Atlas: A Top Gun: Maverick Fanfiction

Chapter 34: The One Where Javy Goes

A/N: I arrive with a chapter finally done with my semester!!  WHOOO!  More regular updates to come!  That being said, I'm changing the update schedule to the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month, since I'm working full-time this summer before going back to school.  So please be patient with the schedule and let me know what you think! 

Kelsey honestly wondered if it was worse having Javy go with her to the hospital. Now several weeks into chemotherapy, Jake had traded off a few times with Bradley and sometimes Pete, but never Javy. Not yet. And it wasn't anything against Javy, it was just that when he found out, he had cried for a solid hour with her.

Javy felt things deeply. He was an empath, even if he was a bit of an asshole at times. And as such, finding out that one of his closest friends was going through cancer was a bit of a tough blow.

She didn't like the way that everyone seemed to wait on her, hand and foot. The way that they all watched her carefully, like they were afraid that she was just going to shatter and break like she was nothing more than a glass ornament waiting for the fall. The way that they all just seemed too tender.

In Kelsey's mind, she could handle this beast. She could handle this if they treated her like she could handle it. No one babied Ice when he was going through his treatments and no one treated him like he was going to fall apart everyday.

Maybe it was because she was an orphan. Maybe it was because she was so damn young and had just gotten married. Whatever the case, sometimes it made her bitterly burn up inside. It wasn't fair—and that was just life. She didn't get to sit here and complain about how tough life was and how it shouldn't be happening to her. That wasn't her reality and she wasn't the type to just sit and wallow in her sadness.

So when Javy finally plucked up the courage to ask Jake if he could take Kelsey, Jake and Kelsey hadn't batted an eye. But she could feel the tension in the car, the way that Javy kept on fiddling with the radio stations, the way he kept on remarking how great the weather was—

And it was annoying as hell.

"Are you really going to keep talking to me about the weather?" Kelsey asked in a weary tone, gaze training onto her friend.

Javy looked taken aback for a solid ten seconds before blinking and shaking his head. "Sorry, Ceeps. It's just..."

"That you don't know what to say?" Kelsey understood. Understood that things like this tended to make people weird. She'd been through it with enough people she loved to know that people didn't like facing the reality and terror of sickness, something that was almost entirely out of their control.

"No, I really don't," Javy mumbled.

"I know. So don't act weird, you weirdo," Kelsey lightly punched his arm, shooting him a certain look.

"But—"

"Listen, I know it's weird. So you talking about the weather instead of normal shit is seriously freaking me out," Kelsey deadpanned.

"Oh that makes sense."

"I always make sense."

"Do not."

"I actually do. I'm the wisest person that you know, admit it."

"But I also know Natasha."

"Hm...." Kelsey hummed. "She is pretty wise. But she also needs to start dating my brother again."

Javy visibly snorted. "Like that'll happen."

"It's a good thing I can guilt people into things."