Only The Good Die Young (Top Gun fanfic)

Where Were You

***

"And once the storm is over, you won't remember how made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what the storm's all about."

~ Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

***

There is a reason all the great strategists preach surprise as one of the most valuable assets a force has.

And training has always been the best way to successfully handle an enemy with the advantage of surprise.

Surprise is the only reason Julia gets two shots off before either Bradley or Peter can do anything.

Training is the reason Peter manages to throw himself in front of Bradley in time to save his life.

Round one hits Peter in the chest, direct to the heart, and he's dead before he hits the floor.

The second round goes between the ribs, and with no bone to stop it, it goes through Peter and into Bradley, clipping his spleen and the blazing pain and the hit he takes to the head going down are enough to put him out cold so he doesn't see Natasha arrive, just seconds too late.

Julia doesn't get a third shot off.

Natasha reaches her as Bradley falls, and by the time Callie, Natasha is so far gone she's broken most of the bones in Julia's face, and it feels like she's mostly hitting pulp.

She keeps hitting.

Hits through Callie's yelling.

Hits through Callie's frantic checking for a pulse and calling 9-1-1.

Through the neighbors running over to help.

Through the ambulance showing up and Callie doesn't let the paramedics anywhere near Natasha and Julia.

No one pulls her off the other woman until the police arrive, and it's only Cyclone's sudden arrival and the neighbor's testimony that they saw Julia fire that keeps Natasha from getting cuffed.

Cyclone rides in the ambulance with Bradley. Harvard and Yale arrive and drive Callie and Natasha to the hospital, and Yale doesn't even complain about Natasha getting blood all over his car.

She doesn't regret a single blow.

She does regret trusting Julia.

She regrets not paying attention because there must have been signs.

She regrets not trusting Jake and not being more supportive. And she regrets not stopping Bradley from getting involved with Jake in the first place because he would never have been in Julia's sight.

Julia used to spend hours getting ready to go out and wouldn't leave the apartment in anything less than a full face of makeup and well done fair.

No matter what you do, she'd always told Nat, the first look is the one no one forgets.

Julia had never forgotten that first glimpse she'd gotten of Jake walking off the tarmac in flight school, top of his class and the guy to beat and someone her family would approve of.

Once Julia's healed, Nat's going to find her and do it again and again and again until even the best plastic surgeons in the world won't be able to stop her from looking like a rotted pumpkin for the rest of her life.

***

Bradley's in the hospital for over a month. Unconscious for most of it and high out of his mind the rest of it.