in the blanket that was next to the bunk, then moved to the cockpit door and sat down near it closing his eyes once more. “Now let me sleep.” As Kit watched Shade he saw a smile cross Shade’s face.

*****

Ingenuity

*****

It was a warm summer day as Shade walked around the Night Witch airfield, he smiled as he held up his first gadget attached to his wrist. “Alright Kiddo now you sure you have that thing set up correctly?” Gloria asked, as she looked at Shade who smiled brightly as he aimed at a target set up against the hanger. As Shade took aim he fired from his creation three sharpened cogs heading towards the target two hitting their mark where the third went through a near by window, causing some one inside to scream in fright. “Nice shooting kiddo, but it needs a little work, maybe a few more lessons about aerodynamics on a spinning surface with help.”

“Maybe a blistered backside will help him as well.” Julia said, as she walked out holding a flight cap with the missing cog stuck to it. “You think it’s funny shooting at me you little pest?” As Julia started to walk towards Shade, Gloria stepped between them in a protective posture.

“Cool your engine Julia, he didn’t aim at you, his little cog just flew off target.” Julia looked at Gloria and then at Shade, as she made her way past Gloria she grabbed Shade’s arm and pulled him to the mechanic shed. “Julia come on he didn’t mean to, leave him alone.”

“Nothing doing, he needs to learn this lesson before one of us gets killed.” With those words Gloria ran off to find Barbra who was working on her planes engine.

“Barbra… Barbra!”

“What is it Gloria?” Barbra said, as she set down an engine piston and looked at her wingman.

“I was helping Shade with his first gadget and it nearly hit Julia, she’s drug him to the shed, and she looked mad.” Barbra dropped what she was doing and headed for the mechanic shed. As Barbra barged into the shed, she was ready to read Julia the riot act when she saw Julia sitting next to Shade at the work bench.

“Alright Shade, here’s your problem you have a slightly defect in the metal here that is causing the cog to fly off balance, when your making your devices or repairing one of are gadgets you have to make sure of everything, even the slightest detail can cause some one to get hurt, do you understand?” Julia asked, as she showed Shade the defect getting him to node several times. “Now let me show you how to fix that little defect.” As Julia turned around to get a file she looked at Barbra and Gloria standing at the door. “Hey you two, come on in, I think we can all give him pointers on his first little gadget.” Julia said, as she smiled at the two standing in the door. As they walked in the three started to work with Shade showing him the errors of his device or how he could make it better, smiling at how much interest in making better creations.

*****

As Shade dreamt the time he spent with the night witch squadron in the real world Kit had returned to the cockpit and sat back in his seat.

“So when Miss Cunningham, is this going to be a normal thing or what?” Kit asked, as he looked at Rebecca who only smiled at him.

“This is just a one time thing, I made a mistake and Shade was willing to help us out of the trouble.” with that Kit nodded and then looked out at the map. Rebecca looked at Kit and noticed that he seemed to be bothered by something as he was working on the navigation charts. When she thought back to how Kit was scared that Shade might take his place in her and Baloo’s heart, she smiled softly and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “But he’s nothing compared to the best navigator in the world.” with that Kit smiled proudly as he seem to find a new reason to work even harder on his work. “Now while my flight crew works, I’m going start fixing lunch, so try and keep the plane steady Baloo.”

“Hey no problem Beckers, ol’ Baloo has everything under control.” as Rebecca walked into the back she nearly tripped over Shade sitting by near the door. As She looked at Shade she walked over and found Molly covered in the blanket.

*********

Von Biege

*********

It was early morning when the airfield alarm started to go off, As the girls ran to their planes Barbra grabbed Shade and carried him to hers. “What’s going on?” Shade asked, as he looked at Barbra.

“We got in coming Shade, and right now I’m getting you out of here.” with that Barbra got into the pilot seat and sat Shade in her lap. As the plane started to take off Shade could see Julia, Gloria, and Brianna heading off to head off the enemy fighters heading towards them.

“We got about 20 of them Barb all Hausers… Barb he’s here, Von Biege is here.” those words sent chills down Barbra’s spin as she moved Shade back into her lap and held him close. “Alright girls listen to me closely, take down as many as you can, and stay away from Von Biege.” with that Shade looked at Barbra who only looked ahead. As Shade listened to the radio he could here the girls conversation going back and forth warning one another, thank each other for watching their backs, and the ones he hated most was listening to the information of how they started to fall.the dog fighting lasted half an hour, while it seemed like an eternity as the radio seem to turn more and more silent.

“Barbra are they alright?” Shade asked, as he looked at Barbra who kept looking forward.

“Sure they are honey, nothing can take down are family remember?” Barbra said, as she smiled at Shade and kept flying. “Once we get the all clear we’ll go back and have a big party, heck we’ll be busy for a week getting all the scrapped planes in and you little man will have a lot of time to mess around with all those parts, except for those parts that we’ve told you about.”

“I know, I’m not aloud to use the ammunition from the planes, and I’m only aloud to touch the guns when one of you are present.”

“That’s right Shade, only when me or one of your aunts are near by.”

“Aunts?” Shade looked at Barbra confused, getting a surprised look from Barbra as she cleared her throat slightly.

“Well yeah, uh me and the girls have been talking about it for a while, and we where going to take you into town next week and get you legally adopted, I was… Am I mean, I am going to be your legal mother, while the other girls are going to be like your aunts, we’re going to be one big happy family back at that little airfield.” with that Shade smiled and hugged Barbra the best he could as he looked out at the sky. The silents was broken when Julia's voice came across the radio, sounding out of breath and tired.

“Barbra, I’m all alone out here and Von Biege has already taken down Gloria and Brianna.”

“Did they bail out?” Their was no response from Julia. “Julia are you still there?”

“I’m still here Barbra.”

“Did Gloria and Brianna bail out, are they alright?” Again there was a long pause from Julia. “Julia.”

“He shot them while they were floating to the ground, they didn’t even have a chance.” At hearing the fates of two of his friends Shade started crying as Barbra held him close. “Barbra I don’t see him he’s.” the signal died and Barbra swallowed hard as she kept flying forward. It was half an hour later when Barbra heard the sound of another plane coming up from behind as she looked in her rear view she held Shade close and sniffled. “Shade I want you to listen to me very closely, I want you to hang onto the stick, and I want you to keep flying straight no matter what, I want you to keeping going straight until the fuel tanks are dry and you have no choice but to land is that clear?”

“But Barbra.”

“Please Shade listen to me.” Barbra hugged Shade once and kissed him on the forehead smiling as a tear rolled down her face. “Be a good boy Shade, make the Squadron proud.” with that Shade looked at Barbra and nodded. As he took the stick Barbra moved Shade lower and then raised her arms up. He heard the guns fire but the plane flew fine, as he heard the other plane moving up, and as he looked to his right side he saw a FW 190 black as night with a Reaper painted on the side of it, as the pilot looked at Shade their eyes locked for what seemed like an eternity before the enemy fighter flew away.

“Barbra who was that?” Shade asked, as he kept looking forward, not getting a response from her. “Barbra?” Shade glanced back to see Barbra slumped in her seat. “Barbra?… Barbra?… mommy?” As the last word escaped his lips Shade looked forward as tears started to run down his cheeks. As pain filled his chest, he kept looking forward, the anger started to rise as he kept remembering the image of the FW 190. His blood started to boil as his heart want nothing more then for Barbra to sit up and wrap her arms around him to take away the hollow space that now filled his chest.

*******************

“RRRRRAAAAA!!!!!” Shade yelled, as he opened his eyes slamming his fist on the floor of the Sea Duck getting Rebecca to jump slightly as she looked at him. As he started breath hard through gritted teeth Rebecca took a few steps forward to see if he was alright only to get an evil