Page 28 of Friendly Skies
“Good.” Darius let his head rest back against the wall. “God, I’m so tired.”
“Totally understandable.” Rachel patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry about doing anything else. You and Jason went above and beyond. Just relax until we’re on the ground, okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“No thanks needed. You guys are heroes.”
Darius’ entire body felt weighted, and he could barely keep his eyes open as the plane continued its descent. Quicker than he’d known was possible, the plane was on the ground and taxiing for the gate. The PA crackled to life.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain. As you know, we have had to return to LAX due to unforeseen circumstances. Once we reach the gate, I am asking all of you to remain seated until the situation has been resolved, which I’m sure you understand. Thank you for your cooperation.”
The intercom in the galley pinged, and Rachel lifted the receiver to speak to the cockpit, then nudged Darius. “The police are going to come through this hatch, so we need to clear out once we’re at the gate. You going to be okay to move?”
Even though his legs felt like lead, Darius nodded and let Rachel help him to his feet. “We’re going to head into business, where there’s an empty seat. Ready?”
Darius nodded, but before he could take a step, Michael put a hand on his shoulder. When Darius turned, Michael gave him a hug. “Seriously, man, that was the wildest thing I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how you kept it together, but damn. I hope we fly together again.”
“Thanks. Me, too.” Darius gave the other man a half-smile as they parted. “It was a good flight for the hour it lasted.”
Shaking her head as she led him up the aisle, Rachel grinned at him. “Can’t believe you’re already making jokes.”
“What else am I going to do?” Darius asked.
Rachel nodded, but before she could say anything else, one of the passengers reached out and touched Darius’ arm, thanking him for what he’d done. After that, it was a steady progression of thank-yous and shaken confessions of how terrifying that had been and God bless you. At the back of the plane, Darius was aware of the hatch opening to admit law enforcement and medics, so he was happy to keep passengers’ attention focused on himself, even though all he wanted to do was get off this plane and collapse.
Once the woman was removed, the pilot came back on the PA to thank everyone for their cooperation, to commend Darius and Jason for their quick thinking, and to tell the passengers that they would be rerouted. “We have about three hundred of you on board,” the pilot said, “so please be patient with our representatives as they do their best to get you to your final destination.”
After getting him settled into a seat in business class, Rachel brought him a glass of wine then took up a position at the front hatch to thank passengers for their understanding as they deplaned. It was a slow process. People had questions about their luggage, their reservations, whether they’d be given hotel rooms if there were no available flights.
Darius watched Rachel and another attendant politely refer passenger after passenger to representatives who were already in the terminal and could answer their questions, but he watched with a sense of detachment. None of what was happening seemed fully real to him, and the actual incident was taking on the fuzzy quality of a dream that dissolved as soon asyou opened your eyes. Jason had been seated on the other side of the plane from him, and when their eyes met, they both shook their heads and lifted their glasses in a toast of solidarity.
It seemed to take hours for the plane to clear out. Once the last passenger had started down the jetway, the pilot and co-pilot gathered the flight crew and briefed them on next steps, most of which Rachel had already told him.
There were still a fair number of passengers at the gate when the flight crew emerged in the terminal, and a cheer went up for Darius and Jason, much to the bewilderment of everyone who had not been on their flight. Then time sped up again as Darius was moved from the main part of the terminal to his carrier’s administrative offices, where he filled out the forms they told him to fill out, answered the questions he was asked, and repeated the events to the point where things started to blur in his mind. His arm was looked at and rebandaged a couple of times, and each time, he was told to get it checked out by his doctor so he could be cleared for work. He also found himself on the phone with the carrier’s PR department, who gave him instructions on how to deal with requests for interviews and how to respond if reporters showed up at his home. Bottom line: refer them to us and let us handle it.
And then, finally, Darius got to go home. He wanted nothing more than to fall into his bed and sleep for at least a full day, but as soon as he walked into the condo, Greg was in his face asking for the details because, “Holy shit, what the fuck happened on your flight?”
“How on earth do you know about it?” he asked.
Greg handed him his phone and showed him the attendants’ Facebook group. The story was out there. Michael had made the original post, and Jason already had a post up. There were even passenger videos and news reports.
“For fuck’s sake. That poor woman.” Darius turned Greg’s phone off and handed it back. He wheeled his flight bag back into the living room but was suddenly too tired to go further and flopped down on the couch.
“Have you let Luis know you’re all right? He’s got to be going nuts.”
“Shit.” Darius dug his phone out of his pocket. He hadn’t looked at it since he put it in airplane mode before takeoff, but as soon as he had a signal, there was an endless string of alert notices, including text after text from Luis asking if he was okay or begging him to get in touch.
Darius looked up at Greg, not knowing where to start. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
With a laugh, Greg sat next to Darius. “That’s what you want to know?”
“At the moment, my head is spinning, and nothing seems real. You being here is about all the complexity I can deal with at the moment.”
“Fair enough. Holden has a site visit to a base in the Midwest, and then he’s got meetings in Washington for the following couple of weeks, and I’m pretty much out of vacation time, so here I am.” He shrugged. “What can I say, I’ve missed your smiling faces.”
Darius snorted. “I’m sure. You know we’re taking bets on when we’ll be looking for a new roommate.”
The sly smile on Greg’s face told Darius all he needed to know: sooner rather than later. “But come on, tell me what happened. Or—” He paused as another message came in from Luis, followed immediately by an alert on Greg’s phone. “Call that boy and put him out of his misery.”
