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Notes:

Info from Wikipedia: Emetophobia is a phobia that causes overwhelming, intense anxiety pertaining to vomit. This specific phobia can also include subcategories of what causes the anxiety, including a fear of vomiting, being vomited on, or seeing others vomit.[1] Emetophobes might also avoid the mentions of "barfing", vomiting, "throwing up", or "puking".[2]

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter 3

-

Bradley woke up very hungover and even more confused.

When he opened his eyes he realized he was in his bed, staring at his mint green wall.

The last thing he remembered was deciding to go to the Beach, and then deciding to try to drown himself.

He really couldn't remember shit past the first touch of cold water.

He seriously doubted they had hangovers in Afterlife, so he was probably alive.

Did his drunk self change his mind last minute?

If so, he was impressed he even somehow managed to get himself back home.

It would make more sense to wake up somewhere in the sand on the beach, considering how much he drank last night.

Then he heard snorting.

It wasn't really loud, but to his hangover head it was too loud. 

He started looking for a source of that noise.

He found it immediately.

Mitchell was sleeping while sitting in his desk chair, next to his bed.

Almost like he fell asleep watching Bradley in that chair.

Fuck.

Bradley also realized he wasn't wearing the same thing he did yesterday.

Mitchell not only got him home yesterday, but he also probably helped him change too.

Double fuck.

Bradley wanted to start crying, but instead he got up as quietly as he could, and went to the bathroom.

He couldn't deal with Mitchell right now.

And more importantly he really needed to puke.

-

Pete woke up to the sounds of vomiting.

For a second he panicked when he didn't see Bradley in his bed, but then he realized Bradley was definitely the source of noise that woke him up.

He couldn't believe he fell asleep in that chair, but last night took such an emotional turn he was both physically and mentally exhausted.

He simply wasn't able to keep the watch all night like he originally planned.

He counted to five to mentally prepare himself for dealing with hangover Bradley, before getting up and going to the bathroom.

-

Bradley regretted that he didn't end up dead last night.

His head was killing him, everything hurt and he hated vomiting.

Obviously nobody who's normal liked to vomit, but Bradley always felt so disgusted by vomiting in general, that Edith joked more than one time that he probably has emetophobia.

Bradley didn't have emetophobia! 

He wasn't scared of barfing, and he could easily handle talking about it. He could even handle other people puking, if he had to. He would just hate that.

And he hated even more when he was the one puking.

When it finally felt like he was done, he decided he would lay down on the bathroom floor for a minute or five or more.

He didn't feel like walking back to his room where Mitchell was.

Only before he could hit the floor, someone caught him.

"Hey, no sleeping in the bathroom on the floor." Mitchell said softly. He also used something to clean up Bradley's face. 

Bradley didn't even notice he had some vomit next to his mouth. 

Despite himself he started crying.

-

Great, he made Bradley cry.

Before he could figure out what to respond to, Bradley choked out. "Go away, I don't need you." He closed his eyes. "Just fucking leave already. I don't want you here."

He sounded like he was trying to convince himself of that.

Pete was heart-broken.

He was the one who made his baby so miserable.

"What do you remember from last night?" He asked firmly because depending on that answer he would know where to start.

Bradley was so confused by that question he almost stopped crying. "The last thing I remember is that I went to the beach for a swim." His kid lied to his face.

Bradley clearly didn't remember that be already confessed, that he wasn't planning on swimming at that beach.

Pete decided to leave that problem for now.

He couldn't deal with everything at the same time.

"I stopped you from getting into the water completely." Pete just said. "And then we had a talk, that made me realize there's a huge misunderstanding between us here." 

"You can't use against me, what I said while drunk! I don't even remember that conversation." Bradley sounded so panicked.

Pete ignored him for now. "Bradley listened to me, pulling your application was never about me not wanting you anymore. I did it because I love you so much, and I want you so much in my life, I couldn't bear if anything happened to you, and being in the Navy is a demanding, dangerous and thankless life choice most of the time. This isn't the kind of life I wanted for you. Honestly, if I didn't love flying so much, I would probably quit The Navy after your Dad died. I almost did it anyway." He sighed heavily before continuing talking. "But if it was just about me, I would accept your choice, only it wasn't just about me. I mostly did it because your mother asked me. She wanted me to make sure you will live longer than your father did at least. She reay didn't want you to serve at all, and she really didn't want for you to die young because of the Navy like Goose. Bradley, I loved her so much, so how could I deny her dying wishes? I know I went about it wrong way, I shouldn't have talked to you, and I'm so sorry about that. But I swear I did it out of love." 

After two minutes of silence Bradley started wailing.

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

I want you to stay

'Til I'm in the grave

'Til I rot away, dead and buried

'Til I'm in the casket you carry

If you go, I'm goin' too

'Cause it was always you

(Alright)

And if I'm turnin' blue, please don't save me

Nothin' left to lose without my baby

Birds of a feather

We should stick together, I know

I said I'd never

Think I wasn't better alone

Can't change the weather

Might not be forever

Brids of a feather - Billie Eilish

-

She met Nick at the expensive bar in Winchester part of the Las Vegas Strip.

It wasn't her usual kind of place, and it clearly wasn't his kind of place even more.

"If you want to cheat on your wife it would be easier if you took off your wedding band." It was the first thing she told him, after watching his hilariously pitiful attempt at flirting with an extremely hot tall ginger woman, that Mav wouldn't mind hitting on herself, but she didn't look gay at all, so she wouldn't risk trying.

"I didn't want to sleep with her, but I promised my mother I would at least try." He said seriously, while looking at his whiskey's glass.

It was so unexpected she started laughing, and that made him realize what he said. "It's not what it sounds like." He added and looked at her finally for the first time.

While it annoyed her that he had to look down to look at her, on the other hand it stoked her ego, when she could immediately tell he found her hot.

"I won't judge." She lied. "But personally, I'm not interested in married men."

"I'm not married." He said that as if he wanted to start crying. "Not anymore." He added quietly, she almost didn't hear that over the bar noises, so she leaned in a little closer. "She's dead. My wife is dead." He closed his eyes. "It's only been six months, I couldn't bring myself to take it off yet."

Fuck, the guy didn't look like he could be much older than her.

Way to go Maverick, accuse tragically young and hot widow of being a cheater.

Her first instinct was to say "I'm sorry." But she hated when people were telling her that after her Dad died. Then she hated that phrase even more when people were telling that after her Mother's suicide. She finally started to despise that phrase when people were telling her that after her Grandmother's heart attack. She was suddenly nineteen and totally alone in the whole wild world. Them being sorry didn't change a fucking thing.

It was probably rude, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to say "I'm sorry about your wife.".

"Maybe it's an orphan in me, but I actually find this more adorable than disturbing that you're so close with your mother that she would send you on "the go have sex with strangers" quest." She said shamelessly.

He actually laughed at her stupid joke. "My mother is a devout Catholic. She definitely didn't have that in mind, since it was more of a "You shouldn't raise that little boy on your own, at last try to meet a nice lady to ask on one date, honey." quest." Then he added more seriously. "And we're not that close actually. If we were she would know it's way too early for me to try, since my only other experience before Carole was making out and giving a hand job to a guy from our high school."

Mav knew as soon as she heard that, she would probably end up sleeping with this guy.

It felt like she owned that poor fellow bisexual something to help him get in the game.

Not to mention he was so fucking hot.

-

Mav didn't plan to run from the hotel room before Nick woke up, but both of them ended up drinking so much more than she planned, and she overslept somehow.

So she just took her things as fast and as quietly as possible.

She barely managed to make it on time to Nellis.

She figured out it was probably for the better, the guy was a photographer with a little kid and he just lost his wife.

They definitely wouldn't work in the long run, no matter how much they ended up getting along that night.

Then a few weeks later she realized she was pregnant.

-

Nick's photography studio was in the Arts District, just like he said, somewhere between her third and fourth shot of vodka.

It still took her over an hour to find it, since he didn't mention the extract address.

It was called Goose's Studio.

Bit corny but it fit the guy that owned it.

"I'm pregnant." She told him as soon, as she entered. "And I fucking believed you when you told me "don't worry, I'm clean and I'm pretty sure I have lazy swimmers, since it took us three years to make Bradley." after the condom broke."

The coffee mug ended up crashing on the floor.

And she noticed he wasn't alone.

Awkward.

Thankfully he only had some random clients for company not his kid son or worse his Catholic Mother™.

-

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you didn't sleep with anyone else after?" He asked a few minutes after his clients felt.

The woman clearly didn't want to leave, after realizing she was in the middle of a real life telenovela episode, thankfully the guy had way more tact and he dragged her out pretty quickly.

"If this is your subtle way of asking if you're the father, then yes, I'm 100% sure baby is yours. I don't actually go to bed with strangers from bars that often. Bedside you there was only a cute platinum blonde with a date that could technically work, but since she didn't have a dick, I will be very impressed if she will turn out to be the father. Damn, I might even start my own cult or something then."

-

"We have to get married." He said after she confessed that after a few days of going back and forth, she decided that she wanted to keep the baby in the end, and that she didn't really expect everything from him, but it wouldn't be fair to keep the baby without letting father know.

She was a little bit surprised, by her own final decision.

Unlike most of her fellow women in the military, she didn't have that strong opinion on having children.

It's not like she didn't want kids, but she also didn't go out of her way to try and have them.

She liked children, and children liked her.

Flying just always took priority over everything else.

She always kind of figured out that if she met the right someone she might have one late baby, just before menopause.

But if it didn't happen she would also be okay with that.

Only after that condom broke in that hotel room, and she ended up pregnant way ahead of her imaged schedule, she realized she actually wanted to keep the baby, even if it didn't make any sense from a logical point of view.

She knew when she made that decision that keeping the baby would probably end up with her getting an involuntary discharge due to being a single mother.

"We don't have to." She said, because she made that decision, she won't force him to marry her. He is a civilian photographer, she won't–

"We have to, I know that it's been over a decade since the federal court ruling declared a throwing woman for pregnancy unconstitutional, and they would allow you to remain in service while pregnant and after giving birth regardless, but I also know how this looks in reality. If we don't get married, even if you provide perfect Family Care Plans, most likely your career will end up being more or less dead."

She blinked.

"That's a lot of information for a civilian photographer to know." She said seriously, and they both knew she already knew he wasn't a clueless civilian he pretty much pretended to be that night.

Fuck, that's just her luck.

'Please be some ex-Army guy, or maybe ex-Coast Guard guy.' She thought desperately. 'Please just don't be from FUCKING Navy.'

She would be happy with him being from Marine Corps even.

He looked away. "I deliberately didn't mention something that night. Mainly because I don't like talking about what happened to my leg, and also because you said you were in the Air Force, but I haven't always been a photographer." He signed heavily. "I used to be a RIO in the Navy."

Well, that's just great.

Of all the fucking random guys

in Las Vegas, she ended knocked up by a guy who used to fly for the Navy, just like her dead Father.

She was Freud's wet dream.

Only in my darkest moments can I see the light

I think I'm prone to getting blinded when it's bright

Well, this December, I'll remember

Want you to see it when I do, ooh

I'm alright if you're alright

And I'm okay if you're okay

It's this state in this state I'm living in

It's just a little bit, it's just a little bit

Lonely in this home, it's always colder on your own

My darlin', I, I let the season change my mind

This December - Ricky Montgomery

-

-

One of the worst nights of Jake's life started with a simple question.

"I need a favor, you're sober right?"

It was surprisingly warm Saturday evening in December, so almost all plebes from Naval Academy were still gone using town liberty (including his roommate Javy) when Natasha Trace came to his room without even knocking.

Normally Jake would joke about the rudeness of that or how he was underage and he would never drink illegally, but Natasha looked like shit.

She was pale sweaty and holding her stomach, so he just answered her. "Yes. Do you need me to drive you to the hospital or something?"

He asked right away, because he can be nice and he never really saw her look that bad before, so maybe he was a little worried about her.

"What? No, I'm fine. Don't be ridiculous." She said like she didn't look half dead.

"You don't look fine."

"I'm fine! It's just... I just started my period. It's not that bad usually, but today it's hell." She whispered while looking away after he gave her a look.

"Okay, do you need me to buy tampons, pads or anything like that?" She looked surprised at that offer, and Jake felt very offended by that, but she started moaning before he could say anything about it.

"Just shut up and let me talk." She whined. "I'm fine on the period front, but I can't drive like that and promised Bradley I would pick him up."

Jake only then noticed she was holding the car keys in the hand that wasn't clutching her stomach. "Can you pick him up for me?"

He rolled his eyes at that, because of course this is about Bradshaw.

"He is a big boy, I'm sure he can find his way home."

Because fine, Jake is aware that he is what some people might consider acquired taste, but he really tried particularly in these early weeks, and Bradley Bradshaw literally took one look at him and he decided he didn't like him, as if Jake's very existence triggered him.

"I'm sure one of the guys will give him a ride or something." He added after Natasha gave him a look this time.

"No, because he went on a date and it's in Washington. I tried calling him so he wouldn't wait for me and get a taxi or something but I think his phone is dead."

Natasha gave him a pleading look and with how pathetically she already looked, it was very effective on Jake. He already knew he was going to waste his evening on that tasteless asshole Bradshaw, instead of studying (those Hawaiian shirts are fashion crime).

"Please, I don't want him to miss curfew because of me." Natasha didn't even need to add that.

"I'll really owe you one for this." And she definitely didn't need to add that, but since she did, Jake would be a fool not want a favor from her.

"Fine. I'll hold you to that. Just tell me where to pick him up. "

"You're not Natasha." Is the first thing Bradshaw said after he got in the car. He looked so very confused that Jake had trouble refraining from laughing.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Did you steal her car?"

So Bradley Bradshaw is one of those really stupid drunks. Jake thought. This might be fun actually.

"Yes, I stole her car, and came to the one place she was supposed to be right now, because that is more likely than her just asking me to pick you up instead of her."

And Bradley looked as if he was actually considering this possibility, at least until Jake started laughing, then he mumbled. "Right, that was a stupid question."

"You're really drunk, aren't you?" Jake asked rhetorically. He saw Bradshaw staggering the car earlier but still, he didn't expect that level of drunkenness from Mister Perfect. Bradshaw just flipped him a bird in response.

"I guess the date didn't work out." Jake added because he couldn't help himself.

"It is none of your business. Besides, so what if I'm drunk? I'm over 21! I can drink if I want!" Bradshaw sounded angry now.

Bradshaw is stupid and angry drunk, this won't be fun.

But fine, Jake could handle this, so he stopped himself from making some old man joke, because the fact that he's on the older side of plebs seems to be a very sore spot for Bradshaw.

Jake decided to be nice, he definitely didn't joke about it, because he never saw Bradshaw that drunk before and he might be worried about his reaction.

"Just please fasten your seat belt, so we can leave and not miss the curfew." He just said instead, because he realized Bradshaw had no intention to do so. "It's over an hour away, so we only have a few minutes extra."

"Fuck you, you can't tell me what to do Mav!"

Mav? Who the fuck is Mav?

Jake just looked at Bradshaw while blinking, because dude not only turned fully into a moody teenager from alcohol, but was also having some kind of hallucination or something?

"I'm not Mav? I'm Jake." He tried to be reasonable. "This is literally the law. I'm not starting this car until you do so."

"Whatever." Bradshaw answered with an eye roll but he actually did buckle up, so Jake started driving.

"Wait, why did Natasha ask you to do this? Did something happen to her?" Bradshaw suddenly asked after a few minutes of silent drive.

"She's fine. She just started her period and it's a rather bad one, but she's fine beside that."

Bradshaw relaxed his head against the window again after hearing that, and after a while he started snoring.

The last thing Jake remembers is mostly that snoring, and that he looked at the time thinking they would easily make it before curfew.

He didn't know that they would not even get to leave Washington that night.

The thing is he ended up not remembering the crash, but apparently this is the case sometimes, and this is not something to worry about.

Jake didn't really mind that, because he always wished he could also forget what he did remember. All that blood, noise and pain.

He knows, but doesn't remember, that at the junction they were hit by a drunk driver who ignored a red light.

Apparently there was nothing he could have done to avoid that, and Jake wasn't sure he believed that, but he really didn't remember anything about the crash, so he tried to believe official reports that all the blame was on the other driver.

(He felt guilty anyway.)

What he ended up remembering is waking up in a car thinking his head and left arm were killing him.

Someone was screaming outside the car (Please shut up.) and he could smell the sharp stench of petrol and blood.

He also remembered realizing the car is wrecked and thinking Natasha is going to kill him.

And then he remembered looking at the bloodied and stiff Bradshaw, and forgetting about his own pain because Bradshaw looked like he was dead.

He remembered blooding (there was so much blood everywhere) his shaky hands while trying to find his pulse and swearing when he couldn't.

"Don't you die on me you fucking asshole."

The last thing he remembers before darkness came is thinking he killed Bradshaw and now Natasha was really going to kill him.

Jake was used to waking up in a hospital bed, so at first he didn't panic.

Even when he noticed that his left arm was in a cast, he still didn't panic.

Then he looked around the room, and noticed Bradshaw lying in the next bed, all in bandages like a mummy, recalled last night and he perhaps did panic a little.

He almost killed Bradshaw, his social life was over.

So a slight panic was very much in order.

The nurse who came to reassure him was young and beautiful, but after having a panic attack in front of her, he was unlikely to have a chance with her.

After he calmed down, they had a typical conversation with questions like ‘how many fingers am I holding up?’ and ‘do you know your name?’ to see if his brain was working.

"Do you remember what happened?"

Yes?

No?

Kinda?

When she noticed that he was considering his answer she added. "This is normal if you don't remember everything."

"Car crash?" She nodded in response.

"I don't remember crashing, but I know that I was driving, and then I woke up in a wrecked car. Bradshaw was fully covered in blood. Is he all right?" As soon as he asked about it he felt stupid.

Bradshaw was literally drowning in bandages next to him and he asked if he was all right.

"Don't worry, you and your friend seem to be very lucky." She smiles, but he can tell she's hiding something.

"And don't worry about the naval academy." She changed the topic. "They were informed of the situation right away because you both had emergency contacts set up as staff from the academy. They can't come, but they said to not worry about your absence, it will be excused."

Normally Jake would feel a little offended by the sympathy in her voice, but he's too focused on the fact that Bradshaw also has no one private he can set up as an emergency contact.

He is always surrounded by people, does he seriously not have normal contact in case of an accident?

Not even Natasha? They seemed to have been non-stop connected since the beginning of the academic year.

Although, all in all, it only has been a few months.

Fuck, speaking of Natasha, he really needed to call her.

He put on his best smile. "Is it possible for me to get my phone back?"

After a little negotiation he got his phone.

A phone that was almost discharged, because it turned out that Natasha and surprisingly also Javy tried to contact him practically all night.

He was most surprised by the number of worried text messages from Javy.

He did not expect that he would care so much about him.

His last message was from an hour ago. "We know about the accident but they didn't tell us much and they won't let me and Natasha leave to come to the hospital. Please get back to me when you are able to"

Jake definitely did not expect Javy to want to visit him in hospital.

He texted Javy "it's fine and i'm fine" (He didn't say anything about Bradshaw because he was still laying like mummy next to him, so he couldn't really say that he's fine).

He tried to force himself to call Natasha next, since she didn't text, only tried to call him, but before he could do this, Javy started calling.

It was almost like he started calling the second he got his text.

Weird.

Weird, but nice. He was a little scared to call Natasha anyway. Not only he wrecked her car but also wrecked her best friend.

Any excuse was good to postpone that conversation.

So he picked a call from Javy, and that conversation was even weirder because Javy seemed so sincerely worried about Jake.

And it turned out that just before he was together with Natasha and they were worried together, but now she went to the bathroom.

He figured out that he will allow himself to be a coward this time and will take the easy way out, so he tried to finish that conversation fast, before Natasha could come back and yell at him.

He asked Javy to pass everything on to Natasha, not that he knew a lot to be honest and that he will call when Bradshaw wakes up, but right now he's getting tired.

He fell asleep almost as soon as he finished talking, so he didn't even really lie by saying that he's tired.

He was woken up by Bradshaw talking to some other nurse.

-

-

-

-

-

Then he was quickly reassured by the fact that Bradshaw sounded reasonably functional.

Once the nurse left, there was an awkward silence between them, before Bradshaw asked to borrow Jake's phone to call Natasha, since his own phone didn't survive the crash.

Despite it feeling a little wrong, Jake let him have his phone since it's the least thing he could do for him after landing both of them in the hospital.

Jake turned his back to Bradshaw to give him the illusion of privacy, during that call, even though he could hear every word Bradshaw said, and could figure out from context most of Natasha's responses.

"You can call someone else if you want too. I didn't mind." He said when Bradshaw didn't move to give him back phone back, even after the call clearly ended.

That seemed to spook him. "I don't want to call anyone!" He said like he was trying to convince himself of that, before throwing Jake's phone back at him. And that was rude! They are already down to one phone and who knows for how long they will keep them here.

Not to mention Jake couldn't afford the replacement!

"Hey, Mister I don't want to call anyone, what's that then?" Jake said when he noticed Bradshaw put in some unknown phone number in his phone, but didn't end up calling. "Your date from last night's number? Maybe I should call her? Show her what the real good time looks like?" Jake added because he really can't stop himself sometimes.

"Fuck! Delete that fucking number! Now!!?" Bradshaw's sudden angry scream spooked Jake so badly he accidentally started calling this number, and he even dropped his phone on the hospital bed.

"Geez, chill! I'm deleting your failed date's number." He said as he picked up his phone, and canceled that call. Hopefully she wouldn't call back, because he didn't want to piss Bradshaw even more, by admitting what he accidentally clicked.

"Sorry." Bradshaw said after a moment, and Jake wondered what kind of drugs they gave him, because Bradshaw never apologized to him before. "I didn't mean to scare you." He added quietly.

"Fuck you. I wasn't scared." Jake lied.

"Sure, Jan." Bradshaw said, so Jake showed him the middle finger with a hand that wasn't in the cast. In response Bradshaw rolled his eyes at him and turned his back to Jake.

Before he could figure out what to respond verbally to that disrespect, Bradshaw's failed date started calling.

Jake rejected that incoming call.

She started calling again.

Jake rejected that call even faster.

He quickly texted "sorry, wrong numbers." before she could start calling again.

She texted back "Bradley?"

Fuck, I'm fucked. Fuck.

He looked at Bradshaw, he didn't dare to admit that he accidentally contacted that girl from yesterday. Considering how badly that date ended with Bradshaw getting so fucking drunk, he figured he was safe in assuming Bradley wasn't planning on meeting her again.

So he texted back impersonating Bradshaw. "Yes, but forget it. I'm in hospital so I must have suffered a momentary lapse in judgement by trying to contact you." He figured that was more or less what happened.

Since that date clearly was a disaster, he figured that, this girl wouldn't care.

Surprisingly he got a text back almost immediately.

"If you don't call me in the next five minutes to tell me if you're fine, I'll call Steven F. Thompson's personal number to find out if you're fine, and then I'll call Him."

What the fuck?

Steven F. Thompson's personal number?!?!

That's the current superintendent of the United States Naval Academy?!?

And who the fuck is this Him, that apparently more important than superintendent?!

Just who the fuck was Bradshaw on date with?!

Chapter 1: Pete's POV

Chapter Text

You don't say much

You don't say any more than you have to

Have you lost touch

With the ones you adore and sought after, yeah

And you don't know why

Yeah, they put a bullet through your heart

And told you not to cry

You know life should be beautiful

So come on out of your shadow for while

I wanna know where you go

When you're dreaming

I wanna see what you see

When your eyes close

And when it all goes down

Will you have a place to run?

Cause I don't know and I can't tell what you're thinking

So we'll just drive through the night

Till we find some kind of home

Thriving Ivory – Some Kind of Home

Little over six months after Carole died Penny showed up at Mav's door steps unexpectedly.

He came back from the base on his bike, when he noticed her waiting sitting on the front stairs. Pete's first thought was that he did make it home before Bradley, since he hasn't let her in. His second thought was that something bad had happened.

He hasn't seen Penny since the funeral, and as far as he knew she should be deep into her wedding preparations on the other side of California, so he skipped over pleasantries.

"Did something happen?" He just asked as he let her in. He tried to imagine what bad scenario would end up with her having to deliver news to him.

"Philip Buckley called me." Penny said quietly. He closed the door after her.

Mav didn't need to ask why his sister's husband would call Penny. He was living with her, when the whole Daniel thing happened, and it turned out that "You'll be dead to me if you join the Navy too" ultimatum has an exception that is 'My kid is sick, can you check if you could be a donor, please. You're not a match? Okay, goodbye.' So Penny's apartment phone number is probably the only way he knew how to try to get in touch with Maverick. Philip was just lucky he called before her wedding and her move to her future husband's house.

"What did he want?" He asked when Penny didn't say anything more.

"He's at the hospital. They had an accident." She paused before looking away. "Margaret and his sister didn't make it."

Pete didn't know how to feel about it. In every way but blood Carole was more his sister than Margaret. Because really, not counting Daniel's situation, he hasn't seen Margaret since he was 18 years old, so he shouldn't be affected by this, yet he was.

"What about the kids?" He asked instead to focus on something else than thinking about it.

Then he realized that he didn't even know if Daniel ever got better. Maybe Margaret only had one child left.

"They weren't involved. They are with their neighbors." Penny answered quietly. "Philip also said they have three kids now. Daniel, Maddie and Evan."

He was wondering if he should ask anything more, when Bradley showed up.

It turned out that Bradley wanted to go with him to Pennsylvania.

Maverick agreed, even if he probably shouldn't have, since he did have school, and he already missed a lot of days around the funeral, but he couldn't say no. Because while at first the kid was rather clingy, lately he was angry and didn't seem to want to have anything to do with Pete. He was honestly a little surprised he even wanted to go. Pete almost expected him to jump at the chance to spend a few days at Kazansky's place away from him.

"If you want to, I'll go with you to Pennsylvania too." Penny said while leaning on his bedroom door.

Mav paused in his packing. He wasn't sure what to replay, because as much as he wanted that, he knew he couldn't ask her for that.

"Penny thank you, but I can handle this. You got a wedding and–"

"About that?" She chuckled. "Wedding is cancelled." Before he could ask, she added. "Not because of this, I mean I guess in a way it is." She laughed nervously. "After that phone call from Philip, I went to Eric's office to tell him I would be flying here to tell you personally, and I found him fucking his secretary." Penny started laughing, before going on. "His secretary, month before the wedding, could he be any more cliche? So please let me go with you, because I can't go back to San Francisco just yet to deal with it, and I won't go to my parents' house to hear 'I told you so.'"

"I wish you had told me that earlier, maybe I wouldn't have agreed to Bradley going if I knew us having sex was on the table." He joked, because this situation was just ridiculous.

"Just for that inappropriate joke, sex is off the table." She said while laughing through her tears, so Pete knew that sex was definitely still on the table.

On the plane to Baltimore, after Penny fell asleep on Pete's shoulder, Bradley finally asked him about Margaret.

"How come you never mentioned having a sister before?" Pete knew that this question was coming, yet he still hasn't quite figured out the appropriate version for the twelve year old.

"After what happened to our dad, she became rather anti military, especially anti Navy, so she really didn't approve of my life choices. We weren't really in each other's lives anymore." He decided to settle on a simpler version of truth.

"Did you tell Mom about her?" Bradley asked quietly after a few seconds.

"Yes." Mav knew he probably should say something more, but he wasn't sure what Bradley was thinking at that moment, so he just answered his question.

They hit light turbulences, and he was worried Penny was going to wake up, but she slept like a rock.

"If you told Mom, then you definitely told Dad too, right?" Bradley asked after another minute or so of silence.

"Yes."

"Does Uncle Ice also know about her?" Bradley asked that so quietly that Mav almost didn't hear that.

To that question Mav didn't know the answer.

"I don't know." He said honestly. "I never told him, but he might know about it anyway. His father was in the Navy, and in general Ice knows a lot shit you wouldn't expect him to know. You know how he is." Mav winked at Bradley, but he clearly was upset about something, so he didn't even crack a smile in response. "What are you thinking?"

Bradley looked away. "It's not important."

"Baby everything about you is important to me."

"I'm not a baby. I'm twelve, that's practically a teenager." Bradley mumbled annoyed. When Mav fixed him with a stare that said 'don't change the subject', Bradley sighed before talking. "It's just weird that everyone knew about you having a sister, but me. Even Penny knew." Bradley send a jealous glare towards their sleeping companion.

"That's not something I like to talk about. Penny knows everything, because I was living with her, when Margaret contacted me a few years back." Mav explained. "Daniel, her oldest kid got sick, and she wanted me to check if I could be a donor. I did, but I wasn't a match, so she left. I haven't seen her since then."

I won't ever see her alive again.

Bradley seemed to need a few minutes to think over that new information.

"Did he get better?" He suddenly asked, when Mav was starting to doze off.

"What?" Mav asked, before his sleepy brain caught what Bradley was referring too. "Daniel? I don't know, but at least he's still alive." He didn't mention that he literally just found out about that a few hours earlier.

After a five hour drive from Baltimore to Hershey, that should only take two hours, but of course they ended up in traffic, they checked into the first hotel they saw.

It was a bit too expensive for Pete's liking, but he was too tired to care. Unlike his company he ended up awake for almost the whole flight. Almost every time he closed his eyee on that damn plane, he keep getting flashbacks from his childhood. The good and the bad ones.

They decided that Pete will go to the hospital with Penny, leaving Bradley in the hotel room to sleep off. He doubted Bradley was really that sleepy, since he slept through most of the flight like a baby, but he wasn't going to force his kid to go to any hospital if he didn't want to.

He wasn't really planning to leave Bradley for long anyway. He planned to check on Philip, find out where he actually lives and go back for Bradley to get him to meet three Buckley's kids, so the kids would be together while adults took care of planning two funerals.

He definitely didn't plan for what ended up happening.

Pete expected awkward talk about his sister's funeral with a man he saw twice in his life before.

He planned to maybe offer some long-term childcare, depending on how long Philip would have to stay at the hospital.

He never expected the nurse to direct him to the morgue, when he asked about where Philip Buckley was.

"I'm sorry, there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding." Penny said, holding his arm. She was probably the only thing stopping him from just falling on the floor. "I talked to Philip Buckley on the phone. He sounded fine. He said he was fine?"

"I’m sorry. I thought someone had phoned you." The nurse looked flustered. "His condition suddenly took a turn for the worse; he needed an emergency surgery. Every operation carries a risk, and unfortunately he passed away on the operating table. My condolences. I can call the doctor that was operating on him, I'm sure he'll be able to explain what happened better." She offered.

"No, thank you." Pete surprised himself by managing to find a voice at all. "It doesn't matter what happened."

It really didn't mattered.

What mattered was that Philip Buckley was dead.

Suddenly Pete remembered what Margaret said when she suddenly appeared in his life a few years ago for a brief moment.

"Peter you're my last hope. Philip's sister already checked and she's not a match either, and she's the only family that Philip got left."

Margaret was dead.

Philip's sister was dead too.

And now Philip was dead too.

It sadly turned out that Ice had to work practically the whole Friday, he even left before Jake woke up! But at least Jake could be very proud of himself because he didn't cry about it, even if he wanted to.

Bradley was extra nice to him throughout the day anyway, so it helped.

In general Bradley was almost suspiciously nice to Jake since his talk with Natasha the day before. Neither he or Natasha would tell Jake what exactly they talked about, but he's pretty sure Natasha might have threatened him in some way, or maybe Bradley was just relieved to finally talk and make up with his best friend.

Anyway Jake wouldn't complain about it.

-

It was an afternoon when Mav and Jerry were helping Bradley and Jake study in the living room, and unexpected guests showed up.

(Jake really hoped that they didn't end up having to repeat that year or anything like that. Jake thought that Bradley especially wouldn't take that well.)

Leonard "Wolfman" Wolfe and Rick "Hollywood" Neven. Or according to Bradley, Uncle Wolf and Uncle Wood. Or according to annoyed Mav, stupid Furry and Holly. Both retired from Navy over six years ago, so Jake wasn't that intimidated by them.

"What part of "Don't come yet" you didn't understand." Mav was annoyed when he opened the door.

"We were in the neighborhood." Wolfe said with a sheepish smile.

"You live four hours away Dogman." Mav answered with a glare.

"Give us a break, we're leaving for the Barabados tomorrow. We wanted to see your new baby before we go. Slider already met him, so if you won't let us it will be homophobic." Hollywood whined. "Not to mention Bradley-"

He stopped once he realized Bradley and "new baby" (JAKE WAS OFFENDED!) where actually in his line of sight. "Wow, he looks like your and Ice's lovebaby."

Jake was pretty sure he might have blushed a little.

Jerry laughed and clapped his hands. "That's what I said!"

Bradley looked like he was actually trying to melt into the couch to hide.

Mav just signed heavily. "I'll make you guys something to drink. Jake and Bradley, come help me in the kitchen. Jerry will entrain our guests."

Everyone knew it was just an excuse, since Jake couldn't really 'help', and Jake felt even more embarrassed.

"What am I, your butler?" Jerry joked, but moved towards newcomers.

"Hello, smarter yet more annoying Kazansky, I read your latest article about penguins." Wood clearly took a hint, and focused on Jerry, while he and Bradley evacuated to the kitchen with Mav.

"Baby, just say a word, and I'll kick them out." Mav said to Jake as soon as he closed the doors to the kitchen. "The same goes for you Bradley. We told them not to come. I can't believe they couldn't listen to such simple instructions." He complained while shaking his head.

"Ironic coming from you." Bradley dared to comment quietly and Mav swatted his arm gently for that. Then he said way louder. "If it's up to me, they can stay. I would rather have this awkwardness over already, then just postpone it."

Both of them looked at Jake.

He hated making those kinds of decisions.

He wasn't sure if he was up to that visit, but they were already here, and came all this way just to meet him and re-met Bradley. It would be rude to make them go back.

"It's fine." He said quietly.

Bradley raised his eyebrow at him, and Mav smiled sadly.

"Honey, you don't have to force yourself. They are the ones who showed up uninvited, so don't worry about them." Mav touched his face gently. "If you're not up to it, I'll make them go away, and they would understand that. They can be tone-deaf sometimes but they are good people."

"We can say that I wasn't up to it." Bradley offered, and Jake wanted to cry. Bradley was too nice sometimes!

"I want to try." He said honestly this time. "But I'm not sure how long-"

"Okay, how about this, we'll have a codeword." Mav interrupted him. "When you feel like you have enough, say that 'Larry texted me and he wants to call." Then you will have an excuse to leave, and I'll know that it's time to kick them out. That's okay with you, baby?"

"Okay, but don't call me baby in front of them!" Jake whined a little, but he was happy with the new plan.

"Why are you trying to feed into Pop's paranoia about that plushie?" Bradley asked. "You know he'll pop a vein if this will become our codeword."

"Don't be so dramatic." Mav laughed. "It's only for today."

(It became a standard family codeword for wanting to leave or make someone leave. Ice definitely wasn't happy about that.)

-

When they returned from the kitchen with teas, Jerry was in the middle of arm wrestling with Wolfe, while Hollywood was laughing and clearly trying to make Wolfe lose by tickling him.

"Traitor, why are you helping him." Wolfe grunted, and Hollywood just showed him his tongue like a child.

"You know that if you break Mouse's arm, and he ends up having to stay with us, Ice will literally kill you." Mav said loudly.

Wolfe immediately let Jerry win. Jerry didn't care that his victory wasn't exactly clear, and just whooped.

"Coward." Hollywood laughed even louder, before getting serious. "I see you actually did get us some teas. Does it mean that we can stay?"

"For now, but any of you make one joke about my height and you're out." Mav made 'I'm watching you' gesture with his fingers.

"Why must you rob me of small joys in life." Wolfe said. "And that didn't count!"

Mav rolled his eyes, before he placed the tray of teas on the table, before gesturing toward Jake to come closer. "Jake, those are your new stupid Uncles. Stupid Uncles, met my new amazing kid."

Wolfe showed Mav his middle finger for 'stupid uncles', while Hollywood was just staring at Jake like he was really amazing or something.

"Hi." Jake waved awkwardly, even though they were standing so close to each other that Jake could touch him if he reached out his hand.

"Hi." Hollywood waved back with a smile.

"And I believe that you might have met my old amazing kid before." Mav added, shifting attention to Bradley who was standing while hugging himself under the wall next to the huge oil painting of three ships in the sea.

"I think we have met once or twice." Wolfe joked. "But I think I might need a hug to make sure it's the same kid."

Bradley rolled his eyes, but he seemed to relax at Wolfe's words, and went to hug him.

-

Jake decided that he liked Wolf and Hollywood.

He didn't have to use his codeword, even though they stayed for a few hours.

They even ended up helping them study for most of the time (without complaining unlike Jerry).

Wolf was great at explaining math, and Hollywood was very helpful with literature.

And both of them seemed to like Jake.

They decided to leave or rather do a tactical retreat, when Ice called that he would be back soon. He was very pissed, when Mav told him that they showed up uninvited.

"Wait, we have almost forgotten." Hollywood said while they were saying goodbye by their car. "We brought something for Jake."

"You didn't have to." Jake said, because it was a polite thing to say, but he was curious what could have guys who never met him before, brought for him.

"Fuck, right." Wolf said, and then he went to open the car's trunk. Inside there was a bit of a mess, so Jake wasn't sure what he was supposed to be his gift.

"He's seventeen, if it's something inappropriate, I'll kill you myself." Mav said while standing between Wolf and Jake, clearly planning to check the gift, as if he was the TSA.

"Chill, mama Bear. I swear it's not inappropriate." Hollywood said. "We would never give a minor something inappropriate." He winked at Bradley while Mav wasn't looking (because he was so focused on what Wolf was looking for), so they probably did give teenage Bradley something inappropriate before.

Wolf finally pulled out a rather small unassuming cartoon box.

Jake felt a little disappointed. Damn he was becoming spoiled.

Mav immediately grabbed that box, and opened it discreetly so Jake and Bradley wouldn't be able to see shit.

"Oh." He just said clearly surprised, then smiled at Wolf. "I guess it's fine, even if I'm sure some of those are a little inappropriate."

"Don't worry, we kept the worst ones." Hollywood said.

"Wait, no way-" Bradley made a move to grab that box, but Mav tutted at him.

"Honey, this isn't for you." Their Dad said, but he was clearly joking. "This is Jakey's present." He said and offered the box towards Jake.

"This is bullying." Bradley whined, but he was smiling, so he probably wasn't really mad

Now Jake was interested.

He grabbed the mystery box, and Mav just laughed.

Inside there were photos of Mav, Ice and Bradley.

Rather embarrassing ones, or just ones where they came out weirdly or ugly looking.

It was prime blackmail material, even if nothing was really inappropriate.

The only one that could be almost inappropriate was the photo of younger Ice without a shirt with a pink tiara on his head. He was clearly hungover and had "Ice king" written on his bare chest in blue marker. He was showing middle finger to whoever was taking that photo. In the background there was someone sleeping on the floor, and Jake was 95% sure that it was Mav.

"You're welcome, kid." Wolf said as he closed the trunk.

That made Jake realize he hasn't actually thanked them.

"Thank you!" Jake screamed, and actually hugged Wolf. He could hear Mav, Bradley and Hollywood laughing at him, but he didn't care about it at the moment.

"Welcome to the family, kiddo." Wolf whispered while hugging back Jake.

"This is seriously the best non-parental gift ever!" Jake declared, because he couldn't forget how insanely Ice spoiled him during Christmas.

"Hey, I bought you a car!" Jerry suddenly said behind Jake. He didn't realize Jerry showed up outside too.

"I know that was a second best non-parental gift ever." Jake said seriously.

"Second?! What could be better?" Jerry asked, and Jake showed him the Ice king photo of his brother.

"Okay, this is better." Jerry said after blinking three times. "I need a copy." He tried to take away that photo from Jake, but Jake wouldn't let him!

"No! This is mine!" He glared at Jerry.

"I'll buy you another car and motorcycle, if you let me copy that photo." Jerry said seriously.

"Jerry!" Mav slapped his brother-in-law's arm. "Don't teach bribery to my innocent child!"

Before Jerry could respond, suddenly Hollywood cursed very loudly. "Fuck! That's Ice's car! Fuck! Get inside! We need to go!" He screamed at Wolf.

Before Jake could blink, Wolf was in a car and they were driving away from their driveway.

The only problem was that they lived in the dead end Street, so they had to try to pass Ice's car to leave.

Ice obviously noticed his lifelong friends passing by him.

And he took a dramatic U-turn as soon as he realized who just passed him, and chased after them.

It was a bit ridiculous car chase, because both cars still followed the low speed limit for their little neighborhood street, so unlike in movies it actually took a minute for them to disappear from their line of sight.

Jake blinked a few times. He couldn't quite believe his eyes.

The rest of his family didn't seem at all surprised by what happened.

Jerry just shook his head, and Bradley rolled his eyes once again.