Page 58 of Confessions of an Apache Pilot

Laura mocked me, “Must have been one hell of a poke.” She was enjoying this way too much. I could feel my cheeks heating up again.

Laura just laughed at me.

“Seriously. What am I going to do? There’s no way he didn’t hear me or feel me. He definitely felt me rubbing against him. I can’t let this happen. I shouldn’t have let it get this far. We’re supposed to be working on being friends. Friends don’t grind back against friends,” I groaned with embarrassment.

“Grow the fuck up. You’re an adult. And you deserve this. You deserve someone who makes you this happy. Four seconds ago, you were as excited as a teenager with her first crush. Now you’re doing that thing you do where you analyze yourself into misery. For once in your life have some fun.”

I sat, shocked at her words, until they really registered. She was right. I was an adult. What was a little flirtation shared between adult friends? It made the time pass more quickly and it was fun. I just needed to be careful that I didn’t let it progress past that. At least, not here.

Feeling better, I listened to Laura launch into a full blown rant about something Ross had come to her complaining about.

CHAPTER 33

Jen

Iwas still floating from my not-a-date at the range with Mark. It had been so much fun, and the more I was around him the more I could see a future with him. I had just about convinced myself that I could finish out the deployment like this. With my free time spent on not-a-dates with not-my-boyfriend.

But I was lying to myself. At least this time it was a good lie. I knew I was his. There was the technical detail that we were fraternizing, which was still not allowed by the army. That was a minor detail that we would work out. It wasn’t anything I could hide behind. The only question was when was I going to tell him? This sort of flirty limbo was fun, though it wouldn’t be fair to drag it on. I had the whole shift to think about it.

This shift was as boring as any other. The missions had slowed down again and we figured we were in for another day of waiting. I stepped out of my room and made my way across the base to the Operations Center, expecting to get the daily Operations and Intelligence brief before meeting up with the crew to preflight and stage gear. I got into the Ops Center, poured some coffee, and started to add some sugar in. The phone rang and Vasquez, our resident radio operator, answered. I took a sip of coffee and made my way to the briefing area. He stopped me before I got there. “Ma’am, you need to take this.”

“Captain Walker,” I said into the phone.

“Jen, it's Arial.” I hadn’t heard from her in a while. She didn’t make calls to us just to say hi. “A Red Cross message just came in for Sarah. It’s her mother. She’s taken a turn for the worse. Have her call me as soon as she can. We’re arranging for her to catch a flight out as quickly as possible. Once she talks to me, have her pack her gear and get her ass down to Bagram as fast as you can manage it. Don’t worry about the MEDEVAC mission right now, a crew from Bagram will cover until Sarah gets back.”

Red Cross messages were how family members notified soldiers on deployment of emergencies. It almost always ended with the soldier going home.

I hung up the phone and sent Vasquez to go get Sarah. My mouth went dry and dread pooled low in my belly. Such a horrible thing to have to deal with. ‘A turn for the worse.’ We all knew what that meant. While waiting for her, I walked over to Ross. “We’re going to have to get to Bagram tonight.”

“That’s not likely,” Ross said. He opened up a weather radar map on his computer and put it on the projector screen. “Just north of Bagram is a wall of clouds. Every pass leading into Bagram is closed.”

I didn’t get the chance to respond. Sarah came in. “I heard you needed to see me Cap?” she asked. She twisted her hands in front of her in a nervous gesture. My heart broke for her. She knew it wasn’t good news, even if Vasquez hadn’t told her why I needed to see her. She knew it was something bad.

I walked over to her and grabbed her shoulders. Our eyes locked and I could see the fear shining there in response to the sympathy in my own gaze. “You need to call Arial. You have a Red Cross message. Your mom…needs you.”

I didn’t need to add any more details. Sarah knew before we deployed that this was a possibility. As her Captain, she’d warned me about her mother’s failing health. That didn’t make any of this any easier. I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed tightly. She hugged me back, trying to hold herself together. We stood that way for a moment and I tried to offer her all the comfort I could before I had to let go. I moved out of her way so that she could make the phone call.

I motioned to Vasquez, he came over with a look that screamed ‘how can I help’. “Go find Santos, have him meet Sarah in her room.” He nodded and took off. Then I went back to Ross.

“Show me the map again.” He pulled it up on the computer, and he was right, it looked terrible. I went over to Sarah’s side, and when she was done, I took the phone from her before she could hang up.

“I’m going to pack my things,” she said, her voice choked. She was holding it together relatively well considering the circumstances. I looked over at Ross and saw the pained look on his face. This was hard on all of us. We all cared for Sarah; she was a sweetheart. Not to mention no one wanted to think about getting that kind of message and not being able to go home when a family member needed you. But that didn’t mean Ross could do anything to help. It was beginning to look like there wasn’t anything any of us could do.

By this time Karolyn had come in, and I motioned for her to go with Sarah. Then I put the phone to my ear. “Arial, the weather has Bagram socked in. We won’t be able to get through today.”

“You have to,” she said grimly. “If you get her here, we can get her out tonight straight to Germany, and from there direct to her mother’s home in Nashville. She can be at her mother’s side before she… Before it’s too late. If we don’t get her out tonight, the next flight out will be tomorrow, late morning. Then the next flight out of Germany is the next day. If it’s not tonight…” She let the sentence hang. I felt sick to my stomach as I listened. “As it is, she’ll be lucky if her mother can hold on for another day.” Arial sounded as upset about the situation as I felt.

I hardened my resolve. We needed to figure out a way to get Sarah over to Bagram. Tonight.

“Fuck. Alright. Let me get back to you.” I hung up the phone and cursed again.

“What’s up?” It was Nick, I hadn’t noticed but he was already here. I filled him in on Sarah, the need to get her out right away, and the weather.

Nick thought about it for a minute, he walked over to Vasquez and asked him to put the weather radar map on the projection screen. “Hmmm… what about the Bamiyan pass? The mountains are higher and the river base wider. It should take longer for the fog to settle in.”

Vasquez looked up at him, “I’m sorry, Sir, but I can’t change the weather. The Bamiyan pass is socked in as well. Clouds from the surface all the way up.”

Nick turned to me “Can we get a flight out first thing in the morning?” he asked.

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