Arriving back to base every day for the past few days, Oakley and Bradley seem to be doing the perfect job of ignoring each other. Bradley tried to compliment her flying but all he could muster was impressive. Oakley wants to repair the relationship but Bradley made it clear.
They aren't friends.
And they both don't know how to fix it.
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Sitting in the classroom with Natasha and Bob, Oakley is listening to the radio with her fellow pilots as Jake and Bradley are up in the air waiting for Maverick.
"Say, Rooster. Mind if I ask you a personal question?" Rolling her eyes, you can practically hear his smirk. "Would it matter if I did?"
"So what's the story with you and Maverick? It seems like he's got you a little rattled."
"That's none of your business."
"That's what your girlfriend said too." Wow Jake so original. "Pardon?" Bob asks me. "Jake's being Jake."
"Been here the whole time." Walking to the window to face the planes, the room goes silent waiting for either Bradley or Pete to lose their cool. "You see me now? Come on, let's get it over with."
"Fight's on!" Bradley yells, sucking in a breath.
"They are gonna hurt themselves." Oakley sighs, turning to face the other pilots. "What is with these two?" For once Oakley agrees with Jake's comment on Rooster.
"Not if they kill each other first." Natasha bluntly points out. "Sorry, dark nat there." She looks down.
"You are probably right." Sitting back down, the young pilots listen as Rooster and Maverick get themselves tangled in a dive, yelling at each other.
"They are getting dangerously close to the Hard Deck." Bob speaks up.
"You'd like to believe that, wouldn't you?" At this point, Bradley is only adding fuel to the fire, which isn't a good thing with their history.
"Hard Deck is 5,000 feet fellas. You're running out of room!"
"They are gonna die." Oakley goes to run a hand through her hair only to remember that it's in a bun.
Sitting in the silent room with nothing but altitude coming through the radio, Javy looks at Oakley who seems to be staring into the space. Remembering her accident, he makes his way to her and puts his hand on her shoulder. Oakley looks up to see Javy standing and it's providing some comfort from her own accident with the plane screaming altitude before it went black.
"That's a kill." Maverick derails her train of thought.
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Not even stopping to see if Jake or even Bradley at this point was alright, Oakley quickly changes and makes her way off base.
"Hi penny." She greets, taking a seat at the bar. "Hard day?" Penny questions, handing a beer to the tired looking pilot.
"It was rough." She simply smiles and takes a sip.
"You good?" Looking at her phone, a text comes across the screen, from Jake who is affectionally saved in her phone as Bagman. You all can thank Natasha for that one.
"I'm fine, just needed a drink"
"Yeah that is totally the reason, because why else would your texting be so dry?"
"ha ha"
"Somethings up. I'll meet you at the Hard Deck"
Rolling her eyes at Jake's message she takes a sip of her beer again looking around. The Hard Deck is not that packed but the amount of talking makes it seem like it is full.
"How did I know you would be drinking a beer?" Jake says from behind her. "How did you get here in like two minutes?" He smiles, taking the stool beside her. "I was sitting in the parking lot, watching you walk in. Figured I'd give you a couple minutes."
He waves over to Penny, pointing at Oakley's drink. "Such a gentleman." Smiling at her drink, she feels Jake's gaze on her. "What?"
"After what happened today, you disappeared and I wanted to make sure you were okay, ya know since your accident." Jake sets his beer down, to look at her.
"Jeez aren't we subtle today! Thanks but I'm fine." Not returning his gaze, she feels him tap her knee.
"You know, it's okay that you aren't okay. The world isn't going to end if you aren't smiling all the time."
"Yeah, but I am a pilot. A freaking Naval Aviator. I gotta do my job with pride ya know."
"Oakley." Maintaining a staring contest with her beer she doesn't move. "Oakley look at me." Lifting her head to face him properly, he is sitting there with his arms open.
"Hug me."
"huh?"
"Hug me woman."
Watching her lean over into his open arms, he moves his arms so they wrap around his tiny friend. Oakley sighs into his chest, trying to not think about what happened today and her own accident.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Jake breaks the silence after a while. "Probably not the best place to do so in a bar filled with fellow pilots." Jake laughs as Oakley sits up.
"Do you wanna get out of here?"
Whipping her head around so fast, Oakley glared at Jake as blood rushed to her head.
"Jeez not like that. I meant somewhere to talk about it. I think it would be good for you to talk about it especially since what happened today."
"Sure." Downing the last of her beer, she puts some money down to pay. As Oakley starts to walk away, the bell goes off. Turning around, Jake puts his head in his hands as Penny is standing there smirking as a cheer goes out.
"Did you seriously put your phone on her bar?" Oakley laughs. "I was trying to get my wallet!" He sheepishly explains.
"Well better break it out again because now you have the whole bar to buy for."
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"I still can't believe I did that. Gosh, and I was just thanking Mav for putting his phone on the Bar and buying a round the last time." Jake sighs, as he hops in Oakley's truck bed. They found a spot to park that faces the ocean.
"Your face was absolutely priceless. I can't wait to tell Bob."
"No no no. You can't tell anybody, especially Baby on Board. I have a rep to uphold." He pleads with a giggling Oakley.
"Maybe I will, maybe I won't."
"Gosh woman." A comfortable silence falls over them as they listen to the ocean.
"Do you still want to talk about it?" Jake revisits the previous topic, the reason Oakley was drinking earlier. "Not tonight." Laying down on her truck bed, she looks at the stars.
"Well one day, when you are ready, I'll be here."
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I don't know about you, but I am a firm believer in the fact that Jake 'Hangman' Seresin has feelings and can be sensitive.
thank you for coming to my ted talk