"That was shit." Lilah complained, throwing her helmet into her locker. It clattered loudly.
"That wasn't shit." Phoenix replied, already in the shower. Steam was filling the room. "You made it to the target with, like, five seconds to spare every time."
Lilah stripped down from her flight suit and hung it up in her locker. She tugged on her own clothes, loose sweatpants and an old, stained tshirt.
"We're a team," Lilah reminded her, undoing her hair and quickly braiding it in the small portable mirror she kept in her locker. "Which means I can't be the only one that can make it to the target. Three other pilot's have to be able to make it, or this mission is a fail."
"We'll get there." Phoenix assured her. The water turned off and her head peaked around the corner. Water dripped onto the ground. "Where are you running off to?"
Lilah grabbed her purse and keys. "My grandparents house. I'm supposed to meet Maverick there in," she glanced down at her watch, "Shit, 20 minutes."
Phoenix laughed as Lilah rushed to finish putting all of her stuff away. "You are a hot mess, honey."
"I'm definitely hot, dear." Lilah winked as she rushed out the door with a wave.
★★★
"Lilah Eloise." her grandmother scolded as she jumped over the back couch and picked up a magazine. "You are 26, not six."
"Six year old don't read magazine's." Lilah told her grandmother, flipping the page. "I've never seen Jamie read a magazine in his life."
"Jamie's a boy." her grandmother corrected. "A 11 year old boy who's biggest concern is what we're having for dinner."
"Gender equality." Lilah reminded her with a hum. "In this house, anything a male can do, I can do."
Mrs. Kazansky rolls her eyes at her granddaughter's antics as the bell for the house started to go off. The sound startled both of them, and they could hear Jamie jump up from whatever he was doing upstairs. He came scampering down the stairs.
"Who's going to get it?" he breathed out once he reached the bottom, pushing his platinum curly locks out of his eyes.
They all stared at each other for a moment, before two identical pairs of eyes settled on Lilah.
She shook her head, "Oh no, we're not speaking to each other right now. If it were up to me, he wouldn't even be allowed in the house."
"It's not up to you, though," Mrs. Kazansky said calmly as she walked into the fourier. "You're grandfather wants to see him."
"That's never a good thing." Lilah muttered, going back to her magazine.
Her grandmother opened the door and Maverick's voice immediately spread through the house. Lilah gave her brother a death look as he smiled wicked. His eyes were shining.
"Whatever you are about to do, don't even think about it." she whisper-yelled to him, rolling off of the couch.
She watched him run out the backdoor, sliding half of the way in his socked feet, and pull out Lilah's phone out of his back pocket once the door was firmly shut.
"You little shit." she growled and started to run after him.
She tripped on the hardwood floor, skidding about five feet before making to the door. By the time she'd opened it, she was too late. He'd already cracked her password and was dialing someone's number.
"James!" she shrieked, reaching for the phone.
He jumped backwards and put the phone to his ear, mischief in his eyes. It rang for a moment.
"Hello?" the voice on the other end asked.
"Bradley!" Jamie screamed into the phone.
Lilah's stomach it the floor. No, no, no.
"James Mitchell." Lilah hissed. "Hang up that phone right now."
From inside, Maverick and her grandmother's low tone's could be heard. Lilah resisted the urge to turn around and watch.
Jamies held up one finger. "Yeah, I'm doing good, about to be murdered by Lili, but still doing pretty amazing. Oh! I have a girlfriend, her name is Jacie."
She heard Bradley laugh and respond, not quite catching what he said.
"Can you come hang out tonight? I haven't seen you in sooooo long and every time I ask Lili to take me to see you, she says no." Lilah rolled her eyes and Jamie turned away from her and whispered, "I think she's mad at you, and I don't like that she's mad at you."
Bradley's answer was inaudible, but from the smile on Jamie's face, it was a good one.
"Okay," he nodded his head, "7? Okay." he nodded again. "You don't have to knock, just walk in." Another nod, a few seconds of silence. "Okay, see you tomorrow, Brad."
He hung up the phone and handed it back to Lilah. The object felt too heavy in her hand.
"What was that?" Lilah demanded as he walked passed her and back into the house.
"Bradley's picking me up at seven tomorrow morning for breakfast." Jamie told her. "Apparently he has to be at work by nine, which is weird, since you have to be at work by nine."
"Coincidence?" she tried weakly, shrugging her shoulder.
Jamie's gave her the look, raising on his eyebrows. "If that's what you want me and Granddaddy to believe, then sure, coincidence."
"Jamie-" she started, following him back inside.
"Don't 'Jamie' me. I'm not five anymore, Lilah." he snapped at her. "I know what your job is, I know the risks you take." he sniffled. "But you're supposed to be my big sister. Grammy and Granddaddy are great, I love them, but you're all I have. Mom doesn't bother to come around anymore, and I don't even know who the heck my dad is."
"It keeps you a shit load safer if I don't tell you," she countered. "A 11 year old shouldn't have to understand what my job intels."
"But I do." Jamie argued back, slumping on the couch. "Everyone around me has that job, the same job as you, except for Grammy, and I'm not even sure she fully understands. I know that every time you come home, have dinner with us, say goodbye, that you might not come home. That the hug and kiss on the head you give me might be the last."
"But it never has been, and I promise, it never will be." Lilah assured him softly, sitting down beside him.
"I hate it!" he cried into her shoulder. "I don't want you to go! I don't want you or granddaddy to die! I don't want Bradley to die. I want everyone to be happy!"
"I know, I know." Lilah comforted him, pulling him close to her chest. "I'll make it home, I promise."
Jamie's glanced up at her with his big green eyes. Tears ran down his tanned skin. "Pinky promise?"
She held out her pinky to him. He hooked his around her own. "Pinky promise."
He cuddled up to her, resting his head on her shoulder. Lilah reached for the remote and turned up the volume of the movie playing on the television.
"Can we go get ice cream?" Jamie asked after a few minutes of silence, casting her the puppy dog eyes. His tears had dried up.
Lilah sighed. "It's almost six o'clock and Grammy's gonna kill me for letting you have ice cream before dinner."
"What Grammy doesn't know, won't kill her." Jamie whispered, glancing around like they were being spied on. "And plus, she's too busy with Mr. Pete, and cooking dinner. She'll never even notice we're gone."
"Fine." Lilah laughed, standing up. "Go, put some shoes on."
"Yes!" Jamie exclaimed, pumping his arm in the air and shooting up the stairs to put on his shoes.
Lilah giggled to herself and made her way to the entry hall to grab her purse and keys. The door to her grandfather's study was cracked open and she could hear parts of the conversation inside. Carefully and quietly, she drifted towards the door.
"Rooster's still angry with my about what I did." Maverick was saying. "I though eventually he would understand why, that he would forgive me."
Coughing and then the sound of typing.
"The mission's three weeks away, the kid's not ready."
More typing.
"He doesn't want what I have to give." Maverick told him. A pause. "Ice, please, don't ask me to send someone else to die. Please don't, don't ask me to send him. Send me."
Typing.
Jamie was yelling for her, but she couldn't pull herself away from the wall. There was silence in the room.
"I don't know how." Maverick said, his voice soft. A sigh. "I'm not a teacher, Ice, I'm a fighter pilot, a naval aviator, it's not what I am, it's who I am. How do I teach that? Even if I could teach that, it's not what Bradley wants. It's not what the navy wants. It's why they canned me the last time. The only reason I am here, is you. If I send him on this mission, he might never come home. But if I don't send him, he'll never forgive me. Either way, I could loose him forever."
A sigh and then silence.
She heard rustling from the room. Coughing. She peered around the corner. Her grandfather had stood up. He coughed some more. And then his lips started to move.
"The navy needs Maverick." Lilah started to cry at the sound of his voice. "The kid needs Maverick, hell, my granddaughter needs Maverick, that's why I fought for you. That's why you're still here."
They were hugging then, both men with tears running down their faces. Jamie had found Lilah, sitting down on the ground, her hand pressed over her mouth to contain her sobs.
"Lili?" he asked in a hushed tone, sitting down beside her. "What's wrong?"
She wiped her tears away, struggling to breath. The world around her was collapsing.
Stay strong, be strong, for him, she repeated in her head.
Eye closed.
Deep breath.
Deep breath.
"Nothing, buddy." she cleared her throat, the words horse. "Ready to go get ice cream?"
"Ice cream!" he raced out the front door, leaving it open for Lilah.
She picked herself up off the ground, taking three deep breaths. She turned around and both men inside the room were staring at her.
"Just like old times, huh?" she whispered, knowing both of them heard her.
Her grandfather gave her a pained smile and sat back down. Maverick kept staring at her.
"Thank you." she mouthed to him.
He gave her a puzzled expression, confused as to why she was saying thanks. She shook her head, smiling.
She closed the door behind her, smiling at Jamie's overjoyed expression as he waved to her to hurry up.
★★★
"Dinner was great, as always, Sarah." Maverick said as he helped clear the table.
"It's always a pleasure to have you, Pete." Mrs. Kazansky responded, the most generous host. "I think Tom went out back, if you want to join him, Lilah can help clear the table. I'll bring dessert out in a bit."
Maverick bowed his head in thanks and handed Lilah four plates, with a smirk. She struggled to take hold of them, almost dropping all of her grandmother's favorite set of dishes.
"But -" she tried to object.
"No 'buts', you're going to help clear the table before you run off to do God knows what." her grandmother replied from the kitchen.
Lilah groaned, envious of her little brother who had bolted twenty minutes prior. He'd scarfed down his food, as if he hadn't eaten ice cream right before, to pack is stuff for to spend to night at Lilah's.
Lilah had just sat the plates down in the sink when her phone started ringing. She rushed to the dining room and hurriedly clicked answer, not bothering to see who the caller was.
"Lilah Eloise!" her grandmother yelled from the kitchen.
To her grandmother she shouted, "It's work." and to the call she answered, "Hello?" plugging one ear.
Loud music sounded in the background on the other end.
"Lilah?" she heard Phoenix yell. "Where are you?"
"Still at my grandmother's house, why?" she asked quietly, hoping that Phoenix heard her.
"You need to come to the Hard Deck right now." Phoenix told her. "Someone's had a little bit too much to drink!"
"You?" Lilah questioned in response, confused. Phoenix sounded completely sober.
"No, Bradshaw."
Lilah almost growled at the sound of his name. She didn't have to put up an act with Phoenix.
"Listen, Nat, not my problem. Find him another driver, he's living with Payback, Fanboy, and Bob, isn't he?"
Phoenix's voice was muffled for a moment and then she came back to the phone, "He won't let anyone take him home, we already tried."
"How am I going to help?" Lilah asked, moving back into the kitchen. "I am a US Naval Aviator, not a glorified babysitter!"
Mrs. Kazansky was gone with the dishes and had started to cut the cake. Lilah pointed to her phone and then to her grandfather's office. She was given a thumps up in response.
"I don't really now, it's just, he's like really, really drunk, and you've known him the longest and perhaps seen him this drunk?"
Lilah had. Every year on his father's death date, he got so drunk that he'd jump out of an airplane if someone let him. But that wasn't almost for another year.
"Okay, on a scale of one to ten, how drunk is he?" Lilah closed the door of the study.
"Eleven."
Great, Lilah whined in her mind..
She couldn't let anyone else deal with him, they wouldn't know how too. When Bradley got drunk, he got energetic, hyper almost, with the mindset that nothing was going to hurt him and that anything was possible.
"I'll be there in 30 ish minutes, just keep him away from the water and in your sight." Lilah sighed and hung up the phone.
She walked into the kitchen. Her grandmother had five pieces of cake cut.
"I'm afraid you're only going to need three of those." Lilah apologized, leaning against the counter. "I just got a call from work, and I need to stop by and pick something up immediately, and Jamie's spending the night with me."
Mrs. Kazansky tried to cover up her disappointed expression. "Oh, it's fine, dear, be safe."
Lilah kissed her grandmother lightly on the cheek and ran into the living room, swinging herself around the staircase.
"Jamie!" she shouted up the stairs. "You ready to roll?"
"Oh yeah!"
"You have your toothbrush?" Lilah asked. She heard shuffling of feet. "And your school bag?"
Jamie's head popped around the railing. "Please, please don't make me go to school, Lili."
"You love school."
"I hate school."
Lilah sucked in a deep breath. "Jamie, I have something I need to do, please just grab the bag so we can go."
"Fine." she heard her brother grumble as he grabbed his stuff.
A few minutes later he was running down the stairs, his hair flopping. Two overstuffed backpacks were on his shoulder's and his pillow was clutched to his chest.
"Go tell Grammy and Granddaddy goodbye, I'll meet you at the car." Lilah instructed and he did as he was told immediately, but not without a roll of his eyes.
Once she got to the car, she turned it on, cranking the radio up. Jamie threw his stuff into the back seat when he hopped in.
"We're going to have to make a stop before we go home." Lilah told him.
"Where?"
"The Hard Deck."
OH LILAH, HERE WE GO.
THANKS FOR READING!