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bearsinpotatosacks · 8 months

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Something That Does Right by You - Chapter 1

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Goose gets some bad news in the morning, and Bradley's in a rush to get somewhere.

Words: 2182

One thing he wasn’t going to miss about Navy life was the early mornings, he thought as he shuffled into the kitchen with his dressing gown on. He was an early bird but any time before six AM was too much for a man just turning sixty. God that was old. What happened to the days of his youth when anything was possible? When bad shit could happen and it was just any other tuesday? Now if his dinner was cold it could send him spiralling sometimes.

There was a drifting waft of something sizzling as he walked toward the kitchen. Early morning radio hummed in the background as the toaster popped and a quiet ‘shit!’ was called with rage seething around the sides. He could make it known to Ron that he was awake so he could swear and shout to his heart’s content, like he did all the time when he was awake, but that would ruin the fun.

After a quick glance through the sliding patio doors, he knew the dogs were out of the way. They were just too damn happy sometimes, always barked and jumped whenever he or Ron got home, you’d think they were still puppies honestly. Bert and Ernie were not puppies, however, they were two brother German Shepards. Bert was tan with a black saddle and Ernie a dazzling sable. Their trace hairs were scattered all over the sofas despite how much their cleaner spent vacuuming the cushions.

He turned back to Ron and realised that, for a RIO, he didn’t have good instincts sometimes. Of course that was partially because he was half deaf. But there was a sixth sense the Navy trained into you in flight school that was hard to shake. Apparently not as hard as he thought.

Snaking his hands around his middle, Ron jumped a mile in the air, almost smacking him on the head with his spatula as he grumbled under his breath.

“What did you do that for?” He shouted at far too loud a volume for how close he was to him.

“No need to shout,” he said.

“What?!”

“No need to sho-” he huffed and gestured toward his ears. “Turn your hearing aids on!”

“I haven’t got my hearing aid on!”

Goose shook his head, rubbing his forehead with his hand. “You fucking dumbass.”

Ron flicked the switch on his hearing aid on. “What did you say? I didn’t have my hearing aid on.”

“I was telling you to switch it on,”

“Well that’s no use now, I’ve got it on.”

“I know that!” Goose said. “What’s for breakfast, anyway?”

He took a sniff of the bacon and saw two fried eggs popping next to it in the pan. Toast was sitting up in the toaster. Two cups of coffee on the side beside two plates. A perfect breakfast for a long day of testing. Over the past few years, he’d really started to enjoy Ron’s early retirement, purely because he’d started to get into cooking, so he could now do more than just burnt toast and overdone eggs.

“Food, that’s what, now sit down sweetcheeks. You’ve got a busy day ahead of you.” He said, dripping with sarcasm.

“Aw, said like a true househusband.”

Goose sat down at the table while Ron flipped him off. After placing it all on the plate, garnishing with salt, pepper and a few sprigs of herbs, he quickly let the dogs in, from where they were waiting in the conservatory, and sat down to eat. For a moment they were quiet, the dogs, well trained, sitting at their feet.

“So, what’s on the agenda today, Admiral?” Ron asked.

“You know that’s classified.”

“Hasn’t stopped you before.” He asked. “Plus, I was a Captain once, you know.”

“Not anymore, old timer.”

Ron stuck his tongue out, Goose chuckled and took a long sip of his coffee.

“Fine, we’re going for Mach 9.”

“Jesus, how fast is that again?”

He thought for a moment. They were making so many improvements, with plenty of failures along the way, and sure they’d been happening slowly, almost too slowly for some, but the fact that he was even partially in charge of a project this important was filling him with confidence.

“About 6000 miles per hour.”

“Fuck,” was all he said. “Whatever I’ve said about Mav in the past, you can’t say he isn’t brave for flying that thing.”

Goose said around a mouthful of bacon and egg. “I’m telling him that.”

“You can tell him this too, that I can’t tell whether it’s brave or stupid to offer to fly a machine that could kill you if anything went wrong.”

“Ain’t that the problems with any jet,” he said. “Couldn’t the F-14 go like 1500 miles an hour?”

“Touche, touche.”

After finishing their food, Goose sat back in his chair and cradled his coffee. Bert rested his head on his lap. He’d mastered the look to get cuddles, and Nick hadn’t built immunity yet, so instinctively began to stroke his head.

“Anyway, enough about classified information I shouldn’t be telling you. What are you doing today?”

Ron, who was doing the same to Ernie, who’d partially flopped onto his lap now, just smirked at him. “Well, while you’re stressing about deadlines and early wake ups, I’ll be doing as little as possible.” He said. “I’m gonna make another cup of coffee, read the news, play some tennis and come home for a nap.”

Goose hummed. That was what he was looking forward to. After this project was over, he was going to retire. He’d put a lot of hard work in over the years, and after being told he was at risk for a stroke, being put on blood thinners just to prevent that, and having enough of the bratty internal politics of naval bureaucracy, he’d really been getting jealous of Ron’s easy life.

They had his two pensions, one from the navy, one from American Airlines, and Nick’s wages, they were set up for a healthy retirement. Sure, he’d been forcibly retired due to his gradual hearing loss due to too many metal concerts and the general volume of jets over the years, but now he’d settled into it, it had really begun to suit him.

“That sounds like heaven,” he said.

“Well, think of it this way, sweetcheeks, the quicker that darkstar of yours is approved, the quicker you can tell them to kiss your ass and walk out the door.”

“I won’t be telling them to do that.”

“But you could.”

“I wouldn’t though-”

This carried on for a few minutes until Nick’s phone lit up in his pocket. The number didn’t fill him with confidence. Ron looked up from where he was fully focused on stroking Ernie’s head, raising his eyebrows. His face must have fell with how Ron looked at him. He placed his phone back in his pocket with a frown.

“What was that about?” He asked.

Goose got up, the chair screeching across the tiled floor. Bert went back a few paces as he made his way to the door. A sudden urgency flooded through him.

“Hello? Earth to Goose?”

Ron followed him through to the hall. Despite not knowing what had changed, he still passed him his coat as he slid on his shoes and grabbed his briefcase. The dogs followed too, wearing the same forlorn expression that they always wore when he went to work.

“They pulled the Darkstar project.”

“What? But you’ve worked on that for almost a decade!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,”

Ron stepped back for a second. “Where are you going then?”

“Gotta call Mav, gotta convince them not to scrap it.”

He opened the door and pressed the button for the garage to open. Feeling around for his car keys, he began to rush out of the door, only for Ron to turn him around with them jingling on his finger.

“You’re not retiring?” He was wearing the same expression as the dogs were. “We said that after the Darkstar project-”

He reached for the keys but Ron pulled his hand back. “But not like this, I want to do it feeling completed, end on a high, not another example of how people like us are being replaced on every front by my bosses.”

Ron gave in and lent forward to give him a kiss. He wished him good luck, stroked his moustache as he let him go and closed the door behind him.

~~~~

An announcement beeped over the speaker system. ‘This is the last call for Gate 2 for the 0900 Flight to San Diego International Airport.’. It repeated again in Spanish as people began to move toward Gate 2.

“Oh, is that yours?” His mum asked over the phone.

Her face was slightly pixelated on the screen but he could still see how her face dropped. It had been a while since he’d seen her, six months of deployment in the middle of the ocean had taken its toll and the idea that he was getting leave for a good few months had been one of the few things that had stopped her from constantly worrying. Until this special mission came up that is.

He’d been excited when he’d heard. Feeling special when it came to the Navy was something that they didn’t really encourage, they needed everyone to work as a team, and some people being special could encourage rivalries, meaning more people could get hurt. Not that this attempt at unity actually worked, there was plenty of low level bullying and intimidation behind closed doors. Hangman flashed into his mind, not that that was an entirely Navy related affair.

“Yeah, I’ve been holding off but I think I actually need to go now,”

“Yeah, can’t have you missing your flight,”

“I usually leave it until late anyway, I mean, we’re all getting on the same flight, so what’s the point of being early, right?”

She laughed and nodded. He saw her wipe her eyes and sniff, trying to put on a brave face that he could always see through. His mum had no filter, whether it was insults or her emotions, she couldn’t hold anything back even if she wanted to. Which made her battle with cancer even worse because despite her best efforts, she couldn’t hide the side effects of the chemo as much as she would’ve liked. Bradley still felt uneasy around hospitals and when throwing up.

“Have a good flight, honey, okay?” She said. “Call me when you land.”

“You know I will,”

Her face dropped again. They’d both been looking forward to seeing each other for the first time in a year, he’d been out here in Virginia, whether on deployment or not, for so long.

“I love you,” She blew a kiss toward the screen.

“Love you too, and Charlie, send her my love.”

She smiled again. Charlie was already working, even at eight o’clock in the morning, or seven in Texas. There was a reason she was the top professor in her department. That’s where they’d met, Charlie was a new professor for physics and political science, his mum was finally doing that masters she’d wanted to do for years, but never had the time because of being a single mother. Not that she’d made him feel like that, she made it known that he was the best thing in her life and she wouldn’t change anything, that didn’t mean that she didn’t have goals outside of being a mother.

He’d never called Charlie ‘mom’, despite her being in his life for over ten years now. Perhaps it was because he’d moved out when they’d met, he was trying to be an adult, and feeling like he was failing in some parts, so hadn’t had to adapt as quickly as he would’ve done if he was still at home. He’d made sure that she looked after his mum though.

“Will do, she’s probably nose deep in papers by now.”

‘Will any passengers for the 0900 flight to San Diego please go to Gate 2 as boarding will soon be closing.’

“Okay, I really have to go now, bye.”

She waved as he ended the call, her pixelated image on the screen as he switched his phone into aeroplane mode and rushed off to his gate.

Despite her worry, he was excited for this mission, whatever it may hold. He started to run, seeing other people either in the queue to Gate 2 or sat around for other flights. With his passport and ticket in hand, he managed to get to the front desk just in time. Luckily, the Navy kept him fit as he would be exhausted from that last sprint.

"Have a good flight," said the flight attendant.

"I will." He replied, walking onto the plane.

He stared out the window after he took his seat. It had been a while since he’d been to Top Gun, new faces and old flashing in his mind. He couldn’t help but wonder what it was all about.

So many more people were interested in this idea than I thought would be. It's really motivated me with this but I will say that I'm currently prewriting for whumptober and there's some big fics there, so if updates get sparse then that's why. It's a little hard to write multiple fics per day, work 9 hours and look after yourself so got to make sure I'm taking care of myself.

Anyway, Goose and Slider are married, and either early 60s or late 50s. They have 2 dogs and are really fucking rich. Have you seen the salary for an admiral?! Also Mav's salary is massive to so I have no idea how his card is declined in TGM, unless he has to money skills and is in debt or just impulse bought his P-51 mustang.

Taglist: @pollyna @shadeds-library

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