The Captain's Daughter (Bradley Bradshaw)

Chapter 14

Flashback pt. 1; Katie: aged 11

Katie was outside playing in her sandbox. Her mother was inside making them lunch. She got up at the sound of her mom yelling that lunch was ready.

"Coming momma!" She ran into the house.

They sat down at their little table and ate their sandwiches in a comfortable silence.

"Say, Katie bug...how do you feel about going to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum today after lunch?" She asked her.

Katie jumped up in her seat with joy, causing Charlie to smiled.

"Momma...where's my daddy?" Katie asked randomly.

"What do you mean sweetheart?" She asked.

"My daddy...where is he at?" She tilted her head in confusion.

"Well. Sweetie...are you sure you wanna know?" She asked her again.

"Yes, please." She nodded.

"Well sweetie. You had a father. One day when he was training. He uh, he got into a little accident." She started off.

"Where did he go?" She asked. Katie was about 11, but still didn't really know what death meant.

"Remember when I told you when our dog Bennie died, that "all dogs go to heaven" ?" Charlie asked as she cleaned up their dishes.

"Yes I do." She nodded.

"That's where your daddy is. He's with Bennie. And I can tell you he's so happy there. You may not see him, but he's watching over you every day." Charlie rubbed Katie's shoulders.

"So my daddy is in heaven?" Katie asked.

"Yes. He is. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner." She teared up.

"It's okay momma. I still have you." She got up and hugged Charlie.

Charlie hated lying to her daughter. She just didn't want Katie to one day go looking for her father. Charlie left, because she had a job offer, and she couldn't let her daughter be raised in a place where she knew her father was. She just assumed he didn't want her, because he said he needed a little bit to process and figure things out. She took Katie to the Air & Space Museum. It was Katie's favorite place to go. She was obsessed with planes. She knew she was gonna want to fly like Maverick some day. She didn't know if it impressed her, or terrified her to death.

Flashback pt. 2; Katie aged 18

Charlie knew from the start that Katie was going to end up wanting to go to the Naval Academy. Charlie let her, she didn't want to hold her back from her dreams, but she was going to push Katie to be one of the best. She helped Katie move into her dorm at the Naval Academy. She had a roommate, her name was Natasha. She was going to become a fighter pilot too, so she went by Phoenix.

Her first week there, she was making friends with everyone. Her and Phoenix lost so much sleep from staying up and talking, they becoming really good friends really fast. That's when she met Bradley. She could tell he was a little older than her, but she wanted to be polite and introduce herself anyway.

"Hi! Is this seat taken?" She asked as she pointed down to the chair in front of him.

"No not at all! I'm Bradley." He smiled and stuck his hand out for her to shake.

"I'm Katie." She smiled warmly and sat in front of him. They had their little lunches and ate together.

"So what are you wanting to be here at the academy?" She asked him.

"I'm gonna be a fighter pilot. My dad was a pilot, and I wanna follow in his footsteps." He smiled at the thought of his dad.

"Awww that's so cool! So am I! My mom taught fighter pilots at Top Gun! Hopefully I can be there one day and make her proud of me." Katie smiled at the thought of her mom.

"My mom wasn't big on me flying at all." He chuckled.

"My mom has been pushing me to do my best as soon as she found out I applied." Katie chuckled.

"What did your dad have to say about it?" He asked her.

"He probably would be proud. He was a pilot too...but he died a long time ago. Right before I was born actually." Katie said.

"Oh I'm sorry to hear that. My dad died when he was at Top Gun. He would've been proud of me too for following in his footsteps." Rooster said as he looked down.

Katie grabbed his hand.

"It'll be okay. I'm sure you'll do great. Have you picked out a callsign?" She smiled at him.

He looked at her hand on his and smiled. He felt warmer on the inside.

"Yeah. It's Rooster. It's like my father's. His callsign was Goose." He smiled.

"I like that. Rooster has a nice ring to it." She chuckled.

"What about you? You have a callsign yet?" He asked.

"Blaze. My mom always said I was fast. So fast I could light the grass on fire when I run. So I went along with that and came up with Blaze." She chuckled as she took the last bite of her food.

"Well Blaze...it's nice to meet you." He smiled at her.

"You too Rooster. I better get going. I gotta go back to my roommate. She said she wanted to study on some homework. We should do this again." She smiled and stood up.

"I would like that a lot. Here's my number so we can meet each other wherever." He smiled and wrote his number on his unused napkin.

"Cool! I'll text you later to tonight?" She laughed.

"That's perfect. See you around Blaze." He smiled and shook her hand again.

"See ya around, Rooster." She smiled at him once more and walked off.

Rooster watched he walk away. Maybe being held back four years, wasn't as bad as he thought. He was still pissed off that he could already be a pilot by now, but he wouldn't probably never met her. He had zero clue that the girl walking away from him, was going to very soon become the most important person in his life.

End of flashbacks