"Time is your greatest enemy." Maverick said to start today off. We were all sitting in the meeting room as Mav was going over the mission plan, and every detail that we needed to know was involved.

"Phase one of the mission will be a low level attack with two teams and a backup pilot just in case." Maverick said as he changed the screen to the view of the mission. The screen had a top of a canyon which is the course for

"You'll fly along this narrow canyon to your target. Radar guides surface to air missiles defend the area. These SAMS are lethal." As he continued speaking, the screen changed to show what he was talking about.

"They were designed to protect the skies above, not the canyon below."

"That's because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to try and fly below." Bradley cut in.

"That's exactly what I's going to train you to do." Mav said and he faced us.

"Today, we're gonna take it easy on you. Time to target, 3 minutes, 300 feet max."

"That's because on the day of the mission, you're altitude is 100 feet. Maximum. If you exceed this altitude, radars spot you and you're dead. Your air speed will be 660 knots. Minimum. Time to target, two and a half minutes...the time to target is set for two and a half minute because fifth generation fighters wait at an airbase nearby. In a head to head with these planes in your F-18's, you're dead. That's why you need to get in, hit your target, and be gone before theses planes have a chance of catching you." Mav said this and everyone looked at each other when he mentioned the mission parameters. Someone's not coming back home from this, I know that.

"This makes time your greatest enemy." Maverick said and he said that Javy, Nat, Bob and I are up first.

We went up in the air, Javy taking the lead, Nat and Bob in the middle and me behind taking the back as the backup.

"Time to target is one minute thirty. We are two seconds behind. Increase to 490 knots." Bob said through the comms.

"We gotta move Coyote." Nat said.

"Copy. Increasing speed now." Javy said. I got ready to speed up but when Javy stopped, Nat and Bob flew up over him and I flew up over Nat and Bob. We failed the course.

//——//
A couple other teams went, Jake with Reuben and Mickey, Bradley with Yale and Fritz, then me, Val and Lia.
"Why are they dead?" Mav asked as we were looking over our trial run with the class.

"We broke the 300 foot ceilings the SAMs took both of our planes out." Nat said.

"No. Why are they dead?" Maverick questioned as he looked over at Javy.

"I slowed down and didn't give them a warning. It's my fault." Javy said.

"Was there a reason you didn't communicate with your team?" Mav questioned him. I knew he felt guilty about it.

"I was focusing on" Javy started to say but Maverick cut him off.

"What excuse will their family accept at the funeral?" We all looked at each other since we are each other's family. Nat and I don't have anyone else besides the people in this room.

"None sir." Javy said as he straightened up and looked down.

"Why didn't you anticipate the turn? You were briefed on the terrain." Mav questioned my sister as he looked at her. Nat was about to answer but she didn't get to say anything since Mav beat her to it.

"Don't tell me. Tell it to his family." Mav said as he pointed to Bob, before turning to me as I sat next to Lia and Val.

"Why didn't you stop flying and hit the breaks?" I was questioned.

"I-um- didn't expect the stop and I just followed Phoenix and Bob instead." I said as my hands shook a little bit and my knee bounced up and down.

"Always expect things that may happen." Maverick said and I nodded. Lia grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze, noting my anxiety.

//——//
"What happened?" Mav asked as we went over Jake's run.

"I flew as fast as I could. Kinda like my ass depended on it." Jake responded.

"And you put your team in danger and your wingman's dead." Bradley cut in.

"They couldn't keep up." Jake said simply. We are all family to each other, but when we're at work, we can be bitches to each other, just like Jake wasn't caring about Mickey and Reuben during their trial run.
//——//
We were now looking over Bradley and two other pilots run and it was kind of tense.

"Why are you dead? You're team leader up there. Why are you, why is your team dead?" Maverick questioned Bradley.

"Sir. He's the only one that made it to the target." Val cut in.

"A minute late. He gave enemy aircraft time to shoot him down. He is dead."

"You don't know that." Bradley protested.

"You're not flying fast enough. You don't have a second to waste." Jake cut in. Yeah, it's obvious Jake and Bradley hate each other.

"We made it to the target." Bradley said back.

"And superior enemy aircraft intercepted you on your way out." Mav cut in.

"Then it's a dogfight." Bradley said as he and Maverick made eye contact and held it.

"Against fifth generation fighters?"

"We still have a chance."

"In an F-18?"

"It's not the plane sir. It's the pilot." Bradley said as calmly as possible.

"Exactly!" Mav snapped and everyone and everything was quiet. I shared a look with the girls and then we looked at Bradley.

"There's more than one way to fly this mission." Bradley ended the silence.

"You really don't get it. On this mission a man flies like Maverick here, or a man does not come back." He nodded to Nat, Val, Lia and I.

"No offense intended." Jake said and I rolled my eyes. I love him like a brother most of the time, but sometimes he's a real asshole.

"And yet you always manage." Bob said as he leaned over and looked at Jake. I smiled and watched the commotion.

"I don't mean to criticize. You're conservative that's all. We're going into combat son. On a level no living pilot's ever seen. Not even him." Jake said as he pointed to Maverick when he said the last part.

"It's not time to be thinking about the past."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bradley asked and I quickly looked over to Lia. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

"I can't be the only one that knows Maverick used to fly with his old man. And that Maverick was flying when his old man-." Jake was cut off by Bradley jumping up from his chair and lunging at Jake. Everyone got up and held the boys back from each other, Javy, Mickey and a couple other pilots held Jake and Val, Lia, Nat, Bob, Reuben and I held Bradley back. At one point, Val and I had to hold Lia back with Maverick because Jake tried to go at Bradley, causing Lia to be pissed off.

"I'm good, I'm good." Jake said as he brushed the hands off of him. The yelling was over and Val had to hold both Lia and I back, me back mainly because I wanted to punch someone because of the flashbacks I've had with Dylan sometimes.

"He's not cut out for this mission." Jake said as he walked forward a little bit.

"You know I'm right." Jake said as he started to walk away and Mav noticed that I tried to get out of Val's arms and Lia's arms now that she calmed down. Well we thought she did since she punched Jake twice causing Maverick to grab her. Val couldn't hold me and I ended up punching Jake as well and Val grabbed me again.

"Get off of me Dad!" Lia yelled and Jake now had a bloody nose.

"Val! Let me go!" I yelled as I struggled in her grip and Mav held me back as well.

"You're all dismissed. Except for Apollo and Rebel. You two stay behind." Maverick said and everyone cleared out as Lia and I straightened out our uniforms.

"Rebel, go wait in the hallway." Mav told me and I nodded and went out to the hallway and waited and I saw Val.

"What the hell was that? I thought that you and Jake were close." Val questioned.

"We are." I said.

"Then pardon my French, but what the actual fuck was that? That's not like you." She said.

"I'm just pissed off." I said.

"About last night?" Val asked.

"Yeah about last night. I just wish things would go back to high school when we had the time so we could talk. I mean I get deployed to Greece and he doesn't even give a shit or doesn't try to move there to be with me." I said and the doors opened and Lia came out and I went in. Little did I know, that Javy and Reuben heard my conversation with Val.

"What was that?" Mav asked me as he looked at me with a stern face. Mav had became a father figure to me since I'm parent less, just like Penny has become a mother figure to me.

"You heard what Jake said! He deserved it and I won't apologize for me standing up for someone in my class!" I said as I looked up at him.

"Would you like to be kicked out Rachel?" He questioned me and I shook my head.

"No sir." I said as I looked down at my feet.

"Well good because I don't want you to get kicked out. I don't want to see that again throughout this mission. Don't let your anger get the best of you Rebel." Maverick said. I knew that he said similar shit to Lia and probably more since she's his daughter.

"And you need to fly more carefully, what was that shit yesterday?" Mav questioned.

"I don't know sir." I said.

"Well figure it out Rebel. You're dismissed."Maverick said. I stood up and left the room to find Bradley.

"May I help you?" I asked as we walked down the hallway.

"I loved seeing you and Malia punching Hangman, but you just met me and you're pretty close with him and you punched him just for me? Do you just not want to be here and trying to get kicked out."

"You're real funny. I can see why you and Malia get along so well." I joked.

"I try to be funny but why did you do that for me?" Bradley questioned.

"Why not? Someone needed to do it, I wanted to punch something and it just happened to be my brother figure." I said before walking away and going to get out of my flight suit. I'm sick of today and I just want to go home and go to sleep. I got out of my flight suit, put my things in my helmet and then grabbed my bag and went out to my car. I went to my car as it started to drizzle a little bit and of course my keys are in the car. No one was here and my phone is dead.

"Shit." I said. I broke into my car, got the keys and drove home as fast as I could and I parked in the garage. I went inside and put my stuff on the couch and I went to my fridge to see what I could eat for dinner and there was absolutely nothing but pasta in my freezer. I made some pasta with butter and Parmesan and I was about to start eating but my phone started to ring. I answered it, not looking at the caller ID.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Jav." Javy said.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Did anything happen last night?"Javy asked.

"No." I said.

"Then why were you spacing out during training?" Javy asked.

"I wasn't spacing out." I said.

"Alright then why'd you punch Jake?"

"Because I did." I said.

"Rachel, that's not a reason. Why did you punch him? That wasn't like you at all." Javy asked.

"He pissed me off, and he shouldn't have brought up Rooster's dad like that. He had it coming." I said.

"What's going on Rachel, you've been off ever since the first day." He asked.

"Well I can act different if I'm almost getting kicked out can't I?" I retorted.

"Yeah. Look, I don't really feel like you want to be speaking with me right now, but I'm going to tell you this before I go." Javy said.

"You need to stop acting like you don't care if you die or not. You have a family that is around you and you need to start acting like you care. I get that Maia isn't here because you lost her but you still have us. I love you but keep what I said in mind and I'll see you tomorrow." Javy said before hanging up.

Maverick: beach workout tomorrow, wear something you can run and get wet in.

I read Mav's text, took a shower and went to be and set my alarm for the normal time.