Siren In The Sky // Bradley Bradshaw

Chapter 3

I felt nothing but satisfaction as I watched Mav do 200 pushups from the window. At the end of the day I was the only one who got him out. The pride, while nice, was still overshadowed by my inner turmoil. What a hell of a first day. When I got home I was silent during dinner with Striker. She understood that I didn't want to talk without me having to say it, which is one of the reasons I love her. Getting in bed I felt emptiness, loneliness. Like I always do. 

I sleep better when I'm next to you

Bradley's words from two years ago echo through my mind everytime I stare at my ceiling in the dark. I remember how I felt bad that he had trouble sleeping and now I'm in the same boat. I barely sleep anymore. I wonder if he still struggles too, or maybe now he sleeps perfectly fine. My heart burns as I realize I don't know him anymore. I used to have every inch of him memorized. Now, it's been two years. We've both changed. Even if I decided to forgive him we can't jump back in where we left off. And my father. Pete Mitchell is a stranger now. Of course I want my dad back, but I'm not the little girl I was 10 years ago and he isn't the same man. The entire night was spent tossing and turning, my alarm goes off after I've manged 3 hours of flitful sleep.

"Time," Mav starts. "Is your greatest enemy." On the screen behind him it says that our time to target is 3 minutes. "Phase 1 of the mission will be a low level ingress attacking in two plane teams." The screen changes to show the geography of where we will be. "You'll fly along this narrow canyon to your target. Radar guided surface to air missiles defend the area. These sams are lethal. But they were designed to protect the skies above, not the canyon below." He isn't proposing what I think he is, right?

"That's because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to try and fly below them." Rooster states. Mav looks at him. "That's exactly what I'm going to train you to do." He continues, "On the day, your altitude will be 100 feet maximum."  This is insanity, but I've never been particularly sound of mind. "You exceed this altitude radar will spot you and you're dead."

Every pilot in the room is glancing at each other in disbelief but I keep my gaze on the monitor. "Your air speed will be 660 knots minimum. Time to target two and a half minutes. That's because 5th generation fighters wait at an air base nearby. A head to head with these planes in your f-18, you're dead." I roll my eyes. We do this and we're dead, we do that and we're dead. Blah blah blah we get it we're dead. 

"That's why you need to get in, hit your target, and be gone before these planes even have a chance of catching you. This makes time your greatest advisory." Contradictory much? "You'll fly a route in your nav system that simulates the canyon. The faster you navigate this canyon the harder it will be to stay under the radar of these enemy sams. The tighter the turns the more intensely the force of gravity on your body multiplies, compressing your lungs, forcing the blood from your brain- impairing your judgement and reaction time." How pleasant. 

"So today we'll start you off easy. Max ceiling 300 feet. Time to target 3 minutes. Good luck."

After a rough day of running the simulation we find ourselves back in the breifing room. Each one of our runs is pulled up on the screen. First we watch Coyote and Pheonix's. Coyote breaked without warning in one of the turns making Pheonix fly up into the radar of the sams. "Why are they dead?" Pheonix answers. "We broke the 300 foot ceiling and a sam took us out." "No." My dad turns to Coyote. "Why are they dead?" "I slowed down and I didn't give them a warning. It's my fault." I've never talked to Coyote much, but I respect how easily he owned his mistake. "What was your reason you didn't communicate with your team?" Mav questions. "I was focusing on-" "What will their family accept at the funeral?" Maverick interrupts. 

I know what this is about. Obviously. My dad never got over Goose's death, and each time one of us messes up he's going to react just like this. He sees us as himself, and whoever suffers from someone else's mistake is Goose. It doesn't matter how many times he was told it wasn't his fault, he will always, always blame himself. Now turning to Pheonix he asks, "Why didn't you anticipate the turn? You were briefed on the terrain." Before she has the chance to open her mouth he continues talking. "Don't tell me, tell his family." He says pointing to Bob.

The next run shows up on the screen. Hangman and Payback. The radio from the run is playing as well. Payback is telling Hangman to ease up, that they need to slow down because the canyon is getting tighter. Hangman tells him to speed up, causing Payback to recklessly try to keep up and end up hitting one of the canyon walls in the simulation. They should've partnered me with Hangman, he cares too much to leave me and I can keep up with him in the first place.

"What happened?" Hangman leans back with a cocky grin. "Well I flew as fast as I could, kind of like my ass depended on it." "And," Rooster interjects, "You put your team in danger, and your wingman's dead." Not bothering to look at him Hangman shrugs, "They couldn't keep up."

The third run shows up. It's me and Rooster. Just watching it makes my blood boil. We went way to fucking slow. Everytime I told him to speed up he wouldn't listen. "Why are you dead? You're team leader up there. Why are you, why is your team dead?" Pheonix sighs. "Sir, Rooster and Siren are the only ones that made it to the target." I scoff. "Yeah a fucking minute late. That gives time for enemy aircraft to shoot us down. We're dead." My dad looks at me in surprise, but I don't need him to reprimand me for being to slow. I already know that. "You don't know that." Bradley says from behind me. 

"You're not flying fast enough!" Hangman emphasizes. "You don't have a second to waste." Bradley clenches his teeth. "We made it to the target." "And superior enemy aircraft intercepted you on your way out" My dad comments. "Then it's a dog fight." Great, these two are getting into it again. "Against 5th generation fighters?" "Yeah, we still have a chance." I shake my head, this is going absolutely nowhere. "In an f-18?!" "It's not the plane, sir!" Bradley exclaims. "It's the pilot." "EXACTLY!" My dad yells. I see Bradley's face fall slightly and instant regret flash through Maverick's eyes. I know that hurt Rooster, but he'll never admit it. Taking a deep breath Bradley voices, "There's more than one way to fly this mission."

Hangman sighs. "You really don't get it. On this mission you have to fly like you're on fire, or you won't come back. I don't mean to criticize, you're conservative that's all." "Lieutenant." Maverick tries to interrupt but Hangman vocalizes his thoughts anyway. "We're going into combat on a level no living pilot has seen." He looks at Mav. "Not even him." Turning back to Rooster his following words open a whole new can of worms. "It's no time to be thinking about the past." Rooster finally swivels his head towards Hangman. "What's that supposed to mean?" This is like watching a train wreck, and being unable to look away. "Rooster," Maverick warns.

Hangman chuckles with disbelief. "Take Siren here for example." He gestures to me. "It's obvious to everyone in this room that she's got beef with you and her dear old dad. No one wants to say it, but we all know it. The point is: she doesn't let it affect her flying." Everyone's eyes turn to me and I want to disappear. I appreciate the compliment but Hangman needs to shut the fuck up. "As for you, I can't be the only one that knew that Maverick flew with his old man." "Okay, that's enough!" My dad's interjections fall on deaf ears. "Or that Maverick was flying when his old  man-" 

Hangman is cut off by Bradley lunging out of his seat towards him. Everyone flies up from their positions to separate them before punches are thrown, yelling at them to calm down. "You son of a bitch!" Bradley yells behind the multiple arms holding him back. "Hey, hey I'm cool." Hangman shakes off the arms on him, sounding completely calm. "You know I'm right." With that he parts. "Everyone is dismissed!" Mav bellows. 

We all silently exit and head towards our cars. "Give me a sec," I mutter to Striker, eyeing Bradley's clenched fists and tensed back. Jogging up to him he calls out. "Leave me alone." When my footsteps continue he turns. "Sorry, I thought you were Mav." Looking into his eyes I feel concern overwhelm whatever problems we have. I know how much what happened in there hurt him. Not a soul in that room knows him like I do. "Are you okay?" Before I can think about it I place my hand on his cheek. Bradley immediately leans into the touch, putting his own hand over mine. Just like he used to. 

He sighs into my palm like my hand is healing all his wounds. "I am now." When his eyes open he looks at me with an intensity I wasn't ready to see. I'm not ready to forgive him, at least not yet. I clear my throat and drop my hand, taking a step back. He straightens up as well. "I'll uh see you tomorrow," I mutter before hightailing it back to my car where a suggestive expression rests on Striker's face. 

A/N Thank you so much for 8k! Can't believe this book was ranked #1 yesterday! I've had a rough few days and the funny comments and all the support has made me feel infinitely better! You guys are all amazing! Thank you for taking the time to read this story!