Chapter Text
As the Darkstar slowed down, retreating back from the required threshold Mav drew in a deep breath. Admiral Cain was no doubt at the base one step away from demanding for everything to be shut down like the little kid he was, but alas she didn’t let that stop her as she increased the turn, using the friction to slow the plane down.
When she climbed out of the cockpit she was faced with a red faced idiot who had clearly forgotten who he was dealing with that morning.
“Admiral Mitchell!”
“Admiral Cane! Good to see you,”
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done! Going against orders to-”
“Which orders?”
“You know which.”
“I don’t think I do, who gave these orders?”
“I did.”
“And how did you give these orders?”
“I came here to give you them.”
“But you weren’t here earlier? Surely it would’ve been better not to waste time and just email them officially?”
Hondo was desperately holding back a smile behind the Admiral. The other technical staff weren’t doing so well.
“I sent an email about my visit.”
“Did this email officially order us not to do a test flight today? Because if it did then I’m sorry I didn’t receive that email.”
“It was implied.”
“I’m sorry sir, but I’m going to have to ask you to be more specific in the future, after all this is the Navy and we all know how easy-”
“Are you criticising me?”
“Yes, I personally feel it’s important that we make ourselves clear-”
“Thank you Admiral, I certainly appreciate your judgement.”
“You’re welcome Sir, I’m sure we’ll see you in two months when we have the communications system sorted out.”
“Oh, not you.”
“Sorry?”
“You have new orders, you’re returning to Top Gun.” He said smugly.
It took everything in her not to roll her eyes. At the end of the day it was the flying she wanted to be doing, the teaching probably wouldn’t be a high point but she doubted it would bring her even the slight amount of sadness that Admiral Cane clearly thought it would.
After he was done barking orders Mav went on to sort out her locker, the people she’d been working with bid her goodbye on her way out and Hondo implied he was being transferred as well, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up.
She locked up the hanger that the Mustang and the other bikes were stored in and started making her way back home. For the last few weeks she’d been staying at the trailer next to the hanger on weekdays to make the commute more reasonable, especially with the early take off hours. But home was always home, and it was a journey she knew well.
After a few hours she arrived, the Kazansky home as most people in the navy knew it, but it was the Mitchell home as well, even if people didn’t tend to focus on that part.
Ice was in the study when she got there, rapidly emailing people about god knows what.
The benefits of not being in charge of a fleet she thought, as she took note of the piles of paperwork surrounding him.
He’d had a scare a few weeks ago, but the screening had turned up clear so he’d promptly decided that he had no excuse to slack off, even though he had been quite sick at the time. Thankfully he’d recovered and returned to his full force of giving people ice cold hell.
“You’re back early,” He comments, smiling lightly, without an ounce of surprise.
“I’ll assume you’ve already had a run down?”
“I wouldn’t call it quite that,”
“Has a fully grown man had a hissy fit to you over email?”
He laughed, “Phone actually, he seemed a second away from saying something he would deeply regret.”
“Well it’s good he kept at least a bit of a lid on it… Was it you?”
He looked slightly guilty and she knew immediately that he’d had no other option.
“Okay, why am I back?”
“I need you to teach something,”
“Am I allowed to have some prewarning for the something?”
He just shook his head and Mav knew how tied his hands were, and how bad it probably was. They moved on, discussing relatively minor drama as they made lunch and settled into normalcy. There was always something going on, no point getting jumpy over it.
The texts from Bradley and Lucy didn’t make things easier though, and from the guilty expression on Ice’s face Mav knew they were involved in whatever she’d been called back for.
The next day she set off early to return to Miramar and was given a rundown of the mission by Cyclone and Warlock. She could feel their eyes studying her, as her children popped up amidst the other most elite pilots in the navy. She refused to let anything show on her face, but that didn’t stop Cyclone from commenting.
“All do respect Admiral Mitchell, I think we all know you’re able to teach and probably fly this mission, I just don’t think you’d be the best person to pick who ends up in the teams.”
“Do you think I’d put a less prepared pilot on the line for the sake of keeping my kids safe?”
“Maybe, you’ve never had to be the one to choose-”
“Who picked these pilots?”
“Sorry?”
“Who picked these pilots out of the rest?”
He took a breath, “Admiral Kazansky.”
“Do you know who Admiral Kazansky is to those two?”
“... I see your point.”
“Just so we’re clear, my job is to train those pilots to the best of my ability, so that they can complete the mission and come home. I am not going to let myself spend the rest of my life in guilt because I had mixed priorities. I resigned myself to the possibilities of them dying in combat when they joined the navy, and I’ve had a while since then to make peace with it.”
Despite her big speech she felt the guilt from the broken promise she’d made Carol all those years ago. But Bradley was an adult, and if he wanted out of the mission then he could hand in his wings at any time.
Cyclone and Warlock quickly ended the meeting and returned to the current Top Gun students, leaving her with a ridiculous amount of files and a training plan to make. She probably should’ve moved out of the briefing room, but as she was an instructor without an office she decided just to make use of it.
Hours later she ended up handing in formal requests for a simulated range to be set up, as well as the rest of the paperwork she needed for the near future. The hard deck would need to be lowered for training, but that wouldn’t matter so much on the first day of dog fighting practice.
She ended up taking her things to the cafeteria, continuing to fill out forms. It was only ten minutes in when she felt someone staring at her.
When she looked up she noticed the young group of aviators, who somehow looked both awestruck and cocky. Mav gave them a little smile before returning to her paperwork. It was a better atmosphere than in the silent meeting room so she decided to stay there even after she finished her food.
Cyclone and Warlock turned up at one point and she handed half of her done pile over to them, much to Warlock’s bemusement.
“You want to lower the hard deck?”
“This mission will need them to be flying below the hard deck and it’s better if their practice is as similar as possible, otherwise they’ll be completely unfamiliar with the drop zones and could get psyched out with the turns running up to the first climb.”
They agreed and let her be as she continued the itinerary. They didn’t have long.
The realisation struck her all at once when she made a table that fit on a single page of paper.
At the end of the day she didn’t head home, she headed to the Hard Deck. It wasn’t to avoid anything, it was just to let things sink in, or that’s what she told herself.
“Hey Pete,” Penny called from the bar.
They’d been having monthly meetings there for years since Mav stopped being on active duty. Ice was usually there for those, making everyone in uniforms slightly nervous. They’d seen a fair few Top Gun classes stop in their tracks, especially after he became Commander of the Pacific Fleet. It was difficult not to recognise him with a huge picture of him in the main hallway. But that’d never bothered him.
“Hey Penny,” Mav sat down with a beer and kept quiet for a while, letting things rattle around in her head. Penny looked slightly worried for a second but when Mav gave her questioning look a shrug she let it go.
“Is it a cheer up or a let you stew?” She asked instead.
“A bit of both I think, I’ve been reassigned.”
“You going back in?”
“To teach,” She amended.
That made Penny laugh, it was no secret that Ice and Mav didn’t have enough patience between them for the hot shots they’d had to teach, hence why neither Lucy or Bradley turned into ones, but they’d tried at least. Mav only lasted a few months whilst Ice managed a whole year. It had at least meant that he’d been around for Lucy’s birth. That might’ve been why he put up with it for so long whilst she’d been allowed maternity leave.
Her CO had been pretty surprised when she’d gone back in just a bit later, apparently they thought getting married and having a kid would make her hand in her wings, but there she was over two decades later still flying.
“Well then I give you free reign over the music.” Penny said, handing her some coins.
That cheered her up a bit.
As she was heading over there she noticed some aviators posturing up at the pool table, more specifically one female aviator who was the spitting image of her father except for her height. Mav recognised the other Lieutenants with her and began piecing together who was who. Jinx stood next to Phoenix, the only other female aviator chosen, who stood next to Fanboy, Jinx’s WSO. They were talking with Hangman and Coyote who’d been playing darts just a bit earlier.
She watched as they finally noticed Bob, Phoenix quickly wrangled him into a game of pool.
She returned to the bar just in time to see Rooster arrive, fashionably late as always, and watched as he greeted everyone, including Jinx.
There was a bit more posturing, and she watched as Hangman put on Slow Ride after Rooster arrived.
She was just paying up when the music cut out, much to the crowd’s grumbling, and Rooster started on the piano. Mav was outside when the full force of the memory hit her.
It was another bar that had shut down a while ago. Bradley had been sitting on the piano, whilst her and Goose had been singing to him, probably annoying the hell out of the other diners. Carol had been chatting to Ice, about what Mav wouldn’t know until that evening where she would chase Carol around the house with one of Bradley’s water guns until she apologised.
She’d never thanked Carol for that conversation, it had definitely given Ice a kick up the but. But so had Goose’s death. So had the mission, where after the celebrations had finished they’d gone below deck and talked. They’d talked about what they wanted and what they were going to do.
They’d come back to Miramar as a couple and Carol had grinned through tears when they told her.
She slowly walked to her bike and set off home. She needed to be ready for the next day.
The next day, just before she left, Ice told her he’d organised them to have a family dinner that night.
He was almost hesitant when he told her but she just smiled and nodded when she got on her bike. He was always a sucker for family meals, even when Carol had been in hospital all five of them had used her little wheely table and eaten together at least once a week.
Introductions went well, there was the usual smart asses that she’d come to expect, but it would take a lot to rival what she had to put up with in the eighties. They all looked horribly uncomfortable when she threw the F-18 Natops in the bin, which only made her more excited. She did notice the glances between Lucy and Bradley, but rationalised that whatever they wanted to say would have to wait until dinner.
“Today we’ll start with what you only think you know. Show me what you’re made of.”
With that everyone went to get ready. There was an energy amongst the pilots which was woefully lacking in their seniors, probably because they didn’t have the exact mission parameters yet. But Mav quickly adapted to it.
She was able to fit in pretty well, joking with them and letting herself be egged on. Neither Jinx or Rooster tried to stop Fanboy from his bet, so she only had to assume they were agreeing to it. Their arms were gonna be burning.
The Hop went well, Rooster stopped Jinx from getting hit, which Mav hadn’t been expecting, but would address later.
The rest of the class went pretty easily. The next three were surprisingly easy to smoke. After that she got treated to a blast from the past from Hangman. She remembered nearly being stripped of her wings for leaving Cougar, but this little hot shot had clearly been getting away with doing so for years. Phoenix and Bob were a pretty good duo despite only meeting the previous evening, so Mav decided they’d get a bit more leeway. The rest were far too easy to deal with and Mav ended the day both exhilarated and somewhat worried.
Next was single pairs and double pairs, to see who worked the best with each other in that regard. But the only real issue had been between Rooster and Hangman. Jake’s attitude was a problem, he annoyed everyone in his team and continued to poke at them over the comms till they either told him to shut up or they lost their cool. It made Mav’s job a bit easier.
She made a point of getting Rooster first so she could chase down Hangman, similar to what she did when he was with Phoenix. Sure it meant that Hangman would get a better time, but it let her show how unaware he was.
They sat in the classroom analysing their dogfights and she made a point of picking through each of them. Warlock was in the back, watching, and as soon as the class was finished he came over with a considerate look on his face.
“Everything alright?”
She glanced over at the door and noticed that it hadn’t been shut properly, and that someone (Coyote) had left some of his stuff on the desk, as a feigned excuse.
Warlock didn’t seem to notice though. “What do you think?” He asked pensively.
“Between pilots only just meeting their WSO’s and the attitude problems I think I’ve got my work cut out for me.”
There was some noise coming through the door, which gave Mav enough of an excuse to call them out on their sneaking.
She quickly picked up the abandoned things and took it to the door, where a surprising amount of people were stage whispering at each other.
“If you need to be sneaky you better try harder.” She said to all of them whilst she shoved the things at Coyote. “I believe I said you’re dismissed?”
They all looked sufficiently cowed and Warlock appeared behind her, to properly scare them off.
“How did you know they were there?” Warlock asked as they made their own way out.
“You don’t have kids do you?”
He shook his head and Mav just laughed a little to herself. It wasn’t the first time she’d dealt with bad sneaking, and judging by the shock and guilt on some of the faces they hadn’t all been accomplices.
She rode home that night and was the first one back. Ice had already texted that he’d be out due to some meeting or other so she settled down to go through the updates from the Darkstar project. Just because she was no longer test piloting didn’t mean she had no connection to it. She was technically the head of it.
After only getting through half of the updates she was interrupted by two very loud individuals coming through the door.
“Hey.” Lucy said, stopping in the doorway as she noticed Mav.
“Hey,”
Bradley came in after her and looked just as wary, if a bit uncomfortable.
“Dad’s at a meeting, he’ll be home soon but we have a while.”
They both took a seat on the opposite sofa to hers and she watched as they glanced between each other.
“What is it?”
Bradley started them off, though clearly still hesitant and she felt herself relax a bit. No matter how much they’d grown they were still her kids, and she knew when they were worried.
“You seemed, a little bit…”
“Tightly wound,” Lucy suggested.
“How bad is it?”
Pete let out a deep sigh. “Your father put me in charge of teaching you.” Both of them looked wide eyed at that but she continued. “I am currently the only person in the navy who has dealt with all of the parameters that you’ll be facing, and as much as you’re all the best of the best, you’ve spent your careers being told that as you drop explosives from a large height with the entire sky to escape to. In addition to that I have Cyclone breathing down my neck about whether I’ll be biased in my selection and you lot trying to figure out who I’m thinking of picking on the first day.”
“In our defence that was Coyote and Hangman, who is a complete jackass.” Lucy said.
“Thought so. I’ll have to talk about it tomorrow.” They laughed at her grimace.
“Already sick of us on the first day?” Bradley asked.
“Don’t worry, I’ve come this far, I can live through a bunch of malpracticed hotshots.”
“Oooh, we’ll have to tell them about that one!”
Bradley looked mildly uncomfortable and Pete was once again reminded that he tended to keep his relation to them a secret. He’d always blamed it on the fact that he didn’t want the job of filling up those shoes, but since he’d outgrown them it seemed like he just didn’t know how to tell people without awkwardly name dropping, which Pete could sympathise with.
“How about we keep the criticism to ourselves unless doing evaluations?” Pete said firmly.
The rest of the evening was nice, Ice returned and they had a good time singing along as the kids took turns choosing music and they made dinner together. At one point “She’s Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” came on and Lucy nearly smacked Bradley in a bid to skip to the next. They laughed a lot and ended up playing Uno, which quickly got out of hand and by the end of the night they were all feeling sufficiently lighter.
When the kids had left it was just them as they cleared up, the washing up had already been done and that just left the cards and glasses to be moved. As Mav finished Ice started fiddling with his phone till the forbidden song came on, much to her amusement.
He reached for her hand and she let herself be led to the lounge where they held each other and swayed. It was an odd song to them. It was inherently melancholy, but that didn’t stop it from being their first dance. Only their classmates from Top Gun really got it and Slider actually ended up lying on the floor from laughter. Carol had been dancing with Bradley on her hip in his little tux as the ring bearer and the rest of their families had thankfully joined in so it wasn’t just the two of them dancing. A hill that Pete had decided to die on when planning the event.
But from that first night, when serenading the girl Ice had been flirting with, the song had held a special place in their hearts. So they danced, or swayed really, and let themselves be taken by the song. When the music started to build again they leaned a bit more on each sway and ended up giggling through the last part as he twirled her.
Maybe she'd enjoy the assignment more than she thought she would.