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Rooster’s teeth chattered as he crawled away from the cockpit with a thermal blanket in his grasp. He was relieved that it was actually packed where it was supposed to be, and didn’t hesitate to bring it over and drape it around the man beside him, who hadn’t stopped shivering since they had to forcibly eject and land in a snow coated mountainside. All in all it wasn’t the worst eject that Rooster had ever dealt with, though it was one of the colder ones considering he was just wearing his flight suit.
“Mav? Maverick!” Rooster reached out and nudged Maverick’s shoulder until the older man jostled awake, one eye slowly opening. “You good, man?”
Maverick shifted where he sat, snow crunching under him. “Yeah, kid, sorry. Guess I’m just a little tired,” he replied softly, head shaking.
“I can take first shift,” Rooster offered as he draped the thermal blanket over Maverick, tucking it around him to the best of his ability.
Maverick’s brow furrowed. “We’re in unknown territory here, Roo. No way I’m going to leave you to keep watch by yourself.”
“EVAC should be here soon. It really isn’t that big of a deal.” Rooster frowned as he reached out a hand and took Maverick’s hands in his own. “You’re freezing! Shit, Mav, you really gotta get out to colder places. How thin in your blood?”
“Not as young as I once was,” Maverick answered flatly as he shifted once more, unable to find a relatively comfortable position on the cold ground. “Guess it’s finally catching up with me.”
“Wait until I tell Hangman that you confessed that you’re old. He’s going to have a field day with this.”
Maverick reached out a foot to gingerly kick Rooster good naturally. He was about to say something more when a gust of wind blew by, nearly knocking the two clean over. Maverick instinctively reached for Rooster and drew him closer, protectiveness showing in his eyes as though he was ready to fight the wind singlehandedly.
“It’s just the wind, Mav,” Rooster reassured, though he didn’t pull away from Maverick.
“That’s not just wind. I know a threat of a snowstorm when I hear one.”
Rooster turned his head up to the sky to the gray hue that was overtaking everything. The sun was hardly visibly through the dark clouds while a thickness hung in the air. Dryness made his lungs begin to ache and Rooster couldn’t help but rub his hands together to force feeling back into them. He prided himself on trying not to show any weakness, but he was not a fan of the cold and would try to avoid it at all costs.
Maverick didn’t hesitate to spread the thermal blanket over both of them, making sure that Rooster was even more covered than he was. He could deal with the cold no problem in his eyes; he would be damned if he let Rooster get hypothermic because he was holding the only blanket.
Rooster barely reacted before shaking his head and trying to push it back. “Mav, you need it.”
“We both need it, kid,” Maverick argued with clear determination strong in his voice. “But, out of the two of us, you’re the one I’m more worried about. We’re going to worry about you out here.....not me.”
“Mav, I’m—“
“Let me do this,” Maverick interrupted, his voice a low growl. “I’m not letting anything happening to you on my watch. Okay, Goose?”
Rooster didn’t comment on his slip. He only leaned back against the tree that they were tucked against and gave a weak nod. “Yeah, yeah, okay, Dad.”
Maverick squinted his eyes back up at the clouds as another breeze ripped through them. He lifted his shoulders towards his ears to stop the stinging feeling from taking over, eyes blinking sporadically as he reached into his pocket and took out his SAT phone. He tapped the sides with his open palm, frowning at the display that wouldn’t even switch on. It had taken quite the impact when they had to eject, and Rooster didn’t have the knowledge nor the tools to fix it. They were going to have to rely on their final signal from their comms for EVAC to know where they were.
Suddenly, Maverick flinched when he felt Rooster lift a hand to his forehead. Rooster’s fingers were rigid and Maverick didn’t hesitate to pull away, sniffling. “What the hell are you doing?”
“You’re shivering so much that your teeth are chattering. I just wanted to check if you had a fever.”
“M’fine, Roo. You need to stop worrying about me.” Truthfully, Maverick wasn’t feeling nearly as well as he would’ve liked to project. His chest ached and he could almost bet his life on the fact that he had a few broken ribs. That was making breathing difficult, and combined with the cold air that rattled in his lungs, he was feeling even more drained than he expected. He was freezing while his skin prickled in discomfort.
“Maybe if you weren’t shaking like a jackhammer I wouldn’t have to worry.” Rooster shot Maverick a look as the older man shot him a weak glare. “C’mon, let me at least be a little concerned. You really don’t look good, Mav. You know what Savant would say, right?”
“How fucking dense do you two have to be to be stuck without a fully stocked med kit?”
“Besides that.”
Maverick tipped his head to and fro to the side. “Then no, I guess not.”
“If you see something wrong, I better not hear you whisper.” Rooster gave Maverick a knowing look when he saw Maverick understand the weight of what Roster was saying, and exactly how he had beat him at his own game.
“Told Savant he shouldn’t tell you about that. Hell, if I knew you were going to try and beat me at my own game I would’ve told him not to tell you that story,” Maverick grumbled as he shifted in an effort to try and get comfortable. It was going to be completely impossible for that to happen, that much he knew, but he was hoping that it wouldn’t be this difficult to find any position that didn’t immediately send pain searing through him.
“Savant has so many stories about you and Iceman. Last time I was in for a concussion he told me about the time that you got your arm stuck in that engine block and they had to lather your arm in grease to get it off.” Rooster found himself laughing despite the sudden coldness and exhaustion that he felt. “Savant said he’s never heard you scream so loud before.”
“To my defense, the entire class was there to witness it.” He couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Once we get somewhere warmer where I can think a little clearer, remind me to tell you some stories about Savant from before he was a medic. He wasn’t the same stoic solider you see before yourself today.”
That much Rooster definitely struggled to believe. He hadn’t known him all that long, but he could tell how serious he was and couldn’t imagine him being any different. “He never talks about his life before being a medic, even when we ask him about it. Was it that bad being a pilot?”
“No.....” Maverick ducked his head down and coughed against his chest, eyes slowly closing. “He lost someone important to him during those times. No one deserves to lose someone in that manner.”
“Who did he lose? Maverick? Mav?” Rooster turned to see that Maverick was leaning slightly forward, breath coming in shallow huffs through his nose. He still shivered so fiercely that Rooster was fearful that perhaps Maverick was having a seizure. Worry wormed through him as he shifted the blanket so that it was more around Maverick and pressed as tightly as possible against him, trying to keep him steady.
Rooster sniffled and turned his head to the sky. “Talk to me, Dad. You gotta help me here. I don’t know how much longer we can wait here for EVAC. I can’t lose him like I lost you.” Rooster turned his head to the side before resting his cheek atop Maverick’s head and took in a deep breath. “Please don’t take him from me!”
Rooster never would’ve imagined that in a relatively short period of time that he would have any feelings of affection for a man that had delayed his career for so long. He had vowed never to trust nor respect Maverick ever again, yet here he was, on a mission with the man that he, once again, regarded as his father. He had grown to love him again and now couldn’t imagine a life without him. The idea that he something would happen to take him away when he just got him back was nearly too much for Rooster to even consider.
Rooster found himself almost rocking back and forth, still holding Maverick’s close. His breath billowed from his open mouth, turning to an almost mist in front of him. The tune that came to his mind was that he had come to sing whenever he could and it always brought it him comfort. He hoped it did the same for Maverick.
Rooster wasn’t sure how long it took before he began to fade. Part of him wanted to try and wake Maverick up to ask him to take a shift guarding, but he knew that the likelihood of him being able to wake him up was slim to none. It was only Maverick’s incredibly shallow breathing that told Rooster that he was still alive.
“Please, Mav, you have to stay with me,” Rooster hissed in exhaustion as he pressed his forehead to Maverick’s. “Please!”
Just as tears began to fall and freeze on his cheeks, Rooster heard a whirling sound above him. Wind and show puffed up around him, stinging his eyes and cheeks. He squinted to be able to see a helicopter landing a few yards away.
“Mav,” Rooster exclaimed as he shook him so harshly that he actually felt Maverick grumble in his sleep and weakly try to push him off. “EVAC is here. I knew they’d come!”
Rooster had never been so excited to see an EVAC team in his life, but when the group rushed forward with a medic leading the charge and the rest of the team holding a gurney, he felt an overwhelming wave of exhaustion.
It was only when they were both safely aboard the helicopter with Maverick receiving some well needed medical attention, that Rooster was finally able to rest his head back against the cool metal and take his own shift to rest.