Call Back {Top Gun Maverick - Completed}

11: Iceman

Sarah opened the door and hugged Maverick. Maverick walked in, looking past the photographs and into the backyard. Kids of all ages were talking, laughing, and playing. All of Ice's grandchildren and the neighborhood children.

"Maverick," That was all Sarah had to say for him to know what was happening.

"It's come back?" He asked, knowing this wasn't how Sarah Kazansky usually acted.

"No one knows. There's nothing else they can do. Even speaking is painful now," She explained, tears pricking her eyes.

"Sarah, I'm so sorry," Maverick apologized, pulling the woman into a comforting hug.

Maverick walked to Tom's home office. It had been one of the Kazansky boys' rooms before it was converted. Maverick opened the door, looking at his friend.

Tom Kazansky sat behind a huge, wooden desk. Photos sat on a corner of the desk, near the computer. Photographs of his wedding, his kids, and grandkids. He had a lege American flag, like the ones back on the base, in a corner. On the wall, next to the flag, was a picture of Maverick and Tom's Top Gun class, just before Goose had died. The bookcase had a picture of the two pilots after they had landed and agreed to be each others' wingmen. Tom coughed a few times.

"Admiral," Maverick greeted, making his presence known. He pulled up a chair next to his friend.

"How's my wing man?" Maverick asked.

'I want to talk about work,' Tom typed out.

"Please, don't worry about me. What can I do for you?" Pete didn't want to talk about the mission or work, he just wanted to talk to Tom.

Tom, however, pointed to what he wrote; he was adamant about talking about work. Maverick knew better than to fight against his friend's wants, he had to talk about work.

"All right," Pete sighed and looked around to find the right words.

"Well, Rooster's still angry with me about what I did. So is Vulture. I thought eventually they would understand why. I hoped they'd forgive me."

'There's still time,' Iceman typed.

"The mission is less than three weeks away. The kids are not ready," Maverick stated. Ice opened his mouth and turned to the computer.

'Then teach them,' Ice typed.

"They don't want what I have to give," Maverick said. He looked back up at what Ice had typed.

"Ice, please, don't ask me to send someone else to die. Please don't... Don't ask me to send them. Especially not Evelyn, Rebecca, Hennssey, or the twins. Don't ask me to send our daughters, Ice. Send me," Maverick was desperate at this point. Iceman typed once again.

'It's time to let go.'

Ice was right, of course he was. The idea of losing the only thing he had left of Goose scared him. The idea of losing Evelyn and Rebecca scared him. The idea of losing what he just found scared him. Hell, the thought of having to tell Penny and Amelia that they wouldn't see Hennessey come home again scared him. He wasn't ready to let go.

"I don't know how," Maverick sighed, tears welling up in his eyes. It was hard for him to look at his friend, Mav was trying his best not to start crying yet.

"I'm not a teacher, Ice. I'm a fighter pilot. A naval aviator. It's not what I am. It's who I am. How do I teach that? Even if I could teach it, it's not what Rooster or the girls want. It's not what the Navy wants. That's why they canned me the last time. The only reason I'm here is you," Maverick confessed, "If I send them on this mission, they might never come home. And if I don't send them, they'll never forgive me. Either way, I could lose the twins forever."