automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

ten.

WHEN SKYE, KATIA, AND ROOSTER ARRIVED BACK AT THE BASE, THEY were happily met with high fives from their teammates. "deadzone is dead." skye joked, giving phoenix a fist bump. 

"good job out there." hangman said, making the trio go silent. 

"thanks." skye replied, dropping phoenix's hand and turning to look at the man. "let's see if you can do better." 

he tilted his head. "oh, i'm not going to say i'm better, i wouldn't want to hurt your feelings." 

skye chuckled. "don't worry, i don't get easily offended by lies." 

this made him laugh, chewing on the gum in his mouth. "may the best pilot get on the plaque." 

"and they will." she replied, turning to katia, who was next to her, before looking back to hangman. "and i can assure you, it's not gonna be you." 

rooster then moved to the other side of skye. "is there a problem here?" he asked, looking down at her.

skye's eyes remained focused on hangman, who was still smiling. "no, just reminding lieutenant seresin of the company he's in."

"and what company is that, lieutenant mitchell?" he asked, chewing his gum. 

"the future top two graduates at top gun, that's who." skye smiled. with that, she weaved her way through the crowd of people and to the locker rooms, changing out of her flight suit and into jean shorts and an ac/dc shirt. 

katia followed her, changing into more comfortable clothes. "i wonder what'll happen tomorrow."

"what do you mean?" skye asked, taking her hair out of its military style bun that it had to be in when she flew.

"deadzone said he might be switching out some of the teams." katia reminded her. "we might be one of those teams that gets switched."

skye nodded. "yeah. hopefully not, though. you, me, and rooster make a pretty good team."

"we always have." katia agreed. "hopefully we get to stay together, at least." 

they went back to their apartment, and they had been lounging around watching some show or other when they received a knock at the door. skye got up to get it and was surprised to see rooster. "hey, what's up?"

he shrugged, taking his sunglasses off. "i just wanted to see you. see how you're doing." a smile spread on his lips. "would you maybe want to go somewhere, do something?"

skye raised a brow, looking at katia over her shoulder. the blonde gave her an encouraging thumbs up before she turned back to rooster. "what kind of something and somewhere are you thinking?"

"we could just go on a drive. listen to your impeccable music taste, of course. i heard there's a new diner that opened up near the beach, we can go check it out." he suggested, and skye wondered if he'd been planning this for some time. 

she looked back at katia, who shook her head before the brunette could invite her. "i have a date with jake tonight, so i'm gonna have to sit this one out. you two should go, though."

skye didn't have any excuse to not go, and it wasn't like hanging out with rooster sounded like a bad idea. so, she smiled. "uh.. yeah, yeah that would be really fun." 

rooster flipped his keys in his hands as he led her out to his truck. "have you ever gone on a drive with me before?" he asked, putting his aviators back on. 

she shook her head, putting her own sunglasses onto her face as she hopped into the truck (which ended up being a whole feat of its own, considering how high it was from the ground). "no, i don't think i have. you're a safe driver, right?"