𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐹𝑜u𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝐽𝑎𝑘𝑒 "𝐻𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑚𝑎𝑛" 𝑆𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠in

||4||

Waking up once again Blake got ready for another day at the Top Gun base. Her little encounter with Hangman, yet again stuck in her mind.
It was like someone took every moment they had and glued it into her brain- hell, they didn't glue it, they printed it in her brain.
A part of her wasn't opposed to that.
But at the same time another part was.
Blake just couldn't help but stress to herself that this was Hangman she was thinking about.
A ladies man.
A player.
A casanova.
There are still a lot of things she disliked about him, but slowly, very slowly, a few started to disappear.
She told herself so many times she needed to focus on Top Gun.
And that's exactly what she was going to do.
At least, that's what she thought.

Hangman on the other hand didn't wake up that pleasantly. He woke up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat.
He panted heavily, frantically looking around his room for orientation while he pushed himself up with his elbows, his naked chest glistening in the moonlight it peeked through the cracks of his curtains.
It took him a few seconds to gain his normal breathing back. And when he did, he began to remember what had caused his abrupt awakening. At first he thought he had a nightmare.
But he didn't.
He didn't have a nightmare.
Oh no.
Much better than that.
He had a very... intense dream.
He remembered it vaguely, he remembered the actions but not the people who were in it like someone had put a blur on his dream.
He didn't remember the person that made the dream so... intense.
Who made him feel so good.
The figure- he had seen her before. She was almost familiar. But he couldn't place his finger on who it was.
It was a woman.
Definitely.
By the way his dream went, it was definitely a woman.
He needed and wanted to know who it was.
But as fatigue crept into him yet again, he couldn't help but to let it go.
Too tired to think of it any more.
Jake needed his sleep, he knew that.
He couldn't reach his full capacity if he didn't get enough sleep.
He couldn't be at his best if he didn't get enough sleep.
Which is exactly what he needed to be.
So he dropped the matter and fell back asleep after a few minutes.

That same day all the aviators were called into a briefing room. And Blake was glad. She felt like a weight was being lifted of her shoulders once she got to know what this mission was about.

Hangman being the man he is, was already seated. Waiting for the briefing to start. A toothpick between his teeth and a smug look on his face as usual.
Arrogance radiating off of him as his body language portrayed the exact same thing.
However, when Tornado shuffled into the room, busy talking with Phoenix, his toothpick almost fell out of his mouth, something clicked in his head. His eyes widened as he felt like he found the last piece of the puzzle.
He followed Tornado's movements closely as realization hit him like a train.
His mouth parted slightly. The mask of toughness falling off of him for a second.
It was her.
He dreamt about her.
The feeling of familiarity now made sense.
Of course it had to be her.

"You good? You look like you've seen a ghost." Coyote nudged his shoulder.
Hangman snapped out of whatever daze he was in and within seconds his facade was back on like it never left.
He scoffed.
"What are you talking about? Of course I'm okay. I'm good, in fact, I'm too good to be true."
Hangman smiled although his smile didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Yeah, okay, there's the Jake I know." Coyote laughed.
Hangman bit back a remark. He sat in silence again, hoping that Maverick would walk in soon so he could take his mind off this matter.
But his mind drifted off, thinking about Torando, again.
In some sort of way, the dream made him want to be closer to her. But only physically.
He felt a pull towards her, a pull he didn't have before. A need to protect her, but he didn't know why.
His thoughts were interrupted when Maverick entered the room.
A screen in front of the room lighting up as Maverick strutted to the front.
The screen displayed a timer.
03:00 minutes was all the aviators saw on the screen.
That was the time given to them for todays exercise.
03:00 minutes was all they had to do the impossible.
And it was certainly not a comforting feeling knowing that when the real mission arrived, the time was even less.

The sun shone through the windows, lighting up the room and the moods of everyone in it. Like it was the needed medicine after the dark details of the mission were explained.
But Blake saw nothing but darkness.
She was panicking.
This was impossible to do.
She was doubting herself, again, as usual. Normally she'd panick a little internally, it always happened, but never as heavy as she panicked now. But then again, this mission was far more difficult than any other mission she had flown.
It felt like someone cut the access to fresh air as she took in short breaths. Without thinking she went straight to the changing rooms, pushed open the doors without looking which room it was and stumbled inside.
Blake slid down onto the ground against one of the nearby lockers and put her head in her hands with her elbows supporting on her knees.
This couldn't be happening.
She couldn't show allow herself to let people see her like this. They would question her capability of going on this mission and she could not have that happening.
God, she hoped that nobody saw her.

However, despite her wishes, someone did see her.

Hangman saw the frantic look on her face and knew something was not right, he had been keeping an eye on her almost the entire time, so of course he noticed the change of demeanor. He also noticed the way she almost sprinted out of the room.
The feeling to protect her crept up again like a spider that was ready to bite him.
Concerned, he followed her into the women's locker room. Not giving two shits about the fact that he was entering forbidden territory.
What he saw sent a mixture of shock and concern straight to his heart. There on the ground, against the lockers sat Tornado, "the fearless Tornado" as she often got called. But at this moment, looking so fragile, he wasn't so sure she was that fearless.
He crouched down in front of her.
"Hey, Tornado, I need you to calm down for me okay. Everything's okay." Hangman said, his hands on both of her shoulders.
He could feel her body shake with each breath that she took. This wasn't good. This was not good at all. She didn't even look at him when he spoke to her.
Lifting her chin, he saw the tears running down her face.
"It's okay, you're okay. Just breath with me, yeah?"
Blake regained control of her breathing again and she was starting to calm down.
And to say she was mortified, was an understatement. She was sure of it that Hangman would use this weak moment she had to his advantage. But she didn't know a thought like that didn't even enter his mind at that moment.
And somewhere, somewhere in his eyes, she saw it.
For once, she saw a different side of him. A side she never thought she'd see one day.
He was calm but chaotic at the same time. Chaotic in a way that he was stressed about her wellbeing.
Calm and chaotic like the ocean, whose waves could both calm you or send you in a state of chaos. Calm like you could float on the water, slowly swaying as your thoughts would drift off.
But chaotic like the aggressive waves that could send you spiraling down to the depths of the ocean.
Jake was exactly that in that moment.
And it sent Blake in a state of confusion. Was there a different side to him? Or was he just playing tricks on her?
She didn't know. And she didn't want to know the answer.
But inside of her, everything was trying to convince her that there was good to him.
And she was starting to believe it.

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Guess who's back, back again 😎

Okay but 500 readers?! Thank you all so much, never EVER would I have expected that!
Anyways, enjoy the chapter, see you next time!

Oh and don't be a silent reader ;)