The Sky and the Stars - Tom and Sarah Kazansky

-8-

The news was spreading fast: there had been a death.

Sarah hurried through base, catching snippets of the story here and there, but nothing concrete. All she knew for sure was that it had been Tom and Slider and Maverick and Goose up there. If someone was dead, it could be any one of them...

"Tom!" There was no mistaking the surge of relief that spread through her when she saw him standing there, a ways down the hall.  "Oh thank God! What happened? They're saying someone died?"

His gaze was on the floor. "Goose."

His words hit her like a punch to the gut.  "N-no-"

"Yeah, tried to eject, struck the canopy. Broke his neck.  Killed instantly." He was just listing off the facts, cold and calculated, but she could tell he was deeply upset.

"B-but, I just talked to him this morning..." Her thoughts were spiraling, out of control and fast.  How could this be happening? It all seemed unreal. "A-Are you okay?"

"I felt guilty," he would confess to her later, during their relationship. But he couldn't bring himself to say the words to her now, then and there. So he just nodded instead. 

"Oh my - oh my God..." She wasn't, she wasn't okay at all. 

She felt so suddenly removed from everything - yes, she was just here collecting data, but all around her it was life and death.  Up there, that's what it was.

He was just about to call out to her when she took off running again, back down the hall the way she'd come.

She found who she was looking for in the lobby of the medical wing. "Oh Carole, I'm so sorry-" She hugged her new friend, overcome with grief for her. 

"Thank you, Sweetie. We're gonna be okay, we're gonna be okay..." She repeated it like a mantra, but crumbled around it, around the words. She widowed, Bradley fatherless. And all so suddenly. It was a shock to the system. 

"Mommy?" came Bradley's sweet voice calling.  "Mommy?"

"Here, Baby."

"Where's Daddy, Mommy? Is he up in a plane?"

"Oh Sweetheart-" Carole scooped him up and held him close and Sarah left mother and son to have a necessary moment together, her own heart swelling painfully.

She hardly knew Goose, but with his easygoing and fun personality, he had felt like a friend. She thought of them high-fiving and cheering each other on out on the volleyball court that day at the beach, of him calling her 'partner' and throwing his arm around her shoulders, of talking about family at the bar after  their victory over Team Tom and Slider.

Goose's own words from that night between games of pool returned to her then: "After what happened with Cougar, it was a real wakeup call, for me at least. But it also came with this big chance here. Mav has it different, he doesn't have a family to think about back home. That's where some of his recklessness comes from. But me, I have to be more careful, for my family's sake."

Oh God...

So lost deep in her thoughts was she that she wasn't looking where she was going, her gaze trained on the floor tiles, just walking blinding around the base.  She nearly crashed into someone who also hadn't been paying attention to where he was going.

Maverick.

His signature glow was gone. He had always looked young to her, but now, red faced and puffy-eyed, he looked like a wounded child and her heart broke once again.  

He stood there before her, frozen in time and space. 

"Maverick?" No response, so she tried again, a little differently this time. "Pete?"

This seemed to do it, and he instantly crumbled, letting out a sob. She caught him and held him in a tight embrace.  She didn't know him well either, less so even than she had known Goose, but she knew when someone was in need. Sometimes you just had to be there with them. And so that's exactly what she did. 

And there with him, she cried too.

-----------------------------------------

"You heard?" Charlie asked. 

"Yeah, it's so awful. I  saw Carole."

"Me too."

"She's putting on a brave face, that's for sure. And Pete, too."

"He won't talk to me," Charlie sighed. 

"Yeah, I've never seen him so quiet."

Despite the sudden loss that had shaken the whole base, following a trial that removed any blame in the incident from Maverick, training started right back up again. Sarah was shocked, to say the least.

"I can't believe they're just sending them back up there like nothing even happened. It seems wrong," she remarked to Charlie. "I mean I get that their on a certain schedule here, but one of the team members just died in a tragic accident. And Maverick - they keep insisting that he go up. It's crazy."

"Well they won't be sending him up anymore," grumbled Charlie.  "He's quitting."

Sarah whirled around to face her.  "What?"

"Yup. Wasn't even going to say goodbye." She was clearly bitter about this. 

Sarah was shocked - honestly, she didn't blame him after what he had been through these last few days, but she also didn't feel like it was the right choice. And she told him so, after tracking him down and catching him before he left the base. 

"Pete? Charlie says you're quitting." He said nothing, just nodded slightly.  "Pete, don't quit. I can understand that it  feels like the only option right now, but it's not. Goose wouldn't want you to do that. You love it too much for that."

"I loved him. He was my best friend." He was crumbling again. And again, she didn't blame him.

"I know. And he was so excited about this chance for you both. I know they keep sending you up to fly, and maybe I don't agree with that under the circumstances, but I know it's cause they believe in you as a pilot. No one's going to force you to do anything, though. You can still keep going without quitting. I don't agree with them pushing you so hard over and over again after what you've been through, but just know it's up to you. Do what you feel is right. Trust yourself, the way Goose did."

He gave a more firm nod this time.  "Thanks, Sarah." 

"Of course, and again, I'm so sorry for everything."

"Thanks.  And hey, I'm sorry for being kind of a jerk to you the first time we met."

"Kind of a jerk?"

Now he chuckled and she was glad. "Okay, a real jerk. You're a good person, Sarah."

"Thanks, Pete. You too. And I'm not just saying that, I believe it. You'll do the right thing - what you feel is right."

(Aw Goose :( Rest in Peace. They did such a great job connecting Bradley's story in the new film with this one!

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))