annabel 'angel' mitchell is called back to top gun for a special training assignment after almost getting her father and herself discharged for good.
she knows he will be there, but she isn't ready to face him. after what rooster did to her, she ha...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
bradley
the only thing bradley could think about after reading the letter was annabel. he began to overanalyze every single moment he had ever spent with her. he thought about all the time the two had spent together and tried to remember when exactly his feelings for her changed.
bradley flew through his morning routine, barely remembering to grab something to eat as he ran out of the house.
he had to get to annabel.
there were so many things he wanted so say to her. the duration of the short drive to the hangar was spent planning out every possible conversation he could have with annabel. he tried to plan the order in which he'd tell her all the things he had wanted to tell her.
the only thing he hadn't accounted for was her anger.
bradley had been trying to find her since he arrived on base. he parked near her car in the parking lot and stalked through the halls looking for her. he had managed to find phoenix, who seemed to be in an awfully good mood, but she had no idea where annabel was.
finally, as he talked down the hallway towards his first briefing of the day, annabel came flying around the corner. she long hair was pulled back tightly into a bun that sat at the nape of her neck. she was wearing her flight suit, patches decorating her arms. her skin seemed to shine underneath the florescent lights. her head was bent down, and she had her arms ladened with books and notebooks.
bradley slowed and took her in.
she had always been beautiful to him, but bradley was seeing her in a completely different light. her skin was shiny and her big, doe eyes darted around brilliantly.
bradley stepped in front of her and she stopped short, reeling back immediately. she glanced up at him and tried to maneuver around him but he reached his arm out to stop her.
"we need to talk." bradley spoke, worried that his voice would fail him now when he needed it most. bradley was looking down at her, but she wasn't meeting his eyes.
instead, she was staring at his hand. the hand that grasped the letter. the paper was folded up, exactly how annabel had left it buried in her closet. her mouth hung open and she suddenly felt sick.
bradley watched, unable to move, as annabel dropped everything she was holding in her arms. her limbs slackened and fell to her sides, books and papers flying around the hallway at the sudden drop. a look of shock and horror was present on her face and finally she glanced up at bradley.
"where did you get that?" her voice shook. it wavered, like it did when she was angry. bradley was confused. very confused.
"does it really matter where i got it? what about the contents of the letter?" annabel's eyes flashed with anger and she lunged forward, ripping the letter from bradley's hand.
"you were never meant to read that. it was private. shame on you for digging it up. i can't believe you would do something like that. fuck you, bradley." annabel was seething with rage at bradley holding her heart in his hands. she was shocked that he had the letter, and even more shocked that he had read it.
annabel couldn't face the imminent rejection and humiliation that would no doubt follow. her whole world was caving in right in front of her and she did the only thing she could think of.
she caved it in on itself herself. she destroyed it, razed it before bradley could have the chance to.
at least that way she was in control.
"annabel, wait!" bradley called after her as he watched her stalk down the hallway. her scattered books and papers littered the hallway, but she didn't once turn back for them.
bradley rested against the wall and slid down onto the floor. as he sat there, he tried to scoop up her papers into a pile to return to her later.
because he knew her the best, bradley knew how much she needed to control every situation. its what made her a good pilot, an even better one than bradley. he knew that he had approached the situation wrong, knowing that annabel doesn't like to be forced into situations quickly.
despite what most people thought, annabel was an extremely indecisive person. her career didn't really allow for that to be the case, so most people figured she was logical and decisive.
both of those things are true about annabel.
she has a system of making decisions inside of her head that she follows so she makes fair and rational decisions whenever she is presented with one. she's gotten so much practice out of her system that she can even make decisions within an instant. its how she does so well in the air. she is able to rationalize and make a quick decision within a millisecond of being presented with the challenge.
but when it came to herself, she didn't use her system. she abandoned everything she had taught herself and flew by the seat of her pants. she gets scared and anxious because her own feelings are involved and prevents her mind from rationalizing the situation.
