Tom and Abigail walk through the sliding doors of the oncology wing in the hospital, the 16 year old Abby carrying a fresh batch of her mother's famous cupcakes. "Have you heard anything from Carole or Mav lately?" She asks her father, who had a solemn expression on his face.
Tom hesitates, looking at his teenage daughter from the corner of his eye. "No, I'm afraid not." He sighs, placing a hand on her shoulder as they continue walking.
Abigail spots Bradley sitting next to Maverick outside of Carole's hospital room. Bradley's eyes were clouded over, recently he's seemed like he was a million miles away. Abigail didn't blame him, either, because who wouldn't be like this if they had just found out that their mother's very aggressive cancer was back?
Without saying anything, Abby takes a seat on the other side of her best friend, handing the cupcakes over to Maverick. The two grown men make their way inside of the room.
Abigail chewed on her lip as she dug through her mind for something that could get Bradley's mind off of all the hospitals and cancer that he's so wrapped into. "Okay, so, when we graduate from the naval academy, what should our call signs be?" She asks, an excited smile spreading on her face. She knew they were both passionate about what they had planned for their future.
Bradley is silent for a minute, but then a shred of light returns in his eyes as he vaguely glances over in her direction. "Rooster. Mom has little rooster decorations all over the house, they're her favorite. And it's similar to dad's, you know, being in the bird family and all." He replies, sniffling as he twiddles his fingers anxiously.
Abigail smiles softly. "I think I'm going to make mine Iceberg, everyone can call me Ice like they do my dad." She says, leaning forwards to glance into the room where her dad is being supportive to Bradley's mom. "So, Rooster, where do you hope to get stationed someday?"
"Hawaii would be cool. But only if I can be there with my wingman, Ice." He smiles.
—
"If only this were Hawaii." Rooster mumbles into the head piece. Him, Abigail, Hangman, Mallard, and Miami were peering out over the very dry terrain, the enemy territory. They were sent out on the mission just two weeks after Abigail had gotten back into the air.
The helicopter was loud, but it was chosen to get them to their drop location because four fighter planes soaring through the sky would have drawn more attention to the enemy. At least this way they had a chance.
"We'll get there some day, Roos." Abigail mutters, holding onto Jake's hand. They were sitting across from Rooster, Mallard, and Miami in the military helicopter.
Nerves were high, legs were bouncing, but here they were. This was it, the big day.
"Mind if I tag along? Always wanted to go to Hawaii." Jake chimes in, resting his hand on Abigail's thigh. Every once in a while when he could tell she was starting to freak out, he'd give it a soft squeeze. "Me too." Liliana hums, smiling at Rooster.
Abigail gazes out at the passing grass that is nearly dried out from the heat, squinting her eyes when she spots something reflective.
The alarms on the helicopter go off, alerting them of an incoming bogey. That thing Abigail has spotted is rapidly approaching, smoke coming off from the back. Within seconds, no time to react, the bogey makes impact right in the top of the helicopter.
Everything goes black. There was silence and no pain, Abigail couldn't feel anything. She almost felt as if she were a bird, soaring through the air.
It was peaceful, grounding. Abigail finally felt an escape. An escape from all of her struggles and worries. But the longe edge was in that dark place, the further that peace started to feel again.
Forcing her eyes open, Abigail is met with the dead grass, smoke, and fire. Her ears were ringing as she pushed herself onto her elbows, her vision blurring and her mind sending her back to last year for the millionth time.
She had crawled on her elbows through the white snow, leaving a trail of dark red blood and, the most nauseating part, pieces of her flesh.
Abigail immediately threw her legs in front of her, no sign of blood or turn flesh on her real leg. Abigail had to sale her head as she turned her gaze to the prosthetic, yet again forgetting that it was fake. It was broken, bent in a weird direction with a piece of metal sticking out of the hole of her flight suit.
The ringing gets louder and louder, her head and heart pounding as she scanned the enemy territory. The helicopter must have flung them out of their seats, then exploded on impact with the ground.
Where was Jake? Or Rooster? What about Mallard and Miami? Where was her team?
A sick feeling arose in Abigail's stomach as she placed her hands over her ears, closing her eyes only to be met with the flashbacks of smoke and blood. Rocking back and forth, Abigail doesn't even notice the gash on the side of her head, the crimson blood seeping through her hair and onto her hand.
Abigail grits her teeth but sighs in relief as the ringing slowly goes away. But she wishes it hadn't when the sound of screaming replaces it.
"Where is Abigail?!"
"Holy shit."
"There's so much blood!"
"She's-she's not breathing!"
"Abigail!"
Abigail forced herself off of the ground, limping over in the direction where all of the terrified screaming is coming from. She barely makes it a few steps before her prosthetic leg snaps, breaking the rest of the way. She falls to the ground, letting out a cry of pain when her wrist twists the wrong way.
"Over-I'm over here!" Abigail shouts, standing back up and balancing on her leg, pulling off the top half of her prosthetic leg. She closes her eyes for a few seconds to help subside the pounding in her head.
Jake comes running over and the second his eyes land on his wife, the weight of the world fell of off his shoulders. He felt like he could breathe again, stalking towards her to engulf her in the world's tightest hug.
"What...happened?" Abigail whispers, turning her head to the side when Jake pulls away to look at the gash on her head. Blood was dripping all the way down from her head to the side of her neck.
Jake drops his head, chewing on his lip. "They knew we were coming, staked out here to shoot us down before we could even process what was happening."
"Bradley, she's not breathing!" Liliana is still screaming. Abigail looks over Jake's shoulder, seeing Liliana and Rooster huddled over a limp body that looked like they had lost almost all of their blood. It was Miami.
Abigail collapses onto her knee and places two fingers against Miami's neck. She waits a few seconds before letting out a panicked breath and starting CPR. "She has no pulse." She mutters, frowning as she rushes to get her student's heart beating. Rooster pulls Liliana into his side, placing a hand on one side of her head. Jake kneels next to Abby, his brow quirked in concern.
Minutes pass, CPR doing absolutely nothing to save Jane. Abigail stops the compressions, grabbing Jane's hand and squeezing it tightly. "I'm so sorry."
Liliana sobs, wrapping her arms around Rooster, who looked so far away. He had blood trickling down from his chin. Jake places a hand on Abby's shoulder, belong her back up to her feet. "We need to get going, the crash just alerted everyone. There'll be more coming." He announces, feeling a little guilty that he has to make his teammates push on from such an unfortunate loss.
"We need to keep going west, we aren't that far from the abandoned base." Rooster chimes in, pointing in the correct direction. He keeps his hand clasped to Liliana's. Jake has his arm wrapped around Abigail to support her now that her prosthetic was destroyed.
As much as they would have wanted to bring Miami back to her family, it wasn't possible. They couldn't fit her into a fighter plane.
It took a lot longer than they thought to get through the last three miles, but within time they came upon the abandoned base, hangar bays left open revealing the planes they had to steal.
"These things are so old." Rooster twists his face up, running his hand along the metal. Liliana was pulling the locks out of the missiles, her face vacant of any emotion. She seemed to have switched into autopilot, her mind not there whatsoever.
Jake returns from the second hanger bay, hoisting Abigail up and pulling her into his side. She hated that she couldn't walk herself. Out of all things, why must her prosthetic leg be destroyed? Shaking her head to rid up the haunted memories with Maverick, she was set inside of the backseat of the plane with Jake's assistance.
"We're almost there, baby. We'll get this done." Jake reassured her, climbing into the front seat and starting the plane up. The hood is lowered down and they were officially moments away from being airborne.
Abigail eyes the cut on the back of Jake's head, the dried blood that had trickled down his neck made her eyes water. "I'm not sure I want to do this again." She mumbles, a tear falling down her eye. Abigail felt utterly defeated, it was as if God was telling her to stay out of the sky, keep her feet planted on the ground. She wasn't meant for these missions, this is the second one in a row that has ended up very poorly.
Jake doesn't say anything, but the way he slightly turned his head told her that he was feeling the same way currently. Liliana had already shared her many cents on what she was going to do after this. Abigail and Lily were in the same waters.
"Rooster to dagger two, you guys read me?" Bradley's voice rings through the cockpit. His plane is seen pulling out onto the runway. Abigail puts her mask on and familiarizes herself with the WSO seat. "Iceberg to dagger one, we read you." Abigail replies, watching Jake give an overhead thumbs up. He goes through a rundown of the plane while waiting for Rooster to become airborne.
The sounds of the jet on dagger one increasing in power tells Abby that the plane was making its way down the runway at a growing speed. And then, "Dagger one is airborne, you are a go, Hangman."
"Copy that, Rooster." Hangman replies, pulling out of the hanger bay. Abigail looks up into the sky to see Rooster and Mallard's plane off in the distance. They were maintaining a certain speed while they waited for their wingman.
"There's so many things to press! This is stressful!" Abigail flails her hands around, overwhelmed by the amount of buttons and switches, all the screens and flashing lights. Mind you, she was originally supposed to be flying her own plane, but due to the obvious disastrous change of plan, she was forced to become a WSO. Another reminder of how she was hanging onto life by a thread while Maverick rescued her. Man, did she still have a lot of progress to make in therapy.
"You can do it, Iceberg. It's not all that hard once you are in there for a few minutes. Just takes time to adjust." Liliana's voice is heard, her voice broken. She had just lost her best friend, it was understandable. Abigail takes a few deep breaths, nodding even though she knew Mallard couldn't see her. Jake starts the journey down the runway, slowly pulling up. The wheels lift off of the ground and Abigail reports that they are now airborne as well.
Jake reaches Rooster, the two fighter planes flying in attack formation. Abigail sets point on the target. "Briefed terrain up ahead. Reach target in three minutes." She announces, looking out the window at Rooster's bright red helmet and Mallard's emerald green one.
"Understood." Rooster chimes in, speeding forwards slightly. They descend to a lower altitude as to not give themselves away immediately.
Trees and beautiful green grass passes by in a quick blur as Hangman navigates through the curves and bumps of the earth. The engines roar loudly like a motorcycle. The trees behind them blow as if they were trying to withstand a strong hurricane.
"Popping in three...two..." Rooster and Mallard's plane ascends, disappearing over the top of the medium-sized mountain. "Mallard, you got my laser on?" He asks his girlfriend, who replies with a mere nod. Usually she would be disciplined for that, but the circumstances made even Abigail want to puke. She understands the wordless answers.
"Popping in five...four..." Hangman starts to count down, his voice mixing in with Rooster's, "Bombs away!" And a second later the first two explosions are heard. "...two...one!" Jake pulls upwards, their bodies laying flat against the backs of their seats. The married couple gasp as their bones start to feel like there being crushed. Despite the discomfort of the G's, Abigail rushes to get the laser working just as Jake pulls to an upright position at the top of the mountain.
Evident damage is seen left behind from Rooster, but there were a few last spots that needed to be blown to pieces. "Dropping in two...one...boom!" Jake shouts, the sound of the bombs making contact with the building and exploding made Abigail sigh in relief.
Rooster and Hangman are cheering in celebration, while Abigail just went limp from exhaustion and Liliana processed the last few hours.
But Abby straightened up when she saw an approaching plane on the radar. "Guys, we got a problem. Northeast."
Jake turned his head, squinting out into the blue sky. The small black dots that was slowly growing larger was enough to make both naval aviators fly faster.
"There's no ammo!" Rooster shouts, proving his point when she attempts to shoot but nothing comes out. Jake does the same, sighing in disappointment. "Mine too. We're gonna have to rely on flares, we used up the bombs."
"Girls, you ready for a dogfight?"
"No." They say in unison, but know they don't have a choice. It was either dogfight and potentially die or just straight up die. "Great, I knew you guys would be." Jake replies, the smirk in his voice evident.
"Hangman, bank left!" Rooster shouts, Jake does exactly as he says. Abigail keeps her eyes focused on the flares button, waiting for the signal. Rooster makes sure to stay close to his wingman while they turn to face the upcoming enemy plane.
"He's got a lock on us." Jake murmurs, tilting the plane to the side. Alarms go off inside of the cockpit. "Ice, deploy flares! Now!" Jake orders. Abigail jams her finger into the button and the flares come out from the back of the plane, successfully blocking the missile from making contact. It blows up in the middle of the air. Rooster cheers.
Abigail's eyes scan the upcoming mountains, an idea popping into her head. "Weave through the mountains, stay low to the ground. If we deploy flares with the guy behind us then it would possibly make him run into the wall." She voices her plan. There's silence between the two men.
"That could work, yeah, let's do it." Rooster finally answers. He slides into the pocket between Jake's plane and the enemy's. Abigail reads the altitude, 400 feet. There were enough cliffs and hard turns that it made it risky for them, but she's praying that Jake and Bradley are incredibly better pilots than this guy.
"Mallard, I can't see this guy so you're gonna have to make the call. When you feel it's the perfect time, deploy the flares." Abigail explains, twisting around in her seat. She places a hand on the glass, staring at Rooster in his cockpit. She can see a glimpse of Mallard's helmet. "Liliana, do you read me?"
"Got it." The woman finally answers, sounding more nervous than ever. Abigail nods to herself and turns around to face the controls. There was a little over a mile of mountains left before they ran into a dead end.
And that distance became smaller.
And smaller.
And when the dead end came into view, Liliana finally deployed the flares that sounded like fireworks on New Years. And then an explosion is heard and the enemy plane goes off of the radar. There were four screams of excitement and relief as they popped over the dead end.
"Great job, Mallard. I'm proud." Abigail smiles, finally being able to relax in her seat without a worry as they made their way back to the aircraft carrier out in the ocean.
It was done.