Anchor ⚓︎ Jake 'Hangman' Seresin

⚓︎ chapter eighteen ⚓︎

The next morning, Jake had to be up early but did his best to not wake up Eleanor's peaceful sleeping figure. As soon as he was finished getting ready did he walk over and gently kiss her forehead, causing her to stir awake and look up at him.

"You're heading for training?" She asked sleepily.

"Yeah," he whispered, "I should be back around six or seven, depending on what we're covering today, okay?"

She nodded with a sleepy smile before kissing him gently on the lips so he could head for the base. After one more goodbye kiss on the forehead did Jake finally leave, allowing Eleanor to fall back asleep for a few more hours.

⚓︎

To say Bradley was upset was an understatement when he learned about Maverick being their instructor.  He was seething with hate as soon as he was introduced.  Seeing him again reminded him of what the older man had done to try and get in the way of Bradley getting into the Naval Academy, as well as causing Eleanor to not even attempt to put her papers in like she wanted to.  Mav had stolen so much not just from him, but Eleanor as well.

"Rooster," he heard the familiar voice call as they walked out on the tarmac, but opted to ignore it.

"Bradley," the voice tried again and when he continued ignoring his attempts, Maverick pulled out his leadership card, "Lieutenant Bradshaw!"

A groan left Bradley's lips but he turned to see Maverick walking right up to him. "Yes, sir?" He asked, remaining strictly professional, even though he was seething under the surface.

"Let's not do it like this," he told him, trying to put out the fire already burning behind Bradley's eyes.

"You gonna wash me out?" Bradley asked, obviously not interested in whatever Maverick wanted to talk about at the moment.

"That'll be up to you, not me," Maverick told him.

"Am I dismissed?" Bradley asked, not wanting to wait for an answer but doing so out of respect since Maverick did rank higher than him.

"Wait, tell Eleanor congratulations on her engagement for me," Maverick told him, a sincere smile on his face.

"I'm not your messenger," Bradley stated harshly. "Try telling her yourself if you can even get her to talk to you. Am I dismissed?"

Maverick simply nodded, allowing Bradley to walk away.  From where he was doing his preflight checks, Jake watched the interaction between the two of them, wondering what exactly the history was there. He made a mental note to ask Eleanor later when he got home.

Awhile later, after a few other groups went and failed to take Maverick down, Jake found himself in the air with Phoenix and Bob as his wingman.

"Say, Phoenix," Jake began as they cruised through the air, "How's about we tell everybody 'Bob' stands for something?  Other than Robert, I mean."

"Don't take the bait, Bob," Phoenix told him, "wanna know why we call him Hangman?"

"Wait, I got it!" Jake spoke quickly, "'Baby On Board.'"  He then laughed at his own joke, thinking he was such a comical genius for that one.

"Still can't believe you're marrying someone as sweet and kind as Eleanor," Phoenix grumbled, though Jake heard it.

"I certainly don't leave her hanging, I can tell you that," he told her with a wink, causing Bob to pretend to puke in his hands as he caught on to Jake's innuendo.

Just then, Maverick came zooming in between the two of them, causing both of their jets to jolt to the side and Jake to exclaim, "Shit!"

"Greetings, aviators," Maverick spoke, "Fight's on!"