TO MY EVERLASTING surprise, the cops didn't question me.

I think they wanted to. Reilly showed up at the house about a half an hour after we got back, and he and Alex had some words, but that was about it. Sunday morning there was another attempt. Alex shooed them away.

And that was that.

It was all over the news, though. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured, but that didn't matter as much as the fact that someone had used an automatic firearm to shoot up an important shopping street. Clearly, that was terrorism, even if the authorities refused to call it the "T" word. Between that and the explosion at the House of the Vetii, people went nuts.

Secretly, I felt a little guilty. I was causing a hell of a lot of property damage, and I hadn't even been there six months yet.

Anyhoo, the one good thing that came out of the attack was Alex's decision that training was actually a good place for me. High security meant it was unlikely there would be another attempt. So I could stay. Yay, me.

Except that this was the week of our training flights. I told him on Sunday night while we got ready for bed.

"Alex... um... I kind of forgot to tell you... I'm going to London tomorrow."

He looked up from his Ipad. "Did you just say you're going to London?"

"Yeah, don't be mad. I forgot." I climbed on top of him and pulled the Ipad out of his hands. "Silly me."

He stared at me, his hands on my hips. "How long will you be gone?"

"Not long. There and back. We get back Tuesday morning at 8 am." I wiggled a little to distract him. "You can have a boy's night. Hire some strippers. Get laid by girls who aren't me."

"I don't want to get laid by girls that aren't you." He slid off my nightgown and tossed it across the room. "We'll talk about this later."

Later turned out to be breakfast. "I don't know about this, Siobhan. After everything that happened... "

"I'll be on an airplane, Alex. C'mon. What are they gonna do, hijack it?" I snorted. "Don't worry. I'll be back before you know it."

"I don't like you being gone over night." He cast me a petulant look. "It's too long."

"It's fine, Alex. I'll go, I'll get back, and you'll barely notice I was gone." I tossed Useless the last of my bagel. "Just remember to take the dog out."

He smirked and checked his texts. "You'll keep in touch with me?"

"Yes. At all times." I saluted. "You'll hear from me so much you'll be tired of hearing from me."

"All right," he sighed. "I supposed in for a penny, in for a pound." He pulled me onto his lap. "Next time, tell me a little earlier than the night before."

I brushed a kiss on his lips. "You betcha, buddy. Now, let's get going. I've got a plane to catch."

Forty-five minutes and a hell of a traffic jam later, I walked into our classroom and found chaos. Half dressed women were running around, screaming, fighting, and putting on lipstick. Half dressed men were stretching out uniform shoes and showing the half dressed women how to runway walk.

I walked up to Frances, who was the only one still fully clothed. "What's up?"

"Uniforms aren't all in." She sipped on her iced latte. "People are freaking."

"So I see." We watched the chaos for a minute or two. "So what happens if there's not enough uniforms?"

"You don't go."

"What happens if you don't go?"

She chewed on her straw. "You have to redo training."

"No!" I stared at her. "Why is it our fault if they fucked up?"

"Because." She nudged me. "You know, you can use this as a get out of work free, if you wanted."

"Who says I want to?"

"Nobody." She shrugged. "I'm just saying."

Before I could reply, Tad flew into the room, hands in the air. "Crisis adverted! Crisis averted. The uniforms are here. The uniforms are here." He looked at Jorge and frowned. "Take those pumps off. You'll stretch them out. Now, go. Shoo. You have fifteen minutes to dress and be on the bus."

We stared at him.

He waved his hands at us. "Now! Go! Shoo! Off with you."

I turned to Frances. "The universe has spoken."

"So it has." She put an arm around me. "Good. You're the only one here who's worse than me. You make me look normal."

I grinned at her. "Aw. That the sweetest most hateful thing anyone's said to me in the past ten minutes."

"Yeah." She nodded and smiled, her face serene. "Yeah."

A hectic fifteen minutes later, we we dressed and on the van. On the ride to the airport, Tad regaled us with tips and tricks for a successful flight, but I was too busy watching the unmarked fed mobile follow us at a discrete distance to pay attention. At the airport, Tad herded us through security, then gestured for us to circle around the check-in counter.

"Okay, little fledglings, gather around. This is it. Your first work trip." He made a sad face and pantomimed wiping a tear. "I can't believe how fast it's gone, fledglings. Once you return, you'll only have one thing left to do." He paused dramatically. "Graduation!"

Frances and I clapped automatically. If we had learned one thing from training, it was to clap at the end of an announcement.

"Today, little fledglings, you will be working -" he air-quoted "- to London with a real flight crew as real flight attendants!"

He paused. We clapped.

He held up his hands, and we stopped clapping. "Now remember. You're not actually serving. Your job is to observe and take notes. If a working flight attendant asks you to assist, then assist, but you are not to work their position. Questions?" For some reason he looked at me. "Great. Let's get you to your positions."

One of the Midwesterners made a show of crossing her fingers. "I hope I'm in first class!"

"You can't work in first," Frances sneered. "We're not allowed to work in first for the six months of employment."

I gaped at her. So did everyone else.

Tad recovered with a forced laugh. "Well, gosh darn it, that's right, Frances." He gave an emphatic wave of the finger. "No, no, no. No first class yet. But I love your enthusiasm. At TransGlobal, every work day is a holiday!"

He paused. We clapped.

"How'd you pull that out of your butt," I whispered to Frances.

She shrugged. "I did the reading."

One by one, Tad called out names and handed out service assignments. After everyone else received their assignments and boarded, Tad finally got to me.

"And last but not least, Siobhan. There you are." For a moment he lost his trademarked Tad smile. "You've assigned to the lower level galley." He dropped the smile. "This must be a mistake. Wait here. I'm going to call."

"No, Tad...I mean Christophe...that's okay - "

Tad's eyes got squinty. "No, it's not. You're way too pretty for the basement. I'll be right back."

I watched him sashay off to the gate phone and call crew scheduling. TransGlobal was firm on the whole "girls worked the aisles, boys worked the galley" thing. While Tad straightened everything out I leaned against a pillar and checked my Facebook.

"Excuse me," a voice whispered in my ear, "is this the flight to London?"

What the fuck? Surprise nearly made me drop my phone. ""Alex! What are you doing here?"

"Going to London." He gave me a satisfied once over. "You look beautiful."

"What...why...what...how..."

He grinned at me. "Use your words, baby."

"But... but... but you... now... how?"

"You're so cute when you're surprised." He leaned in and kissed my forehead. "It's serendipity. There's some contractual issues that I need to work out with the Port of London. Since you were going anyway, I thought it would be nice to go together." He pulled me up against him. "Don't you?"

"Yeah... maybe... "

"Maybe? I think it's more like a yes." He leaned in to kiss me again.

"Alex! Stop!" I looked around; the boarding lounge was starting to fill up. "There are rules...and I'm on duty."

He pulled back, surprised. "Did you just say that you want to follow rules? Wow. " His gaze turned thoughtful. "Good for you. You're growing up."

Oh, for God's sake. I nearly stamped my foot. "Alex, I don't think you're taking me seriously!"

"Baby, I'm taking you very seriously." He leaned back in and whispered, "I'm seriously going to take you. Seriously." He nuzzled my neck. "I'm going to seriously take your clothes off piece by piece until you're completely naked. Then I'm going to seriously spread your legs and I'm going to kiss you slowly, from your ankles to that sweet spot between your legs."

"Stop it." I felt my face burn bright and hot. "Alex, I'm at work... "

He kissed my ear. "Work. That's so cute. Let's get you naked."

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the boarding lounge of TransGlobal Flight 280 with nonstop service to London, England."

I glanced over at the counter where two boarding agents were staring at us in that way that New Yorkers have that doesn't look like they're staring. I pushed Alex off me again. "Stop it. If you're coming along, that's fine, but this is my job, Alex. I'm on duty."

"I know." He reached down and tugged at my skirt. "Are you wearing a garter belt?"

I looked around the boarding lounge. Yep. People were staring. Omigod. I flushed. "Alex... "

Someone cleared his throat behind me. I turned; there was Tad, looking distinctly irritated.

"Hi Tad...Christophe." I backed up as Alex smirked. "Hey, you. Did you get my work position straightened out?"

Tad stared at Alex curiously. "No. And who is this handsome and exceptionally well-tailored man, Siobhan?"

Before I could say anything Alex stuck out his hand. "Alex Cosetino. Siobhan's fiance. And let me tell you, Siobhan here has convinced me to fly nothing but TransGlobal."

"Oh, oo-oh," Tad gasped, surprise dawned on him as he engaged in a surprisingly manly shake of the hand. "You're the...oh. Oh. Oooh." He paled a little. "S-so, Mr. Cosetino, are you here, seeing Siobhan off?"

Alex yanked me to him and kissed my cheek. "Even better. I have some business in London, so I'm coming along."

I plastered on a smile. "That's so awesome, isn't it, Christophe?"

"Like I would miss this." Alex kissed me again. " I'm just so proud of my girl. She's worked very hard."

Christophe looked slightly bemused. "She has?"

"I have to say, I agree, Alex. I'm proud of her, too. Shoot, the whole family's proud of her."

I knew that voice. That smug, stupid, McIver voice. I squirmed hard enough to pull Alex and I both around. Sure enough, it was Sean. Colin was with him.

Okay, this was a set up. "Sean...what the hell...Colin? No way!"

Sean pulled out his phone and took a picture. "There she is. There's our little FlyGirl. I'm sending this back to the Home Office now."

Alex shifted me into his left arm so he could shake Sean's hand. "Glad you could make it, Sean." He turned to Colin. "Colin. Nice of you to come."

"It's amazing," Colin said as he circled me. "She even looks like a flight attendant. Does she talk like one? Come on, little sis. Say something flight attendant-y."

I was going to say something, but it wasn't flight attendant-y.

Tad clasped his hands. "Oh my. Your brothers are here, too? You know, most people choose to attendant our graduation ceremony that takes place at the TransGlobal training facility."

I groaned. "Don't tell them that."

"There's a graduation ceremony?" Sean looked up from his phone with a large grin. "Siobhan never mentioned that there was a graduation ceremony! I'm calling everyone. We're all going to have to be there. Nobody's going to believe it." He turned from us and got his iPhone out. I could hear him talking to his secretary about sending out an email bomb.

"I got to say, little sister, you look good in the uniform." Colin winked. "Don't you think, Alex?"

"I do," Alex leered. "It really favors her."

I turned to Tad. "Well, on that creepy note I really should be getting to work, or there won't be a graduation ceremony to attend. Right, Tad, I mean, Christophe?"

"I'm afraid our Siobhan is right," Tad replied with a frowny face. "I apologize, gentlemen, but I must steal her away. She does have to work."

Alex leaned over and gave me a kiss. "See you on board, baby. I love you."

"Don't take this from me," I whispered. "Please."

"I would never do that." He straightened my lapel. "Siobhan, I do everything for you and for our family. If you would let go and trust me, you'd see that."

That threw me. I stared at him for a full second, unsure of what to say until Tad called my name. I shook my head, like that could clear it, and ran after him.

"Quite a family you got there, Siobhan," Tad commented.

I rolled my eyes. "You have no idea."

_____ * _____ * _____ * _____ * _____

So, we're back with the original Stew School. Siobhan's going to London, but Alex shows up, and he's got a plan. Maybe it's to protect her... or maybe it's to reign her in.

Thank you so much for taking time to read Siobhan's story! I look forward to your comments, and if you liked it, please remember to vote!

©Copyright Liz Charnes May 2018

This work is protected by copyright and cannot be copied or used in any way without my express consent. Please don't steal it. Thank you!