A/N: From Quora, because I needed to know the names of the shifts on navy ships...

The Mid Watch 0000–0400 (12:00AM to 4:00AM)
The Morning Watch 0400–0800 (4:00AM to 8:00AM)
The Fore-Noon Watch 0800–1200 (8:00AM to 12:00PM)
The Afternoon Watch 1200-1600 (12PM to 4:00PM)
The First Dog Watch 1600–1800 (4:00PM to 6:00PM)
The Second Dog Watch 1800–2000 (6:00PM to 8:00PM)
The Evening Watch 2000–2400 (8:00PM to 12:00AM)

The ship was well into the Second Dog Watch, Wolfman reflected as they sat in the Mess and ate in silence, ignoring the activity around them. Merlin had taken them first to the head, and then here for dinner, and now Ice was picking at the food on his tray aimlessly while Merlin watched with a frown between bites. Glancing up, he noticed a group of four watching them discreetly, and vaguely recognized two of them. "Sam?"

"Hmmm?"

"Who are those four?"

Merlin followed his line of sight and then nodded in acknowledgement. "Willard and Simkin and their RIOs, Judge and Pampers."

Ice looked up, frowning. "Pampers? Judge?"

Merlin smiled. "One of them has a pre-law bachelor's degree, the other... might have kids, or there was an incident in his seat while at flight school. He refuses to tell us which."

Ice stared at him and then resumed picking at his food. "Right."

"Are you going to eat, or just pick at it?"

"You're not my father, Sam."

"He'd probably say the same thing." Merlin glanced over at the two pairs again. "And Willard got his call sign because of Footloose. It wasn't his first one, but it was the one that stuck and is appropriate to repeat on the radio."

Wolfman chuckled. "And Simkin?"

Merlin paused, then shrugged. "Refuses, unless in the air, to let us call him Siesta." Wolfman frowned at that. "Habit of falling asleep while drinking at bars?"

At that, Ice snorted in laughter and did his best to hide it. "Sam!"

"You can't tell me that you actually got yours because you do not make mistakes, Tom." He waited, then reached over to pull the tray away, and Ice glared at him. "So you do want dinner. Sure seems like you don't."

Ice sighed, the present humor having cleared the tension between them a little. "Not all that hungry."

Merlin nodded, then reached into a pocket and placed Goose's dog tags on the table between them. "Then we can talk about this and see if we can't find your appetite, since I know you were dreaming about it. Tell me about it, Tom. You can't shock me, because I already heard Mav's side last night."

Ice stared at the tags for a minute before reaching out and poking at them with a finger. His expression softened a bit, then he looked up at Merlin. "Yesterday was the first time I'd seen Mav smile or laugh since the day of the accident. I can see him, that day, smiling at me from his plane, being an ass, and until yesterday, I hadn't seen him, himself, in two weeks. I know that makes no sense-"

"It does," Wolfman said quietly. "And you're not wrong. It did and does feel like that."

Ice glanced at him, nodded, and then looked at Merlin again. "It's just... you know Top Gun is a competition as much as it is a learning experience, right?"

Merlin nodded again. "Yes, and I also know that the learning experience is equally as valuable as the bragging rights." Ice winced visibly. "I'm not here to condemn you, just observe and listen."

"I deserve the condemnation."

"Do you?" Merlin reached over and put his hand over Ice's that was still fiddling with the dog tags.

Silence fell for a minute or so and Wolfman noticed Jardian watching them from another table, on the other side of Willard and Simkin's, nursing a cup of coffee as if it was the most normal thing in the world, for the Commander of the Air Carrier Group to be in the Mess with his men. Maybe it was.

"It was my jet wash," Ice admitted, his voice so quiet and hoarse that Wolfman jumped and then stared at him, CAG forgotten. "And my failure to fly safely. My failure, Sam... to listen when I should have. Even Ron was telling me to fire, but I couldn't get the angle. And then... and then..."

Wolfman wanted to reach out, but Merlin reached for his hand first and squeezed it firmly, a silent 'no,' stopping him from even opening his mouth. Blinking, he met Jardian's steady gaze again, and the man also shook his head in the negative. Could he hear from over there, or was he just really good at reading the situation?

"...and then Nick was panicking in my ears. They both were." Ice blinked, shook his head. "That tape you have, of the buzzing incident? I hadn't heard his voice since the accident. I... I..."

"Breathe, Tom," Merlin said gently, demonstrating. "And I have a question for you."

"You do?"

Merlin studied him, then nodded once. "If it had been a real dogfight, would you have hesitated to clear? Would you have even put yourself or another pilot in that position?"

Ice froze, then shook his head. "No. There would have been no time for it." Merlin tilted his head, expectant. "What?"

"Training is different," Merlin reminded him. "We do things in training that we would not do in combat or out on patrol, ordinarily. And we aviators are a competitive, risk-taking bunch. We have to be, because every time we go out, there is always a chance..."

Ice stared at him for a moment as Merlin let the sentence drift, and then he nodded in resignation. "Always a chance, even while in a training exercise and being stupid."

"I wasn't going to put it like that," Merlin said and released Wolfman's hand with a nod in his direction.

"But it's still the truth."

"FOD ranges," Wolfman said suddenly, startling them both, and Ice looked at him funny. "How close were you following Jester's A-4? And how close was Mav following you?"

Ice opened his mouth, then shut it again, and then closed his eyes to visualize for a minute, then two. Then he sagged visibly and the only thing keeping him grounded was Merlin's hand on his over Goose's dog tags. "Oh."

Merlin frowned at Wolfman, who shrugged. "We went over it in TACTS when Ice, Slider, and Mav weren't there. Inside 1200 feet. If real missiles and guns had been used?"

"Wolf, I," Ice paused to take a deep breath. "I didn't even think of that."

"Too soon," Wolfman reminded him and Ice nodded in agreement. "And while we're on the subject of feeling like failures because of idiocy... Sam? You're not useless."

Merlin sighed. "I said it felt like I was, not that I actually was useless. There's a difference." He frowned at Ice. "Now, really: you tried to lecture Maverick about team work?"

"Did more than that, really," Wolfman put in, and Ice winced. "Called him dangerous and worse than the enemy, too."

"Wolf-"

"Tom," Wolfman drawled, interrupting him and Ice stared back at him, waiting. "I know why you did and said all of that, but some things... did you or did you not realize that Mav didn't know anyone there but his RIO? Or the why of it?"

Ice glanced at Merlin. "What's he talking about?"

"On your finger, Tom," Merlin replied evenly, and Ice looked down at his hands. "We can't talk about it in detail here, but... that thing that Viper told Mav on Sunday, about his father? Taking the long way around through enlistment instead of the Academy, because they wouldn't let him in, even though he should have had an automatic nomination and was qualified? Everything else you've learned today that you didn't know before because it wasn't your business to know? When I say he's come a long, long way, I mean it. Goose took him under his wing and Cougar treated him like a person that belonged where before, everyone else found out what his name was, who his father was, and how he flies, and..."

Wolfman glanced up to find that Jardian was leaving the Mess, seemingly satisfied, then returned his attention to Ice who was still staring at his hands. "We are not trying to make you feel bad-"

"No," Ice said, interrupting him, still looking at Merlin contemplatively. "Something that Carole said makes sense now, about not being observant about the right things. She's right and I hate that she is."

"How so?" Merlin asked.

"Because I was so focused on certain things that I missed what was right in front of me the whole time?" Ice shook his head and looked at Wolfman. "Wood brought a textbook with him, didn't he?"

"Yes," Wolfman answered. "Why?"

"Because I have an idea." He leaned back and looked over at the two pairs. "And we're supposed to be teaching what we learned, aren't we?"

Wolfman shared a questioning look with Merlin for a minute before nodding in the affirmative. "Yes. I don't see where you're going with this idea, exactly."

Ice smiled and looked at him. "Mav gets to run Wood through verbal combat aerial maneuvers, with the excuse of you two getting shot down because you were surprised from behind?"

Wolfman paused at the thought of that, using it as an excuse, and then noticed that Willard was nodding. He tilted his head in question, and Willard nodded again. "That's a good idea. I like it, and I think Willard does, too."

"We all do, over here," Willard spoke up, confirming that they'd heard at least some of the conversation, if not all of it over the din of other people talking in the Mess.

"We're a long way from him doing that," Merlin observed with a glance toward the other table. "Considering that right now, he's doing a remarkable impression of a barnacle and keeps falling asleep."

"Tomorrow or the next day," Ice added, then paused. "Tomorrow might be optimistic."

"Probably."

Wolfman smiled. "Is a good idea, though."

As the two pairs were leaving, Willard stopped at Merlin's side and glared at Ice. "Kazansky? I'm glad you realize that what you pulled was both dangerous and stupid. It's good to evaluate what's happened and apply the experience to do better going forward." He turned his attention to Wolfman. "How are you, by the way?"

Wolfman paused, then shrugged. "Mostly fine. Sore from ejecting, but..."

Willard nodded and placed a careful hand on his shoulder. "Glad to hear it." He glanced at Merlin. "Barnacle-like?"

"What would Nick have done, if one of us had a nightmare?" Merlin asked carefully, and nodded at the realization on Willard's face.

"Make sure we were okay afterwards," Willard agreed. "Is whoever..."

"He's fine," Merlin told him. "Mav's got him. Mav might be asleep again, but he's got him."

Willard paused. "Right, because that makes sense in a very odd way."

Ice frowned as the pilot took his leave, then looked down at the dog tags on the table between them as Merlin slowly picked them up again and put them back in his pocket. "Who told that guy about the accident?"

"Stinger," Merlin said, watching as Ice slowly picked up his fork again. "Slider couldn't talk about it, so he sent Willard and Simkin to the CAG." His gaze went to Wolfman, who couldn't contain the chuckle that escaped him. "And normally, no, that wouldn't be funny, but..."

"It is," Wolfman finished, chuckling again. And then again. Why was he getting the giggles over something so ordinary?

Ice chuckled himself as he started to eat again. "Let it out of you gotta, Wolf."

That did not help him to stop laughing.

The bunk room was quiet, save for the continuance of the very odd listing of medical items, as Slider sat there, amused that while Maverick had fallen asleep again, he wasn't letting go. It was comforting, in a way, and wondered just where the "my turn" assertion had come from.

"...Rankin forceps... Kelly forceps... Satinsky clamps..."

At that, Slider glanced up at Turner. How many different kinds of forceps were there? Did he even want to know the answer to that?

"...Kocher Forceps... Crile Forceps... Mixter 'right angle' forceps..."

"Did I wake up in an operating theater?" Hollywood's bewildered voice came from above him, and Slider suddenly chuckled. Now he remembered: Hollywood's outburst from when Mav was awake earlier. Of course that would get stuck somehow, when the pilot was tired, dizzy from a low grade fever and had a headache. "Wait. Where is Mav?"

"Down here with me," Slider answered, and Hollywood's head appeared, eyes narrow as he peered down at them from the top bunk. "Sam called him a barnacle. Should we change his call sign?"

"What happened?"

Slider sighed. "I had a nightmare is what happened. And I think, even though Wolf was helping him stay on his feet, that he might have used what little energy he did have to wake me. And now he won't let go." Mav mumbled incoherently in his sleep, and Slider shrugged. He was actually starting not to mind so much.

Hollywood smiled. "Ah."

"...Spencer Wells Artery Forceps... Halsted Mosquito Forceps..."

"As for Turner," Slider said, gaze going to the still-sleeping Corspman with an amused smile. "He's been stuck on different kinds of forceps for a bit."

Hollywood carefully got down from the top bunk and joined them, carefully jostling Maverick on the shoulder. "Hey, Mav? Wake up a minute, will you?"

"My turn," Mav mumbled at him without opening his eyes.

Hollywood met Slider's gaze with slight confusion, and Slider shook his head. "This isn't your bunk, Mav."

"Don't care."

Slider chuckled, and then froze when he realized that Turner had gone silent. "Wood?"

"Yeah?"

"Is he awake?"

Hollywood turned to look at and found that Turner was indeed looking back at them in confusion. "Oh."

"I would ask, but this makes sense if he woke up and one of you was having a nightmare," Turner observed as he stretched and then got down off the bunk. "Well?"

"That was me," Slider admitted. "And we gave him Ibuprofen. Two tablets, with 7-Up. Low grade fever at 99.7."

Turner nodded. "It was probably higher, before we got him to eat and drink."

"Probably," Silder agreed.

Turner moved to sit down, grabbed the book that Ice had been reading, and read the first several pages with wide eyes. Then he looked at Hollywood. "Have you read this yet? Wolfe gave it to Kazansky earlier, and... this thing is a riot."

"Is that The River Why?"

Turner looked at the cover, nodded. "Yes."

"I haven't yet, but Wolfe read some of it to me," Hollywood told him with a smile. "Wait 'till you get to the part about the Doctor, Doc."

"Oh yeah?" At Hollywood's knowing smirk, Turner genuinely smiled in return and settled in to read for a while.

The hatch opened, admitting their missing three, and Slider noted that Wolfman seemed lighter than he had before. "Wolf?"

"You sending Willard and Simkin to the CAG because you don't want to explain something traumatic shouldn't be funny," Wolfman told him after a moment of introspection as Merlin and Ice entered behind him. "But..."

"Doesn't matter what you find funny," Slider finished for him, and Wolfman nodded. "A Corpsman with surgical instruments on the brain, for instance."

"Exactly." Wolfman tapped Turner on the shoulder. "Do you always recite a medical inventory in your sleep?"

Turner didn't look up from the book. "We all have our quirks, Wolfe."

"True," Ice said as he sat down on Mav's bunk again. "How's he doin'?"

"Other than still being barnacle-like?" Slider asked in return.

"Yes, Ron. Other than that."

Mav mumbled again, too low for them to catch what he'd said, and Slider shrugged. "Considering he's slept most of the day? Not all that bad, really." Hollywood pressed The Natural into his free hand, and Slider looked at him oddly. "What's this for?"

"You're going to be stuck there awhile," Hollywood told him with a smile as he got up. "Might as well have something to read. Wolf, where did that deck of cards go?"

They spent the next hour or so playing another round of Go Fish while Turner occasionally chuckled at the book in his hands.