Chapter Text
I remember how I held you so right
I remember that Saturday night, do you?
There will be days when you're falling down
There will be days when you're inside out
There will be days when you fall apart
Someone else will break you heart
They're never gonna hold you back
I'm always gonna have your back
So try to remember that
I hope you're happy
I hope you're good
I hope you get what you wish for
And you're well understood
And whatever your progress
I know you'll be fine
Because I hope you're happy
Even if you're not mine
I remember when the world was ours to take
I remember you next to me
I remember you with every breath I take
You'll always have a piece of me
I remember, yeah
Try to remember that
I remember every word that we spoke
You right here next to me
I remember how we tried and we tried
I remember everything
Try to remember that
That I hope you're happy
That I hope you're happy
Blue October - I hope you're happy
-
Mav regretted his most recent life choices.
Obliviously not for the first time in his life he regretted his life choices.
And even if in the grand scheme of things getting way too drunk with Hollywood, Wolfe, Hondo, Chipper and Merlin on his birthday wasn't that big of a life regret, morning after it felt like one of his biggest life regrets.
He drank way too much for his age.
He didn't remember the last time he had that bad hangover.
But how could he not get drunk?
Not only he didn't have his kid on his birthday, (he would never have his kid again) but Navy fucked them over like always and Tom unexpectedly had to leave for Washington pretty much last minute.
In a better world he could go with Tom to Washington, but in this world going to Washington would simply be too painful for Mav.
Bradley would be so close, yet still out of reach.
Mav wouldn't be able to handle that.
(And he knew if he went with Tom to Washington he would end up trying to stalk Bradley in Annapolis like a creeper.)
Especially since he was turning forty years old.
He remembered both Goose and Carole telling him many times to slow down and be more careful in general because they didn't want to watch him die before forty.
Life is a funny thing, because he was the one of that trio that got to turn forty.
(He had to watch them die before forty. And Goose didn't even get to turn thirty.)
So in general turning forty ended up hitting Mav way harder than he ever expected.
The end result was that since he stayed behind in San Diego alone without his wingman, he 'celebrated' his birthday by getting way too fucking drunk with his friends that could make it to town.
Now he was paying the price, because bad hangovers at forty were REALLY BAD.
-
Ice called him when he was almost napping on the bathroom floor.
He decided to lie on the floor for a second after puking in the toilet, and then realized that getting up would be too much work, so he almost fell asleep listening to Chipper snoring.
Because for some weird reason Chipper was asleep in his bathtub.
Mav was really confused why he chose to sleep in his bathtub.
He knew why Chipper wasn't sleeping in his and Ice's bed, because Mav woke up sandwiched between Hondo and Merlin, with Hollywood kind of sleeping in their legs by the end of bed. (Mav was a little concerned that Wolf wasn't anywhere Holly and that was very suspicious, but he was a little too hangover to care about it yet.)
Chipper liked his space, so at most he could share a bed with one person, but still.
They had a nice guest room and two couches that were fine enough for sleeping, like even their bedroom shaggy carpet was probably more comfortable than a bathtub, but he figured out that by now he should know better than to question drunk Chipper choices.
Mav was actually just mostly impressed by the fact that his loud puking didn't wake Chipper up.
-
He answered his phone with: "Listen, I love you, but unless you are dying I can't talk right now, I'm too tired." He managed to say.
Because talking was really too much work. He had a floor bathroom nap to get back to.
"You mean hangover not tried, but that's too bad anyway, because I have a late birthday surprise for you, that can't wait. I know you will like it." Tom said in voice that Mav would recognize as 'his beyond excited but hiding it' voice, and would probably realize it was about something actually important if he wasn't so hungover AND tried.
He took a deep breath before forcing himself to talk again.
"Listen Ice, I know I said I wanted to try phone sex with role playing that Tampon conversation between Charles and Camilla, and we both know I was only half joking about it and would be willing if you willing but seriously not now—" He stopped suddenly when he heard a distressed gasp over the phone that definitely wasn't Ice's.
"I'm traumatized." Suddenly he heard his baby goose's voice over the line, and he was so surprised that he almost dropped his cellphone. "I literally just had a car accident, and that didn't traumatize me anywhere near as much as hearing that. I need to bleach my ears, kill myself, or both."
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