Silver Wings (24 page)

“You're here,” Helen whispered. “You're really here.” She finally released her grip and placed her hand against Lily's cheek, immediately seeing her error as she'd managed to cover her in the oil from her earlier altercation with the crew chief. “Oh God I'm sorry,” Helen laughed stepping back, and spotting a smiling Adrienne out of the corner of her eye. She turned and held out her arms towards the tall red head.

“Not with that hand you won't,” Adrienne held her hands out in front of her and took a step back. “But it's good to see you too Hollywood.”

“Welcome to Dodge,” Helen grinned, looping her arm through Lily's and walking her at speed towards the base.

***

Sitting at dinner the three friends quickly became reacquainted, catching up on all the things that they hadn't been able to say in their correspondence. Shortly after finishing their meal, however, Matty walked up and tossed a letter down on the table beside Helen.

“Hollywood, I picked up your mail,” she smiled, slipping into the space at the table next to her.

“That's Lucy's writing,” Adrienne noted pointing her fork towards the envelope. “Let’s hear what she's got to say for herself. It's been ages since I got a letter from her.”

“Me too,” Lily added, nodding towards the red-haired woman sitting next to her.

Helen put her cutlery down and picked up the mail, “Maybe if you two spent more than two nights in a base, your mail would catch up with you.” She slipped her finger under the seal and pulled out the letter. Scanning it before she read it aloud, her face fell.

Noticing Helen expression Lily reached her hand across the table and placed it on top of Helen's.

“What is it? What's wrong?” she asked gently.

“Marjorie and Lucy's husbands have been captured,” she looked up from the letter. “They're in a prisoner of war camp.” She placed the letter down on the table and pushed it across to Adrienne.

Sitting in silence each woman sat contemplating the news, each silently counting her blessings.

***

Helen lay in her bed staring at the ceiling; unable to believe that somewhere else in the quarters was Lily. After today's news, she was thankful that for once in almost seven months she knew exactly where she was. A quiet tap at her door roused her from her thoughts; pulling back the covers, she slipped her feet into her slippers and padded across to the door. She opened it slightly and poked her head around the corner. Standing in the hall in her zoot suit was Lily. Her hair was down and cascaded softly around her shoulders, looking blacker than usual in the dim corridor. Helen smiled, pulling the door open wider to allow her lover to enter.

Lily checked the hallway to make sure she was unobserved; she pulled the zip down on the front of her zoot suit and shrugged the overall from her shoulders letting it fall to her feet, revealing her nakedness underneath. Helen's eyes widened and she shot her head out of the doorway scanning the hall she grabbed Lily's arm and yanked her inside, Lily stumbled slightly on her zoot suit, puddled around her ankles. Helen simultaneously closed the door and pulled Lily to her, her hands tangled in Lily's dark locks as she kissed her furiously with a kiss full of seven month’s worth of longing. They lost themselves in the kiss as finally the dreams of being together that each had had were given a corporeal outlet.

Lily shook her legs to liberate her feet from the confines of her flight overall, giving a quiet yelp of victory against Helen's mouth when she was free. They pulled apart breathlessly.

“I thought I'd come say hi,” Lily whispered her hands slipped down to toy with the waistband of Helen's shorts.

“I'm glad you did, I believe you had a reverse thrust landing procedure that you wanted to share with me?” Helen asked, grinning pulling her t-shirt over her head. Lily gave her a broad smile.

“I do,” she replied, quirking her eyebrows and pushing Helen's bed shorts over her hips. Stepping out of the clothing, Helen took Lily's hand and led her towards her bed, pushing Lily gently onto the cot; Helen lowered her body slowly against her lover. Their breaths caught as they felt their skin connect. Helen swallowed hard, feeling her eyes brim with tears as she became overwhelmed with the depths of her feeling.

“I love you,” she whispered, as she fought to keep the emotion from consuming her.

Lily let her hands run slowly up from Helen's backside, up her sides, enjoying the feel of Helen's contours. She gripped Helen's face and brought their lips close. “I love you too.”

She pressed her lips gently against Helen's. They took their time to build the kiss up; sensuously reacquainting themselves with the others taste and feel. Their hips started to move pushing against each other as the desire that that they had been unable to express for so many months started to engulf them.

Helen reached a hand down between then groaning softly as she realized how much Lily had missed her, she allowed her fingers to tease slowly before neither of them could take the slow pace any longer. Lily's back arched as she felt the exquisite sensation of Helen inside of her, they moved together their bodies creating a captivating dance as they flowed together, until finally their movement stilled as Lily's muscles trembled. Her hands grabbed at the thin mattress beneath her, her grip so tight she could feel the blood pulsing through her fingers as she thrust her hips towards Helen, her head snapped back and her mouth opened in a silent scream. The tension released from her body as she relaxed back onto the mattress gazing up at Helen with brown eyes, hazy from her climax and the love she felt.

“I've missed you so much,” she smiled, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind Helen's ear. Helen planted a soft kiss on Lily's lips.

“I've missed you too.”

Lily pulled Helen tight to her, they lay for a moment before Helen husked into Lily's ear, “So, reverse thrust?”

Lily's body shook with her chuckle. “I should probably be in the pilot seat for that,” she grinned maneuvering them carefully in the small cot so that she was on top.

***

Lily woke early, smiling at the arms tightly wound around her body. She pulled Helen's hand up to her face and kissed each of her fingertips. Feeling movement behind her, she looked over her shoulder.

 “Hey,” she said quietly. “I should get back before Adrienne wakes up and wonders where I am.” Helen sleepily shook her head and nuzzled closer against her warm body. “I have to,” Lily said reluctantly, pulling Helen's arm from around her and sitting up. She stretched her back out, stiff from a combination of their love making and sleeping on the small bed in the same position all night.

“I'll see you at breakfast?” Helen asked.

Lily turned to look at the blonde woman, who was now propped up on her elbow, her hand reaching out to trace the length of Lily's spine with a fingertip.

“I will see you at breakfast,” Lily stood up before she started something that she did not have the time to finish, if her absence was to go undetected. “I hope there's a lot because I worked up quite an appetite last night,” Lily smiled pulling on her zoot suit and tugging on the zip.

Helen flopped back down onto the bed her arms tucked lazily behind her head as she grinned smugly, “Yes you did.”

Lily gave a small chuckle before walking over and leaning down to take one of Helen's nipples in her mouth and nipping her playfully, she turned her head to look into Helen's eyes.

“I'll see you in a bit, I wove you,” she smiled.

“I wove you too,” Helen replied swatting Lily's ass as she turned.

Opening the door to their shared room, Lily breathed a small sigh of relief as she heard Adrienne snoring softly; she changed quickly and slipped between the covers. She lay with a huge smile on her face as she thought about Helen.

***

“So how long are your friends here for?” Matty asked as she and Helen took off in a test flight.

Helen looked out of the cockpit window unable to stop a smile appearing as she thought about Lily, “Another night.”

Matty nodded thoughtfully, “You and Lily seem close.”

A flicker of panic shot across Helen's face as she wondered whether they had been indiscreet. “Yeah, We were a pretty tight bunk in training. I would have washed out had it not been for her,” she said dismissively, hoping that Matty's line of questioning would stop. “Awww hell,” she muttered. “The flaps are stuck, I swear to God, those engineers hate us.” She attempted to loosen the wing flaps, growling in frustration as they refused to budge.

She called back to the base, “Hey Betty, we've got a problem, our flaps have stuck. Are we okay to come back in?”

“Hey Hollywood, you're clear. Come on home,” Betty responded, checking the flight line.

As they turned back towards the base, the right engine stalled, there was a splutter as the propeller slowed and then finally stopped.

“Well that's not good,” Matty said dryly, looking out of her side window at the stilled propeller.

“Betty, we may have a bigger problem. We're lame,” Helen shouted into her mouthpiece. “One of our engines just quit.”

Matty looked back towards the base and the windsock on top of the tower, “Helen, we've got a crosswind, with the three sixty approach pattern. This isn't gonna be pretty.”

“Base, this is Hollywood. Request emergency landing procedures.”

“Roger that Hollywood,” Betty responded, turning from her seat she picked up a phone and dialed to get the fire engines and ambulance onto the flight line.

Lily was with Adrienne talking to the male pilots about how to fly the B-26. Giving instructions on how they should make sure that they fly by the book, as the plane was not one for cowboy flying, the landing, and take-off were done at over one hundred kilometers an hour and if you didn't nail the speed by the book, you would pay a hefty price. Their discussion became distracted at the sound of sirens outside the hangar. Looks were exchanged then by group agreement, chairs were scraped back, and they moved outside to see what the problem was.

“Hey Lewis,” one of the pilots yelled. “What's the deal?”

The surly looking officer turned, “Hollywood and Matty are in trouble. They've got an engine out and are coming in.”

Adrienne heard Lily gasp. Together they ran forward pushing their way past the gathered male pilots so that they were at the front. They looked up and approaching the strip was a UC-78 with one propeller spinning.

“Please let her land safe,” Lily whispered, her hands pressed against her mouth, tears threatening. “Please let her land safe.”

She felt Adrienne's arm around her shoulder.

“She's the best there is, she'll be fine,” Adrienne said, her eyes never moving from the crippled plane, silently offering up her own prayer for their safe landing.

The cockpit was ominously silent, neither woman spoke, sweat was beading across their forehead as they did everything they could to ensure a safe landing, there was no noise coming from the tower in their headsets, as the occupants waited for them to land. The silence across the airwaves was broken suddenly by a male voice from the tower, “This is why a woman's place is in the home.”

Helen released an incredulous laugh at the comment and shook her head, “Whoever said that, when I land this thing, run and run fast.” She continued to nurse the plane along, waiting until the final moment to release the landing gear to minimize the drag

“Hollywood, your landing gear is up,” Betty yelled into her mic.

“It's okay tower, it's on its way down,” she confirmed, checking the status as the wheels locked into position seconds before she set the plane down. The wheels touched the tarmac and bounced along, Helen slowed the plane to taxi speed, blowing out a burst of air before looking over at Matty and grinning, “Let's go park up and find out who the smart ass in the tower was and kick some butt.”

Lily and Adrienne exhaled slowly, hugging each other in celebration as the plane touched down and limped its way back towards the stand.

Lewis let out a long breath, “I swear to God, she scares the crap out of me when she does that sort of stuff.”

Confused at the comment Lily, spun around towards the officer, “How often does that happen?”

“One engine hardly ever, emergency landings where the whole base is on alert, usually once or twice a week,” he ran a hand over his short hair before giving the taxiing plane another glance and shaking his head. “She's never crashed one yet though,” he said proudly, turning and heading back into the office.

Lily watched his departure; then turned back ready to meet Helen the moment she set foot back on land.

“And we thought we were living dangerously with the B-26,” Adrienne mused. Turning she realized that Lily had already set off.

***

“Is it always like that?” Lily asked, dragging her fingers up Helen's stomach and between her breasts.

Still fuggy minded from the climax that those fingers had just created, Helen looked quizzically at Lily. “Huh?”

“Today, the emergency landing, the grumpy officer on the flight line said it happens a lot.”

“Lewis?” Helen shifted so she could look at Lily's face fully. “It can be,” she said carefully. “They have so much work on and those UC-78, they're on the wire. We're flying them to see whether they have a couple hours left in them. So all sorts go wrong,” she frowned as she found herself defending the ground crew that she was so usually critical of.

Lily snuggled her head under Helen's chin, “Yesterday, after Lucy's news I was grateful that at least I know where you are.”

Helen smiled, “Me too.”

Putting her arms securely against Helen, Lily closed her eyes tightly, “Now I'm not so sure, I know where you are, but I also now know how dangerous it is at least before I was worrying about everything.”

Helen took a moment to process Lily's words, she narrowed her eyes trying to figure out the logic, “Okay you've got me, it was better that you were worrying about everything?”

Giving a small laugh, Lily realized how odd it had sounded, “I meant that before it was just my over active mind but I didn't have anything specific to worry about or any evidence and now, now I'm going to worry that every time you go up that someone's not done their job right.”