Chapter 12:
Zipping his bag, sighing deeply, and looking over to the bible on his bedside, he opens it and finds a picture inside, it was of him and the squad, but Nat standing extra close to him, and if you look close enough, you'll see Nat and his hand entwined. He then places it safely back in said bible and opens the bag again to place it in there.
Throwing the bag over his shoulder, he turns around, leaves his bedroom and goes for his apartment's front door. Reaching ground floor, and spotting his Bronco, he fiddles with his keys, all hell could break loose if this operation goes sideways. He needs to stay alive, to return to her.
Shaking so much, struggling to get the keys in the ignition. The old Bronc chokes to life, shifting into first gear, and drives for the base where the helicopter will transport him to the USS Seahawk. (It's a ship from JAG.)
Parking in his designated spot, bag slung over his shoulder, slumping to the helicopter. But he has an unexpected departure gift, the squad showed up, even Admiral Simpson showed up! He always figured that Cyclone hated his guts.
Nat steps forward, and kisses him softly. "I love you, Bradley.". Tears swell in his eyes as she said it, "I love you too.". She hugs him tight, when the hug begun, the entire squad falls in, squeezing him into a group hug.
Maverick stands on the side-line, refusing to interrupt this moment. When the group hug dissolves, Mav steps up, pulling his surrogate-son into a hug. "Take care, and come back, you have a girl waiting for you now.".
"I will.". Pulling out, he takes one last look at his squad, no, family. And heads for the helicopter, the pilot helps him in place and then looked back at the squad, "They your family?".
Mav looks at them, and a smile creeps up his lips, "Yeah, they are.".
The helicopter takes off and heads in the direction of the carrier. During the flight, Brad takes in his surroundings, ocean as far as the eye can see. The environment he was trained for.
The ship comes into view, and he was getting tense, there was no backing out now, as the landing gear touches the ship, he feels a jolt of realization hitting him, this was gonna be one of the biggest missions of his life, his first solo-mission, his first dogfight where he will be alone. He needs to keep his head in the game, if he is to succeed, he'll need to fly like Maverick, the words: 'Don't think, just do.' Pops into his head.
Running over the deck, and into the ship, his first step was to head to the bridge, where a Captain Carter was supposed to meet him. Climbing the steps, a young woman, a petty officer was explaining to him some of the details of the ship, but kept blushing whenever she looks at him, Brad could only smile at her sudden shyness, he is used to this affect he has on women, but he's a committed man, end of discussion. As the young petty officer led him to the bridge, she waits by the door, and Bradley stands at attention, "Lieutenant Bradshaw reported as ordered, sir.".
The guy looks at him, "Bradshaw, I am Captain Gomez, the ship's XO. Unfortunately, Captain Carter isn't here, she's out in one of our tiltrotors for a training exercise with the Navy SEALs on board.".
Brad looked at the ship XO, nodding. "Right, sorry sir.". But Gomez laughs, "No need to apologize kid. We get this a lot.". It was as if on queue, a tiltrotor lands on the ship, and six men exit, covered in dirt. A woman exits, he couldn't see her face, for she had a cap on her head and her right hand keeping it in place.
The XO then points to the deck, "That's, Captain Carter, the CAG.". Brad realized that he was in more trouble, from what he heard, Captain Carter was a tough one, but he had no idea how tough. Well, he was about to find out.
She enters the bridge and everyone stands at attention. She removes her cap, and shoulder length brown hair falls down back, she looks up, blue eyes, she reminded Brad about this character he saw on a TV show. She then told the bridge personnel to go back to their jobs.
She walks up to Brad, standing at 5'9 if he guessed it right. "You must be Lieutenant Bradley Bradshaw.".
"Yes ma'am." He kept his cool, she was more intimidating than he figured.
"When they said they were sending a Top Gun graduate to fly this mission, I had no idea they would send a pilot that actually looks like a male model." She turns around and leaves, taking a clipboard from one of the radar guys.
Brad had no idea what to think, did she just insult him? But the XO was chuckling. "I am impressed, usually she would just ignore freshman on the ship, you're lucky, she actually likes you.".
Brad wasn't here to be liked by the captain; he was here to fly the mission.
The ship sets sail for the Turkish coast. The same petty officer leading him his dorm. "This is you, mine is right across yours, if you need anything, just knock, anything, sir." She added the 'sir' for she tried to hide the fact she found him attractive.
Brad opens the hatch and inspects the dorm. He realized he had no roommate, but he was okay with that. "Can I get you anything, sir?" she asked him.
Brad then smiles, "Not at the moment.".
She was about to leave, but then stops, "Just, out of curiosity, sir, are you, seeing someone?". Brad chuckles again, "I have a girlfriend.".
She seems to deflate. "Right, of course you do." She leaves.
'Weird.' Brad thought as he set everything up. Taking his laptop and setting it up. He figures his arrival will start some rumours, but he wasn't gonna let that get to him.
With his laptop set up, he then sets his flight suit up. Within a few days, he'll be at Turkish coast side and be heading into war. He just had no idea what he was supposed to do.
Back home, Nat was at Brad's apartment, with his pillow in her embrace, she could smell his sent, and it was strong. She told her dad she was gonna stay at Bradley's place with him gone. To Maverick's knowledge of course.
Her phone lights up and she sees it was Bob.
'How you hanging?'
She texted back, 'I'll be okay.'
He texts back, 'Need anything? A beer, a hug?'
She chuckles at her backseater's brotherly instincts. 'I'm okay, I'll hold you to that hug and beer though.".
He responds with, 'Anytime.' And adds a smiley face.
But it was getting late, so, on said couch, she grabs the blanket she brought along, she lies down, with Bradley's pillow in her arms, her nose buried into it. A small, "Come home to me." Leaving her lips as she drifts off to sleep.