Chapter Text
Now, much more involved with the pilots, Emma even had her own callsign. They called her Little Bird on account of her habit of giving the losers that came to see her tips for their next round: “a little bird told me” turned into “Little Bird told me.” By the next summer, she was hanging out with them outside of the Hard Deck.
“Hey, what’s up?” Emma answered her phone.
“Nothing much,” Phoenix replied, “You doing anything this afternoon?”
“Didn’t have any plans. Why?”
“A group of us are going to the beach. Wanna come so I’m not the only gal?”
“Sure, why not? I’m helping Penny unload some freight this morning but I’ll meet you out there when I’m done.”
“Sounds good, see you then.”
They hung up, and Emma started moving about her apartment to get ready for work. She packed a bag with her towel and beach supplies and put on her one piece, wearing it like a bodysuit with some jean shorts.
She got to the Hard Deck, and Penny was already there. Amelia and Maverick were sitting at the bar. He was helping the girl with some homework. Emma smiled. It was sweet how fatherly he was with his step-daughter as well as the pilots. Many of them didn’t have great home lives or were just missing having a parental figure with how much the navy keeps them away.
She must have been staring for longer than she thought because Penny appeared at her shoulder, “They’re cute, aren’t they?”
“Oh yeah, you should have seen him when Rooster stubbed his toe last week.”
They were both laughing, and Maverick looked up, “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, honey,” Penny said with a cheeky grin, “Don’t let us distract you.”
The two girls got to work moving bottles from boxes to shelves. It worked up a sweat, but Emma liked these days. Chatting with Penny in the stockroom was much more fun than dealing with drunk customers. Around 11 she could see a group that might have been her friends from the windows of the bar. By noon they had finished unpacking, so she grabbed her bag and left out the back door. It was indeed her friends. Having spotted her, Phoenix jogged to meet her halfway.
“Glad you could join us. The boys” - Rooster, Bob, Hangman, and Coyote - “wanted to play dogfight football. If you don’t want to, I’ll sit out with you.”
“No, I'll play.” It really did sound like fun.
“Great! You’re with Seresin and Machado.”
Bradley yelled at the girls from where he was setting up his beach umbrella, “Hey, why don’t I get Little Bird?”
“Why Rooster? Scared of losing to me?” Emma yelled back.
“Oh, now it’s on!”
The six of them played for hours. Hangman was the first to leave; he’d walked back up to the bar around the time the diner rush started. Javy had made a joke about bros before babes, but he followed soon after. The four left moved the game a little closer to the surf, and Bob joined Emma’s team.
“No offense to Bob, but this feels a little uneven,” she said with her hands on her hips.
Rooster smirked, quoting her, “What, scared of losing to me?”
“Nevermind. Bob and I are going to kick your ass specifically, Bradshaw.”
Emma and Bob, in fact, did not win. However, Bob did manage to tackle Rooster into the waves once, so that’s something. Over the course of the evening, football devolved into catch into just swimming.
After sharing a look with Bob that Emma could not decipher and Bradley did not notice, Phoenix loudly announced, “Alright, I’m cold. I’m going in.”
“Me too.” Bob was a little more awkward about it.
Emma’s brows furrowed, “Um, okay,” too put off to form any thoughts about it in the moment.
She watched the pair make their way up the beach, “That was odd, wasn’t it?”
Rooster shrugged, “Those two are always up to something.”
“Does it come with the job?” Emma bumped her shoulder against his; they had grabbed their towels and were sitting under his umbrella. The sun had just started setting.
“Does what?”
“Having a plan, trying to be two steps ahead.”
“For Bob, yeah I’d say so, but Nat’s always been a ringleader. Even if she doesn’t have a plan, she’s quick on her feet and people follow her regardless.”
“What about you?”
“Oh I’ve got everything under control.”
“Really?” sceptical didn’t quite cover her tone of voice.
“No,” he deadpanned. It pulled a laugh from her throat and then they were both losing it.
What they were not aware of was the small crowd that had gathered around the back windows of the Hard Deck.
“We need to get those two together.”
“They’re hanging out right now, Nix.”
“Bob, you know what I mean.”
“Trace is right. Bradshaw needs to man up and ask her out,” Hangman, unsurprisingly, commented.
Penny spoke up from the back, “If you’re gonna set our kids up with each other, at least let us help.”