"What's going on with you and Rooster?" Halo asked, breaking the silence the three of us were in as we got in our flight gear. "You guys looked pretty cozy last night at my place."

    I turned to look at her, jaw dropped. Nat turned around too, dumb grin on her face. "Yeah, Sunset, tell us about what's going on between you and Rooster."

    I scoffed and finished up with my boots. "Are you both teaming up on this, now?" I asked them. Halo's grin told me they were. "Nothing, okay? Besides, like I've said, he's a teammate and we're about to do a super huge mission. There's no need to get feelings involved."

    Nat rolled her eyes as she closed her locker door. "You're killing me, Lia. He totally has a thing for you, too! You've just gotta creep outta that shell of yours and go for it! Even if it's a hookup- though he totally feels more than just that for you."

    The other two laughed at my reddening cheeks. I stood up from the bench and closed my locker door, then fled the scene. "You two are awful!" I called behind me, then heard a high-five before I could fully close the locker room door.

    "Hey." I spun to my right and saw Rooster standing there, smiling. "Wanna walk to class?" he asked, and I could hear the joke behind it. "If we're gonna keep up the seating charts, might as well keep up other school habits, you know?"

    I nodded as I smiled, showing my teeth. "Sounds like a great plan, Rooster. And I'd be happy to walk with you to class."

    We fell into step as we walked together. Our arms closest to the other swung at our sides while the other held our helmets. "Can't wait to hear what the mission actually is," I said, not wanting to fall into silence.

    Rooster nodded as he said, "Must be something really dangerous if they've got all of us here." My heart stopped momentarily as I remembered Baywatch.

    "Baywatch!"

    "Yeah, can't imagine it'd be some routine thing with all of us. It's gotta be something pretty big and pretty bad. Maybe even illegal- we like to check in on those not following the rules," I joked and I did an internal cheer when Rooster laughed.

    God, maybe Nat and Halo were right to poke fun at me.

    We walked into the room, different than yesterday's, and sat together in the second row on the right. Rooster let me in first, so he sat in the aisle and I was in the seat next to him. "I wonder what we'll have to do, then. Flying wise."

    I wanted to say 'might be something fun' but couldn't do it. Because I didn't see a lot of fun in the danger anymore. In the TOPGUN days, I was thrilled at every time I went in the air because it meant another opportunity to do crazy stunts.

    That was before reality hit (literally) and I lost what felt like everything. Now, it scared me to do anything too risky. My fight against Maverick yesterday was a great return, but I'd be lying if I said my heart wasn't about to tear through my chest when I had to pull a few crazy moves to best him.

    "You all good?" Rooster asked, and I snapped my head to look at him. "You kinda went all quiet and spacey for a second," he explained further.

    This was easy to cover up. "Yeah, just thinking about what the mission might be. Trying to be ready for all the possibilities, you know? At least mentally." He nodded along, and I thought I was in the clear with him.

    At this point, everyone had come in and was in their seats. After the attention and sitting back down, Maverick got right to business.

    "Time is your greatest enemy. Phase one of the mission will be a low-level ingress attacking in two-plane teams." We all watched the visual on the screen as he continued. "You'll fly along this narrow canyon to your target. Radar-guided surface-to-air missiles defend the area. These SAMs, they're lethal. But they were designed to protect the skies above, not the canyon below."

    "That's because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to try and fly below them," Rooster butted in. I looked at him and saw he wasn't angry, at least not on the surface.

    Maverick turned around and stared right at Rooster. "That's exactly what I'm gonna train you to do," he fired back. Rooster went silent and we made eye contact as Maverick went on. I raised an eyebrow at him, but he shook his head lightly and then we looked back at the screens.

    "On the day, your altitude will be 100 feet maximum. You exceed this altitude, radar will spot you and you're dead," he warned. The screen behind him showed a visual of this- it was completely unnecessary, because everyone in the room could visualize it themselves.

    It was too hot, we were floating, and I couldn't hear.

    "You're airspeed will be 660 knots minimum. Time to target: two and a half minutes. That's because fifth-generation fighters wait at an airbase nearby. In a head-to-head with these planes, in your F-18s, you're dead." A shiver went through my body as he spoke. "That's why you need to get in, hit your target and be gone before these planes even have a chance of catching you."

    I saw Nat in front of me turn to look at me between the seats. We made eye contact and she mouthed the same question I asked Rooster yesterday. "You okay?"

    And just like Rooster, I lied. I nodded and then moved to look back up at the front. She turned back around in her seat and did the same. But just like me yesterday, I knew she didn't believe it.

    "This makes time your greatest adversary."

    He went on to explain our training for today and I listened in closely. This mission was worse than I could've ever thought I realized, and was worried maybe I shouldn't have been called back. I shouldn't be here. I was good at flying yesterday, but that was just a 'get-to-know-you' type of thing. Now... it was real.

    I was paired to go with Payback and Fanboy, and we were going to do great. And we were. At first, I was hesitant to lead them through such an awful course with my trauma berating me extra-hard today.

    The map was right in front of me, and I could see the simulated SAMs around. It made me want to stop and turn the jet right around.

    "Sunset, look out!"

    The voice sounded so real that I sucked in a breath and waited for an impact that wasn't coming. "Sunset, let's go!" That was a real voice, and it was Fanboy's.

    Right, the exercise. The missions. The SAMs weren't real- it was a test, a simulation. My mind didn't feel that truth, though, and I couldn't find the will to speed up. I kept dong the twists and turns as I tired to climb out of my thoughts.

    I took a deep breath. Something in my head calmed down and I was able to push through, hitting the speed and keeping under the ceiling.

    "Way to go, Sunset!" Payback yelled as we made the course, just a couple milliseconds before time. My smile was wide on my face and cheers were heard from Payback and Fanboy.

    "All right boys, come on, let's get going back to base," I said smiling, and we turned to land back at base. Once on the ground, Fanboy and Payback quickly pulled me into a group hug.

    "That was sick, Sunset! Tonight, I'm getting you a beer!" Payback said through laughter. We all got into a line with me in the middle, each man with an arm around my shoulders and my arms around them.

    I laughed at his praise. "Better make it two!"

    "Why are you dead?" Maverick's voice cut through the smile I had on my face. Of all the people in the room, I didn't expect to get that question. By the looks I saw on everyone else's faces, they thought the same.

    My brows scrunched together. "Sir?" I asked, hoping I'd misheard him. When he repeated the question, I knew he wasn't making a mistake. "I... but sir, we made it in just under the allotted time."

    Fanboy came to my defense. "We didn't break the ceiling or hit the cliffs, sir. How are we dead?" he asked. He sounded less like he was challenging and more genuinely confused. Our whole trio was.

    "You hesitated at the beginning, taking nearly half a minute to get up to speed and get into the mission. If you're head's not in the mission, you're not making it out of the mission," Maverick said, his voice stern and his eye-line directed right at me.

    I felt the flashbacks begging to surface, but pushed them down. "I entered the terrain carefully and ensured I was safe from enemy SAMs before speeding up, sir. It was a safety precaution." Even I knew that was bull, but I was still right. We didn't die.

    "You weren't confident in your flying and could've risked your life and your wingman's. Entering that canyon, you need to be 100% ready to fly and to fly fast. There's no room for doubt. How can your teammates know you're not going to bail if you don't go for it?"

    That left me silent. I looked away from him and focused on the ground to my right, finding it far less patronizing. "Why are you dead?" There was a moment where I thought he was asking me again, but when I looked he was staring at Rooster next to me. "You're team leader up there. Why are you, why is your team dead?"

    Phoenix popped in for him. "Sir, he made it to the target. One of the only two teams to do so," she said.

    "A minute late," Maverick continued. "He gave enemy aircraft time to shoot him down. He is dead."

    "You don't know that," Rooster said. I looked at him and saw the anger rising to the surface. So much for keeping his cool. I even moved my hand to his arm. It was something my grandma did with my grandad when he got too worked up with driving: she would put a hand on his arm and silently tell him it was okay, and he should (kindly) move on.

    While it worked for them it seemed Rooster was unchanged in his anger. But he didn't shove my hand off, so that was good?

    "You're not flying fast enough! You don't have a second to waste," Hangman butted in, causing me to sigh and roll my eyes.

    Rooster decided not to engage in the baited argument. "We made it to the target," he said, solidifying the point Nat made.

    "And superior enemy aircraft intercepted you on your way out."

    "Then it's a dogfight."

    "Against fifth-generation fighters."

    "Yeah, we'd still have a chance." Right now, Rooster's ego felt too much like Hangman's. Because that chance is slim to none. There was even a smug look on his face.

    "In an F-18?"

    "It's not the plane, sir, it's the pilot," Rooster stated, getting a bit louder,

    "Exactly!" Maverick's voice echoed and I saw the smug look on fall quickly. No one spoke for a second, even Maverick looking as if he regretted what he said. We all knew what it insinuated: Rooster wasn't ready, and he wouldn't win in such a fight.

    But he collected himself. "There's more than one way to fly this mission," Rooster said. His voice was low and I could hear how pissed off he was.

    "You really don't get it," Hangman said, making himself part of the conversation again. My eyes rolled even further back into my head this time. "On this mission, a man flies like Maverick here, or a man does not came back. No offense intended." He looked at Nat then me.

    I flipped him off- something I rarely ever find myself doing- and Bob spoke up. "Yet somehow, you always manage," he commented.

    Hangman turned back to face Rooster again. "Look, I don't mean to criticize. You're conservative, that's all."

    "Lieutenant."

    "We're going into combat, son, on a level no living pilot's ever seen. Not even him," he finished, moving to look at Maverick for the last part. I was shocked at how he was still going with how he ignored our captain's word to get him to stop. "That's no time to be thinking about the past."

    I could feel Rooster growing pissed at that comment and decided this was my turn. "You know what Hangman, you're just pissed because there are pilots here who are better than you and don't have to flaunt it around, because they already know and don't need to prove it. So why don't you just cool it and listen to Maverick."

    He moved his gaze to me, and the look on his face made me uneasy. There was something in his head and he was so excited to get the opportunity to spill it. "Oh really? I hope you're not referencing yourself, sweetheart. You can't call yourself better than me if you've lost someone in the air."

    My body froze and I felt my arms tense. The hand I still had on Rooster's arm tensed, too, enough to where Rooster looked at me. Everyone was looking at me.

    The way he said 'you' made it feel like he blamed me. He was pinning it on me, like it was my fault.

    Wasn't it?

    "Excuse me?" I said, my voice just above a whisper.

    He smirk only grew. "Oh what's it been, ten months? And you think we can trust you in the air to lead us after that?"

    Static.

    Tears welled up in my eyes, but I would never let them fall in front of Bagman of all people. If people weren't looking before, they definitely were now. Phoenix was the only one who knew. It was in my file so Maverick knew the general story, but he didn't grasp it. Maybe not even Phoenix did.

    What I wanted to do was jump on Hangman and pull his hair out, maybe even get some punches in on his smug-ass face. I wanted to scream and yell obscenities at him, saying how dare he.

    But that wouldn't do anything but make him even more smug. I stood from my seat, finally removing my hand from Rooster's arm. He made a move to grab my arm as I walked around him, but I evaded his grasp.

    "Lieutenant!" I ignored Maverick. He could chase me for all I care, but I wasn't going to spend another second in the presence of the biggest asshole I've ever met.

    Once outside the classroom, my calm walk turned into a run as I ran out of the base and into the sun. My thoughts weren't working, but my feet knew what to do. They carried me to my car and then drove me somewhere.

    Static.

A/n: I know, Hangman is a douche. But you have to admit, the chapter title makes you laugh (at least I hope it does because it makes me laugh!)

I'll see you in the next chapter! Get ready for feels