Chapter Eight: Pain
To say Dusty and Sky's friends were shocked was an understatement. As they watched a rescue helicopter lower a damaged and unconscious Dusty onto the ground, they could only stare in pure horror. The minute the rescue net went slack everyone gathered around quickly.
"Quick, to the hanger!" Skipper ordered. He and Sparky stayed back as medical personnel hooked up Dusty and carefully began pulling him towards the hospital, Dottie close behind and calling out orders. Chug, El Chu, Sparky, and Skipper stood back and watched, unable to fully comprehend what just happened. When Skipper's call to Dusty had been cut off so abruptly, he felt in his gut something bad might happen. But this was beyond any of their expectations.
Suddenly, Skipper made an even more horrifying discovery: Sky wasn't attached to Dusty's canopy.
"Sky?" Skipper whispered, looking all around. "Skylar! Where is she? Where's my daughter?!"
"Sky!" Sparky and Chug called, as though expecting the girl to just pop up and say "Here I am!"
"There!" El Chu shouted, directing their attention to another rescue helicopter coming in. This time, a net attached to a gurney was airlifted down. Sky rested on the gurney, soaking wet and not moving. El Chu heard the medics shouting in Spanish, something about Sky….not breathing….. "Santa Chrysler." He gasped.
Skipper stared, wide-eyed, as his daughter's unmoving form was unloaded from the gurney. "Skylar. No, Skylar!" He screamed for his daughter, trying to move forward. But Sparky put on his brakes and tugged on Skipper's back wheel, slowing the Corsair. It took both El Chu and Chug's combined efforts with Sparky's to keep Skipper back, forcing the Corsair to watch helplessly as the human medics pulled off Sky's cracked goggles and torn bandana, quickly pulling off her inflated life vest and unbuttoning her jacket to begin chest compressions for CPR. Compressions, breath, compressions, breath. Skipper's eyes never left his daughter's still face, but she didn't breathe as the CPR continued. Skylar. Skylar, wake up. Oh Chrysler please don't take her. Please, please don't take her. Please.
Suddenly, Sky gasped deeply and began coughing up seawater. She turned to her side as the water came rushing out of her lungs, gasping and coughing as the cool night air soothed her burning throat. Her eyes fluttered open, her breathing labored, and she stared off into space. She could hear people shouting in Spanish around her, but all she could focus on what Skipper several yards in front of her. Blue-green eyes locked with blue-gray, and then Sky's body gave in to the fatigue. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets as she submitted to unconsciousness.
Skipper watched, relieved yet still shocked, as a forklift carefully lifted Sky onto another gurney and several medics whisked away to the hospital with Dusty. Feeling him relax, Chug and El Chu backed away from him. Skipper's breathing became ragged as he struggled to hold back his tears. Sparky immediately came to the Corsair's side, patting his wing comfortingly and speaking soothing words. But Skipper hardly heard it, the look in Sky's eyes haunting him. It was a look that begged for forgiveness, as though she felt she failed her father by coming in hurt.
No… Skipper thought. I'm the one who failed…I'm so sorry, Skylar…please forgive me.
Dottie took a look at Dusty's x-rays, knowing the news she would break to the now-conscious crop duster was not going to be good. "Broken wing ribs, twisted gear, bent prop, and your main spar is cracked…bad." She looked to the human medic in the room, who walked over to where the now-awoken Sky sat on Skipper's wing.
"Miss Riley." The medic said, looking just as regretful as Dottie. "You have a mild concussion, sprained wrist, broken and cracked ribs, and you have severely broken your leg."
Sky stared at the ground, her left leg in a cast from the thigh down and her right arm in a sling. "How bad?" she murmured.
The medic sighed. "We had to reset your tibia and fibula while you were knocked out before putting it in a cast. Your knee is mostly just bruised, but you have some minor cracks in your femur." Sky wanted to slouch down, but the pain in her chest from her ribs prevented such action.
Everything they worked for, everything Dusty wanted to prove, was over.
They failed for real this time.
Dusty turned around, glaring a bit, his eyes passing over El Chu and Chug in the medical hanger with him. He caught sight of Sky, and he instantly felt guilty. This was even worse than what happened on the Flysenhower, and this time Sky almost did die. But when he saw Skipper, Dusty's glare returned.
"One mission?" Dusty growled a little. "So much for Volo Pro Veritas."
Skipper looked down guiltily. Sky matched his expression, unable to look at Dusty. Skipper turned to everyone else in the room. "Can we get a minute alone, please?" Chug, El Chu, Dottie, and the human medic turned and left quietly. Skipper cast a look to his personal medic. "You too, Sparky." Sparky looked reluctant, but more sad than anything else because he knew what was coming. He rolled out the door, leaving Skipper with his trainees. Skipper looked to Dusty, the glare in the crop duster's eyes fierce as ever. He sighed silently. "My first patrol as a Jolly Wrench was at Glendal Canal. My squadron was all rookies, Corsairs and a few human riders, including one riding me. All razor sharp. I should know. I trained every single one of 'em. It was supposed to be a routine patrol. A milk run. Then one of my Corsairs noticed an enemy ship down at the ocean below us. We were ordered to recon and report back, but it seemed like just one ship. They were all rippin' and roarin' to get into a fight, ready to take down the enemy like they were trained to do. I ordered us to fly down….but when we broke through the clouds, we saw not just one enemy ship. It was the entire fleet."
Dusty's glare lessened as he stared in shock. "What?"
"It was too late to pull up." Skipper sighed. The sound of gunfire and his squadrons' screams rang through his memory as though it just happened a few minutes ago. "My psyche human rider was shot and killed. Every single plane and human was shot down, including myself. I crashed into the ocean, but was rescued and taken to the Flysenhower. None of my rookies survived." He paused, guilt weighing heavily on him even when Sky patted his wing comfortingly. "My whole squadron. Under my command. After that, I just couldn't bring myself to fly again." Skipper looked to Sky, then glanced back at Dusty. "Let me ask you something, Dusty. If you knew the truth about my past, would you have asked me to train you?"
Dusty paused, opening his mouth to say he would. But as he thought about it, he realized just how much Skipper's story terrified him. "No." Dusty whispered. There was silence for a long, tense moment until Dusty painfully turned and rolled to a corner of the hanger.
"I'm sorry, Dusty." Skipper said. Sparky returned several minutes later, pushing Skipper and Sky out of the medical ward and towards Dusty's hanger where they were staying. Skipper looked to Sky. "Skylar, I owe you an apology as well."
"No you don't." Sky said, smiling softly. "Just don't shove anything down Dusty's throat, huh?" She chuckled softly, but her face fell when she saw tears building up in Skipper's eyes. She sighed, patting the Corsair's nose in comfort.
Sparky pushed Sky into the medical hanger, where Dusty remained the rest of the night before. The next leg of the race wasn't until tomorrow, but there's no way either one of them could race now. Sky couldn't walk on her broken leg, and her sprained wrist and damaged ribs made using a crutch impossible. She nodded to Sparky, allowing him to leave, and used her undamaged foot to pull the wheelchair she rode over to Dusty. The crop duster still stared into a corner, looking like he didn't get any sleep.
"Hey Dust Storm." Sky greeted as she pulled herself into Dusty's line of sight.
Dusty looked up to Sky and would've broken into tears if he wasn't so tired. "Sky. Oh Sky, I'm so sorry. I put you in so much danger and—"
Sky shushed him. "Dusty, this has been an amazing adventure, and I'm so happy I was able to go on it with you. Thank you."
"But look at you." Dusty stared at the sling and her cast. "You're so hurt."
"But I'll live." Sky said with a small smile. "I have no regrets, Dusty. You're the one who had the dream of racing. I just dreamt of flying. Not only did you make my dream come true, you shared your dream with me. I am so thankful that we were able to live it out together." She pulled herself closer to Dusty, putting her free, undamaged hand to his nose. She sighed, her smile dropping. "I'm the one who should be apologizing to you."
"About Skipper?" Dusty half-guessed, half-hoped.
Sky nodded. "Yes and no. Because I put my hopes for Skipper on your wings."
Dusty blinked. "What do you mean? Skipper was the one who lied. He's the one who trained us without telling me his actions got a whole slew of planes and some humans killed."
"And it's because of attitudes like that that he can't stop blaming himself." Sky said. "You know how I found out about his past? He let me look into his memories and see what happened from his eyes. My powers let me do that." She swallowed. "But I don't know how to use my powers to take away the pain he felt on that day, or make him forget about that horrible memory. Gosh, do I wish I could."
"Are you…..defending him?" Dusty asked, sounding a bit surprised.
Tears began streaming down Sky's cheeks. "It was a war, Dusty. People die in wars. Say Skipper ordered his squadron to turn back and to not fight. What if some of them dived down anyway and forced Skipper to go after them? What if they all just left? Who's to say they wouldn't all be killed in another battle? But it had to happen on that day, under his command. But no, I don't think it was really his fault." She sniffled, taking a moment to gather her composure. "I've never seen war, Dusty, except from Skipper's eyes, and I pray to Chrysler nobody has to go through what Skipper did. It's my fault this happened. I convinced Skipper to train you even when he was adamant about not doing it. I thought if I could show him he was still a good teacher, if he could manage to make you and me great racers, maybe he'd stop blaming himself for what happened that day." Her hand fell away from Dusty's nose, but he wished she would keep it up so he could comfort her better. Sky's tears increased. "I put all my faith in you giving him the closure he needed. I couldn't do anything to heal his pain, and I'm his daughter. I thought…I thought if I couldn't do it, maybe you could." She raised her head to lock her now-red eyes with Dusty's ocean blue irises. "I'm so sorry, Dusty. I made a gamble and I lost, and it almost cost me and you dearly."
"You?" Dusty repeated, his voice only a whisper.
"You almost lost your life." Sky said. "I almost lost one of my closest friends. I don't have a family outside of Propwash, Dusty. It's just Skipper and Sparky and you and Chug and Mayday and Dottie. If I lose any of you…." She couldn't continue, her breathing ragged.
Dusty stared at Sky, tears of his own building up but he blinked them away. Though it caused him pain, he rolled forward several inches and nuzzled Sky's head gently. Sky leaned into his touch, sighing. Dusty sighed too. "I forgive you, Sky. You don't ever have to blame yourself for this. I just wish Skipper had told me the truth."
"Dusty?"
Dusty and Sky parted to see Dottie had approached them. "You said I wasn't built for this. You said I was going to put Sky in danger. I guess I should've listened to you."
"No, Dusty, you shouldn't have. I'm glad you didn't." Dottie said in a soft voice. "Look, Skipper may have lied about his life in the war, but he was right about you. He was right about you and Sky. You're racers, not a crop duster and a regular farm girl, and you've shown the whole world what you can do when you work together. Nobody can ever look at you and call you a 'just a crop duster' ever again."
Dusty and Sky looked to Dottie before glancing to Chug in the doorway. The fuel truck gave a warm smile, one the two racers returned. "Thanks, Dottie." Dusty said with a smile. "That means a lot."
"Considering you were the most stubborn out of all of us." Sky chuckled, wincing a bit as the movement shifted her ribs.
Dusty's face fell. "We've gone as far as we can go. We're busted up, I mean look at us."
"Yes, look at you."
Everyone turned to see El Chu just outside the hanger, smiling warmly. Dottie gingerly rolled Dusty to the doorway of the hanger, Chug coming up behind Sky and pushing her wheelchair to be beside Dusty.
"Dusty, Sky, I will not race without you." El Chu moved aside, one of his forklift aides pushing over a car with a set of wings resting on it.
Dusty blinked in surprise. "Hey, that's the wing of a T-33 Shooting Star!"
"Nerd." Sky sassed in a soft voice, rolling her eyes and smiling.
"When the great Mexican Air Force needed help, American T-33s came." El Chu explained. "They did not ask questions. They did not hesitate. They were there. Because that is what compadres do."
Dusty smiled. "El Chu, I really appreciate—"
The Mexican racer shushed him. "Silencio. After all, you helped me. Now we are here to help you."
"We?" Dusty and Sky repeated.
"Oui." Rochelle said, pushing forward a cart of parts. "Good luck tomorrow, Dusty and Sky. I am so proud to compete with you."
"You're a good couple of eggs!" Bulldog smiled warmly as he came up. "Look, here's a sat-nav device. Just in case you find yourself lost without a friend to help."
Dusty and Sky shared a look and a smile. "Thank you, Bulldog." They said. Soon, they realized all the racers were coming up with spare and new parts to fix Dusty up. There seemed to be enough to build a whole new plane from scratch. Every racer complimented Dusty and Sky, wishing them luck for tomorrow. Dusty smiled warmly. "Thanks, everyone. Really."
"This is fantastic!" Dottie said happily, scanning the parts. "Looks like all you need now is—"
"A new propeller?" Ishani asked, pushing forward a cart of her own. "How about a Sky Slycer Mark Five?"
Dusty blinked in surprise to see the new propeller, the Indian racer wearing her old one. "But you could still win the race."
Ishani chuckled. "Oh I intend to. But with my old propeller. I think you'll have much better luck with this one."
Dusty's smile returned. "Thanks, Ishani." He looked around, smiling broadly. He had a chance. He could still be in the race. He and Sky… Dusty's face fell yet again as he turned to his psyche human partner. "Sky?"
The raven-haired girl smiled. "I'll see you in New York, Dusty. You go win it yourself."
"But…no, no I can't do that." Dusty said firmly.
"Dusty, the officials are never going to let me race like this." Sky said. "They can make an exception to let you go on without me."
"I don't care." Dusty said, turning to the rest of the racers. "Thank you all for your help, but I can't do this without Sky beside me. She's my co-pilot, my friend." He looked back to her. "Like a little sister, annoying yet so brave and kind." Sky felt tears build up in her eyes again, but she wiped them away. Dusty looked to the racers. "I'm not going back out there without her."
"We can help with that, amigo." El Chu assured. He gave a sharp whistle, and a Latino man jogged up to them. "This is Rodrigo. He is an old friend of mine. He is a psych-man doctor."
Sky brightened up. "Really? So you can heal me?"
"It will take some work." Rodrigo admitted. "But I can make you well enough to race."
"We'll lend a hand." Tsubasa's psyche human rider said as he and the other human riders came up. "If you will teach us how to use our powers to heal, we can help her."
Sky stared in surprise, still smiling. "You would do that?"
"Such loyalty that you and your partner share is admirable, Riley-san." Tsubasa's partner said. "It would be great dishonor to not fly with you." The other psyche humans nodded in agreement.
"Thank you." Sky said gratefully. She smiled and Dusty and gave a nod.
"All right, you guys! Let's get them ready to race!" Dottie urged.
As the mechanics of the racers worked around the clock to fix Dusty up in the medical ward, the psych-man riders and Rodrigo got to work healing Sky back in Dusty's hanger. The seventeen-year-old thanked them a thousand times, wincing a bit when the psyche humans received her injuries as they healed. With Rodrigo's help, they were able to fully heal Sky's concussion, ribs, wrist, knee, and femur. Unfortunately, they could only partially heal the rest of her broken leg, the wound being too severe and Sky refusing to let even Rodrigo try and fix it all the way. So he wrapped the leg in a strong cast and supported it with an even stronger brace, and the race officials declared her fit enough to race again.
Sky thanked Rodrigo and the psych-man racers again as they left to rest and prepare for the last leg tomorrow. As they left, Sky picked up her newly fixed aviation goggles and began shining them. But as she looked in the faint reflection of the lenses, she noticed a familiar figure in the doorway.
"So…..you're going back out there….." Skipper said.
Sky sighed, turning to her father as he approached her. "Yes. We have a chance to get back out there and show the world what we can do. We can't give up now. I know you don't want me to go—"
"You're right, I don't." Skipper said, his voice heavy with exhaustion. "I want you to stay here, where it's safe, or to just go home now and not go back out there. I would physically hold you back if it meant you didn't get back in that race." Sky looked up to see tears forming in Skipper's eyes. "But I'm not going to. Even though every bit of my father side tells me to keep you back, I know it would be wrong to keep you from this."
Sky stared at Skipper, practically feeling the guilt he felt radiating off him like heat off a tarmac on a summer day. She limped forward and hugged the Corsair, sighing. Skipper nuzzled her lovingly. Sky looked up and smiled. "Dad, Dusty didn't really have to know about your past. You still taught us to be great racers."
"But I taught him Volo Pro Veritas." Skipper protested. "I taught it to you. And I'm a hypocrite for not following it myself."
"No, you're not." Sky assured. "You're not a hypocrite for wanting to hide the pain of your past. A lot of people in the world do that….including your daughter, who did that for six years until she met a stubborn old Corsair who taught her how to be loved."
Skipper stared at Sky, and he allowed a soft smile to appear on his lips. "Just promise you'll be safe, all right?"
"I promise." Sky said, hugging Skipper and kissing his nose. "See you at the finish line?" No response. "Okay. See you at home then."
"…all right…."
"I love you, Dad."
"Love you too, Skylar Amelia."