automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

one.

"DONT LAUGH." SKYE MITCHELL SAID THROUGH GRITTED TEETH as she looked at her best friend through the corner of her eye. katia kazansky had a grin on her face as she wordlessly looked back at her. "if you laugh, i'll laugh."

the two girls were standing in a line among many influential men and women, and they just so happened to be a few people down from the president of the united states. unfortunately for them, they were known for being unable to be serious in a silent room.

one more glance at katia had skye snorting a small laugh, quickly attempting to cover it. the girls looked at each other once more and almost doubled over. "shut up." skye mumbled with a smile.

"i didn't say anything!" the blonde defended.

once the conference that they had been standing for was over, skye made her way over to her father. "what was that?" he laughed. "you could barely keep it together."

she shrugged her shoulders. "i learned from the best, mav."

shortly after the death of his best friend, goose, maverick mitchell hadn't necessarily been sleeping around, but.. yeah, he was sort of sleeping around. once charlie blackwood left for washington, he'd gone into something of a crisis. by the end of his escapade, he had made a woman pregnant. she had no desire to raise the baby, which left maverick to happily raise her.

skye mitchell was maverick's pride, joy, and one responsibility.

he hadn't ever considered what he would be like as a father, or if he would be a good one. it wasn't like he had too much of a father to compare himself to. but maverick loved skye as soon as he laid eyes on her. the only thing that was as beautiful or as home to him, he thought, was the sky. the e at the end was just a fun touch.

around the same time, his closest friend iceman kazansky settled down with his wife, sarah, and had a daughter. katia (named after the russian fighter pilot from ww2) and skye had been inseparable since their birth. they and bradley bradshaw, goose's son, would rarely ever be seen apart.

they all had the same dream, no matter how much any of their fathers supported it, to be fighter pilots. they supposed that it only made sense to follow in the footsteps of their fathers, and growing up around constant reminders of their legacy only made them want more to be a part of it. bradley, who was four years older than them, would frequently brag about being the first of them to get into the navy. that was kind of ironic, looking back on it.

since he was older than them, bradley would often get concerns from maverick (or iceman) about roughhousing with the girls, or tackling them in football. but they would always smile when the boy didn't do anything to make the girls feel inferior, or even to remind them that they were younger than he was. he treated them as equals always, which was probably why they felt so close to him.

their fathers had slowly changed pathways, yet they constantly remained significant forces in the navy. maverick moved to work on anything he could in san diego, planning to stay there until skye had graduated. until they were all off to enlist.

after he graduated high school, bradley sent in his papers to the naval academy. skye and katia were only freshmen in high school at the time, but they well understood how difficult it was to get in. "the acceptance rate is only 8.5%." skye had said. "for every one hundred applicants, only nine get admitted."

bradley, who was seventeen, had only smiled. "you're looking at one of the future nine."

he was angered beyond belief when maverick, who had been a father figure to him, pulled his application. maverick was always overprotective of bradley, oftentimes more than he was of skye. he felt like anything that happened to bradley was him betraying goose.