Chapter Text
Bob was deeply saddened. he had no clue about Nat's condition, if she was alive or not, god it was terrible. He couldn't imagine what Hangman was feeling right now. All he knew was that he was safe, speaking of that, he had to let his wife know he was alright. He'd been sleeping off the pain meds they gave him at the RCA base for precaution so he hadn't had the chance to call or text anyone. Bob walked into the room he was assigned to when he and Natasha first arrived at the base. On the table, still on the charger was his phone. He picked it up and went to his contacts, he found his wife's name, Alice, and clicked on it. Bob then hit the Facetime button on her contact, it rang for a few seconds before Alice's smiling face showed up.
"Hey there honey! How's everything? Was the mission successful? Me and Brody miss you!" Alice said in a loving tone.
"Hey, honey! Uhm well the mission was successful and I'm okay but we crashed. There was a stray enemy that shot at our engine and we went down. Nat's missing, and I'm kinda freaking out." Bob said to her, though he was glad his son and wife were doing well, unlike him...and Nat.
"Oh. I'm so so sorry that that happened! I know what you're thinking right now Robert, You need to stop feeling guilty. It's not you or Natasha's fault. It was a complete accident. And I get that you must be worried, but come on, Nat is one of the strongest women you know, She had a child, and she's married to Jake. That takes some strength. Do you really think that she would look death in the face and be scared? You and her both know the good and bad sides of your job, you both know what you signed up for." Alice tried her best to calm her husband and help him see that he should not doubt Natasha.
"You're right. How is it that you women are always right? Both you and Nat are always right." Bob chuckled slightly under his breath. "Thank you for cheering me up. Uh, do you think it would be out of pocket if I called the rest of the crew at Lemoore?" Bob asked his wife.
"I think that would be a good idea, yeah. Well thank you for calling, Keep me updated, and Brody and I love you loads" Alice told him.
"Alright, I will. Love you! and send Brody a Hug from pops" Bob said with a smile.
" I will, Love you too. Bye, babe." Alice spoke just before she hung up the call.
Bob sighed, he guessed he should be the one to break the news, and he assumed that Jake was probably not going to say anything to the crew in his current state. So, he finds the group chat with everyone and clicks on it, he then clicks on the profile and hits the call button. His phone yet again rings and he gets a few notifications on who joined the call.
"Heyy! Bob! How's it hangin'?" He heard a collective amount of voices so he assumed that they were all in the same room.
"Hey guys, uhm are you all there? I have some information regarding Na- our mission." Bob hesitated.
"Oh yup, we are all here, go ahead Bob." It was Halo who spoke, sound of her ushering their friends around the phone could be heard on the other side of the line.
"Okay. So the mission was successful-" Bob was cut mid-sentence to the sounds of his friends sending congrats, Bob waited for them to finish. "Uhm, unfortunately, we crashed, A stray fighter jet came up behind us and blew out our engine...Pheonix is missing." He held his breath, not sure of the reactions from the crew.
"Aw shit. Fuuckkk, that is not good" Payback said aloud. The others were right there with him too.
"Callie it'll be okay, here..." Coyote sounded like he was comforting her. It made sense, Natasha always was close with Callie, and being the only woman in the squadron it made sense for the two of them to gravitate toward each other. It would only be natural for her to be sad. Secondhand nature actually, Bob saw them as sisters from different misters.
"I'm okay, but we did everything right, She told me to eject and then counted down, and hers was jammed. It's been a day and a half and still no sign of her, but the crews here at RCA are going to keep looking for h-" Bob cut out. There was a muffled sound on his line, The crew at Lemoore was confused.
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Bob was still on the phone with the aviators when Hatchback came into his room in a hurry, Bob turned away from his phone and faced him.
"What's wrong Chris?" Bob said with concern.
"No, Nothing bad, there's a beep. uh, a sygnal eh? From the radar, the commander thinks it's Pheonix's detector. He's sent orders for search and rescue to go out to the coordinates. He sent me to find you, to tell you. Just be ready if she comes back, okay?" Chris said in a very Canadian accent, but he ended his speech with a smile. He saluted him as she walked backward out of the door to the hallway.
Bob was now very hopeful. He wished that those beeps were Nat, he could only pray. He turned back to his phone as he heard his friends in anguish.
"Guys! They think they found where she is!" Bob exclaimed.
The voices over the phone hushed with relief, "They better!" Rooster spoke in turn.
"One of the guys who was in the RCA just came and told me that the radar picked up a beeping signal and they think that Nat is trying to use her comms, but if the jet is broken, like I am sure it is, it's not working properly. So she's back on the system and it's picking up her callsign but not her attempts to reach us." Bob took a breath as he realized how fast he was speaking.
"Thank god, I'm praying on it, Bob!" Halo exclaimed.