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There's something going on with Phoenix' face when she walks towards him. She schools it quickly enough into the mask of professionalism that she always wears, but Bob still asks: "You good?"
"Yes," she says, but there's a hint of a sigh in her voice, "but my life just got a lot more complicated."
"You wanna talk about it?"
She seems to ponder that, her gaze locked on their plane, before turning around. "Yes, actually."
There's a small pause that makes Bob thinks she's gonna reveal something big about herself, let him look behind what is Phoenix and get a glimpse at Natasha.
"I'm gonna tell you a few things, because you are my best friend, and I trust you to be calm and confidential about it, and because I think it's only fair of me to tell you before we're starting on this mission and you're stuck in my backseat for the duration of it."
Bob nods, quickly, unsure of what else to say to it, waits her out to say whatever she has to say.
"I'm pregnant," is the first thing that leaves her mouth.
Bob did not expect that. "That sounds like it does make your life more complicated," he blurts out, then: "Should you be flying?"
The latter was the wrong thing to say, he sees it as soon as he finished saying it.
"I can fly," steel is in her voice, "there's no backing out now. That's not what I needed to tell you, I just wanted to. And I needed to tell someone before going up there."
"What about the father?" Bob asks, because he's flattered to be considered so close to her to be the first one to know, but he doesn't think he should be. "Wait, who is the father?" A thought enters his head. "Do you even know who the father is?"
"Relax," Phoenix says, smiling, "I don't just sleep around with whoever, I know who the father is." A beat. "That's what I need to tell you before we leave."
"Okay," he steels himself for whatever she's gonna tell him. He doesn't know what to expect at all, his brain coming up with the worst kind of scenarios, though. Why would she need to tell him who she's with before they go up in the air? It must be someone on the bridge. He tries not to grimace at the thought. It's probably not even fair to her to think of that. She's more professional than that.
"I married Rooster five years ago," she starts.
"Rooster?" He can't help but interrupt, fighting to keep his voice low. He knew they were close, but not that they were that close. It puts the relationship between his two closest friends in the squad in a different perspective.
"We kept our own names for professional reasons, so it's not really something a lot of people know, and we didn't want it to affect the team dynamic, so we didn't really tell all of you about it. We can fly together as colleagues no problem because we were colleagues first before we started dating."
Bob nods at her explanation. He can kind of understand. He can only imagine what Hangman would have done with that information.
"But this is different. I trust Rooster to do what it takes to come home, just as we will, but we know it'll be a dogfight all the way home. We might not all go home." She looks him directly in the eyes. "This isn't my first rodeo, but in case he goes down, and I don't handle it as well as I should, I trust you to keep me calm."
He nods.
Phoenix smiles. "Just so you know," she finishes and turns back around to the plane, leaving him to process all the new information she just revealed to him.
There's plenty of people passing them, the other pilots walking to their own planes, maintenance and control doing their work to get the runway ready, but it's Rooster passing that makes Bob pay attention. He nods to them both, his eye contact with Phoenix a little longer (and now that Bob knows, probably also more meaningful), before he walks on, no distractions.
"Why didn't you tell him?" he asks her quietly. He knows Rooster well enough not to take him for the kind of guy who reacts badly to the news of his girlfriend, or well, wife, apparently, being pregnant. She should feel comfortable enough to tell him.
But Phoenix watches Rooster along the nose of their plane. Bob follows her eyes to where he's talking to Hangman. It's stiff, but not hostile.
"He already worries enough," she says, "knowing that I'm pregnant is the last thing he needs right now to fly this mission."
Fair enough, Bob thinks, continuing to watch the exchange. He lays a reassuring hand on her shoulder before taking the ladder up into the cockpit. It'll be his job to worry about her until they're back on deck. Hopefully all of them together.