“So you were attacked first?” Key’s scathing sarcasm grated on the whole squad. “Cause I was just informed by the Iranian air force that their planes were fired on during an exercise and one was shot out of the sky. They merely defended themselves against an ‘unprovoked attack’.”

“They’re covering their asses.” Bom growled. “Sorry sir, assets. They don’t want to be caught firing on us so they make up some story about an ‘exercise’.” She snorted, “ Bureaucrats!”

Key relaxed his face, smiling now. “That’s what I figured, but I wanted you to work it out yourself. Dismissed.”

The squad headed downstairs to debrief from their battle. Taeyang lead the way, mumbling something about ‘damn Mirage fighters’. Daesung and TOP were discussing the merits of a Mirage M1 over a F-16. Seungri was trying to pull the ‘bra trick on Dara without her noticing and failing miserably. He didn’t have the skilled hands of Jiyong and Dara was getting fed up.

“Stop it for god’s sake Seungri, I’m sweaty and hungry and really dizzy for some reason.” Dara leant against the wall rubbing her temples with one hand, the other supporting her.

“D, you’re bleeding.” Bom had spotted the line of blood trickling down Dara’s hand. “Pale too. Did you get caught on something or..” Dara was looking at her hand, covered in smeared blood from where she’d been rubbing her temple.

“No, I don’t think so.” She sunk down, collapsing on the ground with a sigh.

“Move.” Jiyong pushed through Bom and Seungri in the cramped corridor. He grabbed Dara’s wrist and checked her pulse. “Slower than normal.” He clicked in front of her face several times with no reaction. Reaching for the zip of Dara’s flight suit he pulled it half off her, revealing her sports bra and right shoulder. She was missing a decent sized chuck of flesh and it was bleeding profusely. Her flight suit had been compressing the wound while she was flying and she might not have noticed it as adrenalin hides a lot.

“Get her to the hospital.” Taeyang had returned and was returning order to the group. “Seungri, Daesung, go get a wheelchair or something.” The two rushed off towards the hospital while TOP grabbed a shirt from a nearby gym.

“She isn’t going to make it till they get back.” Bom had her hands on Dara’s wound but blood was gushing through her fingers. “She’s losing blood fast and if we leave it she’ll be out of the air for at least two months.”

Jiyong, who had been standing back, shot forward, pushing past Bom and Taeyang. The shirt he had worn under his flight suit was already off and he tied it around the slice on Dara’s arm. Lifting her up he walked quickly, heading in the direction of the hospital. Bom basically ran beside him, continuously checking Dara’s pulse. They pushed through the double doors that lead into the hospital.

“I need a doctor here now.” Jiyong put Dara down on a spare bed. A nurse bolted over and a doctor shortly followed, the nurse slowly unwinding the makeshift bandage that had been placed on Dara’s arm.

“We’re going to have to ask you to leave.” A second nurse tried to usher Jiyong, Bom and Taeyang towards the door. “I can assure you your friend will be find. Do you know what happened?” The three relayed what they knew, which at this point wasn’t a heap. Sitting down in several rather uncomfortable chairs to wait it out for the rest of the squad to appear, they worried silently. The remaining squad members turned up shortly and were also delegated to the chairs. Having a half-dozen worried, tired and pacing fighter pilots was a normal week for this hospital and they just moved around the crew. Jiyong was leaning on a wall, Bom quietly pacing for several minutes until she almost ran into a doctor, TOP sat her down and held her hand until she fell asleep from exhaustion. Seungri and Daesung just sat in chairs next to each other and stared aimlessly at the ceiling. It felt like months, sitting, waiting for answers. It was really only a few hours.

Eventually, once Key had been notified of Dara’s collapse and subsequent hospitalisation he walked through the door with lackey in tow.

“What the hell happened here? Why didn’t I know until know?” Key wasn’t happy that one of his flyers was down for the count and probably would be for a couple of weeks.  “I’ve just heard from the maintenance team that Sandara’s plane canopy had a small hole right near the edge. (see diagram). They think that’s how a bullet got through. It fragmented and punched through the rubber on the edge of her canopy. There is a large chunk embedded in her plane’s headrest.”

Bom woke, hearing the sound of an annoyed Key. “What? Is Dara ok? Hmm.” She blushed when she realized that the whole squad and Key were watching her. “Sorry Sir.”

Key nodded and grabbed a doctor as he went past. “Update on Park Sandara, bullet wound to the shoulder.”

“Stable, unconscious. We’ve stitched her arm and given her some painkillers. She’ll be flight ready in about two to three weeks.” The doctors name tag read ‘Cho MinJin’. He nodded once at Key then left.

“Well, that’s good. You can see her then for god’s sake get to bed.” Key held up a hand to stop Taeyang’s interruption. “You can debrief tomorrow.” He indicated towards a nurse then left, lackey following at a safe distance.

“Where is Dara?” Jiyong pushed himself off the wall and towered over the nurse (she must be pretty damn short).

“This way.” The nurse led the group towards a screened bed in one corner. She moved the screens and the squad saw their teammate. Black hair spread across the pillow, pale skin and pink lips. She would’ve looked like a fairy princess waiting for a kiss but for the military uniform on the chair next to her, the silver dog tags around her neck, black filigree love-heart tattoo poking out from under the edge of her bra and the bandage around her arm.

The squeak of shoes on lino caused TOP, Bom and Jiyong to turn around. Seungri was blushing madly and had tried to turn. TOP looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“She’s only wearing her bra. I feel weird.” Seungri spoke quietly, as if he didn’t want anyone to know that he had grown to think of Dara like an older sister.

“Just this once I don’t think she’d mind.” Bom’s voice was controlled but had the sound of tears in it. She grabbed Dara’s hand. “I know you’re ok D. I’ll be back later alright, and I’ll buy you some Reese’s cups for when you wake up. Bye.” Bom walked towards the door and with a glance at Jiyong, TOP followed. He out his arm around Bom’s neck and pulled her close so people wouldn’t see her cry. They headed out the door of the hospital and towards the squad’s quarters and their squad room. Seungri, still blushing, awkwardly patted Dara’s hand then left. Daesung did the same but also kissed Dara on the head and said

“Get well D. I want you back in the skies soon.”

Taeyang leaned against the wall, already planning the new squad formations. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, because he did, a whole heap. It was that he knew he had to keep the rest of his squad safe too. Following Daesung’s lead, he kissed Dara on the head and grasped Jiyong’s shoulder on his way out. “She’ll be fine and she wouldn’t want you worrying either. Bom will give her enough of that when she wakes up.”

Jiyong sat down in the uncomfortable plastic chair next to Dara’s bed.

“Hey there D. I’m glad you’re alright you know, Bom is crying now but that’s not your fault. I hope the guy we shot down was the one that shot you.” Jiyong sighed. “You should have seen Seungri’s face, gosh it was hilarious.” He looked at the clock on the wall, stating blatantly that he should have been in bed half an hour ago. “Well it’s 10:30 and I should probably be in bed so, night Sandara.”

Jiyong stood, released Dara’s hand, which he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. Watching her face, relaxed instead of troubled, as it had been when they were children. It brought back memories of waking up, age ten or eleven, next to Dara in her bed. He’d had a bad night, his father beating him and yelling at him for an hour or more. Running over to Dara’s house at around ten-thirty with bruises on his face and tears in his eyes. He’d knocked on her window after scrambling up the tree outside her second storey bedroom, she’d opened it, took one look at his face and grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into bed next to her. He’d frozen, unsure what to do but Dara had known. Settling him in beside her, underneath a pink doona, her head tucked under his chin and her back against his chest. Her sleepy little voice saying ‘just go to sleep Ji, we’ll deal with it in the morning.’ He had done as she’d ordered and fallen asleep, only to wake up the next morning when she’d ripped the covers and told him he’d better get home before his father noticed he was missing. To thank her he’d given her a hug and she’d almost pushed him out the window, blushing madly, telling him to hurry.

Jiyong bent down and kissed Dara on the lips, tasting the edges of coppery blood and her strawberry chocolate lip-gloss. He wondered what would’ve happened if neither of them had chosen this life, if they had lead normal lives. Would everything have turned out differently, would they still be friends, would he have acted on that blush or the platonic nights they’d spent together. Could they have been more than friends, married by now with children and normal jobs with normal friends?

“Nah.” He couldn’t think of doing anything but this. Dara began to stir, awakened by his sudden burst of speech. “Shhh D.” He bent down again and quietly whispered, almost on her lips “I had a crush on you when we were younger and some days I think I still might. I love you Dara.” Kissing her once more, he shut his eyes and hers flipped open.

Pulling his face away, eyes still closed he felt a hand in his hair, pulling him back down. “I had a crush on you too.” Dara was awake, fully functional and ready to give it straight back. Their lips met, Jiyong still shocked but the ‘bad boy’ of flying living up to his reputation. Fingers running through his hair, Dara had the other hand on his chest running her hand over the strong muscles of Jiyong’s stomach. He nibbled her lip, producing a small moan from Dara. Jiyong pulled away, his hand covering .

“Shh. You’re in hospital and all that’s protecting us from being caught out is that flimsy little bit of material there.” He pointed at the screen, shielding them from the prying eyes of the medical staff.

“And that’s stopped you before?” Dara smirked, knowing that Jiyong had a playboy reputation when he was on shore.

“Three more weeks.” Jiyong straightened, pulling his hair from Dara’s grasp.

“Till what?” Dara shrugged then her face tensed with pain.

“Shore leave.” Jiyong smirked and kissed Dara on the head. “I’m going to go have a cold shower and a sleep. See you tomorrow.”

“Ok.” Dara’s face dropped. “See you then.” Jiyong pushed the flimsy sheet away and walked towards the exit, only looking over his shoulder once.  

AN.

So this chapter got deleted in the switch over/ random attack so I'm reposting it. sorry if this is the second time you read it. I actually <3 this cahppie so much. It makes me laugh and cringe that I wrote it, all at the same time. 

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