SKYE MITCHELL TRUTHFULLY DIDN'T KNOW HOW SHE'D WOUND UP RIGHT WHERE SHE'D BEGUN. getting called back to the top gun program after graduating hadn't been on her bingo card, nor was getting trained by her father. but, hey, sometimes life throws crazy things at you.
after graduating from top gun, skye and her best friend katia kazansky joined the black aces strike fighter squadron based in lemoore, california. they had been recommended to the squadron by their good friend, natasha trace, callsign 'phoenix', who had been in the top gun program with them.
skye and katia had graduated at the top of their class, and therefore were immediately well respected upon their arrival into VFA-41. the black aces quickly became a second home to the women, who could practically fly super hornets in their sleep at this point.
their friendship with phoenix had flourished during this time, and the three women were rarely ever seen apart when on base. katia, who had recently gotten out of a toxic relationship with phoenix's old backseater, jake 'fang' logan, had been pulled out of her depressive slump by her friends, who would force her to play just dance with them (among other methods) in order to cheer her up.
the fast eagle squadron, as their radio callsign called them, were an extremely accepting and fun group of people. "first to fight, first to strike", the undersides of their planes all said. skye liked being in the squadron, because it encouraged more team playing than she had been used to previously. she and katia typically flew smaller missions, though, which often left her frustrated, longing to be of service.
skye and katia's helmets, which already matched, were soon decorated with a black aces decal, which had also been added as a patch to their flight suits.
the squadron didn't have frequent deployments (their last deployment being in 2016), which was great for skye and katia, who had wanted to be in the squadron for the purpose of staying in california. california, after all, was where katia's family was.
iceman 'slay' kazansky, as his daughter and her best friend constantly referred to him, had faced radiation for his throat cancer that resulted in damage to his vocal chords. though he was still facing treatments, his vocal chords were completely shot. he didn't talk anymore, and skye constantly missed his witty jokes and stories about flying.
though he wasn't of relation to skye, he was an uncle to her, and she had immediately understood katia's reluctance to leave the state he resided in. even if he was okay one day, that could change at any moment. because of that, they had both made the decision to accept phoenix's proposal to join the black aces.
skye certainly didn't regret joining the squadron. she had learned a lot, and had, at the same time, been able to teach those around her just as much. but, as fun as it was, she often found herself laying in bed at night wondering if she'd made the right choice.
in addition to the offer from phoenix, her favorite person, bradley 'rooster' bradshaw, had given her and katia an invitation to join him with his squadron, the golden warriors.
it had taken nearly everything in skye to turn him down, wanting nothing more than to continue flying with him. throughout their time in the top gun program, she had found herself steadily falling in love with the man. the timing, she figured, just wasn't right, though, and fate had driven them apart.
skye had never wanted to be away from bradley as long as she was. she truthfully was hoping that he'd show up to the family gatherings that she assumed her father was inviting him to, but he never did.
for some time, skye considered calling him. she hated calling people. in fact, she hated almost anything that had to do with her phone, a distaste that she had definitely inherited from her father. it felt ingenue, she thought, to call him after so long.
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.
maverick, skye's father, was also a supporter of the women joining the sunliners. he was still in mojave, testing the hypersonic darkstar. with the approval of both of their fathers, both women had accepted the offer and had become members of the sunliners.
what skye had never considered about being stationed in virginia beach was that she was going to be sharing the naval air station oceana with the golden warriors.
the sunliners were a perfect fit for her and katia, who were able to do the amount of missions and air combat that they had desired for and missed during their time with the black aces.
but then there was the issue with the golden warriors. their squadron was stationed in the carrier air wing eight, and were never particularly in contact with the sunliners in air wing one. this meant that, despite being at the same base, skye was never quite face to face with any of the members.
skye and katia roamed the base as a unit, holding their helmets (that adorned both the symbols for the black aces and for the sunliners) in one hand and their flight gear in the other. they were quite a mystery to everyone in the squadron, only opening up to a few people. they were both hyper focused on their careers, and had reasoned that they didn't need any friends that weren't each other.
they'd attempted to keep in touch with fanboy and payback, who they'd also befriended through the top gun program. both men were still together in a different squadron, and would frequently send photos of their planes with absolutely zero context. (or, of course, fanboy living up to his name sake and sending random star trek memes).
but other than talking to them and phoenix, skye and katia mainly kept to themselves. they had a job to do, and they were going to be as professional as possible when doing it.
of course, skye also wanted to avoid bradley at all costs. she wanted to see him, sure, but she had no idea how she'd explain to bradley, who she'd told she wouldn't join the golden warriors for the sole purpose of their base being too far away from home, why she was in a squadron at the same base.
despite not wanting to have a run in with him, skye often found herself scanning groups of the golden warriors for his broad shoulders, or looking over her shoulders for a sunglasses-clad man lingering by the bar.
she never saw him, though. at least, not until she and katia were preparing to leave for a miniature mission. bradley had been walking with some of his buddies across the tarmac, laughing at some joke that had probably been his own.
skye didn't quite believe it at first. there was no way it was him. but she'd recognize that smile anywhere, and she had no doubt about who it was from merely the gait he walked. he looked exactly the same as the last time she'd seen him.
when her eyes landed on him, every single worry skye had had about seeing him in person and explaining herself went out the window. she had stopped listening to any of the words that were coming out of katia's mouth, and she was about to run over to him.
she probably would've run over to hug him if some other girl hadn't done so first. she was a blonde, and she was clearly not a pilot, judging by the short floral dress she was wearing in the midst of all of the flight suits.
of course. the golden warriors had just returned from their latest deployment. and, of course, that was bradley's girlfriend. he bent down to hug her, and skye could see his smile widen.
it was then that katia noticed skye had stopped walking or responding to her, and the blonde followed her best friend's gaze. "no fucking way." she mumbled. "that fucking asshole."
skye shook her head. "he wasn't ever.. he wasn't my boyfriend, or anything. he has every right to move on."
"сука, he's lucky i'm not feeling like punching someone right now."
"katia, stop." skye interjected, putting a hand on her shoulder. "it doesn't matter. he wasn't mine to lose, you know?" she then sighed, adjusting her gear on her shoulder before walking away, not wanting to see anymore. "we know why he was ignoring my calls now, i guess."
katia looked over her shoulder one more time before following skye to their jet. "fucking bullshit. i hate that fucking guy."
"no, you don't." skye reminded her, helping her into their jet.
"i do right now."
skye had done everything in her power to forget about the sight of bradley with the other girl in his arms; tried to forget about the way he'd smiled, about the way his sun kissed skin had looked. she tried even harder not to imagine what he must've looked like when he kissed the girl, or what it would look like if skye had been the one in his arms.
she had stared at her phone again, her finger hovering over the contact 'my bradley'. skye examined it for a while, just staring at the two words. she then edited the contact, dropping her phone on the bed after the contact simply read 'rooster'.
after that, skye didn't think she'd ever want to see him again. she had no right to feel heartbroken, she thought. she was the one who had denied his offer to follow him to his squadron, after all. and yet, seeing him move on felt like someone was twisting a knife in her chest.
more months passed after that, and skye kept herself completely and fully occupied with her job. focusing on the sunliners kept her attention off of rooster, who couldn't cross her mind when she was trying to outfly her squadron's best.
"i've been doing some digging on facebook." katia had said one night.
skye chuckled, looking up from her phone, where she was crafting a new playlist. "and since when have you had facebook?"
"since i began my digging." she replied as if it was obvious.
the brunette shook her head with a fond smile, setting her phone down. "and what, exactly, have you been digging for?"
"i was looking at bradley's account," katia began, and skye's face immediately dropped, "and i noticed something really peculiar about his status."
skye shook her head again, though this time it was more defiant. "i don't care what's going on with him. if he wanted me to know, he would call me."
"no, no, just hear me out." the blonde encouraged. "his relationship status is marked as single. that alone is a blessing. so i reached out to fanboy, because he'd commented something about how rooster was an absolute chad. it turns out," she said, "that girl was a fling. apparently rooster's been going out with a suspicious amount of women, yet none of them are impressing him at all."
"okay, so he's sleeping around." skye replied. "what's the big deal?"
"that's the thing." katia pressed. "he's not taking any of these women home. he's just going on dates, and the leaving disappointed."
the brunette turned to face the wall. "i really don't care how his love life is going, kat."
katia rolled her eyes. "he told fanboy the reason. the reason he's.. dating all these different people." she said. "apparently, he found the perfect woman for him, and he can't have her."
"how romantic." skye replied sarcastically, bringing her knees to her chest.
"i love you, but you can be so stupid." katia said. "have you ever thought that, maybe, rooster likes you? or, stopped to consider the undeniable fact that the only reason you're so quick to suggest otherwise is because you're so afraid of losing him? well, guess what. you've already figured out what it's like to lose him. and that happened when you, too afraid, decided to avoid your feelings and not tell him about them. and, not to state the obvious, but you seem to not like it. and so, my dear, sweet skye, i think the only possible solution is to just grow a pair."
they were both silent for a moment before skye chuckled. "you and your podcasts."
"they stimulate the mind." katia agreed.
"you're so annoying."
"so are you."
skye sighed, putting her head into her hands. "i can't just.. go after him now, kat. i lost my chance when i left him at his birthday party."
"you don't know that if you don't try." katia encouraged, sitting down next to her.
the next morning, both women went to their base as normal, but were surprised to be immediately called into admiral 'blade''s office. they saluted him, moving their hands in sync as he walked into the room.
"at ease, ladies." he said, moving to sit down in his seat. "you're not in trouble."
skye looked over to katia before focusing back on the admiral. "sir, if you don't mind me asking, what's this about?"
blade pulled out two vanilla folders, dropping them open onto his desk. inside were photos of both skye and katia, showing lists of their achievements and descriptions of their work and attitude. "you two have been an extremely valuable asset to this squadron. you're always on time, you're always giving your full effort. and we need more pilots like you."
skye's brows furrowed. "have been, sir?"
he leaned back in his chair, his gaze moving from the files to them. "as much as i hate to say it, we're going to be saying goodbye. you have a new offer that is.. much more important. they want your bags packed immediately. you're set to be headed to north island within the hour."
the two women looked at each other. "north island, sir?" skye questioned.
"you've been called back to top gun."