When Jake meets a woman at the Hard Deck, the last thing he expects is for her to be a Navy Seal. And not just any Seal, the Commander of Seal Team 3. She's beautiful, smart, dangerous, and everything about her just makes him want to get close. Her...
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Numbness was a funny feeling. Bear could feel the sand under her palms, the tears running down her face, but not the stillness that had worked its way into her body, sitting on her chest and making it hard to breathe. Yet somehow, through the gaping hole that seemed to have opened in her chest, she still found enough strength to stand. "...ar? Bear? Can you hear me?" FAK was crouched in front of her, their hand waving in front of her unfocused eyes. "Bear?"
"Yes," she rasped out. Clearing her throat, she tried again. "Yes, I can hear you."
FAK nodded, hand rifling to find the penlight they kept in their bag. "Just a bit of a bright light here," they began, going to shine it in her eyes.
Bear batted the medic's hand away. "I'm-I'm fine. Just...just stop." But her tone was hollow and empty, much like how her heart felt at this particular moment.
Her comms were a mess of screaming pilots all demanding orders for something, anything they could do. "Daggers. Return to base. Now," Bear managed to say weakly.
"Bear, he could be hurt!" Halo argued. She and the others had done their last drop and were now trying to frantically locate their wingman in the darkness.
"No. This is a direct order." Her heart broke even more at these words. His team wanted to find him, they were demanding that they help her. But she wouldn't risk it. She couldn't risk it. She had already lost one of her men, and now Jake. No one else was dying tonight. Not if she had any say in it.
"Bear...please," Coyote tried, his own voice thick with emotion. "You have to let us help find him."
"I said no, Coyote," Bear replied in a voice barely above a whisper. "I'm not losing anyone else."
The comms fell silent. No one wanted to leave Jake behind. Hangman was gone and the world seemed darker for it. He might have been a cocky shit, but he was their friend, their teammate, and someone they had all trusted with their lives. And now, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
"Maverick. Alpha team 1, 2, and 4 returning home," Bear spoke tearfully to the older pilot, who sat in stunned silence, staring at the table in front of him. "Alpha 3 shot down by enemy ground forces. Presumed KIA." Her voice shook, emotion making it hard to speak those last two words. The confirmation of what had just taken place was too much to say aloud, and Bear let out a muffled sob, trying her best to stay professional.
Overhead three planes flew by, each carrying pilots quietly mourning a man whom they all admired in secret, but had never told that to his face. The same could be said for those left on base. Rooster sat in stunned silence in the cockpit of his jet, mind blank. Everything he had said to Jake before, if only he could take part of it back. If he could just tell him that he admired him, or that Jake was-. The 'was' threw him. One minute he was there, grinning and teasing, the next, he was gone. He was reduced to past tense in a matter of seconds.
