UP IN THE CLOUDS

Old friends.

Today I had finally landed in San Diego and when I got off the plane and got my bags I was then greeted by my family. The very first person to hug me was my older brother Peter, gosh I missed his hugs they always were so comforting. He pulled away and smiled at me saying.
"Welcome home Lie Lie" I smiled at the nickname he gave me when we were kids.
"It's good to be back" with that he let my grandma come towards me to finally engulf me in her arms, it felt so good to be home. She kissed me on the cheek and led me to the car , leaving my brother to carry all the luggage despite the many protests he gave her. The one person I hadn't seen yet was grampa. Yes I know it's Grandpa but Grampa was the only way I've ever said it since I was a kid. Grandma clearly saw my face and quickly assured me that he was waiting for me at home of course u understood why, not the long ago Grampa was battling throat cancer and through many tough stages he finally got better or so we thought. Once we reached the car we headed on to the house.
Leading into the driveway I saw the big White House I grew up in. The amount of memories I had good and bad came flooding back all I could do was smile. Peter parked the car near the front door and I hopped out of his truck and immediately ran into the house, I spun around in the foyer like a little kid and sighed happily, I could hear laughter above me and when I looked up it was Grampa looking down at me from the upstairs balcony as soon as I saw him I charged up the stairs while doing this I nearly tripped and cause my grandma to yell out for me to be careful but that was the least of my worry's, once I reached him I hugged him like it was the end of the world, he surely returned and he pulled away and smiled at me, he couldn't really communicate as well as he had once but his eyes said it all.
"I missed you to grampa" he placed his hands on either side of my face and gave me a big kiss on my forehead. We both walked down the stairs and he greeted the rest and my brother left my stuff near the stairs which made me laugh and we both headed towards the living room where I immediately laid on the sofa, Peter came to where I was and stood in front of me with a smile on his face one that only had one meaning and one meaning only.
Mischief.
"Oh no, no, no, no" i tried to get away but he picked me up put me over his shoulder and made his way to the backyard, grandma and grampa watching the entire time with huge smiles on their face. Peter opened the door and walked on over to the pool.
"PETER LIAM KAZANKSY PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT" he stopped walking which led me to believe that he was going to actually listen oh how wrong was I.
"Ya know I was considering letting you down but you pulled the full name card so I am definitely not doing that now" He continues to walk and reaches the pool and throws me into, the cold not at all heated pool. He laughed so hard at me that when I came back up I splashed him with water but he continued to laugh, I eventually laughed and made him pull me up, grandma handed me a towel and told me that my room was all ready for me so I could go get changed I nodded and went on up to my room the left side of the upstairs wing. Walking up to the door I saw the sigh outside of my door that has a multi sports poster with my name on it I opened the door and it felt like I was in high school all over again, I went over to my closet and remembered my stuff was downstairs so I had to pick a big sweater from college and shorts I quickly showered to get the pool water off of me and changed and put my hair up in a pony tail. Walking more into my room I went over to my desk where I saw the many pictures of family events like the Kazanksy Christmas party's, Thanksgiving, Birthdays, Grampas Naval Events, and high school events. One in particular caught my eye, it was a picture of me my brother with grampa and two other gentlemen. It so happened to be my Uncle Mav or Maverick who flew with grampa and his "son" Bradley Bradshaw or how I liked to call him Brado. I looked at them and had a sad smile I have fallen out of touch with both well Mav would write or call whenever either one of us wasn't deployed or busy but Bradley he never spoke to me again after I signed up to join the Navy. He was set back four years and I was aware that the pulling of his papers was going to happen, and of course he knew that I knew and he never gave me the chance to explain he only gave me a kiss on the cheek and walked out of my life, grampa would let me know how he was doing in the academy but of course never had much to say on him cause Bradley didn't talk to Mav so there was nothing else to tell grampa to tell me. Snapping out of it I went back downstairs to eat with them all and we just chatted away until it became 4:00 pm and I instantly remembered I was supposed to go and meet the crew I'd be flying with, an old friend from high school Natasha would be on that same crew and man was I stoked to see her. I ran upstairs to get dressed into my brown off-duty  uniform and put my hair into a nice slick back bun and out on my CALLSIGN tag and pins on my collar and walked down to the kitchen where everyone was and they all turned to look at me.
"Where you going sweetheart?"
"I have to go to the Hard Deck for work"
"A bar for work, that's not very responsible Lie Lie" Peter laughed
"Oh shut it Peter, I'll be back later alright I love you guys" I gave all three a kiss on the cheek and walked into the garage and saw a cover on a certain car, the only one covered and I smiled walking over to get the keys I took the cover off and it revealed a 1976 all black Chevy Camaro the car grampa got me for my 16th, while other girls asked for buggies or convertibles all I wanted was a muscle car. I turned it on and revved it up man I missed that sound, I pulled out of the garage and made my way over to the Hard Deck. Once I was there I parked and made my way inside, I was greeted with the smell of beer, peanuts and the sound of music with pilots and backseaters overlapping walking over to a crowed I walk over to a specific someone a tall blond well groomed man m. I immediately smirked and made my way over he was playing pool,  ready to make his next move when I coughed obnoxiously causing him to look up and he greeted me with a smirk standing up he turned to his right and soon smiled at me.
"ACE" he smiled
"Hangman how my favorite asshole doing?"
"Oh he's doing just fine, what are you doing here darling?" I moved toward the wall to lean on and began to explain, when I saw none other the Natasha walking in with two guys behind her.
"What do we have here?" He got up from playing pool with coyote and made his way to her.
"and here I thought we were special, I'm seeing now the invite went out to anyone" Gosh I hated those cocky remarks. I only could roll my eyes at him. Natasha walks up to meet where hangman had now sat on the pool table.
"Fellas this here is bagman"
"Hangman"
"Whatever, your looking at the only Naval aviator on active duty with a confirmed air to air kill" Gosh Nat you just had to feed his ego.
"Stop" they 5 continued to bicker on how they can compare him to a Cold War aviator. Eventually Coyote was curious and asked who the guys were.
"Payback"
"Fanboy"
"Hey coyote who's he?" Everyone turned the gaze over to the quite man sitting against the wall.
"When did you get here?"
"Oh I've been here the whole time" This made hangman quickly make a remark.
"The mans a stealth pilot" God where does he get all these stupid remarks from.
"Weapons systems officer actually" Hangman got up saying.
"With no sense of humor" he hands the stick over to Natasha and he goes to the bar.
"What do they call you?" She asked the quite man with glasses.
"BOB"
"No your callsign"
"Uhm BOB"
"Robert Floyd, you're my back seater,From Lamour?" This made the others laugh and when she saw who they greeted she quickly made her way past them and hugged me.
"OLIVIA YOURE HERE" I smiled at her
"I know I finally get to see you and Hangman continue to bicker back and forth" she rolled her eyes and walked to the side, when Hangman finished getting drinks he put on a song that you knew was definitely his favorite one, and all of a sudden someone walks in and Natasha springs her head up and begins to speak.
"This is how I find out you're state side?" I look over to who she's speaking to and I immediately froze walking more towards Hangman.
"Yea i just thought I'd surprise you" Nat scoffed
and then wacked him in the stomach with the pool stick and winked at me. He groaned and looked up at her.
"I guess i surprised you back"
"It's good to see you" he smiled
"It's good to see you too. Kinda"
While all this went down Hangman saw my face and looked over and saw Bradley, he walked towards me and placed a hand on my shoulder and then proceeded to greet him in the best way he knew.
"Bradshaw, as I live and breath" he saw him and saw where he was coming from and he looked at me I quickly looked away and went get get a much needed drink, his gaze followed me but he continued his conversation with Hangman. I sat down and ordered from a pretty looking lady.
"Tough day?" She smiled at me which I tried to return.
"Yea just saw someone I didn't think I'd see again" She placed a beer in front of me and gave me a sad smile.
"Here it's on the house"
"Oh no i ca-"
"Don't worry it's on him" she winked and I looked over to my left and saw another being I didn't think I'd see again either.