Chapter Text
When Mav finally cracked his eyes open, he could faintly hear the noise of machinery beeping, and the sound of his own breathing- like his flight mask was still on?
He could faintly hear whirring in the background which was weird, because he was definitely on his back on something comfy.
He batted his eyes and pulled up a hand to rub the sleep out of them, there was tension when he raised his arm however. Mav willed his eyes to wake themselves, staring at the multiple IV's and other tubes sticking out of his arms. It came back to him all at once...
The flashing signals, the voice in his ear begging him to eject as he caught himself in a flat spin. It was like losing Goose all over again, just the vague memory of the incident made his skin prickle and hair stand up on end. Mav let out a shaky sigh as he tried to get his barings, not only was he in the hospital again but this wasn't the first time he'd crashed during a test flight, the entire Darkstar incident replaying in his mind.
Mav pulled the oxygen mask off of his mouth, then he turned his head, and Ice was there -fast asleep- in an uncomfortable plastic hospital chair, head pillowed on the mattress of his bed. He looked peaceful, but he was very visibly exhausted, there were dark circles underneath red-rimmed eyes, and his glasses were off and in his jacket pocket. He was still in his jacket-must've gotten there in a rush- Mav suspected.
He smiled to himself, hand slinking itself up Ice's arm to gently nudge him awake, almost immediately he shot up, eyes wide and bloodshot as he stared at his husband.
"Pete!-" Ice threw himself onto Mav, wrapping his arms around his neck tightly. "Good god don't ever scare me like that ever again you crazy bastard!" he cried out.
"Wha- you always say that though." Mav chuckled.
"I mean it this time, this was different..." Ice sat back down, eyebrows drawn tightly together and wrinkling his brow.
"How different?" Mav asked, returning the look of concern. "What's wrong?"
"Pete I..." the voice that Ice was giving him at the moment wasn't Iceman -it was vulnerable, it was Tom- his Tommy. And the thought that not only was he much more concerned than he was with a normal punch-out -which happened a lot- but something on his face told him that this wasn't any ordinary emergency ejection. "Before I tell you, I need to tell you about Cain..."
"Tch- what about that asshole?" Mav scoffed.
"He never showed up to your flight test." Tom told him flatly.
"He fucking what?!" Mav blanched. "How- he runs the damn thing!"
Tom just stared in silence, unsure of his next words, Pete's face grew paler the moment Ice went quiet.
"What?" Pete felt the blood leaving his face "What happened when I ejected? Tom please, tell me!"
"You- when you ejected, your leg got caught in the aircraft frame , it collapsed which caused it to partially explode. And your leg... jesus christ... Peter I'm so sorry..." Tom put his eyes in his hand, willing himself not to cry to no avail.
Pete's hand began to shake as he reached for the sheet covering his lower half, he peeled back the thin layer of fabric, his left was perfectly fine. But...when he pulled the sheet over his right, he was met with a heavily bandaged stump below the knee.
"Oh my god... OH MY GOD-" Mav wailed eyes already beginning to water as he sobbed loudly, cries carrying across the room and into the hallway. Tom leaned forward to comfort him, wrapping arms around him tightly. Pete felt himelf tremor violently, heart monitor beeping out of control as he gasped in despair.
"MY LEG- MY FUCKING LEG- IT'S-IT'S-GONE IT'S GONE TOM MY LEG IS GONE!" he howled impossibly loud, several nurses running into the room in a panic, Ice stood up from his chair and promptly shoo'ed them away with a strong finger pointing towards the door, he wasn't about to have medical staff breathing down his neck just because they felt the need to insert themselves in a very personal matter.
"Get out!" he barked at the personnel "Get the hell out, that's an order, we will call you when we need you!" Ice yelled at them in his Admiral voice, a voice commanding respect and instant action to which they delivered.
The staff quickly saluted and shuffled out of the room, tails between their legs and a guilty look in their eyes from being told off. Door quietly shutting behind them.
Truth be told, Tom had no idea what he was going to do with Pete, who was weeping violently in him arms, he knew there was a very large chance he would be grounded.
Permanently.
Tom also knew how it would shatter him to be grounded, it pained him immensely just to think about taking Pete out of the sky- after all, you can't keep a bird out of the sky, until you've clipped their wings. And he knew for whatever reason it was that Cain didn't show up, he was avoiding the situation, he wanted answers, and he wanted them right the hell now.
He'd just barely been able to calm down Mav, who now lay on his back gently hiccuping as he wrapped himself around Ice's form, shuddering as he cried. Tom could only hold him as the initial shock set in, he had a very similar reaction when Pete was still asleep, he keenly remembers shedding his glasses and letting tears flow freely into his palms. A soft, weepy voice broke the ambience of the room.
"What am I- gonna do?" Mav sniffed, looking up at Ice with watery eyes, if Tom's heart wasn't already aching for his husband, it just shattered into a million pieces as he saw how broken Pete looked. "I c-can't fly anymore, can I?"
"I don't know..." Tom sighed, "But I made you a promise when I married you, that I'd never put you behind a desk- and keep you in the sky."
"How the hell am I supposed to pilot with one fucking leg?" Mav grit his teeth in anger, eyes still damp with tears. "I'm gonna have to relearn to walk Tom, let alone fly again."
The front door swung open, as two grown men rushed into the room, out of breath and sweaty, Mav and Ice lifted their head to look over at Bradley and Jake, who look liked they'd run the mile to get there.
"Mav!-" Bradley gasped, rushing over to his side and kneeling down to look at him.
"Whoa- easy Baby Goose, easy." Mav soothed, Bradley practically threw himself over him, hugging Pete tightly like he was going to leave if he stopped holding on to him. "Are you okay bud?"
"Who cares if I'm ok Mav?!" he shouted, "Are you okay, I heard you had an insane accident, and they had to put you under!"
*
"Well I..." Mav paused, trying to take in the various expressions being thrown at him, it was all too much, the staring, the fucking pity. He hated it, he hated feeling so helpless and weak, he would never fly again, he didn't even know if he'd ever walk again, it all made him feel like finding the nearest window and taking a swan dive out of it.
*
Tears began to run again, tracking down his cheeks, Mav didn't bother wiping them away, just rolling his head to the side so that he was facing away from the room.
"Pops, did they have to operate on you?" Jake chimed in, "What did they do to you?"
Maverick huffed, growing impatient and irritated with the onslaught of questions, rather that opening his mouth for fear of a crackling voice responding back, he grabbed tightly onto his sheet and threw it off of his legs, revealing the one and half he now had.
Jake's hand flew to his mouth, not surprising, everyone so far had a similar reaction to various degrees.
"Christ..." Bradley murmured, hand gently covering his mouth. "I know I can't say anything you haven't heard before, but I'm sorry, I wish I could've been there."
Tom grumbled something under his breath, speaking up when all of them turned to see what he was saying.
"Problem was Brad, the person who should have been there wasn't."
"What do you mean?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Cain was in charge of this project, and yet when we were running the test flight, Admiral Simpson and myself were the only ones who showed up." Ice told them.
"God I hate him, he's always running off somewhere when he's in charge of something." Jake growled through his teeth. "I ran into him the other day at the Hard Deck, he was saying something about the project not getting done on time- and something about just cutting their losses."
"What." the other three harmonized, locking eyes with Jake all at once, he put his hands up in defense, thinking they were about to jump him.
"Why didn't you tell us this sooner?" Ice asked, tone cold and beginning to grow angry. "You're telling me he knew this project was unsafe, and yet he did it anyway?" Ice's hand gripped the plastic railing of Mav's hospital bed.
Bradley ran his hands through his hair, letting out a groan as he took in the entire situation unfolding.
"So, Cain doesn't show up to his own project, knowing it was unsafe and putting Mav's life on the line. And now Mav is missing a leg because of this dumbass's negligence. " Bradley laid the story out to the best of his ability, "So what the hell do we do now, there's a pretty big chance Cain is well aware of Mavs crash, I doubt he knows about the amputation though."
Pete stared at Bradley, thoughts boiling in his head, everything was too overwhelming, so he simply lifted his head and stared at the ceiling. Tom grazed a rough palm across his face, Mav met him halfway with his own and intertwined their fingers.
"God this is all just- SO FUCKED UP!" Bradley yelled, voice reverberating off of the hospital room walls, Jake laid a supporting hand on his shoulder, to which Bradley leaned into.
"One thing at a time Brad, we can't just barge into Cain's office and accuse him of sabotaging his flight, we don't have any proof." Jake explained.
"Oh we have plenty of fuckin' proof." Mav snarked, gesturing to his freshly bandaged stump.
"Easy love." Tom squeezed his hand gently, "I have the most authority in the room, so it's up to me what we do with Cain boys."
"I guess that's true, so what are you gonna do?" Brad shrugged.
"I think I'm going to call him in for a little visit, it's long overdue..." his eyes darkened, and both Brad and Jake felt their hair on the back of their neck stand at attention, whatever was going to happen to Cain - whether he deserved it or not, which he did- he wasn't coming out unscathed.
Mav made eye contact with Ice's eyes, it might have been sadistic sure, but he couldn't wait for Cain to get what was coming, he was going to suffer for what happened. Cutting corners was no excuse for you test pilot to lose a leg, and even if they managed to keep the situation under wraps for the time being, it wouldn't take long for the others to find out, especially when their teacher comes back with one less leg.
If he ever did return to Top Gun that was.He felt like a newborn all over again, being watched over, knowing how he lost the thing he loved most, made his Husband cry, and took away his leg.
Oh, Cain was going to pay.