Fly With Me // Bradley Bradshaw

Chapter Eighteen

Everything had been a blur since Sophie landed back on the carrier. Her mind had been running a thousand miles a minute, and it was all about one man. Bradley Bradshaw. He was gone. Dead, for all she knew. He went back for Maverick and she had watched with her own eyes as his plane went down.

When her feet hit the solid ground of the boat, she started stumbling, feeling light-headed. Rebound comes from behind her and steadies her with his hands. "Hey, Sophie. HEY," he shakes her, trying to bring her back to the real world. All she can see is Rooster's jet going up into flames. It kept replaying in her head like an awful horror film.

Hangman tries to climb down from his jet and get to her, having heard everything from the radio but is ordered to stay in his aircraft. He can see her world crashing before her eyes and it kills him that he can't be there for her.

People all over the flight deck call out to Razor, but she ignores them. Her vision is beginning to turn blurry, so she quickly makes her way to the bathroom and throws up. Her worst nightmare, everything she ever feared has come true. She can't believe that after everything it took to finally admit that she was in love with Rooster, he was just gone.

She hears the door softly open as she feels her breakfast come up once again. Once she's sure that she has emptied her stomach, she steps outside the stall and washes her hands, and rinses her mouth out. Rebound stands beside her quietly against the wall. He didn't really know what to say, but he knew he needed to be there for her.

"I fucking did it," she says, staring blankly back at herself in the mirror.   Sophie's arms were shaking as she held herself up on the counter. Her WSO gives her a look of confusion. "I told him that I was in love with him," she clarifies.

His face falls into one of pity. Mark knew how hard that was for her considering the circumstances they were in. He had been someone who was pushing her to say something to him just for things to end up exactly how she feared they would. He puts an arm around her and they slide down the wall. Sophie wraps herself in a fetal position and finally lets her emotions come out.

She cries for all the lost time they could have spent as a couple if she had just admitted to herself that she loved him. For the man that made her smile by playing the piano and singing a song to her. She weeps for the future they could've had together. For the first time since her father had passed, she felt the gut-wrenching heartbreak for the man that she was utterly in love with.

Mark hugs her tighter to his body, his own heart feeling very heavy for his friend. He hated to see her like this. He knew she was in love with Bradley Bradshaw after about three months of flying with her before she even knew herself. She tried to deny it, but he saw the way her eyes lit up when she talked about him, which was all the time. He saw how brightly she smiled whenever she had the chance to talk to him on the phone. And now, all he saw was Sophie in extreme agony over the same man. He hated that there was nothing he could do to take away the pain.

It was devastating. He honestly didn't know how Sophie was going to get through this. She'd known Rooster for the better part of eight years. There's no telling how long she'd had these feelings for him. At the very least, he was a close friend to her for that long.

The only thing he did know, was that he would be there for her every step of the way. The days would be hard but he promised himself that he would be her lifeline that kept her above water, even on the days she didn't want him to be. She was going to need him more than she ever had.

They sat on the floor for forty-five minutes, wordlessly. Sophie had run out of tears to cry. She felt numb and empty, like a part of her was missing. Her heart felt cold and there was a tightness around her chest that made her feel like she was suffocating.