Danger Zone - Top Gun: Maverick

9. Iceman

The news hit Nova like a hypersonic missile. She stood frozen in place as Cyclone announced Iceman's death to her privately in his office. She didn't say anything, she didn't even nod. Her expression remained still, no display of any emotion on her face. She was too upset to cry.
Tears weren't enough for this level of pain, nothing was.

So instead of crying or punching the wall, Nova completely shut down. She didn't let herself feel sad, she didn't let herself feel anything. Not yet at least.

"I'm sorry, Honey." Cyclone tells her sympathetically. "You can stay in here if you want, or you can go home. I've got to go break the news to you father." He sighs.

Nova really wanted her father with her right now, but he wasn't there. He was in the hallway outside of the office in a deep argument with Bradley about why he pulled his papers. As she paced out of the Admiral's office, she heard the ending of their conversation. The girl speeds past Maverick and Rooster, not caring about their drama right now.

Nova finds herself in the on-base gym, walking towards the treadmill. This was always a good way to blow off some steam. She always took advantage of the gym here when she needed to blow off some steam, and now was a good time to do that. She didn't care that she was wearing jeans and converse, or that her hair was down. She just had an urge to run until she couldn't anymore.

She started jogging, but the more she thought about Iceman, the faster she felt the need to run. Before she knew it, she was in a full on sprint. The heartbroken girl runs as fast as her short legs can manage, maybe even faster than she can handle.

She doesn't know how long she ran for or how far she went. She didn't even think about the fact that she was running, all she thought about was Tom.

Now that she was alone, Nova let herself cry. It was a struggle just to keep her eyes dry walking down the hallways of the base, and there was no way she could hold herself together anymore. Tears poured down her face nonstop, and she had only kept her eyes open to make sure she didn't fall.

By now, she had been going for miles. Her vision was foggy from the salty water in her eyes, but they were closed most of the time. She was allowing herself to feel. She didn't bask in her emotions often, but this even was too much for her to ignore.

Tears continued to spill out of her eyes, but her peace was interrupted in a split second. The gym doors swung open, causing Nova to open her eyes. She sees a blurry vision of Bradley rushing towards her from across the empty room, but she doesn't stop running.

"What are you doing here?" She slurs, her voice shaking in sadness.

He doesn't respond, he just stops the treadmill and scoops her off of it, worried that she might fall. From behind Brad's shoulder, she sees her father and both of the admirals with solemn expressions on their faces. She can feel the pure pity radiating from the four men.

Nova stumbles into Bradley, him catching her shoulders worriedly.

"He's gone." She barely gets the words out.

The girl is clearly a complete mess. She's destroyed. She looks into her father's eyes. He looks just as upset as she is, just more collected. He knew this would happen, and she did too of course, but that doesn't mean she was ready for it. Maverick got more years with him, everyone did. Nova didn't think that was fair.

"I know, hun-" Her father sighs.

"He's gone!" She cries, becoming more and more unstable.

Bradley is holding all of her up, her legs giving out due to the excessive running. She falls apart even more, now physically reaching the ground.