"Talk to me, Sunshine." Rooster started as we flew the course for the day.

"We are 12 seconds late on target. We gotta move! We gotta move!" I stressed to him.

"Copy. Try to stay with me." Coyote told us as he took the lead on this one.

"Huh? Wait, who's that?" I looked to my beeping radar with concern at the new jet entering the area.

"Blue team, you've been spotted." Maverick took over our radio.

"Shit, it's Maverick." Coyote cursed.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Rooster asked out.

"I'm a bandit on course to intercept. Blue team, what are you gonna do?" Maverick promoted the question.

"He's 20 miles left. Ten o'clock. 700 knots closure." I reported out to the pilots.

"Your call. What do you want to do?" Coyote looked back at Rooster.

"Continue. We're close. Stay on target." He told him.

"He's swinging around to the north! Stand by for pop-up." Coyote said.

"Be ready on that laser, Sunshine." Rooster gave me a heads up.

"Copy. I'm on it." I agreed with ease, flipping buttons and switches in the back to set up the laser.

"Blue team, bandit is still closing." Maverick reminded us, adding stress to the situation.

"Popping now." Coyote called out to us as we started our climb up the first hill, our breathing getting heavy.

"Talk to me, Sunshine. Where's Maverick?" Coyote asked out.

"He's five miles out. He's coming fast." I shouted to them both with warning and panic.

"Target's in sight." Rooster pointed out.

"Where's my laser, Sunshine?" Coyote asked out.

"Dead eye! Dead eye! It's no good. Sorry, I can't get a lock." I panicked in the moment.

"We're out of time. I'm dropping blind." Coyote said. "Damn it, missed!" He complained when he missed the target and we had to pull the coffin corner. The weight on my chest grew heavier and heavier as my vision started to fade with black spots.

"Sunshine, what's going on back there?" Rooster worried when I failed to respond. "Come on, Sunshines, I need your help" he urged, not knowing where Maverick was. I gasped suddenly as I came back to consciousness, everything quickly becoming too much as I tried to keep my focus.

"That's tone." Maverick said as he locked onto Rooster and I. 

"Maverick's got missile lock on us." I reported at the sound of beeping.

"Shit! We're dead." Rooster grumbled, feeling responsible.

"Blue team, that's a fail. Level out, Coyote." Maverick ordered as Rooster pulled out to take us back to base. "Coyote? Do you copy?" He asked next as Coyote made no move. "Coyote, come in. Coyote, level wings. Oh, god. He's in g-loc." Maverick realized when Coyote started to fall from the sky.

"What?" I grew worried as another pilot was in danger.

"Coyote? Coyote?"

"He's gonna burn in!" Rooster stressed to Maverick.

"I'm going after him." Maverick stated, speeding over to save Coyote. "Come on. Give me tone, give me tone, give me tone." He begged as he got target lock on him. "Snap out of it, coyote. Come on! Come on! Come on, coyote, come on. Come on! Damn it! Coyote! Coyote!" Maverick called out as he got closer and closer to the ground.

"Pull up! Pull up!" the automated voice repeated to the pilot. Coyote woke up again, snapping to focus and managing to pull up just in time, levelling out with a quick swoop, getting above us.

"Coyote, you okay? You okay?" Maverick asked with care.

"I'm okay. I'm good." Coyote breathed heavily.

"Good. Good. That's enough for today." Maverick told us all but Roosted and I were now dealing with another problem. 

"We're in his jet wash" I warned Rooster as our jet shook violently.

We're in his jet wash.

Those five words made Mavericks stomach drop.

"Oh shit" Rooster cursed out as he tried to gain control.

"This is not good. Shit, we got a flameout, Roos." I warned, glancing at everything beeping around me. "Engine one is out. Engine two is out!" I shouted with panic.

"Sunshine, I'm losing control. I'm losing control. I can't control it. It won't recover. Shit." Rooster grumbled with panic as we spun around.

"It's coupling up, Roos! We're out of control. This is not good! This is not good!" I warned as I tried not to get sick my the spinning.

"Oh my god" Maverick watched as we started going down, him freezing up.

"Mayday, mayday. Rooster's in trouble. He's in a flat spin." Coyote warned the base.

"No" Phoenix shook her head as her Hangman and the others listened over the radio, the common room going silent as they listened closely.

"Altitude 8,000, 7,000. Six. We're at six, Roos!" I shouted as we kept going down.

"Rooster, Sunshine, punch out, punch out!" Maverick ordered, following us, hoping he wouldn't lose us too.

"I'm pinned forward, Sunshine. I can't reach the ejection handle." Rooster stated, trying to stay calm for me. "Sunshine, you're gonna have to punch us out." He continued. "I can't reach the ejection handle."

"You can't save it. Eject, eject!" Maverick shouted at us.

"Eject!" Rooster told me.

"I'm trying! I'm trying!" I replied, the moment growing more intense.

"Eject! Eject! Eject!" Rooster called out. "Watch the canopy!" Rooster warned as I pulled the ejection handle and the canopy was blown off. Rooster and I were each thrown from the jet, me hitting the canopy and falling unconscious.

Our parachutes opened as we were lowered slowly to the ground, me landing with a heavy thud. Maverick and Coyote returned to the base, waiting for search and rescue to find us.

"Sunshine! Sunshine!" Rooster got up quickly, running over to find me covered by my parachute. "Oh no" he sighed, getting the parachute off of me and finding me unconscious. "No, no, no" he grew worried as he checked my pulse to find it was still there, weak but still there. "Come on, Sunshine, wake up for me" he begged, holding me in his arms while brushing my hair away from my face.

As we were brought back to base we had been separated, Rooster getting taken for his own check up after the crash while I was brought in on a stretcher. Rooster frowned as I was taken away, desperately wanting to follow me.

Rooster sat in the dark of the common room while I was laying in a hospital bed on the other side of the base. Maverick stepped into the room and Rooster looked up before looking back down at the floor.

"They'll keep her in the hospital overnight for observation. She's gonna be okay." Maverick spoke softly through the quiet room.

"That's good." Rooster nodded with a shaky breath. "I've never lost a wing man." He admitted softly.

"You're lucky. Fly long enough, it'll happen. There will be others." Maverick told him sadly. "When you are up there, she is your responsibility, if she gets hurt, that's on you" Maverick reminded before turning to leave.

"You think I don't know that?" Rooster spoke up, Maverick freezing up. "I carry that with me every day. Easy for you to say. No wife. No kids. Nobody to mourn you when you burn in."

"Go home. Just get some sleep." Maverick told him simply, not wanting to have this conversation right now.

"Why'd you pull my papers at the academy?" Rooster stood sternly against Maverick who had his back to him, Rooster speaking louder than before. "Why did you stand in my way?" he shouted with a pointed finger, anger taking over again without me to hold him back.

"You weren't ready." Maverick claimed, still refusing to look him in the eye.

"Ready for what? Huh? Ready to fly like you?" Rooster stepped closer and Maverick turned to face him properly.

"No. Ready to forget the book. Trust your instincts. Don't think, just do. You think up there, you're dead. Believe me." Maverick told him strictly.

"My dad believed in you. I'm not gonna make the same mistake." Rooster stated staring him dead in the eye. A flash of pain crossed Maverick face until Warlock stepped in quietly.

"Maverick." he called the mans attention carefully. Maverick followed Warlock out to hear the news while Bob and Phoenix ran across the base to find Rooster.

"She's awake and she's asking for you" Trace told Bradshaw as she came to a halt in the doorway, Rooster staring out the window in silence.

"What?" He turned back to her. She simply nodded and he was running to the medical bay to find her.

"I need Rooster, where is he? Let me find him" I tried pushing past the nurses who tried to hold me back.

"Ma'am, you must rest" the woman tried to warn me as Bradshaw rushed through the door.

"I need to tell him I'm okay. He needs to know this wasn't his fault" I argued with the nurses more.

"Sunshine" he tried to get my attention as he took over from the nurses.

"Where is he?" I asked the nurses as though he wasn't right in front of me.

"Darlin" he tried again to get my attention. "Sweetheart. Danvers" he repeated getting more and more frustrated as I tried to push past him. "Nicole" he said and I froze, looking him in the eyes.

"Bradley" I spoke out his name as his heart skipped a beat, seeing me at my lowest yet still being so gentle. "Are you okay?" I asked with worry and he laughed slightly.

"Yeah, I'm okay, you gave me a real scare out there" he claimed, helping me to sit back in the bed as he took the chair beside me.

"It wasn't your fault" I told him what had been on my mind since I woke up.

"It doesn't feel that way" he sighed.

"Would I lie to you?" I titled my head to the side.

"No" he admitted the truth.

The two of us sat in the hospital room for hours before the nurses were telling Bradshaw to go home and get some rest.

"Good morning, Sunshine" Rooster greeted as he came into the hospital room as I was being discharged. I had been changed into my civilian clothes and was signing the final paperwork when he found me, a bouquet of sunflowers in his hands.

"Hi" I smiled over at him as I signed the last thing and gave him my full attention.

"I can take her from here doctors" Rooster told them as he held out his arm and I looped my hand through it with a smile. "Thanks for taking good care of her" he told them before walking me out across the base to my room. "I bought these for you" he handed me the flowers once it was just the two of us.

"Thank you" I accepted them with a smile but it seemed like there was more he wanted to say. "Whats on your mind?" I wondered.

"I-uh" he sighed. "Iceman died, we are all going to honour him at his funeral today" he said calmly and I nodded along.

"I'll be there" I promised as we reached my room.

"You gonna be okay here?" He worried about leaving me alone.

"Yeah, Trace is going to come help me out for the day" I told him simply and he nodded, trusting her to take care of me if he couldn't.

"Shit" Trace commented as she helped me put on my uniform, my body aching in pain from the ejection. "And you're just walking this off?" She directed her question towards the bruises and cuts that littered my body.

"The mission is coming up, I'm cleared to fly tomorrow" I gave her the news and she didn't show any opinion on it.

The crowd of naval aviators stood at the funeral, wearing our best dressed uniforms.

"Ready, aim, fire. Ready, aim, fire." An officer called as they shot of guns in honor of Iceman.  "Ready, aim, fire." they shot for a third time before it went silent. We all stood in the crowd, watching sadly as Maverick pinned Iceman's wings to his casket. The navy personal saluted to the fallen pilot as jets flew overhead in honour of him.

..........................................
Question of the day: what was your reaction to the crash?