Before they could leave for the Hard Deck, Bradley pulled Cecelia aside. He knew he had to explain at the least the basics of what happened before someone else told her tonight. At least here at home, he could keep her as calm as possible instead of her breaking down in the middle of the bar.

"I need to tell you about what happened on the mission," he began, not doing a very good job at keeping his cool. Cecelia was already worrying, despite the fact that he was standing right in front of her alive and unharmed.

"The short version is I ran out of my defense flares and Mav sacrificed himself to save me." Cecelia opened her mouth to clarify that Maverick was still alive, but before she could ask, Bradley cut her off. "Please let me get this all out. Maverick is alive, since I know that's what you were about to ask. And before you get mad at me, I couldn't leave him." She had a sinking feeling in her stomach, an inkling of what had happened running through her mind.

Taking a deep breath, holding Cecelia's hands, he continued. "I went back for him, against orders. My plane was shot down and I had to eject. Mav and I stole an enemy plane and flew back to the carrier, but were intercepted on our way. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, we were close to dying. Hangman saved our asses at the last second." He said all of this while looking Cecelia directly in the eyes. He could see her beginning to shake, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I," she paused for a moment. "I know you are here in front of me, but to hear that you almost weren't, I can't process right now." She was taking deep breaths, trying not to work herself up into a panic. If she had even a small part of her that wasn't focusing on that at the moment, she would have completely understood why Bradley had made the decisions he did. But she couldn't grapple with that when trying to grasp that he had quite literally almost died.

Bradley stays quiet, letting her process while staying alert in case she needs help. After a moment, he elaborates a little bit, knowing she needs more of his reasoning to come to terms with all of the information. "I may have been incredibly mad at him, but he is one of the only links I have left to my parents. No matter what he did with pulling my papers, he was the best father figure I had. I couldn't accept that he was dead, for me of all things. Not after everything that has happened in the past few weeks."

Cecelia was quiet for a few more minutes before she began to speak. "I understand. I do. It's just hard to wrap my head around. I never want you to feel like you have to choose, but it feels like you chose him over me, which I know you didn't do. I just need some time to come to terms with everything." She added something before he had a chance to refute what she had just said. "And I'm not mad. I'm glad he saved you and I'm glad you saved him. And I will be giving Hangman the biggest hug of his life later tonight for saving you as well."

The last part of her sentence made Bradley chuckle a little bit. "I think Phoenix might have beat you to that earlier, but you'll have to take that up with her."

Before they could completely move on from the topic, he assured her of one more thing. "I wanted you to hear it from me versus someone else. And this way, you had time to process before we went out. I love you, more than anything, and that will never change."

She cuddled into his side, letting him know all was forgiven, despite her not being mad with him in the first place. "I love you too."

☽☆☾ ☽☆☾ ☽☆☾

The group of five finally make their way to the beach just in front of the Hard Deck before making it inside. And no surprise that most people are already on their second or third drink. It was a successful mission and they don't have to be on base the next day, so the plan is to get drunk.

Let's just say, that plan was also a success. Fanboy and Payback were well on their way to not remembering the night, but Bob was slowly giving them water so it wasn't too bad. One good thing came out of this drunkenness however. Phoenix and Hangman had loosened up enough that they were holding onto each other in a very obvious way. Their hands were clasped and at multiple points, Phoenix snuggled into his side.

Cecelia and Cat would be interrogating her the next day.

A few rounds of pool and darts were played throughout the night, bets being made and won as well. One of the most surprising parts of the night was when Cecelia straight up hugged Hangman. He literally froze, not knowing what exactly was happening. When Cecelia had whispered her thanks for him saving Rooster, he gave in and hugged her back, glancing at Rooster and sharing a nod. Both had come to an understanding with the other after the mission. That wouldn't stop Rooster from giving Hangman a talking to when it comes to Phoenix and whatever the hell was happening between the two of them.

Somewhere in between, Rooster sat down at the piano, everyone knowing what was about to happen. So really, no one was surprised when Great Balls of Fire started up. Screaming out the lyrics, the group had the time of their lives just enjoying the night. And after Rooster was done, bowing and all, the Broadway group shoo'd him away from the piano. It was their turn to shine.

Ronen was on the piano and songs from an array of musicals just started happening. Louder Than Words from tick, tick... BOOM was a particular hit, Cecelia and Cat killing pretty much any duet they could, occasionally dragging Phoenix into it, shocking all those around them. And lets just say, they managed to get all the aviators into karaoke, despite their wishes against it.

The night was wrapping up when suddenly Cecilia gasped. "What? What's wrong?" Bradley asked worriedly.

"We never figured out my call sign!"

Everyone processes what she's saying before scolding her for worrying then. "That's what you're worried about?" Fanboy asked.

"Well now that the life threatening mission is over, I can go back to worrying about everything else." Cecelia sasses back.

Bob was the one to speak first. "What about Kalliope?" Everyone glances at him. "She's the Greek Muse of Epic Poetry. And the Chief Muse of all Music."

Cecilia thinks about it. "That's perfect! It's actually quite fitting considering my name is Cecilia."

"What do you mean?" Phoenix asks.

"Well Cecilia is the Patron Saint of Music in Catholicism," she informs them. "Actually my parents named all of us after something having to do with music. Ronen, in Hebrew, quite literally means song, or singing and cheerful. And Kaiden is derived from the Chinese name Kai, meaning music of triumph."

No one quite knows what to say, standing there stunned by her parents dedication and creativity. "Well damn," Hangman says, being the first to snap out of his stupor.

"Thank you, Bob. I really like that." Bob smiles bashfully, glad he could help.

"From now on I shall be known as Cecilia "Kalliope" Marcellini," she states, as everyone smiles. "I should start using that on stage and really confuse everybody," she says laughing.

"Ok, no need to be evil. Everyone is already gonna be confused when we start calling you Kalliope or Kal out of nowhere," Phoenix says with a smile.

And whenever their wedding would eventually happen, the entire crew would show up and refer to her as Kalliope, to the amusement of the couple.

☽☆☾ ☽☆☾ ☽☆☾

Two months after the mission was over, Rooster was with Maverick for some time, helping him fix up his plane. Cecelia would come by during the day just to keep them company, but she didn't know the first thing about mechanics so she couldn't help. But she would be coming over later in the day as her and Bradley had some important news to tell Maverick.

What no one expected was for Penny and Amelia to come back that day as well. Cecelia had noticed Amelia first, keeping her mouth shut but smiling nonetheless. And when Maverick finally spotted her and looked out to find Penny, Cece slid her way over to Bradley. Snuggling into his side, she held a wide smile for the newly reunited couple, one that had been many years in the making.

Sending Mav and Penny up in the plane, Cecelia sat down with Amelia, filling her in on everything she had missed. And since they didn't know when the other two would be back, the three got started on their own dinner, making extra to be on the safe side. Mav and Penny reappeared later in the night and once dinner was eaten, the group of five sat around a fire outside, telling stories and enjoying the company.

And when the time for saying goodbye came, everyone knew they were actually a group of six.

✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈

Word count: 1,585

Here it is. The official last chapter. We've still got the epilogue left, but this is it. I can't believe we're here.

I wanted to include more songs, but writing songs into fics is a lot more difficult than I anticipated it would be. So I only really mentioned one, but I've got a list of other songs I would have liked to include.

AND we finally have Cece's callsign!! It may have been obvious that her callsign would be Kalliope, given it is the title of this fic, but I fell in love with it when I had the idea. The meanings behind everyone's names were important to me, and I will be publishing a bonus chapter with the meanings of all the names eventually.

But I think that is all I've got, so for the last time, until next time. Bye!!