I made my way through the hard deck. The strong stench of alcohol mixed with leather jackets hit my nose instantly. I push through the crowds of people to make my way to the bar.
"If it isn't Birdie" I hear a voice say behind me. I turned around to see where the voice was coming from.
"Oh my god. Penny is that you?" I'm quickly pulled into a hug.
"Mon how are you? How is Ice doing?" she quickly questions me.
"I have been good. Dads hanging in there." I say quietly.
"It's back isn't it?" She asks. I just nod, trying to hold back the lump in my throat caused by the tears that are threatening to fall. I don't like to talk about my father. He has been suffering from cancer for a long time and it's back now. The doctors say he won't be getting better any time soon.
"I'm sorry. Mon, if you ever need anything don't hesitate to come to me. It's really good to see you." Penny says while giving me a hug. I hugged her back. It felt good to see a friendly face. I walk towards the back of the bar where a crowd of people in uniforms are standing.
"Well what do we have here? If it isn't Bagman." I say while hitting Jake over the head and messing up his hair.
"Birdie," Jake says. "You look real good." He looks me up and down, his eyes resting at my breasts.
"Bagman eyes up here" I say pointing to my eyes. He smirks and shakes his head while giving me a bear hug.
I hear a scream coming from the other side of the bar. I turn to hear the voice. I see Nat running over to us. Finally. It's about time Phoenix showed up.
"Nat! Oh my god I missed you," I say, pulling her into a hug.
"I missed you too," Phoenix said, pulling away from the hug.
"What do we have here?" Hangman questioned, looking at Phoenix and the guys behind her. He began moving towards me and stopped directly behind me. A little too close if I do say so myself. I move away from him.
Phoenix sighs, "Fellas, this here is Bagman." Phoenix says while crossing her arms. I smirk at that comment and let out a little laugh, turning to see Jake's reaction.
"Hangman," he corrects with a forced smile on his face.
"Oh whatever," Phoenix replies, rolling her eyes. She turners to greet the man next to Hangman.
"Hey Coyote." Phoenix states.
I went back to the bar to get a refill with Phoenix. When we got our drinks to return back to the crew, they were all walking towards someone in a chair. I can't quite recognize who it is so we catch up with the guys.
"Hey." Phoenix and I run up to Hangman and Coyote and mystery guy in the chair.
"And who are you?" I ask the guy sitting in the chair.
I notice Hangman was also confused as to who this guy is. At least I'm not alone here.
"How long have you been there?" Hangman asks him with a confused look passing over his face.
"I've been here the whole time." he answered with a smile, pushing his glasses up.
"He's a stealth pilot." Hangman jokes.
"No, I'm a weapons system officer actually," the guy replied, causing me to chuckle at him for not catching the joke.
"With no sense of humor," the hangman added, leaning to the edge of the pool table.
"What do they call you?" Payback asks.
"Bob." He replied.
"No, like what's your call sign?"
"Uh Bob." he said after a small pause. Everyone quickly looked around each other with confused looks and shrugged.
"Well Bob, my name is Monica Kazansky, call sign Birdie." I introduced myself and put out my hand.
"Birdie here is the daughter of Commander Kazansky." Hangman says throwing his arm around my shoulders resulting in my elbow hitting his gut.
"Don't get too comfortable there Jake."
Time passes and we all catch up, talking about our postings and life after Top Gun. This isn't as bad as I thought it would be. We proceeded to drink some more and play a few more games of pool. The bar started to get pretty packed.
"Bradshaw is that you?" Phoenix calls, making all of us turn our heads to look at him make his way over to us.
God. Is it bad that I think he looks hot with his sunglasses and the classic Rooster hawaiian shirt? We make eye contact as he walks over to us. My breath hitches. I think the last time I spoke to him was the day we all found out we were going our separate ways. He holds my eye contact for a few seconds until I brake and look away.
"Hangman," Bradley paused, "You look good." He finally stated.
Jake smirks at Brad as he hits the ball into one of the opposing holes and hands the stick back to Bob. "I am good, Rooster, I'm actually very good. How are you?" he replies, pushing past everyone to get to Brad.
"I'm too good to be true." Brad says, chuckling under his breath at Jake's comments.
"Let's get to business. What I want to know who's going to be the team leader." Hangman boldly states. Hangman continues, "And which one of you has what it takes to follow me."
"Hangman, the only place you'll lead anyone is to an early grave."
Hangman rises from the pool table and walks over to Bradley. "Well see about that."
Bradley just smiles at Hangman while we all watch the two interact.
"Well... they clearly have not changed." Phoenix whispers to me.
"Nope, sure have not" I reply.
"Check this out." I nod towards the door with a dozen people flooding through it. "More patches." I say.
"What the hell kind of a mission is this?" Fanboy asks.
Phoenix shakes her head, "that's not the question we should be asking. Everyone here is the best of the best so who the hell are they going to get to teach us?" Phoenix asks.
I see out of the corner of my eye Rooster sit down and start to play the piano.
"Hey Nat," I say motioning my head towards Rooster.
"Let's go." Phoenix mentioned for us to all follow her over to him.
Rooster started to play "Great Balls of Fire". The second his fingers touched the keys my whole body began to relax. I slipped into the open seat next to him letting go of the past just for this slight moment and enjoyed singing with all my friends. We all sucked in the euphoric feeling like sponges in those few minutes Rooster was singing because we knew it would not last long once the hard, long days of training began.
