TW: Anxiety attack, brief description.

Bay scanned the screen and sure enough, there were two flashing blips racing towards them.

"Hold her steady!" Aziz shouted through the comms system.

"Aziz - get the fuck back up here," Luca grit out before activating open radio. "Bobcat we have incoming hostile, please cover us."

A moment later and Aziz was back in the aircraft with the asset and Merit was slamming the doors shut.

Both teams took off at high speed, Bobcat skirted out in front. Their only chance now was to elude the pursuing hostile aircraft.

Luca started doing 'Derry turns', going violently left and right and feinting turns but then pulling the other way to try and shake off the tail. The hostiles, however, copied the movements like clones.

"I need a new course Bay," Luca growled as they made a hard turn, diverting from Bobcat, "We can't lead these guys back."

Bay jabbed at the display, "Inputting now, there's a gorge ahead..."

"That'll do," Luca bit out.

*

"Shit!" Bay cursed as they descended into a deep rocky chasm.

"Are we losing them?" Luca asked desperately, swearing as he dipped lower.

Bay frantically checked the radar, "There's still one on our tail!"

"Aziz?" Luca called out.

"We're fine Captain," Aziz shouted back. "Us and the asset."

Bay swore again because Luca was currently going from 45 degrees of bank left to 45 degrees of bank right, the flying was insane.

Luca was narrowly navigating a devil's payoff during his max rate turns, either scraping the aircraft's ass on the outcrop to his left or brushing the rotors on the threatening cliffs either to his right.

Holy shit I think the gorge is getting narrower, tell me that's an optical illusion. Bay pleaded to himself.

"The gorge is getting narrower," Luca gasped as he palmed the controls.

Don't tell me that!

The aircraft started to jerk violently, Luca was clearly struggling to keep them on course.

"Bay - I need help," Luca rasped.

Bay’s focus crystallised and he was on the controls, typing like a madman into the systems display. Luca had reached the aircraft's G limit during the turns and he had also reached the roll rate limit already.

It was a punishing flight and the chopper wasn’t having any more of it. Trouble was, if they wanted to get out of the gorge and lose the guy tailing them...

There wasn’t much Bay could do but try to recalibrate the entire system's mainframe in a matter of minutes.

Six hours of playing Skyrim on Xbox and my finger joints are fine but now, NOW IS THE TIME MY BODY CHOOSES TO GIVE ME CARPAL TUNNEL?

Bay flexed his cramping hands desperately before re-initiating the seemingly Sisyphean task of pushing the systems controls further than they were meant to go. There were beads of sweat trickling down his forehead and his eyes started stinging from the salt.

"How about now? I'm switching to systems output B, and engaging full rate power," Bay stammered.

Luca grunted back and they banked so hard it was practically a barrel roll.

Suddenly, they were gaining height and the sonic vision showed they had shot out of the gorge at 250kts.

"We've lost the tail," Luca announced.

Bay could hear Aziz muttering a prayer of thanks in the back.

The systems display was flashing in front of Bay but he couldn't read what it was telling him, his eyes just wouldn't focus and...oh shit...no, no, no, not now.

Bay started to feel his chest contracting painfully, his breathing was spiralling out of control and there was a cold stabbing of needles racing down his spine. He could feel his palms sweating unpleasantly.

"Bay?" Luca was looking at him.

Bay tried to remember his breathing exercises, always exhale for longer than you inhale, try to find a point to focus on, something calming, it could be a memory or even a familiar smell.

Bay tried to think of the previous Thanksgiving, his Dad had forgotten to defrost the Turkey in time and they'd had to order Thai food. He still remembered the scent of the Tom yum goong soup he had shared with his Mom, laughing so loudly at his grumbling Dad.

But Bay’s mind was finding it difficult to concentrate on the image, different scenes were flashing across his head, his first day of school, breaking his ankle that one time he had tried to skateboard, then bombs going off in the desert, the steep walls of the ravine caving in on them.

"Bay?"

Bay looked up, his eyes blurred with a film of tears. Luca was frowning at him in clear concern.

"Bay your heart rate..."

"Panic attack," Bay grit out.

Bay saw a blue flashing light come up on the screen in front of him. Luca had ceased all data transmissions back to Base.

Bay guessed the crew's heart rates and physical states would normally be being monitored back in Ops. He was ridiculously grateful, if word got out he had suffered anxiety on the job he would be discharged without a second thought.

"Bay you have to lower your heart rate or I'm going to be forced to dose you with Nectar and I really don't want to have fly back without my systems operator," Luca said looking at him.

"No..no drugs...please," Bay murmured as tried to focus his mind on something simple and rhythmical like counting backwards from a hundred in lots of three or trying to name all 50 states.

"What state are you from Luca?" Bay managed to ask breathlessly.

"California."

"Shit, same as me and Benji," Bay grit his teeth, he could feel the blood in his ears, "Wonder if the three of us ever passed each other back then without knowing it. What state are you from Aziz?"

"Ohio," Aziz replied, he sounded confused.

"Merit...?"

"Colorado, just outside of Boulder"

Bay squeezed his eyes shut, the world still felt like it was caving in, as if in that one moment everything that could go wrong was going wrong.

"Bay..." Luca's voice sounded like a far off echo."Bay tell me about your hometown, tell me about what you like doing there."

Bay laughed despite himself, because, well he came from a small town in Northern California near the Oregon border and there was literally nothing to do there.

"I go walking...sometimes," Bay panted.

"Yeah, where do you walk?" Luca was talking to him as if they were sat in a waiting room somewhere.

But they weren’t. They were doing 240kts across the desert of Mikriskistan and they had been shot at.

"The woods. We've got forests all round us." Bay really liked the forest, he had used to go running there on days when he was feeling particularly restless, his headphones blaring, the smell of the pine needles around him. The earth was soft and springy.

He could feel his heart was slowing back down slightly, breathing wasn't so much of a struggle.

"Okay, you go hiking back home?" Luca continues.

"Used to, with my Mom. She always gets lost - can't read maps," Bay replied, his throat still tight.

Luca laughed and Bay continued, encouraged, "One time we stayed out there for six hours because she kept walking us round in circles. I swear to god the squirrels were mocking us."

Aziz was chuckling behind them now and Bay could feel his limbs stopping shaking. The fear was passing over now, just the dregs of a headache to deal with.

"I'm so fucking sorry," Bay squinted over at Luca.

The pilot simply nodded, “Just take a look at the systems when you can Bay."

Bay started checking them immediately and he noticed Luca reopening transmissions with Base.

They taxied back down the landing strip at Base after dropping off the rescued asset in a securely drugged but stable state at a nearby camp.

Jenkins was already waiting for them outside the warehouse doors.

"What the hell was that Jeong? Your lines went dead for about ten minutes, you could have been blown out of the sky for all we freaking knew."

Not quite true, the tracking device was still functioning but perhaps now was not the time to start splitting very precarious hairs.

Bay winced and looked at Luca to see if Bay was going to have to start looking for a new job.

Pizza delivery guy anyone? I'll probably start having anxiety on the way over to your house and eat all your pepperoni.

"Technical failure Sir," Luca replied in a monotone voice.

Bay was somewhat taken aback. Admittedly, Luca had turned off the transmissions mid-flight so Base wouldn't automatically know what was going on, but it didn’t change the fact that Bay had totally screwed up and wouldn't be shocked if Luca wanted him off the team.

Bay was undeniably unstable and no one wanted an unstable team mate in a war-zone. Bay glanced at Aziz but the winch man was remaining tight-lipped, Merit was even looking in the other direction.

"Jesus, fine, okay, get inside and get debriefed, I'll have systems operator Jones check out the software later." Jenkins grumbled, turning away from them.

They filed into the locker room along with the Bobcats who had landed shortly before them.

Bay kept flinching every time Luca moved, expecting him to wheel around and start yelling at Bay for endangering all their lives but Luca just silently started getting changed.

Everyone else was done before them and Bay took his time so it was just him and Luca in the locker room when Luca stopped what he was doing and sighed.

Bay had somewhat suspected Luca might just be being decent and waiting for everyone else to leave before he started laying into him.

"Bay," Luca began in a strained voice.

"I know,” Bay shook his head, “I know I completely fucked up, I know you needed me out there today and I...yeah...I fucked up."

"Will it happen again?" Luca wasn’t even looking at Bay. He was just staring down at his folded flight suit.

"You...you're keeping me on the team?" Bay asked tentatively.

Luca huffed, scooped up his clothes and walked towards the door, pausing before he exited,

"I'm keeping you on the team Bay, but if it happens again I'm dosing you with Nectar and you can try explaining to Jenkins why you’ve turned up to Base drooling."

The door swung shut loudly and Bay could hear his heart hammering in his chest. He was grinning, he knew it was stupid and everything could have gone so horribly differently, but he was grinning.

Because Luca was keeping him on the team.