Call Back {Top Gun Maverick - Completed}

21: Missing

Cold. That was the first thing Maneater felt as she slowly regained consciousness. It was freezing cold against her exposed fingers and cheek. The helmet and flight suit kept her warm enough to the point the cold was almost comforting. She kept her icey blue eyes closed, everything was so bright. It was so bright that she could tell without needing to open her eyes. Like the sun reflecting off of snow. 

Hennessey had the faint memory of seeing snow while flying through the canyon earlier. And seeing it when the uranium enrichment plant was blown up. The uranium enrichment plant.. That was the mission. She was still in enemy territory.

But, oh the blissful cold, trying to lull her back to her unconscious state. It was truly tempting: to just fall back asleep. She was already light headed and her head was pounding. She must've hit her head or something. She couldn't remember. Parts were still fuzzy, but she could remember most of it.

The first thing she remembered was her taking a hit and losing her left wing. Her apologizing as she crashed into Rebecca and Brandie. Rebecca... She had crashed into her own sister. The sister she had never known about until a few days before Iceman died. She remembered the three of them yelling for their family members. Hennessey remembered her life flashing before her eyes, wanting nothing more than to go back to the comfort of her mother's arms and teasing her little sister.

She did hit her head; when her plane collided with Marilyn and Vulture's. They were lucky to not have blown up right then and there. She could faintly remember Mickey yelling her call sign before her comms disconnected and she had lost consciousness. 

Remembering the events leading up to now was exhausting. She was so tired. Hennessey could feel something warm trickling into her ear and through her hair, probably blood.

In the distance were two muffled voices. Was it two? Hennessey couldn't tell, wanting to fall back into the blissful unconsciousness. Hennessey began imagining her mother’s room at the house, cuddled up with her sister and Mom as they watched 'Mamma Mia!' for the hundredth time.

"Henne! Wake up, Henne! Do you hear me?" Two female voices echoed, slightly muffled from ringing in Hennessey's ears. So she was right, it had been only two people that she heard.

Suddenly something cold hit Hennessey in the face, making her shoot her eyes open and she became fully conscious. She gasped for breath, wiping her face off with her sleeve. Snow covered the sleeve of the flight suit. One of the girls threw a snowball at her face. Adrenaline was kicking in, Hennessey couldn't feel an ounce of pain anywhere.

"Finally, come on, we need to find the runway," Rebecca said, pulling Hennessey to a sitting position. Blood covered the snow the girl was lying in.

"Oh fuck, Hennessey do you feel any pain? Or any blood at all?" Brandie asked, looking for any gashes in the said woman's flight suit as she started cutting away at Henne's parachute.

"Huh? No I don't feel any pain. But I felt something warm trickling down my head," Hennessey mumbled, going to take off her helmet.

"No, no, no, no. Keep that on, it'll keep pressure on the wound until we get back to the carrier," Rebecca panicked, pulling Hennessey's hands away from the helmet.

The distant sound of a helicopter caused everyone to stop and look through the trees. No helicopter in sight. They were in enemy territory, which meant the helicopter was the enemy's and not a search and rescue. Brandie continued to cut away at her parachute, planning to use it as a makeshift bandage for Hennessey. 

"There it is, Brandie," Rebecca pointed to a gash on Hennessey's right side, it went from her lower ribs to her hip. Brandie began wrapping the ripped up parachute around Hennessey's torso.