The next morning, the group of pilots is back to work, trying and continuing to fail the course.

Rooster and his team had just flown, and although they made it to the target, Maverick was not having it.

"Why are you dead?" Maverick asks Rooster. "You're team leader up there, why are you, why is your team dead?"

"Sir, he's the only one that made it to the target," Phoenix defends him instantly.

"A minute late, he gave enemy aircraft time to shoot him down," Maverick shoots back. "He is dead."

Rooster defends himself, a disgruntled tone to his voice. "You don't know that."

And then Hangman just has to interject. "You're not flying fast enough. You don't have a second to waste."

"We made it to the target," Rooster continues to defend his decisions in the air.

"And superior enemy aircraft intercepted you on your way out," Maverick starts to get angry, not understanding why Rooster isn't grasping this.

"Then it's a dog fight," tempers are beginning to flair between the two.

"Against fifth generation fighters?" Maverick spits out.

"Yea, we still have a chance," Rooster answers him, driving his point home.

Phoenix looks down, not knowing which side to take. And Hangman looks smug, like he knows something no one else does. (Spoiler alert, he does.)

"In an F-18," Maverick stresses.

"It's not the plane sir, it's the pilot," Rooster quickly responds, in a somewhat arrogant tone but also making sure Maverick knows his point.

"Exactly," Maverick says, straight to his face in front of everyone.

Rooster looks pissed and upset, not believing Maverick just said that. The others, who have been shifting uncomfortable lyrics during the entire exchange, glance at each other, not quite believing what they are hearing.

"There's more than one way to fly this mission," Rooster tells Maverick, chest rising and falling slightly faster than normal.

"You really don't get it," Hangman starts. "On this mission, a man flies like Maverick here, or man does not come back. No offense intended," directed at Phoenix.

Always there to defend his pilot, Bob says "yet somehow you always manage."

"Hey, I don't mean to criticize," Hangman continues, "you're consevative, that's all."

"Lieutenant," Maverick tries to stop Hangman

He doesn't even acknowledge Maverick. "We're going into combat son, on a level no living pilots' ever seen, not even him," looking straight at Maverick, who has a distressed look on his face. "That's no time to be thinking of the past," he says smugly.

"What's that supposed to mean," Rooster asks, looking pissed off.

"Lieutenants," Maverick tries again before everything blows out of proportion

"I can't be the only one that knows Maverick flew with his old man," Maverick keeps trying to get Hangman to shut up, "That's enough."

"Or that Maverick was flying when his old man," and before he can finish, Rooster is on him.

"Lieutenant, that's enough," Maverick says as Rooster jumps from his seat to go at Hangman

A fight breaks out, everyone going to separate the two men. A few guys grab Hangman, while Phoenix and Bob keep Rooster away.

"You son of a bitch," Rooster yells angrily at Hangman.

"I'm cool, I'm cool," Hangman says while shrugging the other pilots off.

"That's enough," Maverick says again, tone distressed from how quickly things spiraled out of control.

"He's not cut out for this mission, and you know it," Hangman finally says, "you know I'm right."

"You're all dismissed," Maverick tells them, leaving everyone to go their separate ways.

☽☆☾ ☽☆☾ ☽☆☾

Knowing exactly how Rooster is, Phoenix quickly texted Cecelia to let her know there was an issue between him and Hangman, and to expect Rooster home very upset.

After sending her a thank you text, Cecelia continues on with her normal routine, bracing for whatever kind of blow up was about to storm into the house.

About 30 minutes later, she hears the car pull into the driveway. Giving Bradley a few minutes, she waits before going outside.

He is leaning against the side of his truck, still breathing heavier than normal. Bradley hadn't wanted to go into the house angry, not like this. So he was waiting outside until he could cool down a bit more. But he should have known Cecelia would come out after he didn't go in.

"Hey," she calls out softly. She can see, even from where she's standing, that he's still upset. His jaw is clenched and his hands balled into tight fists, like he wants to hit something. Going over the best way to approach this in her head, she slowly walks up to him.

"Nat texted and said something happened at training," she started off. "Do you want to," she doesn't even get to finish her sentence before Bradley cuts her off.

"No," he says firmly. "I don't want to talk about it. And why the hell is Phoenix texting you about the mission?" He continues, some of his anger slipping through, no matter how hard he tries to keep it back.

Knowing what he's doing and how he handles things, Cecelia doesn't back down. "First of all, she didn't say anything about the mission. Second, we both know how you get when you're angry. She was just giving me a heads up so I wasn't surprised when you got home."

He sighs out, taking a few deep breaths before continuing. "I know. I'm sorry. Hangman brought up my dad and I lost it." Seeing the look in her eyes, he just keeps going.

"You know I don't want the pity. It's just," he pauses, "every time I think about it, I get angry all over again. And I never want to bring that home to you, ever."

Cecelia reaches for his hand, pulling his fist apart so she can intertwine their fingers. "I know. And I love that, no matter what, you try not to bring it home. But sometimes you can't help it. And I want to help when that happens. That's what this means."

She gestures to their entwined hands, showing him her ring. "While we haven't legally said our vows, this ring means that I am with you. In sickness and in health. In good times and in bad. And I'm not back out now." Smiling up at him, she gives him that look. You know, the one that is full of mischief. "Hate to break it to you, but you're stuck with me for eternity."

Smiling back at her, Bradley just chuckles. "I wouldn't want it any other way." He leans down and kisses her softly, trying to convey everything he is feeling. And she knows, of course she knows. Because she does the same thing.

"I know this is terrible timing, but I kinda have to kick you out for a few hours tonight," Cecelia smiles sheepishly at him. Shooting her a look, Bradley opens his mouth to respond, but she beats him to it. "I promised Nat a girls night, she looked like she needed it yesterday."

Jokingly, Bradley shakes his head. "Only Phoenix can get me kicked out of my own house. By my fiancé at that."

Hugging him tightly, Cecelia speaks into his shirt. "Sorry babe, but I might just love her more than you."

Pulling away, he just narrows his eyes. "And right after you gave me that nice speech too."

☽☆☾ ☽☆☾ ☽☆☾

It's later in the night and Phoenix has been over for almost an hour. After they finished pigging out on comfort food, aka Cecelia's famous Mac & Cheese recipe, the two sit on the couch, enjoying some wine and laughing up a storm.

"No he didn't," Phoenix gasps out, clutching her stomach as she laughs so hard she almost falls off the couch.

Cecelia is no better, barely able to talk through her own laughter. "I kid you not, Bradley scared him so badly, Kai punched him in the face." Taking a deep breath before continuing, "he couldn't look Brad in the eyes for, like, a month afterwards."

Regaling Natasha with a story about one of the first meetings between Bradley and her family had definitely brought the mood up.

"Wait, wait, wait. How old was your brother when this happened?" Natasha questions, finally calming down.

Cecelia thinks for a second. "This was about four years ago, so like 19 or 20. He had just gotten home from rehearsal and was still full of adrenaline."

Making eye contact with each other, the two women just burst into laughter again, not being able to help it. The story was just too funny.

"You've got to have something similar. I know you're an only child, but someone had to have had a funny scare moment," Cecelia asks her. Still chuckling from her story, she wants to hear some new ones.

Natasha thinks about it. "There was this one incident."

"Oh no, it's an incident already"

"Shut up," she laughs out. "Anyways, I had just come home from grocery shopping, of all things, and I had forgotten something in the car. Ally was unloading everything but hadn't heard me come back in. Next thing I know, she's on the ground and a dozen eggs are on the ceiling."

Cecelia just gasps, "no, not the eggs."

Nodding, Natasha keeps going. "That's not even the best part. After I stopped laughing, I bent down to help her up and at that moment, the last egg decided to fall right where I was stepping. So I went down right on top of Ally. We just stayed there for a minute before we burst out laughing."

Leaning back as she laughs, Cecelia nods her head. "My brothers have done something similar, but it was with some very sticky food. Let's just say, that didn't come down for a while."

"We finally got up and all I said was 'guess I need to go get more eggs.' She just punched my arm and I gave her a kiss to make up for it." Natasha was so into the story, she didn't even realize what she had said. But then she did, and all she could do was hold her breath.

"Well I hope, when you came back with the replacement eggs, you both were more careful. And no more sneaking around," Cecelia doesn't miss a beat.

Natasha lets out a breath. She hadn't really come out to anyone before, living a more closeted life, not sure how to be open about it. She knew that if anyone would accept her, it would be Cecelia. But that didn't stop the panic she felt at that moment.

"Do you have anything to ask?" She asks Cecelia. All Natasha wants is for everything out in the open, but she's scared. Scared she could lose, not only one, but two close friendships.

Cecelia shrugs her shoulders lightly, looking directly at her. "Is there anything you want to share? I'm not gonna force you to tell me something you don't want to."

Taking a deep breath, Natasha tries to figure out how she wants to start. "I experimented a bit in college, but nothing was serious. It wasn't until I started at the academy that I realized I was bi. But I didn't really accept it until about two years ago."

Cecelia just listens, all her attention on Natasha. She has her hand out, ready to be an anchor should Nat need one.

"I was in a fairly serious relationship with Ally for almost a year. But I wasn't comfortable really being open about it in public. Not even my parents know yet. And I guess she got tired of hiding. She gave me an ultimatum, one that didn't turn out the way either of us hoped."

Taking a deep breath, Natasha gives herself a few moments before looking up to meet Cecelia's eyes.

"Well, I am honored to be the first person you've come out to. I wish I could make this easy for you, but I can't. What I can do, is tell you that no matter what happens, you will always have a support system in me. Always. And I can pretty much guarantee, once you are comfortable enough to talk about it, Bradley will be too."

Cecelia truly doesn't know how much weight she just took off of Natasha's shoulders. Taking a shuddering breath, Nat leans right into Cecelia. Needing to show her just how much that speech meant. And they just stay like that for a while. Simply hugging, conveying so much more with a simple touch than any words can ever say.

After they break apart, Cecelia wipes away a stray tear falling from Natasha's eye. "My best friend Cat is actually on her way here now. She should be here in a few hours actually. I think you should talk to her, if you're comfortable with that. She could give you a more relatable perspective than I can."

Nodding slightly, Natasha has a question in her eyes. How can she know? What kind of perspective could a stranger bring that you, my friend, doesn't have?

Cecelia reads the questions in her eyes and answers a few of them. "Cat's always been open about her sexuality. She's been an out and proud lesbian since 18 and a massive supporter and mentor to LGBTQ+ youth. Especially within the theater community."

Natasha nods her head, understanding that it's not necessarily an outside perspective, but one of another member of the LGBTQ+ community. One that isn't going to pressure her into coming out. One that can tell her that it's ok to be scared. But one that can also give her confidence that things will be ok, that they will get better.

"Why don't we watch a movie while we wait for her to get here then? That way I'm not drowning in my own thoughts." Natasha proposes, needing nothing more but a distraction, at least for a little while.

Cecelia grabs the remote, pulling up a few different options to choose from. "As long as I can still get my Natasha cuddles. I'm not sure how, but you might just be hotter than Bradley."

Smirking, Nat simply replies, "why it's taken you this long to notice, I will never understand."

Swatting her arm, Cecelia snickers. "You know what I mean."

The movie is almost over when the front door opens. In walks Bradley, who upon looking at the two cuddled on the couch, just pouts. "Hey," he whines. "She's my cuddle buddy. Get your own."

Sending both women into a fit of giggles, he just smiles and gestures behind him. "Also, I brought home a stray."

The sound of scoffing can be heard from the front door. "I am hardly a stray Bradley Bradshaw. If anyone here is a stray, it would be you."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the one and only Catalina Diaz. Also known as Cecelia's best friend and chosen sister.

✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈

Word count: 2,484

Introducing Miss Catalina Diaz everybody!! Also a name drop to one of Cecelia's brothers!!

Now, I myself am straight. But I have many friends who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Phoenix's coming out story is based off of one of my best friends, a girl who is basically my sister. She came out to me in the middle of a conversation, so casual and we didn't even discuss it afterwards. I just knew she was bi and that was that. No big reaction, no emotional explanation. And that's all I needed.

I once asked her why she just did it so casually and it was because when she came out to her parents, her mom basically said she was a monster and going straight to hell. Her father (who in every way is an asshole and doesn't deserve the air he breathes) was more accepting and simply said he wished she wasn't but knew he couldn't change anything. So she just decided to do it quickly so no one had time to react.

If there is ANYONE who needs to talk, my PMs are ALWAYS open. I may not have the same perspective or experiences, but I will do my best to be a shoulder for you if you need someone. And just like Cecelia told Natasha, you will ALWAYS have a support system in me, no matter what.

I also wanted to point out that, when the characters interact with Cecelia, most times alone, I try to use their civilian names, as she isn't military and would more than likely use their given names over call signs.

I think that's all, so until next time, bye for now!!