Accidental Heroes

by Danielle Steel

  “Because everyone there is very busy right now,” Tim said reasonably, keeping an eye on his middle grandchild. Jimmy hadn’t said a word for hours. He just kept staring at the TV. Tim wanted to get them home but he didn’t want to miss anything while they were in the car. The news reports kept playing over and over the video footage of when the plane went down and disappeared under the water with a terrible sucking sound. He could easily imagine his daughter being pulled under with it, with a force that she couldn’t fight.

  The children’s faces were pale when the principal looked in on them again, but Tim had a kind of dogged determination as he comforted the children and refused to believe his daughter had died.

  * * *

  —

  Tom Birney and Catherine had become separated while he helped others out of the plane and down the slides. But he knew she had made it into the first raft, and was on one of the Coast Guard boats. No one had been taken to shore yet. They were being treated for minor injuries by the Coast Guard teams that had picked them up, and Tom knew he’d catch up with Catherine sooner or later.

  Ahmad and Sadaf were on a Coast Guard cutter with the two children they helped rescue, Mark and Nicole. They had been allowed to call their mother to tell her they were on the boat and were fine. Their mother sobbed when one of the officers talked to her. She said it had been the worst day of her life. And her parents were waiting for news of them at their home in Orinda. She gave the officer their number, and he promised to have someone call them when they docked, which wouldn’t be for several hours. He assured her again that they were in good hands, and hadn’t been injured during the rescue. He said that Mark had just eaten a hamburger, and Nicole wanted pizza, and would be eating shortly. The crew members were taking good care of them, and so had Ahmad and Sadaf during the rescue, who hadn’t let them out of their sight.

  Nancy and Joel were picked up by the same boat somewhat later, and they were all happy to see each other, and Nancy was relieved to see that the children had done well and the Saudi couple had taken responsibility for them during the rescue. No one had expected the flight to end as it had when it left New York that morning. Bobbie and Jennifer and most of the flight attendants had wound up in a life raft together when it detached from the slide and from there they had been transferred to a Coast Guard boat.

  “So, are you going to invite me to your wedding?” Nancy teased Joel again. He had called Kevin from the rescue boat, and his future husband had sobbed piteously when he heard Joel’s voice.

  “I thought you were dead when I saw that plane go down. Thank God you’re all right.”

  “I’m fine,” Joel told him gently. “It was scary as hell, but we were busy reassuring the passengers and getting them out.

  “You can be my matron of honor if you want,” Joel said to Nancy when she mentioned the wedding.

  “I’d like that,” she said, looking across the bay at the city she thought she’d never see again. She hadn’t talked to her husband yet. His flight from Miami was due to land shortly. She wondered if she’d lose the baby after everything she’d just been through, but it couldn’t be helped. She was alive, and she had Peter and the little girl they were going to adopt in China. Maybe that was all she needed. She suddenly felt extraordinarily lucky. She had stared death in the face and survived it. She and Joel stood on the deck of the Coast Guard boat, and he had his arm around her. She suspected they would be friends forever after this. They had been to hell and back together.

  They brought out an obstetrician by helicopter to examine her, and she said that everything appeared to be in good order. She had no cramps or bleeding, although the doctor told her to take it easy for the next several days. But all was well so far.

  * * *

  —

  Susan Farrow had wound up in the life raft with Robert and his baby, the girls from the chorus, and Monique Lalou, who was disgraced after abandoning her charges on the plane. She made a number of weak excuses, but the truth was that she had been terrified and wanted to save herself and forgot about the girls. The girls, Monique, and Annette, the flight attendant, wound up on one of the Coast Guard cutters together. Robert had called Ellen from the Coast Guard boat and apologized to her for taking the baby from her that morning. He was sorry about it now, and he sounded remorseful. He had almost gotten them both killed. He knew he wouldn’t take the flight to Japan that night. Ellen still sounded frantic, and said she’d never recover from the shock of finding the baby gone.

  “That was a terrible thing to do to your wife,” Susan said seriously when he told her about it. “You have to give the baby back now.” He was sleeping peacefully in his father’s arms then and no longer seemed feverish, even after being exposed to wind and water.

  “It was all so much harder than I thought it would be when we had him. She changed after she was pregnant. She was always telling me what to do, like I was a kid or something.”

  “Maybe you acted like one,” the actress said honestly. “Maybe she grew up and you didn’t.”

  “I’m not sure I want to,” he said, thinking about it. “She’ll probably never speak to me again.”

  “I’m not sure I would either. Stealing him from her was a pretty nasty thing to do.” He nodded and didn’t answer. The authorities had already contacted the airline and emergency rescue services, and when they got to shore, child protective services were taking the baby into custody. The baby’s mother would be there in the morning to get him. She was flying out from New York.

  The girls from the chorus were badly shaken by what had happened, and their chaperone said she intended to give notice. She knew the parents would fire her anyway when the girls told them how she had behaved, leaving them on the plane during the rescue. One of the mothers was coming out to continue the tour with the girls. Ms. Lalou insisted that she wanted to be admitted to a hospital when they landed, and said she wasn’t up to continuing the trip, nor the job as the girls’ chaperone. They were too much for her to handle.

  The couple that had argued for the entire flight were on a different boat. They had been separated in the life rafts, and each thought the other hadn’t survived. When they found each other on the same Coast Guard boat they realized how far they’d fallen and how badly they’d let each other down. And whatever happened in the future, they agreed that they weren’t ready to give up on their marriage yet.

  “I thought you were dead,” she sobbed in his arms as she clung to him. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he admitted that he had thought she was dead too. They hadn’t solved their problems, and didn’t know if they would, but being together was enough for now. They felt like they’d been given another chance and didn’t want to waste it. And maybe they could work it out. They promised each other they’d try.

  * * *

  —

  The bridge was still closed at eight o’clock that night, but they were planning to open it at midnight. Most of the emergency vehicles had left, except for a few ambulances and police cars. The fire trucks were gone and hadn’t been needed, and the Phoenix had returned to port earlier.

  Arrangements had been made to take those who needed it to local hospitals for minor injuries, and the airline had made hotel reservations for everyone else. Representatives from the airline were waiting onshore with buses, and clothing had been provided for all of them, at the airline’s expense. And local passengers would be going home if they didn’t need to be admitted to hospitals for injuries sustained during the rescue. There had been some cuts and bruises, a broken ankle, and some sprains. Two passengers with serious heart problems were being treated by Coast Guard doctors, and an elderly person had been taken to UCSF by helicopter.

  But on the whole, they had fared surprisingly well in spite of the trauma and near-death experience. There would be months of trauma-related disorders and post-traumatic stress to deal with, and counseling for the crew. The survivors’ re
covery would be a huge undertaking. Legal issues would have to be decided and dealt with, including whatever restitution by the airline was deemed appropriate. There were bound to be lawsuits, no matter how well it had been handled, and questions asked forever about why Jason hadn’t been dismissed earlier, at the first sign of his behavioral problems, which had ultimately led to this horror and the cold-blooded murder of a respected senior captain. Connor’s family would undoubtedly sue the airline too. They were expecting it, and all the other lawsuits passengers and their families would file against them. It would be a long, arduous process and take years.

  Ben, Phil, Bernice, and Amanda were still watching the continuing reports on TV in Ben’s office, hoping to hear of Helen’s rescue. But there had been no further news of it by eight-thirty after a press conference.

  The final survivor count was in by then. No lives had been lost except Connor Gray, Jason Andrews, and possibly Helen Smith, the three pilots. The rest of the crew and all the passengers had survived. The rescue had been extraordinarily successful, and Helen’s artful landing had saved the passengers and the bridge. She was already being declared a hero.

  The CEO of the airline and head of PR had held a press conference at eight o’clock, explaining what had happened as best they could and apologizing to the passengers and their families for the trauma they had endured. They concluded by praising the captain and crew for their heroic acts during the rescue that had resulted in all the passengers surviving, and they expressed the hope that Captain Helen Smith would be found. Every effort was being made by the Coast Guard in a continuing search-and-rescue mission to find her at sea and in the bay.

  Tom Birney had declined to be interviewed, but the press were camped outside his apartment once they heard about him. It was too soon for anyone to talk. The anchormen on all the news stations were starting to repeat the same things over and over, focusing on the most dramatic elements. Helen’s water landing under the bridge had been shown again and again.

  Helicopters were still sweeping over the area, looking for Helen, and a final report said that after nine o’clock that night, search efforts would be suspended until morning, when they would extend the area further, in case her body had been swept out to sea. The fog had begun to roll in slowly, as it did almost daily in San Francisco, which would complicate matters further for a rescue mission that night.

  Helen’s father had taken the kids home from school finally at six o’clock. They couldn’t stay there all night. He drove them home and cooked them dinner, but no one ate it. They turned the TV on as soon as they got home. But there had been no further news about Helen. Tim told them that people had been rescued after surviving for days in the water, and he reminded them how tough and strong their mother was. She was a fighter, and if there was any way for her to come home to them, she would. He hoped he was telling them the truth, and wanted to believe it himself. He hadn’t prayed in years, not since his wife’s death fifteen years before, but he had been praying all day that they’d find his daughter. They had to, and she had to hang on, wherever she was, for the sake of her children.

  * * *

  —

  Ben was just about to turn the TV off at ten o’clock in New York when a reporter on the scene announced that there was breaking news. They showed footage of two helicopters hovering over the water, with searchlights shining brightly below them. The reporter explained that they had extended the search for another hour, the tide was coming in, and one of the helicopters was dropping a harness by wire into the water, along with a second wire with a man in a harness also dropping to the surface of the water. All you could see was a head bobbing on the surface, and an arm come up to grab the harness as the man secured the person in it.

  No one had confirmed who it was yet, but there was visible excitement among the rescuers. It took a moment to get the rescue gear adjusted, and then slowly, a slim form was lifted up as the wire shortened. The rescuer kept a grip on the person being rescued, and the arms of several rescuers pulled someone into the helicopter, and then the helicopter took off at full speed. The reporter said they didn’t know who the rescued person was yet, but there was only one missing. All of them standing in Ben’s office stood rooted to the spot as they waited. It was a full five minutes before the reporter announced that the plane’s captain, Helen Smith, had just been dramatically rescued from San Francisco Bay, moments before the fog came in. She had been swept out to sea by the currents when the plane went down. She had held on to a seat cushion that had floated loose from the plane when it went down, and she had been treading water and floating for the past eight hours, and was brought back in by the tide. They said she was in stable condition but suffering from exposure, and was being airlifted to a local hospital.

  Phil, Ben, Amanda, and Bernice let out a scream simultaneously, and had tears running down their cheeks as they hugged one another. She had made it! She was alive! Helen Smith had saved the passengers and the bridge with her remarkable landing, and now she had been rescued. The nightmare was over. All Ben could do was think that he hadn’t botched it this time. His legs were shaking as he sat down at his desk and thanked the God he’d thought had forsaken him when the hostages died. This didn’t change that. But somehow it made life worth living again. And whatever condition Helen was in, she would be all right, and so would her children. She was alive!

  * * *

  —

  Tim was about to tell the kids to get into their pajamas when the bulletin flashed across the screen, “Heroic pilot Helen Smith alive,” and they saw Helen’s dramatic rescue as she was lifted into the helicopter from the water. At first they just stared, and then they hugged and screamed and clung to their grandfather.

  Ten minutes later, she had someone put a cellphone in her hand, gave them the number, and called them. She could hardly speak, she was so exhausted. Her voice was barely more than a hoarse whisper but she talked briefly to each of her children, told them how much she loved them, and then spoke to her father.

  “I’ll be home tomorrow,” she promised. They were admitting her to a hospital but Tim was right about her, she was a strong woman and a fighter.

  “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to fly under bridges? That was quite a landing,” he said, his voice shaking and filled with emotion.

  All she could think of as she’d floated in the water was that she had to get home to them somehow, and survive until they found her.

  “I love you,” she said, as her voice faded to almost nothing, as the last drop of strength drained from her.

  “I love you too. Get some sleep, we’ll talk tomorrow.”

  It was a long time before he got the kids settled down and into bed. Lally fell asleep next to him on the couch. He carried her up to her bed after he tucked the boys in. Oliver still looked shaken but Jimmy was asleep before his head hit the pillow, and Tim sat in the living room for hours, thinking about what his daughter had been through and grateful that she’d survived it. He had never seen a more beautiful sight in his life than when they’d lifted her from the water. His prayers had been answered. There was a God after all.

  * * *

  —

  The last four diehards in Ben’s office hugged each other again. Ben finally turned the TV off, and he offered to send Bernice home in a Homeland Security car with an agent to drive her. It was the least they could do for her, and she thanked him for it. It was too late for her to want to take the train, and she couldn’t afford a cab. She could hardly move, she was so tired.

  She couldn’t even speak in the car. When the agent dropped her off at her address, she felt as though she could barely crawl as she walked inside, went upstairs, and rang her neighbor’s doorbell. Toby was standing next to her when she opened it, and Bernice picked him up in her arms, held him tight, and started to sob.

  “What’s wrong, Mama?” He had never seen her like that before.

  “No
thing, baby. I’m tired, and I love you so much.” All she could think of were the children who had been on the flight, and Helen’s children who hadn’t lost their mother.

  “Everything okay?” Her neighbor knew what had happened, and Bernice nodded as she clutched her son to her. He was the perfect antidote to a terrible day. But it had turned out to be a good day after all. A very good day. She had started an avalanche that morning when she found the postcard and averted a disaster. But everything had turned out right. She took Toby home, left her uniform in a heap on the bedroom floor, pulled on her nightgown, climbed into bed with him, and just lay there holding him, thinking of everything that had happened, and incredibly grateful that Helen Smith and the others were alive. She couldn’t ask for more.

  Chapter Twelve

  When the Coast Guard boats came to the dock they were using in San Francisco that night, an area had been set aside for family and friends to wait for the survivors. There was an auditorium for them to stand indoors, where food and drinks were laid out, and an enormous TV screen where they had watched the rescue. As the boats approached, everyone rushed outside. No one knew what kind of condition the survivors would be in, mentally and physically, as they were assisted to land and their loved ones ran toward them, unable to contain themselves anymore.

  Ahmad and Sadaf were holding firmly to Nicole’s and Mark’s hands. They didn’t let them go for an instant, and had become their self-appointed guardians. A gray-haired couple hurried over as soon as they saw them and swept them into their arms. There were tears and hugging, as the children told them everything that had happened, and introduced their new friends to their grandmother and grandfather. Representatives from the airline were on hand to check off names on the manifest and make sure that everyone was accounted for, and provide whatever assistance they needed. They had been waiting for the children, and a woman in the airline uniform stood by with tears in her eyes and watched the scene, and ticked Ahmad’s and Sadaf’s names off the list as well. She said she had children the same age, and could only imagine the agony their family had been through.