Ellie woke up the following morning alone in her bed. She was still in her sweats from the night before, but she was confused as to how she got there. She opened her phone to see a text from Hangman.
"You fell asleep not much after we had our conversation. I wasn't tired, so I went home after putting you in bed. There's a peanut butter and jelly in the fridge for you for breakfast. See you on base tomorrow;)"
Ellie laughed and went downstairs. Sure enough, there was a peanut butter and jelly wrapped in Saran Wrap in her fridge. She got a text from Bob, asking for a ride to base because his car was not starting. She ate her sandwich, quickly changed, and headed over to Bob's.
"I'll come by later, and come fix it." She laughed.
"You're a lifesaver, thank you, Ellie." He laughed as he hopped in her car.
They got to base just in time to start training. She talked to Bob and Phoenix for a little bit, before going to her seat. Jake was waiting for Ellie in their seats.
"Did you eat your breakfast?" Jake asked as she sat down.
"The more you talk...the more you're gonna make this obvious, Jake." She laughed and looked at him.
"Fine fine fine." He smirked and faced forward.
"But yes I did, thank you. She smiled and rubbed his shoulder.
"Woah woah there, Harrison. The more you do that...the more you're gonna make it look obvious." He said, playfully mocking her.
She lightly slapped his arm. Maverick came in soon after with a serious look on his face.
"Time is your greatest adversary." He started.
He pulled up the course, and explain how the course is meant to be flown. When he said that the hard deck would be lowered to almost nothing with them completing the course in under three minutes.
"Holy hell." Ellie whispered to herself.
Everyone was taking their turn flying the imaginary course. Ellie went up with Fritz and Phoenix and Bob. They were starting off slow, but they were making decent time.
"Alright, Phoenix let's increase speed." She told her.
"Copy that, Shadow, increasing speed." She followed Ellie's orders. As Ellie rounded the corner, she almost came in contact with the mountain.
"Oh shit!" She yelled and abruptly turned, causing her to fly above the barrier.
"Dammit!" She yelled.
Once they landed, Maverick was waiting to ask the questions.
"Why are you dead?" He asked.
"I almost crashed into the mountain." She responded.
"And what did that cause you to do?" He asked her again.
"Abruptly turn and go above the barrier." She told him.
"Will their families except that response at the funeral?" He looked at her.
She stayed quiet. She knew that she could do better.
Another group went, then Phoenix and Bob went with Coyote next. They all ended up getting killed too.
"Is this even possible to fly?" She asked Jake.
"I'm confident I can fly it." He told her.
"I would love to see that." She looked at him, already annoyed with failing today.
They all came back, and Maverick asked the same questions. He really knew how to put a damper on your confidence. After their interrogation, Hangman, Fanboy, and Payback all went up next. Ellie could just tell how determined Jake was to make it to their target. They weren't kidding when they said the reason why he gets called Hangman is because be leaves his wingman. Payback and Fanboy ended up falling so behind that if the enemy had spotted them, they would have had no protection, and would have gotten killed. Once they both landed, Payback and Fanboy both looked very annoyed.
"Why are they dead?" Maverick asked Hangman.
"They couldn't keep up." He simply said.
Arrogant.
"Why did you fly fast?" He asked him.
"I flew like my ass depended on it. Which it does." He had a smug look on his face.
He's just going to make Maverick not pick him for this mission.
"What are you going to tell their families at their funerals?" He asked Hangman.
He was silent.
Rooster went up with Fritz and Omaha and flew the course.
"Are you okay?" She asked Jake.
"Perfectly okay. Why?" He asked her.
"You seem off." She responded.
"I'm fine, Ellie. Really I am. I'm just very focused on the mission." He smiled at her.
She nodded and smiled at him. She could tell his eyes had softened as he looked at her. Maybe he was just stressed. They both watched the screen as the time ran down. Even though the timer had hit zero, the two planes kept going. They managed to get to the target, but were late. Once they got back, Maverick looked like he was about to explode.
"Why are you dead?" Maverick asked.
"We made it to the target." Rooster defended himself.
"A minute late." Maverick said.
"He's the only one that made it to the target, sir." Phoenix defended him.
Ellie had always thought there was something between them. She's gotten close with the both of them, and any time Ellie is in the same room with them two, she can feel the vibes between them.
"There is more than one way to fly this mission." Rooster told Maverick.
Maverick was about to say something when Jake cut him off.
"You're not flying fast enough." He kind of snapped at Rooster.
Ellie sat up and stared at the both of them. Hangman went on about how Rooster wasn't good enough, and how he needed to be better to fly this mission.
"This is like nothing anyone has ever seen. Not even him." He nodded to Maverick.
"Jake." Ellie whispered, trying to get his attention.
"Now is not the time to dwell on the past." He looked over at Rooster.
Ellie's eyes widened slightly. He wouldn't bring up Bradley's dad when he's pissed off would he?
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rooster asked. He looked like he was going to tear Jake's head off.
"Jake, knock it off." She quietly told him.
"I can not be the only one that knows Maverick flew with his old man." Jake started.
"Lieutenant." Maverick warned him.
"Jake, don't." Ellie put a hand on his back.
"And that he was flying the plane when Rooster's old ma-" He was cut off by Bradley jumping out of his seat.
Everyone sprung up to keep the two apart. Ellie put her hand on Jake's chest in attempt to keep him back, along with holding onto one of his shoulders. Fanboy helped her by grabbing his other shoulder. Phoenix, Bob, and Coyote held onto Bradley as Payback and Maverick stood in the middle.
"Hey hey. I'm cool. I'm cool." He lightly shook Ellie and Fanboy off. He chuckled and got super close to Bradley's face before going to the locker room.
"Go home. You're all dismissed." Maverick said.
Ellie was beyond pissed. How could he just throw that out there like it was everyone's business? He knew they had known each other for a while, and acted like rivals, but that was so uncalled for...especially when she tried to get him to stop. She just wanted to go home, she was too mad. She needed to cool off. She quickly changed, and grabbed her things, and abruptly left to go to her car. As she was about to walk out the door, Hangman stopped her.
"Hey, Ellie! Did you wanna go ge-" She cut him off.
"What the hell was the matter with you?" She asked angrily.
"Look, El-" She cut him off again.
"I get you like to push Rooster's buttons, but that does not give you any right to just come about and say that to everyone like it's goddamn show and tell! You just did it to piss him off, and you felt proud of that? And you say Mav is the one that needs the damn ego check." She shook her head and walked off.
"Ellie, come on, wait!" He walked after her.
"If you think this whole dating thing is gonna work out, you need to fix whatever the hell that was. You may be my boyfriend, but he is still my friend. I can tell you consider him a friend too. You don't do that to friends." She looked him in the eyes.
Her eyes started to water, because she hated being mad at him. She couldn't stay mad at him for long, and knew he was going to apologize to Bradley at some point, but she was so mad, she needed to go cool off. She continued walking to her car, but he stopped her from driving off.
"Ellie. Please wait." He looked at her through her window. She rolled it down and looked at him. He saw her tears and wiped one away with his thumb.
"I'm sorry. I just need to be alone. I need to cool off." She told him. He nodded.
"I'm sorry, Ellie. I will fix this. That will never happen again. Once you're cooled off, we can talk then." He rubbed her cheek and smiled at her.
"Thank you, Jake." She sadly smiled at him and drove off.
She dropped her stuff off at her house and changed. She drove to Bob's to help him with his car. She felt bad for leaving without him, but she needed to be alone for a little bit. He got a ride back from Natasha, and she stayed to help them both fix his car. They decided to spend the night at his place and watch movies, and order take out. That's what Bob and Ellie used to do all the time while they were at Top Gun together. While she was sitting on the floor she was getting a call from Jake. She went outside to take the call.
"Hey, Jake." she said quietly.
"Did I wake you, darling?" He asked.
"No, you didn't. I'm with Bob and Phoenix. They still don't know." She chuckled lightly.
"I just wanted to let you know that everything is fine now. Bradshaw and I just talked for damn near two hours. We're good now. Consider us actual friends now." He chuckled.
"Well that's good. I'm proud of you." She smiled.
"I'm sorry, El. I didn't mean to piss you off like that. Believe me, that will never ever happen again. Or it shouldn't." He told her with a light chuckle.
"I believe you." She chuckled lightly.
"I will let you get back with Phoenix and Bob. You're probably starting to look suspicious." He laughed.
"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow." She smiled at his laugh.
"See you tomorrow. Goodnight, El." He said. She could tell he was smiling.
"Goodnight, Bagman." She chuckled and hung up the phone.
Just as she hung up, she got a group text from Maverick.
'Meet at The Hard Deck at 1000 hours. Wear your bathing suits.'
She looked down at her phone confused. Bathing suits? Why do we all need bathing suits? She went inside and saw Nat and Bob looking at their phones.
"Why do we need bathing suits?" He asked.
"No idea." Ellie chuckled.
"Who was that on the phone?" Nat asked.
"Oh...it was my dad. He calls at least once a week to see how I am and what has changed in the last week." She lied. She couldn't tell them yet. She just wanted to savor the fact that no one knows for just a little while longer.
She was still confused as to why we were going to the bar tomorrow instead of the base. The beach was right there...but she still had no clue as to why we were all needed there. Honestly, she was kind of excited to not be going to the base tomorrow. Everyone deserved a break. Maybe tomorrow was going to be better than today. After all...Jake did make up with Bradley, so everything was starting to go up hill. She just knew tomorrow was going to be great. And Ellie couldn't have felt more happy and relived about it.