From Out of the Blue

by Nadia Nichols

“There’s not much to tell that you don’t already know,” Kate said. “Several aircraft were up searching. We were one of them. Campy spotted the crash site and I radioed your position to the rescue choppers.”

  “Well, there’s a little more to it than that, hon,” Campy prompted. “For one thing, the flying was terrible. Three other planes turned back instead of joining the search, and if you had, too, things might’ve turned out a little different for these boys.”

  Kate was startled to feel Mitch’s arm settle over her shoulders and pull her close. “That’s right. If she’d turned back, we wouldn’t be having this little chat,” he said.

  “Mitch tells us you’re a captain in the Navy?” John prompted.

  “Yes,” Kate said, silently damning Mitch for talking her into this interview. “I’m glad we were able to help.”

  “I understand you’re a top gun instructor and you’ve flown combat in the Gulf,” Mike said. “According to Mitch, you’ve received numerous citations and medals during your career, and he says you’re a mother, to boot.”

  “That’s right, she is,” Mitch said. “Our son Hayden will be four in another month.”

  “We came here to do a story on the hazards of a bush pilot’s life and I guess we got it,” John said. “We want to thank both of you for risking your own lives to save ours. If there’s anything we can do to repay you, anything at all—”

  “As a matter of fact, there is,” Mitch interrupted. “Kate’s a great mother and great pilot, but right now she’s fighting the biggest fight of her life. She has acute myelogenous leukemia, she needs a bone marrow transplant, and she needs help to find a donor.”

  MITCH KNEW he was going to pay big-time for this. Even as he spoke he felt Kate’s body become completely rigid. She was taut with anger when he paused his little speech, but he held firm when she tried to twist out of his embrace. “Without a bone marrow transplant, she might die, and her odds of finding a donor are a little longer than most. There’s some native American blood on her mother’s side of the family, and that makes finding a good match even harder, but I know…Alaskans have big hearts, and maybe if more people know about this critical need, they’ll get tested. They’ll sign up to be on the bone marrow registry because they’ll want to help. I’m proposing we hold a statewide bone marrow drive, and I’m offering free flights to the medical centers for villagers in remote locations who want to get tested.”

  Kate gave him a look he couldn’t quite fathom, then pried herself free of his encircling arm and stepped forward to shake Mike’s and John’s hands one last time. “It was nice to meet you, but I’m afraid I really have to be going.” She nodded to the cluster of reporters, ducked through the crowd and vanished down the hallway.

  Gone.

  “Oh, boy,” Campy muttered at his elbow. “I’ll go catch up with her and try to smooth things over.”

  Mitch watched Campy head down the same corridor, not holding out much hope for her conciliatory efforts, then turned back to the reporters. “That extraordinary woman saved our lives. We have the opportunity to do the same for her, and for others in the same situation. I happen to think her story’s a whole lot more important than a story about bush pilots, and that’s all I have to say about that.”

  After he’d said his goodbyes to Mike and John, Mitch headed for the lobby, hoping Kate would still be there and hoping Campy had somehow managed to calm her down.

  KATE HAD NEVER been so humiliated in all her life. Mitch had stood there bold as brass and aired her private medical problems to the world. All those reporters with their blinking camcorders and all those gawking bystanders. All those pitying looks. She’d never forgive him for that.

  Ever.

  Not even for Hayden’s sake.

  She was feeding coins into a vending machine off the main lobby when Campy caught up to her. She made her selection and picked the bottled water out of the dispenser with a hand that trembled. Avoiding Campy’s eyes, she said, “Ten minutes? They just wanted to meet me? That was a dirty trick.” Her voice quivered as much as the rest of her body.

  Campy reached out and in a conciliatory gesture, stroked her arm. “I’m sorry about that, hon, I really am, but Mitch just wants to help. So do I. When those boys asked if they could interview you for the documentary, Mitch thought it was a good way to get people to care about what you’re going through.”

  “He had no right to do that. He deceived me,” Kate burst out.

  Campy nodded her bleached-blond head. “Maybe he did, hon, but he did it because he loves you, and that has to count for something.”

  “You call that love?” Kate clutched her bottle of water, blinked her eyes and began walking toward the main doors. “Let’s just get a cab to the airport.”

  Mitch and the taxi arrived at about the same time, and when Mitch tried to apologize, Kate cut him off. The silence between them was awkward on the ride to the airport and only intensified as Mitch refueled the plane and did the preflight. When the time for departure came, Kate boarded the plane and sat in the passenger section, buckling herself in and keeping her eyes averted. She was aware of Mitch’s long hesitation before taking the pilot’s seat.

  “You sure? The doctor said we were grounded for a week,” he said. She nodded, keeping her eyes on the tarmac outside the passenger window. “Then take the co. I want to talk to you.”

  Grudgingly, Kate moved into the copilot’s seat. Campy boarded, and after they were airborne, Mitch handed her the headset, which she donned with equal reluctance. She didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to listen. She was completely exhausted. She wanted to sleep. She wanted to forget all about everything. Mitch, the crash, her illness, everything.

  But Mitch had other plans.

  “I’m sorry you’re mad about the interview,” he began.

  “It sounded like you spent all night rehearsing that. You tricked me into going there. You lied to me,” Kate accused.

  “I’m sorry. I thought it was important, and I knew you’d bail if you so much as suspected anything that public,” Mitch said, keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead. “This isn’t just about you, Kate. A lot of people who are diagnosed with serious blood diseases could be helped by getting more bone marrow donors listed in that registry. It just so happens you’re the one most important to me.”

  “You should have been upfront with me. You knew all those reporters would be there.”

  “I want to help you, Kate. That’s all.”

  “Right back at you with this plane, Mitch,” she said heatedly. “I want to help you. That’s why I bought it.”

  “Now that you mention it,” Mitch said, his voice tightening. “I called Wally this morning. He agreed to put the insurance money he gets from the Stationair toward purchasing the Porter. He said the Stationair was insured for two hundred thousand, so we’ll get a loan from Yance for the balance.”

  “The plane’s not for sale. I’m leasing it to your company.”

  “We won’t lease it. Either you sell it to us, or we’ll look for another plane.”

  “That’s foolish. This is a great plane. And if the business buys it, you’ll have no stake in it. You don’t own any part of that charter.”

  “Eventually, I’ll own the entire business,” Mitch stated stubbornly.

  Shivering with cold, Kate pulled her jacket more closely around her. “That doesn’t cut it with me. I didn’t buy that plane for Wally to own. I bought the Porter because it was a safe plane for you to fly and because you couldn’t afford it.”

  “Thanks just the same, but I don’t need your money to keep me afloat.”

  His voice was full of a thousand kinds of egotistical indignations. Just like a man. Kate shook her head and uttered a humorless laugh. “The truth is, you do need help staying afloat, as well as aloft, and the Porter will do both and then some. It came with wheel skis, floats and wheels. It’s loaded with all the options. And bottom line, I bought that plane for Hayden as much as I did for you. I’m leasing it
to your air charter and when you can afford to buy it from me, I’ll sell it to you at fair market value.”

  “Fair market value for that plane is way more than I could ever pay. And while we’re on that subject, how the hell could you afford it on a captain’s salary?”

  “My father’s an investment analyst, and he’s invested my savings quite successfully for years. Thanks to him, I’m doing quite well, which is more than you can say. I don’t see how you could offer to give free plane rides to potential marrow donors when you can’t even buy groceries.”

  “I make enough to get by, and I’ll honor the offer I made. Wally’ll get the insurance money for the Stationair and we’ll buy a plane we can afford with it. I won’t take charity from you.”

  She felt a rush of anger at his words. The Porter was a great plane. He should be grateful she’d bought it before someone else had. As soon as they got back to Pike’s Creek, she was leaving. She would take Hayden and head for Montana on the first commercial flight and to hell with Mitchell McCray. “Fine, then. Get another plane, if you want, but you might not have much business after that crash of yours gets publicized. Reporters love plane crashes. Smoke and flames and bloody, burnt, mangled bodies. Stories like that sell papers but they aren’t much good for drumming up future customers.”

  “Most of those reporters just happened to be there because they know Mike and John. They flew with me yesterday to do a documentary on bush pilots and how hazardous their jobs sometimes are.”

  “Maybe it wouldn’t be such a hazardous occupation if you had a decent plane.”

  “That crash wasn’t the fault of the plane I was flying, not that I was a great fan of the Stationair. Mountains make their own weather and we ran into some of it, that’s all.”

  “That’s all,” she echoed in a bitter voice. “Well, that’s reassuring.”

  “I suppose you’re going to tell me that being a Navy pilot is a whole lot safer.”

  She didn’t reply to this barb, just gazed out the window, hugging herself against the chills even though Mitch had boosted the heater and the cockpit was warm. She sounded like a nagging shrew. She’d come here to make sure Mitch was up to the responsibility of parenthood if it should ever fall on his shoulders, and now she was arguing with him about how dangerous his job was, when hers was just as dangerous.

  Mitch was right. He couldn’t stop living his own life just because she might die.

  And she shouldn’t be feeling the things she was feeling for him because there were no guarantees that there would be a future for her, and yet, did anyone have that guarantee? Why couldn’t she accept the miracle of Mitch’s survival, be grateful for his presence and give up the fight for her own independence? Why couldn’t she let herself fall in love with him? Why couldn’t she let him help her, and why wouldn’t he let her help him? Were they both so bullheaded that they could find no common road, no path wide enough that they could walk side by side?

  “How did Hayden take the news about me being his dad?” Mitch said changing the subject and interrupting her thoughts.

  “As well as could be expected. We didn’t have a lot of time to talk about it. I told him just before Wally called to tell me you went missing.”

  “Bad timing.”

  “It could have been much worse,” Kate said.

  “Maybe he could spend tomorrow over at my place. That’d give you some time to rest.”

  Kate looked at him, surprised by his thoughtfulness. “What about that camping trip to Denali?”

  “You should probably crawl into bed and stay there awhile, like that doctor told you to do. A couple of days, at least.”

  “If I’d listened to what every doctor told me, I’d have died after the first round of chemo. Bed rest might work for some, but for me, getting outside is the best kind of medicine. I don’t want bed rest. As long as I’m alive, I intend to live. And if you really want to take Hayden camping, I’d like to go along.”

  He thought about this for a moment before nodding. “Okay then, Denali it is. It may be against doctor’s orders, but my guess is that doctor doesn’t know how relaxing and therapeutic a camping trip can be, especially after a plane crash. If he did, he might have written the prescription himself.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  HAYDEN ANXIOUSLY AWAITED his mother’s return. He ran to meet Kate before she’d even gotten out of the truck and wrapped his arms tightly around her when she knelt to hug him. “I missed you, too,” she murmured.

  He pulled away from her to stare at Mitch with a grave expression. “Did you crash your plane?”

  “I prefer to call it a rough landing.”

  Those young eyes studied every visible bruise and cut and stitch. “Did you get hurt?”

  “Hardly a scratch. I was lucky. And it was even luckier that your mom found me.”

  “Are you still mad at her?”

  Mitch glanced at Kate. “Who said I was mad?”

  Kate rose to her feet and gave him an apologetic glance. “I told Hayden you were mad at me because I never told you about him,” she admitted.

  Mitch looked down at the boy. “I wish your mother had told me about you, but I’m not mad at her. She was trying to do what she thought was the right thing.” He smiled at Kate before turning back to Hayden. “You still want to go camping and hear the wolves and see the bears?”

  Hayden nodded, his eyes lighting up.

  “Then let’s load up and go. It was a beautiful sunrise this morning, and with any luck, we’ll be watching the sunset from Wonder Lake.”

  “Señora?” Rosa’s voice came from the porch. “Your mother called this morning. She asked that you call her back. She was worried when you didn’t call her yesterday.”

  Kate excused herself, and while Mitch loaded their duffels into the truck, she placed a call to Montana. He heard snatches of the brief conversation and guessed from the discouraged slump of Kate’s shoulders when she hung up the phone that the news from her doctors hadn’t been good. “I was hoping maybe the hospital had called, but apparently they haven’t found a donor yet,” she told Rosa.

  “I do not think you should go camping, señora. You are too tired. It would not be good.”

  “Actually, Rosa, I think it’s just what I need. And you could use a couple of days of rest yourself. Why don’t you take a drive down to Anchorage? You said you wanted to see the Native Heritage Museum.”

  On the drive to his cabin with Hayden and Kate to pick up the rest of the gear, Mitch boosted the truck’s heater to thwart Kate’s chills and made unsuccessful attempts to engage her in conversation. She answered in monotones and her thoughts were clearly a million miles away. He thought about the beauty of the sunrise on a morning he never thought he’d see and the confusion of discovering he was a father and the frustration of trying to communicate with Kate on some level, any level, and in the end he gave up thinking about anything at all and just drove.

  WHEN THEY REACHED Mitch’s cabin, Hayden clambered out of the truck but Kate remained in her seat. “I’ll wait here,” she said in response to Mitch’s questioning glance.

  “You sure you’re up for this?”

  “Of course. I’m fine.”

  He nodded and shut the truck door.

  “C’mon, pard,” he said, resting a hand on Hayden’s shoulder as they started toward the cabin, Thor at Hayden’s heel. “Let’s rustle up the rest of our camping gear and get headed north.”

  As they disappeared inside the cabin, Kate released her breath, dropped her head into her trembling hands and fought back a painful sob. The stomach pains she’d suffered last night had eased, but the pain in her heart had worsened. Seeing Mitch and Hayden together and getting along so well, father and son, should be a good thing. A positive thing. She should be glad that Mitch seemed to be a natural at parenting. So why did it hurt her so much? Why did she feel this way? What was the matter with her?

  Was it because she was looking into Hayden’s future and not seeing herself in it?
r />   She had to put her personal feelings aside and concentrate on what was best for Hayden. She had to focus on this camping trip, on giving Hayden what might become the only two-parent experience of his childhood. She had to make sure this was a meaningful time for him, and that the memories he took away from it would last forever in the best of ways. Mitch was offering Hayden the chance to see a grizzly bear, to hear a wolf howl, to watch the sunset over Wonder Lake. She hadn’t seen the same sunrise Mitch had that morning in Fairbanks, but she’d seen it two mornings before. She’d watched the sky brighten and the snowfields on the highest peaks glow violet and pink and then the clearest shade of pale, ethereal yellow as the sun’s early rays illuminated the stunning splendor of Denali at dawn. Some people never saw anything that beautiful in their entire life.

  Kate knew there were no guarantees of a tomorrow or a day after. There was only the here and now, and each moment was a precious gift. Something about the wild, harsh beauty of the Alaskan wilderness had triggered a poignant loneliness within her, and the need for something more in her life, however short it might be. Given the choice, she’d take a weeklong camping trip with Hayden and Mitch over a life of ninety-nine years and counting, if she had to live those years all by herself.

  So why was she sitting here feeling sorry for herself when she should be helping Mitch and Hayden get the camping gear together? Kate swiped her palms over her cheeks and wrenched open the truck’s rusted door.

  Time was on the wing, and she, of all people, should know not to be wasting it.

  “YOU KNOW HOW to use a compass?” Mitch asked Hayden as he dangled the old Silva on its leather thong in front of the boy, who shook his head solemnly. “Then I’ll teach you,” he said. “It’s an important skill, especially out here. A lot of people use electronics now, but it still pays to know map and compass. They’re basic skills that don’t rely on batteries and satellites. Know what I mean?”

  Hayden nodded, concentrating hard on his every word.