Stirring awake, Emerson's brown eyes slowly fluttered open where she was met with white powdered snow. With a soft groan, she blinked a few times to clear her blurred vision before she slowly pushed herself up and unclipped her mask.
With her vision cleared, she quickly took in her surroundings where she soon found her best friend lying a few feet away from her, unmoving.
"Oh, God.." She whispered and pushed herself onto her feet and ran over to the blonde, where she dropped to her knees beside her. "Skye? Skye, come on.. Wake up.." She said, gently tapping her face.
The WSO remained still, making the pilot fear for the worst but soon her green eyes slowly fluttered open as she released a soft groan.
"Oh, thank God." The brunette said with a sigh of relief. "Skye.."
"Hmm.." The blonde hummed as her blurred vision slowly began to clear. "Ow.. Crash landing sucks."
Emerson released a soft giggle at her best friend's words. "No kidding." She replied and helped her best friend sit up. "Come on, let get you up.."
As the female pilot helped her best friend to sit up, her brown gaze fell onto a deep red gash that decorated her WSO's left arm through a hole in her flight suit. "Shit, Skye, your arm.."
"What?" The blonde quizzed and looked down at her arm where she was met with the nasty gash. "Oh, well that's fantastic."
It was then that both girls noticed the red stained snow from where Skye had laid.
But before anything else could be said, their ears picked up on the sound of helicopter rotors in the distance.
Shifting their gaze towards the treeline, the girls narrowed their eyes as they saw the silhouette of a helicopter flying at a low altitude.
"Time to go." Emerson said.
"Yeah." Skye agreed.
The girls quickly got to their feet but nearly tripped due to their parachutes still being hooked to them.
Quickly unhooking the packs from their flight suits, they glanced up to see the helicopter turning around to face them head-on.
"Oh.." Emerson began slowly.
"Shit.." Skye finished before quickly running alongside her best friend as the helicopter flew towards them and opened fire.
The pilot and WSO quickly jumped behind a fallen tree trunk that had managed to shield them both from the assault, but the helicopter had flown around to the side and locked target on the girls, who tried to clear their vision from the powdered snow.
But as the enemy aircraft was about to open fire, it had suddenly erupted into flames with a loud boom from a missile's impact.
The brunette and blonde watched as the flaming helicopter fell to the ground before their gaze drifted towards the sky as an F-18 flew through the black smoke.
Emerson's eyes were trained on the jet. "No, no.." She whispered fearfully, knowing just who the pilot possibly could be.
Her eyes widened as a SAM headed straight towards the F-18 and a loud crash fell over the clearing, the sound almost deafening which had made her flinch as smoke and burning debris filled the air.
"Em, come on.." Skye tugged on her best friend's arm gently, her green gaze focused on the figure that had ejected their parachute as the burning aircraft had crashed.
Together, the duo took off in a sprint through the trees towards the crash sight where they knew the pilot would have landed near.
Upon nearing the pilot, they where met with the familiar red, black and gold helmet of none other than Bradley Bradshaw, who had been folding up his parachute.
"Bradley, are you alright?" Emerson asked as she ran towards him.
Bradley lifted his gaze, relief filling his body as he saw his girlfriend and cousin alive. He quickly rose to his feet as he stared at the two young women.
"Yeah, I'm good." He replied. "Are you two alright."
"Outstanding." Skye responded before pushing her cousin harshly into the snow before she took off her helmet and threw it onto the ground.
The tall pilot removed his own helmet and threw it aside before he looked up at his younger cousin. "What the hell?" He asked and stood up.
But as soon as he had done this, his face had swung to the side as his cheek had begun to sting.
Blinking in surprise, he turned around to meet the fiery gaze of his girlfriend. "Uh, ow!" He said and rubbed his cheek in attempt to soothe the area that she had smacked him in. "What was that for?"
"Bradley Bradshaw, what the hell are you doing here?!" Emerson yelled.
"What am I doing here?!" Bradley repeated, shocked that she would even ask such a thing.
"You think that we took that missile for you to be down here?" The brunette continued and began swatting his arm repeatedly. "You should be back on the carrier by now, you dumbass!"
Gently grabbing hold of her wrists to put an end to her assault, Bradley pulled the female pilot into his arms. "Em, stop hitting me." He said, his voice calmer than before. "I saved your lives."
"No, we saved your life. That's the whole point." Emerson argued and attempted to break free from her boyfriend's hold to hit him again. "What the hell were you even think--"
And she was soon silenced as Bradley had pulled her in for a soft yet passionate kiss; the tall pilot pouring every emotion he had felt in the last hour into that one kiss and soon felt the brunette relax against him, which was when he had let go of her wrists to which she had wrapped her arms around his neck to draw him closer.
But the sweet moment was short lived when a snowball had hit the back of Bradley's head which had caused the couple to pull away and look at Skye, who had another snowball ready in her hand.
"As much as I love you both and as sweet as this whole reunion is, we need to find a way back to the carrier." The blonde stated.
"She's right." Emerson nodded in agreement with her best friend
Bradley nodded but as he had turned towards the short blonde, he was met with a snowball to the face - with some of the white ice getting caught in his mustache.
He stared at his younger cousin with a deadpanned expression. "You are a menace." He stated.
"Good to see you too, Brad." Skye responded sweetly with a smirk.
"Yeah, it's good to see you too." He replied before his eyes fell onto the gash on her arm. "Skye--"
"I'm fine." She reassured her older cousin. "A small cut can never take down a Kazansky."
"Your definition of a small cut and mine have two completely different meanings." He said and received a small playful shove from her in response, making him chuckle softly as he wrapped his arm around Emerson's waist before he looked between the girls. "So, what's the plan?"
Emerson glanced up at her boyfriend and shrugged lightly before exchanging a look with Skye.
Alarms blared throughout the enemy airbase as clouds of black smoke drifted through the air while Emerson, Skye and Bradley lied low on a cliff and watched the chaos ensue through a pair of binoculars.
Bradley tore his gaze away from the base and looked at his girlfriend. "You're not serious." He said.
Emerson glanced at her boyfriend silently as a small smirk tugged at the corner of her lips before she left without another word.
She lead her best friend and boyfriend off the cliff and got a little closer to the base where she pulled out her binoculars again handing them over to the tall pilot with a smile.
Arching a brow at his girlfriend, Bradley took the binoculars and looked at the hangar.
"You've gotta be shitting me." He said and lowered the binoculars to look at the brunette. "F-14s?"
"My Dad shot down three MIGs in one of those." Emerson responded with a light shrug.
"And Dad taught us both how to fly one." Skye added.
"We don't even know if that bag of ass can fly." Bradley pointed out.
The brunette nodded her head slightly, that was a possibility, but the smirk hadn't faltered. "Let's find out, shall we?" She asked and snuck off with Skye following behind her.
"Em! Skye!" Bradley whisper-yelled at his girlfriend and cousin before he regretfully sighed. "Okay.." He mumbled and followed after the two young women.