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1
Coyote is the first of the dagger squad to hear anybody mention Maverick’s husband. He is also the first to find out he has one. Don’t get him wrong, all of the lieutenants knew that Mav's married, since the captain absolutely refuses not to wear his wedding ring, if not on his finger then around his neck with his dog tags. But Coyote is lucky enough to be the first to get some actual intel on the situation.
After going into G-LOC, passing out, and almost crashing his plane into the ground, Coyote had been ordered into the med bay by Maverick, who had actually walked with him, stating it was ”Just in case you get any ideas about not going to medical, I know I would.”
Said man had stood quietly in the corner for the duration of the examination, only taking his eyes off of Coyote to check his phone periodically. After a while, the doctor stepped back, stating that physically he was fine, just bruised from the extensive G-forces, and that Coyote would be spending the night in the med bay.
Great. Hopefully Jake would be able to sneak in some good food for him.
The doctor turned to leave and paused to chat with Maverick.
”Captain Mitchell. Any chance I could bribe you into staying for a checkup?”
”I think we both know the answer to that, doctor,” Maverick chuckled and Coyote smiled to himself. Maverick was notorious for not going to the doctors for the mandatory checkups and not following the doctors’ orders (or anyone’s, really).
”I could send a copy of the checkup to your husband for peace of mind while he is out of town?” The doctor tried and Coyote paused, holding his breath to see if he could get anything new about Maverick’s spouse for the conspiracy group chat the lieutenants had started. The chat wasn’t specifically dedicated to theories about Maverick’s marital status, but that was one of the main mysteries they were theorizing about. That and why Cyclone refused to eat peas or even be in the mess when they were serving plain peas as a side.
”Nice try, but Tom’s already made me promise to call him every night. Everyone knows it’s impossible to hide things from him,” Maverick continued and the doctor nodded, accepting his fate.
”Very well, captain,” he said and headed out. Maverick turned to Coyote and gave him a once-over. Seemingly satisfied with what he saw, he stepped closer and clasped Coyote’s shoulder.
”Get some rest. And don’t ever scare me like that again, kid.”
”Yes, sir.” Coyote nodded and Maverick smiled.
”Glad you’re alright.” And with that, he exited the room, only to be immediately replaced with an overly-concerned Hangman.
2
Payback and Fanboy walked at a brisk pace through the carrier towards their rooms, trying not to draw much attention to themselves lest someone stop them from getting to their well-deserved post-mission naps. Cyclone and Warlock had already kept everyone who was on the mission (except Maverick and Rooster, who were stuck in the med bay) in a debriefing that took way too long in Fanboy’s opinion.
”Would you calm down? I’m fine!” Maverick’s voice coming from a room made Fanboy and Payback stop in their tracks.
Isn’t he supposed to be in the med bay?
Maybe he was already let out?
After getting blown up and shot at? And then crash-landing a plane older than the both of us?
Ok so maybe he gave them the slip, he is kind of known for that.
”Honey, I’m telling you I’m alright! I don’t even know why they already called you to tell you I was missing, I was MIA for maybe half an hour.” Maverick’s voice snapped them out of their mental conversation. ”He must be on the phone with his husband, Tom,” Fanboy thought.
”Alright fine, maybe it was closer to a couple of hours. But I’m completely fine, just a few scratches, nothing compared to my last ejection a few weeks back,” Maverick continued and Payback choked on his spit.
”This was his second ejection in a month?” He whispered to Fanboy who was gaping while Maverick continued trying to defend himself and his actions.
”I also stole a plane.”
”Well I had to get Rooster and myself out of there somehow! And they had a perfectly good F-14 Tomcat just sitting in a hangar!”
”Well, no, the doctors didn’t technically clear me and let me leave…”
”Okay, okay, alright, alright! Tom, fine, I’ll get back to the med bay and stay there until the doctors tell me I can leave. If it means that much to you, I’ll go back,” Maverick said in a soothing voice, seeming almost confused why his husband would be that worried. Fanboy and Payback looked at each other, trying to decide if they should stay or keep walking to their rooms.
Oh to hell with it, their naps could wait until they had made sure Maverick got back to the med bay without breaking any more bones.
3
After the mission, the whole dagger squad had gotten very close and Mav had become their work dad (or as was the case with those with deadbeat or dead fathers, their actual dad). They spent most of their free time in Miramar together either in smaller groups or all together, usually at the Hard Deck or Maverick’s house.
Bob tried to be as quiet as he could as the unlocked the door to Mav’s house at two hundred hours. After someone from the dagger squad had shown up knocking on his door for the fourth time in as many days, the older man had simply shown them where he keeps his spare key and had told them just to let themselves in, no matter the time of day. Bob was glad he had remembered that when his car had broken down just under a mile from Maverick’s house and his phone had run out of battery.
He toed off his shoes and hung his jacket on the coat rack, determined not to make a mess. On his way to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, he frowned seeing the light on in the living room. He peeked in and sighed, seeing Maverick slumped over on the sofa, sleeping. His laptop was facing him on the coffee table, still powered on. Bob stared for a while, not sure what he should do, before shrugging to himself and getting to work.
He walked over to Mav’s sleeping form, gently rearranging him so his feet were on the couch and he was actually lying down rather than half-sitting in a way that would definitely not be good for his neck. Bob noticed an old quilt on the armchair and laid that over Maverick just in case so he wouldn't get cold. Satisfied with that, Bob nodded to himself and turned to the laptop to save and close any documents Mav could have been working on before falling asleep.
Surprisingly, there were no documents or emails open on the computer, but a Skype ”call disconnected” screen displayed that the time on call had been 3:28:71. There was also a chat box open with ”Sweet dreams darling, I love you <3” being the last message.
Bob quickly averted his eyes from the chat and closed the app, not wanting to invade his instructor’s privacy. As he shut down the laptop, Bob figured that Maverick must have been on a call with his husband, Tom, before falling asleep on the call.
”It’s good they get to at least call each other if his husband is out of town so much,” Bob thought to himself as he finally went to get that glass of water and to set up the guest room for the night.
4
Phoenix walked through the door to Maverick’s place just after 0800 to pick up Bob. Her RIO had texted their group chat a couple of hours ago, asking if anyone could come pick him up from Mav’s because his car had decided to break down last night, and as she had already been up for a morning run she figured she could go get him and maybe get some breakfast out of the whole deal.
As soon as she entered the house, she knew she had been right as the smell of baked goods registered in her brain. She knew that Bob was an alright cook but when it came to baking, her backseater was a god. Phoenix quickly hung her coat in the entryway and made her way to the kitchen, where Bob was just taking a tray of muffins from the oven.
Maverick, who was sitting at the table drinking coffee, looked up from the newspaper and smiled.
”Phoenix, good morning.”
”Morning, Mavdad. I came to take him off your hands,” Phoenix said and went to grab a muffin, only to have her hand slapped away by Bob.
”Careful Tasha, those are hot! And where’s my ’good morning’?” Phoenix rolled her eyes and leaned over to give Bob a peck on the cheek.
”Good morning Bob, may I have a muffin?” She said with her most innocent voice and Bob smiled.
”Yes, but Mavdad gets one first as a thank-you for letting me spend the night.” Maverick chuckled from the table.
”Please, if anything I should be thanking you for saving my neck from sleeping slumped over on the couch again,” He said but accepted the muffin with a grateful nod.
”Sleeping on the couch huh? Wild night?” Phoenix asked as she took a seat. Maverick laughed.
”Sure, if by wild you mean falling asleep mid-skype call with my husband,” Maverick chuckled and Phoenix smiled.
”How is Tom?” Bob asked, taking a seat with his own coffee.
”He’s just fine, a bit stressed but happy to be heading home in a few days,” Maverick replied with a soft smile and took a bite of his muffin. He gave Bob an approving nod, making the RIO blush and look down at his coffee.
After breakfast, Phoenix and Bob both hugged Mav goodbye and told him they’d see him at the base tomorrow and Mav promised to check out Bob’s car himself when he got the time since it would definitely be cheaper than taking it to a mechanic.
5
Hangman stretched his arms as he walked out of the locker room after having a relaxing post-hop shower. Today’s hop had been nice, instead of dogfighting, they had effectively played tag in the air in their jets. He had tagged Rooster 6 times (and Rooster had tagged him back 4 times but who’s counting, all that matters is that Jake’s numbers are higher).
”Ah, Jake! Do you have a minute?” Hangman turned around at Maverick’s voice and smiled.
”For you, pops? Always,” he replied and Mav raised an eyebrow at the nickname he had come to love.
”Tom’s coming home tonight and we would like all of the dagger squad to come over for a, let’s call it family dinner, tomorrow at 1800 hours. Think you could pass the invitation to the others?”
”Why not a welcome home dinner tonight? Already got a busy evening planned?” Jake smirked and Mav gave him the most deadpan look.
”Can you pass the info to the others or should I go get Halo or Omaha to do the job?” Maverick shot back and Jake raised his hands placatively.
”Alright, alright. I’ll tell the others to get to your place tomorrow at 1800. Is there anything you’d like us to bring? Your husband's favorite wine so we can instantly get on his good graces?” Jake asked, only half joking about the last bit. Joke as he might about calling Mav ”pops” and ”old man”, he truly did want his husband to like him. And all of the squadron, really. Maverick just smiled and shook his head.
”No, just yourselves. And he already knows all about you lot based on our phone calls. No need to stress about good first impressions,” Maverick said and Hangman paused, wondering if that meant Tom knew about him throwing Maverick out of the Hard Deck. And if yes, would the man approve or be pissed off and protective.
”Stop stressing and go tell the others before you forget.” Maverick clapped Hangman on the shoulder and started walking towards his office, ”See you tomorrow!”
”Yeah, see you!” Hangman shouted back before rushing off to find the rest and to come up with ways to make Tom forget everything terrible and/or embarrassing they had ever done around/to/with Maverick.
+1
The dagger squad collectively held their breath as they opened the door to Mavdad’s house. They had decided that to ease everyone’s nerves, it would be easiest if they all got there at the same time, so nobody would be the first or last to arrive. Rooster hadn’t come with them as he stated that he would be spending time with Mav and Tom before the dinner anyway.
”I still think we should have at least brought wine, we’re guests,” Bob grumbled and Hangman rolled his eyes.
”I told you, Mav told me we didn’t need to bring anything. And it’s Mav’s house, we’re not really guests anymore.” They hung their jackets in the entryway and made their way to the kitchen, where they could hear noises coming from.
”Hey, Mav, how’s it-” Payback, who had been walking first, froze in the doorway, causing Phoenix to walk into him. Before she could question Payback, she noticed what had made him freeze and froze as well.
Tom ”Iceman” Kazansky, four-star admiral, the commander of the fucking Pacific Fleet was in Maverick’s kitchen, wearing a cheesy ”kiss the cook” apron.
Ignorant to how his kids were all having collective aneurysms and how Rooster, who was perched on the kitchen counter, had taken his phone out to not-so-subtly start recording, Maverick just looked at them with a raised eyebrow.
”You gonna finish that sentence?” That seemed to snap them out of their shock, and they all (even those who couldn’t really be seen through the doorway) scrambled to stand in attention.
”Admiral Kazansky, sir,” Phoenix said and Mav looked at Ice, puzzled.
”Yeah? Kids, this is Ice, my husband? Ice, these are the kids.” Ice, who was starting to understand what was going on, mostly based on Rooster’s quiet cackles, rolled his eyes.
”Stand down. And call me Ice or Tom, I refuse to be called sir or admiral by my husband’s kids in my own house.” Slowly, the squad stood down from attention and looked at each other, trying to see if all of them were as confused as they were, ignoring Maverick’s mutters of ”They’re your kids, too.”
”Why are you acting like this? I’ve told you all about him.”
”Mavdad, every time you talk about your husband, you call him Tom. How were we supposed to know you were talking about the fucking iceman?” Fanboy exclaimed and ignored the elbow to the side he got from Bob for swearing. Fanboy didn’t know if that was for swearing in general or swearing in front of the COMPACFLT.
”I don’t just call him Tom, I call him Ice too!” Maverick pouted, resulting in Rooster going into another fit of laughter.
”No, no, no. Dad, every time they’ve heard you talk about Ice, you’ve either referred to him as your husband or Tom. You’ve never once called him Ice or Kazansky around them.”
”Huh.” Ignoring the conversation between Maverick and Rooster, Hangman slowly turned to Rooster with a glare.
”You. You knew that he’s married to the Iceman and that we didn’t know and you didn’t tell us .” With this, all of the daggers turned to Rooster with either affronted gasps or murderous glares. Rooster raised his hands in surrender.
”Yeah, because I knew it would be funny as hell. And it was. I’m definitely sending that video to uncle Slider,” Rooster grinned and Iceman cleared his throat, catching everyone’s attention.
”So what I’m understanding here is that my husband is an idiot who just assumed you knew who he was married to, you lot are idiots who didn’t ask, and my son is an idiot who didn’t tell his friends what was really going on. Is that correct?” He said with a raised eyebrow and everyone nodded.
”Yep, that’s all correct si- uh Ice,” Bob said at the same time as Mav grumbled: ”Well you’re the idiot that married me, so I guess we’re all idiots.”
”Right, then,” Iceman said and the oven pinged, ”Let’s eat.”