AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth chapter to a multi-part story, I would suggest reading the first three chapters before this one to understand the whole story. Please enjoy.
She hated airplanes.
She had ever since, as a seven-year old, she went on vacation to Florida with her family over March Break to visit Disney World.
The vacation itself was fine. Great, even.
But on the return trip, the plane carrying Heather Nelson and her family, among others, experienced significant turbulence. Buffeted by strong air currents and unexpected pop-up storms, the plane bounced and jerked around enough to make Heather sick to her stomach and complain to anyone within earshot of her.
That was bad enough. Then it got worse.
Just when it seemed the turbulence was over, suddenly and without warning the plane seemed, to Heather anyway, to dive-bomb straight downward for several seconds. The pilot later said over the loudspeaker that the plane only lost no more than a few hundred feet in elevation and they were never in any serious danger; he apologized for the discomfort and bumpy ride, but they were now in cleaner air and the rest of the trip would be smooth. Turned out he was right.
However, in those few seconds Heather was convinced she was going to die. She let out a blood-curdling scream that no one on that plane could ever forget. Despite the best efforts of the stewardess and her own family, she was inconsolable the rest of the flight. She cried in relief when the plane landed and she walked again on solid ground, and she made a vow to herself never to board a plane ever again.
She kept to that vow. Until recently.
Because, the further along she progressed in the sport of curling, the more she realized it would be impossible to fulfill this childhood vow. Canada is a massive country, and there are curling fans all over the land, so to be fair the officials running the sport had to schedule the events in every region of the country. And competing at an elite level requires getting on a plane and flying to these cities.
So because of her talent in and love of curling, Heather managed to overcome her childhood fears to get on these planes when required, but only just. The fear was still debilitating enough to reduce her to a nervous wreck each flight. Even the slightest bounce caused her to shake in terror.
She tried everything she could think of to cure herself of her fear of flying. Therapy. Medication. Hypnosis. None of it worked. It certainly didn't help her state of mind once Anita Morriss and her former teammates found out about her fear; they were either dismissive or insulting towards her for it, depending on their moods. She briefly wondered again why she agreed to join them in the first place.
'Thank goodness things worked out as they did,' Heather thought to herself as she tried to distract herself in any way possible. She was sweating out another flight, this time to the city of Calgary where this year's Canadian women's curling championships were being held. The rest of her new teammates... Kellie Galenchuk, Jennifer Janik, Sandra Morgan and Amber Janik... were also on this flight, along with several of their friends and loved ones who were there to cheer them on.
Joining Kellie's team really had been a godsend for her. Missing out on playing time was a setback, but she was young and had her career well in front of her, so if anything it was just a temporary issue. She was fast becoming true friends with her the new teammates she hadn't already known.
Heather felt Kellie was just as talented an athlete as Anita but was light years ahead as a skip in terms of passing on her knowledge to her teammates; she was learning so much from her skip and was starting to see her as a mentor in the game. She was also impressed with how Kellie led the team yet was just one of the girls at the same time. Sandra was serious about her physical fitness and her sport but was down to earth and a genuinely nice person to be around.
Meanwhile, Amber was bubbly and fun. Heather smiled as she recalled watching over time how Amber had grown from childhood friend Jennifer's annoying little sister to a fine young woman in her own right.
Her smile then grew larger in spite of her current surroundings as she thought more about Jennifer. The two were the same age and grew up in the same neighbourhood, becoming inseparable as they attended school and curling lessons together as kids. They remained the best of friends throughout high school, and as they progressed through university and throughout the junior and professional curling ranks, their relationship grew even closer.
Much, much closer.
Maintaining the closeness was difficult when Jennifer moved away to the small town where Kellie lived to join her team, but somehow they managed. Unfortunately, tension built up between the two of them soon after Heather hooked up with Anita's team. The two skips became heated adversaries, and the teams butted heads frequently. Jennifer hated how Anita bullied and intimidated Kellie, and she knew Heather was too good a person to condone these tactics.
Jennifer at times pleaded, and at other times angrily demanded, that Heather quit her position on Anita's team, but Heather didn't feel secure enough in herself to make that move. She also tried to rationalize her skip's behaviour, trying to convince herself it wasn't all that bad. It took Anita's attempted seduction of Brad for Heather to see the light and realize she had to take action.
The fact that Jennifer had threatened to completely sever all ties to their relationship if she didn't do so... well, that might have provided some extra motivation. Heather could never tell whether this was a promise or an idle threat, but she didn't want to risk taking that kind of chance. She loved Jennifer far too much to ever be without her.
Now that events and good fortune worked out in their favour, everything was right in their relationship again.
Well, almost everything.
Right now Heather wished that Jennifer would hurry the hell back from using the washroom so she could hold her and be close to her again. It was just about the only thing that kept her sane on airplane flights these days.
Plus, there was something on her mind that she really wanted to discuss.
As Heather was thinking of how to say what was on her mind, Jennifer was walking down the aisle. She returned to her seat to find Heather much in the same position as when she left: her eyes closed, her arms tightly hugging herself, rocking back and forth slightly, an ashen look on her face.
"How are you holding up, babe?" Jennifer asked.
Heather opened her eyes and shrugged. She then took hold of Jennifer's hand and laced their fingers together. "Better now that you're here with me."
Jennifer said nothing, instead softly kissing the back of Heather's hand to let her know she was there to support her.
The two were silent for a few moments until Heather was ready to talk.
"Jennifer?"
