They Call Me the Coroner | Top Gun: Maverick

Get Over Yourself

~~Maverick~~

In the room, it's dark and oddly warm. It smells metallic. There's a bed that comes out of the wall like a shelf with a thin mattress and no pillow or sheets. A single bulb illuminates a small area. A figure is hunched over in the corner of the room furthest from the door.

I step towards the person, almost slipping in something. I look down at a puddle of blood at my feet.

The figure hunched in the corner rises. The shadow darkening their face.

"Tesha?" I breathe.

It's quiet a long time as I squint under the bulb. She shuffles her feet. Coming into the light, I see her torn abdomen and her bruised eyes. Her broken nose and her bloody, cracked lips.

If ever I wanted to pick someone up and carry them to a nice warm bed where they could be safe...it would be now. It would be her.

She doesn't deserve this.

Her lips part, moving without sound for a moment. Then her voice, scratchy and hoarse, noises. "Mav?"

"Tesha." I gasp. I don't even realize how horrified I am until her name comes out of my mouth for the second time. I furrow my brows and gulp, taking shallow breaths. That is...if I breathe at all.

Her eyes are wide and her body shakes as she breathes. "Is..that really you?"

"It's really me, Tesha." I swallow hard.

She closes her bloodshot eyes a moment and grimaces, shaking her head violently.

She probably thinks she's imagining things.

"Tesha." I glance back at the door to find Jasper glaring at us. His body halfway outside. "It's really him. He came her for you. Captain, speed things up." I watch him point his gun down the hall. Footsteps in the distance.

Without opening her eyes, tears fall down her purple cheeks. She drops her jaw and pushes her hands up to her face with a sob. I rush to her as her knees collapse.

"Why did you come? Why did you come?" She whispers over and over through her weeping. She wraps her arms around my torso and buries her head in my chest. Her relief escaping through heavy sobs into my shirt.

What have they done to her?

"Captain, talk to her. Get her to move. We don't have much time." Jasper barks. A couple of gunshots startle us.

She jerks away from me, slamming her palms hard into my chest. "WHY DID YOU COME!?"

I scowl in confusion, my mouth wide in surprise. "I came to get you, Tesha."

"You son of a-NO! NO! GO AWAY! Jasper, I swear you better get him out of here or I will kill you!" The words spit out of her mouth 90 miles a minute.

"I'm not leaving without you." I say calmly, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible.

A shout is heard down the hall. It's sounds like the Clarence guy, and he doesn't seem to be having a good day.

"Tesha, we have to go!" I put a hand on her arm and she winces away, stomping over to the man at the door. She grabs him by the collar, dragging him in the room as more bullets fly past his head, ramming him up against the wall. "Get. Him. OUT OF HERE!"

I've never heard a voice more loathing and demanding.

"So help me God, I will not leave these premises without you, Tesha Dupont." I say. She spins around to me.

Can she not see how much trouble we will be in if we stay? Jasper wiggles out of her grasp and fires a couple shots down the hall, reloading his pistol after.

"You want to release me into the world, Mav?" She stalks up to me like a wild cat, her voice low and hissing. "Did he tell you what I did?! I-" Her face softens only a little. "I murdered people."

"You didn't know, Tesha." I say. "It wasn't your fault. You just did what you were told."

"We have to go now!" Jasper's voice is getting overtaken by another alarm and more stomping.

She glares. "Please." A tears falls down her cheek again. "Please leave, Pete."

I shake my head. "Not without you."

"I can't face them, Pete. Not after all this. What about all the people who will lose faith in the real heroes of this world?"

I ignore Japser's struggled shouts as he dissappears down the hall. Gunshots jerk the whole building. I take Tesha by the shoulders and shake her some, glaring in her eyes with a fierce expression. Fear grips every part of me.

"There have been millions of people on this earth. Good and bad people. Yet there is still hope. You really think that because you made a mistake that suddenly all hope in the good people of this world will be lost forever? You need to get over yourself. There are people in this world that don't even care to know you exist."

She blinks and I see a hint of clarity in her eyes.

"But there are people in this world that love you with all of their heart. I'm one of those people. So, is your sister. Rooster, Hangman, and everyone else on your team. They don't care what you've done. They just want you back home safe. And I am more than willing to drag your out of here kicking and screaming if that's what it takes."

What happens next...it's like lightning.