Ride in this Life With You //Bradley Bradshaw

Chapter Fifty

January
Two Weeks Later

    Upon arriving home from Hawaii, Rooster left for Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia. He had been there two weeks so far working on an assignment. They texted when they could, and talked on the phone at night. Usually it was by video, but not always. Rooster attempted to talk to Nick, but he lost interest in the phone after about two minutes. He did miss Rooster though, he asked where he was every day. That made Haley sad, but there wasn't anything she could do about it. Nick was becoming quite the chatterbox as his vocabulary continued to expand.

    Haley had gone back to work in North Island. She was working on training the few new Top Gun instructors coming on. They kept a decent sized staff of instructors. She had been going over the program with them and discussing training opportunities. She remembered when she had first started out, and now she was working to train new instructors. She felt proud of herself. She knew she had come a long way with being a pilot, but also on the instruction side of things.

    She had left that morning to go for a check up, and had her anatomy scan done. This was her first doctor's appointment since finding out at the party about the twins, so she had an opportunity to ask her doctor about it. She saw them both at that appointment which really made the news sink in. She knew Rooster hated to miss it but the appointment fell while he was away. Everything was going great though, no issues were found. She had sent him a text to let him know it had gone good, and she'd attached a picture from the scan. She had stared at it on and off all day. Rooster finally wrote her back while she was finishing up at work.

    Holy shit. I know we knew, but it's weird to see them both.

    Haley read his message and silently agreed. That was what she had thought all day.

    "So are we using F-18s or F-35s?" Flash asked. He was one of the new instructors coming in.

    "F-35s unless a specific assignment or exercise requires the F/A-18. Any incoming pilot should be able to fly both." Haley answered. They had finished up for the day and it was a passing question on the way out. She headed out of the training room and was walking down the hall, typing a response back to Rooster.

    I know. A part of me still thought maybe it was false or a joke, but there's no doubt now. Everything's good though.

    Haley looked up and almost ran into Cypher. "I am so sorry, sir." She apologized. Thankfully she had a good relationship with him and didn't think it would be taken offense.

    "No worries, Captain." Cypher replied, "I was coming to see you, did you have a minute?" He asked.

    Haley nodded. She had plans, but wasn't about to say no to an admiral. Especially one that she deeply respected. He led her into an office and sat down at the desk. She realized it was his office, which she had actually only been inside a few times. "We got a call from the Strike Fighter Weapons School Atlantic." Cypher told her. "They're interested in having you teach there."

    Haley was a little surprised. It was a post-graduate level training school for F/A-18 Strike Fighter tactics, air launched weapons and mission planning. It was at Virginia Beach, ironically where Rooster was at the moment. Not the school, but that air station. She knew some Top Gun graduates went on to teach there.

    "As you know, NAS Oceana has the largest concentration of Top Gun graduates on the East Coast. And you were one of our best. You've done an outstanding job as a Top Gun instructor these last few years." Cypher told her. "I realize given your pregnancy, now may not be the time to make such a decision, but I wanted you to be aware the offer is on the table. They are interested in Captain Seresin as well. Though I do not know how much interest Hangman has in teaching."