Baby Mav

Secrets Revealed

"Maddy!" Rooster yelled the second he got outside. He searched the nearby beach, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw her walking away from the bar with her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

"Maddy, wait up!"

He grabbed her elbow and spun her around. When he saw her eyes, his heart sank at the tears in her eyes. He racked his brain, trying to come up with something to say to her; the right thing to say to her.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

That was definitely not the right thing to say to her. He could tell the second the tears stopped and the anger appeared.

"Don't. You. Dare." She said through her teeth.

"Mads. . ."

"No," she sharply cut him off. "Don't you dare make it seem like it was my fault."

"That's not what I was doing," he said quickly.

"You have no right to judge me for what happened, Bradley. If I remember right, I invited you. I wanted you, begged you, to come to my graduation. Do you remember what you said to me, that day I called and tried to invite you?"

Rooster opened and closed his mouth, unsure of what to say to her. He wanted to make it better, but he wasn't sure if he could.

"You said, 'Sorry, Maddy. I'm busy'. You were busy," Maddlyn said, the tears returning. "You were so busy you couldn't come support me. Even after I begged you, you still told me you were too busy for me."

"I'm sorry," Rooster said softly. "If I had been in the program, I would've been at the graduation as a graduate. To be honest, I wanted to go and support you. I wasn't sure if I could handle walking in as an audience member and not a graduate"

"You could've been there because I invited you," she shot back. "But you were too damn proud."

"It wasn't easy getting over not getting into the program. It was even harder when I found out it was you who pulled my application," Rooster said but instantly regretted it.

"Why couldn't you just trust me that I had a good reason?" Maddlyn asked, her voice shaky. She took a deep breath, calming down. When she spoke up again, her voice was lower. "I knew you'd be angry with me, but I didn't think it would make it so I lost you."

"You didn't lose me," Rooster said gently as he took a step closer to her.

"Didn't I?" She said, her voice breaking. "Yes, all of this would've been so much easier if you were in the program. But it also would've been easier if I was able to call you and talk to you."

Wait, the program? Rooster thought they were still talking about her graduation. Before he could ask what she meant, she turned around and quickly walked away. His head was still spinning as he decided to ask Maverick what she meant.

"You don't understand," Maverick was saying when Rooster walked back into the bar.

"What don't we understand?" Rooster demanded.

"Maddy's experience in the program wasn't a good one."

"What do you mean?" Rooster pushed.

"Maddy was the first female pilot accepted in the program," Maverick explained, "and the guys didn't take it well. Everywhere she turned, they were there, in the way of her succeeding. I didn't even know how bad it was until Ice called me into his office and told me about it."

"How bad was it?" Phoenix asked.

Maverick just scoffed. He wrapped his arms around himself, clenching his jaw in anger.

"Your stereotypical sexist shit," he scoffed. "Dumb comments, dumber jokes. Not to mention her call-sign."

"Baby Girl," Phoenix asked, her own anger rising up.

"She changed it right?" Fanboy asked.

"They wouldn't let her, at first," Maverick sighed. "Growing up, Maddy used to talk about having a call-sign connected to mine. The boys weren't impressed by who I was. They would only use that to hurt her."

"Hurt her?" Rooster asked, his voice getting caught in his breath.

"They'd hold it over her head," he explained. "Use it as a reason as to why she wasn't good enough and why she didn't deserve to be here."

"I thought she said she changed her call-sign," Bob said hesitantly.

"She did," Maverick said, letting out a sigh of relief. "Ice called her into his office one day after overhearing some talk from her other instructors. He tried to get her to talk about what was going on, but Maddy was being, well, Maddy."

"What does that mean?" Phoenix asked.

"Maddy is a closed book," Rooster explains for Maverick. "She prefers to suffer in silence than pull anybody into it."

"It's always driven me a little crazy," Maverick continued. "And after I've heard about what the other boys were doing to her, he had to get to the bottom of it so he pushed her. Nothing too extreme. Just enough to get her to open up. And when she did, she told him everything."

"Why didn't he kick the guys out?" Omaha asked.

"Because it wouldn't have helped," Maverick said. "It would've given them more ammo if Ice protected her. She had to deal with it on her own."

"Those sons of bitches," Payback grumbled. Maverick pushed down his pride in how angry they were getting.

"He really did nothing?" Phoenix asked.

"Even though he didn't completely step in," he reassured them, "doesn't mean he didn't help her."

"How?" Rooster asked.

"He changed her call-sign."

"I thought it wasn't easy to do that," Bob said, flooded with embarrassment.

"You can if you're determined enough," Maverick chuckled. "And my Maddy is definitely determined enough. It helps to have Ice in your corner."

"What did she have to do?" Omaha asked.

"It was pretty simple, actually. After talking to Ice and getting a new helmet made, all she had to do was walk into training with it."

"What was her new call-sign?" Phoenix asked.

"Baby Mav," he said with a big smile on his face. "She wanted a part of her legacy but also a reminder that those boys couldn't get to her."

"I knew I liked her," Phoenix chuckled.

"Did that help?" Rooster asked without laughing.

"Not really," Maverick sighed. "Put space between them but. . ."

"But what?" Rooster pushed.

"But they continued with the sexist comments," Maverick sighed. "And did something worse."

"What did they do?" Rooster asked through angry breaths.

"The boys would play a game."

"A game?" Bob asked softly.

"Who Can Kill The Girl First."

The group froze. Even Hangman didn't have a smart-ass response to Maverick's answer.

"They would. . . I swear to. . . If I ever meet any one of them, I'll shoot them down myself," Rooster said through a clenched jaw.

"They never got her," Maverick said, not hiding his pride. "She beat them. Every. Time."

"She sounds like a badass," Payback chuckled.

"She is," Maverick agreed. "Believe me. My daughter is unstoppable in a plane."

"What happened during Flight 18-20?"

The tension returned at Hangman's question. "That," Maverick sighed, "is not a story for me to tell. You'll have to ask Maddy. And she'll tell you when she's ready."

"Ready?" Rooster asked. "She's not ready to talk about it? It happened over three years ago."

"True," Maverick shrugged. "But what happened, stuck with her. And will stick with her for a very long time."