She's a fighter, not a lover // A Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw story

-001-

I woke up to my father Pete Mitchell calling me downstairs. "Coming!" I yelled frustrated that he had to wake me up. I had a mission to go to at Top Gun, so to be fair it wasn't his fault. I mean it kind of is, everybody thinks I'm an amazing flyer just because my dad is. He didn't win Top Gun, he got second but he won a battle that ended up with him having a bigger name than 'Top Gun'.

That's why my call sign is Legacy. I'm the Legacy of the famous Maverick. I wanted to be called something different but Legacy kind of stuck so I kept it. Even put it on my helmet, so I guess it's not so bad.

I glance at my phone quickly and it read 6:30 am. I groaned as I removed the covers off of me and went to open my curtains. "Y/N!" He yelled again as I grabbed a change of clothes. We were flying  to Top Gun, and our flight is leaving at 9:30, dad whats us to be there at 7:30 so we have to time to make our flight. What's up with being at the airport so early, it's frustrating.

I threw on my clothes and made sure I grabbed my bag as walked down the stairs to the kitchen. He was eating a bowl of cereal, fruit loops to be exact. "Y/N what are you doing?" He asked me with a weird look. "What do you mean, I'm down here, going to eat breakfast." I grumbled, headed to the fridge to finish off the milk with my cereal. "No not that, where's your uniform?" He asked me, grabbing my duffle bag and opening the zipper. "Hey give that back, and I'm not putting it on until I get there." I explained to him, grabbing my bag out of his hand.

"No no no no, my daughter is not showing up out of uniform, go change." He ordered as he spooned another bite of cereal into his mouth. "What's the big deal, I want to be comfortable gosh." I explained to him. "Go. Change." He said sternly. "Fine." I mumbled in defeat. I just want to be comfortable, i mean wearing the uniform isn't so bad I just sweat a lot because I'm always warm. So I'm going to be roasting on that plane. So I head to the bathroom, and turned on the light.

I pull up the tan pants and put my black belt on making sure it's lose enough I can breathe. I grab the shirt and put it over my head making sure to fix the collar so it looks nice and pristine. I tuck in my shirt into the pants pulling it out a little so it's not super tight around my body. I put my Navy Aviator pin on and my name tag which says 'Mitchell'. I look in the mirror happy on how I look, I smile to myself. "There I am." I whispered to my self in the mirror.

How much I didn't want to put the uniform on I did enjoy seeing myself in it, it showed that I made it, that I'm exactly what I wanted to be. It's me, when I put that uniform on I feel like me. When I put my flying uniform and my helmet on I feel like me. I quickly brushed my teeth and pulled my hair into a slick bun to pull the whole look together. You can't have fly aways when you are wearing the uniform, it doesn't look right.

I made sure to grab both my toothbrush and my toothpaste before I left the bathroom. I meet my dad in the kitchen again. I saw him eating my cereal I looked at him with a 'really?' face. "What, I didn't think you were going to eat it." He explained to me with his mouth full. "Whatever, I don't really care, I'll just grab a granola bar." I said turning around on my heals towards the pantry.

"You are definitely my daughter" Dad said smiling while he put his dish in the sink. I smiled at him, I've always been more like my dad. My mom left when I was little, maybe 5 or so. Sure she sent cards for birthday's, but after a couple of years she stopped sending them. I did see her when I graduated high school. She wanted to see her 'little girl' before I moved on with my life.

You can imagine how scared she was when I said I wanted to be in the Navy. She went crazy, she kept telling me to go do greater things with my life, but being a Naval Aviator was always going to be my job. She tried to get me to go to college and trust me I would've actually liked to go to college but instead I went to the U.S Naval academy, then transitioned to flight school.

"We have 5 minutes till we have to leave." My dad warned me. "Okay, let me just grab my boots." I yelled running up the stairs to my room. "Meet me in the car!" He yelled up. I grabbed my black boots to go with my uniform. I look at myself in the mirror once more before running down the stairs, running through the kitchen grabbing my duffel bag and my water bottle. The drive was only about 30ish minutes so it wasn't to bad.

I got in the passenger seat and buckled my seat belt. "Are you excited?" Dad asked me as he pulled out of the driveway. "Definitely a little nervous but mostly excited." I explained. "Well that's expected." He told me. "Did you ever get nervous before flying?" I asked him, that's a question I've always asked him, does he, Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell, get nervous. It's always the same answer, "Well of course I would get nervous, but once I was in the plane flying with Goose, I felt in top of the world."

Goose was my father's best friend. Goose died when my his and my dad's aircraft suffered a flameout in both engines. When Goose and my dad had to eject, Goose hit his head causing him to pass away. The worst part of it all is that my dad was holding him, pretty much watched him die.

Goose had a son named Bradley, or Rooster is what my dad calls him. It's his call sign. Rooster is older than me by 3 years or something like that. Rooster and my dad aren't on good terms. At all. Don't ask me why but all I know is that they are both acting childish.
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First chapter!! What do y'all think? Hopefully y'all enjoyed! There will be more rooster in the next chapter!
Love you all!