You wanted to see me?”Jason grinned, “Sherman, I’m retired. Your not supposed to treat me as an officer.”“Sir, some people deserve the respe...ct, no matter what the uniform.”“Then thank you, and stand at ease.”The pilot, moved into the ‘at ease’ position and asked, “How can I help you, Mister Magill?”“Start by calling me Jason. Next weekend I’m getting married to a beautiful young lady who’s younger than my daughter. Right now I don’t need to be reminded of how old I am. Now, what I wanted to. I think you'd better apologize."Natalie knew what was coming. She flushed with shame, but she was now thoroughly rehabilitated. She knew that if she did not perform flawlessly she would be subject to weeks of the horrible punishment she had been receiving. She could not imagine how Bill could make her life any worse, but she did know he would find a way.Natalie did what she thought was expected. "I'm sorry that I was snippy to you, Mr. Jones. It won't ever happen again. I was a naughty girl and. I walked over, she asked me how am I doing, I said that all is well, asked how there getting on my friend, we talked a bit about this and that, and then she asked me to help her up to place bags of groceries. She lives alone with the father of my friend she had long divorced. Of course, I could not refuse, and readily offered his help. I took in both hands two large bags and we went upstairs to the sixth floor. We went into the apartment and she asked to place bags in the kitchen. I am in no. "It's alright, don't cry, I'm not going to hurt you, please, just don't cry any more, I can't stand seeing some one sad, even if it is a human" She looked up at the black dragon, tears flowing from her eyes still. " I'm sorry, it's just that I've never been accepted at the academy, despite my heritage, they all laugh and ridicule me cause I'm a girl. This was supposed to be an opportunity to prove that I was worthy but now I know that they were right" She buried her head again, sobbing lightly..