I LOOK UP TO SEE THE HELICOPTER IN FLAMES. What the fuck.. My guardian angel is really working overtime right now.

Turns out my guardian angel is Bradley Bradshaw, who just got hit by SAM's. I saw a parachute and ran in that direction. I ran with everything I had, not giving up. Maybe it was the adrenaline that kept me going, or maybe it was the need to make sure Bradley was okay. 

I was running for a while until I finally found him

"Bradley!" I yell running over to him.

"May! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, are you?"

"Yeah."

 I pushed him over exclaiming 'what the hell?'

"What the hell, May?" He says angrily as he gets up.

"What are you doing out here?"

"What am I doing here?"

"I didn't take that missile so you could be down here with me, you should be back on the carrier by now!" I yell. Even with our height difference, I try to be as stern as possible.

"I saved your life!" He yells bending down to be on my level.

"I saved your life!" I shoot back at him. "That's the whole point, what the hell were you thinking?"

"Maverick told me not to think!"

That is correct.

He throws his arms up as I start to catch my breath from running.

"It's good to see you."

"Good to see you too."

"I really thought I would never see you again so this-" I pant. "So this is nice."

"May, you got us into this mess. What's your plan on getting us out?" He asks seriously.

"Well, Bradshaw. It's time to put our thinking caps on because I didn't plan that far ahead, you know, when I saved your life." I started walking around.

"I don't think I've ever been more thankful to hear a snarky comment from you." He mumbles as he follows me.

"I can't tell if I want to smack you or kiss you."

"I would prefer the second option."

-¯'★'¯-

"YOU'RE NOT SERIOUS?" Bradley says with a look of horror on his face. We sit looking forward at the enemy's runway. I give him a sympathetic look.

"You're serious." He states. "You don't even know if that bag ass can fly."

"Let's find out." I say making my way to the runway.

"May!" Bradley whisper shouts after me. "Okay." He cringes accepting his fate.

We start walking through their runway, pretending like we own the place.

"There's guys up there, May." Rooster points out.

"Yep." I can't pretend like I'm not nervous but it's life or death right now. Stealing an ancient plane seems like the best option at the moment.

"There's more over there."

"Okay." I breathe. "Let's start running."

"Yeah, run. Run."

    We make it inside of the hangar. Bradley looks utterly terrified, and I feel the same exact way. I push it down and remind myself I need to make it home. I flip some switches and push some buttons. And hoist myself into the front of the plane.

"Oh shit." I mumble when I see just how old this thing really is.

"Lord help us all." Rooster adds once he's in the plane. I pull the plane onto the runway and mentally prepare myself for what I'm about to do.

"Both runways are cratered. How are we going to get this museum piece in the air?"

I press the buttons to bring the wings out.

"Why are the wings coming out, May?" I smile to myself. Confused Bradley is my favorite Bradley.

"It's time to do some pilot shit. I wasn't top of my class for no reason."

"May, this is a taxiway, not a runway. This is a very short taxiway." Rooster tries to knock some sense into me, but when in situations like this: Don't think, just do.

"Hang on, Rooster." I say as I start to accelerate.

"Holy Shit!"

"..may." Rooster says worried as we get closer and closer to a bridge.

"Here we go!" I pull up, praying that we don't hit anything.

"May!"

"Holy shit!" Rooster closes his eyes. We barely make it over the bridge, losing our front wheel in the process.

"Oh my god! I did it" I let out my breath. "I mean, I knew I could do that. Piece of cake."

"that's my girl." He chuckles to himself.

    Rooster puts us back on the radar.

    "Radios out. No radar. Everything's dead back here." He announces to me.

"What do I do?"

"Um I have no idea, buddy. Wasn't this your dad's thing? Try the UFH2 circuit breaker."

"I'll figure it out."

"May, tally 2, 5 o'clock low."

I look over my shoulder and see two planes beneath us.

"Shit."

"What do we do?"

"Just be cool. If they knew who we were, we'd be dead already." I put on my mask as the planes fly closer to us. "Just.. wave and smile."

I wave to the plane next to me. The pilot does a sign I've never seen before.

"What's that signal, what's he saying?" Rooster asks.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"What about that one, have any idea?"

"Nope, never seen that one either."

"Shit, his wingman is moving into weapons envelope."

"May, I don't think we can outrun these guys."

"Yeah probably not." I bite my lip and suck in a breath. "Lets just try not to die."

"Good plan. I actually had the same thing in mind"

deep breath. don't die may.

I flip over and start shooting at one of the planes, causing it to go down.

"Tell me when you see smoke in the air!"

"Smoke in the air! Smoke in the air!"

"Hold on!" I shift gears, dodging the missile

"Here comes another one!"

"Oh for fucks sake!"

I pull up. "Rooster, flares. Now! Now! Now!"

"I'm going at them!" I flip upside down after the missile is counter attacked.

"Come on.." I focus the laser on the plane in front of me.

"You got it! Take the shot!"

The pilot does a crazy maneuver I've never seen before.

"Holy shit! What the fuck was that?" the plane comes behind us. Great.

"Hang on, we've got to get low!" I announce dropping down to the initial course we started this mission on.

The plane starts shooting at me.

"Talk to me, Rooster. Where is he?"

"He's still on us!"

"We took a hit, we took a hit!" Rooster said after the plane started shooting at us again.

"Damnit!"

"Come on, Riot. Do some of that pilot shit!" He urges from behind me.

"Brace yourself!" I pull straight up into the air. And drop back down.

"Holy SHit!"

"Out of missiles, switching to guns." I announce once I'm behind the plane and start shooting at him. I waste tons of rounds of ammo as it takes me a while to hit him. But after I hit him and his plane crashes into the side of the mountain, I celebrate.

"Nice hit, Riot."

"May, I've got the radio back on." Rooster announces after a while.

I feel calm, now it's just smooth sailing until we get back to the carrier. Or should I say, flying?

An alarm sounds, signaling someone is on us. I look around but can't see anything.

"Where the hell is this guy?"

"He's on our nose." I realize as I look forward. "Dammit we're out of ammo!" I panic as I realize a missile is coming our way.

"Smoke in the air! Rooster flares!." We barely fought off the missile.

"That was close!"

"We're out of flares, May!"

The plane turns around and starts shooting at us. I try to dodge the rain of bullets as much as I can, but I'm practically a sitting duck.

"We took another hit!!"

"No, no no no!"

We got struck again.

"We can't take much more of this! Do that pilot shit!!"

If my heart had not dropped so many times during this mission, it definitely would right now. It's hard to accept your about to die, but this is what I signed up for right? I want to keep trying, to fight and prove the odds. But deep down inside, I know there's no point.

I'm knocking on death's door.

"Bradley, we have to eject!" I can't stop the tears coming to my eyes. "Pull the ejection handles when I tell you to."

"May, wait!"

"Bradley, I'm sorry. There's no other way!" I pull up, sending us straight into the sky.

"Eject! Eject! Eject!" I sob.

Nothing happens.

"Bradley pull the handle, eject!"

"It's not working!!"

I choke out a sob as I realize I can't save him. He's going down with me. I guess he's sticking to his promise of never leaving me.

"May.." I try my best to turn around and look at him. Even if his face is distorted and leaking tears, I'd die happy with that being the last thing I saw.

"..I'm sorry."

Time seemed to be going in slow motion. We were just sitting here, awaiting our inevitable death.

"May, I'm in love with you!" He chokes out. "I love you! I love you, May!"

"Bradley, no. don't tell me this now."

"You said I could tell you when we get back, we aren't going back!"

"..I love you too." I grab his hand. "I love you Bradley."

We sat there, floating in the air, waiting to die. Such a strangely familiar feeling.

I suck in a breath and smile to my Rooster as I hear the plane alarm sound, signaling we were about to get blown up.

"Goodbye, May."

a/n

i cried when i wrote this :'(

i cry a lot but this just hit different

two more chapters left guyssss, thats so sad

-cj