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With the way Maverick kept sneaking or bluntly saying he was off to be alone with Charlie, Goose was grateful for Carole and Bradley making the trip out here while they were at Top Gun for the moral support. He remembered when he and Maverick called her up with the good news, and she told them how proud she was of her boys and how it was fate that they were going to get the chance to rightfully show the Navy once and for all that Maverick and Goose aren’t just ‘replacement’ pilots because someone else couldn’t handle the pressure. They made plans once they got their information to have Carole and Bradley fly out here a couple weeks before graduation so they could enjoy California, maybe get a day at Sea World or the San Diego Zoo out of it as a family once it was over.
Except Goose wasn’t sure what his ‘family’ was going to look like once this was all over.
“Goose, honey, Bradley is trying to steal your fries.”
Goose snapped out of his train of thought from looking over at the piano where they–plus Charlie–had just been gathered around, singing and laughing before, once again, Maverick excused Charlie and himself from the fun to head off into the sunset. He looked down and saw Bradley pull his hand away from Goose’s plate but not without successfully capturing a potato wedge, sticking it under the table and smiling innocently as if his father did not just witness the hostage situation that just played out.
“Well, darn. Guess I should have done a head count on them so I’d know how many are missing.”
“Three,” Carole replied, sipping from her coke glass without looking up. “I was gonna let it slide for my own amusement but you just looked so darn out of it that if I didn’t bring you back down to earth I thought you might be cleaned out before you did all on your own.”
Goose wasn’t particularly hungry so he slid what was left of his fries and half eaten chicken sandwich over to Bradley, who seemed to not be as interested once the thrill of thievery was eliminated from the equation. Carole scooted her own plate out of the way, resting her elbow on the table and face in her palm, looking up at Goose to see if she could get his attention again before he faded out.
“Alright, honey. Why don’t you tell me what’s been bothering you?’
The reason was stupid, Goose knew that. It’s not like he was envious of Maverick for spending time with Charlie seeing as he was happily married to the best woman a man could hope for. If anything, he was jealous of Charlie for pulling Maverick away in their spare time. “I guess- I don’t know. When we planned all this before coming out here we were going to spend time as a family, and Maverick is family, he’s even said I’m all he’s got the other day. But now the Charlie variable has entered the equation and it’s just thrown me off since with the way he goes off to spend all his free time with her. I mean, yeah, he’s focused on winning the trophy, sure. And of course he’s still reckless in the process. But now I’m wondering, what if this is a serious thing? What if it becomes permanent? What if he leaves us after Top Gun because he has something better now?”
Carole listened to Goose’s rambling, her tongue openly twirling the coke straw in her mouth as she took all her husband’s grievances and tried to boil it down to what’s really eating him. “You’re just mad he’s off getting laid with hot teacher instead of jerking it with you in the showers.”
“Carole!” Goose was hardly shocked because he was used to Carole being unfiltered in what she was thinking most of the time, covering Bradley’s ears to continue his faux act of surprised offensiveness; Bradley was too concentrated on pressing the wedges until the potato came gushing out to have heard her anyways. “There’s a child present.”
“He’s heard worse.” Carole looked out the window, the sky with its orange and pinks disappearing toward the horizon before the darkness rolled in for the night. “As long as he’s happy, that’s what matters right?”
“I’d rather he’d be happy with us. You know, he blew off another volleyball match to go see her? Right when we were about to tie it up with Iceman and Slider. Even competing against them is losing its effect on him when it comes to her.”
Carole just pats Goose on the back, without the condescending ‘there there’ to accompany it. “Well, go talk to him about it! Tell him how you feel, get down on one knee if you have to. Wanna try for one of those plastic rings in the quarter vending machine over there? I don’t want you giving him a fancier ring than what you got me.”
“Ha ha.” Although, Goose did consider it for a moment, taking Bradley over there as his cover to put the quarter in, see if giving Maverick a cheap ring would convince him to stay ‘married’ to the Bradshaws. It would beat watching his son piling up the empty potato skins after squeezing out all the insides from them; he wondered if this was a sign of future anger issues down the road.
“Anyways, I got a hankering for some Mexican food so why don’t you tell Mav after your class or whatever you guys do tomorrow that we’re going to go grab some and say it’s just the three of us and Bradley without Charlie because you just want quality time with the ‘family’. And put your foot down! I don’t want to have to come over there and do it for you, and I don’t even mind her that much but I’m also not the one who’s cuddling with Maverick at seas for months at a time.”
“Carole, please…”
“You know I’ll do it.”
“Yeah, I know.” Goose took a bite of his neglected sandwich just to give his mouth something to do, playing over every worst possible scenario in his head of telling Maverick he can’t bring his- well, he didn’t want to say girlfriend but he guessed it was probably getting to that point if it wasn’t already, but telling a guy he can’t bring his girl along was going to take more guts than what he did on a daily basis. At best Mav would be ok with it; at worst he’d never want to speak to him again and probably request to switch RIOs. Suddenly an image of him running off with Slider, hand in hand, through a field of flowers entered his mind. Then wedding bells started sounding-
“Goose, are you overreacting in your mind again?”
“No, honey. All perfectly rational thoughts up in this noggin.”
—
Goose didn’t want to wait outside Maverick’s door all night on the off chance he didn’t even come back because he decided to spend it at Charlie’s, so he took to checking in every half hour. It was getting to the point he was about to give up until he was finally successful at his attempt near midnight. Maverick answered the door shirtless, clearly in the process of getting ready for bed but Goose hoped he wasn’t bold enough to do this because he thought Charlie was on the other side.
“Kinda late, aren’t you Goose?”
“What, is Charlie here? Or are you expecting her?” Goose didn’t wait to be invited in, just passed right by him as he usually did without permission. Maverick, however, was still wondering why Goose was even here when he’s spent all the nights since Carole and Bradley got here with them.
“No, I- I’m just trying to get ready for bed, or have you forgotten we have to be up early tomorrow?”
“Oh, I haven’t forgotten. Haven’t forgotten that we can maybe pass up Iceman and Slider tomorrow, either, so I’m wondering if maybe you did?”
Maverick looked like he was running the points over in his mind before he answered, but it just saddened Goose that Charlie had taken so much focus away from what Maverick drilled into their heads what was destined to be their crowning achievement together. “Geez, Mav.”
“Look, I’m focused when we are on base. Off base? I can be distracted, sure.”
“Yeah, focused. Yet not focused enough to notice the other person who is clearly flirting with you whenever he so much as looks at you.”
“No, I’ve noticed, dear. And I appreciate the love in your eyes when you do.” Maverick smiled and pat Goose on the back as he passed to get into bed; Goose wanted to tell him it wasn’t himself he was referring to but he didn’t want to bring any other variables into this bizarre polycue that was forming around Maverick like he was a nucleus. “Well I guess if you’re here, wanna just spend the night?”
Goose was kinda over tracking between their rooms and the number of hours until they had to rise was dwindling. He stripped down until he was on par with Mav, slipping under the covers and sighing in relief when Maverick rolled onto his chest on his own, eyes already closed with that mischievous looking grin on his face, all but purring contently. Might as well drop the bomb now.
“So, uh. Carole wants to get Mexican food tomorrow. Do you mind if it’s just us? Mitchell and the Bradshaws?”
Maverick cracked an eye open to look at him, his grin dimming slightly. “Why? You don’t like Charlie?”
“Oh, no, she’s fine. I was just, well, like you said. I’m the only family you got, which, I mean, I assume means also Carole and Bradley, but, you know, maybe Carole would like–I mean, so would I–just had family time with you on our own. Like I said, I don’t hate Charlie, but not going to lie, it feels weird having our teacher around so, I mean, if you could-”
“Hey, Goose? It’s fine.”
Goose felt he was given the white flag for the final lap of the race his mind was trying to not crash and burn on. “Really?”
“Yeah, geez. You guys will always come first for me so don’t hurt yourself trying to ask me that since I need you in top form tomorrow. We gotta pull ahead of those two assholes, remember?”
And there’s the checkered flag. “Yeah. Yeah, and we’ll do it, Mav. I know we will.”
One day, Goose will learn to not be so paranoid that Maverick would just drop him for another piece of ass and believe him when he says he’s the most important person in his life. Unfortunately for Goose, that was going to be a lesson that he would probably never get to achieve.
—
“So did you have that weird dream again where you were so worried I would be mad at you about something that I ran off with and eloped with another RIO?”
“I plead the fifth.”
“Was it Slider this time?”
“The fifth, Mav. Ah, shit. Speaking of Mr. Long and Distinguished…”
What was a perfectly fine routine Navy breakfast was about to be interrupted by the two guys Goose was hoping to avoid until they actually were on the hop. Ice chose to sit next to Goose so he could dramatically lean forward across from Maverick and Mav would be forced to look at him, while Slider gave Goose the usual glare from the enemy, even though they’ve both recently have been giving each other knowing looks whenever Ice did anything around Maverick; if Slider of all people could tell Ice was flirting then Maverick really wasn’t as focused on base as he believed himself to be.
“So. Maaaverick. I looked at the points recently and, honestly, I’m kinda surprised with how much shit you pull, but it looks like you are right on our tail. Or you would be if you actually didn’t leave your wingman.”
Oh, boy, Goose thought, seeing as Ice’s smile grew wider and Slider’s laugh only got Maverick looking more heated. He prayed that this didn’t lead to any more reckless behavior on Mav’s part.
“You know, Kazansky,” Maverick said, leaning forward towards Ice to match him on the intensity level. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re scared. Scared that the person who replaced Cougar, the person who wasn’t even supposed to be here, ends up being the one who walks away with this trophy. How much does that eat you up at night, I wonder?”
“Man, you have no i-” Slider stopped mid-sentence once he got sight of Ice’s glare. “I mean, really. Even Hollywood and Wolfman should get it over you two knuckleheads.”
“Now just wait a second,” Goose said, getting a little more riled than normal, doing his best to restrain himself from standing up to finally give him the height edge on Slider.
Instead, it was the Ice who was the one with enough rational thought to put this rest for the moment, not wanting to draw the attention of any other higher ranking officers their way. “No, you know what? Let’s just wait to settle this on the hop. I don’t think we’ve teamed off on one yet, have we?”
“Yeah, because you’re too afraid to.” Maverick was now inches from Ice’s face, and now Goose was looking over at Slider who was looking back at him, both wondering what the protocol would be if Ice actually did just grab Maverick’s face and locked lips. Fortunately for them, Ice was more interested in trying to find a comeback remark.
“More like I prefer to win with an actual team player. See you on the tarmac, Mitchell.”
Once Iceman and Slider cleared the table proximity, Goose let out the most relieved sigh that shit didn’t get any uglier. “One day, he’s gonna do it, I swear to God, he’s going to do it,” Goose unintentionally said audibly.
“What’s he gonna do?”
Kiss you. “Punch you in the face?”
“Huh. Doesn’t seem like the punching kind of guy. If anything, he was in better proximity to kiss me.”
Goose didn’t feel like replying to that; he was already fighting Charlie off Maverick’s mind just for dinner and even he thought Maverick was having better chemistry with Iceman instead of her, and that was a battle he wasn’t interested in engaging with. “Anyways, just remember, Mav. As much as I want that trophy, and believe me, I do if it means sticking it to those assholes, I’d really just love to graduate in one piece.”
“Trust me, Goose. We’re gonna.”
—
They were scheduled to go last after everyone else had their turn. Goose had made himself at home on one end of the couch while Maverick just leaned into him, doing his best to not feel antsy at wanting to get this over with, especially every time Ice and Slider caught glances with them from across the room. The current team over the radio had just received a ‘fail’, and Ice shot Mav a wink knowing they were up next.
“I can’t wait until I wipe that smug look off his face.”
“‘We’, Mav. And I can’t wait until I get my hands on some tacos,” Goose grumbled as his stomach did the same in reply. “Think I should get two or three? Maybe four. Yeah, four. With a margarita pitcher to wash them down. That’s a great pairing.”
“But not a better pairing than that of ‘Maverick and Goose’.” Mav rolls his head to look up at Goose, grinning wide before patting him on the knee and jumping to his feet. “Come on, dear. It’s our turn.”
“Why’s it never ‘Goose and Maverick’?” Goose half heartedly complains as he gets up much slower and follows behind him.
The world being lit a gorgeous orange with the sun making its way towards the ocean was the first thing Goose noticed when they stepped out onto the tarmac. It was beautiful yet almost haunting in a way. “Like something is about to end.”
“Yeah, Ice’s lead is.” Maverick clapped Goose on the shoulder and gave him a reassuring squeeze to snap him out of his hypnotic staredown with the sky. “Come on. Let’s get up there.”
“Right. Sooner we do, sooner it’s time for tacos and margaritas.”
“And family time. Just the family.” Maverick smiled when Goose looked up, and Goose was beaming from ear to ear. He really never should have doubted Maverick’s loyalty to the Bradshaws.
The hop was going about as well as he expected from two egos trying to compete for a win when Ice cut Mav off and refused to get out of the way; the hypocrisy of this guy with his whole ‘team player’ bullshit! And when he finally pulled off, Ice’s jet wash started the series of events that led to the flameouts and the flat spin heading out to sea, dropping altitude at an alarming rate. Goose was calling out each time they passed another thousand down, a morbid countdown he was hoping to not hit zero on.
“I’m pinned forward, Goose! I can’t reach the ejection handle!”
Goose heard him yet couldn’t comprend past his own panic that there was nothing Maverick could do, that the burden was all on him if they wanted to make it out of this situation alive.
“Goose, you’re gonna have to punch us out. I can’t reach the ejection handle!”
This time Maverick’s plea and the constant cries to ‘Eject!’ got through to Goose. The vision of glory and sticking it to Ice was the furthest thing on either of their minds. All Goose wanted at that moment when he finally grabbed the ejection handles and pulled them was to make sure Maverick got out alive, that they got to have their tacos and margaritas and laugh at their escape from death with Carole and Bradley, because ‘Maverick and Goose’ were legends and legends aren’t supposed to die like this.
“Watch the canopy!”