Flight Emergency

"I don't really like to spring this on you, but on our way to my place I have to stop and pick up my daughter from her mother's place. I think we should get the awkward things out of the way first, not that I think this will be a problem."

"I look forward to meeting her, Michelle, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but she prefers Micha to Michelle or Shelly."

"How often do you have her?"

"One weekend a month and school holidays if I can swing it."

"How old is she now?"

"She was 8 last month, going on 15."

"I'd love to meet her, I think we'll be fine."

"I see you've brought your latest slut with you! I don't suppose you stopped to think about how this looks to Micha, did you?" Melissa stared at Julie seated in the front of the car.

I wasn't about to get into a slanging match with her in front of Micha or Julie, so I picked up Micha's bag and held out my hand to her. Micha almost pulled my up the path to the car. "Wow, Dad, how long have you had this?"

"A couple of days. Do you like it?"

"It's so cool. I can't wait to tell the girls at school that you've got a Morgan."

Julie stepped out of the car and held her hand out to Micha, "Hi Micha, I'm Julie, I've been wanting to meet you."

"Hi Julie," Micha gave her a hug, "You look nice." She slid into the tiny back seat and put on her seat belt. Julie and I got in and I drove away, away from the filthy look that Melissa was still sporting, it was made worse by the way that Julie and Micha seemed to hit it off straight away.

"How's school?" This was my usual first question.

"Great! I get to play hockey next term."

"Oh dear, looks as if I'll have to invest in shin pads, we can't have you getting bashed about."

"You should talk, Mum said that you used to play Rugby Union, and there's not a lot that's rougher than that."

"Don't believe everything that you hear, I never suffered any major injuries, just the odd broken leg and my nose, well that's had more surgical attention than Michael Jackson's."

"Michael who?"

"You're too young to have heard of him, but he's had heaps of work done on his face."

"What school do you go to Micha?"

"St Cat's"

"She means St Catherine's. He mother decided that she should go to the best school that I could afford, not that I mind, it is a good school."

We chatted about all sorts of mundane things during the two hour drive to my hobby farm just outside Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands just south of Sydney. I would never have bought this place if I couldn't have come to an arrangement with my neighbour who grazed some of his beef cattle on my land in exchange for not having to pay for the agistment and getting a small wage to look after the place. We both bought beef calves and fattened them for market.

I pulled up in front of the house and we got out. Micha was excited, grabbing Julie's hand, "Come on Julie I'll show you around and you can meet Fred."

"Fred? Who's Fred?"

"My horse, Daddy bought him for me for my birthday."

I unpacked the bags and shoved them through the front door and followed Micha and Julie, who were happily chatting as if they were old and good friends, around to the rear of the house to where Fred, resplendent in his dark blue coat that set off his grey fur, grazed nonchalantly on the green grass. What an idyllic scene, my daughter and the woman that I knew for certain that I love, standing there being nuzzled by the horse.

A tractor came around from behind the hay shed, Pete waved as he approached. "Hi Mitch, good to see you." He stopped the tractor and jumped down, he waved to Micha, "Hi Micha, when are you going to ride him?"

"When Daddy let's me."

We walked over to them, "Pete this is Julie, Pete looks after the place for me when I'm not around." Pete held out his hand.

"I'm glad I caught you, I'm taking my stock to market next week and I think yours are ready to go as well. I've arranged delivery of fifty or so AIS (Australian Illawarra Shorthorn) calves, how many do you want?"

"Do you want to go halves?"

"Sure. I'll bring the invoice over this afternoon and you can pay me then."

"Why don't you bring Jan over tonight and we'll have dinner together?"

"You sure?" He looked at Julie as if to question whether this would be too much for her.

"We're sure." Julie answered. "Shall we say 7:00 for dinner at 7:30?"

"See you then." Pete jumped onto the tractor and roared off, tractors aren't all that quiet, bouncing down the gravel track between the two farms.

We all went inside and Micha grabbed her bag and ran off down the hallway to her room as if she didn't want to waste one moment of this weekend. "She's really nice, I like her." Julie said as she came into my arms for a kiss, "Do you think that I'll make a good step-mother?"

I haven't even asked Julie to marry me, yet, I wanted to get this weekend over with to see whether the two got on well together before I even thought about the next step, but here was Julie, in her own way telling me that everything was going to be fine between the two of them.

I took Julie down to the spare bedroom, we didn't want to rush letting Micha know that we were already lovers, and while she unpacked I went into the kitchen to make coffee for Julie and I and a glass of fresh from the cow milk that Pete had left in the fridge for me.

"She's really, really nice Dad. I love her already." Micha gave me the biggest hug. "And you two are so right for each other, better than Mum and 'Uncle' Jim."

"Whatever happened to 'Uncle' Rod?"

"He and Mum had this huge fight and He dumped her. They were screaming at each other and calling each other nasty names. I'm glad he's gone, I never liked him. 'Uncle' Jim's not much better."

We had lunch and toured the property, Julie and Micha were getting on much better than I had expected, they chatted non-stop as we walked through the paddocks, patted the cattle and I set traps in the dam to catch us a feed of crayfish for dinner tonight. After an hour I had more than enough for five people, so we went back to the house to get ready for dinner.

Micha began to set the table as Julie and I prepared the entrees, salads and desserts, the crayfish for the main course would be kept until the last minute. They sat in a tub of icy water that effectively put them to sleep so that when they were plunged into the boiling water in the pot they would not suffer.

We were dressed in our best casual clothes when we heard Pete's car pull up out front. Micha ran and opened the door for them and I heard her urging them inside, "Jan, come and meet Julie, she's Daddy's new friend and she's really nice."

They all came into the kitchen as Julie and I were setting out the platter of antipasto and other bits and pieces for the entrée. "Hi again." Julie said to Pete.

"Jan this is Julie." Pete said by way of introduction.

Julie held out her hand but Jan grasped it and pulled Julie to her and kissed her on the cheek. "I've heard a lot about you already, about how good looking you are and how you and Micha seem to be hitting it off. I'm pleased to meet you, you don't know how long we've waited for someone like you to come along. All the local girls have given up trying to snare him."

The meal went better than I had hoped and during the evening Jan and Pete both gave their seal of approval and Julie had expressed how much she enjoyed their company. I was feeling more and more positive about the way things were progressing.

Pete and Jan left around midnight after inviting us over for lunch the next day and Micha had reluctantly gone to bed at 10:30, but only after we promised her that we would allow her to have her first tentative ride on Fred in the morning.

Julie and I were alone and happy, I was happier than I have felt for a long, long, time. "I have to thank you for being so perfect tonight." I said as I kissed her, again.

"I can't help but be amazed that I've been accepted so well by Micha, and Jan and Pete. I feel almost as if I belong here with you."

"And that leads me very nicely into what I have to say next."

Her arms were around my neck and her lips were millimetres from mine. "And what might that be?"

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes, oh yes." The minute gap between our lips closed as she kissed me. "There are so many things that we'll have to sort out but, yes I will marry you as soon as humanly possible."

"Before you get too carried away there are a couple of things we should discuss. Firstly, as soon as we are married I plan to apply for custody of Micha. I don't think that the environment that she is living in with Melissa is right for her. But there is a problem and that is I am not her biological father and I know that Melissa will use that to prevent me gaining custody. Micha is the result of one of Melissa's many affairs, she was a Flight Attendant like you but she had no qualms about screwing around with pilots. That's one of the reasons that I don't, or didn't."

"The other thing is that I am going to hand in my resignation. I have enough money now to survive at least three straight years of drought, so I want to live here full time and run the property myself using Pete as a consultant and to help me with things like tha actual buying and selling of cattle. Now, I know that it is early into our relationship and I shouldn't expect you to." Her finger was pressed against my lips, silencing me.

"I want to live with you so badly that I'd move to Outer Mongolia if that was where you wanted to live." Another kiss, this time with more passion.

Throwing caution to the winds, we went to bed, in my bed. Julie was now a part of my world, she shared equal billing with Micha. We made love, oh did we make love. It was as if years of abstinence had been building up and the safety valve that had kept it in check had blown and all of our pent up passions, emotions and love had burst forth in an orgy of passionate love making. The love we had made in the hotel last night, (was it only last night?) was the teaser, it brought us together, but it wasn't until the commitment had been made that we felt free to lose control of ourselves with each other.

Sometime between exhilaration and exhaustion I thought that I heard our door open but I took no notice of it until the morning. Julie and I were just surfacing from our deep sleep when there was a soft knock on the door and it swung open to admit Micha, "Are you guys awake?"

"Mmmm, wah?" that was as close to an intelligent response as you would get for a while.

"I've brought you breakfast in bed." She turned the light on and came in with a tray on which she had set out toast and scrambled eggs and coffee, merciful coffee. "There's more coffee if you need it."

Julie held the sheet over her breasts and sat up. "This is nice, could anything be more perfect. Thank you Honey, but you shouldn't have."

"I figured that you would be tired this morning, so I thought I'd make you breakfast so you didn't have to get up early. I know that the two of you were in here because I had to go to the toilet at around two this morning and I heard you, you were making love, weren't you?"

"How do you know about this?"

"Puhlease, when you have a mother like mine, you learn things real quick. You don't honestly think that when one of my pretend 'Uncles' stays over that Mum and he sleep in different beds do you?" She sat on the edge of the bed.

"I think that you should let us have breakfast in peace."

"Are you afraid that I'll see Julie's breasts if she lets go of the sheet? Don't worry Dad, I've seen Mums plenty of times, she wanders around the house with them hanging out all the time, by the way Julie, yours are better than Mum's, and if Julie is going to be my new Mum, then what is wrong with me seeing them? I do hope that Julie is going to be my new Mum." She had a strange look on her face as if she wanted an answer yesterday. "Dad?"

"Yes we are getting married." Julie beat me to it by a gnat's appendage.

"Great! Can I be your bridesmaid?"

"Wouldn't you rather be a flower girl?"

"Nah. If I'm a bridesmaid I get to stay right through the reception, but if I'm a flower girl you can ship me off home at some beastly early hour, now would that be fair?"

"Go young lady, and leave us to enjoy this in peace."

"Spoilsports." She huffed out of the room.

We breakfasted, showered and dressed for lunch. What I thought was going to be a quiet lunch with just Pete and Jan and their two almost adult kids, turned into a full blown district event. There must have been at least thirty people there for the barbeque all, it seemed, wanting to meet Julie. Pete had cooked up some prime beef and lamb and there was plenty of beer to wash it down with. Unfortunately, as I had to drive home and I had an early flight in the morning, I was forced to abstain.

"This has been the best weekend ever!" Micha was still on something of a high after everything that had happened.

We pulled up out front of Melissa's place but there was no sign of her, which wasn't unusual, she didn't always come out when I dropped Micha off.

"See you next time Honey." I kissed her and handed her bag to her.

"See you Julie, love you." She kissed Julie and walked down the path to the front door. She had a key so she let herself in.

We had only gone a hundred metres down the road when my mobile phone rang. Julie answered it, it was Micha. "Dad, Julie, come back! You've got to come back! Hurry! Please hurry."

Angry horns blared at me as I made a sliding U turn and raced back down the road. I slid to a stop outside Melissa's house to see Micha rushing out. We met half way down the path. "Oh Daddy, it's awful, Mummy's been beaten up. I dialled '000' and the police and ambulance are on their way." She was sobbing uncontrollably. Julie stooped down and took her in her arms to comfort her and Micha buried her head in Julie's chest.

"You did the right thing Honey."

Melissa lay on her bed, her face was a mess and she was barely conscious. She was trying to sat something to me through her puffed up lips but only an indecipherable mumble emerged.

The ambulance arrived and the paramedics began work checking her out and preparing her for the trip to the hospital. A police car pulled up out front and two officers came in. The older male was a sergeant while the younger female was a constable. I told them briefly as much as I knew, that we had just dropped Micha home after an access visit and it was she who found her mother, called us along with the police and ambulance.

The constable sat down on the sofa with Micha beside her and began to coax answers to questions from her. Micha told her that her mother was expecting a visit from 'Uncle' Jim, but that she didn't think he would have been to blame, "He's a wimp, Mum only has to look sideways at him and he goes to pieces. I think it might be 'Uncle' Rod, who has a history of beating her." She gave them as many details as she could.

"What happens now?"

"Is there someone who can look after her?"

"I'm her father, she can stay with me."

"Very well, we'll keep you informed." The police left followed by the ambulance, leaving the three of us.

"Would you like to see where I live?" Julie asked Micha. "You can both stay with me tonight."

"We don't want to inconvenience you in any way."

"Will you be quiet and help Micha to find some clean clothes, I think that, given what has just happened, she can stay home from school, at least for tomorrow."

"That's really cool, thank you Julie." Micha gave her a hug and ran down to her room to emerge a minute or two later with clean clothes.

We picked up some fish and chips on the way to Julie's, we figured that one pig out meal wouldn't hurt us. Over dinner Micha told us of some of the things that her mother had been involved in. A new 'Uncle' on a regular basis, all of them treating her badly, heavy drinking and the occasional hit of coke.

"Micha, how would you like to live permanently with Julie and I?"

"Do you really mean it? You guys are going to get married?"

"Yes, we decided last night that it was what both of us wanted, and we want what is best for you." I left the two women in my life chattering away in the spare bedroom where Micha would spend the night while I rang Operations to request compassionate leave. When I explained the situation they granted it immediately.

Julie rang them later and requested leave of a different type, she told them that she was getting married and wanted to spend time with me. Operations weren't going to grant her application so she dropped the bombshell. "I have leave owing to me, four weeks, I wish to take that effectively immediately and tomorrow my resignation will be with Human Resources, I quit."

The next day was hectic, both Julie and I handed in our resignations and I went to the Family Court and applied for custody of Micha. I gained a temporary custody order pending an investigation into the full circumstances. Julie and I applied for a Marriage Licence but would have to wait a couple of days before we could marry.

Melissa was released from hospital and when she heard that I had applied for custody she went absolutely ballistic. She immediately contacted the Family Court to arrange a hearing into the custody. We had to endure two weeks of abusive phone calls before the hearing. The judge looked at Melissa and then at Julie and I. "Mister Underwood, according to your former wife, you are an airline pilot, is this correct?"

"No, your Honour, I was a pilot until recently, I have resigned."

"And what do you intend to do? How will you be able to support Micha?"

"I have a property in the Southern Highlands and I will be working that."

"And your relationship with Julie Paterson," she looked at Julie, "What is the situation there?"

"You mean, what is my relationship with Julie Underwood, we are husband and wife." Melissa was just about to blow her top.

"And she is a flight attendant, I am led to believe."

"No, your Honour, Julie has resigned also, we intend to start a family as soon as possible, we wish to establish a stable and secure family environment in which to raise Micha."

"You bastard! You think that you can get away with this, well buddy, I've got news for you! You are not Micha's biological father! How do like that, she's not yours!"

"I am aware of that, but all of her life I have accepted her, treated her as my own, the accident of her parentage is irrelevant as far as I am concerned. She is my daughter, end of story."

The Judge looked at the three of us. "I need a second opinion here, Micha would you come up here with me for a minute?" Micha walked around the bench and stood next to the Judge. "Micha, which of your parents would you like to live with?"

There was no hesitation, "Daddy and Julie, I want to live with Daddy and Julie."

"Thank you Micha. That will be all."

Micha walked back to where she was sitting next to a Welfare Officer, giving Julie and I a thumbs up as she passed us.

"I am going to make my judgement in this matter. I grant full custody of Micha Underwood to Mitchell Underwood, the person listed on her Birth Certificate as her father. In the matter of access, her mother, Melissa Underwood will have access for one weekend per month subject to a review in six months. If her domestic situation has improved I will grant further access. That will be all."

Melissa screamed at us as she stormed out of the courtroom, "You haven't heard the end of this! I'll get you, you bastard!"

"Good Luck." It was the Judge. "I know that I've made the right decision, but while she is like this anything could happen. I would advise that you take out an AVO just to be sure."

Micha eventually went to sleep in her new room, in her new bed. It was all a little overwhelming for her, and not much better for Julie and I. We didn't get to bed until after midnight. "Come here my beautiful husband."