The curtains of Sophia's bedroom blew in the soft breeze that her ceiling fan generated as the early morning sun tried to peep through them. Glancing at her phone she saw the time read 5:45am, her alarm would be going off in 15 minutes, they had a 7am briefing to let them know exactly what it was they were all doing here.

She glanced at the sleeping man beside her, the morning sun making his already tan skin glow. This wasn't the first time she had woken with Rooster in her bed, and it probably wouldn't be the last.

She never thought a relationship could happen between the two. Sophia knew Rooster didn't see her that way, they had made a pact in high school that they would be each other's firsts, neither one wanting to have to do it with a stranger, especially Sophia. Once they were in the Academy, they got drunk one night and ended up sleeping together again, after this happening three more times they made a pact that when the desire came, they would just sleep together but they never made it exclusive to just the two of them. Whilst in the Academy and at Top Gun Rooster occasionally would meet other girls but Sophia never went with anyone else until her and Rooster were deployed to different parts of the country.

Watching him hook up with other girls completely crushed her on the inside, she hated it but could never say anything in fear that he didn't feel anything like she did. So, when he came back to her apartment after his "dates" she had to sit and listen to him talk about it and pretend she wasn't seething with jealousy on the inside.

Sophia scooted closer to Rooster, rubbing lazy circles across his toned back.

"Keep that up and I'm never getting out of this bed" Roosters raspy morning voice said.

"We have a big day ahead of us, you getting up?"

He quickly rolled over, so he was firmly on top of her, trailing kisses from her neck down to her shoulder, Sophia hummed happily as he continued going further down her body.

"You keep that up and I won't be getting out of this bed either" She quickly pushed Rooster off her and threw the covers off them both as she began picking up their clothes from last night.

"Ugghh fine" Rooster stood up and shrugged his tank top back on and put his jeans on grabbing his shirt. "I need to head home and get ready, I'll meet you on base?" He asked as she put her robe on.

"Yeah, I'm just going to shower and get ready, I won't be long" She replied, Rooster came over and kissed her cheek before he walked out of her room.

After Rooster left Sophia got in the shower and began getting ready for the day. She pulled on a black sports bra, a black pair of shorts and tank top to under her flight suite, she then went into the bathroom pulling her hair in to the military grade bun she had to wear and a small amount of make up before putting on her flight suite and boots on.

She headed downstairs grabbing a banana, she then packed her bag with a spare set of clothes, a pair of workout clothes and a few other bits before grabbing her keys and heading out the door.

Once she pulled into the hanger parking lot she saw Roosters Bronco was already here. She headed inside where she was met with a few rows of desks and her fellow pilots.

Sophia said hi to Payback and Fanboy, she was headed towards Rooster, Phoenix and Bob who were seated a row back from the front when she was stopped by Hangman.

"So, Vegas, what's been happening? I haven't seen you since we graduated Top Gun" Hangman asked as he leant against one of the desks.

"Ahh you know not much, I was in Hawaii just before I got the call to come back here, you?"

"Oo Hawaii, nice. The constant sunshine seems to agree with you" Hangman said as he ran his eyes over her.

"My eyes are up here Bagman" Sophia laughed as she went to go join the others.

"Hey, so what's going on with you and Bradshaw? You guys a thing?" Hangman asked as he grabbed her wrist stopping her from walking away.

"What? We are just friends, you know that" Sophia took her wrist out of Hangman's grasp.

"You know what I know Vegas" Hangman took a step towards Sophia.

"Don't Jake, we agreed to never bring that up again" Sophia warned as he took a further step.

"Everything ok here?" Sophia and Hangman turned to see Rooster in front of them. Sophia took a step towards him as he protectively took a step between the two.

Hangman put his hands up in defence not taking his eyes of Sophia "Nothing man, all good here" Sophia watched as he walked away to wear Coyote and a few others were talking.

"What was that all about" Rooster asked as he walked Sophia over to were Bob and Phoenix sat.

"Nothing, just Bagman being a jerk like usual" Sophia brushed off trying to get Rooster to change the subject. Just as Rooster was about to say something back a few officials walked in causing everyone to scramble to their seats.

"Attention on deck"

Everyone stood to attention as two admirals made their way to the front of the room.

The first admiral made his way to the podium at the front of the room whilst the second stood to the side.

"Good morning, welcome to your new training detachment, please be seated"

Everyone sat down listening intently to what the admiral in front of them had to say.

"I am Admiral Bates NAUDIC Commander, your all Top Gun graduates, the best of the best. We want to keep it that way, instead of you only doing a 3-week class, graduating, and then moving on the US Navy has decided that Top Gun will now be a fully operational Squadron. Everyone here is the top 1% of fighter pilots in the US maybe even the world, you will be stationed here for the foreseeable and will go on missions when needed. You will be doing high intensity training for top secret and dangerous missions. Your captain will oversee your training making sure you are all ready for anything that gets thrown at you"

Everyone in the room was buzzing in excitement, the idea of being in a new squadron was always a bit daunting but knowing they were the best and the first to do this had them all extremely excited. Rooster and Sophia snuck a quick glance at each other bot super excited that they weren't going to have to leave each other anytime soon.

"Your instructor is one of the finest pilots this programme has ever produced. His exploits are legendary. What he has to teach you may very well mean the difference between life and death" Admiral Bates continued.

Footsteps could be heard from behind them, everyone turned to get a look at their new Captain, Sophia couldn't believe who was walking towards them she huffed turning back to the front and taking a peek at Rooster who looked pissed.

"I give you Captain Pete Mitchell, call sign Maverick" The admiral finished as he stood away from the podium letting Maverick take his place.

Sophia could feel her breathing picking up slightly at the sight of her father. They hadn't spoken in 7 years, what the hell was she supposed to do.

Rooster could tell she was going to start hyperventilating any second, he placed a hand on her thigh squeezing slightly and rubbing circles with his thumb trying to get her to calm down. He knew how she was feeling, he was pissed he hadn't spoken to Maverick for the same amount of time, never forgiving him for pulling his papers and pushing his career back. He felt Sophia slowly slow her breathing down, he kept his hand planted where it was.

"Morning" Maverick spoke as he took his place behind the podium, he stole a glance towards Bradley and Sophia, he could see neither was happy to see him "The F-18 Fighter manual" he spoke showing a book to the class "it tells you everything you need to know about your aircraft, I'm assuming you all know this inside out"

Damn straight" came Hangman's confident tone.

"Too right" said Payback from behind them

Maverick dropped it into the bin at his side causing the whole class to look around with confusion "So does your enemy, but what the enemy doesn't know is your limits and I intend to find these, help you pull beyond. Today we will see what you can do, lets gear up"

Rooster and Sophia were the first two to get to their feet heading straight to the locker rooms to grab their stuff.

Sophia slammed her locker shut with a bit too much force making Phoenix jump next to her. She threw all of her gear on as quickly as she could, Phoenix stood next to the woman with her helmet in her hand hesitating slightly to speak.

"Hey are you ok? I know its probably a shock to see your dad here" Phoenix knew all about her and Roosters history with her dad, they spent many a night in the Academy discussing it.

Sophia sat down putting her helmet next to her, her breathing had picked up again and she could feel tears coming down her face. "I can't believe he's here, why, he must have known we would be here, he's going to ruin everything, he'll put a stop to us flying somehow, he'll." Sophia trailed off as her breathing had picked up causing her to struggle to get words out.

Phoenix, who was at her side, had ran out of the room into the men's locker room, as soon she made eye contact with Rooster, he knew something was wrong, he grabbed his helmet and followed Phoenix into the women's locker room instantly seeing Sophia in the midst of a panic attack.

"Hey hey, baby come on look at me and breath" Rooster had kneeled in front of her and took her face in his hands rubbing both thumbs on her cheeks.

"Come on with me deep breaths" Sophia kept her eyes locked on Roosters as they both took breaths together; within a minuet her breathing had calmed, and Rooster wiped the last of her tears away with his thumb.

Everyone had left the locker rooms and headed out on to the tarmac leaving Rooster, Sophia, Phoenix, and Hangman.

Hangman had stayed back by the door observing the two, a small pang hit his chest as he saw how the two interacted. After a minuet he left the three of them making his way to do his pre-flight checks.

Sophia stood up as Rooster handed her helmet, she checked the rest of her gear again to make sure it was on correctly.

"You guys, ok?" Phoenix asked

"Yeah, we'll be fine, we will get through this right Soph?" Rooster said as he looked down at the woman in front of him.

Sophia looked at her two best friends and let out a shaky sigh "Yeah I'll be fine; I just don't want him to ruin everything we have both worked so hard for"

Rooster pulled her in for a hug as best he could with all their gear on. "He won't, we are going to go out there and show him just how good we are, and show him we have worked our asses off to get here"

Sophia nodded "Your right, come on let's go"

The three pilots headed out onto the tarmac ready for their flying exercise.