"You are not my parents. You had no right to choose my life for me!" The shocked faces of what were once his dads couldn't faze him as Bradley angrily stuffed some clothing in his bag.

"Gosling, let's talk about it, please," Ice said while he carefully stepped a little closer.

"I'm so sorry, Bradley." Bradley could hear the muffled sob in Mav's voice, but it only strengthened his fury.

"If you were so sorry, why did you do it, huh?" Bradley hurled towards the older pilot. He stopped packing, somewhere in his mind retaining the hope that Mav would give a sane reason so Bradley didn't have to do what he did. When he saw a restraint look on Maverick's face, however, all hope was lost and he quickly zipped his bag closed. When he had flown it over his shoulder and stepped towards the door, both men blocked him in a pathetic attempt to keep him in this house.

"Get the fuck away from me. I never want to see you again."

"Get the fuck away from me, Bradshaw, I never want to see you again." Bradley kept repeating the phrase over and over in his head, the flashback to the fateful night begging for attention. He felt a head ache growing and suddenly sprang into action.

"Jake, wait!" he yelled as he ran to the door Jake had left through. When he staggered outside, the warm air hit him squarely in the face and he felt suddenly ill. He saw Jake trudging through the sand a couple of meters away and he ran after him, the soft sand making it feel like every step was worthless as Jake reached the harder sand near the sea and started to get further away from him again.

"Jake!" he yelled again and he saw Jake look up.

"Are you deaf now as well as slow?!" Jake yelled back; his voice raw. He turned around and walked away with a determined (and pretty fast) pace. Bradley huffed and started sprinting. When he arrived at the other pilot, he grabbed his arm to turn him around. Jake did turn, but it was to lift Bradley over him to slam him on his back on the sand. All the air got pushed out of Bradley's lungs and he wheezed. Jake was still holding his arm, his fingers gripping with a little bit too much force.

"I said," Jake grunted as he gripped even harder. His face was tear-stricken, but now all it showed was fury.

"Get away." He threw Bradley's arm back to him and left him. Bradley quickly sat up while rubbing his arm.

"I once left a row with that and it will never be good between them and me again!" he yelled angrily.

"Good for you!" Jake yelled back, but he didn't turn around.

"I don't want that to happen to us, Jake, please!" This time Jake did turn around.

"I'm sorry I got so angry and said those things, I didn't know it was a painful subject for you." Bradley said as he stood up.

"How could I have known it was a painful subject for you too?" Jake spat.

"You couldn't have known. I was wrong to fit on you like that." Bradley sighed. He sat down again, staring out over the water. Now that the tension was out of him, he felt wrung out and tired. He felt Jake plopping down beside him but he didn't dare to break the tentative silence nor to look to him. Together they watched the sea washing over the sand a few meters from them, the whooshing of the waves and screeching of a couple of seagulls the only sounds that filled the air. Suddenly Jake sighed and Bradley saw his posture deflate in the corner of his eyes.

"I'm sorry I reacted so strongly, Bradley," he said.

"You don't need to apologize, Jake," Bradley said and he glanced to his side. Jake was still staring at the sea, a far look in his eyes.

"Yes, I do. Ever since I lost my daughter, I have been pushing people away from me. I don't want that to happen with you too." Bradley swallowed, wondering if he could ask further. Jake pulled his knees up and swung his arms around them. When he laid his head on them as well, he looked far younger than he was and Bradley smiled softly.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Bradley carefully started.

"Do you feel ok talking about it?"

"I haven't talked about her in half a decade, thought I was over her," Jake murmured.

"Well, we never really lose something bad from our past, don't we?" Bradley huffed, but it strangely brought out a smile from Jake.

"My therapist always said that the past hurts, but that you shouldn't run away from it, but learn from it."

"Was your therapist Rafiki perhaps?" Bradley chuckled.

"You know, the old monkey from The Lion King?" Bradley added as he saw the confused look in Jake's eyes. Those eyes cleared and Jake smiled a little as well.

"I haven't seen that movie in many years," he softly said.

"Me neither," Bradley added, but he kept his voice subdued as he saw Jake diving into the past again.

"It was her favorite movie. From the moment she could talk, she asked for it day after day." While Jake was clearly talking about his daughter (and a she nonetheless), Bradley still briefly wondered how the other pilot knew that about Mav. It had been (was?) his favorite movie too, even though it is made for children ("It is not for children, Ice, why else would we be crying every time Mufasa tells Simba about the stars?" "I don't cry at that." "Yes, you do sweetheart, but it's ok."). Bradley kept quiet.

"She would have turned twelve last month," Jake whispered.

"What happened?" Bradley asked and he turned fully towards Jake.

"Sepsis," Jake said and Bradley wanted to condole him again, but Jake pushed through, the words clearly hurting him.

"Infections in the knee, the ear and the back and a few days later she was dead." A single tear rolled out of his eyes, but he ignored them.

"She died two months after her third birthday." Bradley felt like he got punched in the stomach.

"I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what you must have gone through."

"No, you can't." Jake said, but without a drop of venom. It was the truth after all. Even though Bradley had come really close, he had never been a parent.

"I can't even imagine being a father," Bradley started, but he couldn't finish what he was going to say as Jake interrupted him.

"It is the best thing that can happen to you."

"Even though you might have to give up flying?" Bradley asked, as that was one of the main reasons they had chosen to not be one.

"I would give the sky up ten times if I can get my daughter back." Jake said and the steel determination in his eyes almost made Bradley question his own choices. Almost.

"I couldn't. Sorry," Bradley said, not really knowing why or to who he was apologizing.

"You don't have to make that choice, Bradley," Jake smiled softly, but Bradley averted his eyes.

"I did," he whispered. He almost laughed at the irony that the one other person he would tell this too, would be Hangman.

"Phoenix and I aborted our baby at five months oud." Bradley felt different emotions roll off the other man in the span of a few seconds. Surprise got washed away by anger and jealousy, but Jake ended at a fairly blank slate.

"I won't say I'm sorry," he said.

"I understand." Bradley sighed.

"It wasn't planned, we weren't even really dating each other." Bradley said, determined to tell the whole story even though he had made peace with the fact that Jake would probably never really support his decision.

"By some miracle, or bad miracle if there's a word for that, I was a higher rank than her at the time." Bradley looked up again.

"So, you would be dishonorably discharged when someone would find out," Jake said, understanding filling his eyes.

"Indeed, and besides that, we were young and fresh off the naval academy, so we both couldn't imagine raising a child." Jake raised his eyebrows.

"Phoenix couldn't too?" he asked.

"She was the most open to it, but eventually chose the skies. In fact, that's why we had the abortion so late," Bradley said. Natasha and him had spoken a lot in the years after it and Bradley was one hundred percent sure Natasha didn't regret what they did as well and he always admired her for that as she had really almost agreed to having a child while Bradley had not wanted it from the get go.

"I see a lot of Alexi in her," Jake said and smiled.

"Who?"

"My ex-wife." Jake chuckled.

"Oh."

"We broke up a year after."

"I'm sorry," Bradley said again.

"Oh, the only one you have to feel sorry for is Alexi. It was fully my wrongdoings that made it all go to hell." Jake waved his apologies away with a slightly too big smile (that Rooster would have thought was a genuine smile, but Bradley could now totally see the fakeness off it and he wondered if there had been more of these fake smiles that he had believed in the past).

"You shouldn't make fun of yourself that way." Bradley said.

"Nah, it shows that I am mostly over it now," Jake huffed.

"Your therapist again?" Bradley laughed but Jake actually nodded so Bradley tried to retain his composure.

"Must be a real good therapist."

"Yeah, he was. Really good fuck as well," Jake said while shrugging. Bradley burst with laughter, the hard sound scaring a few birds away which had been chilling on the sand just a moment ago.

"You fucked your therapist? What are you, the main character of a soap?" he wheezed and Jake laughed with him, their different voices blending to create a new but not unpleasant sound.

"It was a very bad idea and it ended badly and he totally shouldn't have agreed to it, but yes. Yes, I did." Jake smiled broadly and this time it was a real one. Bradley's breath got taken by it, but another question popped up in his brain so he couldn't think about that very long.

"Wait, he?" It wasn't a very intelligent outburst (again), but Jake seemed to understand.

"This southerner is very proudly bisexual, baby," he drawled and Bradley chuckled again.

"Me too," he said because if he had laid bare one of his greatest secrets, why not reveal another one too.

"You're a southerner?" Jake asked, genuinely seeming confused.

"No, not that part. I'm bisexual too. Or pansexual actually but doesn't it fall under the same umbrella or something?" Jake looked at him pensively. Bradley wondered if he had said too much and that Jake would hate him for being queer (which was a very, very stupid thought regarding all the knowledge he had about the man, but he still thought it nonetheless).

"There are a lot of umbrellas, yes," he said instead and Bradley let go of the breath he was apparently holding.

"Indeed," he laughed. They sat there for a while in companiable silence (two words Bradley never had thought he would associate with Jake "Hangman" Seresin). Before the sun would completely dive in the sea, Bradley opened his mouth once more.

"I'm sorry if I will sour the mood, but what was her name?" he asked and he saw Jake's features soften.

"Mathilde," he whispered and the French name sounded far better out of Jake's mouth than any French he had heard before. The name gave the child a new dimension as well. Suddenly Bradley could see her in his mind, blond hair, brown eyes (from her mother since the hair was from Jake), a mischievous glint in them and the sharklike grin that had once seemed dangerous. Bradley felt his eyes water for the child he had never met.

"It's a beautiful name," he said, his throat dry.

"She was a beautiful girl," Jake said and another tear joined the first one from a while ago. The water reflected the pink sundown while Jake and him locked eyes and Bradley suddenly knew he would remember this image forever.

Whatever happened from here, Jake and him would be connected forever. Like Bob had said, if this wasn't a lifelong bond forming, he didn't know what was.