Happy Birthday, Eva.

After finishing serving drinks, the flight attendant starts to put the cart away. Once it's done, she looks at her watch, it's 3:52 p.m. central standard time. As she looks out over the passengers, for whatever reason, she notices a woman and two boys, one of whom is pretty young. The little boy is sitting by the window, staring intently out of it, likely looking at the clouds and ground below. Smiling, she looks around some more, her heart melting a little when she sees a young couple in the midst of a kiss. To their left is an older couple, looking just as much in love with each other as the younger one. Her reverie is broken by the sound of a baby crying. Walking down the aisle, she pauses to ask the mother if there's anything she can do to help. When the young mother points to the overhead storage container, she nods. Opening it, she finds the bag and pulls out the baby blanket, handing it to the woman before securing the hatch again. A little over an hour into the flight, she starts to walk back towards the cockpit when suddenly the plane lurches violently when the cabin is rocked by an explosion.

It's so loud that it's indescribable and it fills not only the young boy but all of the passengers with fear. Almost immediately, it starts to make funny noises. The plane then rolls out and lines up with Runway 22 as 369,000 pounds of flesh and metal hurtle nearly 250 miles per hour towards the earth without any way to stop it. In the final seconds of the flight, there is intense fear that the tires will explode upon impact.

The thing that strikes her mind is... "I'm going to die this afternoon." The only question that remains is how long is it going to take for death to claim her? And then she clutches her stomach, understanding dawning on her that she has 296 lives literally in her hands. After the captain's announcement that they're going to attempt an emergency landing, as calmly as she can, she goes over the crash procedure with the passengers. Before she can buckle herself in, "Brace, Brace, Brace" comes over the intercom and almost like a breeze blowing over a wheat field, everyone, row by row drops below the level of their seats in an effort to protect themselves.

Suddenly there's the sound of grinding and twisting metal when the right wing hits the ground first and is sheered off of the plane. Feeling it bounce and tip and then pole vault up on its nose, everything becomes a blur. And then amazingly, the entire tail of the airplane breaks off and departs. As the plane rolls up onto its nose, a great aperture opens where the tail had been and now angles across an arc of intense blue sky that shockingly points directly at the high summer sun. Blinded by the pure shaft of sunlight streaming down the aisles, saturating the covers and giving the scene a surreal appearance, she raises her hand to protect her eyes. As the light floods the cabin, illuminating it, people who were still strapped to their seats had been torn free and sent tumbling onto the runway. Some of the banks of seats are thrown high into the air far above the fuselage as if shot from a cannon by the centrifugal force as the aft end of the fuselage swings in a majestic, flaming arc. As the plane continues its balletic like progress, the breached fuselage sweeps past the sun and the cabin goes dim once more. With her breaths coming farther and farther apart, in her delirium she notices a shadow, maybe it's death she thinks to herself just as her eyes fall closed for the final time.

The plane is breaking up, things are coming apart all around and people are screaming and once again the certainty of how this life would end comes into sharp focus. Laying underneath the wreckage, the pilot can feel the life drain out of him as the weight of twisted steel lays on top of his diaphragm. Looking around, he sees spots in front of his eyes. And suddenly there's an ethereal like apparition telling him not to panic, if he panics, he won't be able to get out. There's a huge rush of air and dirt and gravel and it's then that he realizes that he's still alive although barely. A torrent of hot air and sharp grit-like shattered glass lashes at his face and with not enough time to think, his life flashes before him and then it blissfully ends, blacked out forever by the grace of God.

Waking up in a cold sweat, Damon rakes his hands through his hair. Dragging himself out of bed, he goes into the bathroom to take a drink and splash a little water on his face. During the course of his career as an NTSB investigator, he's seen too much devastation, too many lives ended and too many families left behind to grieve. Each time he investigates another one, the nightmares return. After using the bathroom, he tries to go back to sleep but all he does is toss and turn and dream some more. Glancing at the clock, he sees it's nearly six in the morning. Getting up again, his eyes drift to the top of his dresser. After several seconds, he swallows thickly and goes about his business.

After showering and getting ready, Damon fills his travel mug, grabs his keys and runs outside. Jumping into his car, he drives to his office. Although The National Transportation and Safety Board is located in Washington DC, there is a regional office located here in Denver. Ever since he was a little boy, he has been fascinated by the science of flight and in determining the factors leading up to and causes of plane crashes. A voracious reader, he read absolutely everything, every book, every article, every internet clipping on plane crashes. He'd find himself glued to the TV when one would occur, watching, listening and learning along with every one else.

In that particular accident, The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause was inadequate consideration given to human factors limitations in the inspection and quality control procedures used by United Airlines' engine overhaul facility which resulted in the failure to detect a fatigue crack originating from a previously undetected metallurgical defect located in a critical area of the stage 1 fan disk. The subsequent catastrophic disintegration of the disk resulted in the liberation of debris in a pattern of distribution and with energy levels that exceeded the level of protection provided by design features of the hydraulic systems that operate the DC-10's flight controls.

As he makes his way through the Denver traffic and since it's early yet, he decides to run by and see his dad. After exiting onto Colorado Boulevard, he switches on the blue tooth and calls his office, letting them know that he'll be a little late. Once he's given the okay, he continues down the road till he reaches the turn off to the zoo and museum. Making the left turn, he drives around a bit till he finds a parking spot. Jumping out, he locks his car and starts walking towards the entrance. Recognized by the girl in the ticket booth, she lets him through when he shows her his season pass. Nodding, he walks through the rotating bars and heads to the zoo offices. His father, Matt Salvatore is the curator of the Denver Zoo. Damon worked here all through high school and still loves to visit the animals, many of which are still alive. Stepping into the administration building, he greets the secretary and then takes the stairs up to his dad's office. As soon as he reaches it, he raps on the door while pushing it open.

"Damon, this is a nice surprise," Matt says, standing up to greet his son. After giving him a hug, Damon drops into the chair in front of his father's desk. "So what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I thought that maybe we could get a cup of coffee or something. And besides that, I haven't seen you since I got back to town."

"I suppose it was different, working a plane crash in a foreign country?"

"It was and their investigators were a lot of help quite honestly. But I wish I could've done more. After I did everything that I was allowed to do, I called Liz and as you know, she told me to come home. How's she?" Damon asks, speaking of his father's girlfriend. His father and Liz have been together since Damon and Caroline were around twelve years old. Although they've never married, they moved in together about a year after they started dating. And as a result, Damon not only got a mother figure, he also got a sister in Caroline. Of course, as siblings do, they fought plenty but when push came to shove, they've always had each other's backs.

"She's good. Caroline just got back from her trip to New York so she's spending time with her today. I thought maybe the four of us could get together for a meal or something?"

"Sure... speaking of Caroline, she's been kind of under the radar. I haven't heard from her in a while either."

"Like I said, she was in New York. I'm certain that Liz told her that you were out of the country."

"You're right. But listen, let's go get something to eat because I need to get to the office."

"Sounds good," Matt says, standing up, he motions for Damon to lead the way. They walk onto the zoo property, stopping to visit the lowland Gorilla exhibit. Damon used to feed the animals and help clean their pens among other things that he did when he worked here. Once they reach one of the concession areas, they order coffee and sit down to watch the crowd.

"They have no idea that the zoo's Big Kahuna is right in front of them," Damon chuckles, taking a swallow of his coffee. Once they finish eating, they pause at the Grizzly bear exhibit before he walks his dad back to his office. After saying goodbye, Damon hurries back out to his car to drive to his office on Oakland street here in Denver. As soon as he steps into the suite housing the NTSB offices, he says good morning to their secretary, Andie Starr and then walks into his office. Before he even has a chance to sit down, his boss and step mother for all intents and purposes, walks inside and turns on the TV. The networks are all running with the pictures of the plane crash, the wreckage still smoldering. Flames are billowing into the sky as firefighters try to get a handle on it. Looking at the debris and the wreckage, Damon's stomach twists when he realizes that it's highly likely that there are no survivors.

"Flight 1042 out of Phoenix."

"Pilot?" Damon asks, not taking his eyes from the TV.

"Captain Grayson Gilbert, impeccable safety record."

Walking over to his desk, he fires up his computer to look up whatever information he can find on the man. "Twenty five hundred hours of flying time, well experienced, married with one daughter," Damon mentions. Clicking further, he sees a picture of Capt. Gilbert and his daughter, both smiling. Although his attention is on the TV and the immediate aftermath of the crash, he can't help but steal an occasional glance at the young woman in picture, looking at the small print, he sees that her name is Elena, Elena Gilbert.

It seems that plane crashes rarely have survivors. I did some research into witness, survivor's accounts. Some of the sounds and descriptions are taken from their stories of what it's like to be inside of a plane during it's final moments. We were even able to consult with a real pilot to ask him some questions to try to make this as accurate as possible.

Huge, huge thank you to Eva for helping me. I love you dearly.

Chapter title: 'How It Ends' by Devotchka.

I did update "Phoenix Rising" Tuesday and "ICEM" will update later this week.

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Have a safe and wonderful day.