Space in His Heart (35 page)

* * *

Deke refused to
let imminent death cloud his thinking. He could do this. He had to
do this. “Go to backup avionics,” he ordered.

“Backup is
black.”

“
Well,
that’s a problem,” Deke said through teeth clenched so tight he
could draw blood. “
’
Cause we’re inverted.”

“
Endeavour
, we
see you on energy approaching KSC. You are approaching at zero
seven zero niner. Fifty-five thousand feet. You need another
deorbit burn to get into position for landing.”

Son of a
bitch, he
knew
that. Sweat
droplets
trickled
across
his cheeks as Deke reached for the rudder adjustment and ordered
the burn to start. He squeezed his eyes shut to visualize the right
position. From the sim, he should know it. He
should
know it.

“Get ready to
roll,” he hollered to Kurt and the crew. He felt the orbiter
respond, spinning and careening through the sky.

“
Hold
steady at zero seven zero,
Endeavour
,” Mission Control announced to them. “You are in position
for landing.”

Deke didn’t
dare exhale over the small victory. “We must have blown some fuel
cells or shorted again,” he said to Kurt as they stared at another
blank screen.

They had, thank
God, prepared for this. Only it was in the sim. And they damn near
missed the landing.

Deke felt the
steady beat of his heart and the vein in his neck that always
pulsed under stress. He gently moved the stick to the left, then
brought the ship back up a bit.

“Good glide,
Endeavour. We can see you on approach. You are at thirty-thousand
feet.”

If they were
going to bail, they would have to do it now. Right now. Then the
ship would crash into the ocean and they would fall to their
probable deaths.

H
e
wondered,
i
s Jess
watching somewhere
?
Is
she watching the NASA feed and listening to him calmly making
life-and-death decisions? If she was, then he could tell her now,
over the microphone, what he should have told her before he left.
That life without her isn’t life. He wanted to be tied to her,
connected to her, married to her forever and ever. He loved her
completely.

“
Endeavour
,
you’re on glide slope and centerline. Right where you want to be,
Commander.”

“
Roger,
Houston.” Deke pulled gently at the stick, tugging at it to get the
attitude of the nose right.
Easy, easy
. He waited to hear the landing gear drop.

“
Drop the
landing gear,
now
, Captain,”
he ordered.

“I’m working on
it, Commander.”

Deke stole a
look to his right. Kurt struggled with the manual controls.

“We’re starting
manual lock of landing gear, Houston,” he said in his mouthpiece.
As if committing to it could get it to work.

“Damn it all,”
Kurt muttered.

Deke could feel
the gravity pull every muscle in his body, the pressure on his
chest like an anvil. He held the stick with all his strength and
tried to find the land below him, despite the fact that his
eyeballs vibrated in their sockets.

“Come on, man,”
he demanded. “We’re too far gone to bail now.”

They
burst through a cloud and the brilliant lights of
R
unway
33
appeared like a pinpoint beacon in the
distance. He had to get home to her. He
had
to.

“
You are
at two hundred feet,
Endeavour
.”

He heard Kurt
exhale. “Got it.”

The shuttle
rocked with the force of the landing gear dropping into place.
Kennedy loomed closer. Deke pushed down on the stick.

I’m coming
home, sweetheart.

* * *

“
I can’t
go any
farther
, ma’am,”
the van driver said apologetically. “I’m afraid you have to walk to
the runway from here.”

She
nodded. As if she cared at this point. “Thank you. You’ve been—”
The air suddenly shook with a shotgun bang and another immediately
following, jerking Jessica back against the seat.
Endeavour exploded.
He’s dead
. “What was
that?”

The driver
smiled a little. “Just the sonic boom, ma’am. Shuttle broke the
sound barrier. Should be here in a few minutes.”

She didn’t care
that heads turned from the dark skies to stare at the wild woman in
sweat pants and bare feet running toward the landing site.

Hot tears
welled up and threatened to blind her.

Then she
stopped. From the night sky she saw the lights, eerily silent as
the magnificent machine glided in.

With perfect
precision, the landing gear touched down and a parachute plumed
behind it. The crowd, still a half-mile hike from where she stood,
roared to a deafening crescendo.

Jessica
heard her own shouts of joy
, scraping
her throat raw as she yelled with everyone else.
Euphoria melted over her as she stared at the orbiter. She was part
of it now. Space was in her blood, her heart. She cared about it
and loved it.
It mattered.

And so did the
fact that she loved Deke Stockard with every fiber of her
being.

* * *

He heard the
cheers of the crowd through the headset.

“
Main
landing gear touchdown, Houston and… nosegear touchdown.” Deke
grinned at Kurt. “
Endeavour
is
home.”

“
Roger
that, Commander Stockard. Congratulations to the crew of
Endeavour
.”

Deke barely
heard the last comment as a spontaneous shout came from the crew
around him.

“Send the
stretcher for Micah first,” he instructed. “We’ll be right behind
him.”

He closed his
eyes for a moment and dropped his head back, realizing he was still
smiling. Well, of course. He was officially the happiest man on
earth. As they waited for the shuttle to cool and allowed the
effects of gravity to drag on their bodies, Deke had no thoughts of
the debriefing and medical examination he was about to go
through.

None of it
mattered to him. All he wanted to do was find Jessica. In the
middle of the media tent, no doubt, her beautiful hair blowing and
her sexy smile blinding him. He had to get to her. First. Had to
tell her. He loved her.

Finally
the hatch opened and medics climbed in and gently transferred Micah
to the stretcher. After they left, Deke and his crew wobbled down
the stairs to place their feet back on
E
arth.

He
couldn’t discern the powerful pull of gravity from the sensation
tugging his heart. He scanned the gathered crowd as he shook hands
with the VIPs that waited to greet the returning heroes. He found
the pack of press people and he peered beyond them.
Where is
she?

He looked
into the group of Cape employees and engineers, some faces familiar
and all smiling, waving, and applauding. He waved back and his
skilled pilot’s eyes scoped the crowd.
Where is she?

They
moved to the area where families waited and again, his heart filled
with hope. He saw his parents and waved, then looked around and
behind them
.
Where the hell is she?

Someone was
telling him where to go. Someone was saying he had to get to the
medical examining room for a post-flight check. No, he wanted to
scream. He had something he had to do first.

Then he saw a
flash of mahogany. Beyond the press booth, toward the end of the
runway, running. Her dark hair flying, her eyes wide. Was she
barefoot? Was he dreaming? Was it some strange aftereffect of the
landing? No. No. Jessie. He knew he couldn’t keep the grin off his
face and sensed that the crowd was following his gaze.

* * *

Jessica ignored
the faces turned toward her and scanned the crowd, her heart
knocking against her ribs, her feet scraping concrete.

Her gaze
moved beyond the dozens of TV cameras
,
which, for the first time ever, she didn’t notice
or count. She searched the crowds, beyond the ropes, to where the
VIP greeters stood. Had they gone? Had he gone in for a medical
yet?

Then she
saw him. A big carrot-colored arm waving at her. Calling to her. He
was
calling
to
her?

“
Jessie!”
The crowd parted to let him
through
. Beautiful, wonderful Deke Stockard in a
blinding-orange flight suit.

She arrived
under the awning precisely as he did, driven by a force she didn’t
know could propel her. They stopped just short of one another, her
breath coming in quick, hot spurts.

“
You made
it
,
”
she
whispered between panted
breaths.

“You doubted I
would?” His smile was sly, teasing. But his navy eyes were not.

“Never sure in
your line of work, Stockard.” Something was crushing her chest. Not
lack of oxygen. It was love. Blissful, suffocating love.

His gaze
dropped down to her bare feet, returning to her face with a
concerned expression. “Are you okay?”

She nodded,
taking one step toward him. “I am now.”

Without
warning, the orange arms were around her, lifting her in the
air.

“Sweetheart,
I’m home.” He buried his face in her hair, his lips on her ears.
“And I hope you are, too.”

She searched
his face as he brought her back to the ground. Did her feet even
touch?

“Of course I
am.” She pulled back enough to see him, to touch his face, his
lips, his hair. “You saved my life. You didn’t know it, but you
saved my life.”

“Then we’re
even.” He touched her face. “Because you just saved mine.”

“What are you
talking about?”

“I figured it
all out, Jessie. My life is incomplete and insignificant and
unbearable unless you’re in it.” He ran a finger along her chin and
tilted her face up to his.

She laughed. “I
could have told you that, Stockard.” The love was crushing her
again. A good, delicious, solid crush.

“I needed to
figure it out myself.”

“
What
else did you figure out?” She pulled at
him
, wanting him closer, wanting to savor
each exquisite word as the beauty of the moment washed over
her.

“That I’m going
to come home from work every night, no matter what I do. And I want
to come home to you.” He cupped her chin in his hand and stared at
her. “This is life, Jess. This is love.” He kissed her softly, just
a touch, then pulled back. “I love you. With all my heart. I want
to be with you forever. Please. Please, marry me. Please stay with
me for the rest of your life.”

His words
washed over her like sunshine. Warm and comforting, brilliant and
blinding. “Yes, I will marry you.” The words caught in her throat
and choked her. She wanted to say them over and over.

His slow and
deliberate kiss tasted sweet and salty from the tears that wet her
cheeks. Could she really spend the rest of her life this happy? She
would burst, just completely come undone, from the joy of being
Deke Stockard’s wife.

And then she
heard it. The whirring, the clicking, the flip of the
notebooks.

“Oh my—” She
broke the kiss and looked around at the pack of reporters staring
at them, recording their every word, documenting the scene. “Deke—I
didn’t do this. You have to believe me, I—”

His laughter
started deep in his throat, sexy and completely genuine. “You
really expect me to believe that, spin doctor?”

“I do.”

“Oh, I like
those words. Say them again.”

“I do.”

“Tell it to the
minister, sweetheart. Just like that. Because I love you, Jessica
Marlowe.”

In one smooth
movement, he picked her up and spun her around. Then he shot an
irrepressible grin straight into the lens of the minicam riveted on
them.

“
I
love
her. I’m going to marry her.
Did you guys get that?”

Epilogue

July 21,
2011

Kennedy Space
Center, Florida

“
Atlantis
is
home. Its journey complete. A moment to be savored.”

Mission
Control’s announcement echoed through the press booth, where Deke
stood ready to go live, his gaze on the viewing window and not the
camera in front of him. The drag chute flapped behind the shuttle
as the crew brought her to a halt, a signal that he’d be on-air in
less than thirty seconds.

But the
cheers and shouts of the crowd inside drowned out the news
director’s voice in his earpiece as the normally under-control
facility overlooking
Runway
33 rocked with the party atmosphere of a perfect landing…
one last and final time.

The cameraman
popped his head to the side to holler over the noise at Deke. “The
AD says wait until it quiets down in here.”

Deke
nodded, pressing his earpiece to pick up additional instructions,
grateful for the extra time. Not that he couldn’t ad-lib or battle
the emotions that gripped his chest when he watched Commander
Ferguson silently cruise
Atlantis
through a plasma of heated air. He’d been the CNN Space
Correspondent for six years now and had been bringing in the
shuttles since flights resumed in 2005, after
the tragic
loss of
Columbia
.