Chapter Text
“Rooster!”
Everyone turns, the call isn’t that odd, but the voice is. Why would their Captain be on deck after a smooth flight like that?
“My office,” he continues, “Don’t shower yet, you’ll be heading back up.”
“Yes, sir,” Rooster replies a little startled. Getting called like that made you feel like you were getting called to the principal’s office again. It didn’t normally happen unless something was wrong, but Rooster couldn’t think of anything. Shrugging at his teammates’ questioning looks, he stows his gear then follows the Captain to his office.
As soon as the door closes behind them, Captain Jensen starts with, “New orders for you, son. Special detachment out of Miramar, at least a month. They’re recalling twelve of you.”
“Yes, sir,” Rooster says bewildered, “Will I be returning once it's done?”
“Unclear, but you were about to be heading off in just over two months, so my guess is that they’ll send you elsewhere, so pack everything. They want you on a transport within the hour.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
“Dismissed.”
Rooster turns to leave, but before he can open the door, Jensen calls, “And Rooster?”
He stops and turns around, the Captain already speaking.
“If you do get new orders, just know it wasn’t my choice. You’re one of the best aviators I’ve ever had.”
Rooster smiles, Captain Jensen had always been a great guy to work under. “Thank you, sir. It’s been great serving under you, and I’d love to come back if given the option.”
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Getting back to his bunk, his roommate asks right away, “What was that about?”
“New order,” Rooster replies distractedly while pulling up his email on his phone. “I’m heading stateside in less than an hour. Shit, I need to pack.”
“Damn, must be important to pull someone already deployed. I can help, do you have anything outside the room that you need?”
“Just my gear, but I can grab that when I head up.”
“Alright, I’ll let everyone know. You know they’ll want to say bye at least.”
“Thanks,” Rooster says grinning at him. He starts throwing his non-work clothes into the bottom of his bag, then putting the dress clothes into their case before adding them to the bag. While he’s doing that, the first knock sounds, and from there almost their whole squadron streams through for twenty or so minutes before Rooster heads back up to the deck.
______________________________________
When Rooster arrives at North Island, he’s unexpectedly met by an Admiral, and salutes immediately.
Saluting back, the Admiral greats, “Lieutenant Bradshaw, I’m Admiral Bates, NAWDC Commander. Come with me.”
“Yes, sir. Am I late, sir?”
“No, not at all. The mission briefing isn’t until tomorrow. You were requested a day early.”
“Sir?” Rooster replies questioningly.
Stopping as they reach a door, Bates ushers Rooster inside his office. “Admiral Kazansky wants to meet with you today.”
Rooster freezes. He hasn’t spoken to Ice in 15 years.
Bates takes note of the reaction, but assuming it has more to do with the COMPACFLT meeting personally with a lieutenant with no notice, Bates continues, “There’s a car waiting for you out front. Address is already programmed in. I’ll let him know once you’re on the road.”
“Can I ask what this is about, sir?” Rooster manages to get out.
“I wasn’t told, Lieutenant. Just told to have a car ready and have you on your way as soon as you arrived. Should be about an hour and a half from here.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Dismissed.”
“Thank you, sir.” Rooster replies, still a little dazed. Shaking himself a little, he heads back outside where a Petty Officer is leaning against a sleek black car.
“Lieutenant Bradshaw?” he asks, saluting?
“Yes.”
“Here you go, sir,” the Petty Officer says, tossing him the keys. “Please bring her back in one piece. I know how you flyboys are.”
Barking out a short laugh, Rooster replies, “No promises.”
_________________________________________
Glancing at the address as he gets on the road, Rooster’s heart starts pounding again. It’s not the address for HQ, but Rooster doesn’t recognize it as his dads' house either. Did they move? Rooster doubted it - especially after the COMPACFLT posting, Ice needed the space for entertaining. And they hadn't said anything in any of their letters. So where was Rooster heading? Not that he wanted to go at all, but not knowing was putting him even more off-balance.
Letting that thought turn to anger, he lets it take over. Ever since Maverick and Iceman pulled his papers, anger had been an old friend. When they did that, it was noted in his file, so Bradley couldn’t even join ROTC. So between those options being taken from him, and refusing to rely on money from either of those two, it took eight years for Bradley to work his way through college. Even with the hefty scholarship he had gotten, room and board alone cost so much, and with on one to cosign a loan, that wasn’t much of an option either.
But finally, Bradley finished and was able to find a recruiting station far away from Ice’s pull and got himself in and on his way to training right after graduation. It only took a day or two before the looks started though. One of the trainers must have recognized his name and started asking questions, but, finally, no one interfered. Getting through basic, then graduating at the top of his API class, Bradley went straight off to more flight training and strike, getting his callsign, and enduring all the mutterings of why he was so old and how did he know this stuff already.
Getting his wings was an amazing feeling, but watching his classmates’ families pin their wings and celebrate with them left a bitter feeling as one of the commanders pinned his. No family left to invite, but Rooster had done it and in spite of his former family holding him back. He’s pretty sure he saw a glimpse of familiar blond-silver hair next to a shorter brunette, but he quickly turned away before he could see for sure. As much as he’d love to show them everything that he did without them, he’d rather not cause a scene. Two influential officers being against him was enough, it wasn’t work risking upsetting another.
Both of his dads had regularly sent Rooster letters and left him messages, but other than reading them, he never responded. Maybe one day, they’d learn to take a hint and stop trying. He knew that Ice always kept an eye on him, which became clear early on in his postings, as some higher up would inevitably come by to ‘check in’ and ‘see how everything was going’. But as far as Rooster could tell, they’d stopped interfering and were finally letting him continue his dream. So why was Ice calling for him now? Something with this mission he supposed, but to have to come in person? And to use his rank to get Rooster there? This was something big.
Getting closer to the address, Rooster again starts wondering just where he’s going. It’s clearly a home, this is definitely a neighborhood-type area, and a nice one, but doesn’t seem like where Ice would be living. Pulling into the drive, he takes note of the American Flag and a Naval flag, but doesn’t see a four-star one that he’d expect at Ice’s place. Maybe Ice asked someone for a more neutral ground to borrow.
As Rooster is sitting in the car for a minute, working himself up to go in, he sees movement in the window, and the door opens. It’s not Ice, but someone else Rooster hadn’t talked to in years. Uncle Slider, Ice’s old RIO. No, Rooster corrects himself harshly, Captain Kerner. He retired a couple years ago as a Captain. Guess that’s whose house this is.
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Unable to stall any longer, Rooster gets out, “Sir.”
“Bradley,” comes the reply, no expression that Rooster can read on his face. But as Rooster gets closer, Slider says, “Well, it's Rooster now, isn’t it? Fits you,” he grins at Rooster.
“Thank you, sir,” Rooster says warily. He definitely wasn’t expecting a smile, more like anger or aloofness after pushing them all away. Seeing them was a reminder of Maverick and Iceman, so with one went all.
“I’m retired, kid, enough with the sir.”
“Uh, ok.”
“It’s good to see you, kid, but I know Ice is waiting. So, hallway on your left, bathroom is the first door on your right and the office is at the end of the hall.”
“Are you…” Rooster trails off.
“I’m not going to listen, but I’ll be working in the garage if either of you need me. Eva is out for the day, so it’ll just be you two.”
Rooster nods, nerves back again. He’s avoided this for 15 years, but can’t really tell a four-star admiral “no”. Slider claps him on the shoulder then walks past heading to the garage. Rooster takes one last deep breath, then heads inside. Stopping briefly in the bathroom, he heads to the half-open door at the end of the hall.
Before he can knock, Ice is calling, “Come in.”
Rooster stands at attention, but his eyes are slightly over Ice’s right shoulder, “Admiral.”
“At ease,” Ice says as he motions to the chair in front of him. “How are you?”
“Fine, sir,” comes Rooster’s clipped reply.
Ice swallows a sigh, this is going to be as difficult as he had feared. “Well, thank you for coming,” he says, trying to start this off as smoothly as he can. That hope is out the window at Rooster’s next reply.
“I wasn’t exactly given a choice, sir.”
Holding back his standard glare at that insubordination, Ice continues, “I wanted the chance to talk to you before this mission, and I didn’t want you to be blindsided tomorrow.”
“By what, sir?”
“Your instructor for this detachment.” Rooster’s wary eyes meet Ice’s for the first time, “It’s Maverick,” Ice says.
Rooster’s jaw clenches as he looks away, “Understood, sir.”
“Brad,” Ice sighs, “I need to know if you can work with him on this.”
“Yes, sir. I have no problems with following orders, sir.”
Taking the chance to connect and try to salvage this conversation, Ice responds, “I know, I’ve read your file. It’s impressive, reminds me of mine when I was younger.”
Rooster doesn’t reply. Ice looks down momentarily before saying, “Okay, Brad, this isn’t working, so no titles, no work, just please talk to me.”
Nothing.
“Bradley, it's been 15 years, are you ever going to talk to us again?”
“Why would I, sir?” Rooster’s face is blank. That was definitely a new look for someone who had always worn his heart on his sleeve growing up.
Ice, however, has lost his icy demeanor, “Because we love you and this has gone on long enough. You made it to where you wanted to be anyways.”
“Yeah, four years later.”
“And you’ve more than made up for it since.”
Rooster scoffs.
“Bradley, you won Top Gun and are one of the best aviators in the Navy. Holding onto this grudge is just ridiculous at this point. It's time to forgive and move on.”
“Ridiculous? Sure, not wanting to deal with the people who held me down and told me I wasn’t good enough for my dream is ridiculous, sure, why not, sir.”
So much for a blank face, definitely more anger now. And no small amount of hurt too.
“We never said that. Ever.” Ice says fiercely.
“No, you never said anything,” comes the quick reply.
“We had our reasons, you know that.”
“Yeah, reasons that were more important to you than me.”
“Brad,” the response is pained, but Rooster continues.
“Reasons that were worth more to the two of you than my dream was worth. So important to you that you’d rather I’d left than to tell me why my dream shouldn’t happen. And not only that but not even have a chance to try and make it happen.”
“Bradley, it was never that. We always supported you. I know you weren’t ready to hear it then, but I tried explaining it, we wanted to protect you.”
Rooster stands up in frustration, “Ha, one, bullshit, that’s not protecting someone and you know it, but whatever. And two, those letters. Yeah, I read them all. And the texts. And listened to all the voicemails. And not once did either of you actually try to explain. Or what’s more? Apologize. Ever. The closest you ever got was, ‘I know it hurt you’. So 15 years of letters claiming to miss me and wanting me to come home and yet neither of you can even admit that you were the reason I was hurt let alone be sorry for doing it. So maybe it is ridiculous, but it’s pretty damn hard to forgive someone who doesn’t even regret what they did.” Rooster suddenly stands straight and changes his tone from bitter hurt to blank professionalism, “But yes, sir, I’ll work with our instructor for this mission and continue to do my job to the best of my ability. Now if that’s all, Admiral Kazansky, I’d like to get back to base.”
Breaking all protocol, Rooster walks out without waiting for a response. Brushing past Slider as he heads towards the car, Rooster doesn’t stop at Slider’s questioning, “Rooster?”
Slider could see tears on Rooster’s face, but the kid clearly wanted to get away with how quickly he flew out of the driveway. Heading inside, Slider knocks on the door, “I take it that the neutral location didn’t help then. You okay?”
“Honestly, Slider, no, not really,” is the sad, weary reply.
“Well, Rooster was in tears when he passed me, so I’m not too surprised unfortunately. I only heard the end of it, but neither of you ever apologized?”
“I…I don’t think we did. Even after I knew we had made the wrong choice, I don’t think I ever said that to him.”
“No wonder he’s still so hurt then. You’ve known my thoughts since you guys pulled his papers - you put his dead mother’s wishes over him. He has every right to be as angry as he needs to be.”
“I know, god I know. I just didn’t think it would still be hurting him this much.”
“Or you,” Slider points out.
Ice finally looks up, and Slider can see that his eyes are plenty red too, “Yeah. Or me.”