automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

twenty-nine.

IT WAS A FEW MONTHS LATER BEFORE SKYE SAW ROOSTER AGAIN. after getting off of the aircraft carrier with katia and heading back to their shared home, the two women were instantly making plans for their future with the navy.

they had already had multiple offers for squadrons to join, and the number of squadrons that were requesting them to join their ranks had doubled since they had come out top of their class.

of course, the two offers that really mattered were the offer from phoenix and the offer from rooster.

they didn't have much time to debate about where they should go before they were already packing their things and moving back to california. ice had another treatment, and katia wanted to be with him at the hospital. skye refused to let her go by herself.

and so, in a few days, all of their things had been fully moved out of their apartment and they had moved into ice's house. maverick was, allegedly, working in mojave on a new prototype, and was sending his best wishes their way.

katia was much happier when she was back with her father, and the kazansky's had developed a system of keeping him close to his new computer or to his phone, so he could properly convey his thoughts to everyone.

skye fit right in with the family, just as she always had, and found herself throughout the day either telling stories to katia's siblings or playing games with them.

"do you want to play minecraft?" her brother asked, and who was skye to say no to minecraft?

she had been so busy between the move and researching and visiting different squadrons that, honestly, she hadn't had time to stop and think about rooster. thinking about it like that made her feel guilty, but it was true. the man was the furthest thing from her mind as she lived in a sort of waiting period.

the thing about being a pilot was that she didn't feel like herself anymore unless she was around planes. and though iceman had a large collection of plane artifacts, it wasn't the same as actually being in the air.

and skye was itching to get back up there, even though she knew katia's thoughts were understandably focused on her father.

but the issue was that they had absolutely no plans of what squadron to go to. their previous squadron was assigned overseas, and would remain that way for the next five months at least. and so, skye had reasoned that it made more sense to just join a new squadron. but with all of the options, how could they know that their decision was going to be a good one?

skye had been hanging out with katia's siblings in between research about the black aces when katia walked into the room. "hey, are you going?"

"going where?" skye asked, looking up from her computer.

katia sighed. "we've already talked about this." she said as she gestured to the computer. "we've already made a decision, ri."

she nodded. "yeah, i know." she pulled her eyes away from the screen to look back at her. "wait where am i going to?"

"rooster's birthday, it's this week."

skye's brows furrowed. "wait, shit, it's his birthday already? is he having a party or people over?"

katia shrugged. "i don't think he's having anything for it.. we're kind of the only family he has right now."

this made her frown. "then we have to go and surprise him."

"are you sure he'd like a surprise? he knows how to box."

skye laughed at her joke before growing serious again. "i don't want him to be alone for his birthday."