A/n: TW: swearing, frightening scenes depicted. I'm sorry.

The next morning, I carefully woke up Rooster and got him over to his place to change into something else. He'd have to take me back to base considering my car was there already. I knew it'd raise questions, but I didn't care.

    Before class, I stopped by to see Bob and Nat getting discharged. "Hey, they find you guys were all good then?" I asked as I approached.

    Bob nodded and Natasha smiled. "All good and cleared for today. I can imagine Mav's probably going to want us to take it easy, but I'm not about to give up," she said. We all started walking to the locker rooms, the three of us in a line going down the hall.

    "The mission can't afford us to take it easy," Bob added on. I noticed he was coming out of his shell more and more, especially after the dogfight football game, talking more and stuff.

    I shrugged. "Well, at least you're being discharged cause you're all good to go, not because of the mission and stuff." I'd much rather fly with someone else than have Nat and Bob be pushed when they weren't ready to be.

    As we split at the locker rooms, I waved at Bob and said, "See you out there!" He smiled back and we walked in to get ready.

    Nat wasted to time. "How are you? You doing okay? I know it wasn't fun listening to that yesterday."

    "Okay, let me breathe. I think it's hilarious that you're worried about me but I also kinda get it," I started. "At first, I was not. I was a wreck. Rooster found me, though. Well, more like was waiting for me by my car. But he and I went back to mine and I opened up to him."

    Nat looked like she wanted to make a joke, but moved on. "Well that's good. And like, you got emotional and stuff? No stoic 'everything's fine' mode or anything?" she asked. Sometimes I didn't like how well she knew me.

    "Cried like a baby. But it was good, we talked and he gave me a perspective I didn't realize I needed. It was... good," I concluded, smiling.

    Natasha smiled. "I'm really glad, Lia. You guys really do seem good for each other. I hope you go out with him again, whenever that happens..."

    I laughed at her antics. "Okay, how about we focus on the mission right now? I mean, I would love to go on another date with him before we inevitably part ways. Hopefully that means we stay here for a bit after the mission."

    She nodded. "I keep wondering what's going to happen to us after the mission, assuming the best happens, you know?"

    Her observation was a good one. Assuming the best happens. Meaning no one dies and the mission is a success, which is seeming less likely by the day.

    Moving on from that depressing turn, I asked, "What do you think we'd do on our second date? And don't you dare say anything dirty!"

    She laughed, and we continued to chat as we got ready for training today. We even made plans to try and get the group together at Nat's place tonight for drinks and hanging out.

    It was sort of an unspoken thing between all of us that we'd be okay not going to the Hard Deck right now. The mission was the focus, and at least if we were at one person's place it'd be easier to monitor the amount of drinking and limit human distraction.

    "Do you have enough beer?" I asked as we exited the locker room. "I can grab some after training today if you need me to and then I'll just come right over."

    She nodded her head. "Yeah, that'd be good. Those guys take down a lot of beer. So don't get the good stuff." We laughed and entered the room with everyone else.

    We sat, and a second later Maverick gave us our pairings for the day and the schedule. Our time was too crunched for chit-chatting. The first group hurried out to the runway while the rest of us chilled out with the radio and couches.

    Everyone was a bit more tuned into what was going on on the radio today after what happened (twice) yesterday, so it was more tense and quiet today.

    I was going up with Fanboy and Payback again this morning, as soon as the first group was done, so we were getting hyped up. "You've got this, Sunset. You're like the best one here and we're like, your best pairing so we've got this," Fanboy said.

    That was an interesting observation. I assumed Maverick wanted to see how the three of us did on this section of the course since the other section went relatively well. This could be a sign, even, that we were top contenders for going on the mission if today went well.

    By the time I got into my F-18, I was hyped up to do my best and push everything aside. It was actually going well and I was excited to get back into a plane and fly.

    "You ready boys?" I asked as we got lined up to go.

    "You know it Sunset!" Was Fanboy's eager response with an affirmative from Payback as well.

    I launched off the ground, gathered myself back up after that rush of Gs, and was interrupted by an alarm. "What the...?" I mumbled, and looked at the lights in front of me. Only one was lit, a leak warning.

    "Crap, sorry guys. Mav I have to go back down, I've got a leak warning," I said louder, already starting to turn and get ready for my landing.

    "Really? Weird... be careful, we'll get you guys later or tomorrow, all right?" he responded.

    "You got it, sir," I said. I ignored the bad feeling in my stomach, figuring some line wasn't connected properly and was missed in the pre-exercise check. As I made a turn to get into position to land on the tarmac, something came flying at my F-18, and I felt it get sucked into an engine.

    "Crap! Definitely going down now, something got caught in my engine," I say, the feeling of panic steadily growing. More alarms blared inside, and I looked at each to see what was happening inside the jet. What I didn't expect was a low fuel warning.

    Realization hit. Panic flowed down my spine, a trail of goosebumps left in it's wake. Everything froze. Low fuel. Leak.

    "The leak is-"

    Floating. Heat. Nothing was right. Alarms screamed in my ears, as did voices. They didn't register for a full second before I fully conscious again- it was like whiplash. "Sunset, eject! You're on fire!" Came Maverick's panicked voice.

    Oh god. My hands went to the handle settled in between my legs and I pulled. Nothing. I tried again, but I remained in my seat.

    Oh. God.

    "Sunset, get out of there! Eject! Eject!"

    "Baywatch, eject!"

    My heart raced as I tried again, but the same thing happened, which was nothing.

    "My... my chute isn't working!" Baywatch yelled back. There was a noise of struggle and then panic. "It's jammed- my eject- it's jammed!"

    My voice trembled as my body went cold and hands went sweaty. "I... I can't..." I whispered. "My... it's stuck."

    The radio was left in a tense quiet for half a second, no one knowing how to respond as my plane went down. And then my panic really set in, the realization dawning on me this very well could be it. This was what death could be.

    My breathing picked up and my hands tightened around the ejection handle. Every semblance of composure and thinking was out the window, now, my only focus being to survive.

    I started to chant my panic mantra, trying to pull the handle. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit." It was whispered panic as I kept trying to get it to work, slowly getting louder.

    I never imagined me having to watch my best friend fight for his life in a spiraling aircraft...

    Spiraling... spiraling...

    "Oh god... oh god," I whispered, my hands continuing to try and pull at the handle. "Shit, shit, shit- come on!" I screamed, and tears fell down my face and blurred my vision. Yet, that didn't stop me from seeing the ground coming closer and hearing the automated voice begging me to eject.

    StaticStaticStaticStaticSTATIC

    Words poured from my mouth, all born from anxiety as I kept on willing the ejection handle to work. "Oh god, please!"

    Other voices flooded my headset but I couldn't focus on them as I started to sob and continued to pull. "Shit, shit, shit- please," I sobbed out.

    ... no second parachute in the sky...

    Numbers on the screen showed me if I didn't get out now, it wouldn't matter. I used my heel to kick at the metal where I expected the mechanism to be, hoping that would move something into the right place and hopefully not the wrong one.

    "...pull it harder!"

    With one last yell and a tug with all of my strength, I felt the handle move and was shot up and out of the canopy. I barely had time to be relieved or even process what was happening before I felt myself collide with something and then lost all consciousness.

    Static.

A/n: Again, I'm sorry