Olivia had been woken up by noise of children screaming which set off her defensive mode and she immediately ran down a stairs with a bat in hand as she made her way from the foyer to the living room where she was met with her brother who was messing around with the younger boys and Olivia placed the bat down and shook her head.
"You guys really love to scare the shit out of someone" Peter looked at her and laughed as she had clearly been woken up. She sighed and went back upstairs to get herself ready for work. Once she had done all her personal things she had put on her uniform and put her hair into a slick back ponytail and went downstairs with her bag in hand as she tossed it to a side and walked into the kitchen where once again her brother and nephews were in.
"Where's grandpa and grandma?" Peter looked over at her and told the kids to go play in the living room which was odd to Olivia as he only did it when he didn't want them to hear what he needed to talk about.
"He's gotten worse Li" Olivia stumbled back while pinching the bridge of her nose as if trying to comprehend what he had told her.
"He was fine he was getting better he-" Peter went over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders trying to get her to calm down as it was clearly working her up.
"I know, Granny took him in overnight she didn't want to wake you because you seemed off last night but she says he's doing okay but we need to be ready in case of the worst occurring" She shook her head and backed away as she grabbed her keys and bag and made her way to the foyer to leave the house. Peter didn't follow her knowing she needed to have space and when she was about to make it to the door she noticed that Noah was seated on the steps of the stairs and she briefly looked at him and he had a hurt look in his face considering he was the closest to his great-grandfather between him and his siblings she only continued walking and shut the door behind her and walked over to her car and as she sat inside she placed her head on the steering wheel for a moment then began hitting it as frustration took over. Olivia had lost a lot of people in her life and losing her Bestfriend would ultimately destroy her. She drove to work in silence and when she parked her car she did her best to compose herself and make her way into the locker room where all the team was talking before heading to the next debrief, she made her way down the row where her locker was and opened it without telling anyone a hello which only made them concerned.
"Hey Olivia you okay?" BOB had turned around from his locker to speak to her and Olivia was growing even more frustrated when putting on her flight suit.
"I'm fine, if anyone else asks me that I will ram them into the wall" She shut her locker and gave Bob an apologetic look as she didn't mean to be so harsh but her emotions were through the roof and she stopped in her tracks and turned to face him while holding her hand up.
"I'm sorry, I'm just overwhelmed with things going on in my personal life" She turned around and was faced by a very concerned Jake and Bradley but before the could speak they were interrupted by Maverick.
"Captain Kazansky please follow me" He waved her over and the two walked out of the locker room and into the hallways to the debrief room but before reaching it he stopped to look at her.
"So you know?" Olivia was confused as to what he referred and Maverick took a breath before speaking. "He's been doing worse for some time now and he was admitted last night to the hospital" Olivia shook her head in disbelief because Pete knew but she was in the dark about it the entire time.
"Why didn't I know about this?"
"It all just happened okay none of us knew it" Olivia nodded and Maverick was covered in guilt as he had just told her the biggest lie he had ever told besides the one about Bradley. They walked in to see the admirals waiting for everyone to arrive for the next debrief and they all slowly arrived before it began.
"Good morning, the Uranium enrichment plant that is your target will be operational earlier than expected, raw uranium will be delivered to the plant in 10 days time as a result your mission has been moved up 1 week in order to avoid contaminating the target valley with radiation" As Warlock spoke the looks that we're given around the room were looks of worry as they still had yet to get the mission training right.
"Sir, no one here has successfully flown a low level course" Olivia shook her head as she knew he was right and if they went into this blind it could result with all of them coming back in black caskets.
"Nevertheless you've been ordered to move on, captains" As Warlock walked off Pete and Olivia made their way in front as they looked at each other and Mav began the rest of the debrief.
"We have one week left to focus on phase 2, it's the most difficult stage of the mission, It's a pop up strike with a steep dive requiring nothing less than two consecutive miracles" He looked over to Olivia to continue on.
"Two pairs of f-18s will fly in a welded wing formation, teamwork and precise coordination of these aircraft's is essential to both the missions success and your survival, which believe me you'll want to do everything right to get home" Maverick only side eyed the girl as if saying why the hell are you trying to scare them.
"As you know the plant rests between two mountains, on final approach you'll invert directly into deep dive, this allows you to maintain the lowest possible altitude and the only possible attack angle" Maverick moved away from the screen as Olivia stepped up to explain the next part.
"Your target is an impact point less than 3 meters wide, the two seat aircraft will paint the target with a laser bullseye, the first pair will breach the reactor by dropping a laser guided bomb on an exposed ventilation hatch" Olivia drew with the electric pencil the areas they would be on and what would occur while in the air. "This will create an opening for the second pair" Maverick walked back to the front of the screen holding up one finger.
"That's only miracle number 1, the second team will deliver the kill shot and destroy the target that's miracle number 2, if either team misses the target the mission is a failure" They group had gone up various times already and failed on occasion or more than they'd like to so getting this right would take time but it was definitely not on their side.
"Egress is a steep high G climb out to avoid hitting this mountain" Many observed the animation and grew concerned at how steep it was.
"A steep climb at that speed your pulling at least 8gs"
"Nine minimum" Olivia knew that this would put the aircraft through a load of stress and the pilots and she could tell how everyone was worried if they could even pull it off.
"The stress limit of the f-18s airframe is 7.5" Rooster said it with such doubt in his voice that it seemed as if he too didn't think they could do it.
"That's the accepted limit to survive this mission you'll pull beyond that even if it means bending your airframe" The admirals did not like the words that came out of Pete's mouth knowing that was exactly what they didn't want to do.
"You'll be pulling so hard you will be weighing close to 2,000 pounds, your skull crushing your spine, your lungs imploding like an elephant sitting on your chest" A part of Olivia wanted to throw up at the sound of that but the other only felt a rush as she thought of it.
"Fighting with everything you have just to keep from blacking out and this is where you'll be at your most vulnerable this is coffin corner"
"Assuming you avoid crashing into this mountain you'll climb straight into enemy radar while losing all of your air speed, within seconds you'll be fired upon by enemy sams, you've all faced sustained G's before but this is going to take you and your aircraft to the breaking point" Rooster eyed Olivia as she spoke as he thought about the mission more and more.
"Sir is this even achievable?" Olivia looked towards Maverick as Phoenix spoke.
"The answer to that question will come down to the pilot in the box"
"Alright everyone to their aircraft's and get ready to be called up" Everyone in the room dispersed to where the needed to go and Olivia and Maverick got into their aircraft and ascended with Phoenix and Bob and Coyote.
"Talk to me BOB"
"We are 12 seconds late on target we gotta move we gotta move"
"Copy try to stay with me" As they followed behind Coyote BOB began to read another 2 aircraft's and became wildly confused.
"Huh?, wait who's that"
"Blue team you've been spotted"
"Shit it's maverick!"
"What the hell is he doing here" before she could get an answer she got interrupted by another aircraft closing in.
"You'll most likely experience something like this with two bandits closing in unexpectedly" Olivia chimes in.
"We're bandits on close intercept, blue team what are you gonna do?"
"Their 20 miles left, 10 o'clock 700 miles till closure"
"Your call, what do you wanna do"
"Continue we're close, stay on target"Phoenix did not hesitate to make her decision as they continued on their course.
"He's winging out"
"Stand by for pop up"
"Be ready on that laser BOB"
"Copy I'm on it"
"Blue team bandit is still closing"
"Popping now, talk to me BOB where's maverick"
"He's 5 miles out He's coming in fast"
"Targets in sight, ACE is far behind us"
"Where's my laser BOB"
"DEAD EYE, DEAD EYE it's no good I'm sorry I can't get a lock"
"We're out of time I'm dropping blind, damn it missed" As they began to incline something no was off about Coyote, Maverick zoomed past Olivia and got tone on BOB and Maverick.
"That's tone"
"Mavericks got his lock on us"
"Shit we're dead"
"Blue team that's a fail, level out coyote" As maverick spoke to him he saw how his plane began to level out but continued to drop.
"Coyote come in!" Olivia grew worried as she flew up to Phoenix and BOB. Phoenix waved over confused as to what was happening and Olivia shrugged and spoke on the comms.
"Coyote you gotta let us hear your voice kid"
"Coyote level wings!, oh my god he's in g-lock" When those words slipped out of his mouth Olivia panicked and immediately flew faster to try to get lock on him.
"He's gonna burn in ACE!"
"I'm going after him!" With zero hesitation Maverick and ACE flew over to him attempting to get tone on him so that the noise would buzz louder and bring him back.
"Snap out of it coyote come on come on!" He kept lowering more and more and was close to hitting the ground.
"COYOTE COME ON MAN WAKE UP!" The fear was very evident in Olivia's voice as she feared he would ram into the ground and that would be it.
"COYOTE, COYOTE!" He finally snapped out of it and pulled up with seconds to spare before plummeting to his death and ACE let out a breath she had held in from the anticipation.
"Coyote you okay? You okay?"
"I'm okay, I'm good"
"Good, good that's enough for today" Phoenix pulled up beside Maverick and the ACE followed on the other side of his wing.
"That was close"
"Too close" As he spoke he noticed birds in the air going completely crazy and the worst was waiting to happen.
"BIRD STRIKE, BIRD STRIKE!" Olivia looked over to see the engine of Phoenix and BOBs plane in flames and heard them to everything they could to put it out.
"Phoenix left engines ON FIRE!"
"Climbing, throttling back shutting off fuel to left engine, extinguishing fire"
"Right engine is out!"
"It's still spinning trying to restart it!"
"PHOENIX ITS ON FIRE DONT STAR-"
"PHOENIX NO!" Olivia only heard as Maverick said "oh my god" and saw how the plane went down and they both followed behind. The screams of BOB saying they were on fire made Olivia shiver at the thought that they could lose them in a practice run. Phoenix extinguished the right engine and it only led to them to continue lowering.
"PHOENIX, BOB PUNCH OUT!" It was clear chaos one thing happening after the other and Phoenix saying how she couldn't control it and BOB saying there was hydraulic failure. They were loosing altitude fast and we're close to going in and Olivia couldn't breath anymore all the adrenal gone and now the worry was sitting in.
"YOU CANT SAVE IT, EJECT EJECT!" They did as he said and BOB went flying out and soon after so did Phoenix and Olivia watched as the aircraft crashed into the ground knowing that well could've been them. She began to breath rather quickly as she stabilized her breathing and both her and Maverick called over for search and rescue and were ordered back to base due to low engine fuel. Everything in her was still shaking from what had just occurred and as she walked off of the tarmac and into the locker room she felt all the walls closing in on her as she slid down the wall of lockers she began to hyperventilate and couldn't find a rhythm to calm down, she hadn't had a panic attack since when he grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. She felt alone, afraid and it was all too much and she had squeezed her eyes shut and hadn't noticed the figure that came running to her.
"LIV HEY WHATS WRONG?!" A very worried Jake kneeled in front of her but she couldn't answer and he got her to open her eyes but she looked anywhere but at him. They had both always been so vulnerable in front of the other but never in such a way like this one. Jake rubbed her shoulder with his hands and tried getting her attention.
"Hey, hey look at me darling, you gotta breath okay, I know it feels like you can't but you gotta try with me okay, in and out okay?" He searched her face and tried to get her to mimic what he was going but she struggled to take in a breath as it would be quite shaky, he wouldn't give up though.
"That's it nice and easy, you've got this okay, I'm right here" She finally regulated her breathing and slowly became light headed and Jake sat right next to her putting his arm around her as he rubbed her back and stroked her hair gently.
"It shouldn't have happened if I had been more aware maybe I could've alerted them" Jake shushed her as he continued to rub her back. "You couldn't have dont anything to change what happened, it could have happened to anyone you understand so don't go blaming yourself" She nodded but still felt like this could've taken a turn for the worse. He sat there with her until she said she was okay to be alone and get changed. When she had put on a fresh black tee and cargo pants Maverick knocked on the wall causing her to look over as he walked in.
"The doctors said their fine but they're checking them in for overnight watch to be cautious. I'm on my way to tell Bradley, I wanted to know if you'd be there cause I know he'll be calm if your there" Olivia nodded and shut her door and they both walked over to where Jake said he had last been. When they opened the door Olivia saw how he sat there with his head down and it broke her heart to see him like this. As they made their way closer Maverick told her to just stay put by the door and she only nodded as he walked towards Bradley.
"They'll keep Phoenix and BOB in the hospital overnight for observation their gonna be okay" Hearing those words brought some sense of relief over Bradley just like it did to Olivia since those were their friends that they nearly lost.
"That's good, I've never lost a wingman" Olivia's head dropped down to the floor knowing that Maverick knew all too well what it was like to lose a wingman.
"Your lucky, fly long enough it'll happen there will be others" Maverick turned around and signaled for Olivia that it was time to walk out and when they were about to head to the door Bradley abruptly spoke up.
"Easy for you to say. No wife. No kids. Nobody to mourn you when you burn in" Olivia's mouth could've dropped to the floor if it was physically possible. Bradley knew damn well Maverick had lost every family member he ever had, and him saying that only brought him more pain.
"Bradley let's not do that" He only eyed her harshly and if eyes could speak he was most certainly telling her to shut up.
"It's okay Li, go home let's get some sleep" Olivia had hoped that it would be last to be said for the night but of course Bradley was far too much of a hot head to learn when to shut up and let things be as he rose up from his seat rather angry.
"Why'd you pull my papers at the academy? WHY DID YOU STAND IN MY WAY" Olivia knew that this topic was one that hadn't been discussed since her fight with Bradley over the same reason.
"You weren't ready" Bradley clearly didn't like the sound of those words as he walked closer to face him.
"Ready for what. Huh? Ready to fly like you" His last words seemed more of an insult then admiration knowing how reckless maverick flew in his eyes.
"No, ready to forget the book trust your instincts DONT THINK JUST DO! You think up there your dead believe me!"
"My dad believed in you" He responded so quickly that the silence the two shared after was unbearable and as Olivia watched these two argue her heart sank knowing maverick blamed himself to this day over what happened years ago.
"I'm not gonna make the same mistake" Maverick stepped back a bit with an obvious hurt expression. Before anything else could be said the door was opened and Olivia turned around and it was none other than Warlock.
"Mav" It was all he said but all that was needed to understand whatever he was trying to say to him and it left Olivia wildly confused as to why it looked like it had affected him so much.
"Uncle Mav what does that mean" He wouldn't look at her as he tried processing what had occurred.
"Are you sure?" Warlock looked at him with such sympathy it was like Olivia had to put together a puzzle.
"I wish I wasn't, Sarah called moments ago but said she couldn't bring herself to tell you" Then it all clicked in her head and Olivia stepped back bumping into the pool table as she shook her head and Bradley and Maverick walked towards her.
"Why did my Grandmother call?" No one in the room seemed to want to explain anything to her. She grew impatient demanding what the bell was going on.
"I want to know and I wanna know right now" Maverick walked in front of her as he stumbled to come up with words to tell her what had just happened.
"Li, he's gone I'm so sorry" Her whole world stopped in that moment. Nothing made sense, she didn't know he was even this bad and she didn't even get to say goodbye.
"Li your Grandfather was doing quite bad for some time now" She furrowed her eyebrows together confused as to what the hell he meant.
"He was better now, he was doing fine?" Olivia thought at least. He sighed and looked over at Bradley and he had only looked down.
"What are you looking at him for? What are you not telling me"
"Your grandmother told me not to let you know of Toms conditions so you wouldn't worry"
"Wouldn't worry? WHY WOULD YOU KEEP THIS FROM ME?"
"She asked and I only did her and you a favor because we both knew you wouldn't be able to handle it when it came to him getting worse" She ran her hand through her hair frustrated.
"You both knew?" Maverick sighed as he nodded and Olivia looked over at Bradley as a look of guilt was all over his face.
"You withheld this from me knowing how much he meant to me!" He looked at her with an angered face as he came up to her.
"Oh you're gonna come at me for this when you lied to me that when Maverick pulled my papers so don't come at me for this, it's the same thing you did to me and it doesn't feel good does it!" She scoffed at him and walked out of the room needing air to breath as she felt that it was all getting sucked out of her lungs, she went for the nearest restroom locking the door behind her as she let go of a breath and her brain finally comprehending that she was just told her Grandpa was dead. She felt her hands shake and her breath shake as she paced for a while and eventually collapsed to the ground she felt numb in the moment and she hadn't even realized she had been there for hours until an obnoxious amount of knocking was coming from the other side of the door.
"Li Li please open up the door I would hate to break a shoulder to get through" Olivia recognized that whining from anywhere and it was the only person she wanted to see at the moment, wasting no time in getting up to unlock the door as she pushed it open and it reveled her older brother who gave her a tight lip smile as he opened the door wider and immediately engulfed her into a hug one that was most desperately needed. Olivia wouldn't know how to manage since she was losing the only other person who kept her head up after losing her family. She was sinking at the moment and sooner or later she would be drowning and wouldn't know how to reach to the surface.