"To these memories I will hold
With your blessing I will go
To turn at last to paths that lead home
And though where the road then takes me I cannot tell."
- "The Last Goodbye" Billy Boyd
In the weeks following the funeral, Maverick and Bradley did move in to the Kazansky home for a few weeks, taking the time to move whatever of Bradley's belongings he needed. Bradley wasn't sure what he wanted to do with the house yet, so they left all the furniture and large items as they were for the time being.
Eventually Ice helped Maverick find an apartment for he and Bradley, not far from base or from Ice and Sarah's.
Maverick did eventually return to work but Ice made sure to keep him local for the time being. Bradley - well, both of them - were still in the fresh stages of grief, and needed each other. There were several evenings where Maverick would come home and find Bradley curled up in a ball weeping on the couch, and times when Bradley would find Maverick sitting at the table with his head in his hands, lost in memories with tears in his eyes.
Ice and Sarah made sure to have them over for dinner at leastthree times per week, to make sure they at least ateand of course to connect with them, play a board game, and enjoy each other's company (and for Ice to check on them and stare Maverick down until Maverick told him whether or not he'd been sleeping).
Bradley's high school graduation took place only a few weeks after his mother passed, and they were still living at the Kazansky's at the time. It was a bittersweet event, and besides Maverick, Ice, and Sarah, Slider and his wife Claire came as well, and they came home to messages on the answering machine from Viper and Hollywood and Wolf.
Maverick snapped a hundred pictures of Bradley in his gown, walking across the stage, sitting in his seat, and many, manypictures outside when the ceremony was over.
Bradley had smiled through it all: pictures with Maverick, with Ice, with Ice and Maverick, with Ice and Sarah and Felicity, just Sarah, Ice and Sarah, with Slider and Claire, and finally Maverick flagging someone down to take lots of pictures of all of them together.
But Carole's absence was in the back of everyone's minds, and later that evening, at his graduation party, Mav had pulled Bradley aside and begun crying, telling him how proud his parents would be of him today. Bradley was unable to keep himself from crying either, he and Maverick weeping together until Ice had found them sobbing on each other and hugged them both for a long time before eventually convincing them to return to the party.
Bradley was eventually persuaded to agree to deferring his Naval Academy application and paperwork until the following year. They would still hold a spot for him, but due to losing his mother just a few short months before he would head top Annapolis, he was convinced that okay, fine,he should give it some time.
And Maverick was content to wait and see if something else piqued Bradley's interest in the meantime, before he made that call.
That is, until September.
Maverick was awakened by the insistent ringing of his house phone next to his bed. He blearily eyeballed the alarm clock, and saw that it was 6:12am. His alarm was set for 6:30, so it wasn't thatearly - but wait, was the phone still ringing?
The ringing stopped then started up again immediately. Maverick picked it up, hoping it hadn't woken Bradley up as well.
"Hello?" He answered, his voice still gruff.
"Turn on the news," a very serious, yet familiar, voice said.
"Ice?" Maverick said tentatively.
"Maverick. Turn on the news."
Maverick sighed and took the cordless phone with him into the living room and switched on the TV.
"What channel?"
"Any of them."
He flipped it to NBC and was in shock at what he was seeing.
"Ice…what is this?"
"Mav…we've been attacked. Two Boeing-767s crashed into the World Trade Center in New York."
Maverick collapsed onto the couch, his eyes glued to the television.
"Two?"
"Two. Not an accident."
"But…there are people on those planes? What happened to make bothplanes hit the Towers? Tom….what the hell is going on?"
He heard Iceman sigh heavily on the other end of the line.
"The planes were hijacked, Mav. This was intentional. But we don't know anything else yet. Stay on alert, not sure if or when you'll be called in."
Maverick heard what sounded like Ice cupping a hand over the receiver, and then he was back.
"Listen, Mav, I gotta go, but I'll call you later, okay? Stay by the phone. We're trying to get this figured out."
"Okay…okay, Ice. Please call me later."
Ice hung up, and Maverick sat on the couch in his dim living room, unable to tear his eyes away from the television. He flipped channels, trying to see if any one news station had different information than the others…
He didn't hear Bradley come shuffling into the living room a few minutes later, yawning and trying to smooth his disheveled hair.
Bradley stood behind the couch, trying to see whatever it was that Maverick was watching. It almost looked like it could be a movie, but it was playing on every news station…?
"Mav?" He said, and Maverick jumped up and let out a shout, and then, upon seeing it was Bradley, sat on the coffee table, trying to calm his heart rate.
"Bradley! You scared me…"
"Sorry, I just kept hearing the phone ring, then I heard the TV on. You're an early riser but you don't usually get calls this early…"
Maverick nodded and moved back to the couch.
"Come sit down, Bradley." The young man did as he was asked, but had an insistent so are you going to tell me what's going on?expression on his face.
"It was Ice on the phone, telling me to turn on the news…the World Trade Center in New York was attacked, two planes were hijacked and crashed into the north and then the south tower."
He had to pause to take several long breaths as he glanced at the television.
Maverick was about to continue when suddenly the view changed from the smoking buildings to a different building on fire.
"We've just received word that a third plane was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon."
Maverick felt the blood drain from his face, felt his heart stop.
The Pentagon?!
Bradley's eyes were round, his mouth open, as he sank onto the couch with Maverick, eyes glued to the screen. They stayed that way for the next hour, with Bradley eventually making them a pot of coffee but darting his head into the living room every five seconds.
Then…the fourth plane. United 93 crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Then they watched in horror as the South Tower collapsed. Maverick had the house phone and his cell both in front of him on the table, waiting any second to be called in.
It didn't take long, the call came from base that he was being ordered to report in ASAP. He sighed and immediately went back his room to get ready, his mind racing as he quickly showered and threw on his uniform.
Bradley had poured him a to-go cup of coffee, which Maverick took gratefully as he grabbed a few things he would need: no telling how long he would be gone.
Bradley stood adrift in the kitchen as he watched his uncle/surrogate parent grab his messenger bag; Mav's face had a grim set to it, a steely look in his eyes that Bradley wasn't used to seeing. And he had to face it: Bradley was scared.
Maverick was about to grab his to-go mug and yell a goodbye over his shoulder since he was rushing to get to base, but Bradley grabbed him in a hug first. Maverick sighed, he could feel the teen's restless, quick breathing, and knew by the look in Bradley's eyes that he was frightened. But hell, Mav was scared too.
"I know, Bradley," he said. "I know. Me too."
As they pulled apart, Maverick said,
"But I'm going to go find out what's going on, and I'll call you the second I have an answer. Until then…stay here. We don't know if…" and he trailed off.
Bradley gave him a nod and a quick "yes, sir," and Maverick was out the door.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Everything was chaos. Commercial flights were to be grounded for the next three days. Al-Qaeda was suspected to be the perpetrators of the attack, but no one knew if there was a plan to hijack more planes.
Maverick had reported in and "skipped the line," as it were, heading straight to Ice's office. Normally he would joke around with his friend but today was different. Maverick sagged into the chair in front of Ice's desk as the Admiral held his phone pressed to his ear between his neck and shoulder, scribbling down notes from the person on the other end of the phone.
"Yeah, uh-huh, okay. Thanks," Ice said grimly as he hung up the phone then leaned back in his chair to stare at the ceiling.
Maverick sat patiently but his insides were twisting, as he was eager to get an explanation on what the hell was going on.
Ice finally sat forward and looked at his friend.
"I promoted you to captain."
Maverick's eyebrows raised. Of all the things he expected to hear, that wasn't even on the list.
"Oh. Okay. Thanks…?" He never cared much about promotions as long as he could fly, but it also didn't help matters that he pissed off a lot of the people who would have promoted him had circumstances been different.
Ice ignored him and finally got to explaining.
"So as you know, two Boeing-767s were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center. A Boeing-757 was flown into the Pentagon, and another was crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, sounds like the passengers fought to get the plane back from the hijackers."
Maverick blinked rapidly. He hadn't heard that part, just that the plane had crashed.
"What?"He gasped out in a strangled whisper.
"The passengers received phone calls from friends and relatives about the other flights. The hijackers killed the crew, stabbed some passengers, used mace and tear gas to subdue them. The passengers figured it out and tried to get control back of the plane."
"Th-the passengers? Were…were there any survivors?"
Ice sighed.
"No. And just now, at least a few minutes ago, so you may not know yet, the North Tower collapsed."
Maverick ran his hands over his face.
"Oh my God, Ice, Jesus…how many were killed at the Pentagon?"
Ice snorted.
"No way to know yet. And no telling how many first responders were in and under the towers when they fell, no way of knowing the casualties in New York at all."
Maverick listened to all the rest; how NORAD had sent two F-15s to investigate reports of hijacked planes, and how just a few minutes ago, fighters had been quickly assembled at Langley by order of the Vice President, with orders to shoot down any commercial aircraft that didn't heed orders over the radio, and that they'd invoked an emergency plan called SCATANA for the first time ever.
His mind was racing. They'd been attacked. They could be going to war. He - Pete Mitchell - was the only pilot with three air-to-air kills, and he was sitting across the desk from one of the only other men with an air-to-air kill under his belt.
Shit. Shit shit shit.
Maverick had signed up to serve his country and do his duty, and that's exactly what he would do. He would get in a plane that minute if they asked him to. But now, he had an added complication.
Bradley.
Bradley…he had to keep Bradley from going to war. He'd hemmed and hawed about his promise to Carole. A promise he was always going to keep but kept procrastinating in the hopes that Bradley's interests would go elsewhere…
No time, He realized. I'm running out of time.
The next few weeks were a whirlwind, both in the country and in Maverick's mind. He tried to go about his normal day to day duties but that was pretty hard to do when the news was blaring all day long. He was relieved when he was put on air patrol and could at least fly,and he had a feeling he'd been put back in a plane just to get him out of Ice's hair.
A week went by, and there were rumors of war but nothing solid, rumors of squadrons going to Afghanistan…then Operation Enduring Freedom happened.
Maverick was being sent back to the Enterprise, back to the Gulf once again.
He paced Ice's office.
"I've gotta make the call, Ice. I can't put it off any longer."
In spite of the chaos in the world, Ice was giving all of his attention to the pilot pacing his floor, his hands on his head, then on his hips, then wringing together.
One, two, three, four, five, spin, one, two…
"Maverick…"
More pacing, more frantic movements of his hands.
"Pete…" Ice said, imploringly this time.
Maverick stopped then, his eyes wide at Ice's tone. He hadn't heard Ice sound like that in years.
"Pete, let me do it."
Maverick felt a brief glimmer of hope in his chest, but it flitted away. He shook his head violently.
"No, Ice. It's myresponsibility. Carole gave methis task, and I can't let her down."
But I could handle the burden better than you…Ice thought mournfully. Out loud he said:
"Maverick…think about what this will do to your relationship with Bradley."
Ice was also close to the boy but Bradley was like Maverick's own son, hell Maverick had raised him like his own child alongside Carole. Ice worried what losing Bradley would do to Maverick… Ice could handle Bradley potentially hating him. Maverick, he feared, could not.
But Maverick was still shaking his head.
"No, Ice. No. It has to be me."
Iceman wasn't used to feeling defeated, and his shoulders sagged as he looked squarely at his wingman. He toyed with the idea of orderingMaverick to let him be the one to call, but a caged Maverick, a Maverick that has been backed into a corner, was a dangerous one, and Ice knew Maverick would just end up doing it anyway.
"Okay, Mav. Okay."
Before he was deployed, Maverick sat in Ice's office (partially for the support and partially because frankly Ice wanted to hear the call) and with a heavy heart dialed the number on the post-it note in front of him.
And when it was done, Maverick put his head in his hands and began sobbing, and saying what a terrible parent he was, and how he was only honoring Carole's last request to him, that Bradley truly wasn't ready for the Academy anyway…
Iceman got on one knee in front of Maverick's chair and pulled the captain to his shoulder, once again allowing Maverick to soak his shirt in tears as Maverick cried tears of guilt and agony, the sounds he was making tearing Ice apart inside; even the Admiral couldn't stop his own tears in that moment. For long minutes the only sound was that of Maverick's heart breaking, and Ice's along with it, and when his sobs had died down he still clung to his best friend, his forehead pressed into Ice's shoulder, still sniffling and hiccuping.
Maverick wept for what he had just done for Bradley, even though it was an action of love and fulfilling a promise.
Ice wept for Maverick, and the long-reaching consequences.
Ice was determined to also fulfill his last request from Carole, the one she'd whispered in his ear just before Maverick had woken up.
Show Pete that he is loved. Please. Love him the way Goose did. Show him who he truly is.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ice took Maverick to Goose and Carole's graves, Carole's headstone having been freshly installed. Maverick went into a squat between the two stones, placing a hand on each one.
"I know Ice and Sarah will look out for him while I'm gone, but please watch over your son, okay you two? And please…help Bradley understand."
He pressed his hands to the stones a minute longer, enjoying that familiar breeze that always ruffled his hair when he was here, before standing up.
"When are you going to tell him?" Ice asked.
Maverick sighed deeply, still staring at the two headstones in front of him.
"We're due to be back in November, December at the latest I think. I'll tell him when I get back. He's not due to go until next year anyway."
"You do realize he can still apply without us?" Ice said, trying to keep his tone light.
Maverick nodded, giving the same answer he always gave when he and Ice had had this conversation…
"I know, but…maybe this will give him time to realize he wants to do something else. And if he applies anyway…I can't stop him, but…"
Ice's face came perilously close to betraying the anxiety hammering his chest, but Maverick wasn't looking at him so he failed to notice.
But what if he finds out while you're on deployment?Ice thought, but kept it to himself.
The next morning Maverick was clinging to Bradley, not wanting him to let go, knowing the transport wouldn't leave without him (or at least he hoped so). Bradley was eighteen, technically an adult, but Maverick was terrified of leaving him alone for so long (even though Ice and Sarah would still keep a close eye on him) especially since the world had become so much more uncertain.
To be fair, Bradley was clinging back just as hard, his face burrowed in Maverick's hair, blinking back tears.
"Mav, we'll take care of him, you know that," Ice was saying as Maverick nodded but still clutched at his godson. Finally, they could wait no longer, and Maverick reluctantly let go of Bradley, but looked him in the eyes and said,
"I'll be back, I promise."
Bradley could only nod.
"I love you, Little Bird. Don't ever forget that."
Bradley nodded harder, doing his best to keep the tears and sobs at bay.
Maverick was blinking rapidly as well as he looked at the boy's face. He turned and hugged Ice then, partially because he was out of time and partially because he couldn't bear to look at Bradley.
"Please don't be stupid," Ice was saying as he hugged his friend.
"Well, you know me."
"Yeah, I do. That's why I said it."
They released each other, still gripping one another's forearms.
Maverick tilted his head.
"When are they sending you out to the Gulf?"
Ice shrugged.
"I wish I knew," then he checked his watch saying, "go on now, git."
Maverick shot them both a smile and a nod as he grabbed his pack and headed to the transport.
Bradley's shoulders sagged as he hugged his arms around himself.
Oh, Mav. Please, PLEASE don't be stupid.