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"Oh, God, I love you so htness

"You know I love you, too"

Fourto doubt the power of love When faced with the worst the world could offer, love was everything The h"

"It has to be, because I can’t live without you"

Her hand on the back of his neck, she gave a gentle nudge forward Her consent Slowly he leaned closer, brushed his nizant and considerate of all she’d been through

The kiss wasn’t passionate or deep, but the familiar connection with Blake and spearled wonderfully through her Just a flicker, and not anything she was ready to explore yet

But so da

She would be okay Not today, and probably not tomorrow, either, but soth to crawl through tunnels and cobwebs to face hell could crawl into the dark place where she’d been taken and hold her hand all the way back

"Alpha, this is Budweiser two-one" Jack updated via the radio from the cockpit while his C-17 circled the seized terrorist compound "The aero-medical evacuation team is two miles out"

Two minutes out

Monica’s plane approached, di sandstorm

"Runway secure," Colonel Cullen responded "All clear for theers had taken the airfield and the compound with no fatalities on their side and minimal injuries Now Monica’s plane descended below him, neared the dirt runway, ready to treat the wounded and to assess the freed hostages

Meanwhile he flew the mobile command post over the airfield His comm equipment in back on pallets provided radio relay for the short-range inforround He’d just tool around up here in the sky until the AWACs arrived to take over coht? He’d flown through hotter zones than this Still he couldn’t shake the fear that some Gomer a few miles out with a launcher on his shoulder would pop Monica’s plane with a ers couldn’t control

Hell At least now he acknowledged his fears were a screwed-up backlash fro those deo away

Probably for the best that he had at least another twenty-four hours to get his head level before talking to her again Monica would land and he would leave No chance for chitchat until the sandstorms passed and she headed back to base Not that he was a hundred percent certain hoould make up for his obvious omission just before takeoff

Three important words left unsaid, dumb ass Damn, but he wanted to thump himself upside his head

Whoomp

The plane shuddered The thuht stunned hi was seriously wrong

"What the hell was that?" Rodeo’s voice snapped through the headset

Wind whipped over him From the side Tiny holes peppered the plane

Jack twisted, looked out the windscreen Found Fla

The inevitable conclusion nailed him The Gomer with a missile launcher on his shoulder had hit hi toward the runway A pop to her craft would be fatal without the altitude to recover

Dread pinging over him, he keyed up the private interphone "Rodeo, we’ve been hit"

And so have I Words he held back

Stunned nuh his skin Hot But he couldn’t think about that Later, he’d worry about the shitload of shrapnel lodged in his thigh Right now, he didn’t have the tih her Fro the medivac, Monica watched the dirt runway come closer Closer Back wheels touched down, then the nose, buildings sprawling in front of her

One holding her sister

Only a few es were all safe and accounted for, the airfield and compound in American hands And she had Jack to thank

They had probles in life orth fighting for and she was beginning to trust in herself enough to let down her defenses

She was finally learning to trust Jack If only she didn’t have to wait so long to start her cas to her

The open-frequency channel crackled "This is Budweiser two-one, we took a ine"

Jack? His voice echoed over her headset A buzzing started in her brain Loud Like someone let loose a hive of bees This wasn’t supposed to happen Jack, of the jokes and killer smile, was invincible, daance was obnoxious as hell someti gas out all over the place," he continued with onna have to put her down here Alpha, is the runway clear?"

"Hold, Budweiser two-one," Colonel Cullen replied over the radio waves "We have a plane on the active runway--Budweiser two-seven"

Crusty reached for the throttles "This is Budweiser two-seven I’ll be clear of the active runway in thirty seconds at the south end"

The engine whine increased, aled forward to taxi out of the way A tight turn in the parking area cranked the C-17 around to face the inco craft

She’d wanted to see Jack today, but God, not this way, peering powerlessly through her windscreen as he ca, trailing out into the night sky The hulking gray plane screamed toward them

Helplessness screa," she asked Crusty as if that gave her control, so? What’s he thinking?"

"He’s fine, Tiara Trained In control"

"Tellforward "He’s losing fuel fast out the hole in the left Losing weight Which screith the center of gravity because of all the gas still on the right He’ll be shifting fuel to the left even though it drains, too"

"He’s feeding the fire to stay upright?"

"Basically He needs to land quick As long as he’s going fast, the flames are behind him"

But when he stopped to land

She listened to Crusty beside her and Jack’s voice over the headset, absorbing the words of both men

Crusty depressed the mike button "Cobra? Dude, you’d better plant this one There’s threat on the right And you can’t turn left into that dead engine without crashing You’re not gonna make it around for a second approach You need to throw it into an inflight thrust reverse"

The C-17 was the only plane in the world that could perfor about it But was now the ti while still in the air Once he lost speed, the flanited, he would have nowhere to run But Crusty was infa its liht now

And suddenly the speed slowed The plane seemed to hiccup midair Hard, steep and fast, the