automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

fifty-one.

cyclone had been droning on and on about the mission perimeters, and he eventually got to explaining that maverick was no longer going to be their teacher. katia had already heard this news from skye, so she was unphased. hangman, however, turned in his seat. "what?"

"maverick is no longer your instructor." cyclone repeated. "from now on, i am to direct you through the rest of your training." 

the entire group seemed equally taken aback, and began to mumble among themselves. "did you know about this?" phoenix asked, leaning over to see skye, who nodded. her jaw was clenched in frustration with the rest of the group. maverick was their teacher, and he deserved to remain so.

skye's attention was suddenly grasped by a beeping on the monitor behind cyclone, and she sat up in her seat as it marked a solo f-18 flying on the radar. "who the hell is that?" the admiral wondered aloud.

"maverick to range control." a voice piqued, and skye immediately smirked. he'd listened to her advice. "entering point alpha. confirm green range. 

"maverick, range control." the radio replied. "uh, it is confirmed. i don't see an event schedule for you, sir."

she could practically see her father's face. "well, i'm going anyway."

phoenix smiled at this. "nice."

"setting time to target two minutes, fifteen seconds." maverick said.

payback sat up in his seat. "2:15, that's impossible."

hangman turned to look at him. "you have little faith in our elder mitchell. what do you think, skye?"

she was leaning forward in her seat, as if she was about to watch the most interesting flight of her life. "you underestimate him." she replied to payback.

maverick made his way through the course smoothly, and made a bomb drop on the target that hit perfectly. he immediately pulled up, and, miraculously, dropped his second missile right on the target. 

the students watching had all stood up by this point, even rooster. they were all on the edge of their seats as they watched maverick's plane move on the screen in front of them. when they saw the second missile go down, the group was stunned.

"bullseye, holy shit!" one of the watching aviators marveled, while everyone else let out shocked remarks of their own.

"he's an absolute legend." phoenix added.

skye smiled. "hell yeah he is."

"he's gonna be in big trouble." coyote replied.

"hell yeah he is." skye agreed.

sure enough, maverick got pulled into cyclone's office for a stern talking to. he had ended up getting appointed team leader, despite his antics, since his demonstration had been the only one proven effective of completing the mission successfully. and so, it was going to be up to him to pick who to send on the mission. 

which was going to be extremely difficult, since the man was undeniably biased. of course, there was his daughter and her best friend. that was a completely biased choice. then there was rooster, who was his best friend's son. that was also biased. but maverick didn't know if he could send any of them into a mission that they might not come back from. if he could live with himself if they didn't survive.

and maverick was kicking himself after his conversation with skye anyway. he knew it had been wrong to interfere with rooster admitting his feelings for her. he'd known that both times that he'd done it, he just thought he was doing the right thing. he thought that, by keeping them from getting romantically involved, he was stopping them from experiencing what carole had gone through after goose's death.

but, after losing ice, and after regaining penny, maverick had learned so much more about relationships. about losing people, and gaining them. and if his daughter felt an ounce for rooster what he felt about penny, or what rooster seemed to feel for her, then who had he been to stop them?

he felt so blind. he felt like a complete idiot, which, he kind of was. he'd spent so many years just trying to be the father he'd never had. the kind of father who would do anything for his kids. and he'd become overprotective, he knew that. he'd gotten in the way of something that could've been really great.

and, what, was maverick supposed to just send these two kids off into war the next day? as if nothing had happened? as if they didn't both clearly love each other? as if it hadn't been his fault that neither of them could properly admit to it?

so that was how maverick found himself pacing the halls in search of bradley bradshaw. he eventually found him in a side room, scanning the pictures on the walls. maverick looked over his shoulder for a moment, gathering that rooster was looking at a picture of his own graduating class of top gun. 

in the picture, rooster was standing on one side of skye with katia on the other. their shoulders were touching, and they weren't supposed to smile for the photo. it was always deemed unprofessional, and the pilots felt cooler without it anyway. but one look at their faces would tell you that they were having difficulty keeping their lips pursed. maverick would even bet that one of the three had made a stupid joke right before the picture had been taken. it was perfect. and it made him feel impossibly worse.

"it's a really good picture." maverick said, and rooster's posture straightened slightly. it took him a minute to turn around, but when he did he only gave a curt nod of acknowledgement. rooster moved to leave, clearly wanting nothing to do with this. "bradley." maverick's voice came out as a plea. "we need to talk."

rooster paused mid-step, his head dropping slightly to the floor. he then slowly turned back to look at maverick, his gaze unreadable. "about what, captain?" his voice was laced with malice.

maverick didn't want to let his emotion get the best of him. plus, he completely understood why rooster was callous. he had every right to be. "about you and skye." 

this made rooster scoff, his head dropping again. "i lost whatever chance i had of being with her, sir. you saw to that."

"rooster, please-"

"if you've come to tell me that i'm making a mistake by having feelings for her, sir, you're not doing any good. i already turned her down completely, just like you wanted, and now she won't talk to me." rooster told him. he wanted maverick to feel bad for what he'd done. for that he'd ruined. 

maverick shook his head. "that's what i wanted to talk to you about. i want you to talk to her. to be open and to be honest."

"it's already over." he disagreed. "anything i say won't matter."

"the mission is tomorrow." the older man reminded him. "if anything happens to either of you, and you haven't talked about this-"

rooster's gaze then turned serious. "you've already decided who you're taking on the mission, haven't you?" maverick didn't reply. "and you don't think one of us is making it back, huh?"

"that's not what this is about, rooster-"

"look, if you want me to.. to reconcile my differences with her.. to make a fool of myself one last time.. it's not happening. i can't tell her how i feel now that i've already hurt her over it. that isn't fair."

maverick sighed, trying to think of a way to explain it all. "i just want her to be happy. that's all i've ever wanted."

rooster nodded curtly. "me, too. but you just had to get in the way of that, didn't you, mav?" he didn't wait for a reply, though. he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving maverick standing in an empty room with only his thoughts and his regret.