"Pryvitannie Alfred. Are you ready to go?" Hopes he is.

"No, I can drive us there. see you in a bit! Bye."

opens the door, already has one arm in her leather jacket. It has Soviet patches on it. "Alfred! Ready to go?"

"A small air field not far from here." walks to her small car and unlocks it, then walks over to the driver's side and gets in.

starts the car and backs out of her drive, soon they are on their way. "I was very surprised to this plane here, but there it was. I_

wanted to show it to you because I thought you would like to see it too."

*see this

"This plane was originally built in the 1920's, but I didn't fly one until the Great Patriot's war."

pulls up to the airfield and parks near the old wooden bi plane with a red star on it's tail.

"There it is, isn't it beautiful?"

"Isn't she?" also getting out of her seat as fast as she can. "Come on, they should have it ready for us."

"Alfred, we're not just climbing, we're flying!" already putting on gloves taken from the pocket of her leather jacket and putting them on.

surprised by the hug, but returns it happily. "They should have left me some goggles in the cockpit, come on!"

"Tak," climbs into the familiar cockpit with it's very basic mechanical instrumentation, settling into the very familiar seat. "I flew_

at least a thousand times during the war."

"We had a job to do, stop Germany from invading." puts on the goggles. "our squadron mostly did harassment attacks at night."

"Are you strapped in?" puts on her own harness, then starts the engine of the plane, smiling when it roars to life.

"Dobroy!" shouts over the engine, then begins to taxi toward the runway, waiting to get the all clear to take off.

the plane the thrust it needs to lift into the air, has a look of exhilaration as they take off and climb into the sky.

banks starboard a little so they turn away from the runway, then levels out and heads toward a wooded area.

flies over the trees, looking through the branches at the ground rushing below them, eyes light up, and she begins to descend gradually.

watches the trees break into a small meadow, and a herd of deer grazing. makes a sharp turn as they pass by, then heads straight for them_

cutting the engine and gliding over them when they reach the animals.

smiles at Alfred, can hear him now that the engine isn't running, decides to have fun with the deer and buzzes over them, the only sound_

coming from the wind in the wings.

buzzes over them, then turns up to clear the trees, takes a couple of cranks, but eventually gets the engine running again and they climb.

guides the plane back to the airfield, making a perfect landing when they arrive. Taxis back to where the plane was parked, and cuts the _

engine again.

him a wide eyed look, the faintest hint of a smile. "Dziakuj. Flying this old plane brings back memories for me." looks fondly at the plane

"Except when some of us died." looks away. "We didn't have parachutes, and sometimes the Germans did manage to shoot us down."

"I'm not sad. We did a good job, even though the men pilots made fun of us. When we made the final attack on Berlin our squad was there."

"The eventually came to respect us. Our job was to make it hard for the enemy to get much sleep. We were good at what we did. The_

Germans were convinced we were taking drugs to make our eyesight better, because we were so accurate with our bomb drops."

"Oh no, not angel. Germans called us 'night witches' because we flew in silently with no engines. They could only hear the wind in our_

wings when we approached, and by then it was too late."

"In Soviet Union we were called Stalin's Falcons." looks at him. "No one has ever called us angels. I like it."

eyes get bigger, "Really? You do?" leans a little closer to him. "That's really sweet for you to say."

melting from the compliments. "Alfred, you say the sweetest things."

looks at the wink. "Alfred ... I ... I ... I really like you ... a lot."

leans into the kiss, sorry that it's so brief. "You know?" Wonders if he actually does know.

"You haven't hurt my feelings ... yet." furrows her brow. "Have you?"

"If it was an accident, I don't think it counts." looks at the plane again, then back at him. "Did you have a good time today?"

"Dobroy, because the owner of this plane said I can fly it whenever I want. He thinks my great grandmother taught me how to fly."

nods. "I think it's better though if he thinks it was my great grandmother, don't you?"

walks away from the plane, getting nostalgic about the days when she flew.

looks up at him, gets a warm happy feeling and puts an arm around his waist.

"Tak, when I fly I feel free, like a bird must feel when he flies. I feel as though all my problems on the ground stay down there."

" Really, do you fly too?"

blushes at the wink. "Does it feel like an adventure right now?" it certainly feels like one to her, whenever shes' with him.

"Good, because I think it can be fun for both of us!"