Eye of the Storm

-> impossible

Our target was 2 minutes and 30 seconds, how was he going to pull this off?

"Maverick inbound."

The timer on the screen began to count down, signaling that he had started.

And with every checkpoint he passed, it was flagged down on the screen.

He was only halfway through the canyon.

Come on, come on, come on Dad. You can do this.

Out of anxiety, I leaned forward in my seat, when the timer hit 1 minute and 45 seconds.

He only had 30 seconds to go.

Maverick started to really punch it now, going over the mountain inverted, before flipping back over.

"Bombs away." He said through the radio.

Motion sensors confirmed that it was a perfect hit.

This could actually be done.

We hear grunts, as my father struggles to climb back up the mountains, more than 10 Gs weighing him down.

The timer went off.

He did it. He got out.

It's possible.

★★★

After Maverick proved that our mission was not only possible, but shot the required time record into the dust, he was called into the Admiral's office.

We got up in the air, going into our foxtrot and wingman teams, running through the course.

We all fell short of Maverick's amazing run.

It frustrated me to no end, I couldn't get a break, I would always be living in my father's shadow.

All throughout the course runs, my flying reflected my thoughts, I was distracted.

"Hurricane?" Rooster questions as soon as I'm out of the locker room. I didn't even notice walking by him.

He's leaning against the side of the wall, looking down in me.

"Did you really wait for me Bradley?" I ask, shaking out of my stupor.

We both know the answer to my question, but it doesn't mean that I don't want to hear him say it out loud. "Well, I made a promise, didn't I?" Rooster smirks, and slightly leans in, which makes my face instantly become flushed with red. I hate the response that my body gives him, and he knows it too.

"Mhm I guess you did." I shakily laugh, putting distance between us. My mind wanders again, it's been doing that a lot lately. I'm thinking about how much worse it would be if I was a teenager, I would giggle at the absurdity of our relationship.

Did we even have a relationship?

We've kissed and made out, but done nothing beyond that... yet. We haven't even officially confessed that we liked each other, we haven't done that in nearly a decade. But that night was not a happy night.

Were we dating? Just messing around? What was he thinking?

"Hey you okay? You seemed off today, and your face just kinda dropped." Bradley asks me.

"Yeah I'm totally fine," I assure him, but his eyes don't believe me. "I'm just a little tired after training. And the new deadline." I say and let out shiver of nervousness.

"I guess there's that too." Rooster says, "If your dad can do it, we can do it, I promise."

We walk out of the front doors, and into the parking lot.

"Do you pinky promise?" I ask him, gauging his reaction to our old tradition.

"Shoot Rach, we haven't done that since we were kids." Rooster complains.

I smile widely, and my dimples begin picking up in their corners, "It's not too late to start back up again."

"Ok fine, fine. I pinky promise." He holds his pinky out to me, and I interlock them.

We hold it there for a second, and then we take our hands away. Our cars are parked next to each other, so we walk side by side, until Bradley breaks the silence again.

"Hey Hurricane?"

"Yeah Rooster?"

"You wanna go do something later this weekend? Just me and you?"

"Bradley Bradshaw, are you asking me on a date?"

"I might be, depending on your answer."