Joy of the Unknown

I packed my bag before getting out of my flight suit, making sure I had all my uniforms nicely folded so they wouldn't get crumpled on the journey. The excitement was still rich in my bones, I smiled to myself as I opened a granola bar and started munching away. I finished packing the majority of my life into one bag, I looked at it sadly wishing I had more. I stayed awake as long as I could because I needed to get back onto a normal dayshift schedule for the academy. Switching like this was brutal and felt like torture it was not a good day for anyone near us because we were so cranky from the lack of sleep. It was a hell that I didn't wish anyone to go through alone. Therefore, it was a good thing Maverick would have Goose with him and vice versa. They really did compliment each other, just as Crystal did for me. That's what made a great RIO, and in our circles when you found someone great you stuck with them because there was no need to forge any other relationships, especially between a pilot and RIO. It applies within personal relationships too, but that is something yet to be seen from the pilot aspect of our lives. Most of them were sluts that just wanted to get off on anything that walked, particularly these self-centered asses.

I sighed, throwing my wrapper in the trashcan near my bed. I undressed, showered, and got into some sleeping clothes which generally just consisted of a t-shirt and underwear. I went into the attached bathroom and brushed my teeth, once I was finished with that, I peeled back the covers on my bed and crawled in feeling the cool sheets on my skin. I reached over to the nightstand and grabbed my book. I started reading happily, I was always a sucker for a romance book. The newest one I had picked up was called Playing the Odds. I started reading and before I knew it sleep over took me.

I groaned as I heard banging on the side of the ship. I rolled over towards the other side of my bed putting the pillow over my head to block it out. I safely lulled back to sleep, hearing doors opening and closing, along with other noises on this ship were common so I didn't think anything of it. That's before I heard his voice.

"Maeve" He whispered, I could feel the heat of his breath on my face. I shot up from my lying position my eyes looking everywhere trying to find the person who was in my room. When I looked to my right I found the assailant, Maverick. I stopped myself from attacking and relaxed in bed rubbing my eyes.

"God Maverick. Why're you here? Why didn't you send in Crystal?" I asked him looking at his face as he knelt down on the floor beside me.

"Well, we figured we would wake you two at the same time, Goose is getting her up and at 'em. So my unlucky choice was you." He sarcastically said.

"Haha, very funny Mav." I chuckled dryly. Feeling my shitty mood set in almost immediately. I wanted to sleep more but I knew with him here that would be impossible. The man was basically a giant toddler, with lots of energy, and always got what he wanted.

"We're taking a helicopter out, we tried to let you sleep as long as we could. I'm sorry Maeve, I know these shifts are hell for you guys. But think on the bright side, we get to be in the Top Gun program." He said, I scoffed and he smiled at my reaction. I noticed he had showered, shaved, and changed into his tans. I covered my face with my hands brushing the hair away from my face.

"All right, how much time do we have?" I asked him.

"Enough to finish if we start now..." He raised his eyebrows at me, flirtatiously. I shoved his shoulder, yeah like that'll ever happen. I cleared my throat and looked at my bag, my tan uniform was in there. I would have to cross the room to get to it. I really did not want to move but I figured I'd make a show out of it since he just made that comment. I pushed the covers off my form and crawled my way towards the end of the edge of the bed going slowly to give him something to look at. I stepped off the bed and walked over to my bag, looking back to Maverick his jaw was slack and he was staring intensely at me. I smiled at his reaction putting the pants on and giggling. I turned towards the door where he couldn't see me and took off my shirt.

"What's that?" He asked walking up behind me as I finished putting on my bra.

"It's a tattoo, Mav, haven't you ever seen one?" I let out a false chuckle.

"No, not that... This." He touched the scar that the tattoo was hiding. His fingertips were soft and he lightly rubbed it. I enjoyed the feeling, tilting my head back and closing my eyes.

"That is secret knowledge, that is in my file. Not on display for you." I told him softly, opening my eyes and grabbing a white undershirt. He pulled away walking towards the bed, knowing that I would not give that information away lightly.

I took my tan uniform shirt out of the closet, buttoned it up, and tucked it in. I then searched my bag for my belt found it and put it on. The last thing was my boots, I put them on and laced them up not bothering to blouse them as it wasn't required with the tans. Maverick had wandered around while I was dressing, I tried not to pay any attention to him.

"What's this book?" He asked I froze while I was putting my hair up in a bun.

"It's just a book," I said becoming a bit embarrassed. I knew he would pick up on my tone of voice, but he chose to ignore it. Thank god. I finished my hair turning towards him I saw him starting to read the book, I didn't think I could get any more mortified.

"Oh, I see what this is, it's porn." He muttered smiling and looking up from the book to me.

"Oh my god, Maverick. It is not." I snapped at him grabbing the book out of his hands and throwing it into my duffle bag. He got off my bed and walked over to the door where I was now standing with my duffle bag slug over my shoulder.

"All right, all right, don't jump down my throat. Here, let me take that." He said to me straightening his uniform and taking the duffle from my shoulder. He opened my door for me like a gentleman and we made our way to the tarmac to find our ride off this ship. At least I could sleep on the ride to Miramar. I looked around when we got down there, I realized suddenly that I was missing my flight helmet and bag.

"Oh shit Mav, I forgot my..." I trailed off as he pointed towards the interior of the helicopter where my flight bag and my flight helmet were, I loved that helmet dearly. It really was beautiful it was mainly black with its accents being grey, and in red letters with a grim reaper graphic was my name 'Reaper'.

"I already put those in the helicopter." He said to me, his lips close to my ear, as he brushed past me and walked up to the open passenger door of the helicopter and put my duffle bag near my other belongings. I smiled softly looking after him as I waited for Crystal and Goose. I looked around the tarmac joyfully looking at my plane. I wished she could come with me. But I knew she would be delivered to me soon enough. We wouldn't start flying for a couple of days to guarantee that we had everything transported. By the time I was finished with my daydream Goose and Crystal arrived, he held her bag for her as well and placed it inside and waved us over to get in.

"We'll take off in 15 minutes." The pilot said to us walking up to the helicopter.

"Maverick and I already got your flight bags and helmets." Goose told Crystal quietly so as not to bother her too much. She most likely had a splitting headache, that's what happened when we woke up too early half of the time.

"Thank you." She told him, using his hand as support to step into the seats. I happily did the same and sat across from her, Maverick got in after me and quickly took his seat next to me. Goose then entered and sat next to Crystal. I knew that nothing was going on between them as Goose was married, he had a son, Bradley, with his wife and she was a pistol. I'm sure if she caught him out galivanting she would chop his dick off and feed it to him. They were good friends though. The pilot came around and shut our doors, I shut my eyes leaning my head against the back cushion. When the engine started it was the familiar lull that put me to sleep. I could feel my head sink to the side and knew that this would be a wonderful nap.

I woke up to a soft landing, I stretched out my legs. I realized my head was lying on something soft. I picked up my head and looked at where I was, Maverick had gotten a pillow out and shoved it underneath my head which was lying on his shoulder.

"Oh I'm sorry Mav, I didn't mean to occupy your space," I told him bashfully, a bit embarrassed that our RIOs were now witnesses to this.

"Don't even think about it. You can fall asleep on me anytime." He smiled at me gleefully amused with the situation. I put my elbows on my knees rubbing my face with my hands. I was still insanely tired but knew that soon we would have to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the briefing. I sighed as the door was opened to the helicopter and we filed out with all our stuff with us. I looked around, the Naval base, it was bustling with activity. As I wasn't entirely sure where we were going I followed Maverick and Goose through the sea of people that were trying to get from point A to point B. I was looking around the base when someone smashed into my shoulder causing me to drop my flight bag and helmet, with some of my charts falling out of my bag.

"Ah, shit, watch it!" I yelled to them, focusing on my papers that were getting away from me.

"I'm sorry ma'am, I wasn't watching where I was going, Normally I'm very good at situational awareness." I heard the man's voice, when I looked up, into ice-cold blue eyes. The man had blonde hair that had been spiked up, his physique reminded me that he was a pilot.

"It's all right," I said as I picked up my flight helmet, bag, and duffle.

"Are you carrying those for your pilot?" He asked me I gave him a glare. Ugh, I could practically see the ego dripping off him.

"Yeah, are you here for Top Gun? Are you a pilot?" I asked him, putting on a fake smile and acting like the dumb little girl that he saw me as.

"Yeah, I am, the name's Iceman." I fanned myself as if the heat was getting to me, a couple of pieces of my hair had fallen from the hit. I nodded and watched his smile spread across his face as he watched me.

"And your pilot's name is Reaper? That's badass. Where is he? I'd love to meet him." He said, looking around and spotting Maverick and Goose who were smirking at him. I laughed a bit keeping the punchline to myself. I decided to wait until introductions in class to tell him that I was not a RIO or personal secretary.

"Yeah, but you know I don't see him anymore... Must've gone ahead without me, as always." I spoke.

"Well here, let me walk you there." He said as I followed him in the direction Maverick and Goose were headed. They watched me a bit confused as to why I hadn't corrected him. I just waved them off and followed Iceman to the building we were supposed to be in.

"Thank you for walking me. I'm sure I would've gotten lost with all these people." I said as I pushed my hair behind my ears, making sure it was clean looking for the Lieutenant that would be doing the briefing.

"No problem," he spoke. Doe walked in and sat next to where I was, I noticed Iceman give a confused look and walk away towards his RIO. Maverick and Goose walked in and sat in the chairs next to us.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Doe asked.

"Because now I can embarrass him even more," I told her as the Lieutenant walked in closing the door.

"Good Afternoon everyone, I appreciate the devotion to attendance. First, I would like to introduce myself I am Lieutenant Green, and I'll be starting off with a quick video introducing the importance of what you all will be doing here. But before we start that let's go around the room for introductions. Start with your call sign and then your real name, we all need to know each other and get comfortable. Pilot first, RIO next." I smiled this would be perfect.

"Iceman, Tom Kazansky" The frosted tips on his hair, he smiled as he chewed on some gum looking around at his competition.

"Slider, Ron Kerner" I smiled, they gave him a dumb call sign.

"Chipper, Charles Piper" The next one was worse. He was actually fairly cute and reminded me of Maverick a bit with his facial features. If I didn't know any better I'd say they were brothers.

"Sundown, Marcus Williams" It wasn't a bad call sign they were getting better with them.

"Hollywood, Rick Neven" I could see why they called him Hollywood, he had a certain movie actor aura going on. I would've cast him in an old Western movie.

"Wolfman, Henry Wolfe" It was simple, his last name influenced his call sign.

"Maverick, Pete Mitchell" Easy, Maverick was, well Maverick, he was known for his inability to follow the rules.

"Goose, Nick Bradshaw" No one really knew how Goose got this nickname, but my theory was because he had a fiery side to him. It was rarely ever seen because he was so level-headed, unlike his pilot.

"Reaper, Maeve Ford" I spoke up finally. I watched Iceman's expression shift into one of intrigue and awe. He paused chewing on his gum and stared, probably thinking since when did they let women in here?

"Doe, Crystal Harris," My RIO said, I happily gave her a pat on the shoulder. This was going to be fun, knocking these boys around and refuting the stereotype that women belonged in a kitchen or office. I looked forward to the competition and challenges we would face here. I relaxed in my seat for the movie that was about to be shown to us happily basking in the joy of the unknown.