Reunited

Reunited

Author's Note: I started this one 3-4 years ago and forgot all about it. When I read through it, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading it even though I wrote it. Like my last one, it's shorter than my standard 20,000-word stories, but based on the kind emails I've been getting, I think they're being reasonably well received.

I hope you find it as enjoyable as I did.

*******

"Good morning, Paul."

"Hey, Dean. Or should I say...Captain?"

"I hope you know if this is too uncomfortable for you, I'm happy to fly with someone else."

"No. Not at all. Listen, I'm a good, solid pilot. But let's face it, I'm not captain material. You, on the other hand, are everything the airline is looking for. Hell, you're the most proficient aviator I've ever flown with, and as I'm painfully aware, I've been a First Officer for fifteen years, and I've flown with a ton of guys."

He smiled then added, "And gals. But none of them are as good as you, and you're also the epitome of what a captain is supposed to look like. You're tall, good looking, got the whole great smile thing going on, and women fawn all over you. And unlike me, you never let it impact your work. So while I'd love to make captain, I'm not at all jealous of you making it so fast."

"I don't know about the physical description stuff, but I appreciate you letting me know we're okay."

"Of course. Besides, at 45, what else am I gonna do where I can make this kind of money? I've got two kids in high school and college isn't cheap."

"Wow. Are Dawn and Jake that old already?" he asked.

"Yeah, time flies when you're not raising them," the older man kidded.

"Sorry. I guess that was pretty thoughtless of me to say."

"Nah. No big deal. Anyway, we need to start pre-flight checks...Captain."

Dean Norton was just 33, and one of the youngest people to be promoted to captain his co-pilot, Paul Simms, had ever heard of. But as Paul said, Dean had paid his dues, and that included five years flying for the Air Force where he picked up more than the minimum 1,500 hours required to be trained as a commercial pilot, then flown every flight he could get his hands on to hit the 5,000 minimum for making captain.

But it wasn't just hitting the minimums. It was being good. Really, really good. No one who'd ever flown with Dean had failed to notice just how good he was. And again, as Paul had said, he had the looks to match the skills and was a perfect candidate for becoming a captain.

So with just under seven years in the 'right seat', Dean Norton was now the pilot in command of a Boeing 737. With any luck, in another five years or so, he'd have the opportunity to fly the 787 or some equivalent. For now, he was extremely grateful for having been given such a huge amount of responsibility so early--relatively speaking.

With his promotion, Dean would be making approximately $125,000 a year, and the airline had offered to pay $2,500 a month for an apartment for six months or until he bought a home. In many parts of the country, he could live like a king on that kind of money. But in certain places like New York, Los Angeles, and yes, even Seattle, that was still decent money, but it certainly wasn't spectacular. Then again, he was single, so that was still a good amount of money.

Lately, however, he'd thought about settling down quite a bit. The last six months or so it had become something of an obsession, and now here he was going back to the place he'd grown up. Not Seattle itself, though. He was originally from a town about 25 miles to the southeast of the city, so Seattle was where he always told people he was from.

Once he settled into the new job he had every intention of finding that special someone and then maybe have a kid or two. But for now, he and Paul had a flight to prepare for--his first ever as an airline captain.

"We have ourselves a good jet, Captain," Paul agreed when he and his rookie captain finished their pre-flight checks.

"Do you want to me to go mingle with the passengers before we take off?" Paul asked.

"It's up to you, Paul. I'm okay with that or you staying here."

His co-pilot wanted to stretch his legs and took a quick walk through the plane saying hello and shaking hands while he also looked for anything suspicious. He didn't expect to see anything, but after the lessons of 9-11 had been learned the hard way, it made him feel better to get an 'eyes-on look' at who was on board.

On his way back, he saw a woman who was attractive enough to cause him to do a double take. She noticed and smiled at him, and he welcomed her on board.

"Oh, thank you very much, Captain," she said, flashing a beautiful smile at him.

Not only was he not the captain, she was way out of his league, so he knew with certainty she wasn't flirting with him.

"You're welcome," Paul replied, "but I'm not the captain."

"Oh, sorry. I don't really understand the whole stripe thing on your shoulders," she said politely.

He saw her struggling with a bag that probably should have been checked and asked if he could help.

"You don't have to do that," she said immediately.

"I'm happy to," he told her as he bent over and grabbed it.

He saw the luggage tag and noticed the name: Danika Thomas.

He stowed it for her then said, "Welcome aboard...Ms. Thomas."

She thanked him then took her seat as he headed back to the cockpit.

"Everything okay?" Dean asked.

"Yes indeed," his co-pilot replied.

"Really? You looked a little flushed."

Paul shook his head and said, "I just helped this gorgeous woman with her bag."

"Is she single?" Dean asked with a smile.

"I didn't see a ring, but I wasn't really looking at anything but her face. She was that attractive."

"My age by any chance?" Dean chuckled.

"You know, I just can't tell anymore. There are some women who are a whole lot older than they look and vice versa. I'd say she could be anywhere from 30 to 50, so probably not 'your age'."

"What? You think I only date women in their 20s or something?" Dean asked pretending to be offended.

"Let's just say I've never seen you with anyone who looks like she's even close to 30 and leave it at that, shall we?" Paul told him with a smile.

The lead flight attendant let them know everyone was on board, so it was time to contact the tower and let them know they were ready.

Before Paul dialed in the ATC frequency he said, "I did catch her name, though. It's one you don't here to often, but I've always liked it."

Dean didn't ask but Paul provided it. "Danika."

Just the mention of that name made Dean's heart skip a beat. Even after all these years, just hearing her name or even thinking about her, stirred up all kinds of memories. Most of them were incredibly pleasant while the memory of the way things ended still haunted him.

He'd known when it began it would have to end. How could it not? Was he really going to marry her? Was she going to run off and leave her husband? The fact that he was both neglectful in the extreme and occasionally abusive meant she might leave him one day, and even now, he couldn't help but hope she had. But she definitely wasn't going to leave him for a teenage boy who was barely 18 and still in high school.

The affair had lasted for nearly six months, and when he finally left for college the following September, it had ended, but it ended with her crying and then sobbing as she too, knew it was over.

He'd never seen her again since that day, but as his first 'love' he could never forget her. And like this beautiful woman onboard his aircraft, 'his' Danika had also been a very beautiful woman.

She'd been 32 at the time, so she'd now be 47 or close to it. He knew when her birthday was and thought of her every year when it rolled around. Several times he'd thought about sending flowers anonymously, but he'd come to his senses before ever getting close to actually doing it.

And yet here he was 15 years later, and just hearing that name flooded his brain with all kinds of emotion.

"Captain?" he heard Paul say.

"Sorry. Yes?"

"We're cleared to push back."

"Thanks, Paul," he said before asking his co-pilot to let everyone on board know what they were doing.

Fifteen minutes later they were 'number 1 for takeoff' and Dean rolled the jet onto the runway then without stopping pushed the throttles forward. Seconds later, the nose came up and began its climb as Paul retracted the landing gear and the long flight to the west coast began.

When they reached cruising altitude, Paul got on the 'horn' and let the passengers know how long they'd be in the air and wished them a pleasant flight on behalf of Captain Dean Norton.

In economy class, a woman stopped a flight attendant and said, "Did I hear the captain's name correctly?"

"May I ask what you heard?" she asked politely.

"I thought I heard the name 'Dean Norton'."

"Then yes, you heard correctly," she said. "Do you know him by any chance?"

"I...I don't know," the woman, who's hands were trembling, said almost too quietly to be heard.

"If you did, you'd know," the younger woman said. "Trust me."

She leaned down and said, "You'd remember him because he's gorgeous! And nice as can be."

"Oh, my God," the woman said even more quietly.

"Ma'am? Is everything okay?" the flight attendant asked.

"What? Oh. Yes. Sorry. I...I'm fine," the woman replied.

The flight attendant turned to leave when the woman gently touched her arm to stop her.

"Yes?"

"Is he...do you know if...is the captain from the Seattle area?"

"As a matter of fact he is. He's been living in Minneapolis, but now that he's a captain, the airline is reassigning him. He mentioned he's going back home, so I assume that's the case anyway," she said with a smile.

The woman just stared at her for several seconds before realizing she was staring. She broke eye contact then thanked the flight attendant who this time, walked away.

Dean Norton wasn't a common name, but it wasn't all that unusual, either. It was very possible, and even likely, it was someone else with the same name. But the thought of it being him, the Dean Norton she'd once loved, was too much to contemplate.

It had been 15 years since she'd last seen him, and for two years after he left for college, she'd pined for him in secret in the worst kind of way. She'd been married at the time, and as bad as she'd felt for cheating, she'd been so drawn to this unusually mature young man that she'd given in the first time they were alone together. She'd never tried to justify it in her mind because there was no excuse for what she'd done.

But there were reasons. Chief among them was the constant verbal abuse and the utter physical neglect. Most of the time, the demeaning commentary was accompanied by abuse. He had a penchant for pushing her around and poking her in the chest so hard it often left bruises.

So while she never tried denying her actions were wrong, she'd never regretted them. The only thing she had regretted was having to say goodbye, and were it possible to change the past, that was the one thing she would go back and alter.

Then again, she knew that doing so would ruin his life; a life filled with so much promise. She'd been 32 and he was just 18, and she knew that no matter what he told her, he couldn't possibly know how being with her would change his life. And worst of all she knew it wouldn't be for the better. Letting him go had been the right thing to do, and yet even now she still wished she could have somehow found a way to make him stay.

Two years, and a lot of abuse later, she'd worked up the courage to leave her husband. She took and passed the teacher's certification test and began teaching high school but never remarried. It wasn't for any lack of interest on the part of more men than she could count, it was more that no one had ever been able to make her feel the way her young lover had. Ridiculous as it sounded, and Danika knew just how ridiculous that was, it was the truth, and until she could feel that again with a man, she had no intention of marrying someone just to be avoid being alone.

So she'd had a long string of short relationships and numerous one-night stands now referred to as 'hook ups', a term she despised, but love had eluded her all these years. Yet now, just the mention of his name brought the few short months they'd loved in secret back to her as though it was yesterday.

Before trying to push his memory out of her life again, she told herself it was almost certain he was married by now, and how could he not be? Even at 18 he'd been so handsome it hurt, and Danika felt just as certain Dean had continued the workout routine that had given him a body so amazing she could still grow wet just thinking about all these years later. But just as important to her was that he'd been smart, funny, and caring. Even then he was everything she'd ever dreamed of in a man and then some, and she'd have gladly worked to put him through college, but alas, that wasn't meant to be.

Danika sighed deeply before pushing those thoughts out of her mind and tried to focus on work--the one thing that still gave purpose and meaning to her life. New ideas on how to present the same old material swirled through her mind causing her to make mental notes for changes to her lesson plans. She knew the subject matter cold, but what still let it be fun after so many years of teaching was keeping it fresh and exciting for her students.

Danika wasn't above wearing a costume or creating a light show or decorating the room in some kind of lesson-appropriate theme. She used funny voices and could do nearly any accent, something that had gotten her called to the principal's office once. It had been an innocent, harmless quip, but after word got back to a particular parent who'd taken offense, she'd had to be extremely careful.

She found it sad that America had been divided into so many groups beginning with male and female then by race, with politicians pitting them against each other. But it was one of those problems too large for any one person to tackle so she did her best to maneuver within the confines of the issue. Her intent was never to offend anyone, and yet that seemed to happen all too often these days. It almost seemed like people, especially college students, felt they had a right of some kind to never feel offended, and that kind of detachment from reality troubled her most of all.

"Ma'am?" she heard as though it was coming from the distant end of some tunnel.

Danika opened one eye and saw a flight attendant standing there.

"Would you like chicken or fish?"

The flight was long enough for a meal, and although she'd only had toast and coffee for breakfast, she still couldn't eat. She settled for a bag of stale pretzels and a glass of orange juice before trying to close her eyes again and clear her head.

In the cockpit, Dean wasn't having any success with regard to letting go of the memories, either. Once they were on autopilot, he asked Paul a question.

"This woman. The one you said was so beautiful named Danika. Where was she sitting?"

"In Economy Plus. D-10 or 11. Why?"

"Just curious," Dean replied without looking at him.

"You wanna go take a look?"

"Nah. That's okay."

"You know I can fly the plane for a few minutes, right?" Paul said hoping not to sound petty.

"Of course. Hell, you could fly the entire route by yourself. Probably with your eyes closed."

"Then go take a peek. The airline loves having its flight crew 'grip and grin'. Especially its captains."

"Maybe later," Dean said, knowing how afraid he was of finding out.

In a way, he didn't want to go look. It was virtually impossible it was her, but if it was, would the way she'd changed 'ruin' his fantasies of how their time together had been? Or would she maybe be resentful for some reason? Might she even lash out at him and say things out of that resentment which had built up over the years because he'd 'abandoned her'?

Or worst of all, would she possibly not even remember him? That seemed unlikely unless there'd been a string of other affairs with other, much-younger men making him just one of many. But that seemed even less likely, as the Danika he'd known wasn't that kind of woman. He knew she felt guilty about their being together, but she'd been irresistibly drawn to him. Not to younger men but to him.

As he closed his eyes and thought about their first time, he felt that old familiar stirring that inevitably accompanied any mental image of her gorgeous, naked body. So hard and so firm and so amazingly beautiful. Just like her pretty face and amazing smile all surrounded by long, dark, silky hair that fell to just above two soft, beautiful, inviting breasts and a tight, narrow waist, and long, shapely legs.

"Cap'n?" Dean heard.

"What's that?" he asked as he sat up.

Paul laughed then said, "Nina wants to know if you're hungry."

Nina was the lead flight attendant, and she'd made it very clear she was single, available, and very interested in him even before he made captain. She was an attractive woman, but not someone for whom he had feelings, so he'd shined her constant attention off with good humor and some harmless innuendo.

He shook his head when he thought about her being part of the 'Me, Too' movement and reporting him for harassment. He'd never let that kind of thing get out of hand, but now all it took was one complaint that even sounded credible to create a firestorm of controversy and possibly end a career. Dean was a strong advocate for women's rights such as equal pay, but he also knew not every woman who made a claim was telling the truth. Crystal Mangum had nearly destroyed the lives of innocent lacrosse players at Duke University. And there was Tawana Brawley, and....

His last thought was how things had gotten so out of control in the western world with men and women, and the answer, at least on college campuses, was that his gender had caused all of the problems. So while he took complaints of sexual harassment very seriously, the threat of firing someone or anything close to it based solely on allegation was always in the forefront of his mind, and to him, that was an inexcusable shame.

He looked at his co-pilot then said, "Yeah, I could eat. They've got fish today, right?"

Paul gave him a 'you gotta be kidding' kind of look and shook his head.

"Um, yeah. But please tell me you're not gonna bring that nasty shit into the cockpit."

Chicken and fish, along with shrimp, were the 'meat' mainstays of his diet. But he knew how bad some fish smelled, so he decided on the chicken, which he hoped would actually be chicken rather than rubbery chicken parts pressed together in some factory.

After the meal, Dean wanted to wash his hands and brush his teeth, and realized he could stand to 'go' while he was there.

"You mind if I hit the latrine?" he asked Paul in Air Force-speak after Nina came in and took his tray, a huge smile on her face.

"Nope. Take your time. I'll pretend I'm the captain while you're gone."

It was said in good humor, but Dean knew that in spite of all Paul had said, it had to sting. Being passed over yet again, and especially for someone so young and relatively inexperienced, it wasn't possible not to notice.

"Thanks," Dean told him as he got up.

The restroom was directly behind him, and he intended to go into it without hesitation. The 'in use' sign wasn't lit, so he got up, opened the cockpit door, and just as he stepped into the aisle, a child grabbed the handle and pulled the door open.

Nina saw it and laughed.

"I hope you can hold it awhile longer, Captain."

She leaned closer then whispered, "If not...I'd be happy to. Hold it, that is."

Dean smiled and somehow managed not to shake his head. He knew it was okay for her to say something like that, but it was very much not okay for him to do so.