I'm Not Risking My Life For You (Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw X Seresin!Reader)

I'm Not Risking My Life For You (Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Seresin!Reader)

Summary: When you and Rooster learn you have to complete a mission together, neither of you are pleased.

Word count: 6.8k

Warnings: my terrible understanding of the military, injury, violence, swearing, older brother!Hangman, some fighting, cheesfluff

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I make my way down the halls, knocking on the door to the admiral's office.

I straighten my posture immediately when the door starts to swing open.

"Lieutenant Seresin." Admiral Cain nods his head. "Right on time, please take a seat." He opens the door the rest of the way, stepping aside so I can walk in.

I give him a polite nod and make my way inside. My gaze goes to the chairs in front of his desk, one of which is already occupied. Rooster turns his head, giving me an unamused look, before turning back to the front. I pause for the briefest of seconds upon seeing Rooster, but shake myself out of it and take the seat beside him.

Admiral Cain circles around to his side of the desk, taking a seat across from us.

“Alright.” Admiral Cain opens a drawer on the side of his desk, pulling out two files and sliding them across the desk to Rooster and I. “I have a mission for the two of you.

Both of us lean forward, taking the file off the desk and flipping it open.

“Just us?” I ask, glancing over at Rooster with a frown. I’ve gone on missions with him before, but always with a couple other pilots. We can usually put our differences aside for that long, but the two of us alone? It might make for some difficulty in completing our task.

“Yes, this is a highly classified assignment.” Admiral Cain motions to the files. “All the information is in here.”

“Why us?” Rooster asks.

“You two are excellent pilots. Why not you?” Admiral Cain leans back in his chair, folding his hands together.

Rooster side-eyes me.

I exhale, leaning forward. “It’s not exactly a secret that Bradshaw and I don’t get along.”

Admiral Cain frowns. “I would hope that you could put that aside in order to do your jobs.”

“Of course,” Rooster replies, immediately.

“Yes,” I agree.

“Good. Please review the details. You will have four weeks to prepare. Dismissed.”

Rooster and I both rise, leaving his office with our files.

“This is just great,” I mutter.

“You think I’m happy about this?” Rooster asks.

I sigh. “Let’s just agree to stay out of each other’s way.”

“Fine by me.” Rooster turns away from me, leaving down the hallway.

I turn in the opposite direction, going to look over the mission details.

Hours later, I’m finally flipping the file closed, ditching it on my kitchen table.

Surveillance has been done on a foreign terrorist group. They’ve been gathering an array of weapons and Rooster and I are supposed to go in and bomb their base.

Destroy as many weapons as possible according to the papers I just read through.

Intel says that they don’t have any aircraft, which puts us at a huge advantage, but unfortunately their radar will likely see us coming and we’ll have to dodge any ground missiles they try and send at us.

That’s why they’re only sending two of us, less of a chance to be picked up on radar and, although they don’t say it, less casualties.

I’m excited for this mission, it’s the first high profile assignment I’ve had in awhile. I just don’t know why they had to put me and Bradshaw together.

Him and I have always struggled to get along, always competing to be better than each other while we were at Top Gun. All I’d wanted was to come rank next to my brother, Jake, but Bradshaw got in my way. So, at Top Gun graduation, I had to hear my parents gush about how successful their perfect son was at the top of the class, while I stood by at the number three spot-Bradshaw slotted right between us.

Our rivalry had started as a fairly friendly, teasing, competition, but it escalated until it became what it is today- an immense hatred for each other.

The next day, I meet Bradshaw on the tarmac, ready to run some drills.

“We’re going to need to practice some missile drops,” Bradshaw says, as we walk towards our planes. “Your aim is shit.”

“Then we’ll have to clock some races, you’re too slow,” I snap back.

“Fine.” Bradshaw turns to his jet, climbing in without a second glance at me.

“Fine,” I mutter, with a curl of my lip, going off to my own jet.

The second we’re in the air, Bradshaw starts eliciting orders.

“I’m sorry, who put you in charge?” I ask.

I hear him sigh through my headset. “Could you just focus on the task and not disagree with me for once?”

“Could you not be so conceited for once?”

“This is never going to work,” Bradshaw’s jet zooms past me and he rounds in a circle, headed back towards base. “We should just request to be reassigned.”

I flip my jet around, too, headed after Bradshaw. I can’t get reassigned, this is one of the first missions of this much importance I’ve been given in awhile, I’m not going to lose it because of him.

“Wait,” I say. “Just… let’s do the target practice.”

Bradshaw’s plane slowly comes around. I turn mine, too, so we’re both headed back out to the training area.

He doesn't say anything else, both of us flying our planes out, neither of us say much as we start our drills.

I'm starting to think this mission might just work between us, until Bradshaw opens his dumb, pornstache-lined mouth. "You're flying too fast, if you want to increase your accuracy you have to slow down."

"You're flying too slow, if you don't speed up then we're going to get shot down."

"We're focusing on this right now, you increase your accuracy. Then we can work on speeding up."

I groan, but know that he's right, so I land a few more shots, this time at a slower speed, and I hit the target each time.

"Nice," Bradshaw says. Maybe he means it as a compliment, but to me it just sounds condescending.

"Okay, let's race," I say. "Whoever gets back to base first wins."

Both of us spin our jets around. I look over at Bradshaw through the canopy shield. "You ready?" I ask.

"Ready."

"Okay...go!"

Both of us speed up, I push as fast as I can, the force pressing me against my seat.

Bradshaw falls behind.

"You're going to have to go faster."

He speeds up a little, but still hasn't caught up to me. "Come on!" I shout.

"Any faster and I'll lose control."

"No, you won't. We have the same jet, Bradshaw. It's not the plane, it's the pilot." I push my jet even faster, feeling the whole thing vibrate around me and just to prove my point even further, I direct the plane into a barrel roll. The time it takes me to complete the maneuver, allows Bradshaw to catch up to me.

I can tell he's nervous, but he's going fast enough to keep up with me now.

"That's more like it!" I push faster, but this time Bradshaw matches my speed. We zoom over the base, almost neck and neck, before slowing down and circling back around to land.

It's not until after we've landed that I talk to him again. I've finished up with my own jet and am walking over to find him just getting out of his, looking a little shaken.

"You alright?" I ask with a chuckle.

Bradshaw gives me a glare and I laugh harder.

"I'm fine," he grumbles. "Let's meet back here tomorrow, we're going to need more practice."

"I'll say." I look down at his shaky legs.

He scowls. "8 a.m.," he says, walking away.

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So, Bradshaw and I practice, and practice, and practice.

The four weeks before our mission starts go by fast, but I feel confident that Bradshaw and I have it covered. We've gone over the details and the plan a thousand times with Admiral Cain and there's nothing left to do, but run it for real.

The night before we're scheduled to leave, we meet up at The Hard Deck with our friends.

"Can't believe Shadow and Rooster are actually going to work together," Phoenix says, looking at the two of us.

I shrug. "We've done it before."

Phoenix gives me a look and everyone else looks like they're having trouble buying it.

"Good luck tomorrow, y/n." Jake wraps his arms around me, normally we refrain from affection in front of everyone else, but tonight I decide to wrap my arms around him, squeezing him tight.

Despite my parents always forcing me to try and be more like him, I hold no hatred for Jake. I think even without the influence of my parents I would've idolized him anyway, there's a reason my callsign is "Shadow", everyone said I was always following him around.

"Watch out for her, man." Jake lets me go and clasps Bradshaw's hand, patting him on the back.

I roll my eyes. "I can look out for myself."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Jake smiles at me. "You guys should probably get out of here. Big day tomorrow."

I hug Jake one more time and steal a hug from each of the rest of our friends, going to get some rest before the big assignment.

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"Remember," Admiral Cain says, as we head off to our planes. "Destroy as many weapons as possible."

Bradshaw and I both nod. "Yes, sir," we say.

Minutes later we're in the air, headed towards the target.

"We got this," Bradshaw says over the comms.

"Obviously," I say, rolling my plane to the right and flipping it around.

"Would you quit fooling around," Bradshaw says. "Stupid jokes like that are going to put the mission at risk and if it comes down to it I'm not risking my life for you."

"I never asked you to."

"Just stick to the plan."

"Aye, aye."

"Status update?" Admiral Cain's voice cuts in.

"Approaching target, less than a mile out," Bradshaw reports back. He pulls his plane up next to mine, looking over at me. "They definitely know we're coming, now."

I nod, he's right their radar would've picked up on us. "In and out," I say.

He gives me an affirmative nod and we both speed up our jets.

The base is within our sights, when my radar starts beeping.

"What's that?" I ask.

"There's three more jets in the sky, approaching you fast." The report comes from the operations specialist back on the ship.

"I thought intel said this group didn't have any aircraft."

"We don't know if these are hostiles," Admiral Cain says. "Continue with the plan."

I look over at Bradshaw and even from this distance I can tell he's nervous, too.

I look into the distance, seeing the planes approaching. Then, one of them opens fires, bullets ricocheting over the shield.

"Shit!" I shout, veering to the side and diving lower to avoid them.

"Hostiles!" Bradshaw shouts. "Definitely hostiles." I see his plane to my left, spinning around to avoid being shot.

"Retreat," Admiral Cain says. "We'll return another time with reinforcements."

I look down, seeing the base full of weapons up ahead. I turn back to Bradshaw and find that he's also looking at me, neither of us have turned around, yet. We're so close, nearly over the base, if we turn back now and come back later then they'll have plenty of time to move the weapons.

I speed up, zooming forward, coming closer to the base. Bradshaw does the same, neither of us having to say anything to understand what the other is thinking.

"What are they doing?" I hear Cain say over the comms. "I said come back."

I grip my joystick tighter, trying to keep my hands from shaking.

The planes in front of us continue to send bullets our way. I swing left, towards Bradshaw and come over the base, dropping the first bomb on it. Bradshaw drops his right behind me, the explosions below us rocking through the air.

I don't have time to look and check how much damage we did, before the planes are on us and we're trapped in a dogfight.

I spin my plane right, climbing higher, to avoid the enemy jets.

"Do you have eyes on them?" I ask, trying to spin around to see where they are.

"There's two on you, one on me."

I climb higher and then let my engine stall, one of the planes flying past me. I line up my missile and slam the release button the second I hear tone.

The plane in front of me explodes, but, unfortunately, the one behind me is still hot on my tail.

Another array of bullets attacks my plane and a warning starts blaring that my left engine is out.

"One down," I inform Bradshaw. I look around and see him struggling to shake the jet on his tail. "Wanna trade?" I ask, zooming towards him and trying to lock in on the guy attacking him.

"What?" Bradshaw asks.

"You go after my guy, I'll go after yours." I push the trigger down, shooting at the jet on Bradshaw's tail.

Bradshaw's plane turns towards mine, trying to loop around and hit the guy behind me.

I try to line up the shot on the other guy, blasting off my other missile the second I hear tone.

The plane in front of me, zooms upwards, dodging the projectile.

"Fuck," I shout, immediately switching to bullets.

Bradshaw still hasn't gotten the guy behind me and I'm getting hit by bullets on two sides.

It's not long before I've used up all my weaponry and the guy in front of me hasn't gone down.

"I'm out of ammo," I announce.

"Dammit, Shadow. I told you your aim was shit." Bradshaw has managed to pull the other guy off my tail and I'm left with one plane in front of me.

Bullets continue to knock my plane and I doubt it will be long until my right engine is out, too. It will be a miracle if I can get this thing back home.

I look at the plane plowing towards me and I have an idea.

"Destroy as many weapons as possible," I mutter, gripping the control stick and speeding up.

"What?" Bradshaw asks over the speakers, but I ignore him.

Instead, I continue to push my plane straight towards the enemy jet, moving my other hand towards the eject button.

"Shadow, what are you doing?"

As the other plane nears me, it starts to pull right, trying to dodge me. I follow it with my plane, pushing the control stick forward as hard as I can and ejecting.

I fly out of the plane, my parachute pulling me through the air as the explosion from the collision, warms my face.

The blast sends shrapnel flying everywhere.

Pain shoots through my side, as I drift down through the air. I wince, looking down and finding a large piece of metal piercing my side.

"Shit," I mumble.

I look around, searching for Bradshaw's plane and find him still stuck in a dogfight with the other jet. I fall below the tree-line and his plane disappears from view.

I land on the ground with minimal impact, but I still let out a grunt, when it jostles the wound in my side.

I pull myself up, leaning against a nearby tree trunk, as I start rolling up my parachute.

I look to the sky, searching for any signs of Rooster. I see his jet overhead and relax a little, especially when I watch him knock down the last enemy plane.

I continue rolling up my parachute, moving slowly from the pain in my side, but my attention jerks back to the sky when I hear the sound of a missile.

My gaze rips back to the sky, seeing a cloud of smoke chase down Bradshaw’s plane. He manages to dodge it, but circles back around as another missile is sent off.

“What are you doing?” I shout, as Rooster tries to dodge the second one, but fails. The projectile takes out his tail and he starts falling fast. I don’t see where he lands, I don’t even know if he would’ve survived a crash like that.

However, I’m out here alone, and if there’s a chance he’s alive I’m not going to leave him. I finish packing up my parachute and shove it into my pack, pulling it on and standing up.

I cry out when the metal in my side shifts, but push forward, ignoring the blood dripping from my side.

I briefly wonder if I should stop to pull out the shrapnel and wrap up my waist, but I don’t want to waste anytime. Not to mention it'll be difficult for me to reach.

Luckily, it didn’t look like Rooster’s plane was far.

“Rooster,” I call out, hoping he responds soon, praying he isn’t dead. “Rooster!”

I lean against a tree, to catch my breath, panting through the pain in my side.

I’m close to considering sitting down for a minute when I see smoke up ahead.

I break into a limping jog, approaching the wreckage in front of me. Rooster’s jet lies in a smoking heap on the ground, but there’s no sign of him anywhere.

“Rooster,” I shout, looking around the plane. It steams and creaks from burning metal. I’m terrified of what I’ll find in the cockpit, but when I finally work up the courage, it’s empty.

I breathe a sigh of relief, but I still don’t see him anywhere.

“Rooster,” I call, looking around.

No response, certainly isn’t a good sign and the wound in my side is really draining my energy.

Tears prick at the corner of my eyes, but I push them back. Hangman would never cry in a situation like this, but all I can think is that I’m alone, my wingman might be dead and I could be next.

“Rooster,” I shout one last time, the words coming out choked. I walk over to the other side of the plane wreckage and collapse against a tree.

I let some tears stream down my face, closing my eyes and leaning my head back. I’m so tired.

“Shadow?” It’s so distant I think I must have imagined it.

“Shadow!” I hear again.

“Rooster!” I push myself back to my feet, groaning as I do so.

I head in the direction of the shouts, stumbling along to search for him.

“Over here.” I catch sight of him through the trees and start waving.

He starts running to meet me and I do my best to speed up towards him.

"What the hell were you thinking?" I ask, as I get closer.

"Me?" Rooster asks.

"You should've headed back the second you knocked down the other plane," I shout, but my words are drowned out by his argument.

"You're the one who fucking crashed right into another plane. I was circling back to try and find you. Are you okay?" He reaches out for me, clutching my arms in his hands and looking me up and down.

“Yeah, are you?” I lie, not wanting to seem dramatic, especially if he ends up having an injury, too.

Rooster pauses his scan, eyes snapping to mine, narrowing slightly.

“Where?” he asks, a level of concern that I’ve never seen from him before flooding his gaze.

“What?” I ask.

Rooster sighs. “I know you’re hurt, Shadow.”

I exhale, moving stiffly to take my pack off and show him the shrapnel in my side.

“It’s not that bad,” I say, even though I haven’t checked on it in awhile, I can barely see it, and it hurts like a bitch.

“Here, sit down.” Rooster guides me to the ground and starts opening his pack.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“We’re not going to get very fair with that sticking out of your side. You’re going to need stitches.”

Rooster clicks open his first aid kit.

I tug at my vest, undoing the buttons.

Rooster places his hands on my shoulder, helping me slide it off.

I unzip my jumper next and Rooster has to help me with that, too.

He gets to my t-shirt underneath and cuts off the fabric around the wound.

“Alright, are you ready?” Rooster asks.

“Yup.” I grip my hands into the pants of my suit, so tightly that my knuckles turn white.

Rooster’s hand wraps around the metal and I can’t stop the whimper that slips past my lips. I lift one of my hands and press it tightly against my mouth.

“You sure?” Rooster asks.

“Mmmm, hmmm.” I hum an agreement and Rooster yanks the metal out.

I scream into my hand, hot tears slipping out of the corner of my eyes.

“Good?” Rooster asks.

I hum again, not able to form words.

Rooster starts cleaning the wound and I manage to keep my whimpers to a minimum the whole time. I turn my head away to hide my tears.

"It's okay to cry," Rooster says.

I let out a wry chuckle. "Yeah, right," I reply. "I'm sure you'd love that."

"I'm serious." Rooster reaches into the kit, pulling out a needle and sterilizing it. "I won't make fun of you."

"Jake would never cry," I mumble, trying to steel myself against the pain.

"God, you really have to be just like him."

"You'd understand if you met my parents," I reply.

"At least your parents are alive."

A sense of guilt sweeps over me, immediately. "I'm sorry."

Rooster flashes a sad smile. "It's fine. I got all the love I could ever hope for from my parents while they were alive." Rooster starts on the stitches in my side and I grit my teeth. "I get it, you know, why you were always trying your hardest to best me while we were at Top Gun. I saw the way your parents were all over Hangman at graduation."

If he saw that, then that means he might have also seen me walking off to the bathroom, brushing tears from my face. I don't want to ask him, though, in case he didn't, but he glances up at me from where he's working on my stitches and one look in his eyes and I know that he did.

"Your parents are assholes." Rooster goes back to working on my stitches and a silence falls over us.

Finally, Rooster finishes up my stitches, wrapping a bandage around my stomach and helping me pull my jumper back on.

"There, it's not perfect, but it should hold long enough for us to get back home."

"Right, how are we going to do that?" I ask, looking around at the unfamiliar trees on each side of us. We can't exactly send off a distress flare in enemy territory.

"The helicopter should come by to pick us up, soon." Rooster digs through his pack.

"They're not going to send a rescue helicopter into active enemy territory. We may have taken out most of their weapons, but they still have missiles."

Rooster pulls out his radio, turning it on and calling back to base. "This is Rooster and Shadow, checking in to base, over," he says.

Static buzzes on the other side and a broken voice comes through on the other side. "...ba... ort... er"

"Shit, no service." Rooster stands up, walking around to try and get better signal. "Shadow's injured, we're requesting an emergency airlift, over."

The voice comes through again, broken and incomprehensible.

"We have to find better service." Rooster comes back over, closing up his pack and swinging it onto his back.

I start to push myself up, grabbing my own pack off the ground, but pausing when Rooster puts a hand on my shoulder.

"You should stay here." He looks down at my side.

"Like hell," I snap, pushing myself the rest of the way up.

"You're injured and my poor patch-up job did little to help that. You need to stay here and rest.”

“Rooster, you are not leaving me here.” I pull my backpack on.

His gaze is still focused on my side, uncertain.

“Please, Bradley,” I beg. “Do not leave me here alone.”

Rooster’s jaw hardens and he finally makes eye contact. “Okay, come on.” He grabs my arm, pulling it over his shoulder to help me walk and without another word we start to make our way through the woods in the direction of the base.

Rooster tests the radio every few minutes and while it’s getting slightly better, it’s not enough to make out a full sentence.

The two of us are still limping along when the sound of shouts and heavy footsteps cuts through the silence of the forest.

Rooster and I both pause, turning as one unit in the direction of the sound, since I’m still relying heavily on him for support.

The sound gets closer, accompanied by the breaking of branches.

I pull my arm off Rooster's shoulder, freeing both our hands and pull out my flare gun.

Rooster does the same, both of us moving away from the sound.

"You don't think it's the evac team, do you?" I whisper, knowing there's no way they'd come on foot.

Rooster just swallows heavily.

The first man comes from our right, armed with a pistol. Lucky for us, we heard him coming and are prepared. I immediately, fire the flare gun at his chest, it knocks him off his feet and Rooster jumps on him, punching him across the face and stealing his gun.

"We need to go, now.” Rooster looks around, searching for another attacker, as he runs back over to me.

We both take off through the woods, Rooster passing the radio to me.

I continue to try and call back to base, while Rooster wields the gun, eyeing for attackers.

A gunshot sounds to our right and Rooster's arm slams into my back, forcing us both into a crouch. Pain shoots up my side from my injury, but I do my best to ignore it.

We continue to run past trees, dodging the bullets.

Another man reveals himself from behind the trees, his gun aimed right at me.

Rooster steps between us, blocking me from the man's shot and shooting him down before either of us get hit.

I test the radio again and this time an almost clear message comes back.

"...base requesting coordinates..."

I check our coordinates and report them back, but the response is choppy.

"I can't tell if they heard me," I tell Rooster, as we drop down behind a tree for cover.

"Try going up ahead and sending it again." Rooster peeks around the tree, scanning the area.

"What about you?" I ask.

"Just go," he says. "Don't worry, I got your six." He rises up, turning his back to me and holding up the gun.

I continue to run and Rooster follows behind at a slower pace, walking backwards, ready to shoot.

I repeat the coordinates and eventually I get a clear response from base, “Stand by for evacuation, over.”

I pause my running, smiling down at the radio.

“Rooster, we got a response!” I turn to him with a wide grin on my face.

He glances back at me, a smile growing on his face as well. At the same time, I see a woman break through the woods, her gun raised in his direction.

I open my mouth to shout a word of warning, but all I can do is scream when the loud echo of the gun going off shakes the air.

Rooster’s body jerks as the bullet rips into his shoulder.

I sprint towards him while the woman cocks the gun for another shot. I snatch the gun from Rooster’s hand, firing twice at the woman and sending her to the ground.

“Are you okay?” I ask, snatching at Rooster’s chest to help hold him up.

“Yeah,” he grunts, reaching for the wound.

I grab his hand, wrapping it in mine. “Don’t touch it,” I tell him. "C'mon, we need to find a place to hide out until the chopper gets here."

The two of us slip into a particularly thick area of brush, hunkering down behind a couple of boulders.

"Let me see." It's not until I go to help him take his jumpsuit off that the red stain on my own jumpsuit has grown. I guess Rooster's stitches didn't hold. I do my best to ignore it, as I help Rooster wrap his own wound. I bind it tightly, hoping that our evac will be here soon with doctors who can do a better job than me.

Rooster's eyes are on me the whole time I help him, tracking my every movement. He must be trying to find something to focus on to block out the pain. It's what I'm doing right now, patching up Rooster to ignore the pain from my own injury.

Once I'm done, I lean back against the rocks beside him.

"Hopefully you did a better job on me than I did on you," Rooster pants.

I chuckle a little, leaning my head back against the rocks.

"We should radio back with our updated coordinates." Rooster takes the radio from my hands, calling to base.

I let my eyes fall closed, fighting to get breaths in, each one disrupting the pain in my side.

I vaguely hear Rooster say something about fifteen minutes, but I can't be sure.

"Shadow?"

My arm jerks and I wince, squeezing my eyes shut.

"Y/n? Wake up."

A hand tilts my head up and I manage to force my eyes open, my gaze finding Rooster's face.

"You good? We need to stay awake."

I shake my head a few times, nodding to reassure him. "You worried about me, Bradshaw?" I ask, teasingly.

"More worried about what your brother will do to me if I make it back and you don't."

"Nah," I say. "I think you care about me." I smile up at him, nudging him slightly against his good shoulder.

Rooster laughs. "Oh, okay. You were the one who was crying out my name when you thought I was dead."

I laugh, too, realizing that I don't have an argument for that.

When our giggles finally die down, I lean my head on Rooster's shoulder, finding the muscle of his bicep more comfortable than the stone.

Rooster breathes deeply and I almost pull away, but freeze when he speaks.

"You know that was the first time you didn't just call me 'Bradshaw'."

I hum. "Today was the first day you called me 'y/n'," I reply, referring to moments ago when he shook me awake.

Rooster rests his head on top of mine, the two of us sitting in a peaceful silence while we wait.

The strangeness of it all washes over me. I remember how less than a year ago, we had been ready to tear each other apart.

"You need to calm down." I brush past Rooster, ready to hit the locker rooms.

Rooster snatches my bicep, shoving me back in front of him. "You could have gotten someone killed."

I straighten up, staring him right in the eye. "If it weren't for me Coyote could have died."

"You nearly hit him with that bogus shot."

"But I didn't, I saved his life by taking out that enemy plane."

"It was reckless and stupid."

I step closer, adding in a lower voice. "You're just mad that you failed to do your job. You're Coyote's wingman and you should've been there."

I barely get a chance to finish, before Rooster is pushing me back into the wall, his forearm pressed against my throat pinning me down.

Rage is flaring behind his eyes, but all I do is smile back at him.

"Stay in your fucking place, Seresin," Rooster seethes.

"Do your job, Bradshaw," I spit back. I shove my hands against his chest, pushing him off of me.

That moment solidified Rooster and I's hatred towards each other, but now we're cuddling up to each other like some lovesick teens.

We hear the helicopter before we see it and I grab my flare gun, sending off a flare so they can find us quicker.

Within the next few minutes, they're within sight.

Rooster and I climb to our feet. However, I stumble immediately, my head spinning and my vision darkening.

Rooster catches me by my forearms and I feel guilty when I hear him grunt from the bullet wound in his shoulder.

"I'm good," I say, gripping my side and straightening myself.

"Shit," Rooster says, looking down at my hands.

I pull them away to see what he's looking at and find them covered in blood.

"You weren't kidding about that shit patch up job," I joke, looking up at the ladder being dropped down from the helicopter that's nearly reached us.

I look back at Rooster and find him staring at me. "I'm sorry," he says.

"It's no big deal, the doctors will fix it."

"Not just for that, everything. Criticizing your flying, trying to take control, requesting a new partner for this mission."

"What?" I ask. "You requested a new partner?"

"Yeah, but I'm apologizing for it." Rooster flashes a smile.

The ladder comes down between us and both of us grab on, clipping ourselves to it by our vest. The ladder starts to lift us into the air.

"I'm sorry, too. For everything," I say.

We both smile at each other.

“I can’t believe you requested a new partner for this mission.”

Rooster laughs. “We hated each other, but you know what? I’m really glad they didn’t grant my request.”

“Me, too.”

———————————————————————

I wake up in a hospital bed, the last thing I remember is the doctors on the helicopter, taking care of me and Rooster.

Jake rises from his spot in his chair as soon as he notices I’m awake.

“Hey,” he says. “How are you feeling?”

“Alright,” I say, wincing as I sit up.

Jake immediately protests, telling me to sit back down, but I ignore him.

“Is Rooster okay?” I ask.

Jake's brow furrows a little. “He’s fine. The doctors put him in the next room over.”

I nod, settling back against the pillows.

“What happened to you two out there?”

“Long story.”

Jake nods. “You can tell me later.”

“How bad is it?” I ask, lifting up my sheets to see underneath, a large bandage is wrapped around my middle.

“Some internal bleeding and a wicked scar. You’ll be grounded for at least 8 weeks.”

I throw my head back with a groan. “8 weeks?”

Hangman smiles. “Yeah, but don’t worry. You’ll have your new friend Rooster to keep you company.”

I scowl at him. "We're hardly friends."

Jake shakes his head. "That's not what I heard. The medics said it was impossible for them to do their jobs because you two kept freaking out asking if the other was okay. In fact, Rooster woke up an hour ago and has been asking to see you ever since."

"He has?" I ask.

Jake nods. “Mavs over there with him right now… what are you doing?”

I’ve pushed off my blankets and am trying to get out of bed, when Jake is gently grabbing my shoulders to stop me.

“I want to see him.”

“No, get back in bed. I’ll go get him.” Jake guides me back into bed, holding his hands up towards me for a moment and continuously glancing over his shoulder as he leaves like he’s making sure I don’t go anywhere. 

I roll my eyes and he leaves. I drink the glass sitting on the nightside table while I wait and a few minutes later, Jake returns. Rooster is following close behind him, shirtless with his arm bandaged and resting in a sling. 

An involuntary smile spreads across my face, as soon as I see him. 

“Hey,” I say. 

“Hi.” Rooster smiles back at me and sits down on the edge of my bed. 

I glance up at Jake, finding his presence in the room uncomfortable. His eyes are flicking between us at a rapid pace.

"I'll be right back," he says, turning and exiting the room.

Rooster and I look back at each other and chuckle.

"You're okay?" I ask, it sounds like a mix between a question and an optimistic fact.

Rooster nods. "You?"

"All good." I push myself up in the bed, determined to sit up next to Rooster. Rooster has a worried look on his face, but doesn't say anything, just resting his arm behind my back to help hold me up.

I’m a little out of breath form the effort and Rooster rubs my back in reassuring circles, while I catch hold of it again.

"Thanks," I murmur, looking up at him.

His brown eyes meet mine and I feel myself sinking into them. I reach my one hand up, brushing my fingers against his cheek.

Rooster's lips part slightly and all of a sudden I can't stop staring at them. They look so soft. I lean forward and Rooster does the same, I close my eyes as our lips brush. I inhale, reopening my eyes to look at him.

I realize what we're about to do and from the look in Rooster's eyes he does, too.

His hand comes up to brush the hair out of my face, his hand moving to cup the back of my neck.

Rooster pulls my face closer, our lips colliding together in a heated kiss.

I reach up with my own hands, one of them sliding around his waist and the other slips itself into the hair on the nape of his neck.

"What the fuck?"

Rooster and I pull away so quickly that it sends a spark of pain up my side.

I look to the doorway and see Jake standing there, Phoenix, Bob, and Coyote write behind him.

"I swear to god if you hadn't just gotten shot I would beat the shit out of you right now." Jake comes storming towards Rooster and I put a hand out to stop him. "Is that what this is? You seduced my sister the second you got a moment alone with her?"

I scoff. "Jake, he did not seduce me."

"I didn't?" Rooster asks.

I turn to him, smacking him in his good arm to knock the cocky grin off his face.

"Jake, please. I'm an adult, I can handle my own relationships."

Jake sighs, but nods.

"I brought the others in. They wanted to see how you were doing."

I turn to the others smiling.

Phoenix comes forward to give me a hug. “Your brothers full of shit,” she says. “He ran down to us in the waiting room saying that you and Rooster were gonna get together and we had to come see.”

I turn to Jake with a glare. “Then why were you so mad?"

Jake throws his hands up in defence. "l thought I was just going to walk in on you guys making heart eyes at each other, not full on making out.”

A phone buzzes and Jake pulls his out of his pocket, his expression falling.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “It’s just a text from mom and dad, they said they hope you feel better soon.”

I feel tears prick the back of my eyes but am able to hold them back. “They’re not coming?”

Jake shakes his head.

I nod and Rooster’s palm rests on my thigh while Phoenix’s grabs my hand in hers.

I hear a collection of apologies from everyone, but shrug.

“It’s fine, at least you guys are here.”

“That’s right,” Bob says. “And we’re not going anywhere.”

A nurse pokes his head in from the hallway. “Visiting hours end in forty-five minutes.”

“We’re not going anywhere for another forty five minutes,” Bob corrects.

We all let out a laugh.

“C’mon,” Coyote says. “Let’s go raid the vending machines for the good candy. Any special requests?” He points at me and Rooster in particular.

Rooster shrugs. “Anything with chocolate.”

I nod. “I’m good with anything.”

Coyote grabs Bob on his way out. “I’m going to need some cash,” he says to him.

Phoenix chuckles. “Come on, Hangman.” She stands up and grabs my brother by the arm.

“Hold on, you better keep your hands to yourself while I’m gone.” Jake points at us, but Phoenix is already shoving him out the door.

I mouth a "Thank you" to her and she smiles, before shutting it behind her.

“Sorry about Jake,” I say to Rooster.

“No worries.” His hand goes to cup my cheek. “Where were we?” he asks.

I grin, leaning in to kiss him again.

“So is this like a thing, now?” I ask.

“Only if you want it to be.”

“I do.”

“Good. I do, too.”

Rooster and I kiss again, taking our time with it this time. We only pull away when the door clicks open, but apparently it’s not fast enough, because I hear Jake’s voice yell out an exasperated, “Oh, c’mon!”