"Come down here, stretch." Emily pulled on the back of Parker's head trying to get her down to where she could reach her lips. "I'm going to miss you too. Promise you'll be careful and stay away from maniacs carrying knives until I get back?"



"I promise. You stay away from low flying birds and frisky air attendants. I'm the jealous type, so keep that in mind, Sparky."



"I'm not the one that keeps making the cover of the tabloids, Parker." Emily kissed Parker one last time before heading out to flag a cab. With any luck she would get favorable tailwinds and be back in time for them to go out to dinner.



The pilot was almost at the Virgin gates at JFK when her cell phone started ringing, and after rummaging through her purse found it before whoever was calling hung up. "Hello."



"Hey, Captain."



"What you miss me so much already, you're calling me at work?" Emily waved to one of the ticket agents who was walking into the building beside her. She almost sighed in relief when she felt the air conditioning the moment the doors slid open.



"It's true I miss you, but that's not why I'm calling. Remember this morning when you said something about me making the rag headlines every time the papers are printed?" asked Parker from the bench at the practice facility.



"Yes, I'm dating a chick magnet what can I tell you."



"Baby, are you at the airport?"



"Walking down to collect my crew and plane as we speak."



"Before you go flying off into the wild blue yonder, stop at one of the newsstands for me if you would." Parker could hear people around wherever Emily was when the pilot stopped talking and kept her fingers crossed that a big sense of humor part of the woman's makeup.



"You have got to be kidding me, Parker?" Emily looked at the front page of one of the national rags and saw herself staring back under a headline that read, 'Woman That Bagged Kong.'



The photographer had captured Emily in an unguarded moment as she cheered something Parker had done on the court. Despite the FDNY ball cap and sunglasses she had on, it was impossible not to tell who it was.



"I wanted to give you a heads up before you got teased about it."



"Thanks." Emily continued to stare at the photo and from her immobility started to get the customers around her to compare the picture to the woman looking at it with a strange expression.



"Are you mad?"



"No, honey, just surprised that anyone would do this. I'm nobody."



"Are you kidding me? You're the woman that bagged Kong. I think the mayor's going to honor you with a medal this afternoon when you get back." Parker felt better when she heard the laugh at the other end. It was a fleeting moment when she looked up and saw the detective from the day before walk across the court towards where she was sitting making her sigh.



"What's wrong?"



"I'll tell you about it this afternoon. Fly safe and I love you," said Parker before she hung up and faced the unhappy looking cop.



Emily wanted nothing more than to call Parker back and find out why she sounded so frustrated all of a sudden, but she was running late for her preflight checks. She was surprised no one was behind the desk at the gate when she got there so she just walked down the jet way to the plane to meet with the crew. Turning the corner, Emily could feel the heat in her face when every single Virgin employee in the vicinity stood by the door with a newspaper and pen in their hands. The blush only got worse when they started to clap and chant the mantra that had reverberated through center court the day before, "Kong."



"Way to go, killer. We didn't know you had it in you," teased Willy. To make her feel better he came up and hugged her then walked her to the cockpit to get her color back to normal.



"I'm not going to be able to greet passengers, am I?"



"Captain, you're in love and I'm happy for you. Don't sweat it, the only reason those people did that this morning is because they like you, not to embarrass you. If some uptight passenger gives you a hard time over this picture, they shall find an extra-added bonus in their coffee, so don't give up your routine. Besides you were just too tempting to pass up considering what you were wearing. No wonder they put you on the cover," said Willy.



"I thought Parker would get a kick out of it, so I wore it as a joke." Emily looked at the t-shirt in the picture and laughed. When she had gotten dressed after Parker had left, her top selection had been too good to pass up. Hanging off the Empire State Building was King Kong trying to knock some planes out of the sky, with the bottom caption being 'Who's Your Monkey?'



"So?" asked Willy.



"What?"



"What's the answer, silly?"



"William, at times like this it's important to remember how young Parker King is compared to us." Emily paused getting Willy to come closer and nod his head. "It truly boggles the mind how many slang off color expressions Park knows with the word monkey in them. So the simplest way to answer that question is, she's my monkey."



"Any spanking involved?" Willy's question got Emily's ears to turn red again.



"Out."



"Can you sign this for me before I go?"



"Out." Emily pointed to the door of the cockpit to go along with her command.



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



"What can I do for you, officer?" asked Parker. She shook the hand that he had offered and wondered why he looked so unhappy.



"Good morning, Ms. King." Logan Sully held his hand out after his greeting and waited for the tennis player to take it. He figured after he told her what he came to say, she would have him tossed out.



"Please call me Parker. Do you have more questions? If you do, I'm not sure how much more I can help you but maybe refer you to my girlfriend. She lived with Gail for a number of years, so I guess that makes her more of an expert on the nut than I am."



"I came by to tell you that Ms. Ingles made bail and was released this morning." It was as if a storm cloud had passed over her face when the news sunk in and Logan almost shivered.



"How much?" asked Parker.



"How much, what?"



"How much was her bail, detective?"



Logan took a seat next to her on the bench and watched Natasha and Gary walking into the facility. "That's an interesting question, I believe it was $150,000. Why do you ask?"



"I'm figuring when Emily gets home and tries to kill Gail it's nice to know that it'll only cost me eighteen grand to get her out of jail. It's only twelve percent of the total right?"



The seasoned police officer laughed at her reasoning and was looking forward to working with the player to catch whoever else was trying to kill her. "That's right, Parker. What I wanted to ask you though is, do you think it was Gail outside the restaurant when you first got into town?"



"Detective Sully, this's my coach Gary and my practice partner Natasha." Parker waved to the two that had come to stand before them staying silent as to not interrupt. "To answer your question, no I don't. I hadn't seen Emily in two months at the time and the fact we're together is why she supposedly stabbed me, it wouldn't have been a motive then."



"Any idea who the first assailant might have been?"



"No clue. All we have are the letters the bozo keeps sending talking about God and sin. Me and my lifestyle being the sin part of the equation, thus the getting rid of me becomes important to achieve the perfect balance. Then again it could've been a crime of opportunity. Crazy person with knife and ski mask whose hobby it is to hang around nice restaurants on the off chance lesbian tennis players have dinner reservations."



Logan shook his head and laughed along with Gary and Natasha. "Good theory but I'm thinking no. I want to concentrate on that crime since we already know who committed the second attack. And please call me Logan. I agree with your coach in that there's someone out there that wants to hurt you for no other reason than how you choose to live your life, Parker. I'm going to do everything in my power to see that doesn't happen." He handed her a card with his information on it and was trying to find a reason to stay and watch a little bit of her practice session.



"Thanks, it'll be nice having someone watch my back aside from Gary and everyone else that loves me. I don't like having to put them in danger as well. Do you play?" Parker asked handing the card to Gary and picking up a racket.



"Just enough to know how bad I am at it."



"Stick around then and see if we can show you some new tricks," offered Parker.



Gary took her place on the bench and put the officer's card in his shirt pocket. The thought of having Gail out of jail and having Emily on the cover of the paper that morning made him nervous. One good thing about the whole situation was that all the danger was not affecting Parker's play. Her shots were clean and smooth, free of the stress that was spilling over in every other aspect of her life.