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There was an irrepressible joy in the roar of celebration on the flight deck, in the press of bodies as one person after another grabbed the Daggers and clasped them close, like everyone was just making sure they were alive. Jake had to laugh as he rode the crush of people like a wave, stumbling from one group to the next, accepting their firm slaps to his shoulder and even the occasional scruffing of his hair.
Finally he was at the edge of it, reeling dizzily at the sheer magnitude of it. That they were all here, all alive, all fine.
He was breathless with it, and he slipped away, backing down one of the hallways to lean against a wall in a quiet corridor and catch his breath. He slipped his flight suit off his shoulders, tying it around his waist, to let his chest expand all the way and let the sweat down his back start to dry.
“Seresin?” a voice called, and Jake shook himself back into his body, standing upright.
“Here,” he called, leaning out from the small hallway he’d cloistered himself in.
Bradley Bradshaw was standing just inside the door to the flight deck, shoulders tensed up around his ears. When he saw Jake, he rushed forward, and Jake thought back over the day, trying to decide if he’d done anything worth being throttled that he’d forgotten about.
Bradley jerked to a stop a foot away, his eyes wide and distressed.
“You good, Bradshaw?” Jake asked.
“I’m great,” Bradley breathed.
Jake dropped his eyes to Bradley’s feet and back up again. He quirked a brow. “You seem a little manic.”
Bradley laughed, throwing his hands up.
“We’re alive, aren’t we?”
“That we are, Rooster,” Jake said.
Bradley smoothed a hand over his face. He pointed at Jake. “You saved my life,” he said. “You saved Mav’s life.”
“I think you’re the one whose life I would emphasize there,” Jake said, waving a hand. “Mav’s more of a collateral rescue.”
Bradley shook his head, still grinning ferociously. “No,” he said. “Nuh-uh, no.”
“No?” Jake said, amused now. He’d seen Bradley drunk, he’d seen him angry, he’d seen him happy, but he’d never seen this particular breed of Bradshaw.
“I heard you,” Bradley said. “You tried to come help save him.”
Jake huffed. “What?”
“You asked to fly air cover when Mav went down,” Bradley said. “That’s—fucking insane. Everyone thought he was dead.”
“You didn’t,” Jake said. “You were going to go back for him.”
Bradley waved him off.
“So you cornered me here to convince me that I have a soft spot for Captain Mitchell,” Jake said slowly.
Bradley ran his hands through his hair and set them on his hips. “I just— Thank you. That’s what I wanted to say.”
“I mean, I did save your life,” Jake said.
“No,” Bradley said. “For trying to come for Mav. I— Shit, I can’t believe you even tried.”
Jake made a face. “I really didn’t want to do it for him,” he said.
“Don’t bother trying to tell me that you wanted to do it for the glory,” Bradley said. “That would’ve been a suicide mission.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Jake said, almost laughing. He felt like he might be dreaming. “I was going to say I was only thinking about you.”
Bradley blinked. His forehead creased.
“Flying back there with no flares, nothing to protect you from the SAMs or the bandits,” Jake said. “I didn’t want to listen to you going down, too.”
Bradley leaned back against the wall opposite him, his body seeming heavier than before.
“And then I did,” Jake said. He cleared his throat. Took a breath, stared for a second at the flutter of a pulse he could see at Bradley's throat. “I thought you’d died.”
“Yeah,” Bradley said weakly. “Me too.”
“No offense to Maverick,” Jake said, “But I’d save you a thousand times before he even crossed my mind.”
Bradley tipped his head, considering. “I think he’d happily accept that without any offense, actually. He was pretty pissed at me for coming after him.”
They fell quiet, and Bradley finally unzipped his flight suit, rolling out his neck.
“Thank you,” he said again, and Jake chuckled.
“I’m telling you, it wasn’t about saving your precious godfather,” Jake said. “I guess him by association, since I didn’t want you to lose him.”
“I get it,” Bradley said. He looked slightly dumbfounded. “I think I get it.”
Jake pushed himself away from the wall. “You headed to med bay, or the mess? I could eat a horse.”
Bradley was still against the wall, staring off into space, a crease between his eyebrows.
“You still in there, Bradshaw?” Jake asked, leaning to catch Bradley’s eyes.
“Yeah,” Bradley said, and he met Jake’s gaze, his eyes hard. “No, I get it.”
“You get it?”
“Yeah, I do,” Bradley said, and he brightened. He shook his head. “It’s kind of right in front of you, huh? Mav kept telling me not to think, just do, right?”
Jake thought he might have lost the plot at some point. “Wha—”
Bradley pressed a palm to Jake’s jaw, his long fingers curled around his neck under his ear, and leaned in and kissed him, matter-of-factly. When Bradley pulled back, his eyes were lit up, and he was half-suppressing a smile.
“I’m headed to med bay,” he said cheerfully, and he headed down the hallway, leaving Jake frozen where he stood, staring after him.
He made a mental note to send Maverick some ‘congrats you’re not dead’ flowers or something. Maybe Bradley would kiss him again for it.