This chapter talks about the new Top Gun: Maverick movie. However, it does not contain spoilers for Top Gun: Maverick because I have not seen the movie yet :) Enjoy!

The Guy From That Movie

JUNE 2022

1130 EST
MACKENZIE-RABB RESIDENCE
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA

"Mac please-"

"Harm, I can't."

"It's only two hours of your life. You went on dates with Mic that were longer than that."

"Can't we just wait until it's out on streaming? Movie tickets are so expensive-"

"I've waited over thirty years for this. I'm seeing it in the theaters."

Mac sighed, looking down at her morning cup of coffee. When she married a pilot, specifically when she married Harm, she knew that she would also be marrying arguably the most iconic film about pilots: Top Gun. It was Harm's favorite movie, and Mac had seen it more times than she ever thought she would - more times than she ever would've liked to have seen it.

For all the years that Harm spent crossing his fingers for a sequel, for another two hours of Tom Cruise riding into the danger zone with his jets, Mac also had her fingers crossed that a sequel wouldn't happen. However, only one of them could get what they wanted, and that person wasn't Mac on this occasion.

Harm was leaning across the counter, looking at Mac with those hopeful blue eyes that usually got her to agree to anything.

Well, not anything.

"I'm sorry hon," she said, feigning a disappointed sigh. "But I can't go with the movies to you today, I have to take Adam to his baseball game."

Harm frowned. "He doesn't have a baseball game today."

"Uh, yes he does."

Adam didn't have a baseball game that day. Mac was lying through her teeth.

"I think I would remember if he did," Harm insisted. "I wouldn't miss my only son's baseball game for Top Gun."

"Really? Are you sure?"

One thing Mac loved about Harm was his dedication to fulfilling his fatherly duties. However, that wasn't helping her in this scenario.

"What kind of question is that-"

As if on cue, Adam strolled into the kitchen. Much to Mac's dismay, he wasn't in his baseball uniform, he was in his pajamas.

Why would he even be in his uniform, anyway? Mac asked herself. I'm lying about him having a baseball game.

"What am I supposed to have today?" he asked, walking over to the pantry with bleary eyes, reaching in for a box of cereal.

Harm straightened up, folding his arms over his chest and giving Mac a knowing glance. She bit her lip, drawing back.

"Yeah," Harm said. "What is he supposed to have today?"

"A baseball game," Mac answered quietly.

Adam rached into the fridge for the jug of milk. "I don't have a game today," he said. "I have the weekend off Mom, remember?"

"Right, I remember now," Mac said, tapping her temple with her finger. She laughed lightly. "SIlly me, my mind must be slipping more with age."

"I thought Dad was older."

"He is," Mac answered quickly.

Harm turned to Mac as Adam groggily poured his cereal into a bowl. "You know," he whispered. "If you didn't want to see the movie, you could've just said so. I can still go."

Mac grimaced. "I just feel bad having you go to movies alone. That's kind of sad, don't you think?"

"I won't be going by myself," Harm scoffed. "Lucky for me, I have three loving children who would all love to spend time with their old man."

He looked up at Adam. "Hey son, do you want to go see the new Top Gun movie with me today?"

Adam paused at his father's question, his spoon hovering halfway between the bowl and his mouth. Mac watched him carefully, wondering if he would prove himself to be his mother's son or not.

"Ummm…." Adam sat the spoon back into his bowl. He ran his fingers through his hair, making it look even messier. "Gee Dad, you know I would love to, but I have…." his eyes suddenly lit up with an idea. "Actually, you know what. Mom was right."

Mac's eyes widened. "I was?"

Adam nodded, looking at Mac with wide eyes - her cue to go along with whatever he was saying. "I do have to go to the baseball field today….to drive there," he gave Harm a hopeful glance. "I have to log those driving hours before I can do behind the wheel, remember?"

"I remember now," Harm said, nodding slowly. "Sorry. My mind must be slipping more with age."

Mac reached out to rub Harm's shoulders. "Don't worry honey, I'm sure one of the girls would love to go with you."

Harm figured that he would try his luck with his younger daughter, seeing that thirteen-year-old Lily might have more of a desire to spend a weekend afternoon with her father than the twenty-year-old Clara would. However, this was another thing he miscalculated.

"Do I want to go see what with you?" Lily looked up from her phone, wrinkling her nose at the question being asked to her. Something Harm forgot was that his baby girl was finally a teenager.

"The new Top Gun movie-"

"I have homework to do."

"Okay."

As Harm walked down the stairs, resigning himself to calling Bud and seeing if he was free, he came across his final hope. Clara was walking up the stairs, coming back from her morning workout at the gym. She was home for the summer from college, and Harm could only hope that she missed him enough to want to go see this movie with him.

Thankfully for Harm, Clara just so happened to be reading his mind.

"Are you going to see the new Top Gun movie?" she asked.

Harm paused mid-step. "Yeah….why?"

"Can I come with you?" Clara asked as she continued up the stairs.

"Uh…sure. Yeah, if you want."

Harm re-entered the kitchen with a strange look on his face. Mac was still sitting at the kitchen island, scrolling on her phone. Even though she was still in her pajamas, she had her purse at her side, ready to go. If she was going to spend the afternoon helping Adam practice driving, it was something she needed to be comfortable for.

"What's up?" she asked without looking up from her phone. "Are you still going to the movies?"

"Yeah," Harm replied. "Clara's coming with me."

"Oh!" Mac's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "She is?"

Harm paused as he went to open the fridge. "What do you mean?"

Mac sat her phone down and shrugged. "I just never would've pinned her for a Top Gun fan, that's all."

"Well, she is her father's daughter, Mac."

That might've been the case, but the last time Mac checked, Clara thought the original Top Gun was just as cheesy as Mac thought it was. Clara was her mother's daughter in that respect.

So, when Harm went up to get ready and Clara came into the kitchen, hair still wet from her shower, Mac thought it was time to do some questioning.

"Do you have any plans for today?" Mac asked, taking the route of nonchalance. She'd learned that the best way to get information out of her kids was to act like she didn't know anything.

"Yeah," Clara nodded. She sat down at the island across from Mac. "I'm going to the movies with Dad."

"Oh, what are you seeing?"

"The new Top Gun movie."

Mac faked a look of surprise. "Really? I didn't think you liked that movie."

"I don't," Clara answered with a shrug. "I just wanted to spend some time with Dad."

The answer was innocent enough, but Mac could tell by the look on Clara's face and the way she was hiding part of her face behind her phone that she wasn't telling the entirety of the truth. After all, Mac remembered what it was like to be a young woman - despite the fact that her mind was (allegedly) slipping in her old age.

"Are you sure that's the only reason why you're seeing the movie?" Mac asked coyly, leaning across the counter on folded arms.

Clara looked up from her phone, a light blush creeping across her cheeks. She shrugged again. "I also wanted to see that guy."

"What guy?"

Clara shrugged a third time. "That guy from the movie."

Mac's eyes widened. "Tom Cruise?"

"Ew Mom, no!" her expression immediately changed to that of disdain. "He's weird, I'm talking about the other guy. The guy that's not Dad's age."

Clara quickly typed something into her phone and turned it around, practically shoving it under Mac's nose. "I'm talking about this guy."

"Oh," Mac squinted to read the Wikipedia page title. She'd spent the past few months ignoring the fact that she probably needed glasses. "Miles Teller?"

"Yeah," Clara nodded, her blush returning. "He's the hot guy in the movie."

Mac smirked. "You know Tom Cruise used to be the hot guy in the movie, right?"

Mac spent the afternoon teaching Adam the ins and outs of highway driving, so she didn't get to see Harm and Clara again until dinner time. It was a warm summer evening, so the Rabb family decided to have dinner on the back patio.

"How was driving today?" Harm asked once they were all seated. He and Clara were in the wicker armchairs and Mac, Adam, and Lily were all together on the sofa.

"It was fine. What do you think, Mom?" Adam asked, turning to look at Mac.

"Oh, it went…great. Yeah, it went great," Mac nodded faintly. "You just need to work on hitting the breaks, but other than that…" she cleared her throat, looking at Harm and Clara. "How was the movie?"

"Great," Harm and Clara answered in unison.

Mac smiled, gently biting down on her tongue to keep a laugh from escaping. "Was it everything you've ever been wishing for for the past thirty years?" she asked.

"Are you kidding? Of course it was," Harm nodded.

"I liked the volleyball scene," Clara added, freezing when she noticed Mac's eyes on her. "And other parts," she added hastily. "I liked other parts of it, too."

"What other parts?" Lily asked, giving her older sister a snide look.

"I don't know what other parts - the parts with the jets," Clara answered, jabbing her fork into her chicken breast with unnecessary force. "How was homework today?"

"Oh I didn't have any -" Lily was able to stop herself in the nick of time. "I mean, it went fine. I got all my homework done."

Clara smirked and rolled her eyes as she picked up her knife and began to slice at her chicken. "Since you have all your homework done, then you wouldn't mind going to see the movie with me tomorrow, would you?"

"You want to see it again?" Mac asked, the shock evident on her face. "It was that good, huh?"

"I mean, it was fine."

"See," Harm said, grinning from ear to ear and completely oblivious to what his wife and daughters were actually talking about. He gave Mac a smug look. "I told you, she's her father's daughter."

Lily, meanwhile, who always proved to more so be her mother's daughter than her father's, wrinkled her nose. "Why would I want to see the Top Gun movie?"

"So you can see what I'm talking about," Clara explained.

"Or you could just tell me and stop being vague," Lily retorted.

"Are you talking about the Lady Gaga song?" Adam asked.

"No," Clara said. "I'm talking about that guy."

"What guy?" Adam and Lily asked in unison.

"The guy from the movie."

Harm frowned. It suddenly occurred to him that Clara might not have seen Top Gun because of the jets. "Do you mean Tom Cruise?" he asked.

"No honey," Mac said, rolling her eyes affectionately. "She isn't talking about Tom Cruise."

THE NEXT DAY

0930 EST
MACKENZIE-RABB RESIDENCE
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA

Continuing to take advantage of the lovely summer weather, Harm and Mac decided to have their Sunday morning breakfast out on the patio sofa. Even though their children were older and decidedly more independent, Harm and Mac still found that alone time came by seldomly. They had to take every opportunity that came their way, even if that meant waking up early on a weekend morning.

"Honey, she's twenty. She's allowed to have a crush on movie characters," Mac said. "Remember when she was four and obsessed with Prince Eric? It's like that."

"I know," Harm admitted, his frown still not going away. "But Top Gun? Really? Top Gun isn't supposed to be about hot guys."

Mac smirked. "Clearly you didn't see Tom Cruise in the 80's."

There was some rustling in the kitchen, and soon Clara appeared, walking out on the patio in her pajamas and fuzzy slippers, a steaming mug of fresh coffee in her hands.

"Good morning," Mac greeted as Clara sat in one of the armchairs - the same armchair she had sat in the night before.

"Hey honey."

"Hi," Clara replied, sitting criss-cross in the chair. "I have an idea."

Harm and Mac exchanged glances. Whenever Clara came up with an idea, it tended to be either completely genius or completely terrifying.

"What is it?" Mac asked slowly.

Clara grinned as she sipped her coffee. "Daddy, fighter jet pilots work for the Navy, right?"

"The Naval aviators do, yeah," Harm corrected, nodding.

"Okay…" Clara took another sip of her coffee. She sat her mug down into her lap. "Can I meet some?"

Mac felt Harm's entire body stiffen beside her. "Why do you want to meet them?" Harm asked, and Mac had to hold in her laughter as she felt Harm shift uncomfortably. He chuckled nervously. "I'm not sure they're your crowd, sweetheart."

"What if they are?" Clara insisted. "The next time you go out to one of those ships-"

"The aircraft carriers."

"Can you just take me with you?" Clara gave Harm her best smile. "Pretty please?"

Harm immediately shook his head. "No. Absolutely not."

"But Dad-"

"No," Harm continued to shake his head while Mac watched the interaction with amusement. "I'm not even going to say I'm thinking about it because I won't think about it."

"But-"

"Come on Harm," Mac said teasingly. "Hear her out."

Harm turned his wide-eyed glance to her. "Mac," he said. "I am not going to let our daughter hang around a bunch of aviators. Aviators that have been cooped up on a carrier for months. Have you lost your mind? Both of you?"

"What if my husband is out there at sea and I need to find him?"

"Then he can come to shore and find you!" Harm answered. "Trust me, those aviators are bad news. I should know."

Mac raised an eyebrow, folding her arms across her chest. "They're bad news, huh?"

Harm blushed once he realized what he'd said. "I was retired when we met, hon. That doesn't count."

"Sure," she said, rolling her eyes. "Of course it doesn't."

"Fine," Clara sat back and took a third, more resigned, sip of her coffee. "I'll just stay here in Fairfax and wait for Miles Teller to come sweep me off my feet."

Mac reached out to pat Clara's knee encouragingly. "Don't worry sweetie," she said. "Your officer and a gentleman will come along with you least expect it."

"So this is what this is about?" Harm asked. "The guy from that movie?"

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Just the thought of Harm fan-girling over the Top Gun sequel is so amusing to me. Also I can't resist putting Harm and Mac in these more modern-day scenarios. It gives me a lot of more story ideas!

Thanks for reading!

-Harper