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Chapter Text

Standing out on the runway, I was rubbing my hands together because I was so excited about this supply drop. I had spent the bulk of my adult life so far trying to track down one of these things that were coming in, granted it wasn’t much of an adult life so far, but well, just finding one of these! I couldn’t wait to crack open the crate when it got here. Lifting my hand to block out the sun, I kept watching for what was going to be a heavy lift plane that would have to be used for this. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a blue-haired woman lean forward a little, her blue eyes full of mirth and she asks me, “What are you doing, Captain?”

“Keeping an eye out for a present.” I tell her as I keep scanning the sky.

“Oh? Is it for me? Or maybe it’s for one of the other girls?” she asks while playfully stroking my right arm.

“It’s for me, I’ve spent ages trying to find one of these.” I tell her as I shift my weight from one foot to the next.

“Come on, don’t keep a girl waiting, what is it?” she pesters me while leaning into my space a little.

“Something special to me, my great, great granddad flew one of these after the Korean War.” I tell her and rub my hands together again.

She looks off to the side, her lips pressing together and pointing off to the side as she says to me, “I missed that one, Essex was there for it though.”

“It’s alright Tico, this bird never active combat either. She was a bit of an interwar period plane between Korea and Vietnam.” I tell her as I spot a heavy lift transport on the horizon.

“Well, that narrows it down a little.” She says with a dry tone and a raised eyebrow before adding, “any hints?”

“It’s a jet.” I say with a grin as I move off to the side of the taxiway.

“That’s not much to go on.” She says dryly as she puts her hands behind her head and moves to stand beside me.

Rolling my eyes before I give her a sideways look and say, “Fine, she did go into production, but it was a limited run.”

Her arms move from behind her head to under her bust, her brow knitting together before she asks, “So, not something I can put into my plane inventory then?”

I shake my head from side to side as I tell her, “Not likely, besides it was super hard to track this bird down.”

“Come on, another hint,” she pauses to latch onto my left arm, pulling it tightly between her bust as she whispers in my ear in a husky tone, “please.”

Looking off to the side I clear my throat and try to focus on the here and now as I tell her, “You got all I’m going to give, if you can’t guess it, then you can wait.”

“Fine.” She sighs but holds my arm tighter before whispering in my ear, “What if Gridley took a picture of the two of us like this, it could be really awkward.”

I try to pull my arm away but she tugs it back and puts a bit of a lewd tone into her voice as she says, “Captain! Not so rough, you need to be gentler with me.”

My cheeks go so hot.

Closing my eyes and letting out a slow sigh as I tell her, “One of these days, Tico, I am going to call that bluff.”

She grins and blows into my ear as she whispers, “No, you won’t.”

XXXX

It took almost an hour for the transport to land and unloaded most of the cargo out the back, but this was a bird that had a loading ramp in the front too. I had managed to untangle myself from Ticonderoga and stood by the nose of the transport while the massive nose started to rotate up. As the sunlight crept into the cavernous inside of the great flying leviathan of a transport, I saw it, the black tip of the nose that flowed into a two-tone grey on the fuselage and a white belly, balling my fists and shaking them in excitement just as the loadmaster came up to me and handed me a datapad as she said, “What is it? I’ve never seen a plane like this one, it kind of reminds me of an old Phantom.”

Taking the datapad and looking over everything I say to her, “She’s the plane that came before the Phantom, she’s a Demon.”

The loadmaster shrugged and took the datapad back before gesturing to her crew to start unloading the bird. I feel so excited as I watch the plane getting pushed out of the transport, the way the wings were folded up, the layer of dust giving her a dull look in the light. I hurry over to the bird, and look down the intakes, my eyes watering up as I curse out, “God damn it!” I then open up the access panels on the fuselage under the nose and tilt my head to the side as I call out, “Are you kidding me?! She can have her guns, but not her engine?!”

Slumping to the ground and leaning against the nose wheel I take out my phone and start to search for an Allison J71 series engine, I don’t care if it doesn’t work, I’ve got a machine shop on the base that could make the parts to fix it. Chewing on my thumb, I missed Ticonderoga sitting down beside me, until she bumped shoulders with me and said, “She’s pretty, but what’s wrong with her?”

I close my eyes and sigh, “She’s got no engine.”

“Sounds kind of like an important part.” She tells me.

“It is, without it, she’s just a static display.” I sigh before adding, “I had wondered why it was so inexpensive, but the guy said she was complete.”

“Can I see the ad?” Ticonderoga asks me.

Swiping quickly to the link I had to the ad, and flipping my phone over to her, I feel her take it from me for a few moments before she asks, “Did you read the entire ad?”

“I read enough, ‘Complete McDonnell F-3B Demon 1964 vintage’.” I tell her, pulling my knees to my chest and resting my chin on them.

She drapes an arm over my head and shows me a highlighted part of the ad and I read it out loud, “Complete with armaments, the engine needs to be sourced.” I groan and lean back, against Ticonderoga as I say, “Damn it.”

“Come on, Captain, it can’t be that bad, right?” She asks like she’s trying to cheer me up.

Getting off the ground and turning around to face the grey plane I sigh, “I guess not, but, I was really looking forward to getting this into the air. But now I have a 22,000-pound paperweight, what am I going to do with it?”

Ticonderoga stands up behind me and presses herself against my back as she whispers, “I can think of a different cockpit you could spend some time in.”

I jump forward my face burning hot, and I bounce off of the fuselage, holding my nose as yelp in pain. Ticonderoga for her part is laughing and I snap, “That’s not funny Tico!”

“I was talking about one of my corsairs, what did you think I was talking about, Captain?” she continues to laugh.

Blinking away the pain and making sure I wasn’t bleeding I tell her, “Doesn’t matter, anyway I need to get this into a hangar then figure out what I’m going to do with this.”

“Oh come on, Captain, don’t be upset.” She says in a softer tone of voice before placing a handkerchief against my nose.

“Thanks, Tico, but for now, could you just leave me be?” I ask her as I take away the handkerchief, seeing no blood I add, “And I’ll get this washed before giving it back.”

Ticonderoga shrugs at me before she turns and starts to walk away, adding over her shoulder with a wink, “Offer still stands, Captain.”

Sighing to myself I go and get the push truck to get this paperweight into the hanger for the night, I’ll figure out what to do with it later.

XXXX
XXXX

When I got back to the office, my secretary stood up from behind her desk, with a datapad in her hand, pink pigtails bouncing as she asks, “So?”

I hang my head and sigh, “Yes and no.”

“How’s that work?” she asks with a head tilting to the side while she holds the datapad against her bust.

“I got the bird, she’s got her guns of all things, but I missed the part about her not having her engine.” I groan as I walk towards my office door.

“But it said it was complete?” She says with a puzzled tone.

“I know. But Tico pointed out the fine print, that I missed, where it said the engine would need to be sourced.” I tell her as I put my hand on the door handle before asking, “Anything important come up while I was out, Brem?”

She looks off to the side with her pink eyes before looking at her datapad and saying to me, “Nothing that can’t wait for today, Sir.”

I nod and enter my office, closing the door behind me and I go over to my desk to look at the pictures I had on it, one of three women and me smiling and laughing, two of the women had platinum blond hair while the third had golden hair. Beside that one was a solo picture of the one with golden hair and I say, “I miss you, Hornet.”

Sitting down I pick up the picture of the blond and touch the image of her as I ask, “Is it alright, if I start entertaining the idea of seeing someone? I mean I think you’d want me to be happy.”

I knew no answer would come, so I put the picture back and turn to my computer to look over the messages I know I’ve got from high command. The first thing that jumps out at me is the list of kansen rotating in and out, I see that I’ve got two Essex class that are being rotated out, CV-9 and CV-38, in their place I’m getting CV-10 and CV-12. I shrug to myself, not a lot I can do about this, and after a few moments I reach over to the intercom and press the button on it before I say, “Actually, Brem, do you have a few moments?”

A heartbeat later, my office door opens and I see Bremerton standing there, a pen and notepad in her hands while she walks over to sit in a chair by my desk and asks, “What’s up?”

I look off to the side and rub my left arm as I say to her, “Remember how you said I could always come and talk to you if I needed help with something?”

She nods and puts the notepad and pen down on my desk as she says, “Yeah, I said that after we lost Hornet, but you never took me up on it.”

Closing my eyes I sigh, “Well, while I was waiting for the transport to come in, I think Tico was flirting with me, more than normal.”

Bremerton nods and strokes her pink pigtails before she says, “Tico’s always been flirty, though. What made this different?”

Pressing my lips together I think about the interaction this morning as I tell Bremerton, “Well, she was holding on to me more, but the way she offered to let me have a spin in a cockpit, I got the impression it wasn’t about her corsairs like she said it was.”

Bremerton leans back in the chair, crossing her feet as her arms folded under her bust and she asks me, “Well, that sound like Tico, a lot of innuendoes wrapped up in playfulness. Are you sure you’re not reading into this?”

Shrugging again as I look at the picture of Hornet on my desk as I say to her, “I don’t know, I mean I miss Hornet, a lot, and I was finally in a good place, being excited about getting that Demon. But sitting in my office and seeing these pictures,” I pause and turn the two of them around and continue, “I wonder if it’d be alright for me to call Tico’s bluff or not.”

Bremerton reaches over to pick up the one of me, Hornet, Yorktown, and Enterprise, the four of us at the beach laughing, with Hornet riding on my back. She touches the glass of the frame as she says to me, “Losing the both of them so close together really hit this port hard, Captain. I know that all of us dealt with it differently, with Enterprise transferring out, North Carolina, and Washington going with her. But” she pauses to put the picture down as she says, “I think you were the one that hasn’t really moved on, ya know?”

I pick up the picture of the four of us and nod as I say, “Which is why I’m wondering if it’s time I put myself back out there. I mean with Tico, I get the sense she’s willing, but I don’t want to get hurt, again.”

Bremerton reaches over the desk to touch my right hand as she says, “Be upfront with Tico, maybe after Essex and Lala have transferred out, she’s going to be tied up with them for a little while.” She pauses again to lean back and look at the picture of just Hornet as she continues, “I’m sure Hornet would be the first to tell you, to move on, and be happy.”

“Maybe you’re right,” I say with a sigh and add, “I just really miss her, ya know?”

Bremerton gets up and walks around behind my desk and places my head against her bust from the side and strokes my hair as she says, “We all do, Captain.” After a minute, she lets go of me and leans over my should and brings up the website I used to track down that Demon and she says, “Now, let’s try and find you something else to distract you for now.”

Laughing a little and looking at the pictures out of the corner of my eye I say, “Alright, but finding something else might be a bit hard, that Deamon took years to track down.”

Bremerton rolls her pink eyes as she lightly scolds me, “Yeah, they only made around 500 of them, let’s look for something with a higher production run, ya?”

Putting my hands up I sigh, “Alright, alright, though I don’t know how I’d get something with an engine, they’re stupidly expensive.”

Bremerton winks at me and says, “Base expense.”

Blinking a couple of times I ask, “Base expense?”

She laughs and says to me, “I’m sure I figure out a way to get something into the monthly base budget, just means some of us might need to request fewer things for a month or two.”

Shaking my head I say to her, “I couldn’t ask you, girls, to do that.”

“Seriously, after all, you do for us, I’m sure I can get everyone else onboard with it.” She confirms, before standing upright and making her way to the door and adding, “Just let me talk with them first, okay? Don’t hit the buy button on anything till then.”

“Alright, and I’ll be sure to check the fine print this time.” I tell her with a slight chuckle.

“You better.” She says while winking and sticking the tip of her tongue out at me before she leaves and I turn back to looking at old warbirds.

XXXX
XXXX

Chapter Text

Standing in front of the mirror as I work on getting dressed, I look up at the corner to see a black cowboy hat with gold inside hanging there. I reach over and touch it and close my eyes as I sigh, “You should’ve taken your lucky hat.” Finishing with my uniform I turn and look over my room, close my eyes and take a step forward and place a cardboard box on the bed and say, “I’ll start packing up later, it’s time to move forward.” I pause and look at the hat again before adding, “But that can stay, just not here.” Moving back over to the mirror, I take the hat off of it and make my way downstairs so that I can get on with the day.

When I made it into the office, I noticed I was in before Bremerton, which made this a bit easier, as I wouldn’t have to answer any questions about the cardboard box I had with me. My first stop in my office was the bookshelf, on it I had a model of the Yorktown class carrier Hornet and I placed the black hat beside it and said, “That’s a good space for you.”

Turning to my desk, I carefully place the pictures of Hornet and her sisters into it, moving to the desk drawer I open it and take out the wrapped present that she had left for me in there, after she was gone, I never had the heart to open it. As soon as I drop it into the box, my office door opens causing me to look up just as Bremerton walks in, her head tilts to the side as she asks, “Captain?”

I give her a weak smile as I look back in the box and say, “Just putting things away.”

Bremerton comes over and takes the box away from me and asks, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

I shrug and say to her, “I’m moving forward, so some things need to go away so that I can.”

Bremerton shifts the box around so that it’s under one of her arms as she says, “I get that, but what I mean is, are you sure you want to do this yourself? I’m sure one of us could do it for you.”

I shake my head and reach for the box as I say to her, “This is something I need to do, closure and all that.”

She looks back at the box and says in a caring tone of voice, “If you’re sure.”

“No, but I need to.” I tell her as I go over to my bookshelf and start to take off the little knickknacks Hornet had given me, just careful to avoid the model and the black hat.

Bremerton places a hand on mine as she says, “Hey, I can cover this, why don’t you go to my desk and take a look at the planes I think you could pick from, they should all fit within the budget for a month or two.”

I hand her back the box as I say, “Alright.” Once I was at her desk, I saw that she already had the site up and I start scrolling through the list, I know that I’m looking for something with jet engines, I want something really different, when I get to the bottom of the list, my mouth drops open and I say, louder than I intended, “No freaking way!”

A moment later I hear Bremerton chuckle softly from my office as she says, “Found the Phantom II did ya?”

Bringing up the pictures of the bird, she looked gorgeous, under the nose I don’t see the cannon mount and I ask, “Is this a J or S model?”

“Late J.” she calls to me from my office, there is a pause before she adds, “She saw service over Vietnam with the Black Aces.”

Looking at one of the side pictures I see the black ace playing card with a 41 on it and the red stripe and I say, “How much are they asking for her?”

“Oddly enough, she’s the cheapest of the lot, I had to call in a favor to even find her.” Bremerton says to me as she leaves my office with a closed cardboard box and adds, “Apparently, they are closing the museum she’s at and want to clear her out and send her to a good home.”

Looking at her and the box she had her bust resting on, I close my eyes to center myself before I say, “I want it.”

She nods and says to me, “I’ll see what I can do about intercepting one of the main cargo ships to grab it on their way here, they should be leaving San Diego sometime this week.”

I get out from behind her desk and take the box from her as I say, “I’ll put this into storage.”

She’s hesitant to hand it over but nods after a moment as she says, “Alright if you ever want to talk about Hornet, I’m happy to.”

I shake my head as I tell her, “No, it’s been almost a year, I need to do this, I need to close this chapter.”

As I start to walk away, Bremerton hugs me from behind as she tells me, “You know all of us here care about you, Sir, we all want to help you move forward.”

Shifting the weight around so that I can pat her hands as I tell her, “Thanks Brem, I really do appreciate it. But I’ll be okay, it’s time for me to move forward.” She lets go of me and I start a lonely walk to the cold storage lockers, ready to try and put this part of my life behind me.

XXXX
Approximately a week later
XXXX

Closing the cold storage lockers behind me and resting my head against it, I felt, conflicted. On one hand, I know her things will be locked inside of here, till I leave the base, but at the same time, after I had packed everything away at home, it looked so empty with so many empty spaces now. Taking a breath to center myself, before turning around and starting my walk back to the office, I noticed a collection of the girls coming towards me, Tico leading the pack. When they got up to me, Tico came over and just wrapped me in a tight embrace and whispered in my ear, “That must’ve been hard.”

Out of instinct, I wrapped my arms around her waist and whispered, “You have no idea.”

She leaned back, smiled at me, and brushed my cheek, before letting go of me, then a blue-haired light cruiser came up to me and hugged me tightly around my chest as she said, “We all miss, Hornet, but are you okay?”

I pat her back as I tell her, “Yeah, I’ll be okay, thanks for asking Helena.”

She steps back and I look at the collection of kansen that have shown up for some reason and my head tilts to the side just as I ask, “What’s going on?”

The girls all look at one another, before they say in unison, “Nothing!” and scatter in different directions, except for Tico, who just stood off to the side, arms folded across her belly, one knee slightly bent as she twisted a foot around in circles and asked, “So, are you busy?”

Looking at my watch and seeing the time I tell her, “Actually, yeah, there’s something I need to get to, the new kansen should be arriving shortly.”

She looks off to the side before playing with some of her long light blue hair and telling me, “I’m sure, Bremerton can handle that, why not come and see if you can call my bluff?”

“As tempting as that is, Tico, I can’t do that. It’s part of my job to welcome the new girls to port.” I confirm to her as I start to walk toward the docks.

A moment later I felt someone take hold of my left arm then it was pressed between something soft and I heard Tico ask, “Come on, wouldn’t spending some alone time with me, be more fun?”

When I twisted my head around, I could see that she was leaning forward with her tie undone and showing much more cleavage while my arm was tucked between her bust. I raised an eyebrow and said to her, “Tico, what’s gotten into you? I mean I know you flirt with me, but this seems like something else.”

She smiles at me and uses her free hand to touch my cheek as she says, “Maybe I want to do more than flirt, maybe I think you’re finally ready for more than harmless flirting.”

I tug my arm away as I say to her, “Not today, Tico, I’ve got a task to do, and I just put Hornet’s stuff into cold storage.” I pause and pull my arm away completely away from her and continue to walk as I say, “Maybe a couple more days, and I might take you up on it, just, not today.”

During my walk to the docks, I could hear Tico following me the entire way, even pleading with me to spend time with her, almost like she didn’t want me going to the docks. As I got closer, I could see them, a pair of Essex class Carriers, already at the docks their blue, grey, and nearly black dazzle camouflage made them stand out against the other two Essex class ships I had in port. Looking at them, I could see that they weren’t long hulls like Tico, no they were more like the older type of Essex class, like Intrepid. Down at the docks, I spotted pink pigtails talking to someone that was obscured by buildings, so I hurried down there. Once I was close enough to not shout, I called, “Bremerton, thanks for getting this started.”

She spun around to see me, her pink eyes going wide, and she looks over my shoulder at Tico and says, “I told you to keep him distracted!”

“I tried!” Tico protests.

Bremerton makes a gesture to the kansen I can’t see and comes over to me, stopping me short, and says, “Really, Captain, I got this covered, I know it’s been a long and hard day for you.”

Never in my life have I seen Bremerton look at me with worry in her eyes, but today, today I saw it when I heard a voice that sounded really familiar, “Is that the base commander? Come, we should introduce ourselves.”

Bremerton spun around again and dashed towards the building, but it was too late, I saw her come around the side and my breath caught in my throat, she was tall, with long silver hair, warm blue eyes, a white dress that hugged all of her curves while leaving them highly exposed at the same time. Behind her slightly to the right, I saw a second woman that made my chest get tight, her long blond pigtails and green eyes, she was in the same black bikini top and black shorts. She winked at me and pointed a finger at me and said, “Yo, Captain, I’m…”

I didn’t let her finish that, I hurried over to her and hugged her tightly, tears starting to run down my face as I said, “I’ve missed you so much, Hornet.”

I feel her awkwardly pat my back as she says, “So, this is kind of awkward.”

Awkward?

I let go of her and step back, tilting my head as I ask, “Hornet, it’s me, Will.”

Hornet looks at me sideways with her green eyes that I notice are a little different in color than what I remember, her lips compressing in a way that suggests she’s thinking for a moment before she shrugs and says, “Sorry, I don’t remember anyone named ‘Will’,”

I feel like I’ve been kicked in the chest, from behind me I hear Bremerton ask, “Tico, can you take them to get squared away? I’ll take care of Captain Gellar.”

“Right.” I hear Tico say with a pause before continuing, “If you’d two follow me, I’ll take you to the Essex class dorm.”

I just kind of stand there stunned for a while before I hear Bremerton say, “Hey, are you doing okay?”

I shake my head a couple of times before turning and looking in the direction of the dorms and asking, “Why didn’t she know me? That was Hornet, right?”

Bremerton moves to stand beside me and she says, “Sort of. CV-8 Hornet died, this Hornet CV-12, in theory, has some of her memories locked away, at least that’s what the documentation said.” Bremerton pauses to touch my arm as she continues, “Apparently they used some kind of shortcut with special wisdom cubes so that they could cut down the training time for CV-10 Yorktown and CV-12 Hornet.”

My brow knits together and I ask, “So, are those memories locked away, like forever?”

“Captain, I’m not so sure you should try and unlock them, I’d hate to see you try and pressure one of us into something.” Bremerton warns.

“Brem, she was the love of my life, we talked about getting married after the war. How can I,” I start to say and she puts a finger against my lips and says to me, “This Hornet isn’t that Hornet. This Hornet, Yorktown, North Hampton, and Hamman that we just got in are all experimental resurrections.” She pauses and looks off to the side before handing me a datapad and adding, “And High Command does not want this getting screwed up.”

I look at the datapad and swipe along till I get to Hornet and I feel both hope and sadness at the same time, the information shows that she has an aptitude towards the known metrics of CV-8, but when she was brought back she was looking for Yorktown and Enterprise. I keep reading deeper into the information and feel my heartbreak, she had been shown an image of me and asked who that was and it had been left at that. I close my eyes and hand it back to Bremerton as I tell her, “I can’t read anymore, this is too depressing.”

Bremerton hugs me and places my head against her shoulder as she rubs my back and says, “I know, Captain, I know.” She pauses to lean her head against mine as she adds, “It’s why I asked Tico to keep you busy as I dealt with this and figured out how to break this to you.”

I sigh and lean out of the embrace as I ask her, “How long did you know?”

Bremerton lets go of me and she looks off to the side as she scratches her right cheek and says, “I knew when I saw the rotation, it’s why I made an edit to the information you got so that you didn’t see the names of the girls coming in.”

I put a hand on her left shoulder and say a little sternly, “Thank, Brem. But, don’t do that again.”

She rubs the back of her head as she laughs nervously, “Right, I’ll do my best to remember. Do you want to grab some dinner, maybe talk through these events?”

I take a deep breath and sigh, “That might be a good idea.”

XXXX
XXXX

The next morning I made it into the office before Bremerton did and when I stepped into my office, I saw her standing there with her back to me, a long black cape on, at the base of it I saw that it read CV-12, on her blond head I saw that black cowboy hat. I could tell she was holding something with both hands, she seemed to notice I was in the doorway and she looked over her shoulder at me and asked, “So, you knew the old me?”

I close my eyes and fight the urge to go over to her, to hold and kiss her, with a sigh I go over to my desk and open my upper right drawer, taking out the two photos, I decided to keep, laying them face up on the desk as I tell her, “You could say that.”

She picks up the picture of the four of us at the beach, after putting down the model of the Yorktown class Hornet I had, I can see her brow wrinkle for a moment and she says, “I remember this, but I don’t remember you. I remember taking out a jet ski and,”

“And it zipped out from under you when you tried to do a jump over the waves.” I finish the story for her.

“Yeah.” She says with a sideways look at me.

I close my eyes and let out a slow breath before I tell her, “I can’t do anything about what you do and what you don’t remember, but keep the hat, it’s yours after all.”

She takes the hat off of her head and looks at it for a minute as she says, “Something in me told me to take this off your shelf.”

I shrug and stand from behind my desk to put the ship model back as I tell her, “It was your lucky hat, you always wore it while on a mission, except,”

“The last one, I’m guessing?” she finishes for me.

With my back to her, I nod and place the model down, gently positioning the B-25’s on the deck as I confirm, “Yeah.”

I sense her come over to stand beside me, and when I look to my right, I see her lean forward a little and she smiles at me before saying, “Then I’ll be sure to keep the hat with me this time.”

Giving her a weak smile, I’m reminded how much I love that smile of hers and I tell her, “Sounds good, is there anything you needed?”

Hornet stands upright again and looks puzzled for a moment before turning around to look at my office as she says, “Not that I know of, in fact, I’m not entirely sure why I even came in here in the first place, my feet just kind of walked here, on their own.”

Maybe my Hornet is in there, somewhere?

She shrugs and turns back around as she says, “Either way, I’ll be off now, Sir, unless you have orders for me?”

I shake my head and close my eyes as I remember my Hornet doing the exact same thing and I tell her, “Dismissed, Hornet.” When I open my eyes I watch her leave my office and I go and sit behind my desk, open my lower right drawer and look at the bottle of scotch that was in there and say before I close it up, “Not this morning.”

XXXX
XXXX

Chapter Text

It’d been a hard couple of weeks with Hornet back, but not back at the same time. But now, now I had something to distract me, my shinny-new-old F-4J had arrived and I was currently inspecting her from nose to tail. While running my hands along the port wing leading edge, I frowned a little and called to Bremerton that had come down to the runway with me to inspect my new toy, “There’s some damage to the leading edge on the port wing, not enough to ground her, but enough to cause some issues during flight.”

I hear her tap away on her datapad as she says, “To be expected, during shipping. I’m kind of disappointed they didn’t do a better job of protecting her during transit.”

Moving under the port wing I spot another bit of required repair work, “Found more on the port wing, looks like a panel is damaged down here too, by the landing gear, and it looks like damage to the wheel as well.”

“Well, that sucks; it’s going to take ages to get a new wheel out here for that.” Bremerton says back as she types away.

Getting out from under the wing, I move to the turkey feathers and see that everything looks good as I say to her, “Minor heat discoloration on the turkey feathers, but it’s to be expected. Besides, what’s a little more disappointment? I mean the last couple of weeks have been full of them.”

“Sir,” Bremerton starts then sighs, “I know having Hornet back hasn’t gone how you’d expect it, but she’s at least back, right?”

I hang my head before moving around to the starboard side and sigh, “Yeah, having her back is great, but not having her back is hard, ya know? I just kind of wonder why she remembers some things, some things I was there for, and not others, I want to know why I’m not present in any of the memories I was there for.”

“Now that you mention it, that is rather strange. I mean for her to remember beach trips that you, her, Yorktown, and Enterprise took together, but you’re not in that memory for her is alarming.” Bremerton says as she moves to the starboard side of the plane.

My brow knits together as I tell her, “That’s not the only thing, there are things she remembers that were just the two of us,” I pause when I see Bremerton grimace and I roll my eyes before saying, “nothing lewd, I’m talking about our first date where we watched a western movie she wanted to see so bad. She remembers watching it, just without me.”

“Well,” Bremerton starts to say before stopping herself as I hear a voice that fills me with both joy and sadness right now, “Yo, Captain Gellar!”

Looking over the wing, my heart leaps into my throat as I see Hornet walking towards me and Bremerton, her black bikini top that seems like it’s a size too small now, that same carefree smile on her face. Taking a second to center myself I hear her continue, “Is that a new toy for me?”

Looking at Bremerton I can see the worry on her face and I do my best to give her a reassuring smile before I say to Hornet, “Not this one, this one is mine.”

Hornet comes over to the nose of my new toy, takes off her right glove, and places her bare hand against the nose. I watch as blue lines lance out over the airframe, making a circuitry pattern across it before Hornet frowns and says, “Not that it’d matter, but this plane isn’t compatible with my rigging anyway.”

I rub my left arm and look off to the side before I ask, “What brings you down to the airfield anyway?”

She shrugs and moves to lean over the starboard wing, her brow knitting together as she says, “I’m not sure, I was feeling a little lonely with Yorktown and Northy being out on a patrol and I just kind of walked here.”

I give her a sideways look and ask, “Okay, but why here? I mean there’s like fifty other girls here.”

Again she shrugs and tells me, “I don’t know, first I went to this house down by the beach, but no one was there, then I felt something tell me to come here.”

I look at Bremerton, her pink eyes going wide at the mention of my quarters, and I ask, “How did you know, no one was there?”

“I knocked a few times.” She says before stopping and digging in her shorts to take out a key to my quarters as she asks, “Oh! And I found these in a pair of shorts I had in my room, from before, do you know what it goes to?”

I reach over to take the key, but stop myself as I sigh, “Yeah, I know.”

Bremerton comes over and places a hand on my arm and shakes her head as I tell Hornet, “But don’t worry about it.”

Hornet walks around the wing till she’s right next to me and takes my arm, grins, and begs, “Come on, Captain, don’t make a girl beg, I wanna know!”

I look off to the side and close my eyes before I sigh, “No, you don’t.”

“Captain?” Hornet asks me as I pull my arm away and I turn to Bremerton and tell her, “Let's get those repairs in the pipe and get a new wheel ordered, then would you mind taking care of Hornet for a while?”

Bremerton nods at me as she says, “On it.”

As I start walking away, I hear Hornet ask Bremerton, “What’s his damage?”

Bremerton sighs as she says, “A lot.”

XXXX
XXXX

Later that evening I’m sitting on my back porch, with a Chicago-style pizza from the little pizza shop near the base, I’m looking out over the water, my eyes locked on the hull of CV-12 and I say, “This is just a cruel joke.”

Reaching over and taking out a slice and taking a bite, just as I hear my front door open and close. I drop the slice and get off the porch; I know that only me, Bremerton, and Hornet have a key to that door. I start to walk through my quarters, a little curious as to who it is I was almost in the living room when I hear a crash and a thump. Moving quickly to get over there, I see a blond passed out on my floor and an empty champagne bottle beside her, rolling around slightly, my head tilts to the side just as out of the corner of my eye I see Bremerton rushing in from the other side, she’s wobbling a little and I ask, “Brem?”

Bremerton waves her hand dismissively as she says, “I’m not drunk, well, maybe a little, but enough to know that this is bad.”

“Why are you two drunk, and more importantly, why is Hornet passed out on my floor?” I ask her with a raised eyebrow.

Bremerton walks over to Hornet and slumps down to her knees as she says, “She told me to follow her, that she knew a good place to drink.”

“But why here?” I ask again.

Bremerton lulls her head around to look at me, her face red from the booze as she says, “She gets flashes of memory, more like feelings. She knows that you are a safe place for her, a place she can go at any time and feel good.”

I run a hand down my face and sigh, “Well, you two can crash here tonight, I’ll take the couch, and you two take the bed.”

Bremerton gives me this sloppy smile before getting to her feet and taking hold of Hornet’s feet. I move to lift Hornet by the shoulders and as soon as I touch her, I hear her whisper, “Will, save me.” Hearing her whisper my name was perhaps the best thing I’d heard in weeks. But for now, I had something to do, I needed to get her into a bed.

XXXX

In the middle of the night, I felt something cuddling against me, it was warm and was pressing against my front. Opening my eyes I see a mass of hair and my ears catch the soft sound of someone else’s breathing. I close my eyes and take a deep breath through my nose, the scent is so familiar, a pleasant mix of honey and vanilla. With a little squeeze of this mass in front of me, I hear my name get whispered again, “Keep me safe, Will.” I do my best not to tear up, squeezing my eyes shut and letting myself drift back off, breathing in this pleasant scent.

XXXX

When I wake in the morning, I find that my quarters have been cleared out by Bremerton and Hornet, and I’m left wondering if it had been a dream that Hornet was cuddling against me. Looking down at the pillow I'd been using, I see a single golden hair and I say, “Maybe.”

Getting out off the couch and going to the kitchen, I see that my pizza box from last night is on the table, flipping open the lid, I see that three-quarters of it happen to be gone and I laugh a little, “Figures Hornet would help herself.” Grabbing a coffee and getting into the shower, I needed to get going for the day, the port won’t run itself, after all.

XXXX
XXXX

Chapter Text

“Dealer. Tower, preflight checks done, ready for clearance.” I say into the radio while my left hand made sure the flaps were in the takeoff position before moving over to the throttle, my right hand gripping the stick, and the butterflies in my stomach were doing loops. It had taken another three weeks to get the repairs done and fabricate a new wheel for this F-4, but now, now I was getting to take her up!

“Tower. Dealer you’re clear.” I hear the voice of Bremerton say back, she had agreed to stay at the tower for this, saying she wasn’t keen on getting into a coffin strapped to some rockets.

With confirmation, I push the engines to full power and feel like I'm pushed into the back of the seat when the engines roar to life. When the nose starts to pitch up, I pull the stick back and feel my stomach drop as I pull away from the ground. My left hand moves with haste to the gear controls to bring them as I continue my ascent skyward.

Rolling starboard as I continue to climb higher and higher, the rush I’m getting as I split through the cloud layer is amazing. Taking a moment to look out over my starboard wing I look at the blue of the sky and the white of the cloud and I think about that time Hornet told me about the first time she took direct control of her Wildcats and had one do this. I smirk a sad smirk as it hits me, that like her first time doing this, I was also doing it in a plane with the designation of F-4. Finishing my roll and leveling out, I proceeded to follow the planned flight plan for this first flight.

XXXX

As soon as my boots hit the ground, I turned and stroked the nose of this bird and said to her, “You are amazing.”

“I know I am.” Says a voice that is instantly recognizable, Hornet.

Closing my eyes and taking a slow, deep breath, I correct her, “I was talking to the plane.”

“I know, but both can be true at the same time.” She says just as I look over my shoulder and see her standing behind me with her hands folded behind her head and that same carefree grin on her face.

Tilting my head to the side I sigh, “True.”

Letting her hands fall to her sides she starts to walk forward and inspect the Phantom as she says, “If we had been able to use these, I don’t think the Sirens would’ve stood a chance.”

Taking the notepad that I had on my left thigh out of the pocket and started to scribble down some of the notes I had for the Manjuu in maintenance for this bird. Clicking the pen closed once I was done, I correct Hornet, “They tried; apparently there was a compatibility issue with more modern ships and wisdom cubes. Now can I help you with something?”

Her hands go to her hips and she rounds on me, leaning forward a little while she says, clearly taking issue with my tone of voice, “Look, I get it, we used to be close, but I don’t remember! But if this is what you were like before, I don’t know how we got to be so close!”

“Then why did you crawl onto the couch and cuddle with me, when you crashed at my place?” I ask back with a raised eyebrow.

She went bright red, her green eyes going wide and she stamps her foot while standing upright before folding her arms under her bust and looking off to the side as she said, “I don’t know. I had a bad dream and just went to you.”

With a sigh, I pinch the bridge of my nose and shake my head back and forth a few times before I say to her, “Look, I’ve got some stuff to clear up now, so unless you need me for something, I’ll be on my way.”

Hornet looked down and had the most adorable pout on her lips as she made a gesture with her right hand under her left breast and said, “Whatever.”

XXXX
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Closing my locker that I hung my flight gear in I rest my head against the door and pound my right first against the metal as I say, “I hate this.”

“She hates it as well, Will, as well as finds it highly alarming that she’s drawn to you and doesn’t know why.” Someone says behind me.

Spinning around, I see a warm smiling face, her hands folded in front of her, with her arms pushing her bust together and I’m left wondering how she doesn’t spill out of that top. Looking at her blue eyes, I rub the back of my head with my left hand, while my right hand makes sure that my towel is done up and I say, “Yorktown, I’m not sure you should be in here.”

Her head tilts to the right, and she giggles softly as she says, “Will, I’ve seen you in far, far less. Remember, Christmas a few years ago?”

My cheeks go so hot and I laugh nervously as I say, “How can I forget, that was how I met you, Yorktown.”

Yorktown crosses the floor to pat my right cheek as she says, “Trust me, it made an impression on me and Enty, but seeing how happy you were making Hornet, we made you family that day.” I was about to say something when she pulled me into a familiar hug and whispered, “And you still are.”

My hands went around her and I buried my face into her should, the tears started to follow as say to her, “Why is this so hard? Why do you remember me and she doesn’t?”

Yorktown pats my back as she shushes me and tells me, “I didn’t at first, at least not until I started to tend my blue roses, then everything came back in a rush.”

Leaning out of the embrace, I tilt my head to the side, feeling the confusion on my face as I ask, “How does that work? I mean I know you loved those flowers.”

Yorktown’s face goes bright red and she angles her hips away from me as she says, “I’m not entirely sure, Will. But would you mind terribly if we stopped hugging like this?”

My cheeks go so hot again as I jump back a little and mumble, “Sorry, it’s got a mind of its own.”

Yorktown lifts a hand to her chin as she closes her blue eyes and giggles softly as she says, “It must have a small brain then.”

Taking on a mock look of hurt I say to her, “Hey now!”

Yorktown reaches over at pats my left cheek again as she says, “I know, Will, Hornet only ever espoused joy about it.”

Looking off to the side and clearing my throat as I grab my kit and move towards the showers I say to Yorktown, “Sorry about that, I know she can be a bit loud. Anyway, you said things came back after you started tending your flowers?”

From outside the shower, I hear her tell me, “Yes, something similar happened for Hamman when she was inspecting her cat ear headbands.”

“Interesting.” I say as I look over my shoulder and see Yorktown leaning around the corner and I cover myself as I add, “Hey!”

She smirks and says to me, “I’ve undergone a massive change, I was wondering if you had to.”

Pressing my lips together I move deeper into the showers as I call back, “Well the only change I’ve undergone is being lonely!”

“Surely on this base, you’ve moved on, right?” she asks me in a probing way.

“No!” I shout back, a little harsher than I had intended. I mean it’s not like I haven’t exactly had offers from the girls here, in an attempt to cheer me up.

“Interesting.” She responds.

“Not really.” I call back dryly, to my surprise I don’t get a response and I move to look around the corner and see that Yorktown left the locker room, leaving me puzzled as to what just happened.

XXXX
XXXX

After a shower and getting changed, I found myself wondering and wandering the base, Yorktown had given me some food for thought, her and Hamman’s memories of everything came back by interacting with something they both loved, a lot. For Yorktown, it had been her blue roses whereas for Hamman it had been her cat ear headbands. Now I know Hornet had taken back her hat, and I know what that had meant to her, she had touched me, and interacted with me, but nothing. Did that mean she didn’t really love me that much? Taking off my cap and running a hand over my head I sigh, “That’s a possibility, I guess. Though, I’m not sure if that hurts more or less, than her not remembering me.”

After wondering the base for a bit, I found myself at the cold storage facility, the door was open and my head tilted to the side. Walking into the facility, I made my way down the halls, puzzled as to who would be in there. Getting near the end of the hall, I could see a light coming from one of the lockers. I knew that locker, my chest got tight and I started to pick up the pace. When I got to the room, I saw her standing there, her back to me. I didn’t have the read the number or name in gold on the bottom of the black cape, no the golden pigtails and well-used black cowboy hat told me who it was. She was standing motionless in the center of the room, open boxes all around her and I ask, “Hornet?”

I hear something fall to the floor and clatter against the concrete before she turns to face me, her face lighting up as she calls out, “Will!” a split second before she slams herself against me, hugging me tightly, burying her face into my chest.

Looking past Hornet, I see wrapping paper on the ground and an open box, just past the box, I see something glinting in the light, but my attention is pulled back to her as she says, “I’m back, sorry I took so long.”

I wrap my arms around her, holding her tightly as I whisper, “I missed you so much.”

“You haven’t been seeing anyone else, on me, have you? I mean I know I’ve been gone, a long time.” she asks.

“Never.” I whisper and kiss the top of her head after I remove her cowboy hat.

She gives me another tight squeeze before asking, “Can we go get some pizza? I’m hungry.”

Smiling and placing her hat back on her head I say to her, “Of course. Need some help cleaning up?”

She rubs her face against my chest as she tells me, “Nope, I got it. Can you grab me a deep dish with lots of cheese?”

“Sure.” I say to her as I let go, she hurries back to the center of the room and bends at her knees to grab something off the floor before looking over her shoulder and grinning at me.

I raise an eyebrow and ask, “Are you sure I can’t help you?”

“Nope, I’m good!” she calls back before getting on her knees and continuing to pick this up before adding, “I’ll meet you at your place!”

With a shrug, I turn and start to walk away as I say, “I missed you.”

The next thing I know, I feel her pressing herself against me, her arms coming up under my arms to grip my shoulders from the front as she says to me, “Thanks for waiting, Will.”

“Of course.” I tell her, just as she lets go of me and I look over my shoulder to see her starting to close up boxes.

Once I was in the hall, I kind of wondered what she found or touched to jog her memory like that, maybe I’ll get my answer on that later, for now though, I needed to go and order some pizza.

XXXX
XXXX

Chapter Text

Standing by my bedroom window, looking at the bare back of the blond that was still asleep in my bed, her long golden hair free and splayed out across the sheets, leaving a smile on my face as I recall how enthusiastic she had been last night. I could help but wonder what had triggered her memories, I mean, on one hand, I know that deep down she had remembered me, but at the surface level, she had been a blank. Part of me wanted to go and dig into her shorts to try and figure out if she had the item on her or not, but would that be an invasion of privacy or a betrayal of her trust? My eyes drift over the floor and land on her shorts that had been tossed carelessly to the side. Sipping from my mug of coffee as my brow knit together I thought more about what had happened last night, I mean I know Hornet always wore tiny panties that sat on the middle of her hips, but last night I had found she had foregone wearing any now, so perhaps there are some small differences between this new version of her and her old self.

Pushing off from the windowsill and sipping more coffee I can’t help it, I go and pick up her shorts and start to dig in the pockets till I feel something inside of them, I take hold of it and glide into the hall to see what it is.

Once I was in the hall, I open my palm and see that it was a crumpled piece of paper, I put my mug down and unfold it, my head tilting to the side as I see it was the stub from that western movie we saw on our first date. Shrugging to myself I crumple it back up and slip back into the room to slip it back into her shorts, now I was curious as to what it was that clattered to the floor, because she had been holding whatever it was when her memories had come back. I had just put her shorts down when I hear Hornet ask, “What are you doing with those?”

Looking up I see her standing there, her arms folded under her noticeably larger bust and I look off to the side and say to her, “I’d rather not say.”

She comes over and picks them up off the floor and slips into them as she says, “Will, I love you and all, but, come on, why were you in my pockets?”

“It’s complicated.” I try to evade.

Hornet goes over to her bikini top and starts to get it on as she says to me, “And for the record, you’ve been being an ass to me since I came back, what’s up with that? I mean I know I’ve had some memory issues, but come on.”

Getting off the floor, I move to place my hands on her hips as I try and smooth things over, “It’s not been easy for me; I grieved for you. I thought you were gone forever.”

“And you think things had been easy for me? Wandering the base, going to places that I felt like I should know, but had zero recollection of, wondering why the base commander who had been nothing but an ass to me while making me feel warm and safe, or how about feeling like I’m meeting people for the first time, but know they already knew me.” She says as she takes my hands off of her hips and takes a step back.

Looking down at my feet I shake my head as I tell her, “I hadn’t thought about that.”

“No kidding, Will, and now I caught you going through my pockets!” She says as her hands go up into the air, she adds, “What were you looking to find in there?”

I pucker my lips together and sigh, “An answer.”

“To what?” She asks me in a pointed tone.

“To why you suddenly got your memory back!” I snap before I add, “Yorktown said her memory returned when she was tending her roses, Hamman got hers back when she was interacting with her headbands, things that both of them loved and were important to them. So I wanted to know what your trigger was because touching me and interacting with me wasn’t doing it for you!”

“Will,” she says softly and I snap my vision up to look at her, in her green eyes I see softness and warmth and I tell her, “Because if what I thought was happening was one-sided,”

I pause to take a breath while she says with more assertion in her voice, “Will.”

“What?” I ask her, doing my best to be controlled as I continue, “What was it, Hornet?”

She reaches out to touch the side of my face and gives me a sad smile as she says, “It doesn’t matter what it was.”

I touch the back of her hand and say, “It kind of does.”

She looks down and to the side as she shakes her head and says, “It really doesn’t.” she pauses to look me in the eyes and she adds, “Trust me.”

Closing my eyes I sigh, “Fine.”

Hornet lets go of me and continues to gather up her clothes as she says, “I’m going to crash with Yorktown tonight.”

I’m a little confused at this point as I follow her out of my bedroom and downstairs I ask, “Why?”

She stops at the door and looks at me, a frown on her face as she says, “If you don’t understand why then I really should crash with my sister.” And with that, she closed the door behind her.

XXXX
XXXX

“… And that’s what happened, Brem.” I say to my right-hand woman as we sat having coffee in my office.

Bremerton sipped her coffee and looked me dead in the eyes as she said, “You’re an idiot.”

I raise an eyebrow and ask, “Come again?”

“You’re an idiot, sir?” she says with a tone that suggests it wasn’t really a question.

I take another sip of coffee and say, “One more time.”

She sighs and looks down at her mug before she says to me, “She was looking for something from you, Captain.”

“Okay, but what?” I ask with a head tilt.

Bremerton gives a sad laugh and pinches the bridge of her nose while shaking her head from side to side as she says, “Men.” When my lips compress and I snort, she looks up and says to me, “Did you ever say, ‘sorry for digging in your pockets’? Did you ever say, ‘sorry, I had no idea how hard that must’ve been’?” she pauses and says it for me, “No, no you didn’t. All you said, you said was, ‘I hadn’t thought about that’. She wanted you to acknowledge that things haven’t been easy for her.”

That was when it hit me and I lean back against the couch as I say, “I’m such an idiot.”

Bremerton sips her coffee again as she confirms, “You are.”

“What am I going to do, Brem?” I ask her as I roll my head to the side and look at her.

Bremerton puts her mug down on the coffee table and crosses her legs as she says to me, “If it were me, I’d expect that apology at the very least. But really, this was probably one of the worst fights the two of you ever had.”

My brow knits together as I try to figure out how to make this up to Hornet then it hits me and I snap my fingers as I ask, “Can I get you to call in a favor, for me? I know this one might be really big.”

Bremerton arches a pin eyebrow and asks, “Bigger than getting an F-4 Phantom out here?”

I chuckle a little as I say to her, “Okay, maybe not that big, but I’d like you to track down a copy of this.” I pause and write down the name of the western movie I had seen with Hornet then slide it over to Bremerton as I add, “And I’d like to find a way to recreate our first date as much as possible.”

Bremerton looks at the name of the movie and taps her chin before she tells me, “I should be able to find a copy of this, as for the other bit, I’ll need as much detail as you can give me.”

I nod and say, “Okay, well it all went down like this…”

XXXX
XXXX

I had lucked out, apparently, we had a copy of that movie in our library, and as for the rest of the thing I needed in place, well, Bremerton can work some magic. So now I found myself standing outside the door to Yorktown’s quarters, I’d even gotten dressed up as I had been so long ago. I knocked a couple of times and waited for the door to open.

After a few minutes, I hear some whispers behind the door and I take a moment to adjust my shirt to try and keep myself calm, on one hand, I felt like this was stupid, trying to recreate our first date, but on the other hand, this was going to be so much more than a recreation of our first date. This was going to be my attempt to remind her why she fell for me in the first place.

Just when I felt that things were not going to progress any further, the door opened and I saw Hornet standing there, in a tank top, with a half-eaten kit-kat in one hand with one of the sticks hanging out of her mouth. She gives me a sideways look with those green eyes of hers and I say, “I’m sorry. I’ve been a jerk and wrapped up in my own stuff that I never even thought about what things were like for you.”

She sucks the chocolate into her mouth before she says to me, “And?”

“And I’m sorry for digging in your pockets this morning.” I say a little sheepishly before holding up two printed tickets to the private movie screening that we’d set up as I ask, “So, do you want to catch a movie?”

Hornet reaches over and takes the tickets and starts to laugh as she says, “This was the first movie we ever saw together.”

“And it was the first time we held hands, as you dragged me all over the place and squeezed my hand during the climax of the movie.” I remind her.

She smiles at that memory before turning on her heels and saying, “Give me ten, I need to get changed.”

XXXX

Looking to my right as we hit the movie climax, I see Hornet holding my hand tightly, her eyes glued to the wall where the projection of the movie was, without looking at me she said, “I love you, Will.”

I squeeze her hand back and whisper, “Love you too, Hornet.”

Using my other hand I reach for her popcorn and she bats my hand away as she teases, “But you can get your own popcorn and kit-kats.”

With a hearty chuckle, I say to her, “Fine.”

She lifts our hands and kisses my knuckles as she says, “After the movie, are you going to take me to ‘cowboy corner’?”

With a deep laugh, I say, “Maybe.”

XXXX
XXXX

Chapter Text

After the recreation of our first date, we were lying in bed; Hornet was lying against me, the fingers on my left hand laced through the ones on her right, while my right hand danced up and down her right side. She sighed contently at the light touch before asking, “I know you were trying to remind me why I fell for you the first time but did I make you fall for the new and improved me?”

I kiss her forehead as I tell her, “I never stopped. And only just before you got here I was starting to entertain the idea of moving on, but I didn’t want to.”

She shifts her body slightly to slide her right leg up my thigh as she kisses my bare chest before saying, “Good. I know I’m a little different than I was before, and I don’t just mean physically or rigging-wise, I mean inside, I know I’m a little different.”

“Close enough for me.” I tell her while I look out the open window, after a few moments I ask, “I know you said it wasn’t important, but what was it, that brought your memory back?”

She sighs, “You just won’t let that go, will you? I told you, it’s not important.”

“It must’ve been important to you.” I tell her.

“It was.” She sighs.

“Hornet, we shared everything before, I’m not going to judge you on whatever it was.” I try to reassure her.

She buries her face in my chest and mumbles, “It’s stupid.”

“So?” I say to her as I return to stroking her side.

She groans as says, “Fine, do you remember that shopping trip to San Diego that you, me, Yorktown, and Enty took?”

“Yeah?” I ask with a puzzled tone while racking my brain about that trip, the three of them demanded to go to the mainland with me, while I was reporting to FLTPACHQ.

“Do you remember that hobby shop?” She mumbles into my chest.

“I remember stopping at one to pick up some bits for that CV-8 model I’ve got on the shelf, why?” I ask, really puzzled now.

“So, you don’t remember it?” she asks looking up from my chest.

Feeling my cheeks getting hot I look out the window as I say to her, “I guess I forgot.”

“You saw me with my nose pressed against a display case.” She says in a way that is a hint.

That was when it came back and I snap my right fingers as I say, “Yeah, I grabbed a toy B-25B toy out of the display case.”

“And you gave it to me that Christmas.” She says, even in the dim light I can see that she’s blushing as she continues, “It was the first gift you ever gave me. I knew then, that you were the guy for me, you paid attention to me and not my sisters.”

Now it made sense, it was something extremely personal to her, something that had made a deep, lasting impression on her. I smile at Hornet and say to her, “It’s not stupid.”

“You’re just saying that because we’re naked.” She says to me as she moves to straddle my lap.

I slide my hands up and down her thighs as I say, “Am not.”

She leans forward to kiss me before placing her forehead against mine as she whispers, “I don’t want to wait for the war to be over.”

“I don’t either.” I whisper back.

“Good.” She says before reaching over me and into the nightstand to take out the condoms, I raise an eyebrow at her and she grins at me as she says, “We are not going to be needing these anymore.” and drops them into the trash.

I can’t help but start to laugh as she twists to grab the blankets and pull them over us.

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