Strawberry Red

Chapter 5 Ruby

Ruby was sitting in the passenger seat of Bucky's car. They were driving towards the runway because new arrivals would be coming in. Bucky had a reason to be there for the landings, his best friend Buck was finally arriving. And Ruby was given the afternoon off, but she couldn't help herself and still went to the runway in case anyone got injured on the way. Over the past couple of weeks Ruby was on base every single day from the moment she woke up until it was time to go to bed. The base became her second home and she got along very well with the nurses and some of the airmen. Especially, she and Bucky were close as he would often end up in the hospital.

Now they were watching as Buck's plane touched down. Immediately, Bucky followed the plane and pulled up the plane's parking spot. A brown-haired pilot climbed out of the plane with a dog on his arm. The dog was a big husky. He was howling and wagging his tail. The dog hit the ground and looked at Ruby. She sprung out of the slowly moving car.

"DeMarco!", cheered Bucky. "You made it."

"Hey, Major!", answered DeMarco and walked towards Bucky. Ruby rushed over to the dog and fell on her knees before him. She petted his head, in return he licked over her face.

"Where did you get that dog, Benny?" Bucky put his hands on his hips.

"I won him at craps." DeMarco let go of the leash and left the dog with Ruby.

"What's his name?" Ruby looked up at DeMarco and continued to pet the dog.

"Meatball"

"He wouldn't stop howling the entire flight", complained a blond man. He was walking towards the group with his bag strapped over the shoulder.

"He's a dog, Buck." DeMarco put his hand on Buck's shoulder.

"That wolf is part dog." Buck reached Bucky and went to stand next to him.

"Did you miss me?", asked Bucky in a teasing manner.

"Like a stone in my shoe." Buck looked down at the woman petting Meatball. "Oh, that's the girl you've been talking about, Bucky?"

"You've been talking about me?", repeated Ruby grinning. Meatball was now laying on her lap.

"I have, only bad things though," said Bucky. "That's Ruby. Ruby meet Buck and DeMarco."

"Pleasure to meet you, Buck, DeMarco. I would stand up and shake your hand but I'm currently not able to."

Buck leaned down and stretched out his hand. Ruby accepted it and shook it. "So, Strawberry isn't your name I suppose?"

"Bucky, did you tell them my name is Strawberry?" Ruby glared at the man.

"I may have." Bucky lifted his arms in surrender. "I overheard the nickname when that man came to pick you up a couple of nights ago."

"Seriously?", exclaimed Ruby and huffed in annoyance. Bucky was about to respond when the sirens started to sound again.

"Is that Brady and his crew?", asked Bucky and looked up to see a plane flying towards the runway.

"Yeah, they got separated from us in the clouds.", answered Buck.

"Well, better late than never." Bucky shrugged with his shoulder and got into his car. "Are you two coming?"

Ruby sadly had to push Meatball off her lap and handed the leash back to DeMarco. She was about to climb into the back of the car when the sirens suddenly started to ring louder. It meant that the nurses had to get ready for the plane to arrive because someone injured was on board.

"That's my cue to leave." Ruby ran over to the ambulance of the red cross. The ambulance drove off the runway and followed the plane which was landing in the grass. Ruby was told they were attempting a belly landing because the left landing gear wouldn't come down. In the back of the ambulance the nurses were waiting nervously for the crash landing. They didn't know what to expect, in what condition the crew would be. They reached the crash site just in time. The crew members were running out of the plane. Ruby grabbed an emergency kit and headed over to the airmen. A man came tumbling out of the plane and tried to regain his balance. He looked like he was about to vomit any second. Ruby quickly pulled out a brown bag and handed it to the man when he reached the ambulance.

"Here take it," she offered. The man accepted it and went to sit down on the ground still heavily breathing.

"Thanks", he mumbled. He buried his head in his legs and took a deep breath. Ruby told the other nurses to go back to the medical barrack without her as there weren't any serious injuries.

"Airsickness?", asked Ruby.

"Is it that obvious?" The man looked up.

"I've seen loads of airmen with airsickness. It's more common than you think." Ruby looked over to the plane. Lemmons and his crew were already working on it.

"Crosby," said Brady in a low voice while walking over to them. Crosby stood up from his spot on the ground. "You're a navigator, Crosby. You should be able, I don't know, to find England."

There was an awkward pause before Bucky and Buck pulled up to the scene. Bucky stopped the car. "Everyone okay?"

"Yes, Sir," came the responds from the airmen.

"Brady, step into my office," demanded Bucky. Brady left Ruby and Crosby and went over to the car. Lemmons suddenly appeared and started to talk to Crosby.

"If you need anything, Crosby, just stop by the hospital. And I'm sure we can figure something out for your airsickness. I'm going to read into it, okay?" Crosby nodded and Ruby caught up with Brady.

"What happened out there?", asked Bucky.

"We- we had a technical failure, so we spent an hour trying to get the wheel down," said Brady with a shaky voice and lowered his head to the ground.

"Well, you know what they say. There are two kinds of pilots; those who've had a wheels-up landing and those who will." Bucky nodded to himself. Brady turned around and joined the rest of his crew.

"Need a ride?" Bucky raised an eyebrow.

"As if you read my mind." Ruby smiled and climbed into the backseat of the car.