Crash & Burn || Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw

1.0

Estelle had gotten off of work at five o'clock, an hour before Nat and Bradley, and on her way home, she thought about what Maverick had said to her. Although he was right, and she needed to talk to her mother, she was still mad at her. Instead of talking with her face-to-face, she decided it would be best to call her and hope it would go to voicemail.

While she was not Estelle's biological mom, Penny had raised the girl like she was her own. After much internal debate, Estelle decided to call her mom, choosing to believe that Penny had just wanted her to know the truth.

After staring at her mother's contact for nearly five minutes, she finally got the courage to hit the call button. The phone rang twice before her mother picked up, "Hello?"

"Hi."

"Estelle, sweetie, I'm so sorry. I just thought you should know. I didn't realize how upset it would make you. I didn't think about how it would make you feel. I-" Penny was rambling. She truly felt terrible for upsetting her daughter.

"Mom," Estelle said, cutting Penny off, "stop. I understand. I'm sorry for not calling you. It's just a lot to take in."

"Estelle, I'm sorry. Truly. Please forgive Pete too. He just wanted to protect you."

"...Yeah." She whispered.

Just then, her phone started ringing. The Caller ID said that it was an unknown number, but something in her gut was telling her to answer it, "Hey mom, I have to let you go. Someone else is calling me."

"Yeah, sure of course. Love you."

"Love you too." She said, hanging up on her mom answering the unknown caller, "Hello?"

"Hey. It's Bradley." He said, sounding distressed.

"Hey, what's up? Are you okay?" She asked, concerned.

"Uh no. Well kind of. Phoenix and Bob went down-"

"Oh my god." She said, tears forming in her eyes as she interrupted Bradley.

"They're okay, they're just going to stay in the hospital overnight for observation," he said, letting out a sigh, "But um..."

"Do you want to come over? I can make dinner or something."

"Yeah. Yeah. That sounds good. Just text me your address and I can be over in twenty?"

"Okay, yeah. See you then."

After hanging up the phone, Estelle picked up around her apartment. It wasn't "messy" but it wasn't exactly neat and tidy, how she usually keeps it, after the events of the past several days. True to his word, Bradley showed up and knocked on her door twenty minutes later.

Estelle opened the door, stepping aside, and allowing Bradley to enter her apartment; "Hi." She said, the sight of him causing her eyes to well up with tears.

He wasn't in his flight suit anymore. Instead he was wearing the white shirt he normally wears underneath the suit, gray sweatpants, and black nike gym shoes.

"Hey," he said, sighing.

"I have pasta cooking. Make yourself at home." Estelle said, heading back towards the kitchen letting a tear or two slip.

Bradley took his shoes off, leaving them by the front door and followed Estelle into the kitchen. She was on one side, stirring the noodles, and he was propped up on the counter across from her.

While she was picking up the apartment, Estelle had put on music to have as background noise. She had forgotten to turn it off before Bradley came over, so Late Night Talking by Harry Styles was now playing.