automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

thirty.

one night, she sat with her hands on her phone, staring down at the lit up screen. 'my bradley' the contact read, though she didn't know if she really had the right to call him that anymore. her thumb hovered over the call button for minutes before she shook her head, setting it back down on her bedside table.

a few weeks later, she'd fully had enough. she called him, but he didn't pick up. when they'd first separated, skye had called bradley quite frequently. he would respond by the third ring always, and they'd sit and talk until one of them reluctantly admitted to needing to leave for something.

but this time there was no answer. skye had sighed as she dropped her phone onto her bed, running a hand through her hair. maybe she'd blown whatever friendship they'd had when she left, or maybe he'd had a change of heart since then.

whatever it was, she didn't talk to him for two years.

it was some time after skye had tried to call rooster that she found out he'd been on a deployment at the time, and was fully unable to answer her call. he might've tried to call her after that, but skye had yet to see such a call show up in her inbox.

after a year with the black aces, skye and katia received the offer. the VFA-81 squadron was the navy's first all super hornet airwing, and it had been skye's dream squadron as a child. "anytime, anyplace" was their motto, and the sunliners were everything that young skye had hoped to be.

"they had the longest planned carrier deployment since vietnam." she had said to anyone within earshot, going on and on about her favorite squadron. "they have over 3,000 combat hours."

that had been when she and katia were still in the naval academy, and both of the squadrons that their fathers had belonged to had long retired from service. since the girls couldn't even think about being members of the ghostriders or the intruders, they had come up with their own dreams. skye's had always been the sunliners.

she couldn't really explain what it was that had drawn her to the squadron. maybe it was the teeth that had been painted on most of their super hornets, or maybe it was how awestruck she was to watch the way that they flew.

regardless of what had made her love the sunliners, she had never actually thought that her dream squadron would want her and katia. graduating at the top of their class at top gun, though, had put both of the women's names out in the air, so it seemed. skye's face had instantly lit up as she answered the call, but her smile faded slightly as she nodded. "i'll have to get back to you. thank you very much."

"who was that?" katia asked, looking up from her bowl of popcorn.

skye shrugged. "the sunliners admissions. they wanted to know if we were interested in joining."

katia stood instantly, not bothered in the slightest as her popcorn spilled over the floor. "and you said you'd have to get back to them? skye, that's your dream squadron. you have to call back and say yes."

"no, we have to stay in california, remember?" she reminded her.

"фигня." katia deadpanned, saying bullshit in russian. "my dad isn't going anywhere. this is the offer you've been waiting for for your whole life. and i don't know about you, but i think 3,000 combat hours sounds pretty cool."

and so, with katia's encouragement, the two women were headed towards virginia to join the sunliners. their goodbye to phoenix had been difficult, without a doubt, but the woman completely understood why they were leaving. "this squadron," she had said, "will always be flying with you, even if you aren't flying with us."

iceman was also completely on board with the idea, and had used his computer to speak his thoughts. he had immediately told both women not to set their lives backwards because of him, but to do as much as they could and then come back and tell him everything they'd seen.