Hailey had been reluctant to let her future husband put her down, until Hunter promised that he wasn't going to leave her in the passenger compartment. He sat her in the co-pilot seat instead and she was very excited that she could see everything out the front of the shuttle. The two military shuttles lifted off and Hunter followed them, then they flew through the air towards the closest military base.

Hailey laughed, because she was getting her very first shuttle ride and she was with the man who had been giving her all of her firsts. Her first kiss, her first dance, her first rescue, and now her first shuttle ride. She couldn't wait to see what other firsts he was going to give her.

*

I tried my best to not laugh at Hailey's racing thoughts and her bubbling emotions. I had forgotten how nice it was to be around such pure emotions and thoughts. There was almost no deceit, and when there was, they were usually too cute to get angry over them lying to you.

I put my attention back on flying and followed the other shuttles to the military base. We landed in a small compound and I took Hailey's hand, left the shuttle and locked it, then covered the door in Presence. We followed the men and stern woman as they led us into the building and through several hallways to a large meeting room. Two of the men took Hailey's mother in the other direction. When we entered the room, three squads of troops were there and came to attention.

“At ease.” The major said and they relaxed. “We have some planning to do.”

“Yes!” One of the men said. “Another raid!”

“How do you know that?” The major asked.

The man pointed to me. “The last time he helped, we caught a whole cell of those idiots trying to liberate already free people.” He said and that made a few of the other soldiers laugh. “This is going to be fun.”

“I can't fault your deductions.” The major said and the man grinned. “Anna? Load the info Hunter gave you.”

The stern woman named Anna loaded the data into the holographic table and a large map appeared. “A lot of these are just home addresses, so they are easily accessible.” She said and typed up a few things, then the map zoomed in and showed what looked like a large concrete and metal building that was heavily fortified. “This, on the other hand...”

“Oh, damn.” One of the soldiers said. “That's the old security bunker.”

“The what?” I asked.

“It's what we used to have the citizens retreat to if there was going to be a battle near the city.” He said. “It was decommissioned when we finished all of the underground bunkers.”

“I take back what I said.” The man who had spoken before said. “This is not going to be fun.”

“Even breaching charges will take several attempts to get through the reinforced walls.” Another said.

The major stared at the building and brought up the schematics. “Okay, they aren't all idiots. This was the smartest way to stay safe from us.”

“From you, maybe.” I said and everyone looked at me. “I promised Hailey that I'd hunt them down for kidnapping her.”

“If we can't get a squad in there in less than ten minutes, which will give them plenty of time to kill you, how are you going to get in?”

“I'm tempted to say magic; but, it's just simple science and the use of a very expensive item.”

“I volunteer to go with him, just to see whatever it is.” One of them said.

“Same here.” One of the others said. “If you have something smaller than a missile to breach that thing, I have to see it.”

“Hell, I'll go, too.” The man who retracted his fun statement said. “That way if it does work, there's enough of us to check and clear the building.”

“We'll need a good pilot.” I said and a woman raised her hand. “Are you volunteering or asking a question?”

A few of the men chuckled and she smiled.

“Both.” She said and whispered to Anna, who changed the display on the table to show me dropping into the building. “How did you do that?”

“The Presence and I are old friends.” I said and she crossed her arms and waited. “Not good enough of an explanation?” I asked and she shook her head. “I dropped from a mile up and formed a missile shape made of Presence around myself and made it solid.”

“No fucking way!” One of the men exclaimed.

“Watch your mouth, soldier.” The major said and nodded towards Hailey, who giggled.

“Sorry, miss.” The man said, slightly embarrassed, and Hailey nodded to him.

“I also landed the shuttle by delayed commands in front of the building to draw out as many of them as possible, in case my attempt to gain entrance with surprise failed.”

“By failed, you mean you would have died, right?” One of them asked and Hailey caught her breath.

I gave Hailey's hand a squeeze. “No, I might have just bounced off or maybe caused a ricochet into the next building. I wouldn't have tried to go straight in without checking the building first.”

“How did you do that?” The pilot asked.

“I can see through walls.” I tapped the blast shield over my eyes.

“We know it's fake.” One of the other men said. “It's not stuck there and you can take it off.”

“That doesn't mean it's not a real blast shield, just that it's removable.”

“We're getting sidetracked here.” The major said. “What is this device that you have that can get through these walls?”

“I can't tell you that.” I said. “If it was known, everyone would either want one or experiment themselves to make one.”

“It was an experiment?” Anna, the stern woman asked.

“A failed one, actually.” I said with a smile. “It was a spectacular failure, though.”

“All right.” The major had her change the table back to the building. “If you use this device to breach the wall right here...” He pointed to a spot near the ground. “...we can get inside and assault them before they can react.”

“How do you know they are on that floor?” I asked and he didn't say anything. “How about we load up the people going with me, I see what one they are on, then assault them on that floor instead.”

“How would we get to that floor?” One of the men asked.

“We have a shuttle pilot, so we assault from the shuttle.” I said.

No one said anything in response for several moments.

“You can deploy what you're using that closely?” The major asked.

“I've deployed it within touching distance, so yes.”

“T-touching d-distance?” Anna, the stern woman asked, slightly shaken at the implication.

“Like I said, the first test was a spectacular failure.” I said and she shuddered.

“All right, then.” The major said. “We can set all the other pickups for the same time as you hit the building.”

“We can even use my shuttle, in case you're worried about losing military assets.” I offered, and that made him and Anna smile briefly.

They got to work and quickly assigned the proper people to track down all of the other members of the domestic terrorists, then I, Hailey, the pilot, and three soldiers left and entered my shuttle. I put Hailey in the co-pilot's seat again and told the pilot to raise the blast door, just in case.

*

“He really cares about you, doesn't he?” The pilot asked Hailey.

“He loves me.” Hailey said, confidently.

“Oh? How do you know that?” The pilot asked as she prepped the shuttle and waited for the go signal.

“He gave me one of his lives.” Hailey said. “He wouldn't do that if I wasn't important to him.”

“One of his lives?” The pilot asked, slightly confused.

“I was dying in the hospital and he came to see me.” Hailey said. “Instead of keeping the magic for himself to save his life later, he gave it to me and saved mine.”

“Magic?”

“Oh, yes.” Hailey said. “The bright light was all around and yet I could still see.” She smiled at the memory. “His love and his magic filled me up and made me whole and he had this smile on his face that told me that everything was going to be all right.” She said. “It was... we were in our own little world, and... it was just us... and I've never seen anything like...” She smiled again. “It was magic.”

The pilot stared at the young girl beside her. She wasn't sure what to say in response, mainly because she had been humoring the girl and wanted to keep her occupied with questions. She hadn't expected, or imagined, that she would hear something like that.

“Go! Go! Go!” The communications console said and the pilot snapped back into professional mode and six shuttles took off as one, five military and one civilian, then they split as they flew to their various drop-off points. It took almost ten minutes for her to get the go-ahead and the confirmation that everyone was in place. The intercom beeped and she hit the button.

“They are on the third floor, west side of the building, ten feet in. It's not rigged with explosives, thank god.” Hunter said and two of the men gave him odd looks. “Put us hatch side to the building. Fifteen feet clearance, please.”

The pilot dropped the shuttle from their hovering height and brought it right to the spot he asked for. The shuttle's hatch opened and then a second later, a bright blue ball of light expanded out to ten feet from the building and then disappeared. Whatever it was had cut a twenty foot wide spherical hole in the side of the building. There was silence for another second, then there were laser blasts from both sides.

Both she and Hailey watched in wonder as Hunter and the three soldiers floated across the distance and none of the laser blasts hit them and bounced off an energy shield. The shuttle's hatch closed and she turned the shuttle to look into the large hole in the building. The completely clean edges of the walls and floors were just as surprising as the fight going on.

Some of the people on the floor tried to run away and bounced off of invisible barriers that covered the doors and windows, others tried to shoot the soldiers and Hunter, and a few dropped their guns and raised their hands in surrender. It was then that the soldiers became serious and laid into them with expert suppression fire and made the rest of them give up, too. None of the soldiers were hurt and they cuffed and disarmed the targets.

*

“After seeing what you can do, I think you could have apprehended them yourself.” One of the men said to me.

“I don't have the authority to arrest anyone.” I said and didn't have to elaborate and say that I would have just killed them all. I had done that at the last place and the point was understood.

“Hey, how are we getting back to the shuttle?” One of them asked.

I lifted my hand and spoke into my wrist communicator. “Swing back around and I'll make a bridge.”

“From what?” The pilot asked and swung the shuttle around to have the hatch face us again.

I opened the hatch and then made a solid blue box between the building and the shuttle. “Hold the shuttle there.” I said and waved the people around me forward. When some of the prisoners wouldn't go, I picked them up with Presence and carried them across and stuffed them into the shuttle.

“We either have to call for more transport or we need to lay you all down to get you to fit.” I said, then shrugged and stacked the captives like firewood, much to the soldier's amusement. We climbed on top and sat down, then I absorbed the Presence I had used and shut the hatch as I hit the intercom button. “We're overloaded, so fly appropriately.”

“Understood.” The pilot said and slowly moved us up and out into clear air and then added power to the engines to take us back to base at half the speed. She could have flown faster; but, with so much extra weight on board, it would be difficult to manoeuvre quickly and not have someone in the passenger compartment be hurt. Namely me and the troops. I didn't care if the captives were hurt.

We landed among the other shuttles and they were offloading their own captives and were congratulating themselves. The troops with me didn't join in as we started to unload our own captives. The men around us settled down as we took out more and more people, and when I and the three soldiers emerged with the last one, we were greeted with a short round of applause and a couple of salutes.

“Cut that out.” The major said to the others and walked over to me. “I'm not going to ask how you captured so many.”

“Why not? It's a short story.” I said and the three soldiers with me laughed.

“Yeah. He opened the shuttle door, floated us over as he took all of the laser pistol fire on some kind of energy shield, then we used suppression fire and convinced everyone to surrender.” One of them said. “It was like magic.”

“I told you.” Hailey said to the pilot as they came out of the shuttle.

“I saw it happening and I have to admit that it was as close to magic as I've seen.” The pilot said.

“Have you got the sensor and camera recordings?” The major asked and the pilot held up a datapad. “Anna will combine it with the combat suit's sensor data and give us a full picture.”

I chuckled. “That won't help you figure it out.”

“We'll see.” The major said and waved to the building.

“No, thanks.” I said. “Although I appreciate the offer, you can just let me know what's going to happen to Hailey's mother.”

“We have to process her with the rest of them, of course.” The major said. “The government doesn't look kindly on domestic terrorism, especially after how we lost the capital city.”

It took me a second to understand what he meant. “They had inside information.”

“Yes, and can you guess who might have gained from the government being gone?” The major asked.

I looked at the captives being herded into the building and sighed. I didn't say what I wanted to say, not with Hailey right there, then she took my hand.

“Can we stop and pick up my things?” Hailey asked.

“Of course.” I smiled at her then looked at the major. “Major. Gentlemen. Ladies.” I said and looked at the troops. “If you need a hand with anything else, let me know. By the way, I'll be busy.”

That made a few of the troops laugh.

“About that device...” The major started to say.

“I used it and it was the last one I had.” I said, completely truthfully. “Have a good day.”

I started to walk away and 'saw' the major nod to the pilot.

“Um... excuse me.” She said and I stopped walking to face her. “I heard that you need a combat pilot.”

“I do; but, it's not like the cakewalk we just did.” I said. “You'll be flying around the wrecks of the alien ships.”

Her eyes sparkled and I knew I had her hooked.

“What about your job here?” I asked. “I thought you did terms of service.”

“We do.” She said and turned to the major. “Sir! Request permission for an indefinite leave of absence.”

“You know I can't grant that on my own.” The major said.

I held in my laugh as they played out their little scene, since I knew that they wanted her to keep an eye on me. They talked to 'command' for several minutes and after a bit of fake griping about leaving them short-handed, her request was granted.

“It looks like I'm all yours now.” The pilot said and gave me a salute.

I felt a spike of jealousy from Hailey and gave her hand a little squeeze. “Despite the tempting offer, I only need you in your capacity as a combat pilot.”

“Oooooo!” A few of the soldiers almost howled.

“That's too bad, Jelly!” One of them said. “Rebuked before you could even start flirting!”

Jelly's face flushed red from embarrassment.

“I didn't say she couldn't flirt.” I said loud enough for everyone to hear, then saw surprise on pretty much everyone's faces, including Jelly's. “I just wanted to make it clear that it won't go anywhere.”

Everyone was quiet as they thought about that.

“If there's any gear you need, you should grab it now.” I said to my new shuttle pilot and she nodded.

“It'll take me a few minutes to get everything together and pack.” Jelly said.

“I'll take Hailey over to her place and come back for you.”

“I don't think I'll be that long.” Jelly said with a smile, so I nodded and she left at a fast walk.

“Let's go in the shuttle and sit down.” I said and led Hailey inside and left the ramp down.

“Hunter, what's flirting?” Hailey asked as I sat down on one of the passenger seats and she sat down on my lap.

“Well, that depends on who you ask.” I said and put my arms around her to hold her. “For some people it's just talking nicely, while others think only physical touching, like hand holding or hugs count.”

“Are you going to hold Jelly's hand and hug her?” Hailey asked and her hand reached up and rubbed the fuzz on my head.

“You're not going to ask me what I think flirting is first?” I asked her with a smile.

Hailey smiled. “What do you think flirting is?”

“I think it's the intent.” I said. “I can hold a hundred people's hands, compliment twice that many, and not feel a single thing or want to start any kind of relationship with them.” I reached up and rubbed the fuzzy hair on her head. “Then again, when I mean it, even just an interested look could be considered flirting.”

“So...” Hailey stopped rubbing my head and put her arms around my neck as she looked into my eyes. “...is... is this... flirting?”

I saw her start to blush at what it meant if it was. “Will you be angry if I said that you're a little too young to be thinking that way?”

Hailey took in a breath and let it out as she looked down and the blush faded.

“I didn't say it wasn't.” I said and she looked back into my eyes. “I just want you to keep being you for a while longer, okay? You don't have to think about those kind of things right now.”

“But... what if...”

“If you are worried about others trying to steal me away, you should know that out of all the people I've met, you're the only one that I can find by just thinking about you.”

Hailey took in a sharp breath. “I... I can do the same thing.” She said. “When... when you left, I... I knew what direction you were in. Even after I left the hospital, I could still tell where you were.”

“You must have been looking up a lot, then.” I said with a smile, because I had been in space.

Hailey shook her head. “It kept changing.” She said. “In the morning it was up and at noon it was about here.” She held a hand to her eyes. “At night, I had to sleep on my belly to keep looking at you.”

I sat there speechless, because I was too surprised by what she said to say anything.