𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 | A Top Gun Fanfiction

Chapter 13: 𝘔𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘢 𝘏𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘪𝘭' 𝘙𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳

The next two days were nothing out of the ordinary. I woke up, brushed my teeth, my hair, slid into my usual outfit, and then shoved down some breakfast before taking off with Charlie for Top Gun. At the academy, things were the same; Iceman and his buddies heckled me, and I did my best to ignore them, letting Maverick and Goose handle the confrontation if they chose. In the air, Dash was still a dick, and even more so now that he'd proved how much of my backstory he knew. I'll admit that it ruffled me a bit, but the initial fear he incited had more to do with my own failure to be honest with my friends, and less to do with the fact that he'd somehow managed to leaf through my file or overheard a private conversation between commanders.

Clearly, Dash hadn't thought that one through.

But Maverick had.

Without my permission, he relayed all I'd told him to Goose and boy am I glad he did. Working up courage to spill my guts to Maverick was harder than I thought, and in the end, I only managed to tell him half of the truth.

There was so much I left out...

And yet, I felt the weight lift from my shoulders just by giving Maverick a taste of what I've gone through.

So when Goose came up to me the day after Mav and I's late night talk, looked me dead in the eye, and simply said, "I'm sorry, Stirrups," you better believe I almost lost it. The boys knew it, because they both drew me into the biggest hug I've ever received in my life, with two pairs of arms around me. Crammed between both of them, with their strong arms holding me tight, kindred hearts beating in harmony to mine, something inside me clicked. It's like that toast we had back at the bar, the night they sang my sorrows away and danced with me, the oath we took to be true friends, no matter what, it finally sunk in and I embraced it with as much passion as I did my friends themselves. That hug followed me up into the sky. It guarded me from the fatal wounds Dash's tongue might've left; it put a smile on my face when we won even if I was disappointed because I'd been ignored again; and best of all, it just made me feel alive.

For a day, I got to be my old self again.

The farm girl turned pilot who crushed the competition in the air and on the ground and never once felt fear.

It felt good.

With it came the realization that it wasn't just the hug that shone a light on my life, it was the action of giving up a piece of myself and my fear. Instead of letting the insecurity of telling Maverick and Goose what happened to me before Top Gun and risking their possibly harmful opinions, I took the leap of faith. I rivaled my fear and contrary to prior belief that any sort of rebellion would set me back in my recovery, it launched me so far forward, I hardly recognized myself from the day before! That taste of sweet success had me hooked. Every waking second I wasn't laughing with the guys, or focusing on lectures, I was asking the question, what do I have to do to have more of this?

It's an easy answer, yet I couldn't really come to terms with it.

Even with my RIO breathing down my neck.

C'mon, Stirrups! She urges as I speed-walk through the parking lot to class, running a little late because I slept in and missed Charlie's hundred wake up calls. The night before, I had another visit from a certain someone, who I guess, like me, is starting to really enjoy our late night conversations and continues to show up at my window after dark. The two of us spent most of the night jabbering away, mainly talking about old planes and the way they've progressed and how some might look in the future. Nerdy stuff, followed by a ton of aviator jokes that I'm sure wouldn't be so funny to us this morning when we're both fully awake and not inebriated with endorphins. Still, we had a good time, and I fell asleep so hard (and at such a late hour) that my body just snoozed into the morning. I rushed to get ready, since Charlie had to get to work, and ended up skipping breakfast.