automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

forty-three.

WHEN SKYE WOKE UP, EVERY MUSCLE IN HER ENTIRE BODY FELT SORE. SHE'D WORKED OUT UNTIL SHE'D BEEN FORCED TO PASS OUT ASLEEP. oddly enough, working out was a common pastime of hers when she was bored. working out destressed her just as much then as it had during her years in college, and so she found herself lifting weights and running around on her treadmill all throughout the night.

first, of course, she'd cried in katia's arms for about an hour. not much talking passed between them in this time, though, since the brunette was nothing short of the word heartbroken.

she had finally mustered up all of her courage and had confessed her feelings towards the man she loved, only for him to turn her down. skye had never in her life felt so dumb. she'd been so confident that he felt the same way she did, only for him to apologize to her.

she decided that that was reason enough to work out until 3 am.

when she finally pulled herself out of bed, she was already putting on her flight suit and braiding her hair. she pinned the two braids up into a sort of ring around her head that she liked to call princess leia in empire strikes back.

once she was fully dressed and ready to go, she wordlessly climbed into the car next to katia. the blonde had been watching her best friend get ready, hoping that she was doing okay even though she knew full well that she wasn't. she would've offered to talk to rooster if she hadn't known without asking that the answer would be no. skye wouldn't want her to get involved.

skye and katia arrived in their normal parking spot, and the brunette climbed out of the car immediately. "hey!" katia called after her. "you don't have to be in a good mood today, ri, but you do have to talk to me." she said, watching as skye turned back around.

"i'm sorry. i just.. i.."

"i get it." katia nodded. "you don't need to talk about what happened. we just need to keep communicating with each other, okay?"

skye nodded, letting out a sigh. "yeah, okay. i'm sorry."

"you're good." katia replied, throwing her arm over her best friend's shoulder and walking with her to the room where all of their fellow pilots stood. "now let's go kick some ass."

"you got it." she smiled.

when they walked into the pilot filled room, skye was immediately eye to eye with rooster's familiar flight suit patches. she and katia were quick to divert their gazes and move to their respective seats at the front of the room, successfully avoiding all of their fellow aviators.

everyone else slowly moved to their seats, and skye had her gaze on the front of the room with her chin resting on her hand. she could see rooster looking at her out of the corner of his eye, but she pretended not to.

"good morning, aviators." maverick smiled when everyone had made it to their seats. today, we're going to revisit dogfighting. those of you who didn't get to work on the sharp pull up will do so tomorrow, don't worry." he then smiled at phoenix, who had begun to furrow her brows.

"sir, why are we not just completing the exercise from yesterday?" she wondered aloud.

he didn't seem to have an immediate answer for this. "i have been given some orders about what i've been calling coffin corner. we think that there may be more saams than what you were originally briefed."

skye looked to katia. that wasn't a good sign for anybody. "how many, sir?" she then piqued.

"we currently think there will be more than ten." he replied, his smile fading. "because of this, you all should be better versed in dog fighting. the only pilots to affectively pass this exercise before were riot and havoc, so everyone else has a goal to strive for."