Thistle ~ Bradley Rooster Bradshaw

Twenty two

The snow crunched under Mavericks feet which he practically ran toward the parachute he'd just watched fall into the trees.

He fright his best to take no notice to the F/A-18 swallows in flames to his left, although it was almost impossible under the circumstances. He hadn't known how he'd gotten into this situation. He'd been called back to Top Gun having no one but Ice and now he had a daughter that he'd only known for a few weeks and lost, and a boy he owes his life to for the sake of his father.

He could see faintly in the distance Rooster folding up the parachute he'd just detangled from himself.

"Hey" Mav yelled grabbing Roosters attention, "are you okay?" By now he was only metres from him, Rooster stood back up to face his leader giving him a quick nod.

He didn't expect to find himself flat on his ass in the snow two seconds later after Mav had pushed him over, "what the f-"

"What the hell did you do?" Mav's anger getting the better of him.

He'd lost one kid, he refused to lose a second, hence why he took that missile for him in the first place.

"I saved your life" Rooster practically yelled standing back up, placing his hands on his hips and looking down to Mav.

"No, I was saving your life, that's the whole damn point!" Mav stuck a hand out as his voice resided at the man before him. He watched as Rooster swallowed hard, "what were you thinking?" Again, his voice practically shouting.

"You told me not to think!" Maverick stood in silence for a moment after that, he did indeed tell him that. Multiple times actually.

He now put a hand on his hip, thinking about how the hell he should respond to that. Meanwhile Rooster raised a brow waiting for a response.

"How are you?" Mav gave him an innocent looking smile.

"Good" Bradley's tone came out fairly questioning.

"Good"

"How are you?" The taller of the two asked this time.

"Good"

"Good"

The two men stared at each other, unsure what to now say, Mav knew they had to get out of here, he just wanted to find his daughter. Although, he was also very aware that she probably went down with her plane. She almost definitely did.

"Should we start looking for her then?" Bradley's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

Mavericks face fell at the idea that Bradley hadn't seen the plane, he didn't know what had happened to her.

"Uh- I don't think we will find her" he looked down, unwilling to make eye contact with his fellow pilot.

"What does that mean?"

Pete had always known there was something between them, in actual fact, he was told about some girl at a course Bradley had completed a few years back, now it all made sense.

"I found her aircraft" Pete raised his head again to see the smallest bit of hope in his eyes, "it doesn't look good" he felt his voice shake slightly as he spoke making her clear his throat before turning his head back.

Bradley's eyes followed the direction of Petes pushing past him and in that same direction.

Mav followed after him making several attempts to stop him - not wanting him to see what he had - but it was practically useless. Rooster continued to almost jog over to the scene.

Trees at the very edge of the Forrest like area covering the plane until he'd stepped out from them. His heart shattering instantly.

Maverick was right. The flames were high and the plane was damaged beyond repair. He tried to step further round to look inside, see if he could see anything but the flames were too high.