and everything!”
“I bet they think you're at a girlfriend's house right now.”
“Yeah! How did you know?”
“I was your age not so long ago and my parents didn't always like my boyfriends either,” Caitlin thought getting pally with Katy would probably help, and she really did seem like a nice kid, if not too intelligent.
Katy giggled, “I bet they don't like Hawke either,” she obviously assumed Hawke and Caitlin were a couple.

Outside Hawke stopped abruptly and took hold of Cody's shoulders.
“Right, now for the truth. What are you doing here and who have you told?”
Without his girlfriend to impress, Cody let his fear show and looked close to tears.
“I told you. We rode around for a while. The moon was bright and it lit up the entrance to the cave. I stopped the bike and we went to have a look.” His face suddenly lit up, “Is that your helicopter? It's awesome.”
“Never mind that. Who have you told?”
“Only Josh, my brother and he didn't believe me.”
“Why not?”
“He never believes what I tell him, he's the oldest and is good at everything. He thought I was just bragging because he's never done it in a cave.”
“Done what in a cave?” Hawke was wondering if he'd missed something.
“You know,” Cody shuffled his feet and looked at the ground.
Realisation dawned and Hawke grinned and patted him on the shoulder, “In a cave, huh. Wouldn't be my first choice, a bit cold.”
“Her parents hate me and they seem to know everyone in town so we have to go somewhere else,” Cody paused and looked at Hawke with a shy grin, “it was a bit cold, but at least there were blankets and that plastic bubble wrap made a comfortable bed!”
Hawke looked at him in horror, thinking about the plastic packing material that he had cleared away while he waited for Dom to return and the blankets that they had wrapped around themselves as they sat by the fire that evening. Then he saw the funny side of it and couldn't wait to see Cait's face when he told her later.

They went back inside and Hawke looked at Caitlin who just nodded.
“OK, we're going to let you go, but first we need your names and addresses.”
Katy supplied the information and Dom wrote it down while Hawke told them what would happen if they had lied or told anyone else what they had seen.
“No word of this shall pass my lips,” Cody said seriously.
“Nor mine,” said Katy, thinking what odd words Cody had used.
As they rode away Dom turned to Hawke, “You scared the hell out of them, String,” he scolded, “I don't think they'll tell.”
“I hope not, but just in case I might get Michael to check them out.”
“Oh come on String, they're just kids. Michael won't have a file on them.”
“Not on them, but maybe on their family or friends. I need to be sure, I don't want to have to move the lady.”
They spent the rest of the night in the Lair just in case the kids returned and at first light drove back to Santini Air. Hawke flew back to his cabin while Caitlin and Dominic went to their respective homes to get breakfast and catch up on some sleep.

It was early evening before they arrived at Archangel's office. Dominic had called ahead to warn him of their visit and Archangel was sitting at his desk, with Marella perched on the edge, waiting for them. He didn't waste time on greetings just glared at them while Marella sauntered over to the computer and punched in a name.
“Where the hell did you get that name?” Hawke demanded, when the name 'Cody Johnson' appeared on the screen. He looked over at Dom, wondering if he had told Michael, but Dom just shook his head and shrugged.
Michael stood up and moved in front of his desk to confront Hawke. He was standing too close for comfort and Hawke took a step back, not in the mood for a confrontation.
“As if you don't know,” Michael sounded very angry, “you could have jeopardized everything!”
Hawke pointed his finger at Michael in a threatening way. “We had the situation under control. How the hell did you find out?”
“Take a look at this,” Michael gestured to Marella, who handed Hawke a sheet of paper. He started to read it, then handed it to Caitlin in disgust.
She took it from him, puzzled, and started to read it. After a few minutes, she started laughing.
“It's not humorous!” Archangel said, glaring at her.
“What! What am I missing?” Dom stood behind Caitlin trying to read the paper which was shaking as she laughed.
“Why that little devil!” he chuckled as he read the first paragraph, “how did you get hold of this?”
Marella answered for her boss, “As you can see, Cody wrote a school assignment based on his discovery of Airwolf. Luckily for us all, his parents were visiting the school to discuss his grades and arrived just after the teacher had pinned this on the classroom notice board.”
Caitlin interrupted, “But how did you get hold of it?”
“Cody's father works for the Firm, and his brother is having an interview next week. We will be talking to Cody about the importance of secrecy.”
“I already did that,” Hawke said, “ he said he wouldn't tell.”
“No Hawke, you threatened him. Do you remember his actual words?” asked Caitlin.
“No.”
“He said, and I quote, 'No word of this shall pass my lips.'”
“Clever little tyke, he had you fooled String,” Dominic was still chuckling.
Archangel glared at Dominic, “Don't you realise the seriousness of this? You could have had a whole bunch of school kids knowing where Airwolf is,” he leaned heavily on his cane and sat back down behind his desk.
“That would have been embarrassing for you, a bunch of school kids doing what you haven't been able to,” Hawke's raised voice was sarcastic, “Cody won't go back and he won't tell and if he does he'll have me to answer to!”
Just then there was a knock on the office door.
“Who is it?” shouted Archangel, taking his anger at Hawke out on the person behind the closed door.
The door opened and Beth walked in closely followed by a man who Hawke vaguely recognised and a woman who he guessed was the man's wife.
Beth ignored Hawke and spoke to Archangel, “Sir, I've taken a written report as you requested. The boys are waiting outside,” she handed the report to him.
“Thank you Elizabeth. Please send the boys in, then you can go home.”
As she left the office, Hawke muttered, “Excuse me a moment,” and followed her out.
He waited until she had spoken to the boys and they had gone into the office before speaking to her. The corridor was empty, most of the daytime staff having already left.
“Are you OK?”
“I'm fine.”
“Keep in touch,” he moved closer and tucked her hair behind her left ear, tracing his finger along her cheek, “I miss you.”
She rested her head on his chest and took a deep breath, “We're doing the right thing,” it was meant to be a statement but sounded very much like a question, “Archangel is waiting for you.”
“Fuck Archangel!”
“String, that's no way to talk about my boss,” she sounded stern, but her eyes were smiling as she lifted her head to look in his eyes. “Go!” she walked away.
Hawke stood alone for a moment, composing himself before going back to the office.


As he opened the door, all eyes were on him. Hating to be the centre of attention, he focussed on Cody.
“You lied to me!”
Cody looked terrified, “I...I'm sorry,” he looked down at the carpet unable to meet Hawke's angry blue eyes.
“Look at me when I'm talking to you. Don't you realise how serious this is?”
Cody met Hawke's eyes but didn't like what he saw there. He turned to his father, looking for support.
“Don't look at me son. It's Hawke who you have let down, what happens next is down to him,” he turned to Hawke, “his punishment is in your hands, Captain.”
Hawke realised then where he had seen this man before. He was part of the Zebra 2 squad who had helped him bring down Hunter. He searched his memory for a name, recalling it just in time to say, “Johnson,” as he moved forward and held out his hand, which was immediately taken in a firm grip.
Johnson indicated the woman by his side, “Captain Hawke, may I introduce my wife.”
Hawke looked at the boys' mother and gave a brief nod, “Pleased to meet you ma'am. Do you wish to have a say in your son's punishment?”
Before she could reply Josh stepped forward to speak on his brother's behalf.
“Captain Hawke, I want to apologise for my brother's behaviour. He really had no idea of the seriousness of the situation and I am partly to blame for not believing him.”
“Maybe Cody could speak for himself?” Hawke turned and looked at the younger boy.
“I really am sorry, it won't happen again,” his voice shook, he felt so out of place among these men, “you won't put me in prison or shoot me will you?”
To his surprise Hawke laughed and Cody was amazed at the change in the man's face, he actually look friendly. “You really think I would shoot you?” Hawke's voice was amused.
Cody looked at the floor again and nodded; he looked about ready to cry.
Caitlin had seen enough, “Hawke!” she chided. “Cody, I know you don't like guns and Hawke is not going to shoot you or anyone else. Now tell me, what do you think your punishment should be?”
“I don't know,” he mumbled.
“Speak up son,” his father was a military man and Cody was used to obeying him.
“I don't know,” he repeated, louder.
“Well, I think you should do something to help us out. We missed out on over a day's work waiting in that cave for you. I say you come and work at Santini Air every weekend for month, without pay, to help us to catch up,” she deliberately avoided looking at Dom as she suspected he wouldn't want this kid under his feet.
“Well, what do you say son? That sounds fair to me,” his father looked at Hawke who briefly nodded.
“Yes father, I'll do as Caitlin says,” his voice shook and he looked terrified.
Josh glanced at him, concerned, and wondered what Cody would do. He knew his brother had a fear of guns and violence, although he had no idea why, and wouldn't want to spend time around Hawke, who he was terrified of.