Chapter Text
March 26th, 2008
Red rubbed her face in exhaustion as she sat at the old metal desk that had once belonged to Rachelle. Earlier in the day, she’d asked the guys to help move the large, ancient metal behemoth into the loft along with two small file cabinets. With a little sweat and no small amount of cussing, they’d managed to haul everything up the stairs and got it situated to her satisfaction. Pizza had been ordered in way of thanks for the extra effort they’d put in.
She had a good view of the hanger floor from where she sat while remaining partially hidden from casual observation. It allowed her to have some privacy while still making her accessible to anyone who needed her. Red had insisted that Rachelle take over the main office. It gave Rachelle the position of authority within the business since Red wouldn’t always be available to help make decisions.
The file cabinets had been an interesting find during the clean out of the stock room the day before. They had been partially hidden under a stack of catalogs with boxes of junk sitting in front of them. One of the cabinets had been locked, no one knowing where the key to it were. Rachelle had tried an entire ring of extra keys she’d accumulated over the years but none of them worked. The other file cabinet was full of junk and outdated documents that were useless and ended up in the recycle boxes. The locked cabinet didn’t feel like it held much when it was moved out into the main hanger.
Using a little trick she’d picked up in her early teen years, she jimmied the lock open with two straightened paper clips, to see what was inside. The items she found in the bottom drawer of that cabinet caught her attention. There were four cardboard tubes that contained large printouts of aerial photos dating between August 1986 and June 1987. The detail of the photos was impressive for the late 80’s but she got a sense that they had been taken by something rather high tech. Knowing what Dominic and Stringfellow had been involved with, it wouldn’t surprise her if they had been taken from cameras in Airwolf and printed somehow, for some unknown reason.
She’d found nothing else to indicate where they had been taken or why so she put them back in their tubes. She put them in the bottom drawer where she found them and would try to find time to study them up close once things settled down. The locked cabinet had also contained a few black and white photos of Dominic as a younger man standing next to a man that appeared roughly the same age. She could only assume that man was her grandfather. He looked somewhat like Stringfellow but the chin and eyes were different. She’d tucked those into her briefcase along with the 3-ring binder and manila envelope full of documents that Mr. Cliner had delivered just that morning.
The envelope contained a variety of papers from original Deeds, titles to business equipment and financial accounts proving that everything had been transferred into her name from Stringfellows’ estate. As for the business, she’d received a new set of documents for the company listing her as the owner, organized in the 3-ring binder. After a solid hour of reviewing and discussing all of these documents, she managed to grasp the general concept of how the Articles of Incorporation worked and what they represented. Thank God Rachelle had been there to hear all of it since she would be running the business in Red’s absence.
Thinking back about the documents, she realized she needed to get a safe deposit box set up at the bank that held the business account. She had no place to store all of this and she knew that she needed to get it done before she went back to Nellis. She trusted Rachelle, but this was something she felt she needed to do to verify that all of these important documents were properly stored in case something happened to her.
It was after 5:00 pm and dusk wasn’t far off when she heard Rachelle’s footsteps stop at the base of the stairs. “Red?”
“You heading home Rachelle?” she called back down, not having moved yet from her seat behind the desk.
“Actually, I was hoping to convince you to come home with me for a home cooked meal, a real shower and let you sleep on something that’s better than that cot you’ve been sleeping on in the loft.”
This caught Red’s attention and she stood up, moving towards the stairs to look down at Rachelle who was looking up at her expectantly.
“I’m all right here. You don’t have to do that,” she said. She suddenly felt nervous, not sure of what would be socially acceptable in a situation like this. Yet she didn’t want to hurt Rachelle’s feelings by rejecting the offer.
Rachelle shrugged, “It’s the least I can do. Besides, Erica had the day off of school and has been working to fix a nice supper for us.” The woman smiled almost impishly, “So, unless you want to hurt the feelings of my budding personal chef, I don’t think you have a choice but to come home with me.”
Red’s eyes widened at this and she fidgeted. “I don’t want to put you out or anything. I really don’t mind staying here.” She offered this as a final show that she didn’t want be a burden on anyone. She had always prided herself on being self-reliant but the thought of a real bathroom, with a real shower and sleeping on something softer than the hard army cot, sounded almost like heaven.
There was a snort from the bottom of the stairs and Red focused on Rachelle again. “Give me a break. I’m offering and I don’t think you have much choice but to accept.”
With a slight nod, Red grabbed her duffle bag and the briefcase that were shoved under her desk and made her way down to the hanger floor.
Rachelle smiled like she was up to something and finally spoke up. “Besides, I think we need an intervention. Your clothes need a serious washing. These washing machines here need an overhaul or replaced.”
Red gave Rachelle a surprised look then felt her cheeks grow warm as she had to admit that, yes, she really did need some place to wash her clothes. She felt her skin crawl at the thought of having to wear these clothes for another day or two.
“Fine, you’ve convinced me. But I’ll warn you that I’ve been told I snore.” She smirked in Rachelle’s direction.
With a look heavenward, Rachelle grinned even wider. “If you get too loud, I can always feed my 12-year-old sugar and caffeine before I turn her loose in your room.”
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6:47 pm
Red sat at Rachelle’s kitchen table, dressed in a borrowed pair of sweat pants and t-shirt. Both were a little big on her but she didn’t mind. They were clean. The washing machine in the small closet off the hall chugged away, washing most of what she’d had in her duffle bag. She’d set out her uniform after asking Rachelle if there was a place on the way back to work where she could have it laundered. Luckily Rachelle knew of a place not far from the airport that did a pretty good job.
In front of Red sat a plate of lasagna and garlic bread. It looked fantastic and she gave an appreciative sniff before looking up at the thirteen-year-old who had made it. “This smells absolutely divine,” she said in the way of a compliment. Her stomach growled silently in agreement.
Erica, who Red had been introduced to earlier in the evening, beamed with the admiration. She was an energetic, passionate young teenager who had a desire, according to her, to be a world-class chef someday. She was the spitting image of her mother and Red had noticed a lack of photos around of any male figure that might be the father.
“Thanks Ms. MacPhearson,” she said, blushing.
“Please, call me Red. Besides, calling me Ms. makes me sound old,” she said to the teenager.
“Oh, okay. Make sure you save room for desert,” Erica piped up as she made her way over to the fridge.
Rachelle was sitting next to Red, giving her a slight smirk. “See, I told you. You won’t go hungry around here.”
Red flushed slightly, “Well, at least I won’t be eating out of a paper bag tonight or a vending machine,” she said as she waited to start until Erica had joined them.
“I’m sure it’s not too hard to set up a hot plate or something at the hanger to fix yourself something. There’s one probably around there somewhere,” Rachelle said as they began to eat.
Red shook her head. “Wouldn’t have done me any good if there was.” She took a bite of the lasagna, seeing the steam rising off the section she’d just cut away from. The food was hearty and the taste of the different ingredients combining to make something that was delicious.
Erica looked up at her, curiosity written on her young face. “Why not?”
Rachelle raised an eyebrow as she saw Red actually fidget, her darker skin seeming to grow a deeper shade as if she were blushing. After Red cleared her throat a few times, she looked up at Erica. “Because, I can’t cook. I apparently don’t have the knack for cooking anything and sometimes even reheating food can be a challenge.”
It took a moment for Erica and Rachelle to digest this information. “You can’t cook?” Erica asked, almost incredulously. “It’s not that hard! How can you not be able to cook?”
Red felt Rachelle’s eyes on her and she could only shrug. “Trust me in this. I’ve eaten way too many of my own failures and have thrown plenty more away that were inedible. I just don’t have a talent for it. A friend of mine told me once that I could burn water.”
Erica could only stare at her, open mouthed as in shock as her mother began to chuckle. “Well at least I know not to expect you to invite me up to this ‘cabin’ you inherited for a meal anytime soon,” Rachelle said, trying to contain her amusement.
Sitting a little straighter, Red gave her a sidelong glance, smirking. “Oh, you’ll be more than welcome to come up, so long as you bring the food and prepare it yourself.”
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March 27th, 2008
Day four of Red’s ‘grand’ adventure found her returning to the hanger, clean from having showered again that morning and her clothes freshly laundered. On the way to the airport, Rachelle had made several stops. The first was to a local grocery store so Red could pick up supplies for the trip to the cabin. Most of those had been stored in a cooler that Rachelle had let her borrow. The second stop had been to the local dry cleaners and Red left her uniform there to be cleaned and pressed before she returned to Nellis. The final stop had been to the bank where the business account was so that she could pay for a Safe Deposit Box. She gave a sigh of relief as she stored the official documents Mr. Cliner had given her just a few days ago.
Red was hoping this would be the last full day of work she needed to put in before flying north to check out the property that she only seen in a picture. She was getting antsy to see what was left after almost seven years of standing empty. Mr. Cline had given her the keys to the place, stating that Van Lin had been living there for a few years until he had died in the 9/11 attacks. He explained that he had given Van Lin permission to live there, if for nothing more than to help keep the property maintained. After Van Lin’s death, Mr. Cliner had all of his personal property packed up and sent to his distant relatives. Nothing that belonged to the estate had been utilized during Van Lin’s stay and was still secured in a vault under the cabin. That statement alone had made her even more curious about this hide-a-way in the woods.
She had yet to hear back on an answer from the message she’d left the first night here but she hadn’t expected an immediate response. However, she silently wished it would be sooner rather than later. Of all the things she’d done in her life, for some reason, this had her more on edge than she remembered ever being.
As the day progressed, she pulled the last employee aside to test their basic knowledge about their job, reviewing their flight logs and any issues that she might need to know of. She gave them a chance to express their opinions, thoughts and ideas on how to make the business better. Writing everything down, even if some of the ideas did seem a bit absurd, she gave Rachelle the list to review and spent time discussing it with her.
As mid-afternoon approached, one of the pilots was dispatched to transport several business executives from their company to a party in one of the high-income suburbs. They’d had a couple of small jobs the day before that the men had been delegated to handle and Rachelle had already contracted six new jobs for the next week. Since making Rachelle the manager, the hanger had begun to resemble a small bee-hive of productive activity.
After reviewing the finances once she had full access to the bank accounts and investments, Red was mildly surprised to find that they weren’t hurting for money, at least not yet. There were a few tools that needed replacing, installing a security system and getting a better computer and phone system. The list of stock supplies was a bit daunting but she trusted Rachelle to find the best suppliers and best prices possible.
One of the investments that Hawke had made quite a few years ago was coming to fruition and she felt that it might be enough to look at acquiring the business and hanger for sale next door. It could give them a place to store excess pieces of equipment until needed. The potential of buying the business was that it came with all of the equipment and tools being stored inside.
Rachelle had been tasked with contacting the real-estate manager for the property to see what it looked like inside. Red had asked Lex, their oldest pilot and someone she felt she could trust, to help Rachelle inspect the property and give an honest opinion if he thought it would be worth the purchase and at the asking price. Rachelle seemed a bit nervous by this prospect of making such a big decision without Red but only blushed and nodded when Red told her she had faith in her to do what was best for the business.
Rubbing at her eyes, she groaned a little as she leaned back in her chair, wondering if she should go in search of aspirin before the tension between her temples turned into a full-blown headache. She’d finally finished reviewing the information Rachelle have given her about three different suppliers, a computer company Rachelle was considering to set up a new computer system, along with information on the other businesses Rachelle had researched to help handle printing, uniforms and security.
When it looked like things had settled down, Red gathered up her duffle bag and briefcase, loaded it and the borrowed cooler into their oldest chopper, which had been pulled out of storage and serviced the day before. Heading towards the office, she poked her head in the door. "Rachelle, I'm going to take the Number 3 chopper and go up to the cabin. I might be gone for a day or maybe as long as five. I could end up making a few trips back and forth to the hanger. I won't know much until I find out what condition its in."
By now Rachelle was aware of the general circumstances of Red being the new business owner and who her father had been. "I can be reached by cell phone or radio but if it's an emergency and you can't raise me, I'll be up around Eagle Lake." She grabbed a sticky note and wrote the GPS coordinates on it before handing it to her.
Rachelle took the note, looking nervous, "All right," her voice sounding a bit uncertain.
Red gave her a slight smile that actually warmed her eyes a little. "You're a smart woman Rachelle. You know how to run this place way better than I do. Just keep working on the list we discussed. We're going to need to have an accountant come in at some time in the next month to get our books in order and give us a trial audit. Usually the government loves to audit businesses that have changed hands. I don't want to be caught by surprise and I'm sure if we take those precautions, it'll make your life easier. If you can't work something out, call me. Otherwise, I trust you to do the best you can," she said, trying to give the woman the sense that Red believed in her ability to keep things running smoothly.
Rachelle nodded and looked a little more relaxed. "All right. Take care and be safe," she said as Red turned back around and headed towards the old chopper. After verifying her gear was secured in the back, she pulled out the instructions that Mr. Cliner had given her to the cabin.
She climbed into the pilot seat and started the old bird up. Within moments, she had the clearance from the airport controller to take off. The chopper responded smoothly and she swung it north, heading up the coast towards Eagle Lake.
TBC -