Our Bruised Bodies | Bradley Bradshaw

ACT FIVE - PART TWO

"Top Gun was way more fun as I was the cocky asshole student and not the constantly tired and annoyed instructor." Bradley said instead of a greeting as the call connected only to show Grace her husband, wearing his uniform and sitting by an office desk, her former office. He set the phone up, so she could see him while he was marking exams. No one fucking told him that that was also part of his job.

"How is the class then?" Grace wondered, while turning around in bed so she could get comfortable, a pillow under her arm and her phone rested against the bedpost so she wouldn't have to hold it.

"It's fine. They're not half as bad as I thought they would be." He shrugged. "The real struggle is Maggie and Lincoln." He admitted.

"Maggie is too nice. She allows those cocky assholes to walk all over her and Lincoln is on a power trip or something I'm not sure. Whatever went down between him and Bates, it did his brain in a bit." Bradley told his wife, while exhaling, before smiling softly at her.

"How are things on your side of the world?" He wondered, changing the topic. They barely had time for any phone calls and if they made time, they were actually meant to do something else. Like in Bradley's case right now marking exams and in Grace's case sleeping.

"Fineish, I guess. We're a bit stuck here, for Springer won't authorise a special unit mission until they've found that fucking submarine." Grace groaned, restless and annoyed by being suck on the carrier with no way to take to the sky as long as Springer won't authorise it.

"They've lost a submarine?" Bradley wanted to know, amused by the prospect, but Grace's smile was rather a grimace as she admitted that no, they haven't lost one of their submarines.

"Not one of ours." She muttered, which had Bradley look up from marking exams.

"Oh." He let out, which had Grace scrunch up her nose for a moment.

"We've missed two scheduled dockings already because Springer refuses to move until that submarine is taken care of. The mood is according to the circumstances and the fucking weather is not making anything better." Grace listed, informing Bradley about the worry that was growing in her stomach. If they don't start to do something soon, people are going to lose their minds and by now Grace isn't sure if Springer is up to that challenge or not.

"Natasha said in her last email that it's storming from Vietnam to Japan to Guam." Bradley told Grace, who could only nod, before biting her lip. She didn't want to face the struggles of the Trafalgar. It was not her place, Springer was in charge after all. But the fact that Lincoln had joined their fleet unit on which Phoenix served as of now was anything but a good sign.

"I miss you." She admitted, changing the topic. "I can barely sleep without the furnace you are next to me." Bradley smiled at that, before the smile stretched into a smirk.

"Oh baby, is that your way of saying you miss your hot husband." He wanted to know only for Grace to roll her eyes, while reaching for the tiny airplane charm hanging from her necklace to remind herself that while Bradley was far away, he was still right by her side.

"Shut it, Bradshaw." She scolded him. "It's more the deadweight of your arm that's been crushing my hip for the last half a year that's suddenly gone, that feels too strange to be freeing." She said, mocked even but Bradley knew that she didn't mean it like that. Sassing him was her way to stop her own homesickness taking over.

"I promise I will hold you when we see each other again. But until then I'm putting the marbles into the glass waiting for my G.I. Joe wife to come home." Bradley said proudly while Grace rolled her eyes even though fondly at him. It was her, who had set up the clocks with the time differences and the jaws and marbles for the deployment in the new home. A way to reassure each other that the separation won't be forever.