It was the second day of running the course under mission parameters. A few had gone up, but so far, no one was close to succeeding.

Phoenix, Bob, and Coyote were up, with Phoenix leading their group. What they hadn't expected was for Maverick to be playing an enemy.

He had to simulate some sort of potential real-world issues for them. This was the best way he knew how. Nadia had been the only one to know, as she had his jet stats up to read.

She listened in as Maverick took out Phoenix, deeming their run a fail. But she, along with everyone else in the room, straightened in their seats as Maverick's call came through.

"Coyote, talk to me," Maverick tries again. "Coyote, come in! Coyote level wings."

But there was no response. As soon as Nadia realized that, she was pulling up the stats for his jet. Coyote's plane was beginning to nose dive, losing altitude very quickly.

"Oh my god, he's in GLOC," Maverick realizes. "Coyote, Coyote!"

The entire room held their breath. GLOC was almost always deadly.

"He's gonna burn in!" Phoenix worries.

"I'm going after him," Maverick says, punching his speed. "Come on, give me tone, give me tone, give me tone."

He gets a lock on Coyote, using the sound to wake him out of GLOC. "Snap out of it, Coyote, come on, come on. Break right, break right!!!"

Coyote wakes up just in time to steer away from the mountain. Nadia lets out the biggest breath she's ever held when she sees the stats leveling out.

"There we go, kid, you ok?" Maverick asks him.

"Yeah, I'm ok," he replies. "I’m good."

"Good, good. That's enough for today," Maverick releases a breath.

“That's an understatement,” Nadia mumbles under her breath, Lex being the only one to hear her.

"That was close," Phoenix says as she flies up to Maverick's wing.  "Too close," he agrees.

But then it all goes wrong.

"Bird strike, bird strike!!!" Maverick yells. Phoenix and Bob pull away, but it's too late.

"Phoenix, left engines on fire!" Bob exclaims.

And the entire room sees Nadia lose her composure. “Shit, shit, shit!” She's tying as fast as possible on her computer, trying to find any sort of potential override solution she can do, but there is nothing.

"Climbing!" she responds. "Shutting off fuel to left engine, pushing fire."

"Right engines out!" Bob calls out.

They are still spinning, trying to restart the engine. Nadia can only watch, helpless, as they try to restart their jet.

"Phoenix, it's on fire!" Maverick tries to warn her.

"Oh god, we're on fire!" Bob yells out.

"Igniting engine," Phoenix tries to remain calm.

"Phoenix, Bob, punch out! Punch out!" Maverick yells.

"Hydraulic failure," Bob informs.

"I can't control it!" Phoenix calls to him. "We're going down!"

"You can't shake it, eject, eject," Maverick insists, not wanting to lose anyone else like this.

"Eject, eject, eject," Phoenix says as she and Bob grab their ejection handles. They manage to eject just before the plane crashes.

As soon as Maverick sees the parachutes, he radios in for a search and rescue. Nadia, on the other hand, lifts her walkie to her mouth.

“Novak to Mechanic, come in.”

The walkie crackles to life. “Mechanic here. What do you need, Lieutenant?”

She takes a deep breath, keeping her emotions in check. “Bird strike during a training session, pilots ejected and are being rescued as we speak. Jet crashed in the mountains. We will need to go collect whatever is left and inspect all incoming jets to make sure they are good to fly. Lieutenant Machado also went into GLOC during his run, we need to run a diagnostic on his jet and fix any issues that may come up.”

It takes a few moments for the other side to respond, as they were writing it all down. “Copy, Novak. We'll get started, see you soon.”

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It was late by the time Nadia finally made it home. There was still a lot to be done, but they had gotten as good as a start as they possibly could have.

Coyote's jet had been brought in as soon as he landed, diagnostics run and problems being fixed. The salvage crew had located the wreck of Phoenix and Bob’s jet and was slowly working their way through the pieces.

Nadia just wanted to shower and collapse as soon as she stepped through her door. But she had a visitor who was waiting on her couch.

“Lex, you okay? Why didn't you let me know you were coming over?”

He had a look on his face, one Nadia hadn't seen since the island. And it was worrying her. “Lex,” she calls again.

He met her eyes. “Today really scared me, Na-No. I know what this job is, I know the risks. But this was my first big scare. And I didn't like it.”

She took a seat next to him, grasping his hand to try and ground him. She knew it was best to just let him talk and get it all off his chest.

“Coyote going into GLOC was terrifying, and then the bird strike. It's literally just a freak accident. No amount of skill can help or prepare you for that situation. We could have lost three people today, and we haven't even gotten close to actually making the mission run. Just how many people are we going to lose on this mission?”

Now, he was starting to work himself up. Nadia needed to stop it before he worked himself into a panic attack.

“Hey, hey, hey. Just as you said, the bird strike was an accident. That's the risk no matter the plane you are flying. As for this mission, yes, it's dangerous. We've always known that. but I fully believe Maverick is training you the best way to come home, and I have full confidence that all of you can pull this off.”

She forces Lex to take some calming breaths, matching her own breathing. Once his chest isn't rapidly rising and falling, he takes the opportunity to speak again.

“I've been thinking about the future a lot lately. What I want and who I want in it. And I think this mission might just give me that last little push I need.”

Nadia raises an eyebrow, unsure of where this is now going. She knew the Navy wasn't going to be his lifelong career. He had never planned for it to be.

Lex looked at Nadia with a small smile. “I've started to look at rings.”

Because it had been such a long and exhausting day, it took Nadia’s brain a little longer to compute what he had just said. But when she did, oh, did she react.

“WHAT??!! Oh my God!! Finally! I'll help you with whatever you need. I know her ring size, do you need that? I can easily get a few of her regular rings if needed. And I'm good at getting information out of her.”

Lex lets out a laugh of pure joy, something he really needed after the day they had. “Slow your roll, Na-No. I said I started. I've still got a lot more to look through before I get anywhere close to actually buying one. Not to mention talking with Reuben and their parents.”

Nadia was bouncing in her seat before she launched herself at Lex. They hugged, wrapping arms tightly around each other.

Lex didn’t let her go, speaking into her hair. “Thank you for being my sister, even if it's because we were marooned on that stupid island.”

Nadia smiled into his shoulder. “You didn't really give me much choice. You and Daley wormed your way into my heart and refused to leave.”

They let go of each other before Nadia smacked her hand on her knee. “Well, I need to shower, so if you want to make some food for us, I can get the TV set up for a movie night when I come back down.”

Lex smiled. “You got it.”

Despite the day being full of scares and emotions, that night ended with two people just relaxing in each other's presence.

A movie and food were just what someone needed after a day like that.

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Word count: 1,384

We had some harsh truths and worried this chapter but we also got hope.

They have to face the reality of the mission but Lex is looking at rings!!! We have something to hope for, yall!!

Hope you enjoyed. See you next chapter. Bye guys!!