Chapter Text
“Ava!”
You ran over to her, giving her a hug before sitting down next to her open work station.
“I have a favor to ask you.”
She raised a singular eyebrow and then hesitantly grabbed her wrench before continuing what she was doing before you’d appear.
“What is it? If you want me to do something illegal then you’ll have to ask Hangman because I’m not really into that-”
You shook your head laughing.
“No- of course not, I was just going to ask if you could help me tweak my helmet to fit my cochlear.”
You watched her pause, go beet red and then chuckle.
“Oh. I thought you were going to ask me something ridiculous again.”
You rolled your eyes.
“I’ve never asked anything ridiculous of you.”
She looked at you with a skeptical face.
“Oh really? So you’ve already forgotten the time I let you sit in-”
You ran over and covered her mouth with your hand. Glaring daggers into her soul you made sure she would stay quiet.
“We do not speak of such things, especially on base."
She laughed at you again, pushing your hands away so she could go back to her work.
“I’ll help you with your helmet no problem, just leave it here and I’ll fix it up for ya.”
You smiled and got back up from the crouched position.
“I love you, what could I do without you?”
She rolled her eyes again.
“Send me the approximate sizes of your cochlear too. Wouldn’t want the thing to not end up fitting.”
You gave her a thumbs up and started making your way back to the classroom. Hoping you wouldn’t be late for your first class of the day.
“Don’t die!”
She screamed over to you and you let a chuckle out before disappearing around the corner
— — — — —
You weren’t supposed to feel this nervous. This was your job, you’d been doing this for the past 8 years, why were you feeling nervous now. A stupid exercise on top of that.
Your dad noticed your uneasiness these past three days. How you’d snap for no reason at all or the fact that you wouldn’t stop picking at your sleeve. This wasn’t the sarcastic, smiling, smartass daughter he’d just gotten back. This was an on edge, scared, paranoid version of her and it worried him.
“What’s up?”
He sipped his morning coffee, eyeing you as you walked to the fridge and then closed it when you didn’t remember what you opened it for and then walk back to your cereal only to realize you’d gone for the milk.
“What’s gotten you so tense?”
You stopped walking after getting the milk, letting the fridge door slam shut.
“Nothing, just a little stress is all.”
Your dad wasn’t stupid, he knew why you were acting like this. After Ava’s changes on your helmet and how she’d made it cochlear favorable instead of just cochlear tolerant, you’d been sent to the CO who cleared you for flying again. Today was your first day back in the air.
“Is it about fly-”
You slammed the milk down on the counter, your dad feeling grateful that the lid was still on, as you turned around.
“No. It’s not about flying. It’s just- Nothing ok?”
It was clearly about flying.
Your dad looked at you unimpressed by your outburst, waiting until you’d calm down to ask again.
“You don’t have to go, you know? What hap-”
You cut him off again, pouring your milk in the most disgraceful way possible, almost spilling it before you’d catch it at the last minute.
“What happened happened and I’m here and healthy and able to fly again. I’m just a little nervous. It’s been 4 months since I last flew. That’s all.”
Maverick didn’t push, knowing that it wouldn’t be beneficial in your state right now. So he nodded and took another sip of his coffee before pointing to your watch.
“Shit. Alright I’ll see you later. Love you.”
He smiled and waved you off, you ran out the door after inhaling your food and made your way to the base before your phone buzzed.
Take it easy kid. Love you too.
Knowing your dad was on your side no matter what always made the uneasy feeling of jumping into something new, better.
But this wasn’t new, this was something you’d done for the past 8 years and nothing would be as important to you as this job. Yet here you were, picking at your sleeves once again as you made your way towards the makeshift classroom that had been reconstructed in another building.
You’d gotten out of that accident lucky, even with losing your hearing you were able to repair that issue under 3 months time. That was lucky. For fucks sake you could have lost your knee if you decided to run one more mile, or lose your arm if you hadn’t reset it. You could’ve lost your eyesight if it wasn’t for your fast reflex.
You could be dead.
But you weren’t, and you’d fly these planes all the time and this was just a stupid exercise and nothing would come of it except the feeling you get when you fly for the first time in a long time.
Contentment.
You were afraid though, so, so, afraid to fly today.
What if the plane crashed?
What if you don’t hear something and put someone in danger- no it’s not a real mission.
But what if you-
“Echo?”
Fanboy shook your shoulders, snapping you out of your thoughts and worries. He pointed to your ears, wondering if your cochlear had died and- shit. You’d forgotten to charge them last night. Paranoia ate you up and you’d kept the things on for comfort.
“Did your cochlear die?”
“No, sorry. I just zoned out.”
Knowing you a little too well the boy placed both hands on his hips and looked at you with a tilted head.
“What’s got you picking at your shirt again?”
Had you been standing in front of the door the whole time? How long has it been?
“Nothing, I guess I'm just a little nervous.”
That was an understatement.
He relaxed at your answer. He’d heard you say that a thousand times about stuff you’d pass with flying colors. He knew today was going to be the same. But did you?
Placing an arm around your shoulders he dragged you into the classroom, finding Hangman and Coyote talking on the side while Bob, Phoenix and Rooster laughed together. Payback was on his phone next to them, smiling like an idiot as if you couldn’t see the fact that Halo was giggling on the other side of the room with her own friends.
“AYYYYY! THERE COMES THE SURVIVOR!”
Hangman screamed loudly and you immediately ripped your cochlear off until he was done yelling the sentence. You’d be lying if you said that being deaf didn’t get you out of dumb situations. You saw Coyote hit his chest in an attempt to make him shut up but you ignored them as you put your cochlear back in place and joined your current group of friends who were excitedly waiting for you.
“Ready Echo?”
You took in a deep breath and nodded. You knew you weren’t but- fake it till you make it right?
Yeah no that didn’t work well. Certainly not when you flew a multi million dollar plane across a desert plain.
“Little nervous.”
You answered before they could ask any questions about your shaky hands or your labored breaths.
Fanboy pulled you in closer, shaking you in an attempt to ease the tension building in your shoulders.
“You’ll be just fine. You’re the best pilot there is here.”
“I heard that.”
Hangman said from behind Rooster and you wanted to laugh but you could only manage a strained smile, not confident in your past experiences anymore. This growing anxiety destroyed any previous confidence you had, walking all over it before hitting it until it appeared to be a speck of dust.
Bradley was going to ask you if you were ok, already taking the step towards you in hopes you would break if he held your stare just right, but before he could do any of that the CO in charge of you guys made his way to the front of the class and called everyone to attention.
He’d have to wait until after class.
— — — — —
“Are you sure you’re ok? You’ve been jumpy all day Echo.”
You nodded, not being able to meet anyone’s eye all day because at this point you might just be seconds away from a panic attack. Looks of worry or distress would not help with that.
“Never been better.”
Halo and Phoenix looked at each other in the locker room, wondering if they really believed you between your shaky grabs of your uniform zipper that you’d tried a hundred times to zip already and your avoidant eyes.
“Alright well we’ll be going out. If you need anything just holler.”
You nodded to them once again, still not meeting any of their concerned looks.
“I’ll be out in a second.”
You heard the sound of the door open and close behind the girls, finally able to lean against the locker because shit, are your legs supposed to feel like they're about to fold under you? You knew they weren’t but you sat down anyways, too scared to test the theory.
You kept trying the zipper, the new angle making it a little harder than before since it started at the bottom. You’d broken it the day of the crash and since then you’d manage to put it on perfectly fine yet today was the day it was giving you trouble. Today of all days.
It may have been because of your shaky hands, or your blurring vision- wait- shit were you crying? No not yet, you didn’t feel tears on your cheek, though they didn’t take long to fall because when you heard the final beep warning you of the dying batteries in your cochlear you went tumbling down in sobs.
You couldn’t hear how loud you were but you knew you weren’t discrete either. Your chest hurt too much to hide the said sobs. You felt stupid, so fucking stupid for feeling this way. This was just a stupid exercise.
The door to the locker room opened after a couple minutes, the sound not reaching your pathetic figure. The person rushed in when they heard your cries, knowing something was wrong the second you hadn’t showed up on time. Was it really just a couple minutes?
He knelt in front of you, watching your hands in your lap and your sullen shoulders, eyes finding yours even though yours were shut tightly. Trying to keep the sobs and tears in.
You flinched away from him when you felt the hand on your knee, so violently so that he had to put a hand between your head and the locker so you wouldn’t slam it against the hard metal.
“Bradley?”
You knew it was him, even through your blurry vision, so you didn’t need your cochlear for the answer. Though he didn’t open his mouth to give you said answer, you saw it in his eyes he was already thinking about the next question.
“Talk to me.”
You didn’t hear him, nor were you able to read his lips.
“My cochlear ran out of batteries.”
He nodded, moving to stand up and reach behind you into your own locker as he took the extra batteries that you’d bought and placed on your shelf, always attached to a charger in case you needed them for flying. When he came back into view he reached his hand over to your ear, falling just short and looking at you to ask permission if he could change it for you. You nodded, too tired to answer verbally.
He changed the things in front of you, placing it back on your ear and you could finally hear how bad you sounded which only sent you down another wave of tears and sobs. He gently placed his hands on either side of your arms, running them up and down in comfort that you could not find yourself getting in your state. Your hands ran up to your face, scared of showing your ugly crying face to him.
He wasn’t sure whether you were having a panic attack or just uncontrollably sobbing so he stayed there until you felt like you could talk. He tried his best to give you comfort in little ways he'd learnt to give them to you. Mainly touch. Bradley took your hands away from your face, taking his sleeve to wipe the snot and tears from them before tracing your fingers and palm, again, wishing the calming manner helped you in your sad state.
You squeezed his hands twice, a code you guys implanted when the other couldn’t speak. A hug was asked of him, so he moved back a little before bringing you down to your knees and then hugging you close to him. It kind of helped, the warmth of his body helped you melt the ice cold anxiety that had surrounded your brain and heart.
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head, tracing your back with gentle fingers, going back and forth on your nape. Something else he found out over the years. It calmed you down when he couldn’t run his fingers through your bunned hair.
“Don’t be. What happened? I thought you were excited about today.”
You shrugged, unsure yourself.
“Scared, terrified, dumb overthinking.”
He hummed his answer. His hold on you a little tighter when he felt you melting in his arms.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
You shrugged again.
“Not right now.”
He hummed again, his fingers leaving your nape when you’d stopped crying, only shaky breaths in and out of you remained. It woke you up a bit.
Don’t get it wrong. Bradley wanted to stay with you and help you through what was going on in your head, but he also knew that an angry CO and the squadron were waiting for you two down on the deck. So he pulled away from you.
“Do you want to fly today?”
He asked because right now, that was the only question running through his mind after all of this. You nodded.
“I’ve been waiting to do this for ages.”
He nodded, fixing your hair now that you were separated from him.
“You know, that was Fanboy’s first accident in a plane.”
You scoffed, your bottom lip quivering at the news, he cleared his throat.
“What I’m trying to get at is that he didn’t want to get into another plane. But we were there for him, we were all there for him and he didn’t even pilot the thing.”
It was mean of him to assume that his fear wouldn’t manifest because he wasn’t flying the plane but it got his point across. If Fanboy got the support of the whole team when he was just operating machines then you’d get 10x the support because you’d gone through so much worse.
“We’re all going to be there for you. If you want to do this you won't be alone Felix. We got you.”
He paused, finishing up your hair with tucking the last strand of it behind your ear.
“I got you.”
You didn’t know you needed to hear that until you did. Your heart did a thing when he smiled and you hugged him again, so grateful to have a friend like him around. He let out a chuckle when you pulled away and finally whipped your tears away.
“We’ll talk later but let’s get Echo back in the air. Ok?”
Filled with a little more confidence now, you nodded and he brought you back up to your feet, zipping up the pantsuit for you when you were standing on your own. Placing the old batteries in place of the new ones, he took your dusty helmet and handed it to you before offering his hand and walking you out.
You let yourself get dragged behind him, happy, content, a feeling you knew only accompanied him. A smile adorned your face when you thought of flying with him and you nodded with confidence upon arriving on the deck.
He got you.