automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

fifty-seven.

SKYE COULD FEEL HER HANDS SHAKING ON THE JOYSTICK AS SHE ATTEMPTED TO TAKE DEEP BREATHS. in that instant, it didn't matter that bradley didn't love her back. it didn't matter that her relationship with her father, albeit special, wasn't ever quite perfect. none of her emotions or frustrations mattered to her anymore, because she was losing them both in a matter of minutes.

"daggers are headed back to the carrier." phoenix said when skye remained speechless. the woman's voice, though confident as always, was laced with an evident mixture of fear and concern. 

the sound of a button a moment later alerted skye that katia, sitting behind her, had turned off their comms so that they could have a private conversation. "skye.." the blonde began.

"we've been given orders." skye replied with a clenched jaw, already knowing what the woman behind her was going to suggest.

"i know. but when has that ever stopped u-"

"we've been given orders to return back to the carrier." skye said with more force behind her words, though she was mainly only convincing herself of this. "we're not.. we're not getting discharged over this, kat. this is too.. this job is too important to the both of us for us to-"

"no." katia interrupted. "they are too important to the both of us for us to leave them here." she said, putting an equal amount of force behind her words. she then softened. "skye.. i just lost my father. i'm not about to let you lose yours, too."

for a moment, the only sounds skye could hear were her own breathing working alongside the voices screaming in her head to make a decision. with a sharp breath, she furrowed her brows in focus and pulled her joystick to the right. 

______ 

"you're not serious." was the only thing rooster could say as his gaze shifted from the enemy runway to maverick's face. 

the entire runway, as expected, had been cratered by the tomahawk strike upon it. however, much to maverick's excitement, one of the makeshift hangar's set up there still showcased a precious f-14 tomcat, which maverick could fly like a pro. the issue was that maverick could only fly said plane, if it could actually manage to get off of the ground. 

"you've gotta be shitting me." rooster mumbled as he looked through his monocular at the single in tact f-14. "an f-14?" he looked back to maverick. 

he, however, didn't seem phased. "i shot down three migs in one of those." he nodded. 

rooster looked back to the runway. "we don't even know if that bag of ass can fly."

"you wanna get back to skye, or what?" was the older man's only reply before he stood up and made a jog towards the plane.

bradley, surprised, watched him. "mav!" he whisper shouted. when maverick made no move to turn around, rooster accepted that this was just.. what was happening, and made a face. "okay." after making a run to catch up to maverick, rooster tripped on his own feet in the snow, regaining his balance. "there's guys up there, mav." he warned, surveilling the area.

"yeah." maverick replied.

"there's more over there." rooster added, growing increasingly nervous about physically being on enemy territory. 

"okay." the older man still wasn't phased. "let's start running."

rooster nodded, quickly moving to follow his lead, "yeah, run. run."