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The day that Bradley Bradshaw found out that the reason he wasn’t accepted into the Naval Academy was because an upper ranking Captain had pulled his papers was the third hardest day of Bradley’s life.
One and two were the days his parents died. Three was the day he lost his uncle.
Because even if Mav was still there, at that moment in time Pete ‘Maverick’ Michell was out of his life.
No, not for good (and he would never say that Mav was “dead to him” having understood what that meant all too well) because Bradley had lost enough family and assumed that one day he and Mav would have some small part in each other’s lives again.
But that day, the third hardest day, still is fresh in his memory. How he drove up to Mav’s hangar, in a pissed beyond anything he’s ever experienced before, slightly drunk and a little hungover, and full of a rage he didn’t know he was capable of.
To his surprise, soon-to-be Admiral Kazansky was there too, talking with Mav in quiet tones.
Mav puts his hands up as soon as he sees Bradley storm out of the car without even turning it off.
“Did you pull my fucking papers?” Bradley yells as he storms over to him.
“Bradley.” Mav says in a voice that is too calm and pisses him off even more.
”It is a simple yes or no goddam question, Mav.”
“Yes I-“
Before Mav could even finish his sentence Bradley is on him. He gets in one good swing before Kazansky roughly grabs him by the arms and pulls him back.
”You had no right!” Bradley yells as he fights against the older man.
“You aren’t ready.” Mav simply says.
Bradley points at him. “You don’t have the fucking right to make that call!”
“As your legal guardian I do. Besides,” Mav says wiping his bleeding nose, “it’s done now.”
“And I’m just going to apply again.”
Mav shook his head. “I really wish you wouldn’t.”
Bradley was fuming. “You know, Mav,” he starts, nothing remotely compassionate in his tone, “I know you feel guilty about getting one Bradshaw killed already, but you don’t have to kill my career to ease your aching conscience.”
“That’s enough, Bradley.” Kazansky says from behind him.
Bradley turns to him. “You’re right, sir.” He says as he pulls himself away from him and turns to go back to the car. “You know,” he says as he swings the door even wider, all these years you’ve tried to be a dad to me, but at the end of the day all you are is the son of a bitch who killed my dad and ruined my life.”
He slams the door and drives off and doesn’t even realize he is back at his mom’s place until he’s standing at the front door. He hadn’t been there since her funeral. He’d been living with Mav for the past three months but Mav had kept the house for when he moved out.
At the time, before Mav had pulled his papers and Bradley pushed away the only family he had left, Bradley secretly thought of selling the place and asking Mav to permanently live with him. As he let himself into the house he would much rather of left behind he figures he might as well get used to it because he can’t go back to Mav.
The reality of it hits him like a freight train. The thought of never seeing his uncle Mav again, the hurt on his face at the hangar, the shock and disbelief and acceptance of it all. It crashes down on Bradley until he feels like he’s unable to breathe.
He makes his way to the back porch and collapses on the step there, sobs wracking his entire body. He’s not surprised he doesn’t hear the second person until the sliding door opens.
”Well that was a real shit show.” He looks up and sees Kazansky standing there.
“What are you doing here?”
Kazansky sits down next to him. “As much pain as you caused Mav back there, for some odd reason he cares so much about you he asked me to come check on you.”
“I don’t care about Mav.”
Kazansky looks at him softly. “Then why you crying so much, kid.”
And Bradley hates him because he’s right. Because Bradley has lost so many people in his life and he’s only nineteen and completely and totally alone in this world.
He’s not sure why he says it. “He hates me now, doesn’t he?”
“Oh, kid.” He says softly. “Mav is capable of a lot of things, but hating you has never been one of them.”
Bradley turned to him. “I can’t forgive him for this.”
Kazansky sighs. “I know.”
“You do?”
“I’ve known Mav a very long time, and I know sometimes he makes decisions that have you scratching your head and pulling your hair out. But every single one of them he does for a reason. I’m not saying he was right doing what he did, but I’m saying trust that he has a reason. When I was your age, being in the Navy was the only thing that mattered to me, and if someone took that away from me I would react the same way you just did and probably worse.”
Kazansky met his eyes. “That doesn’t mean you were right to say the things you did. But Mav and I both know you’re just angry. That anger will pass, kid, and it is up to you to decide how you’re gonna deal with that.”
Bradley sniffles. “I don’t want to be alone.”
Kasiniski puts his arm on his shoulders. “You know I have kids of my own now and one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that even when we fight, even when they drive me nuts, I’m still there for them. As long as I’m alive they’re never alone.”
“That’s great, sir but I don’t have a father.”
“Yes you do, kid. Yes you do.”
~
Bradley sits on his porch long after Kazansky leaves and makes a decision. He thought about deleting Mav’s number, he thinks about running away and joining the military anyway.
But instead he sends Mav a text. I don’t forgive you and I am not sure I ever will.
Mav responds immediately. Just don’t cut me out, kid.
I need space.
I’ll be here when you’re ready. I love you.
Bradley doesn’t respond which he thinks is a little petty but more than fair.
Eventually he picks himself up off the porch and back inside the house. It takes a couple of days but he starts functioning like a normal person again. The house is too empty so he invites some friends to move in and they end up all going to the nearest university together. Bradley picks a major he has no interest in so he can join the Navy as soon as he graduates.
He thinks of Mav everyday until one day during finals week he realizes he hasn’t thought of him in at least three days and the thought makes him sad, but then he remembers that he’s stuck in a library when he should be in a plane and the sadness turns back to bitterness.
Mav texts wishing him a Merry Christmas and Bradley doesn’t respond.
Mav sends him a birthday card, something stupid with a joke on the front and in the card tells him he’s on assignment for at minimum six months out of the country and Bradley wonders who he pissed off this time. Inside the card is a phone number that he assumes belongs to Kazansky and instructions to call him if he needs anything.
Bradley throws the card away and later denies going back through the trash and keeping it under his bed in a shoebox.
He passes all his classes and life goes on as normal. His summer is boring and he spends it working as a lifeguard. He figures if he can’t join the Navy he might as well be in the fucking Coast Guard.
He texts the number seven months after he gets the card to make sure Mav got back.
Kazansky replies a simple he’s home and Bradley feels a weight off his chest he didn’t realize was sitting there for seven straight months and thinks nothing of it.
The two continue maneuvering like this. Mav never missing a Christmas or birthday and Bradley never responding. It continues for four years until Bradley thinks he spots Mav at his graduation. He thinks he sees him out of the corner of his eye, but when he turns his head back he’s gone. He never knows if Mav was actually there or not, but the graduation card waiting for him by his front door is evidence enough.
Bradley applies and gets into the Navy, waiting until both Mav and Kazansky are out on assignment to send in his papers.
As he should have been four years ago, he is immediately accepted and put into the program.
That year he doesn’t get a birthday card or a Christmas text, but he figures it’s more than fair and tries to move on with his life.
He goes in and meets Natasha and falls in love, at least platonically. She quickly becomes his best friend, and he confides in her about his past, leaving out the famous name of his uncle and uncle’s best friend. She says she understands and that she’s here for him, and Bradley - now going by Rooster - finally feels like he’s not alone anymore
The day he finds out he’s getting sent to Top Gun he drives to his mom and dad’s graves and just sits there. His phone dings and it’s from a number he thought would have been deleted when he got his new phone and it just reads, he’s proud of you and Bradley knows it’s from Mav.
He meets Hangman and wants to wring his neck daily, but for the most part Top Gun is harder than he thought it would be. The flying is easy, he’s always had a knack for it, but he didn’t realize how much everything would remind him of his dad, remind him of Mav.
He’d been there three days before he walked in on Hangman and Coyote in the locker room talking about the legendary Maverick, the pilot who drove everyone nuts until he killed his RIO in a freak accident. Rooster yells at them, something about not talking about things they know nothing about, and since that moment Hangman had always had it out for him.
It wasn’t just Hangman. The pictures of his dad everywhere, the constant talks of Mav and his adventures, the knowledge that his dad was here and that this was where he died sent him in a tailspin almost every night. He thought about how he was older than his dad now, that he had been for a couple years. Soon would mark more years since his passing than he was actually alive and Rooster didn’t quite know what to do with that fact.
On the day he and Phoenix graduated Top Gun Rooster left the Hard Deck early and went back to the place he went when he first found out he was being sent there.
He took a beer can with him and cracked one open with his folks and sat there with them all night. When he bothered to look at his phone the next morning he had multiple missed texts and calls. One of them from Kasinski congratulating him but unsurprisingly none from Mav.
He supposed if Mav’s whole purpose for pulling his papers was to keep him out of Top Gun he probably didn’t want to congratulate him from graduating.Bradley convinced himself that this was okay because now he had a new family and he didn’t need Mav anymore and that he never did in the first place.
Years pass and at twenty six Rooster is hospitalized for the first time. It’s not good, a bird strike caused his engine to go and he ejected too late, busting his ankle and wrist on the way down.
Phoenix sends him flowers and his wingmen and other friends send him the same.
Phoenix is with him when he gets the text. She immediately leans closer. “Jesus, Roo what’s wrong?” He looks up at her.
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit, you went all pale and panicky.”
He tries to give her a smile. “Just got a text from someone I haven’t heard from in a while. It threw me, that's all.”
“What does it say?”
“Just asking me how I’m doing.”
“And you reacted like that?” She asked skeptically.
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time.”
And he tells her the abridged version and later when she leaves, he’s had time to stare at it and replies with a simple I’ll survive and when he wakes up the next morning and sees a notification from that same number with a ‘thank God. I miss you, kid’ he promptly goes back to his policy of not responding to Mav’s texts.
He gets put on rest leave for two weeks and decides he might as well go home, especially since the ten year anniversary of his mother’s passing is in three days and he’d really like to spend it with her.
So he gets up early, puts on one of his dad’s old Hawaiian shirts and goes to the familiar spot. He’s been there an hour before he hears footsteps and a small part of him gets excited at who that might be.
At first the person behind him doesn’t say anything. Bradley decides that if there’s one day to put things aside for a second it might as well be this day.
“You don’t have to stand back there.”
“I can come back later.”
Bradley hears Mav’s voice for the first time in nine years and for just a second it’s almost as if no time passed at all. Just for a second before the memory of what Mav did, what it cost him, and the look on his face in that warehouse all came back.
“No.” Bradley decided. “She’d want us to be together.”
And so the two of them sit together for what feels like hours, neither one saying anything. Eventually Mav breaks the silence. “Did I ever tell you about the first time I met your mother?”
Just like that the silence is broken and Mav tells Bradley stories about his mom until the sun goes down. He tells her how they met, how his dad proposed, how she was best friend after Goose and how much she loved him. Mav reassures Bradley of how much she loved him, and something about it all feels good and feels light.
“I’m leaving for another assignment. Three years this time.” Mav says abruptly ending it.
Bradley turns to him. “That’s a long time, Mav.”
Mav just nods. “I was going to tell you.”
Bradley nods back. “Am I allowed to ask where?”
Mav just offers him a sad smile. “Right.”
“If you need anything-“
“I’ll be fine.”
“I know you will be.”
The lightness is gone and instead an awkwardness returns. There’s a lot hanging in the air suddenly, and Bradley feels like the air is too constricting, even though they're outside.
“I really should be getting back.” He says not able to meet Mav’s eyes.
”Me too.”
The two leave together and when they go to separate give each other a quick and too short hug.
”Right.” Mav says taking a step back.
“I’ll see you around.” Bradley says knowing he won’t.
Mav gives him that same sad smile and turns away to walk towards his bike. “Hey Mav!” Bradley calls. Mav turns to him and Bradley sees the small flicker of hope on his face. “Stay safe, alright?”
Mav gives him a wider smile, still sad. “You too, kid. You too.”
~
Bradley is thirty when he’s sent to the hospital again, and while the last time was bad this time is horrendously worse. He is told later that he was flying what was supposed to be a peaceful mission with another pilot to deliver supplies to some war torn country. Apparently some idiot on the ground was on the wrong frequency, saw the plane coming, assumed the worst, and opened fire. The gun was an ancient piece of shit, but it did it’s job. It was on route to take out the other plane before Rooster, the self sacrificing idiotic martyr that he is - Phoenix’s words, not his - put his plane in front of theirs taking the blunt of the hits and promptly crashing into a mountain.
It’s a miracle he’s alive, and frankly the doctors are surprised he is. Apparently he was out for a week and when he wakes up is told it will most likely be a year before he flies again.
Phoenix gives him crap, hugs him for being alive and yells at him for the stunt he pulled. Apparently his actions get him attention because Hangman shows up, cockily entering his room and declaring that this was proof he was indeed the better pilot. It’s in the middle of him and Phoenix yelling at each other and Rooster lazily watching the two when someone else walks in the room and Phoenix and Hangman immediately shut up and straighten up.
It’s only after the salute that Bradley realizes who entered. “At ease.” Admiral Kazansky says to the two lieutenants. “Would you two mind giving us a few minutes of alone time?”
Phoenix looks back at Rooster and he nods and her and Hangman reluctantly leave the room. Hangman shoots Rooster a confused look but Rooster just ignores it.
As soon as the two of them leave Kazansky drops some of the formalities and slumps into the chair next to him. “Jesus kid, you had me scared.”
“Had a lot of people scared apparently.”
Kazansky put his hand on his shoulder. “Don’t you ever do that again.”
It’s silent for a while before Bradley speaks. “Does he know?”
The admiral looks at him. “Does who know?”
“Respectfully sir, I may have a concussion but I don’t have brain damage.”
He chuckles and lets out a sigh. “He’s still on assignment but yes, he knows. The only reason he’s not going awol and flying back here right now is because I told him I’d go in and check on you.”
“So this is an obligatory check up then, sir?”
Kazansky chuckled. “No, you smart ass I would have come even if Mav didn’t ask me too. I come to the hospital beds of all my gravely injured pilots.”
“Oh.”
Kazansky sighed. “But I would be lying if I said this wasn’t also personal as hell.” He leaned towards him. “I saw your chart but… how bad is it?”
“Severe concussion, broken ribs, shattered ankle, some pretty nasty cuts and bruises all over and a broken finger or two.” He sighed. “The doctors all say I’m lucky.”
Kazansky squinted. “This is lucky?”
“Better than dead.”
“Yeah,” he laughed humorously, “anything is better than that.” There’s a silence in the room that is only interrupted by Bradley’s breathing and the beeping of machines. “When I got the call that your plane had gone down, the first thing I thought about was your dad.” He looked at him. “Did Mav ever tell you that I was there that day? Jesus, it was a freak accident for sure but I sure as hell didn’t help.”
Bradley squinted. “What is this?”
“Like hell if I know.” Kazansky put his hand over his face. “I think back then we thought we were invincible. That nothing could ground us. Your uncle and I would goad each other into doing some stupid things, and that day was no exception.”
“All pilots were cleared. It was ruled an accident.”
“The jetwash from my plane caused the initial spin out.” Kazansky admitted and Bradley felt like his blood had turned to ice. “Your dad and Mav were trying to get a shot that I couldn't take. I was pissed and I cut right in front of them. If it is anybody’s fault what happened to your dad… it’s mine.”
Bradley’s voice was hoarse. “Why are you telling me all this?”
“Because you can’t stay mad at Mav forever. You should have heard him on the phone when I called him. He sounded just like he did all those years ago. So I’m just saying please, for his sake and yours, make up.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than that.”
“Like hell it is. You two are family.”
“Not anymore.”
“Family isn’t just something you can choose to have one day and loose the next, son.”
“Really? Tell that to my mom and dad.”
Kazansky just sighed sadly. “Listen kid, just…” he put his hand on Bradley’s knee and stood up. “Be careful, okay. I don’t think he could take losing you.”
Kazansky was halfway out the door when he heard Bradley mutter something. “He already has.”
He shook his head. “As long as there is breath in his lungs, Mav won’t give up on you. I’m just asking you to do the same.”
Rooster undergoes a long process of healing. He gets situated at his mom’s for the first couple weeks and is constantly surrounded by Phoenix and his fellow aviators. He realizes how many friends he actually has, and he would be lying if he said the number didn’t surprise him. Buddies from high school and college swing by and his fellow aviators come by in what appears like droves.
Later he finds out that Phoenix put them all on Rooster duty, checking in on him in what seemed like random periods but actually carefully designed by her to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. Even Hangman came by once, although instead of looking after Rooster he just challenged him to a game of pool at the Hard Deck which nearly caused him to bust open his stitches. Needless to say, most likely under threat from Phoenix, he didn’t come back.
He takes his recovery seriously and in six months he’s back in the air again. He’s slower than he was before, but he doesn’t care because at least he’s flying.
He’s considering reaching out to Mav, decides that this is gone on long enough, but one day after he’s finally back in the air he’s told that he’s been given another assignment. He’s excited at first and then he hears the assignment is not only boring but also almost entirely on the ground.
He looks at the Captain giving it to him. “Are you serious, sir?”
He shrugged sympathetically. “Orders from higher up.”
“From how higher up?”
The captain looks left and right and turns back to him. “Listen, Bradshaw I’m only telling you this because I like you but apparently the order came from Admiral Kazansky’s desk.”
Any thoughts of reconciling with Mav are gone. He gives the captain a quick nod of thanks and storms out. His first instinct is to get drunk which is exactly what he does. After he’s four beers in he looks at his phone and decides maybe he will reach out to Mav afterall.
“Bradley?” The other voice sounds surprised. Almost panicked. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“How could you do this to me?” Bradley’s voice sounds foreign, even to him.
“What are you talking about?”
“How stupid do you think I am? My most recent assignment. Desk work, Mav!”
“Bradley listen-”
The anger comes up, the rage. “Sending me back four years wasn’t enough for you? Now you pull this? This is bullshit!”
“You’re not ready to be flying again.” He said calmly.
“And how the fuck would you know? You’ve never even seen me fly!” The realization hits him. “Oh my God. You’ve been pulling my reports haven’t you? You’ve been keeping tabs, all this time without telling me.”
It’s silent on the other end except for a quiet breathing. “I did it to protect you.”
“Has any of my career been because of how good of a pilot I am or have you been pulling the strings the whole time?”
“Now hold on, I never interfered unless-”
“Bullshit! Now it makes sense.” He almost laughs. It’s not funny, but if he reacted any other way it would involve him throwing his phone into the fucking wall. “While everyone else was getting advanced missions I was always stuck doing the boring stuff. Always stuck up in the coop waiting till I could be given a chance. I always thought it was God or my dad or someone up there punishing me, but I never thought you would go that low.”
“Bradley-”
“You know I thought about reaching out? Kazansky said some pretty nice stuff to me about you but I can see how that is bullshit too. I thought ‘hey, maybe it’s time for Mav and I to bury this’ and then you pull this shit.”
“I would still want that.” Mav said quietly.
“Oh I bet you would.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No you’re fucking not.”
He heard Mav sigh on the other end. “I could never be sorry if it keeps you safe.”
Bradley just hangs up the phone because he doesn’t trust himself not to start crying and he refuses to do that in front of Mav. Instead he downs some more beers and writes a pretty compelling request to be sent somewhere else, anywhere where he can be totally and completely secluded from everyone else.
He’s not stupid so he sends it to a general he knows that doesn’t like Kazansky, and he sends it out hoping for the best.
He gets a reply the next day. The general is surprised anyone would request this assignment, as it’s out of the country in the middle of nowhere with practically no outside communication for an undisclosed amount of time. Rooster thinks it sounds fucking amazing and agrees.
He sleeps for the rest of the day and ignores every message except the call from Phoenix. She yells at him and he sits there quietly until she realizes how stubborn he is and threatens him to try and write as much as he can.
And so he goes. It’s miserable but he makes the best of it. Sometimes at night he’s ashamed to admit that it gives him joy knowing that he probably pissed Mav off. He can picture him yelling at Kazansky, but Rooster could’t find it in himself to care. The only communication he gets is the brief encoded messages from Phoenix and one from Admiral Kazansky himself.
“That was some stupid shit you pulled, but I understand why. Stay safe” Rooster couldn't help his grin. Especially the part underneath it. “And yes… he’s pissed.”
After three years he finds himself enjoying the assignment. Even when the days are long and cold - so fucking cold - he has joy knowing that for the first time in his life he is completely and totally free. Well… as free as you can be in the Navy.
He makes friends and together they make life bearable. There is a lot of drinking and a lot of card games, but more importantly he’s flying and Rooster thinks he could get used to this. He misses Phoenix and he misses his mom’s house, but besides that he’s content. He is three years, eight months, and six days into his assignment when he is called back to the states.
Not just called back to the states, but called back to Top Gun. At first he doesn’t want to go. It sounds too suspicious, too much like a stunt Mav would pull.
There’s a small part, a very very small part of him, that gets excited at seeing Mav again. He quickly shuts that part up and instead allows himself to say yes to finally get the chance to prove himself… and if it means he gets to see Phoenix again then that’s just an added bonus.
It’s sadder than he thought it would be when he leaves, but as soon as he gets underneath that California sun again some of that sadness is replaced. The first thing he does when he gets stateside is goes to his mom’s. There’s something comforting about the fact that it is just how he left it. He pays a neighbor to check on it every once and a while, and he sees that she’s even left the mail he’s gotten on the living room table for him.
It’s quite an impressive stack, and as Bradley sorts through it a card catches his attention. He opens it up and sees that sometime after his assignment started Mav started sending him birthday cards again. He knew that Mav knew he would be gone, but he also knew that Mav had no way of reaching him. Bradley isn’t sure what to do with the information, so instead he just puts them in his bag, and goes to the only other place he’s missed, The Hard Deck.
As he gets out of his Jeep he sees that the place has been updated, but even so it still has the same feel as it did when he was in Top Gun. When he steps into the bar he immediately sees familiar faces and walks towards them.
He’s not sure why he was called back. He’s not even sure if he wants to be back. But something inside of him tells him that this is where he’s meant to be and he takes that something and runs with it.