Hi there. It's been a while. I'm trying to get back into the right mindset for finishing my other H&A stories and so started to write this little thing here after chatting about it with Braxtonboyzz123. This one is for her!

It's loosely based on the Morgan siblings' plane crash storyline.


CHAPTER ONE

In the Air

They don't hear the sputtering of the engine over their laughter. But the pilot does. Shooting a nervous glance out the window at the turbines, his heart plummets. Smoke.

This isn't good.

"Everyone!" he shouts back, but those Braxtons are a loud crowd and he can't get through to them. "Oi! Put your seatbelts on, I think we're going down!"


The grin slips off Heath's face the instant the pilot's words register with him, but Casey and Kyle are still laughing, the girls, too. Everyone is having way too much fun on this plane trip. After all, it's not every day one of them wins a pleasure ride above the clouds.

The pilot yells something again, but Heath isn't quite sure what. It's damn loud in the small machine. A frown grows on his face when he catches the pilot's gaze. Sweat is blooming on the man's upper lip, he can see it all the way from where he's sitting. Then the pilot turns away again, and Heath peels himself out of his seat.

"Oi, mate! What's going on?" he asks as he makes his way through the few rows of seats until he's at the cockpit, peeking in.

"Something isn't right, mate. Tell'em to put their seatbelts on, I'm not sure I'll be able to bring this baby down smoothly."

"What?"

"We're gonna crash if I can't get this thing to stabilize. I lost a turbine."

"The hell you saying? How can you lose a damn turbine?"

Heath looks out the window, only then realizing what the man means. Smoke and flames are coming out of one side of the airplane. And that's when it hits him.

They are going down. Shooting a glance back at his wife, his brothers, a ripple of primal fear crosses Heath's back.

"Oi!" he yells, propelling back toward them as fast as he can. "Put your seatbelts on! Now now now! Case! Kyle! Oi!"

There's this one second where they stare at him, their world still okay while his is already in shambles, and his heart breaks as their gazes are all trained on him one second, before the truth catches up with them and fear blooms behind their eyes.

At that moment he reaches Bianca, clutching her arms with too much force.

"The hell is going on? Heath?" Case hollers over, but Heath can't take his eyes off Bianca.

"You're scaring me," she breathes.

"Seatbelts on, now! Heads down!"

"Heath!"

"I need you to do this, Case. Now. Kylie, you too. Help the girls!"

"Babe."

Heath can't swallow around the giant boulder in his throat as Bianca stares up at him while he tries to strap her in like a dad would his child. He's just glad Darce and Harley aren't here.

"It's gonna be okay," he tells her, and Bianca nods. There's no conviction behind the small gesture. But he has no time to worry about that because right then, the plane does go down.


Kyle realizes something isn't right the second Heath comes racing back from the cockpit. One moment, he's still horsing around with Casey, Tamara laughing a little too much at the stupid joke he made, the next, he finds himself trying to process Heath telling them to put their seatbelts on while he already slams hard against the roof of their little plane.

He has no time to think.

Everything is just limbs and pain and a whirl of fragmented images. Tamara's eyes wide, her mouth open as she screams. Denny flying past him as Case collides with a row of seats. Bianca whips forward in her seat, clutching at Heath's arms. Heath's legs are up in the air as if there's no gravity, and out the window flames are licking at the sky as the ground whooshes closer. Too fast.

Kyle's back feels sticky. His head is pounding. A glittery rain of glass comes flying toward him. His stomach plummets down into his guts. Pressed against the roof of the plane, he tries to understand, to think, to function, to do something. But he can't.

A hard smack. Then, nothing.


Casey is panicking. His brothers are flying around, fire is eating its way toward them. They're all going to die.

He's holding Denny's hand in a death grip. He can't let go; he can't let go. She's not strapped in and if he does, she'll fly away.

To their side, the world rushes up to meet them. He tightens his hold on Denny once more, their gazes locked. A giant thud punches all air out of him, the window breaks away. Heat sucks out the oxygen around him and he can't breathe. He can't breathe or see. His hand and his arm collide with something. Pain explodes in him and he loses his grip on Denny's hand.

She's gone.

And so is he.


When Ash pokes his head into Angelo's with that odd expression, Brax knows something's up. He's seen that look on his friend's face a couple of times, and it was never anything good.

"What?"

"It's Gunno, mate. Heard he's got someone to do a hit on you. I don't know who or where or when. But it's going down soon."

Brax puts away the glass he's been polishing and places the towel on its rack with slow movements as he stares at Ash.

"Gunno, eh?"

"Yup."

"Who told you?"

"Guy I know from before."

Brax understands without further explanation. They all still have their contacts from their time "inside." He rubs his chin, nodding more to himself than Ash. There're a few things he can do now, a few he'll have to do later. He takes his phone out of his pocket. First, he'll alert Ricky and his brothers. He's already got his phone out, tapping at the screen, once, twice, three times.

Not one of his brothers is replying. Crap. He tries the next number, tapping the counter before him while Ash watches him from a safe distance.

"Want me to try 'em, too?"

He nods, just as Ricky picks up.

"Hey, I was about to—"

"Where are you?"

"On my way back from the airport. The boys all went on this plane trip but I have a major photo-shoot later today and since you didn't seem to have time anyways ..."

"Plane trip?" What friggin plane trip? Brax's hackles are raised. Something doesn't sound right about it. A plane trip right when Gunno is out to get him again? He doesn't believe in coincidence.

"Bianca won this pleasure ride, remember? They said they wanted us to come, too. But I had my photography gig and you had some business, too, at the restaurant?"

She sounds like he should remember what this is about, but he can't quite think. A plane ride is the perfect opportunity someone like Gunno would use.

And then he does remember. Kyle, Case, Heath and their girls all laughing and goofing around, trying to persuade him to come on the trip. And Brax? Was rolling his eyes, putting up with their antics for a bit before he shook them all off and told them he had more important things to do. A business owner can't just take random pleasure trips, after all.

"Meet me here, Ricky. ASAP."

"What's going on, Brax? You're making me anxious."

"Just get here, alright?"

He hangs up, his gaze locking on Ash's.

"Mate …"

His heart drops at Ash's ominous tone, the look he gives him.

"Say it."

"I tried the airport. One of their planes just dropped off their radar."

No.