Shadows of the Past

Not Again

Bright lights, the jarring sound of metal on metal, the spray of glass..pain sudden and blinding. These were the last thoughts entering y/n's mind as she attempted to cling to consciousness. She was pulled under the blissful darkness hearing her husbands desperate scream of her callsign.

Y/n was pulled out of her flashback by the sound of an F-18 screeching by overhead indicating that the first hop of the morning had already begun. Y/n headed into Mavericks office and stowed her stuff there, then making her way out to the hanger where he and his most recent class of the Navy's top 1% were just about to finish their lecture on aerodynamics for the enemy jets. Y/n joined Mav at the back of the bay,
"Morning Captain. How are the kids today?" He looked down to the girl at his side offering her a kind smile,
"Their doing good, about to take their first hop. Rooster is gonna be helping me today and pilot the other MiG, there's a pilot and RIO who had to eject at their previous post due to equipment failure during takeoff. Pilots doing fine but RIO seems to have some trouble during takeoff now, can you have a quick talk with him?" Y/n nodded,
"Of course I can. Which one is he?"

Maverick pointed out the Lieutenant in discussion and Shadow waited until they were inside the plane and made her way up the step ladder at the side.
"How you boys doin today?" The pilot and RIO both met her with smiles, the latter of the two slightly more reserved. Y/n was having a quiet conversation with him to try and ease his nerves when the two hotshots of the group had started arguing just underneath the plane. It didn't take long for things to get out of hand, the yelling turned into blows. After a particularly rough shot to the chin one of the guys was knocked into the step ladder. The momentum caused the woman at the top to lose her balance, both the pilot and RIO reaching hands out to grab for her but missing as she went careening backwards. She landed with a sickening thud against the pavement and everything around her went very still.

After a split second of being frozen in place Maverick bolted across the tarmac dropping to his knees next to her unmoving body. Rooster, who had been headed for the fight when it broke out grabbed the aggressor by the front of his flight suit and gave him a rough shake,
"Rooster! Bradley!! Get over here now!" Mavericks booming voice shocked him out of his rage and he hurried to his godfathers side.
"No..no..Shadow? Y/n, can you hear me? Please open your eyes come on." His hand carefully pressed to her face, being pulled away when the medics arrived.

When Jake looked down at his phone as he was driving back to his house he was surprised to see Roosters name pop up on the screen. He quickly slid his finger over the slider to answer the call,
"Hey Bradshaw. Miss me already?" He had expected Rooster to come back with his own snarky remark but his smile fell when all he heard was,
"Jake.." Bradley very rarely called him by his first name, only in dire situations had he ever resorted to that.
"What happened?" The other man took a deep breath before continuing,
"It's Y/n." Jakes stomach dropped and he had to pull his truck to the side of the road. He squeezed his eyes closed and rested his head on the steering wheel,
"Jake? Are you there?" He took a shaky breath before continuing,
"I can't do this again Bradley, please not again."