The next day was real training, so I arrived at the locker room to change into my flight suit around the same time as Halo and Nat. They immediately bombarded me with questions.

    "So, what happened between you and Rooster yesterday? Anything juicy?" Nat asked first. Halo stared at me and waited for an answer.

    "Not much... at least not what you're thinking. We talked. I told him my trauma, he told me his. Then we... well we may have kissed a little," I said and blushed as the other two cheered me on.

    I gave out the simple details and felt so happy, as if I were at a sleepover and we were up late talking about the boys we had crushes on. It was an odd feeling, but I never got that experience growing up, so I was glad to have it now.

    "I swear, if he hurts you, I'm hurting him," Nat said.

    "We'll attack in the night- he'll never know what hit him," Halo added, flexing for emphasis. I just laughed at the two. They were some of the best friends I could've had. "Do you guys... well, are you guys gonna keep going? Like, you know..."

    My already light pink face turned a darker shade of red at her implication. "Oh my god Halo you didn't just imply that," I said, fighting for my life to hope we move on.

    Instead, Nat sauntered up beside me and put and arm around my shoulders. "Aww but it's a valid question! We're your best friends, I think you can spare us a few details," she said, finishing with a wink.

    My face got even redder. "Oh you two are the worst I swear," I mumbled.

    Natasha laughed and just replied, "No you don't!" This caused all of us to laugh at what she meant. I mean, she wasn't wrong. "It's more like a promise with you, not a swear."

    I shrugged. "Promises are more genuine anyway."

    "Sure, fair point. But don't forget we deserve to know the details considering we helped get you guys to finally start you beautiful romance," Natasha joked. I laughed, along with Halo.

    Once we had calmed down and were finished getting ready, the other two made their way to the door. "Wait," I said, causing them to pause and turn back towards me. I swallowed and kept steady eye contact with the ground as I spoke. "I think I really do like him, you know? More than just a little thing..."

    Nat would have loved to take the opportunity to tease me, and I expected it to happen. Instead, she walked over and pulled me into a hug. "That's so great, Lia. Really. And I'm positive he feels that way, too. Once this mission is done and over with, hoping we're here for a bit longer, the two of you should really go for it."

    She released me from the hug and I smiled at her, glad for her genuine thoughts right now. "Thanks, Nat. Now we should probably head in there, I'd rather not be late today."

    We all walked out of the locker room, a comfortable silence a blanket over our trio. Once in the room, we went to our respective seats and joined in on conversations. For me, I didn't have one to join. Instead it was like Rooster had been waiting for me to arrive before being social.

    "Hey," I said, a bright smile on my face.

    He smiled back. "Hey." Once I sat down, Rooster cleared his throat and got ready to speak again but was interrupted.

    "Attention!" Everyone hauled themselves out of their seats, myself included, as we stood at attention.

    Warlock came to the podium and gave us a nod. We all sat down as he got ready to speak. "Good morning." His greeting was met with some scattered replies and hums of acknowledgment. "The uranium enrichment plant that is your target will be operation earlier than expected. Raw uranium will be delivered to the plant in ten days' time."

    I sucked in a breath, finding myself tensing at the news. "As a result,' Warlock continued, "your mission has been moved up one week in order to avoid contaminating the target valley with radiation."

    "Sir, no one here has successfully flown a low-level course," Coyote said. He was right (ish). We weren't ready for this.

    "Nevertheless, you've been ordered to move on." The way he looked at Coyote, I could tell he knew this was bad. He was pushing not for fun, but out of necessity. And it might not end so well.

    "Captain," he said, and the gears shifted to Maverick as he traded spots with Warlock. Now, it was time to zone in and focus on the next leg. Warlock brought the panic and fear out, now it was time to use that to keep going.

    Maverick gave a quiet sigh, then dove right in. "We have one week left to focus on phase two. It's the most difficult stage of the mission. It's a pop-up strike with a steep dive, requiring nothing less than two consecutive miracles."

    I felt a hand grab mine, Rooster's, so I squeezed it. It was out of comfort; I needed it and he did, too.

    This mission was sounding more impossible by the minute as Maverick detailed the two miracles. We were supposed to go up the side of a mountain, invert as we went over, turn back and drop a laser guided bomb onto a tiny opening, then pull ourselves back out of the mountain while trying to survive nine Gs of force. And it had to happen twice. If one missed, the mission was pointless. A fail.

    When it was my turn to go up the first time, it was me with Halo and Omaha. "We've got this," I told them as we walked toward our F-18s.

    Halo nodded and we fist-bumped, Omaha brought me into a bro-hug. "Hell yeah we do," he responded. We all smiled at each other, and got ready to take off.

    Luckily we didn't have to start with the low-level flying course, so it was easier to start the first climb. "Let's go Omaha, don't fail on me now!" I called into the headset.

    "No problem, Halo get me a laser check," he responded.

    As we inverted and crested over the "mountain" I heard, "We're all good to go." This made me feel slightly relieved, having heard some previous dead-eye comments.

    Once we were in position, we got the laser ready and aimed. "All right, bombs dropping in 3..." I counted down, thumb hovering over the button as we got closer to the target. My thumb felt extremely heavy and I pressed down. "Bombs away!"

    The second I said those words, we got into the climb out of there. It was hard and I could see the numbers quickly counting higher and higher, indicating we were feeling more and more Gs. My eyes could barely stay open long enough to see if we made it and they started to blur. I stopped focusing on that and focused on the plane.

    "Sunset, look out!"

    "Bullseye!" a voice shouted into the headsets. As the planes made it up over the mountain side simulation, I let out a breath of relief and felt the plane relax. "Great job guys, come back down and the next group will go up." It was Maverick, and I felt something like pride swell up in my chest.

    Back on the ground, I collided with Halo in a hug, and Omaha came up behind to high-five me. "Way to go!" he cheered, and I smiled.

    "Hey, way to go you guys, too! I can't take all the credit," I said.

    Halo pulled away and lightly hit my arm. "No, but you better take a good chunk of it. Screw being humble- this is the kind of mission where it's okay to brag that you're the only one who can fly it."

    I rolled my eyes as we all walked back in. Coming out onto the runway was Phoenix, Bob, and Coyote. "Hey, that was awesome," Coyote complimented.

    Bob smiled, too. "Yeah, we've got a pretty tough act to follow."

    "But I'm sure we've got it," Nat added on, and I laughed. "It''ll be hard, but we've got this anyway."

    I nodded my head. "You sure do, good luck guys!" The trio of me, Omaha, and Halo walked away, with me giving one last wave to the others.

    Halo and Omaha wanted to shower and change, so we all went over and did that first before heading back over to the others. Most likely, we only missed their preflight checks and them getting into the air.

    I was the last one in, having to spend some more time on my hair than Halo did. When I walked in, I saw Rooster leaning on the counter by the radio, and he smiled at me.

    "There she is!" I looked away from Rooster to the person who yelled that, nearly getting knocked over by an excited Fanboy. "That was awesome, Sunset!"

    My face was warm and most definitely red. "Oh come on, I really didn't do that much," I mumbled, laughing lightly.

    Fanboy released me from his hold and let me sit on one of the couches. "Shit- Sunset, I swear if you don't stop being so humble I'm gonna force you to! And I don't know how to do that, so don't make me!"

    That had me bursting with laughter, to the point where we almost missed Maverick getting involved in the air. Almost. "Hey, guys, Mav's up there!" Yale called, and we all listened in for a second.

    "Blue Team, what are you gonna do?" Mav asked.

    "He's twenty miles left. Ten o'clock. Seven hundred knots closure," Bob said.

    "Your call, what do you want to do?" That was Coyote, meaning the decision was on Phoenix.

    "Continue. We're close. Stay on target," was Nat's answer.

    "Gutsy gutsy..." Hangman mumbled from the side.

    I rolled my eyes at him, which was followed by a comment from Payback. "They're smart, focusing on what needs to be done first," he argued. I agreed. From the looks of the nod from Rooster, he did, too.

    Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw Rooster walk over to the couch I was on. "Hey again," he said.

    I smiled. "You too. Sorry about your run earlier," I said.

    He just shrugged. "See, I don't know if you are, though, because it means less competition for you," he joked, using his shoulder to playfully shove mine.

    My cheeks flushed pink. "Oh come on, you're definitely still in the running. You've just gotta get better," I teased. Luckily he got the joke and laughed.

    After a minute of light chatter and a failed hit over the radio, we heard tone and Phoenix swear. They were dead.

    "Level out, Coyote," came Mav's voice over the radio. "Coyote? Do you copy?" Those words caused everyone in the room to freeze.

    No dared to say a word, much less breathe, as we listened to Maverick realize the pilot was in G-LOC, then chase after to get tone and get Coyote awake. They were quiet, tense seconds.

    "Coyote, you okay? You okay?" We all released collective breaths of relief when Coyote confirmed he was good. "We're done for today," Maverick added on.

    I started to zone out of the radio again.

    "Bird strike!"

    I was zoned back in. "Phoenix, left engine's on fire!" Bob yelled, and Phoenix quickly responded with the taught maneuvers to extinguish it. Her words were exactly what we were taught, the same motions everyone must know.

    Then, the other engine wouldn't start. "Phoenix it's on fire, don't start!" Maverick yelled, but she didn't hear it and started it anyway.

    My hands trembled as I stared at the radio. A warm but equally sweaty hand found mine, and I glanced at a terrified Rooster. We were both good friends with Nat, and Bob was growing on me. We can't lose them.

    "Baywatch!"

    The shout caused me to flinch and move my eyes to the floor. "Not again, not again," I whispered, so low only I could barely heard myself. But it was like Rooster knew, because he squeezed my hand. I squeezed back, and turned to stare at the radio again.

    "We're on fire! We're on fire!" Came Bob's shout.

    "Damn it!" Came Nat's.

    But she kept trying anyway, to all of our dismay. "Phoenix, Bob, punch out, punch out!!"

    My eyes burned from my lack of blinking, but I was too scared that if I did, they'd be gone. Other voices threatened to fill my head. Voices of panic and memory. Instead of giving in, I focused on Rooster's hand in mine. How both were sweating and both squeezing. But it was there in comfort.

    My jaw trembled as Maverick's cries came through, trying to get them to eject. "Come on, please eject," I said, the first words any of us had spoken in the room since the bird strike first happened.

    Nat's voice came in. "Eject, eject, eject!"