Chapter Text
“I’m not gonna make the same mistake…”
Rooster didn’t even process the decades of grief that flashed through Maverick’s eyes as he finished his sentence - his words cutting through the tension in the air, leaving a clean-cut silence which filled the room with dread.
He was too angry to focus on anything but his own emotions at that moment in time, so he missed Mav’s glassy eyes and stuttering breaths when Cyclone spoke to him as he stormed out of the classroom and back to his barracks. He needed to sleep off today’s hop: it had been a nightmare from start to finish, beginning with his and Mav’s “cobra” manoeuvre and ending with Phoenix and Bob’s ejection from their aircraft due to the bird strike. Safe to say, he was completely spent from the strain of the day.
Upon arriving at his housing, he hastily parked his truck - promising to move it to a better location later when he’d rested. He threw the door open and without even changing marched straight for his room where he discarded his bag before plunging into bed, lost to the clutches of sleep before he’d even fully hit the pillow. Unfortunately for Rooster, this was going to be the most restless sleep of his life, as little did the Lieutenant know, his dad was more present in his life than he ever could’ve imagined.
The next thing he knew he was floating, completely weightless as he watched vapor trails cutting across the sky. Two F-14 Tomcats streaked by: sun glistening off of the wings like shard of glass. Bradley honestly had no idea how he had gotten here, he couldn’t feel his body and was heavily disoriented by his view - he wasn’t in a plane nor out of one: he was everywhere, all at once.
He could see, clear as day, a Maverick not yet touched by time smirking from the front seat - his signature helmet, although less worn than Bradley had ever seen it - glinting, while a taller figure he recognised all too well; unfortunately not from his memories, but photos sat in the back - a honking laugh erupting from the man. It was none other than his dad…