"Alright, that's enough." Hondo repeated for the tenth time. "Rooster, Hurricane, stop."
Lilah didn't stop. She watched a pool of sweat form on the hot concrete. Beside her, Rooster pumped them out faster. Hondo scoffed after a few moments of watching them. And then he left them there. Lilah counted them in her head.
150.
151.
152.
Rooster dropped. He pulled his legs up to his chest and put his head between his knees. Lilah listened to his breathing slow.
165.
167.
168.
"Breaking the hard deck." Phoenix's voice almost made Lilah groan. "Insubordination. What the hell were you thinking?"
"Leave it, Phoenix." Lilah growled. "The admiral's have already been out here yelling at us."
"No, I'm not going to leave it." Phoenix snapped back. "Look, I'm going on this mission. But if either of you get kicked out, you leave us all flying with Hangman. Talk to me, what the hell was that?"
182.
183.
184.
"He pulled my papers." Rooster muttered. Lilah almost hit the ground from shock.
"What?" Phoenix asked, severely confused. "Who?"
"Maverick." Rooster told her, staring off into the distance. "He pulled my application into the naval academy. Set me back four years."
193.
194.
195.
"Why would he do that?" Phoenix asked, raising her voice.
Lilah dropped to the ground and immediately rolled onto her back. She stripped off her shirt, exposing the sports bra underneath. It was drenched in sweat.
"Ask her." Bradley snarled, picking up his stuff and leaving Lilah alone with Phoenix.
Phoenix gave her a funny look. "You knew that Mav pulled his papers?"
"He had my grandfather pull them." Lilah whispered, closing her eyes. "I watched him and Maverick do it."
"And you let it happen?"
"I was seven!" Lilah snapped back defending herself. She sat up. "What else was I supposed to do?"
"What the hell was that?" Lilah could feel Phoenix's eyes on her. "And I don't want any bullshit like when Hangman told us."
"Do you know they call me Hurricane?" Lilah asked her, ignoring the pilot's question.
"What?"
"The reason they call me Hurricane?" she repeated.
"I thought it was because you were lethal and always on a constant spiral in the sky."
"They call me Hurricane because on my first mission ever, I shot down down two bandits." Lilah laughed, but it was a cruel sound. "I'm dangerous, and heartless. That's what they all say. I don't let all of that other shit get in the way, the feelings. When I'm up there, it's just me, no one on the ground or around me matters." Lilah glanced at Phoenix. "I let those feelings in today, that's what that was."
"Why?"
"Because he was up there with me." Lilah's voice quivered as she spoke. "God it's so hard when he's up there."
"You've flown with people you're close to before." Phoenix said.
"Brad's different."
"Why? Because you guys used to fuck each other?" Phoenix scoffed and got up to leave. "If you're letting that mess up the way you fly, then maybe you're not everything I thought you were."
Lilah watched her walk off.
"Last year, when he stormed out of my house, I was relieved." she finally yelled after her. Phoenix stopped. "He gave me a reason to hate him, to not have to worry about him, because no matter how hard I tried, even when he isn't flying with me, he's never far from my mind."
Phoenix stopped and spun around. "He jumped in front of you today, Lilah. He let Maverick shoot him to save you. You didn't need him to save you, and he knew it, but he did it. Would you have jumped in front of that missile if it was flipped around?"
"Yes." Lilah whispered, the truth like venom on her tongue. "If we both fly on this mission, and I have to make a decision between me or him, if only one of us was going to walk away, I would want it to be him."
"It doesn't make sense."
"Jesus, Nastasha, I love him. I will always love him, no matter how he gets on my fucking last nerve or makes me hate his stupid guts!" The confession tumbled out, the words having been locked in her brain for years. "I've loved him since the moment he knocked on my door after returning from the Naval Academy and when I returned from my own graduation six years and he found me in the back of the room after years of us not seeing each other, I knew that he would always be my weakness."
They sat in silence for a while. Lilah had said her piece and it seemed that Phoenix was too stunned to respond.
The silence was finally broken. "The fear, it sucks."
Phoenix wasn't asking her a question, but Lilah responded anyway. "Yes."
"Look, this is the type of mission you don't make it back from." Phoenix said. "And you'll both be flying if you don't get your asses kicked out of here first. But if you let that shit mess with you're flying, one of you won't make it back, but which ever one it is will have the fight of their life after."
Lilah was quiet. Phoenix took it as a sign to leave her alone. She heard her get up and walk down the tarmac. She didn't know how long she sat there for, but the sun had long gone down when her phone started to ring.
"Hey, Grammy." she greeted lightly, listening to her grandmother ramble for a moment before her face dropped. "What? When? Actually, it doesn't matter, I'll be there in 15."
★★★
"Coming!" she yelled from the 10th time.
Someone had been pounding on the door of her grandfather's for the last minute, never faltering even after all of the shouting. She was alone, her younger siblings at their friends house, and her grandparents still at the hospital. She took the flurry periwinkle towel out of her hair, combing her fingers through it quickly, almost tripping over multiple pieces of furniture to reach the door.
"Hel -" she trailed off when she saw just who was standing on her doorstep.
"Can I come in?" Bradley asked, pushing himself through the tiny opening in the door before she could respond.
"Sure, just come right on in." Lilah muttered sarcastically, following him into the kitchen.
"Are you okay?"
Bradley was pacing. He was nervous, fidgeting with strings of his sweatshirt.
"What?" Lilah stuttered, confused. She let Bradley run a whole through her floors for a little longer until she "Stop!"
