Hawke stroked the bow over the strings of the cello and closed his eyes as he played the last bars of the music. The final notes hung in the air before his hearing caught the harsh edge of another sound. He opened his eyes and stared into the cloudless blue sky with a scowl. He looked down at his dog Tet who wagged his tail in response.

'Yeah.' Hawke muttered and got to his feet. He picked up the camping stool and the cello and made his way back to the porch. Caitlin came out to greet him wiping her hands on a towel.

'You finished already?' She kissed him as his arms slid around her. 'I was enjoying the music.'

'We've got a visitor.' Hawke said gesturing behind him at the sky.

Caitlin glanced into the nothingness and bit back a smile. 'Who?'

'Michael.' Hawke said. 'Or Marella.' He shrugged. 'It's the FIRM helicopter anyway.'

'I'd better wake Dom.' Caitlin said. 'He's snoring away on the couch.'

'And you managed to hear the cello?' Hawke teased.

'Dom snoring away is going to seem peaceful when my folks land tomorrow.' Caitlin warned him.

Hawke winced. Most of Caitlin's family were arriving the next day for the wedding. He couldn't decide if he was pleased or not.

'How's your headache?' Caitlin asked. Hawke had suffered mild concussion from Rimmington's blow to his head.

Hawke sighed as the sound of the rotors filled the clearing and the white helicopter rounded the mountain, flying towards them over the lake. 'I think it might be coming back.'

Caitlin patted his chest sympathetically and made her way inside.

Hawke waited on the porch as the helicopter landed. Michael climbed out of the helicopter, followed by Marella. It looked like the Committee hearings were over, Hawke thought. He hadn't seen Michael since their meeting in Washington a few days previously and hadn't spoken to him since the congratulatory call from the spy. Hawke straightened and frowned at the serious expressions on the faces of the two agents as they approached.

'Hawke.' Michael greeted the pilot with a firm handshake. 'It's good to see you.'

'You too.' Hawke gestured. 'No Angelina?'

'Not this time.' Michael said shaking his head. 'I'm afraid this is business.'

'You all done in Washington?' Hawke asked.

Michael hesitated. 'I probably should tell all three of you at once.'

Hawke shrugged. 'Come on in.' He led the way back into the cabin. There was a flurry of greetings and it took a few minutes for them all to gather around the fire with mugs of coffee. Hawke leaned on the mantel, his blue eyes briefly landing on the photo of his brother before he fixed his gaze on Michael.

'OK, Michael. What gives?'

Hawke's quiet question silenced the other conversations that had been taking place. Michael stroked his moustache and gestured at the pilot. 'We have news.'

'I take it this isn't good news.' Hawke surmised as he lowered himself to sit on the hearthstone.

Michael shook his head. 'The Senate Oversight Committee announced their recommendations yesterday.'

'And?' Dom asked impatiently from his position on the sofa.

Michael nodded at Marella.

'And they're recommending the FIRM be merged with the Company.' She concluded. Technically they had just kept to Michael's agreement with Zeus; he hadn't told Hawke, she had.

'The Company?' Dom asked. 'But I hear those guys are pretty ruthless.'

Michael smiled. 'They specialise in covert international ops and yes, they do have a reputation for ruthlessness and expediency.' He raised his mug at Dom. 'Even more so than the FIRM.'

'I wasn't going to say anything.' Dom denied huffily.

'We both cover a lot of the same territory.' Marella said shoving her hands in the pockets of her white flight suit. 'From a politician's perspective, it makes financial sense to have our two organisations operating as a single entity.'

'Politics.' Hawke spat the word out like it was a profanity. He looked more closely at Michael's expression. 'You're worried about this.'

Michael sighed. 'I'm almost positive that this merger will happen, Hawke.'

'Will you be OK?' Hawke asked concerned.

'Quite honestly I don't know.' Michael admitted. 'When the merger happens, I'm not certain how long it will be before I would no longer be in a position to assist you. The Company is the larger of the agencies and they'll take over operations. Realistically, my division may well be disbanded.' He pressed his lips together and nodded again at Marella.

'We're managing a project which is highly valuable. One that we had hoped to get you involved with eventually.' She said sighing. Again, at least Michael could honestly say he hadn't told Hawke about the project, she thought.

Hawke raised a single eyebrow as he looked from Marella to Michael and back. 'You both seem a little nervous.'

Michael gave a small smile. 'You're not going to like it.'

'When do we ever?' Dom laughed.

'Just spit it out.'

'We…er…brought some slides.' Michael gestured. 'I could take you through the presentation.'

Dom's eyebrows shot up. 'A presentation, huh?'

Hawke caught the amusement in Dom's eyes and was hard pressed not to laugh when he caught Michael's disgruntlement at the other man's teasing. 'Set it up, Michael.'

It took them a while to arrange the room and for Marella to set up a portable projection unit. They shifted chairs so they all had a good view of the screen. Dom moved a dining chair next to the screen for Michael before he took another. Marella took one easy chair; Caitlin took the other with Hawke perched on the arm next to her.

Hawke slipped his hand into Caitlin's and leaned over to whisper in her ear. 'You think he'll mind if we make out in the back row.'

Caitlin grinned, her eyes twinkling at him. 'If you want to go make out we can ditch this and go upstairs.' She murmured.

'Don't tempt me.' Hawke linked their fingers and smiled at her as Michael cleared his throat. They both turned to see him waiting in front of them.

'I guess I should start by explaining a few things first.' Michael adjusted his glasses. 'You all remember after you took care of Jenkins and Airwolf II the Committee agreed to give me a free hand with the Airwolf project?'

'We're hardly likely to forget.' Dom said laughing, rocking back in his chair.

'It occurred to me then that it was likely that Airwolf would be surpassed by something faster, smarter and better equipped within another year maybe sooner.' Michael leaned back. 'In fact it was inevitable. Jenkin's machine was essentially Airwolf but it was an improved design. Jenkins had the better machine.'

Hawke shook his head. 'It wasn't better.'

'It was.' Michael smiled. 'Airwolf had a superior pilot.'

'You know Michael whenever you start flattering me I start to get worried.' Hawke said his blue eyes filled with suspicion.

Michael sighed. 'You have to admit Hawke, in the past two years on pure specifications Airwolf has been outclassed or matched on several times.'

Hawke drained his coffee mug and set it aside not sure if he liked the direction of the conversation. 'The Lady's always stood up when tested Michael.'

'I know but it was time to start thinking about what came after her.' Michael kept his gaze on the pilot. 'So after Airwolf II I began a project with the sole aim of designing a successor to Airwolf.'

Hawke shook his head, a slow anger starting to burn in his gut and his hand tightened on Caitlin's. He didn't need to look at Dom to know the older man was glaring at Michael. 'You're unbelievable. You're actually telling me that you put together a project that rendered my agreement with you useless?'

'I truly believed we would find out the fate of your brother one way or another before the project completed.' Michael said forcefully.

'Sure, that's why you're only telling me now.' Hawke returned angrily. He stood up as though to walk away.

'He's not even supposed to be telling you now, Hawke. He had a direct order from Zeus not to tell you.' Marella spoke up furiously. 'He's risking everything being here.'

Hawke's eyes flashed at her before they pinned Michael in a wave of angry blue. 'Is it that true?'

'The project has the highest security rating. It's meant to be completely confidential and yes, I'm breaking a direct order telling you about it.' Michael admitted.

'Why?' Hawke demanded.

Michael shifted uncomfortably. 'Because despite what the FIRM thinks about this project, I intend to keep my promise to find your brother, Hawke; I always did.'

Hawke considered Michael's sincere expression and felt the hot wave of righteous anger die away. He subsided back onto his seat. 'OK, Michael. You have my attention.'

'Michael, I might be being particularly dense but why would we be interested in being involved with this new project?' Caitlin said. 'I mean we're only involved with Airwolf to find Saint John.'

'She has a point.' Hawke repressed a smile at seeing Michael's frustration. 'If we had found out about my brother before this project came to fruition why would we want to be involved?'

'You three know more about what a helicopter like Airwolf needs in real situations than anybody else in the world and,' Michael gestured at them, 'I need people I trust and that's you.'

There was a stunned silence.

'Besides,' Michael said eventually, 'the fact the FIRM is being taken over changes things. Look, just listen to my pitch on the new prototype before you decide anything.' He clicked a button on the remote in his hand and the screen switched on. Three slides in and despite Michael's obvious enthusiasm Hawke was bored. He was also aware that Dom and Caitlin knew he was bored and were amused.

'Michael,' Hawke interrupted him mid-flow on some point about computer advances, 'you want to cut to the chase here.'

Michael glowered at him. 'Would it kill you for once to sit through one of my presentations?'

'I don't know but I'm fairly certain the cause of death would be boredom.' Hawke shot back as Caitlin sniggered beside him.

Michael continued to glower at him and then fast-forwarded through the slides to a picture. It was an artist's impression of the new aircraft. Caitlin stopped laughing and her eyes widened with pleased surprise; Dom muttered a prayer in Italian under his breath and Hawke…Hawke let go of Caitlin's hand and stood up to move closer to the screen.

Instant recognition.

It was undoubtedly Airwolf but there was something more…it looked sleeker and deadlier. Hawke reached out to touch the drawing and dropped his hand. He lowered himself back onto the chair arm and rubbed his chin as Michael looked at him in triumph. The last time he's seen that look in Hawke's eyes was the first time the pilot had laid eyes on the original Airwolf.

'I admit she's beautiful on paper Michael.' Hawke gestured at the screen. 'How far on are you?'

Michael smiled. 'She's almost ready for build.'

'You're kidding.' Dom was astounded. 'But if you've only been working on this since we blew up Jenkins…'

'We had a head-start.' Michael admitted. 'Jenkins wasn't as smart as Moffett. He left behind all his designs in the FIRM's back up computer. All I needed was a team to reverse engineer and then improve on them.'

'Karen Hansen is leading the computer and technology side so we also have the benefit of her knowledge of the original Airwolf computer programming.' Marella added. 'We've also got a top notch aeronautical engineering team.'

Michael smoothed his moustache. 'They estimate the design phase will be complete in another month and we'll start building. I'm hoping to have her ready for testing around the start of eighty-seven.'

'And you were seriously expecting that we would have found Saint John by then?' Dom asked sceptically shaking his head.

'Yes.' Michael frowned. 'The information we got from Tania Bening was the most comprehensive we've gotten. I'm certain your brother is working for one of the intelligence agencies.' He gestured at Hawke. 'I just need a little time to verify which and I think I may have just worked out the most likely suspect.'

'How?' Hawke asked puzzled.

'Your name and our agreement came up during the Committee hearings.' Michael said. 'It gave me the opportunity to challenge the other intelligence agencies on the whereabouts of your brother.'

'You went on a fishing expedition in the middle of a Senate Oversight Committee hearing?' Dom started laughing. 'I have to hand it to you, Mikey, that took some guts.'

'Thank you.' Michael said dryly his good eye still on Hawke.

Hawke stared at the spy. His mouth was dry and he could hear his heart beating. His fingers tightened around Caitlin's. 'And?' He forced the word out.

'And the Company director was the one who took the bait.' Michael said.

'The agency the FIRM's likely to merge with?' Caitlin's voice rose with every word.

'The very one.' Michael confirmed.

'Ah, come on, Michael.' Dom argued seeing the light of hope in Hawke's eyes and hoping Michael hadn't put it there falsely. 'How can you possibly know for certain? The guy might have just had gas.'

'I know.' Michael insisted. 'And once we're merged it wouldn't take long to find out.'

'What do you mean?' asked Caitlin.

'If we're merged, we'll have full access to their computer system…' Marella's dark eyes positively gleamed with feral anticipation. 'Getting information about their operatives including Saint John Hawke if he is one, in theory should be easy.'

There was another silence whilst they all absorbed how close they could be to finally knowing what had happened with Hawke's brother. It was Hawke who broke the moment clearing his throat and gesturing at the screen.

'So your original plan was to get us involved during the test phase?'

Michael nodded. 'That was the original plan. Still will be if this merger doesn't happen.'

'And if the merger does happen?' Hawke asked.

'The Company isn't likely to disband the new project. The director of the Company went on record at the hearing as saying his agency would look to continue the project.' Michael said. 'What is unknown is what they would decide about the existing Airwolf.' He shrugged. 'They may decide to honour our agreement and leave me in charge or they may give you a different liaison. They may decide to effectively close you down with lack of support or come after you. You could take the easy option if the merger happens; handover Airwolf and be involved with my project.' He held Hawke's gaze. 'I'll keep to our agreement and find your brother.'

Hawke returned his gaze to the screen. 'I won't hand over Airwolf without my brother.'

'Fine. Keep her. Just join this project too.' Michael said. 'If they don't hold to the agreement, I will.'

Hawke's blue eyes narrowed. 'There must be a catch in this somewhere.'

'You have to continue working with Michael?' Marella suggested. Her dark eyes twinkling as Michael shot her a dirty look.

Dom laughed. 'Ah that's a catch all right.'

Hawke glanced at Dom and then at Caitlin. The warmth of their support shining in their eyes caught his breath for an instant; they would be with him whatever he decided. He sighed and looked back at Michael. 'I guess we have a deal.'

Michael rose to his feet and held out his hand solemnly. Hawke stood up and took it in a firm clasp with equal solemnity.

'Well.' Dom grinned broadly. 'This is cause for a celebration, huh? Don't you have some fancy bottle of wine put away for this kinda thing?'

'I'll get it.' Hawke headed for the kitchen. He'd put a bottle of decent wine in the fridge to chill earlier. He returned to find them all stood around the slide of the Airwolf picture discussing the merits of the new design. He handed out the glasses of wine and a comfortable silence fell on the group.

'So, what should we toast?' Caitlin asked as Hawke's arm slid around her waist.

'How about to Airwolf?' Marella suggested. 'Old and new?'

Dom shook his head. 'How about to possibilities?'

Hawke inclined his head towards Michael. 'To friends?' It was a recognition, the spy realised; a recognition by Hawke of the choice Michael had made when he'd decided to tell the pilot about the project.

Michael met Hawke's eyes firmly. 'To loyalty.' He suggested.

Hawke's blue eyes warmed at the spy. 'To loyalty.' He agreed solemnly.