Wild Heart - Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell

20. Retirement

Not quite two weeks into being officially retired, and Pete was already bored out of his skull.

 He tinkered away on his plane, bike and jeep, as well as Finley's bike, Penny's car and Bradley's jeep, but now that he wasn't flying he had totally lost his sense of purpose. Flying his own 'Sweetheart' plane could only do so much for this apparently. 

He would of course hang out with his squad, but they were all busy with their own careers post-mission. Penny was kind about it, but Fin could tell she was getting a little annoyed at having Pete hanging out at the bar waiting for Finley to be done her work day at school. 

He made a point of picking her up after work now, every day. The  first time it happened her fellow teachers were staring out the staff room window watching the 'hottie on the motorcycle' (Finley's own words). That's my man. Their shock and awe had only grown when she ran out to meet him. 

Of course, they spent lots of time together too, but exam time was coming up at school so she was very busy with her own work. His wandering around aimlessly was really starting to get on her nerves - in other words, he had way too much time on his hands now.

But then, what she thought of as the perfect opportunity came up. 

"So I was thinking," she told him one evening as they cleaned up the dinner dishes. "We're talking about the Cold War in my history classes, and since you were a pilot during the Cold War-"

"Late Cold War, like very late Cold War," he hastily corrected. 

"-Late Cold War. But since you flew then I thought maybe you could come talk to the class about it."

He hummed thoughtfully. "Talk about what exactly?"

"Everything! Your whole experience, the differences between the navy then and now, any fun anecdotes you want to share, that sort of thing."

"Okay... I have lots of photos from back in the day I could show."

"Yeah, that would be great!"

"But make sure you tell them it's the 'late' Cold War, cause otherwise they'll be expecting some old guy to show up."

She set down the bowl she had been drying and fully looked at him. "Still worried about that?"

"Well, now that I'm officially done work, yeah..." He visibly deflated. 

"Aw, babe-" She wrapped her arms around him, not caring about her wet, soapy-watered hands. "You're still pretty badass to me."

"So long as you don't get bored with me."

"Never! Nothing with you is ever boring."

This got him to smile - win-win!

"Speaking of - these dishes are insanely boring.  What d'ya say we leave the rest of these  for morning?"

"Sounds great!" She grabbed the dish towel to dry her hands, playfully smacking him with it. She squealed with laughter as he picked her up and sat her on the counter, some happy smooching ensuing.

"So you'll do it?" she confirmed, breaking their heated kisses.

 "Just tell me when to be there and I'll be there - do I have to call you 'Ms. Austen'?"

She laughed.  "In front of my students? Yes."

He had about a week to prepare, and he got right into the project, which she was glad to see - that signature Pete glow was returning. 

On the day of, she gathered her several history classes together in one room - oh, boy - and stood up at the front to introduce their special guest. 

"Okay everyone, let's get started. Now our guest speaker today is a recently retired Navy Captain, who flew for the US Navy since the early 1980s, so the late Cold War period. Please give a warm welcome to Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell." It was so strange addressing him like that, but she couldn't just get up in front of her class and say, 'This is my boyfriend' no matter how much she may have wanted to. Well, she could have, but this was the more professional approach. 

Pete walked in, all leather jacket, patches, pins, aviators, and smiles. "Hey everyone, thanks for having me. Ms. Austen, thanks for having me." He turned to her and gave a wink and she had to stifle a laugh.

The laptop had already been set up, and he started flipping through the photos he had scanned into a document for the presentation.  "Here's a photo of my Top Gun graduating class in 1986. Beside me, that's my  best friend, Lieutenant Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw. And here, this is my wingman, Lieutenant Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky." He paused for a moment, and she could see the anguish swelling in his eyes.  "I'm actually one of the few guys from this photo who are still alive..." He quickly flipped to the next photo.  "Now this is a photo of my most recent squad. As you can see, in contrast with the first photo, things are a lot more diverse now than they were back in my day, thank goodness..."

He had prepared a whole slideshow, no notes, just ranting off facts and anecdotes along with his carefully curated photos. Finley smiled as she watched him - he was a natural up there. 

"You never leave your wingman. And you can't think - you think up there, you're dead. Don't think, just do. It's a really difficult thing for many aviators to get used to, leading with your gut instead of your head." He tapped the keyboard, taking them on to the next photo. "Now next I - oh-"

Fin's jaw dropped: the next photo that flashed up on screen was a scanned copy of a polaroid he had taken of them - kissing.

There was a moment of silence before gasps and "Oooooos!" and "Awwwws!" rose up from the crowd of teens. She definitely picked out a "Damn!" from the crowd as well. Finley's face flamed. 

Now Pete was looking at her. "Looks like we're caught."

"Yup. Yes, I will confess, as well as being a recently retired Navy Captain, Pete is actually my boyfriend."

More gasps, Oooing and Awing. Another, "Damn!"

Pete managed to get everyone back on track for the rest of his presentation. "Any questions?" he finished with. 

Several hands shot up.

"Have you ever puked in the plane before?" one boy asked, eliciting a wave of snickers and 'ewwws!' from the others. 

Finley fought the urge to roll her eyes. Teenagers. 

But Pete didn't seem to mind. "Oh yeah, it's not pretty. It took a long time before I wouldn't even feel slightly nauseous." 

"Why are you in the navy if you fly planes? Isn't that the air force?"

"Great question-"

"How did you meet Ms. Austen?"

"Through some friends."

"How fast have you ever flown?"

"Well there was this project I was working on called Darkstar..."

"Why are you called 'Maverick'?"

At the end of the question and answer session, he was met by a round of applause and cheers. Then, Finley wasn't sure who started it, but a whole mass of students crowded forward and formed a messy line in order for everyone to shake Pete's hand on their way out.

"Well, Ms. Austen." After the last student left, he turned to her, shaking her hand as well, making her laugh. "Mission accomplished." He closed the laptop, unplugging it from the projector cord. "Sorry about that. Bradley was saying I should make digital copies of my photos just in case something happens to the originals."

"Don't be sorry, they loved it. And so did I. You were a natural up there."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. 

He grinned.  "That was fun."

"Yeah, you really shone up there. I think there very well is some instructor in you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

He appeared to be considering. "I barely lasted as an instructor. But it is rewarding work."

"Is sure is."

(I think there might only be one or two chapters left... :( I don't want to leave them yet!

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))