Page 17

PART XIII

When they arrived at the private hangar at the airport, Selene was trying to hold herself together. The last thing she wanted William to see was her devolving into ugly crying. So she focused on breathing as Badger gave her a bow and started to load her things in the plane.

"Are you sure I can't convince you guys to come with me?" She knew the question was silly, but she was on the verge of being a little crazy.

She felt 'off' like her gut was telling her something, but she had no idea what it could be.

It was probably just nerves.

That's what it had to be. Nerves.

"Hey."

She looked up at him and realized that she’d been zoned out on him. "I'm... I'm sorry. My head... it's somewhere else right now and I'm... I'm sorry."

William pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Molding her body against the hard lines of his.

It cleared her mind of everything but him.

Everything but the man breathing life into her at the same time that he stole her thoughts.

When he released her lips, she could only stare up at him, her heart pounding in her chest. "That... that was..."

"Yeah? That was...?"

"Perfect."

He kissed the tip of her nose and then her forehead, before he hugged her tight and spoke close to her ear. "I love you, Selene Carter. I love you like crazy."

She leaned back to look up at him in the waning light of day. "You have to be crazy to want to spend time with me in my crazy, crazy world. And I love you, William Winchester. Not only for being a man who could fall in love with my crazy, you want to keep doing it. I'm going to hold you to that... because no matter what happens, I don't want you to regret opening your heart to me. That's the last thing I would want."

She saw the way he frowned, his eyes full of concern.

"Sel. I'm not going to regret it. There's nothing that could happen to- "

She touched her fingertip to his lips and shook her head. "Don't. Don't say that it could never happen." She licked her lips and worried the corner of her lower lip with her teeth. "Never say never, Will. Let's just keep things positive, okay?"

His eyes narrowed even more. "You're hedging your bets."

She felt his words like a gut punch, not because he was trying to hurt her. He was just saying the truth.

She felt that pain because she had a feeling she was right. Something was going to happen.

She wasn't ready for it. Would never be.

"I just want you to remember one thing, Sel."

Selene looked up at him and saw his heart in his eyes.

The same look she knew was mirrored in her own.

"I love you. I'm not looking for an out or for a reason to walk away. I have every reason to hold onto you. The most important being that I see this going the distance, Selene. You, me, and forever. So I'm not going to hedge my bets. I've never been a betting man. I've always trusted my hands. Trusted my own actions.

"And I'm trusting you with my heart."

Badger walked up and cleared his throat. "Sorry, but the pilot is ready to get going. They've turned in the flight plan and your opening on the runway is coming up. "

Selene turned to Badger and gave him a smile. "Are you okay for a hug from a Yank?"

He shook his head. "You, my dear, are hardly a Yank. You are a talent."

She gave him a big hug that he returned.

When they stepped apart, he gave her a wink. "You and Heather, this group of men might clean up well, because we're starting to add the most amazing women in our ranks."

Selene smiled. William had told her about Nyx and a few hours earlier, they put in a video call to the other couple. It was lovely to 'meet' Heather/Nyx. It felt like the start of an amazing friendship.

She blushed at Badger's words. "And you, Evander," she smiled at his name, "you really are a good man, like the meaning of your name says. You're also kind. I can't wait for you to fall in love with someone."

He barely reacted. She only saw a little twitch in a muscle near his eye.

"Oh, is there already someone?"

His laugh was easy enough, but she wondered if she'd hit a nerve.

"I'm sorry... that's just not in the cards for me."

She nodded, not wanting to press, but Selene felt there was more to this than what he was trying to say.

"I hope I'll see you soon."

Badger lifted a hand in a wave. "Soon. "

William lifted his hand to wave at her, mouthing the words, "I love you."

"I love you, too."

She meant it. She just hoped that her life didn't get between them like it had for so many other people in her industry.

"Selene?"

She turned and saw the pilot, Gary Tindall. A really great guy. He was giving her a look, a raised brow and a hand tapping at his wristwatch.

"Okay. okay. Sorry!" She jogged over to the steps and made her way into the plane and got settled into her seat. “It’s been a while, Selene.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I’m sorry for the wait. I was… saying goodbye.”

He gave her a smile and nodded. "They didn't want to fly with you?"

She half-shrugged at his question. "They're headed to Montana and have their flights leaving from the airport later today."

"Okay. Settle in and I'll call the tower and let them know we're ready to go."

"Thanks, Gary."

She sat back and looked out the window trying not to think too hard about how much she wanted to call William and ask him to go with her.

Tapping her fingers on the armrest she couldn't help but feel like there was something wrong.

Something she needed to do .

The engines of the plane powered on, and Selene blew out a breath. She reached for the seat belt and stopped when her phone rang.

Pulling her phone out of her bag, she looked at the screen.

Cooper's phone number.

She answered the call since it had been a few days since she'd heard from him.

"Cooper! It's so good to-"

"Selene? This is Mandy."

Mandy?

"Hey... I thought this was-"

"Cooper wanted me to call and see if you were still in town."

"Actually, I'm at the airport on my plane. I'm-"

"Oh good, I'm so glad I caught you before you left. Can you come to Cooper's house?" Mandy sounded relieved. Almost panicked.

"William just left with Badger. They have their own flights to catch I-"

"Please? I can call you an Uber or a Lyft. Please, Selene. Cooper... he's not feeling well and wants to see you. This... this can't wait."

Selene was already out of her seat and moving toward the cockpit.

She paused in the doorway and then put her hand on Gary's shoulder.

"I'll get a cab at the private terminal office, Mandy. Tell Cooper I'm coming. "

"Sure... sure. Just hurry, please."

When she hung up the call, she looked at Gary. "I'm sorry. Something's wrong at Cooper's house. He's... he's the-"

"The producer," he nodded. "I know." Gary tipped his head back toward the door to her plane. "Go. Give me a call later when you know what you need from me."

She hesitated, her heart pounding in her chest. "I am sorry for the delay-"

"I know you wouldn't do this unless you felt it was important. Go."

She managed a thankful smile. "Do you know where I can get a cab?"

He looked down at his watch. "You know, the rental company isn't going to pick up my car from the parking lot for another couple of hours. Let me drive you."

She pressed a hand to her chest and felt her heart pounding hard against her hand. "Would you?"

"Sure."

He powered down the plane and got up from his chair. "Let's go. I can get the security guard to watch the plane. It'll be fine."

Selene jogged back to her seat and picked up her purse, slinging it over her shoulder.

"Okay," she followed after Gary, almost on his heels as they exited the plane. "Thanks, Gary. This is huge. "

He matched her speed as they left the tarmac, only stopping for a minute to talk to one of the security guards on the private airfield. He waved them along and headed to her plane to watch it until they returned, and Selene went with Gary to his rental car.

"This is so great of you." She slipped into the front passenger seat. "If I had to go looking for a cab, that might have taken forever."

"It's not so bad. I'm just not used to driving you around on the ground." He gestured toward the GPS screen. "Could you plug the address in? New York isn't somewhere I'm familiar with."

She understood. It was the reason why she was happy to have someone on the production staff pick her up and take her to set. She opened her phone and got the address for Cooper's home into the GPS screen and then texted Mandy to tell her that she was on her way.

Looking down at her phone, she knew she should tell William.

She changed to his entry in her phone and typed out a message, then decided she should just call him.

It would be faster, and in the car, it might be a little too bumpy to make much sense.

She dialed William's number and lifted it up closer to her ear.

It rang.

And rang again .

Then it clicked and she let out a breath.

"Will? I-"

"Leave me a message at the beep."

She lowered the phone and looked at the screen.

Huh. It almost went straight to messaging.

She was tempted to try to call back again, but then she heard the beep.

"Hey. It's me. Sorry to bother. Something is wrong with Cooper. I'm headed over to his house. If you get this..."

The call ended and she looked at the screen to make sure. It was her home screen.

She frowned at it for a moment, but set aside the thought.

She'd try again later.

William waited in the TSA pre-check line with Badger.

There were still half a dozen people in front of them, so he had his phone out, looking for any messages he'd missed while they'd been dropping Selene off at the private hangar.

There wasn't anything new.

Or any calls.

Badger leaned in. "Something wrong?"

William turned his screen toward Badger. "Just checking to see if there was anything I missed while we were dropping Selene at her plane."

Badger nodded. "Nothing from her?"

William shook his head. "I wasn't expecting anything from her, but there hasn't been anything at all."

Frowning at him, Badger reached into his pocket, took out his phone and unlocked it.

He looked over the screen and turned back to William, nodding. "It looked like we don't have coverage here."

Even as he heard the words, William felt like there was something off. They had excellent cell phone coverage.

Especially since Cypher had joined their team.

She had some serious skills in communications and there hadn't been any outages like they'd had in Seattle while they were protecting Heather during her concert since.

William wondered when the outage had started.

"Excuse me?"

He turned and saw an older woman looking at him, a question plainly written on her features. "Yes?"

"Are you having some trouble with your phones?"

William nodded. "Yes. We just noticed it."

"Oh," she looked down at her phone, "that's going to be a problem."

"How so?"

She turned her phone so he could see the screen. " I knew I should have saved my boarding pass on my phone in the app, but I didn't and now I can't get it to come up." She leaned over and looked at the line in front of them. "I guess I'll have to go back to the ticket counter and have it printed."

William felt for the woman. "Hold on for a moment, please."

He turned to face the podium that was ahead of them a few feet. He held up his hand and with a short wave, he caught the attention of one of the agents.

He got up from his chair at the podium and moved closer along the outside of the line. "Is something wrong?"

William gestured to the woman behind him. "It seems like she's having trouble getting to the website to download her boarding pass."

The look on the agent's face changed, his mouth turning down in a deep frown. "Yeah, sorry." He lifted a hand to scratch at the back of his neck. "There was some kind of a power issue near the cell towers here at the airport. The local government says we're just like a mini city here and for a few years we've been building up our signal by adding to the tower. Today something tripped a circuit and we've been having issues. Just about ten minutes ago it went down. If you have a different way to access the web besides the cell signals. I suggest you do it."

The woman behind William thanked him and the TSA agent. "I'm glad I showed up early. I'll head back to the ticket counter. I've got the time." She looked at William. "You?"

He lifted his hand that he was using to hold his boarding pass and ID. "We printed it at the house before we left."

She shook her head. "I should have done that. Well you have a nice flight, young man."

"You, too."

She stepped out of line as they moved forward another place.

William turned his head and felt how stiff his neck was. A twinge of pain pinched in his neck. He blew out a breath and Badger turned around, concern written on his features.

"Gunny? Something wrong?"

He exhaled and looked down at his phone. "I... don't know."

The telephone at the TSA desk against the back wall rang.

Enough agents turned to look at it that William knew it was an unusual occurrence.

The agent closest to the phone picked it up off the cradle and answered the call.

The line moved forward another space and he saw the agent at the body scanner wave Badger into the scanner. William looked down at his ticket and shook his head. He didn't want to leave without Selene, but he'd already agreed to return back to Montana and Selene was on her way to Los Angeles. He knew that he was already thinking of when he could get away and see her. He meant it when he said that he was determined to make it work.

The agent at the desk looked up and William turned his head to see the man looking right at him. "Are you Winchester? William Winchester?"

"Yes."

With a huff, the man picked up the phone off of the desk and brought it closer. He held the body of the phone in one hand and handed the handset over to William. "Here you go."

He took the phone and held it up to his ear. "Yes?"

"Gunny, it's Cypher."

Frowning, he held the handset tighter. "Cypher? What's-"

"Selene's plane didn't take off. Her phone is heading back into New York."

"What?"

His heart squeezed in his chest.

"She got a call, but I didn't listen in. After she hung up, she left the plane and got into a car with the pilot. I have the airport footage."

"Do you know where she's going?"

"I think..." Her voice trailed off. "I don't know for sure, but given the route that the car is taking, I think she's going to her producer's house."

Cooper?

"Gunny?"

"I've got to go. "

He hung up the phone and looked at Badger who was on the far side of the scanner.

Badger's eyes held a question and William had one answer for him.

"Selene."

Badger nodded and asked the agent. "Can I go back through?"

The agent looked confused, but nodded and Badger picked up his belongings and headed back through the scanner to William’s side and they took off heading in the opposite direction of foot traffic while William filled Badger in.

"You do know," his friend asked as they rushed through the ticketing area headed for the curb, "that we've already checked our weapons through to Montana."

"Yes. I know."

Badger nodded. "Okay then,"

When they reached the curb, William looked for a cab, but an SUV pulled up to the curb in front of them. It only took a moment for William to recognize the vehicle, but not the driver.

"You two Gunny and Badger?"

The man asked the question without any hint of humor in his voice.

"That's us," William replied.

Badger looked at the plate on the front of the SUV. "That's our car. "

"I got a call from Cypher. I was taking this back to our office, but she said you needed it again."

William said a silent prayer of thanks to Cypher. "Thanks."

Badger gave him a little shove toward the passenger side of the car. "I'll drive. I remember where it is."

William didn't bother reminding Badger that he knew where it was, too. That wasn't the point. The most important thing was to get on the road.

William jumped in a moment before the SUV peeled away from the curb.

Badger cast a quick look into the rear-view mirror. "He said he'd get a ride back to the rental office."

William let the words wash over him.

"It seems like Cypher is worth her weight in gold."

William nodded. It was almost true. "She's worth more than that. With no cell reception at the airport, she still managed to get through and call us. I wouldn't have a clue about how she found out the number for the landline at the TSA checkpoint.

Once Selene was safe and back where she needed to be, he'd call Cypher and offer her his thanks.

Whatever she wanted from him, he'd find a way to give it to her.