MILES'S POV
"Ayeee!" I said happily as one of my best buds Chase Crawford walked through the doors.
"And look who the old dog brought!" I said as my co stars from The Awkward Moment walked in right behind him, Zac Efron and Michael B. Jordan.
"What's up? So glad you all came." I said and they closed the door behind them.
"Of course, when Miles Teller calls and says that he has a pantry full of tequila and whiskey, you get your ass on the road." Zac said and I laughed.
"Come on in." I said and we walked out to the backyard. Erin and I had managed to put this part together under a week. Almost our entire family was here, my friends from Top Gun, Chase, Zac, Michael, Shailene Woodley and her fiancé and even Tom said he would show up. And I just couldn't believe they all could manage to get here.
"Drinks are over there, help yourselves but don't get drunk until like 8 because my niece and nephew convinced me that they could come aaaand food is over there." I said and they nodded.
"Great." Chase said and they went directly over to the drink table and grabbed a beer. We walked down to the others and I couldn't help but think that my sister was right. I did need this. I really did.
"Hey, honey." I heard mom say and I turned around to see her and dad.
"Hi." I said. I had totally forgotten that Erin had invited them as well. She walked over and hugged me softly.
"I'm sorry." She said and I smiled softly.
"I'm sorry." She said again and I nodded.
"Thank you, mom." I said and she smiled lightly.
"Help yourselves with drinks and food." I said and they nodded.
"So, you got buff. When did that happen?" Michael asked and I laughed.
"He's an aviator now, muscles are a big part of it." Glen said and patted my shoulders. He introduced himself to Chase, Zac and Michael as they chuckled at his comment.
"Must've been tough learning how to fly those planes." Zac said.
"Yeah, isn't the easiest thing I've done." I said.
"It was fun though, when we didn't throw up." Glen said and I chuckled.
"I think I'll keep my feet on the ground for now on." I said and took a sip out of my beer.
"I'm actually going to get my pilot license." Glen said and my eyes widened.
"What? Really?" I asked and he nodded.
"That's sick." Chase said and he chuckled.
"Yeah, I kind of liked it up there." He said.
"You did really turn into Hangman as soon as you sat your ass down in that jet." I said and they laughed.
"He became such an asshole when he was flying, I almost wanted to launch a missile on him." I said and they laughed again.
"Whaaat? I was just in character." Glen said with a wide smile.
"It was fun though when you met the aviator who your character is based of though." I said and he nodded with a chuckle.
"Yeah." He said.
"So, my character is based of this aviator, Hurricane who is a total asshole, who everyone loads. And Lina was so sick of him one day so she said to me to go over and talk to him in character to piss him off." He said and I chuckled.
"The dude got so offended, he looked so small." I said and they chuckled.
"Yeah, where is your ladyfriend? Have you hid her? I wanted to meet her." Chase asked.
"She was shipped off two months ago to Baghdad." I said and they nodded understandingly.
"But I hope she will be back soon, I'll take her to LA so you guys can meet her." I said and they all nodded with small smiles. We kept on talking and drinking beers, eating some good food and it was really nice to be surrounded by friends and family. Just very casual, nice music and good conversations. Nothing over the top. Just a nice backyard barbecue.
"Okay! Can I have everyone's attention!?" Erin said loudly and stepped up on the patio.
"Thank you all for coming to our little backyard barbecue." She said.
"We have drinks enough for a whole state so please drink." She said and everyone laughed.
"Not you kids, you have to wait another fifty years or so." She added quickly making us laugh again as I ruffled Jaxson's hair making him look up at me with a small smile.
"So, like I said, please help yourselves with beverages and thank you all again. Let's have some fun." She said with a wide smile and everyone applauded.
"Before you all go back to your things." Glen said and jogged up to the patio making us all looked at each other with a questioning look. What was he doing?
"Hi, my name is Glen for you who I haven't yet said hi to." He said and I let out a chuckle.
"I'm Miles's colleague." He said.
"And over the past year, I've worked with this guy. Seeing his face and his moustache every day." He said and everyone chuckled.
"And shooting a movie like Top Gun makes you grow close to one another, you go experience things you never thought you would ever do and it brings you closer when you experience them together. I think everyone who was apart of this cast agrees that it's not the most gracious moment of your life when you are strapped and blindfolded into an inverted tank in a pool, we all looked like dead were cats." He said and we laughed.
"Or when you vomit in a 70 million dollar jet. What I mean is that it brings you closer and I've gotten pretty close to Miles during this whole experience." He said and I smiled.
"He's a guy I care for a lot. He's genuine, a hard worker and a guy you can count on." He said.
"So, I wanted to bring him a gift to say thank you for making this experience so amazing." He said and I furrowed my brows. What was he up to?
"But I didn't feel like a bottle of wine was enough." He said. What is he doing?
"So, I got him something else. Something I knew would surprise the shit out of him." He said and he put on the song Danger Zone making everyone chuckle.
"Everyone, Miles." He said and looked over at me.
"May I present to you none other than the incredible legend........." He said and I felt like I was holding my breath.
"Captain Lina Cruise, call sign: Maverick!" He said with a wide smile as my eyes widened and my heart stopped and I saw the patio door open and there she was, walking out on the patio, in her flight suit, her aviators on top of her head. It was her. She was standing a few feet away from me. And I felt like I couldn't breathe. She was here. She was really here. She looked over at me with a smile and everyone cheered. She walked down the patio steps and I couldn't contain myself. I rushed over to her and brought her into my arms and hugged her tightly making everyone laugh and cheer. I looked down at her and I just couldn't believe it. I placed my hands on her jaw just to see if this was really real. She placed her hands on my forearms and I felt tears slowly roll down my cheeks. I shook my head slowly as I couldn't grasp that she was standing in front of me. I pulled her lips up to mine and I felt butterflies fly like crazy in my stomach. Our lips moved in sync and I just forgot about everyone else. They weren't important anymore. My girl was home. She was home and alive. We pulled away from the kiss and I looked down in her eyes. She was so beautiful.
"Omg." I mumbled and she smiled.
"You are home." I said and hugged her tightly again.
"I'm home." She said.
"She's home!" I shouted happily and everyone laughed. I released her from my tight hug and I couldn't stop smiling. I was too goddamn happy. I looked over at Glen who was smiling widely.
"You son of a bitch." I said happily and jogged over to him and brought him in for a hug.
"Thank you for not bringing me a bottle of wine." I said and everyone laughed.
"You're welcome, man." He said and I smiled softly at him. This was a good friend. A really good friend. I looked over at Lina who was already hugging her dad. It made me warm inside. He hugged her so tightly. He placed his hand on the back of her head and he laughed at the same time as he cried. He was just as relived and happy as I was that she was home, safe and alive. And when they pulled away the Top Gun gang almost jumped on top of her making us all laugh as they embraced her in a big group hug. I walked back down to her and when they pulled away from their group hug I pulled her back into my arms.
"I love you." I said, feeling so relieved to finally say those three words.
"I love you too." She said smiling and I kissed her again.
"Come, I want to introduce you to my friends." I said and she nodded.
"Lina, this is Chase Crawford, Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan, no one knows why we say the B but we do." I said and they all chuckled.
"This is Shailene Woodley and her fiancé Aaron Rodger." I said and she shook everyone's hand.
"Everyone this is Lina." I said.
"It's so nice to meet you, we all thought you were fake. You sounded too good to be true." Chase joked and we all chuckled.
"When did you get shipped back? Miles said you wouldn't be home for at least another month." Zac asked.
"I arrived like four hours ago." She said.
"Jet lagged?" Chase asked and she chuckled.
"Sleep deprived." She said and we all chuckled.
"I sat the entire flight thinking about taking over the throttle, the dude couldn't fly straight." She said with a chuckle making us chuckle again. We went and so she could said hi to my family before getting a drink.
"I can't believe you are here." I said as we stood by the drink table.
"I wanted it to be a surprise." She said with a small smile.
"It was." I said and she chuckled as she popped open a beer.
"Hey." I said and she looked over at me and a second later she understood what I was going to say.
"It's okay, I'm sorry too." She said and I smiled softly.
"Put it behind us?" I asked.
"You got it, Lieutenant." She said and I chuckled. I looked out over my family and our friends and in the corner I could see two shy but curious little people looking at Lina.
"I think you have two fans." I whispered and gestured towards Jo and Jaxson and Lina smiled. I waved them over and they shyly walked over hand in hand, looking so incredibly adorable.
"Guys, this is Lina. My girlfriend." I said as I kneeled down to their level and Lina followed me.
"Hey, you must be Jo and you must be Jaxson." She said and they nodded and Jo hid behind my shoulder.
"Jo, do you know what Lina works with?" I asked and she shook her head even though I knew she knew and I smiled softly.
"She is a fighter pilot. She flies those super fast planes that go swoosh up in the air. You know this planes I pointed out the other day?" I said and she nodded and smiled with her hand up to her mouth, she was so adorable.
"Do you want to tell Lina what you want to do when you are all grown up?" I asked.
"I'm going to be a pilot." She said and Lina smiled.
"Really?" Lina asked and Jo nodded.
"It's the greatest job in the world." Lina said with a wide smile.
"Do you fly like super fast? Like race cars?" Jaxson asked and Lina chuckled.
"I fly even faster." She said and his eyes widened and he looked over at me and I nodded smiling.
"She does, and she can do loops and spin around in the air." I said and their eyes widened even more.
"Uncle Miles makes us fly." Jo said Lina smiled widely.
"Whaaat? He makes you fly?" She asked and Jo nodded.
"You want to see?" Jo asked.
"Of course I want to see." Lina said.
"Alright, you ready kids?" I asked and they nodded as they walked a little further away from me. I jogged over and grabbed them by their waists and spun them around making them laugh and I could hear Lina laugh as well. After a few turns I put them back down.
"Wooow! You were really flying." Lina said and Jo smiled as she grabbed onto my leg, still a little shy. Lina looked up at me with a wide smile.
"Alright kiddos, it's time to go to bed." Erin said with a smile as the kids said no in protest.
"Come on, it's way past your bedtime. You will see uncle Miles and auntie Lina tomorrow." She said and they walked inside.
"Uncle Miles, huh?" She asked with a smirk as she moved closer to me.
"Yeah, I'm uncle Miles." I said with a smile.
"They're adorable." She said and I nodded. They really were. The night went on with more alcohol, dancing, loud music, singing if you can call it that and just plain fun. By the end of the night we were all sweaty and knew that we would be sore tomorrow from all the dancing and people started heading home so the rest of us ended up on the patio steps. And with the rest of us I mean me, Lina, Chase, Zac, Michael, Glen and Tom. The last people standing.
"Jesus Christ, I don't remember the last time I was this drunk." Chase said and we chuckled. We were all pretty much absolutely wasted and it felt amazing.
"Me neither." Michael said.
"Another beer anyone?" Tom asked and we all chuckled.
"I don't know about beer but I'll have a whiskey." Lina said.
"Make that two." I said.
"Three." Michael said.
"Make that everyone." Zac said and I chuckled. Tom came back with our drinks and I don't know if it was such a good idea to drink any more but fuck it.
"I've missed whiskey." Lina said and we chuckled.
"You don't have whiskey on deployment?" Chase asked.
"A beer here and there, but we can't be hungover as shit when we are working." She said.
"That does not go for us." Zac said and we chuckled.
"It's called makeup artists." He said making us chuckle again.
"Yeah, I wish we had one of those." She said and we chuckled.
"Was it bad over there? Like run-for-your-life-terrorists-everywhere kind of bad?" Chase asked and she looked out on the backyard.
"Yeah, it was bad." She said. And I could see the wounds from the war were still fresh.
"Did you get them good?" He asked and she chuckled.
"I got 'em pretty good." She said and took a sip out of her whiskey.
"Bombs, missiles or guns?" Zac asked.
"Mostly missiles and guns but occasional bombshell were dropped." She said.
"Were the enemy as crazy as they say in the media?" He asked and I looked over at Lina, it was lucky she was drunk because I don't think she would've been able to answer otherwise. I could see she was resisting.
"It's nothing like they show in the media." She said taking another sip and then it was like something clicked and all her walls were down. I could see it with my own eyes when it happened, her entire body relaxed.
"Civilians were killed left to right. Woman were being raped on the streets. Soldiers were being killed like flies. They have no limits. They don't care if they walk into an open fire, they just walk through it and hope for the best while they keep firing their guns." She said looking straight out into nowhere.
"They forced kids to become soldiers, firing guns more advanced than ours." She said.
"They weren't just crazy down on the ground, they were absolutely animals up in the air as well." She said.
"We lost Blaze." She said and I looked over at Tom.
"His jet blew up right next to mine and the explosion cause my engine to explode sending me into a nose dive, free falling from 4000 feet. I ejected before they launched another missile and blew up my plane as well." She said and I put my hand over my mouth.
"I landed in a pile of dead bodies on a battle field that had been used a few months earlier. Still, no one had gotten around to move the bodies. Found the tag of an old friend of mine from the academy, John Wilson or Mugshot as we called him." She said and I felt myself shaking a little.
"I even recognised him in that pile, weirdly enough." She said.
"No lower body left." She said and I felt myself breathe heavily.
"Brought him back with me to the facility so his family could have somewhat of a funeral. Dragged him over 20 miles." She said. God, the horror she must've been through.
"So yeah, it was kind of bad over there." She said taking another sip of her whiskey.
"Good thing is that we blew up their entire runway plus sixteen of their aircrafts and I got 12 in-air kills. Those fuckers got their karma sent right back into their asses." She said.
"You wanna know something funny though?" She asked and we all looked at each other.
"Something out of this world insane." She said.
"Hurricane got a girl pregnant." She said and my eyes widened.
"What?" I asked and she nodded with a smile.
"He hooked up with this girl during the first week and then like a month or so later she threw up all over our boss and fainted so she was sent to the infirmary where they told her she was pregnant and she had been out in combat like 30 miles from the facility so she hadn't hooked up with anyone else other than Hangman." She said.
"And now he is going to be a dad." She said and I don't know really but we all started laughing.
"The guy can't even say a compliment and now he's gonna be a dad." She laughed.
"And he got so freaked and disappeared for 4 hours and came back saying that he got lost and was stuck in a goddamn tree for over an hour." She said making us all laugh even harder.
"And when he was going to try and talk to this girl he accidentally said that he needed to think about his fart when he meant his part." She said and we bent over backwards laughing. This dude was something else.
"Oh god, this dude is going to be the death of me one day." She said and we all chuckled.
I looked over at and I smiled softly. I knew she was battling her demons from the war but she sure as hell knew how to do it and make it all lighter. I knew she was going to be okay. She's Captain Lina Cruise, she always pulls through and finds the bright side of things.
But the most important of all, my girl was back home.