To Be Loved By You - A Bradley Bradshaw Story

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Author's Note: Hey guys! I can't believe we're here but this is chapter twenty of To Be Loved By You! I'm so excited! But that also means that there are only a few chapters left until the end which makes me kind of sad!

Y'all, I just have to say... I finished this chapter a few days ago and it has been so hard not to post it until today :P 

I want to give you guys a little disclaimer that I have no idea how communicating with a deployed soldier works. I only know what I learned from Google. So I really hope it's believable and if it's not perfectly how this works please bear with me!

Once, the sound of the waves moving against the carrier and the spray of salty ocean air on his face would calm him and make him feel like he was home. When he was flying in the air above the ocean his pulse would race, his heart beating fiercely against his ribs as he remembered what it had taken from him. But here, safely on the ship, he could appreciate the beauty of the water rushing by and he looked forward to it every time he was deployed.

This time, however, he knew his home was thousands of miles away. His home was blushing pink cheeks, smiling sarcasm, and windblown curls. His home was the warmth of her lips against his.

He would give anything to be home.

"Bradshaw!"

Turning toward the voice, he saw Natasha "Pheonix" Trace coming his way. They had only seen each other through the camera of their phones since leaving Top Gun and he had been pleasantly surprised to find that she was aboard the same carrier as him. "What's up, Phoenix?"

She came to a halt beside him and smiled. There was a time when her smile would have been his undoing. At Top Gun, he had found comfort in her during one of the most terrifying moments of both his career and his life; the fact that his father had died running drills along the same stretch of sky Brad had been occupying was never far from his mind.

They had both known that what they shared was nothing more than fun, but at the time Bradley had thought she was the closest he would get to finding love.

He'd never been so happy to be wrong.

"I figured you'd be here." She shrugged. She knew that this was his favorite place to be when he was on a carrier. "You're due in the communication center soon, aren't you?"

Brad smiled. "Thirty minutes." Though he had tried to hide it on his previous deployments, he was always jealous of the soldiers that came and went from the communications center. He would walk past the room where soldiers were inside talking to loved ones and it was always a reminder that he didn't have anyone that longed to see him, that would mourn him if he burned out.

This time, however, he was one of the soldiers spending as much time as he could in the communication center. He was able to talk to Thea twice a week and he hadn't missed a single call. No matter what she was doing when he called, Thea hadn't missed a call either.

He had even had the opportunity to talk with Gwen on one of his calls and it still felt surreal to have someone care for him the way Carole had; he had to admit that he hoped Gwen would be there for more of his calls.

"Any more letters?" Natasha looked at him from the corner of her eye and smiled. It hadn't taken long for them to find each other once he was on board and they had taken the chance to catch up as soon as they could. Bradley talked a lot about Thea and his new family and Natasha had been genuinely pleased to hear that he had found what he'd been missing all these years.

She and Logan had also listened as he griped that talking to Thea just twice a week wasn't enough. He missed being able to text her or call her or drop by whenever he wanted. There was also a part of him that worried that Thea would change her mind about them during his absence.