“You’ve got this, Alex. Remember what we practiced. Small corrections, don’t over-control.” Fatigue weighed on my shouldersand there was a faint throbbing at the base of my neck from the drop in barometric pressure. “Set up for runway two-six, we’ll come in from the west.”
She turned us onto final approach, the wind immediately trying to push us off course. She corrected, overcorrected slightly, then found her rhythm—working with the plane instead of fighting it.
“Airspeed’s good,” I said. “Just ride the gusts down.”
The approach felt longer than usual, each gust requiring another correction, but Alex handled it with growing confidence. When we touched down—a bit firm but perfectly centered—I felt something ease in my chest that I hadn’t realized was locked tight.
“Nice landing,” I said as we rolled to a stop near the hangar. “Especially in these conditions.”
Alex sat quietly for a moment after I’d shut down the engine, her hands still gripping the yoke. Around us, the wind gusted against the Cub, rocking us gently.
“That was...” she started, then stopped, seeming to search for words.
“A lot,” I finished for her.
She turned in her seat to look at me, really look at me. “You stayed calm through all of it. The engine, the weather, talking me through everything.” She was quiet, thoughtful. “I don’t think I really understood before what it meant to trust you with my life.”
We sat in silence for another moment, both of us coming down from the intensity of the last hour. Outside, the first drops of rain began hitting the windscreen as the storm we’d outrun finally caught up to us. I could feel the tightness building at my temples—the aftermath of sustained concentration and stress in bad weather that meant I was going down soon.
“We should get inside before this really opens up.” Part of me wanted to stay in the quiet cocoon of the cockpit a while longer.
She nodded and climbed out, her movements careful and deliberate. I followed, my body stiff and sore from sitting in theback seat all day. By the time we’d secured the Cub and jogged to the truck, the rain was coming down in earnest.
“I’ll drive,” she said, catching the keys I tossed her. “You look like you’re about to crash.”
She wasn’t wrong. The pressure was building steadily, and I could already feel the sensitivity to light creeping in. I settled into the passenger seat as she started the engine and turned us toward the lodge.
The windshield wipers beat an even rhythm against the heavy rain. I watched Alex’s profile as she drove—her hands were steady on the wheel, but she kept taking deliberate breaths.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I will be,” she glanced at me briefly, then back to the road.
“You handled the situation perfectly. Better than some pilots I’ve flown with who had a lot more experience.”
“I trusted you,” she shrugged. “When everything started going wrong, I just...trusted that you knew what to do.”
The weight of that trust settled in my chest alongside the growing headache. I’d nearly failed her. By the time we pulled up to the lodge, the rain was drumming on the roof of the truck and my head was throbbing in earnest.
Alex turned off the engine but neither of us moved to get out. The sound of rain surrounded us, creating a private space in the truck cab where the rest of the world felt very far away.
“Migraine?” she asked softly.
“Yeah,” I rubbed my temples, feeling the tightness spreading behind my eyes.
“Come on then. Let’s get you inside.”
Chapter 38
A cozy one bedroom with no view
Alex
The sprint from the truck to the lodge left us both soaked despite the short distance. Inside our room, I moved immediately to close the curtains, my hands already reaching for the blackout drapes before I’d even fully processed that Finn needed darkness. Behind me, the bed creaked as he sat heavily on the edge, and I could hear the careful way he was breathing; shallow, controlled, like he was trying not to jolt anything loose in his head.
Thunder rumbled overhead, making me flinch hard enough that my shoulder hit the window frame.
“Ouch,” I muttered, rubbing the spot as another rumble shook the building.
