The Captain's Daughter (Bradley Bradshaw)

Chapter 19

Maverick's POV:

"You'll never have to see me again."

Katie's words run out in my head. I know I had no place pushing her to have a relationship with me, but she was so much like me it hurt to know I could have been there. I blame myself for everything. I could've called Charlie. I could've flown to Washington, and made things work with her, but I figured she left because she didn't want me in Katie's life at all. My career was also taking off, so I was so focused on that and Bradley.

Bradley.

He was like a son to me. I helped Carole raise him. It broke me to pull his papers. I knew how much he wanted to fly. He was just like his dad. And now he hates me. He hates me for everything I've done. He probably hates me more now that him and Katie are together.

That is something I never thought would happen. My daughter and my best friend's son are dating. The way she got defensive over him. I could tell he was the person she cared about most. Ice said that they've been best friends since the academy. The fact they both are Top Gun graduates too, and that they flew together. It brought back memories of Goose and I, just the roles were reversed at the time.

Ice had gone down to sit in on one of their flight exercises. He was already close with Katie, because of him saying he was good friends with Charlie. He took a picture of them two in the plane. Her and Bradley looked so elated to be together in that plane.

Ice essentially kept tabs on her and Bradley to tell me how everything was going, because that's all I ever wanted. I wanted both of them to succeed. I really wanted to talk to the both of them, but there's nothing I could say that could fix it.

After my argument with Katie, I went to Penny's. I was so upset and overwhelmed with everything, I didn't know what to do.

"Are you gonna let her fly?" Penny asked as I sat down at her table.

"I want to. I want to see what she's capable of in the air. She's done countless of missions. This one is different and I wanna see what she can do. But, I could also lose her. Given the fact I've never physically been in her life until now, it'll ruin me if she dies on this mission. If I don't let her fly, I don't even know what will happen. She said if I kept her from flying that it would be the biggest thing I ever regretted." I put my head in my hands.

"She sounds just like you, Pete." She sat next to me and put a hand on my back.

"I know. And that's what scares me most. She's stubborn like her mother, but determined and ego driven like me. When I look at her I see Charlie, but other times, I see me. She has my eyes. She's got Charlie's nose and smile, but she's got my eyes and my dark hair." I looked at Penny.

"What about Rooster? Are you gonna let him fly?" Penny asked.

"I don't know, Pen. I want to show him that I think he's good enough, but I'm so scared of losing him too. But if I don't, he will hate me as much as Katie does." My eyes started to water.

How could I have screwed up this badly?

"Katie just needs time. She went her whole life thinking you were dead. Everyone protected her from you with lies she didn't deserve." Penny explained.

"She told me after this that I was never going to see her again. Pen, I know I haven't been there for her at all, but I want to be in her life. I have since I found out Charlie was pregnant. I just screwed up and waited too long." I put my head in my hands again.

"She'll come around. I just know it, Pete. And Rooster might too. They're together now, and I don't see them breaking up." Penny smiled at him. 

"You think so? I would do anything to be able to fix it with them. They're both the closest thing to family I have, and one of them is actually family." I wiped the tears from my eyes.

"You could talk to her again." Penny suggested.

"No she said she was done talking to me, and that she will only listen to me up until this mission is completed. Then she'll be gone." I told her.

"Yes but if her and Rooster fly on this mission, you may not get another chance." Penny told me. 

She was right. But also...Penny doesn't know the meeting I had earlier. That we were going to be leaving in a week, because the plant is gonna be active earlier than we thought. She also didn't know that Cyclone is making me team leader, which means I only pick one wingman. I get two foxtrot teams and my wingman. I have many options for a wingman but two of those options, can potentially change the relationship I have with them forever. 

I knew I had to talk to Katie and Bradley. Now was just a bad time for the three of us. I will talk to them when we leave for the mission. I want to make it work, I just needed to wait for the right time. Later that night I left Penny's to drive home. As I drove around on my bike to cool off, I rounded the corner to a stop sign. I looked at the house in front of the stop sign, and saw two people in the living room through the big window it had. 

It was Bradley and Katie. They were slow dancing in the living room. I sat there on my bike and watched them. I could just barely see the smile on his face. Her face was buried in his chest. My eyes started to water as I watched them dance together. I had to fix this. I had to fix everything. I want to witness them be happy together. The next thing I knew, I was letting the tears fall. Witnessing them like that changed something in me. I was snapped out of my thoughts by a car honking very loudly at me. I looked up to see Bradley slowly look up as I sped off. I got home, and started figuring out who was going to fly on this mission. I had a week to figure it out, and everyone's life was going to depend on it.