Keeper Of The Flame ━ pete mitchell [1] ✔

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑟

[ Chapter Four ]

Stranger Than Your Sympathy

Kate woke up, cursing the need to be at work. She accidentally hit her shoulder on the doorframe that led into the kitchen.

    "Morning. Don't you have a test to write?" Kate asked Pete. He nodded in response, handing her a cup of coffee. While the coffee smelled great as usual, it was more intense, maybe it was stronger, to which she wouldn't complain about.

    How she managed to finish the coffee within one minute, Pete had no clue. But, she threw on her jean jacket, grabbed her aviator sunglasses & keys, and ran out the door. Pete looked around, not having finished his coffee, so he just grabbed the cup. He noticed she did not grab her boots, leaving him confused, but he brought hers nonetheless. Pete jumped into the passenger side of her truck, and handed Kate her boots. "Thanks." She thanked.

    When she drove, the sunlight made the rim of her hair look golden. He furrowed his brows when he saw the small cut on her right eyebrow. "Three years ago. September 17. That's when I got the cut. My RIO and I were flying over mountains, the terrain was too rough, there were three bandits. One was in front, the other two were behind us. I hesitated, I didn't know what to do. The engines got shot, took us and the aircraft down. I survived with severe injuries, he didn't."

    "What about the eject-"

    "They didn't work. They were stuck." Kate replied, accidentally cutting him off.

    Pete kept his eyes on her. He couldn't help it. It wasn't a look of pity— it was one of sympathy and compassion. Nick was his RIO, and he didn't want to think about what would happen if Nick died.

    "Sorry about running out the door." Kate apologised. When she pulled into the parking lot and stopped, she rested her head on the wheel. Even though she managed to sleep last night, she felt tired. Pete seemed to notice that.

    "It's fine... Kate, are you okay?" Kate looked up at him as soon as he asked.

She hesitated and answered truthfully, "I don't know."

"Viper asked you to keep an eye on me, didn't he?" Pete asked. He didn't seem upset.

"Yeah. I don't know why he chose me to keep an eye on you."

"Well, I'm glad he did." He told her. He smiled as they both got out of the truck.

He yawned for a split second. "Aw, it must be tiring being that good-looking." Kate joked.

Without hesitation, he answered with, "then you must be exhausted."

Both walked into the building, going into separate rooms. Kate buried her face in her hands, and whispered to herself. "Damn it." She repeated over and over again. Charlotte walked by her, raising a brow. Kate just waved her off in response.

"You're insane. You can't do this- this is not how.. no. I-"

Viper looked at her strangely as she rambled on to herself. "Maxwell, what are you doing?"

"Words are not working today and I'm preparing for a briefing."

"With who?" He questioned, knowing damn well that she did not have a briefing with anyone. "How's Lieutenant Mitchell?"

"He's good... I think. Maybe. How should I know? Maybe he's crying in bed watching sappy movies." She joked. Viper could see right through her. Eventually, he let her be, leaving her to criticise every life decision she had made.

4 HOURS LATER

    Instead of sitting in an office, Viper had approved that she could fly in an F-14. And boy, was she having the time of her life. Now, technically, she was supposed to have a backseater in charge of the weapons system, but she just put a bag of stuff on that seat to level out the weight and flew by herself.

Pete walked out of the building, looking upwards at the sky to see a solo F-14. Right away, somehow he knew who it was that was flying it. Just thinking about who it was made him have a small smile.

"She's one of the best." Viper said, knocking him out of his trance.

"Yeah, she is." Pete breathed out. While Pete was focused on the F-14, Viper gave him a look.

"Kerosene, you got 2 minutes... you've been up there for 4 hours." Viper told her.

"What if I pushed it to 2 minutes and 3 milliseconds?" Kate remarked. The silence was enough of an answer. She landed her aircraft, surprised to see Pete standing next to Viper. Pete held his hands in front of him, and Viper just let the two be.

"You know, maybe I'll write that whenever one of you guys gets shot down by Viper or Jester, you have to do 200 push-ups." Kate told him.

He scoffed. "Do you really want me to go through that misery?"

"Kind of. It'd be entertaining as hell." She responded.

While he looked away for a second, Kate kept her focus on him. She didn't know how to describe it, his eyes were comforting; a little dangerous, but comforting. It was like a game, the two looking at the other while they weren't looking, noticing every detail of them just by looking at their eyes. And so, Pete looked at her. Her hair moved from her shoulders to the side as the wind rushed by.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Kate crossed her arms.

Pete's face started to flush with red. He hated it because he knew Nick would know, then tell Carole, and the two of them would tease him non-stop. But he loved it because to him, Kate was— he didn't even know where to begin. Yes, he was always an 'in the moment' guy, but there was one thing he knew: Pete wanted Kate in his life till the day he died.

Kate forgot her boots, as one does.

Pete is the leader of the Kate protection & appreciation squad.

Okay, bye!