Chapter Text
Maverick returned to Top Gun two months pregnant and resigned to follow the new direction his life had taken. When the medic on the carrier had informed him of his options, Maverick had thought it would be much harder to come to a conclusion than it actually had been. Then he surprised himself again when he chose the baby over flying. Though, perhaps it wasn’t that surprising after all. He had been without a family for so long that the desire to have one of his own was too much of a temptation.
It irked him that it played into every stereotype there was about omegas, though of course most people would say he did it the wrong way around. A pregnant omega with no alpha to show for it? It was a bad look, especially among the conservative brass. Though Maverick had never much cared for people’s perception of him. He'd learnt that the hard way of course, what with the rumors circling around the disappearance of his father.
Still, standing in front of Viper again was daunting. All the information had been included in the transfer papers, so Maverick had no doubt that Viper knew about his circumstances, but that didn’t lessen the anguish of awaiting his judgment.
"This is a turn I hadn’t expected," the alpha said eventually. There was nothing in his voice but surprise. His forehead furrowed in contemplation.
"What can I say?" Maverick said with a shrug. "I live to defy."
Viper shook his head. "You certainly do."
Something eased in his chest when he realized that Viper wasn’t going to ask about the alpha that had sired his baby. Maybe he didn’t care. Maybe he already had his suspicions.
Everyone knew that Maverick had been around, though he preferred to keep his bed warmed by beta women and other omegas. Alphas, though they could be fun in the moment, always proved to be more trouble than they were worth in the end. Especially if you were an omega with any sort of ambition.
Then Maverick and Goose had been sent to Top Gun.
“I’ll see you on Monday,” Viper told him before he was dismissed.
Maverick gave a curt nod, then made his way out to the parking lot. Straddling his Kawasaki, he was grateful he could still ride it without a problem. He supposed he would need to get a car once he was further along. Well, at least he had a job now to pay for it.
He had rented a house where the front porch had a view over the beach. The sight of water had filled him with anxiety ever since the crash, but he thought that living near it, a safe distance away might help him get over it. In the same way he felt closest to Goose when he was flying, gazing out over the ocean he could imagine Ice somewhere out there. On a ship, waiting to be airborne.
Ice… was something else.
He was not like the alphas Maverick had met before. Sure, he was proud, arrogant, self-assured to a hellbent dimension, but he also had self-control of a kind Maverick had never before encountered. Not even in Goose, though he was perhaps the most kindhearted, gentle alpha that Maverick knew.
Ice didn’t get his call-sign for nothing. Though, he was not a man without heart. He wouldn’t care so much about following safety regulations if it wasn’t for the fact that he wanted to see his wingmen safely back on the ground again.
He was Maverick’s polar opposite, and maybe it was inevitable that they would fall into a magnetic field of push and pull. Their rivalry had a tension to it from the very start, that eventually came to a head when they were back on the Enterprise, after that dogfight that could have robbed Ice away from him for good. Just like Goose. So once the celebration on deck was over, Maverick had gone to find him. If he closed his eyes he could still imagine Ice’s scent around them, his weight heavy atop him. It had been the best sex he’d ever had, hormones and emotions running on high. Something had clicked, felt right, in a way it had never done before. Ice had gotten under his skin, and now Maverick would always carry a part of him. He stood on the porch, looking out at the ocean with a hand gently rubbing over his t-shirt covered stomach.
Maverick had no illusions.
It had been a one time thing, fueled by the euphoria of their victory. Not long after, they had been stationed on different ships, because to the both of them duty would always come first.
Ice had written him a letter, one that Maverick received shortly after finding out he was pregnant. He had yet to reply, but he intended to. Intended to tell him that he had chosen to go back to Top Gun, that he was renting a house with a view, and that he might consider buying an actual car.
He wouldn’t tell him about the baby. The less Ice knew about it, the better. He didn’t want to force Ice to choose between his future ambitions and doing the ‘right thing’, whatever that was. Maverick was pretty sure that he knew what Ice would choose, and he wasn’t certain that it would be what Ice actually wanted. He wasn’t certain it was what he himself wanted. Sure, being an unmated omega with a kid was going to be a bitch, but that didn’t mean he wanted an alpha there because convention dictated it. The kid was his choice, and so he would bear it.
He called Carole later in the evening, to tell her that he was stateside. Her delighted surprise was quickly followed with suspicion.
“What did you do this time?”
There was no reprimand in her voice, not like Goose would have given him. Instead her voice was warm with amusement. It made it easy to talk to her, always had been. She and Bradley were the only family he had left now, with Goose gone and he would hold onto that with all his might. He hoped they could become a family to his baby as well.
“Ah, you know, the old bun in the oven schtick.”
There was a long moment of silence. “Mav, are you…?”
Maverick swallowed soundly. “Yeah, yeah I am.”
“Oh, that is wonderful!” she exclaimed then. “Gosh, I wish I could be there to hug you right now.”
He laughed at her excitement, though he felt tears prickle at his eyes. Her acceptance meant the world to him.
“I’d like that,” he murmured.
“Bradley will be so excited to hear he’s gonna have a little baby cousin.”
He could clearly picture the wide grin that would spread over his godson’s face when they told him. God, he wished he could be there to tell him in person.
“How is he doing?” he asked then.
Carole’s voice grew a little more somber. “As well as can be expected. He has nightmares and he misses his dad.”
At the mention of Goose, Maverick felt his cheek grow wet. “Fuck, but I miss him too.”
“We all do,” Carole agreed, tears in her voice and fuck it, but he wished he could reach out through the phone cable and wrap her up in his arms. Instead they had to endure this, distant sniffles and soothing words that died out to easily. Yet they clung to each other, if only through the phone and eventually they managed to steer the conversation back to Maverick's pregnancy.
"Will you have any help?" Carole asked.
"What do you mean?"
"With your pregnancy? You're gonna get big and immovable before you know it."
It startled a stiff laugh out of him, but in true Carole-fashion she continued to push the point.
“I assume they won’t let you fly after a certain point, but I mean in your everyday life. You know pregnant people aren’t supposed to carry heavily, and what if you sit down somewhere and can’t get up. Let me tell you that the sofas you think are perfectly nice and cozy now, you will find to be the devil’s tool after you're sixth month in or so.”
Her voice was so earnest.
“Omegas aren’t meant to go through pregnancies alone.”
Maverick huffed a breath. “I don’t need an alpha.”
“I wasn’t talking about no alpha, Mav.” She laughed. “God knows, Goose drove me mad more often than I found him helpful when I was carrying Bradley.”
He couldn’t help but laugh at her remembered exasperation. There was a moment then, during which Maverick thought Carole once more had lost herself to reminiscing.
“You know what?” she said. “I think me and Bradley should come to San Diego.”
Maverick smiled. “I would like a visit.”
“No, not a visit,” she said, to which Maverick furrowed his brow in confusion. “I’m not saying I’m a qualified expert in child rearing and what not, but you’ll definitely need all the help you can get, no offense.”
His head was reeling. “You mean, you will move here? For me?”
She couldn’t do that, couldn’t uproot her and Bradley’s life for him. He felt selfish for even entertaining the thought. Hadn’t he already taken so much from her?
“Yes, well, it wouldn’t be for entirely altruistic reasons, I need your help too.” Her voice became uncharacteristically timid. “We both need a pack, don’t we?”
Maverick felt like crying once again.
“Yes, we do.”
It felt right, when he let it sink in, that two omegas would raise children together. Children sired by alphas who, for different reasons, couldn’t be there.
“Then it’s decided. I’ll call you tomorrow. Love you, Mav.”
“Love you too.”