I woke up the next morning with a weird message from   Maverick.

Meet at the beach behind the Hard Deck. Wear workout gear.

Unsure of what that was supposed to mean, I text Nat and asked what she was wearing. She answered with workout shorts and a sports bra, so I decided to go a similar route, only with a t-shirt on top.

I met the girls outside. "Shall we get going?" I asked, since it was already decided we'd take my car to the beach. By the looks of it, some of the others had already left but we weren't the last ones. I even found myself looking for Rooster's Bronco, which was already gone.

"Come on Lia, don't wanna be late!" Nat said and I just laughed at her. We all piled into my car and got driving off to the Hard Deck.

"What do you think we're doing?" I asked as we got to the road out of the base.

Halo answered first. "I don't know, but I feel like it'll be fun. No other reason for us to go out to the Hard Deck not in uniform. Team bonding?"

Nat snapped her finger. "That's definitely it. Just wonder what the bonding will be. I just know it's necessary with certain people on the team."

"Oh come on, Nat, we both know you're talking about Hangman."

She laughed, proving I was right. "Oh, speaking of, we saw him go into the kitchen after you. Was it weird?" she asked.

I shook my head as we turned into the Hard Deck parking lot. "No, he just wanted to apologize for what he brought up in training the other day. Said he felt bad as soon as he said it. I forgave him, and he tried to convince me to let me punch him."

Halo scoffed. "And you didn't? Wasted opportunity."

I scoffed back. "Well maybe I didn't want to explain our matching bruises to the superiors at training. Might not go over so well with them, you know."

We pulled into a parking spot coincidentally close to Rooster's Bronco. We all got out and looked around to find the others.

They were standing around and waiting as we walked over to them. "What's happening?" Nat called out. I noticed they were standing in two distinct groups.

Maverick walked out of the Hard Deck and saw the three of us walk up. "Ah good, you're here. Phoenix, Sunset, you're on Hangman's team. Halo, you're with me." After that, he walked back inside.

We noticed that's how the two groups were spilt up, and I saw I wasn't on the same team as Rooster. But, I was with Nat. "We're gonna kick your ass," I told Halo as she walk away from us.

She just turned around smirked, responding with, "We'll see about that." We all smiled then joined our respective groups.

I looked around all the guys and cringed. "How come so many of you are wearing denim to the beach? That's disgusting," I commented, feeling pretty good in my own athletic shorts and t-shirt.

Nat laughed with me and sighed. "They're men, they don't know any better." We fell into conversation with Coyote.

As we all talked, the last of the crew showed up and Maverick split them into the teams, too. "Okay, let's get started. Today, we're playing Dogfight Football. Offense and defense at the same time. Whoever scores the most points wins."

Hondo came out, too, and had a whistle sticking out of his mouth. "He's the ref and those..." Maverick pointed out a couple lines in the sand, "are the end zones. Good luck."

We got into the initial formation, throwing a few light hearted jabs at each other. I caught sight of Rooster and saw that he was also wearing denim shorts of all things, but he looks really good shirtless so I didn't complain much.

Nat elbowed me when she saw where I was looking and I just shoved her off. Once the whistle blew, it was go time.

This was one of the best times I've ever had, I shortly realized. While it was extremely chaotic, it was ten times more fun. We were in the lead, too, so that made me feel better. Throughout the game, I glanced at Rooster to see if he might be looking at me. Once or twice he was, other times it looked like he had just looked away. I couldn't help but smile at that.

After he scored a touchdown, I couldn't help but stare at his celebration. He made eye contact with me after and I blushed hard, turning my head to get back into the game.

We kept going, and I lost score, when Hangman threw the ball at me. "Go Sunset!" he yelled once I caught it. I turned and started to run down to the end zone when I felt a sensation in my legs.

"Dang it," I mumbled, and right as I was crossing the line, a huge body slammed into mine and I went tumbling to the ground. A chorus of "oohs" filled my ears as I laid on the ground for a second, the wind having been knock out of me.

When I started to get up, my legs were completely numb. "Nat," I said as the woman approached me. I made eye contact with her and shook my head. She immediately knew what I meant.

"Shit, okay, uh," she mumbled, crouching down beside me.

The huge body in question was Payback, who was up and quick with apologies. "Shit, Sunset, I swear I didn't mean to hit you that hard," he said. "Are you hurt? Damn it, I'm so sorry."

I waved a hand at him as Nat waved over someone. "No, it's fine. I just can't believe you did that and I still got the point," I joked. "And you didn't hurt me, it's fine, just need a sec." That was kind of a lie. He didn't cause the numbness- I knew why that was- but the side of my body he slammed into ached a bit and I was still recovering my breath.

At this point, more people were coming to crowd around. Rooster was jogging over, and I figured he was the one Nat gestured to a second ago. "You okay?" Maverick asked as he came up.

I wanted to answer, but Nat started speaking instead. "Hey, Rooster, can you help her into the Hard Deck? Just make sure she stays seated," Nat explained, then whispered something to him.

He nodded and then crouched down to pick me up. In my mind, I was trying to figure out how I was going to try and walk. That wasn't an issue, however, when he decided to pick me up bridal style.

"Oh god this is so embarrassing," I mumbled, using my hand to hide my face. When we got out of the way, Hondo blew his whistle and confirmed the touchdown and the game resumed.

"Well I'm actually enjoying this very much. Taking out the tough competition so my team will win," Rooster joked. I smiled, grateful for his attempt to make this whole thing less embarrassing than it was.

At the steps to the Hard Deck, Penny met us and opened up the door. "Here, set her down my the bar. You need anything from me?" The last part was directed towards me, so I shook my head. "Okay, well I'll be outside if you do," she replied, and walked back out to her viewing station.

Rooster sat me down on a bar stool carefully, and I watched as my legs fell awkwardly, since I didn't have the feeling back yet. "Thanks, I should be okay from here- go back out to the game," I said. This wasn't something I wanted to explain to someone else at the moment. And of course I needed to tell Rooster at some point, but didn't want it to be now.

"Nope, I'm sitting right here," he replied, pulling out the bar stool next to me and plopped right down into it. "You've gotta give me an explanation for what Phoenix told me."

I furrowed my brows. "What'd she say?" Might have to, after all, if she told him what I think she did.

"That you couldn't feel your legs. It's why I picked you up instead of trying to get you to stand. And since you didn't seem all that freaked out by the fact that you couldn't feel your legs, I wanna know."

I didn't speak for a moment. How was I supposed to approach this subject? It'd have to be from the very beginning, it was the only way I could properly explain. But that was a sob fest and I wasn't sure that's what I wanted right now.

He never spoke, however, giving the floor to me completely. So, I'd have to do something. And there's no one else I'd rather tell than Bradley Bradshaw, even if it would be painful, because he meant something to me.

With a deep breath, I opened up the locked gates. "I used to have a backseater, Baywatch. He and I had been friends ever since we met in high school and realized we wanted to both go into to the navy. He and I registered together, him my backseater and me the pilot. We were best friends. Some thought we were more than that, but we never saw each other that way. In fact, the thought of dating was hilarious to us.

"We went to TOPGUN together and I was so excited. My risky flying wasn't always appreciated, so to see them bring it in was a huge confidence booster. Graduated top of my class, got an assignment a week later."

I paused, getting to the bad stuff. Rooster reached his hand over and gently took mine, giving me the courage to keep going.

"On one of our assignments, it was a routine parol. The radar had picked up a couple bogies that kept going in and out of our radar. Us and our wingmen- we were all pretty good friends. There was nothing until multiple bogies showed up and were hostile from the start. As we fought, I let my guard down for one second and it was all they needed to get a shot in. I made it... but I had to witness Baywatch go down with the plane- his ejection handle was stuck."

Another pause as I wiped away a tear. In a stronger voice, I continued to the point, "When I ejected I was already pretty roughed up from getting hit and stuff. I came out with a few injuries, the biggest being a misaligned vertebrae. If I shift in the wrong way, it makes my legs go numb."

Rooster, who had been quiet the whole time, spoke up in a gentle voice. "So, how does the Navy still let you fly?"

I shrugged. "Simple, really. They don't know. I kept that information out of every file so only a handful of people know. The diagnosers, Natasha, and now you," I explained. "Before you say the Navy has a right to know, I know that. But if they knew they'd ground me and I'd be stuck behind a desk or, at this point, dishonorably discharged for hiding it. You don't really need your legs when flying, anyway."

We were quiet as he took it all in. His hand remained in mine, and his thumb had started drawing circles on my hand at some point. We watched the others play in the distance for a bit, seeing Maverick call it quits.

"You wanna hear something else?" I said in a whisper, scared to break the moment.

"Might as well, you know."

"I'm scared if I get into another accident, if I have to eject again, I could go permanently paralyzed from the waist down. I'd lose all that leg function. It's bad enough having to remember my dead best friend when I fly, but to have that weighing on me, too? It's a miracle I can still get into a plane."

"Jesus..." he whispered, and squeezed my hand. "That's a lot of pressure on yourself."

I just nodded, muttering a small, "Yeah..." We were quiet for a while longer, neither one of us wanting to leave. My legs were "awake" again, so I could move if needed. But I didn't want to.

"You probably heard about this from Phoenix or someone, but my dad used to backseat with Maverick back in TOPGUN. There was an accident during training one day and my dad ejected straight into the canopy... he didn't make it," he said quietly. The suddenness brought on tears in my eyes.

I squeezed his hand. "I'm so sorry," I whispered. Then, another thought. "Do you... do you think that's why he pulled your papers? Because he was scared?" I offered, the same level used.

When he didn't answer right away, I was scared I made a wrong move. But then, he sighed and said, "Probably. I just got so angry that I couldn't see he didn't want to lose me, too, I guess."

Mirroring the other day, I moved to lean my head on his shoulder. There was movement over by Maverick and we saw Cyclone hard found us. "You think we're in trouble?" I asked quietly, and Rooster looked at the conversation going down between them.

He scoffed. "No, if Mav's good at anything, it's talking his way out of situations like this." Rooster proved to be right when Cyclone walked away and left all of us where we were.

More silence, and then, "Thank you for telling me, Rooster." I felt his head turn to look at me, so I removed my head from his shoulder to look at him. "Thank you for trusting me."

He smiled. "It's because you trusted me, too." We continued to look at each other, neither of us wanting to break the moment. My face slowly gravitated towards his and I could tell his was moving towards me, too.

I closed my eyes and a second later, I was kissing Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw. It was slow, sweet, neither of us rushing anything. When we parted, I rested my forehead on his and felt him exhale lightly.

"Been wanting to do that since I saw you for the first time," he whispered. I let out a small chuckled and smiled brightly. "Should probably go back out there, though. Might think we've died in here."

I laughed, adding, "Or worse." We moved to get up from the stools. He quickly went to help me, but I shook him off. "I'm fine, Rooster. My legs are awake again so I can walk. If anyone asks, my hip was cramping really bad," I said.

Rooster nodded and we went back out to rejoin the game. I have no idea who won the game, but I don't think any of us cared after a certain point.

A/n: I highly enjoyed writing this chapter, so I hope you guys enjoyed reading it (hold onto that happiness...)