Despite the slight respite the group of aviators got while visiting Jia at her shoot, the tensions returned the minute training resumed the next day.

Team after team went up and failed. Team after team had to listen to Maverick ask why they died. What had gone wrong. How they would tell families of the failure.

No one was able to complete it on time or with the entire team. Someone would ‘hit’ the canyon wall, break the hard deck, or fly away from their wingman. (Looking at you, Hangman)

But Rooster and his team were the last up for the day. They had made it, but long after the time limit.

"Why are you dead?" Maverick asks Rooster. "You're team leader up there. Why are you, why is your team dead?"

"Sir, he's the only one that made it to the target," Phoenix defends her friend. And he was. No one else, not even Hangman, had actually made it to the target.

"A minute late, he gave enemy aircraft time to shoot him down," Maverick shoots back. "He is dead."

"You don't know that," Rooster defends himself.

"You're not flying fast enough," Hangman says. "You don't have a second to waste."

"We made it to the target," Rooster continues to defend.

"And superior enemy aircraft intercepted you on your way out," Maverick starts to get angry.

"Then it's a dog fight," Rooster fires back at him. The others are starting to notice the animosity between the two men. It was beginning to get suffocating for those around them.

"Against fifth generation fighters?" Maverick questions angrily.

"Yea, we still have a chance," Rooster says

Phoenix looks down, and Hangman looks smug, like he knows something no one else does.

"In an F-18," Maverick stresses

"It's not the plane, sir. It's the pilot," Rooster says, somewhat arrogantly but also making a point. These pilots were the best of the best. But even they had their limits.

"Exactly," Maverick says, straight to his face in front of everyone.

Rooster looks pissed and upset, not believing Maverick just said that.

"There's more than one way to fly this mission," Rooster says

"You really don't get it," Hangman starts. "On this mission, a man flies like Maverick here, or man does not come back. No offense intended," directed at Phoenix.

"Yet somehow you always manage," Bob defends Phoenix instantly.

"Hey, I don't mean to criticize," Hangman continues, "you're conservative, that's all."

"Lieutenant," Maverick tries to stop Hangman, failing miserably.

"We're going into combat son, on a level no living pilots' ever seen, not even him," looking straight at Maverick, who has a distressed look on his face. "That's no time to be thinking of the past," he says smugly.

"What's that supposed to mean," Rooster asks, looking pissed off.

"Lieutenants," Maverick tries again before everything blows out of proportion.

"I can't be the only one that knows Maverick flew with his old man," Maverick keeps trying to get Hangman to shut up, “That's enough."

"Or that Maverick was flying when his old man," and before he can finish, Rooster is on him.

"Lieutenant, that's enough," Maverick says just as Rooster jumps from his seat to go at Hangman

A fight breaks out, everyone going to separate the two men.

"You son of a bitch," Rooster yells angrily at Hangman.

"I'm cool, I'm cool," Hangman says while shrugging the other pilots off

"That's enough," Maverick says again

"He's not cut out for this mission, and you know it," Hangman finally says, "you know I'm right."

"You're all dismissed," Maverick says.

☽☆☾   ☽☆☾   ☽☆☾

After the disaster of an ending to the day's training, Reuben invited Mickey over so he wasn't home alone after today.

It's not like Jia would mind, seeing as she loved Mickey.

But both Reuben and Mickey were feeling very uncertain about this mission. The parameters they had to run were next to impossible, with no one actually completing the tasks set for them.

And this wasn't even full mission parameters yet!

But both men knew that stewing in those thoughts, alone, was a bad idea.

They just hadn't expected the sight that greeted them upon walking into the home.

Jia was sat on the couch, dressed in a sports bra and running shorts, surrounded by what appeared to be about ten pounds of ice.

"You okay babe?"

She looks over to him, nodding her head. "Yeah, just icing up after yesterday. I've got today and tomorrow off because of the intensity to recover."

It wasn't unusual for her to have a day or two off after such a crazy day. The movies and shows she worked on normally had a few stunt people for the various people, so if one person needed a day or two to prevent injury, it wasn't a big deal. The entire production would rather be safe than sorry and have an accident or serious injury.

It was after she reassured Reuben that she was okay that she looked at the clock. "Why are you home so early? I though training ran at least another hour."

Mickey let out a groan, slumping into a kitchen chair.

Jia raised an eyebrow. "That bad, huh?"

Reuben came up behind her, pressing a kiss to her head before answering. "Rooster and Hangman got into it again, but this time it led to an actual fight. Maverick dismissed us before it could get worse."

Jia takes a breath after his explanation. That was not what she was expecting.

"Well, I see the issues there. That's definitely something that needs to be resolved. You need to be a team for this mission."

Mickey tilts his head. "You can say that again. But I don't want to think about this right now. No more getting lost in my head. Let's watch a movie or something, please."

Jia and Reuben exchanged a look, knowing Mickey's nerves were starting to fully kick in for this mission.

So Jia stands up, groaning as she does so. "Let me put the ice away and change into something appropriate."

She gives Reuben a kiss before making her way to the kitchen. Turning back to Mickey, she gestures to the TV. "Pick whatever you want."

She then heads to the bedroom to change before calling out to the boys.

"And figure out what you want for dinner! I'm not waiting until the last minute again!"

✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈

Word count: 1,066

Bit of a shorter chapter today, but it is what it is.

Jia is in pain but she loves it. Also, again a disclaimer, I know nothing about stunt people and their jobs, so this is all me making things up.

Be ready for next chapter, it's Dogfight Football time!! And we might just be getting another glimpse of Benji!!

Stay tuned. Bye guys!!

(Gif by me)