I love flying but the flight back had been a lot more sketchy than I had thought it was going to be. Then the landing was terrifying since right before I could flare my elevator finally gave in and I slammed down hard and barely kept control of my bird. Since most other controls were fine the taxi to the hanger was easy and the second I came to a stop I popped the canopy and started to climb out. "Oh sweet beautiful land." I said as I practically fell out of the cockpit and stumbled onto the tarmac.
"Well shit kid you sure know how to get your money's worth out of a jet." the ground chief said as helped me get my footing and walk toward the waiting medics.
"Well you know I try my best." I said with a grimace as he sat me down and the medics took over.
"Alright how are you feeling, pilot?" the lead medic asked as they started the normal checks and shined a light in my eyes.
"Like I just got hit by a train and it came back for seconds." I said as he wrote something on his notepad. "But I think it's mostly bruising and soreness."
"Ok you show no signs of a concussion but I want you in the infirmary after the debrief am I understood."
"Yes sir I'll go straight there.'' With a nod he and the others made their way to Brownie's bird that had just stopped at the hanger next door. I just decided to sit for a while since there would be no debrief till the rest of the guys got back, which would be a while since they took a longer but safer route back.
"So Kid I got some bad news for ya." the chief said a little while later as I watched Brownie try to get rid of the medics.
"That's never good, what's wrong?"
"Welp that poor Eagle is toast just at first glance we can already tell it needs all new rudders and elevators, then there's the obvious engine that's practically vaporized and it looks like all the hydraulic lines are done for."
"Ouch sorry but I didn't get much of a choice that guy was a monster up there."
"Yeah well we'll see what we can do. There's one plane left that we have in reserve but there's a few things to work out."
"I see well thanks for trying that bird kept me alive."
"Well i'm off to check on that Hornet but just looking it might be done as well." He said as the medics finally cleared out from Brownie's bird with her looking frazzled. As he and his crew made their way to the Hornet and began their inspection but like he said it didn't look very good half of the main fuselage was covered in holes and the rudders and ailerons were practically gone as well. They took a moment and walked over to Brownie and told her what was probably the same as me based on his facial expressions. Once they finished they took off to I assume to go get ready for the others to get back and Brownie saw me and gestured to the entrance of my hanger.
The hangar was always a bland looking place with lots of artificial lighting and the ground crews were always anal about how clean everything was. As I walked in the hanger behind Brownie I decided to break the silence. "So that was fun wasn't it?"
"Trigger no Nick what the hell was that?"
"What do you mean?"
"You almost got yourself killed up there, you could have got away when he went for me."
"And let him take you down, hell no."
"Nick, you're the best pilot we have and I'm just me, so you shouldn't have taken that risk for me."
"What the hell, where's that coming from Iona? I'm not going to abandon anyone, especially not you."
"You're the one that everyone says has the chance at being the best, hell they let you fly solo on your first sortie i'm still stuck to Knockers wing at all times." she said getting more and more frustrated as she went. "And you go and almost throw it all away just to save me."
Stopping for a second I thought about it yeah the others did brag about what I did, but ive know Iona for years and her reasoning just didn't make sense. "Iona that's bullshit and you know it, what's wrong for real." I said stopping her from pacing any more by putting my hand on her shoulder.
"Goddamit Nick you almost Killed yourself for me why?" she practically demanded throwing my hand off her shoulder and jabbing me in the chest.
"Why wouldn't I your my best friend Iona i couldn't let you die."
"Because of what I pulled before you left for flight school."
"That? Iona, I've never held that over you."
"I practically told you to give up your dream and that you would never cut it as a pilot, '' she shouted. "All because I couldn't stand the thought of you getting hurt and now here you are doing what I can't and everything I said just makes me look like an ass."
"This is about what happend to your sister isn't it?" it made sense to me her sister had died a month before I went to flight school after an incident with some pirates. She hadn't taken the news of me joining the airforce well.
"Yes and no, she was killed protecting her flight lead you know?" she said almost in tears. "And now hear you are doing the same thing and almost getting killed, I can't lose another person I love Nick,
"Oh" i thought. "So Katie was right I am oblivious, but Iona I promise you I'm not going anywhere."
"You can't promise that."
"No, maybe not but I can try my damndest." I said pulling her into a hug, "But you have to be willing to give it a try as well, you're a good pilot as well."
"I don't know if I can fly again after that." she mumbled into my shoulder, sounding quieter than I've ever heard her.
"Hey, that's fine, nobody would blame you after today." I said as we just stood there embracing till she finally pushed back slightly.
"You know this has got me thinking I waited so long to tell you because I was scared you only saw me as a friend, but today showed me we don't have forever to live so how bout we do some living." she said, pulling me into a kiss and dragging me off toward the base.
Me and Iona had just made ourselves presentable by the time the others landed and made it to the briefing room. The debrief got heated and I'm not afraid to admit I said some things about Hq not letting us pull out until practically half our forces were gone. Other than that I was a quick debrief and once it was done the Major, Knocker and Clown pulled Iona aside as I made my way to the medbay like I promised waving bye to everyone.
"Alright Lieutenant, everything checks out and you're cleared for flight as of now." The doctor said as he led me to the exit writing on his clipboard. "Just make sure to give this to your flight leader, and have a nice night." he said, handing me a note and locking the medbay doors behind me as I noticed Clown and Iona standing in the hall.
"Hey Clown" I said with a little hesitation as I saw his shit eating smile.
"What's up loverboy." he said, his smile getting bigger as I heard Iona cough in surprise.
"What how do you-" he cut me off with a "I knew it and you two just confirmed it." he said, starting to chuckle.
"Damnit Nick." Iona said with a sigh.
"Sorry sorry." he said finally calming down. "But you two are fine. I had another reason for getting you two together. Brownie already knows what I'm talking about but we solved your problem with having no bird."
"Already the ground crew said it would be a minute, and they also said there was only one spare on base. What about Brownie here?"
"Well as luck would have it the spare is an F-14D which on its own is a problem because you need a WSO, but we just happen to have a pilot with WSO training in need of a plane and volunteer to take the spot." he said dramatically pointing at Iona. "From this point on you two are both Mage 2 a team now."
"Oh that works out just fine then I suppose."
"Yep but you two might want to actually sleep tonight, because tomorrow you are getting drills on coordination and flight time in the tomcat."
Turning toward Iona we shared a glance and both of us nodded before I said. "You got it boss we've got this.'' With that said Iona gave me a quick kiss goodnight and we went our separate ways for the night knowing the next few days were going to be hectic.