Tate sighed as she sat next to Jake on her couch. Jake was too distracted to have noticed the woman was disheveled. They had spent the majority of yesterday talking. After Tate and Jake finished up with their flying exercises today, they went back to the beach house. Tate decided to talk to her father.
Of course, she could only text him, but she needed to talk to him.
"How come you didn't tell me about Maverick?"
"If I did, I know you and Bradley wouldn't have gone back,"
Tate pursed her lips.
"If you would have told us, Bradley and I would still be friends,"
Judging by his answer, Bradley hadn't spoken to their parents. Which was a surprise since he seemed to tell them everything that went down. He was like an annoying little brother, but older.
"What do you mean? What happened?"
Did she want to tell her father what happened between her and Bradley? If he hadn't said anything then should she?
"Nothing. Don't worry about it,"
"Tatum."
She hated when her father used her name like that. She always felt like she was in trouble.
"Don't worry. I just wish you told me about Maverick,"
"Maverick wished I told him about the both of you as well. I need you guys to put everything aside and work together as a team here,"
Tate scoffed. Jake looked at her questioningly. She shakes her head at him, letting him know it's nothing.
"Yeah, team. That's totally what we are,"
Their team was falling apart.
Bradley was mad at Tate.
And Jake.
And Maverick.
Natasha couldn't stand Jake.
Neither could Bob.
It seems as if the friend group they once had, was no longer what it used to be.
"If you would all put your differences aside for just this once, then you can build together as a team. That's what is needed here,"
"I know dad,"
"The team needs Maverick. The team needs you. You and Bradley both need a team. And you both need Maverick."
He was right. This team was a mess. Bradley and Tate were a mess. Everyone was a mess.
They needed to bond as a team, in and out of the air.
"Figure it out."
Tate sighed.
What was there she could do? She was barely even able to understand how to teach this team. It felt like they didn't want to listen to her. The only people who really did were her friends.
"I will,"
"Don't think that I didn't hear about you getting in a jet and flying it for a practice,"
Tate purses her lips as she types away frantically.
"Oh, would you look at the time!? I gotta go help Maverick go over the lesson plans! Talk later!"
---
That night, everyone sat in lawn chairs, not far from Tate's back door. Javy had found a huge barrel trash can and lit what was inside, on fire.
After the makeshift bonfire was made, everyone got comfortable in their seats. Everyone but Tate had a beer in their hand.
Bradley had sat next to Tate when everyone chose their seats. They both didn't say anything to each other. Bradley just nodded at her slightly as he took his seat.
They both wanted to apologize but they both didn't know how to say it. They were walking on eggshells around each other. What Bradley had said to Tate was hurtful and uncalled for.
But Tate should have cleared the air and told him that she really had no idea about Maverick joining them.
After talking to her father, she felt better. Tate had told Jake about what they had talked about and he was the one who had the idea to have a small bonfire.
Tate told Natasha to invite Bob and for him to invite both Reuben and Mickey.
Everyone was buzzing with laughter and smiles as they all sat and grabbed beers from the small ice chest that Mickey had brought.
Everyone went around talking about what they had done since they last saw each other. Bob, Reuben, and Mickey talked about the squadrons they came from and their time during Top Gun.
Which is when everyone found out about Mickey's
"Wife?!"
Everyone around them says at Mickey's words. He stops the motion of him lifting his beer to his lips and looks at them.
"Did you guys not know he was married?" Reuben asks them. Everyone then turns their gaze to the Aviator.
"You knew!?"
"Of course I do! I was the one that married them!" Reuben says as he sits up in his seat. Mickey nods his head as he drinks his beer.
"And Bob is my wife's best friend," Mickey says as he nods his head to the quiet aviator who sat next to him.
"I was the one that walked her down the aisle," Bob says with a huge smile. Natasha looks over at her WSO smiling. There were a few things she needed to know about the man next to her.
Everyone else then looks at Bob shocked. How did no one know about Mickey being married? And both Reuben and Bob knew about it?
Tate sighs as sits back in the beach chair and looks at the night sky. "Wow, I need to get to know the team better,"
Before anyone can say anything else, Lucia then appears next to Mickey, a 12-pack under her arms for everyone. "Hey, guys!" She says with her Italian accent.
Tate and Bradley wave at the woman confused as to why she was here at the team's bonfire.
"Who is this pretty lady with the Italian accent," Javy says shocked at the woman's voice. Lucia giggles as Mickey guides her to sit on his lap after setting down the beer for the aviators.
"I'm guessing they all don't know you're married Razor DeAngelis?"
"You're Razor!?" Jake Javy, Natasha, and Brigham then say shocked
Everyone throws their heads back still trying to take in the fact that Mickey is married.
"You married Razor? And you're her best friend!?" Javy asks Mickey and Bob. Both of them nod. "And you knocked her up!?"
Mickey chuckles as he shrugs before taking a sip of his beer.
"Here we were thinking Mickey was a virgin like Bob," Jake teases before taking a sip of his beer.
Lucia looks at them all confused. They really had no idea who Bob was outside of the cockpit.
"Bobs not a virgin," she says. Everyone then looks at the quiet pilot who was drinking his beer
"What?" Bob asks confused with a smile.
"No way that the stealth pilot isn't one," Jake says with a confused frown. Lucia nods as she takes a drink from the bottle of flavored tea she brought for herself.
"Yeah guys, Bob fucks," Mickey nods at his wife's words. "Bob's a manwhore,"
Everyone then slams themselves back into their lounge chairs, causing both Jake and Tate to fall over in the sand. Tate looks at Jake astonishingly as they lay in the sand.
"Bob fucks!" She mouths to him. Jake nods confused shocked by what he heard. "Bob fucks,"
They sit back up as everyone around them laughs and cheers the man on. "Wow Brad, looks like you have some competition," Brigham says smiling over at the man next to Tate.
Lucia listened to the group as they all shared stories of Bradley and of each other over the years. It was nice to see them all getting along. No arguing, no yelling. Just laughter and smiles.
"You know, Tate, your little group reminds me a lot of ours," Lucia says. Tate looks at her confused.
"Mickey and Reuben are close friends. Bob and I are as well. Now we are all close friends because of our marriage," Everyone looks confused at the woman as she smacks her lips.
"You, Bradley, best friends with Tate. Javy is best friends with Jake. You all met here, along with Natasha and Brigham. Jake and Tate are a couple. Therefore your group is now a big one. Like ours,"
Jake spits out his beer slightly at Lucia's words while Tate's eyes widen. Bradley looks at Tate and raises an eyebrow while Javy, Natasha, and Brigham try to hold back their laughter.
"Oh, Jake and I... we aren't... we're just friends," Tate stutters as she laughs nervously and looks around at everyone.
Lucia frowns confused as she looks at the woman.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I must have read the room wrong. My apologies,"
She hadn't read the room wrong. She could tell by the way they sat close to each other, and the way they looked at each other, there was something more than friendship.
Tate shakes her head as she leans back in her chair and sinks in it as Bradley stares at her. They hadn't talked in days and it felt as if this might have pissed him off even more.
Of course, it didn't bother him that the two had rekindled what they had. But he was surprised that it was so soon. And that they had actually done it at all since they had such a small amount of time with each other.
"Enough about them, I want to talk about Lucia and Mickey met," Natasha says, getting the heat off of Jake and Tate.
"Yeah! I want to know how the hell you married Razor," Brigham says as he leans back in his seat. Lucia smiles as she looks down at her husband. Mickey chuckles as he looks at the group.
"We met in flight school. Bob was her WSO so our jets were parked right next to each other. So every day, I'd flirt with her,"
"Bob was Lucia's WSO!?" Bradley asks looking at the pair. Lucia nods. "Bob and I have been friends for about 10 years now. I told him I didn't want to fly if he wasn't my WSO in flight school. From there we became one of the few pairs that stuck together,"
"Of course, Mickey and I have been the longest-running fox trot team. We go all the way back to flight school as well. We whenever put in the same squadron, but we did get placed together when we were at Top Gun, and now," Reuben says
Jake looks over at the couple in front of him. "Did you move around with him?"
Lucia and Mickey look at each other. Lucia shakes her head. "We did long distance for a good chunk of our relationship. I didn't start following him until we were married. But I was stationed in Hawaii for 6 months before you were all called out here,"
"You knew didn't you?" Bradley asks her. Lucia looks at him confused.
"You knew we were being called back to Top Gun, That's why you told us we'd find out who your husband was," Lucia nods at Bradley's words. "As the nurse, I was given a heads up just two weeks before you were all called back. Admiral Cyclone also wanted me to come here to keep an eye on Tate after her injury,"
Jake looks at Tate when Lucia mentions her injury. She hadn't told him what happened to her or even about her arm.
Which Jake thought was unusual how she was dressed.
She wore a sweatshirt and biker shorts. That's not at all how she used to dress. Tate loved to show skin, and it wasn't cold outside. So why was she wearing a hoodie?
Tate wasn't ready to share with him yet what happened. But Jake didn't mind, if she wanted to talk about it, he knew she would do so when she was ready.
Everyone continued to go on about memories they had until it had gotten late.
"We're going to call it a night. If Lucia doesn't get to sleep, she and the baby are grumpy the next day," Lucia rolls her eyes at Bob. "That's not true," she says as she takes Bob's hand and he helps her off of Mickey's lap.
"It's totally true! One time I was resting my head on her belly while she was napping and the baby kicked me!"
Lucia smacks her lips as she looks at her husband. "Maybe if you weren't trying to talk to the baby while we were sleeping, you wouldn't have gotten kicked,"
Tate watches as they all say their goodbyes and head to the back door of Bradley's old beach house. She looks over at him smiling shocked at him.
"They have my old beach house," he says smiling at her. She nods as she watches him get up.
Natasha and Javy say goodnight to the rest of the group, along with Bradley. The three of them enter through Tate's back door and exit out her front door to their vehicles.
Tate gets up from her chair collecting all the empty bottles and cans that were tossed at the trash can but missed.
Brigham says goodbye to the both of them, heading to his car as well. Tate finished picking up the rest of the trash and walks back over to Jake, taking the empty bottle from his hand.
Jake smiles as she grabs her wrist. Tate turns and looks at him before he pulls her onto his lap. He kissed her face as she giggled.
"Oh darlin' how I've missed you,"