Chapter Text
Ice wouldn’t admit that every time he was out, he always kept an eye for a certain blond young man these days. It made life interesting, broke up the monotone constant tones in his life.
They never plan their meetings. It just happens. It pretty much happens every other day, but not everyday.
(Although Jake nor Tom would ever admit that they started changing their schedules bit by bit to sync up with the other’s schedules).
So when Tom didn’t see him Monday or Tuesday, he wasn’t concerned. It’s the start of the week, the kid might be busy.
Wednesday, Tom usually did groceries before dinner time. It’s also another place where he often sees the kid.
Before he knew it, he was looking at a full cart, everything in his list ticked off. He started walking towards the check-out, if he was walking slower than usual, taking the time to read the labels of the items in the store, no one was there to call him out on it. He reached the cereal aisle, and he peeked over. No one.
Ice sighed before he finally made his way to check out.
No sight on Thursday or Friday.
Did the kid get deployed somewhere else? No, he would have known, there hadn't been any deployments.
Was there something keeping him busy on-base?
Ice was doing the final tidbits of work in his home-office before he heard the front door slam shut, making him frown.
Eventually, he heard the thumping of feet and the office door swung open and a pissed off Maverick was standing right in front of him, folder in his hand.
“Pete?” Tom asked, worried as he set his pen down. “Are you okay?”
As soon as he asked, all the fight left Pete’s shoulders, making the other man sigh and slump down on the swivel chair in front of him. Mav, casually threw the folder on the desk.
“Some admiral is interfering with my team,” Mav said simply, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Cyclone and Warlock tried running interference, but this Admiral outranks all of us, he practically manipulated Hangman on taking a sudden solo week-long deployment.”
Ice frowned, “Manipulated, how? Even if he’s an Admiral, he shouldn’t be able to just take a man out of your roster that quickly.”
“Basically told the kid that the team needs results to stay a permanent squadron,” Mav said, simply. “Of course, that wasn’t directly said, but you know how the upper brass is with words.”
Ice eyebrow twitched, “I put the team together and you will be staying together. No one can just mess around with that, and your team has been pulling in good results. Sure, not in active combat since the Uranium mission, but in terms of training and testing the different applications of training techniques? Yes.”
“That’s what I thought as well, so Cyclone, Warlock, and I did some digging, and this guy’s clean,” Mav said, jaw twitching. “The only issue I can see is that he works closely with Admiral Chester Cain. I may be biased, but that man rubs me the wrong way, so does this one.” Mav nodded his head at the folder, which Ice took and opened.
Admiral Johnson. Ice didn’t circle around him much, but he has heard of him.
“Hangman was the one pulled out, correct? I remember his record, very impressive,” Ice muttered, mind flashing back to Hangman’s file when he was putting together the daggers.
Ice saw the corner of Mav’s mouth twitch upwards, “Yeah the kid’s good, very good, Seresin will go far.”
“Do you think Johnson is trying to poach the kid?”
“Possibly, but I don’t think that’s his only end goal, but I can’t figure out his play, neither can Cyclone.”
Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson, a good man, one of the most competent. Quickly rose through the ranks, but Iceman has more experience dealing with the politics of being part of the brass.
“Why didn’t you bring this up to me, sooner?” Ice asked. “The Daggers are my responsibility as well.”
“Yeah, but most people don’t know that and we should keep it that way,” Mav simply said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Also, Cyclone and I thought we could deal with it ourselves, but,” Mav bit his lip nervously before looking down and sighed.
Ice patiently waited for Mav to continue.
“They wouldn’t communicate with us on how the kid– Hangman’s doing, Hangman hasn’t been in contact either,” Mav said. “We’re his team, Cyclone, Warlock, and I are his commanding officers, but Johnson and his team keep on deflecting. Hell, it was a miracle Cyclone got to speak with Johnson for 2 minutes.”
“How long before the kid is scheduled to come back?” Ice asked.
“The kid left at 1400 last Monday, Johnson scheduled him to come back and resume normal duties by 1200 next Monday,” Mav said. “I don’t know if Johnson means that Hangman’s coming back Sunday or Monday morning, I don’t even know Hangman’s status.”
Manipulation. Practically lying. Lack of communication. Abuse of authority.
“Cain knows that I created the Dagger team,” Ice said. “If the two of them are close, Johnson would know as well.”
“It doesn’t make sense that they would want to take Hangman, Cain is obsessed with transitioning to using drones. Hangman is one of the best aviators,” Mav said, leaning back and crossing his arms.
“It could be a long game,” Ice said. “Let me look into this more, and I’ll tell you when I get something concrete.”
Mav opened his mouth to protest.
“If I tell you my theories now, none of them may be true and you’ll just worry, Mav, I promise I’ll tell you if it’s important,” Ice said simply.
“Fine,” Mav said, “But, let me know how Hangman is, alright? The other kids are worried about him too.”
Ice’s eyes softened, “Of course.”
Mav stood up and rounded the desk to stand behind Ice’s chair. Tom leaned back to look up at Pete who smiled warmly and leaned over to press a quick peck on his lips before wrapping his arms around Tom’s neck and burying his face into the crook of Tom’s neck.
“I’m home, honey,” Mav said.
Tom let out a chuckle at that, “Welcome home, Pete.”
The next day, Ice flipped through the file Mav gave him. Cyclone, Warlock, and Mav did most of the preliminary investigation, and he made sure to read every detail.
Lieutenant Jacob “Hangman” Seresin.
Ice never met the kid, haven’t met any of the Daggers in person yet, actually, but he has heard of the kid.
Hangman’s been making waves in the Navy.
Impressive stats. Top Gun. Broken records. Praise from his commanding officers. Only aviator with a confirmed air-to-air kill.
He was an instant choice for the Uranium mission.
A choice Ice would forever thank because this was the man who saved his husband and son.
Ice pulled up Hangman’s file, and the first page was his basic information and a picture. Ice blinked. Lieutenant Jacob “Hangman” Seresin. Jacob. Jac– Jake. Tom couldn’t help, but let out a small laugh of incredulity.
The kid he managed to get attached to was the missing Dagger.
That’s why he hasn’t seen the kid in a while, holy shit.
Tom knew the kid was Navy, but he didn’t search or pull up his file, he didn’t want to breach the kid’s privacy (even if it was unlikely that the kid would find out). He wanted Jake to trust him.
Tom felt anger bursting in his chest, rising as it clogged his throat. Throat clenched tightly.
He was already irritated with the Admiral messing with the Daggers. Pissed that he was hearing about the manipulation. He read the transcripts, a good ton of what Johnson said isn’t true. But now?
Tom closed his eyes and took a deep breath, holding it in.
Jake was sitting on the park bench, a far away look in his eyes as he watched children run across the field or play games in the playground. He looked forlorn.
The kid didn’t see Tom yet, and Tom stepped back a bit and looked around. Looking at how some of the kid’s have ice cream in their hands. An ice cream vendor nearby.
Everyone likes ice cream, right?
Tom got two cones and walked up to the kid.
“Here, I promise that it isn’t poison,” Tom said, sitting down next to the boy handing over the cone.
The boy looked up wide-eyed as he took the ice cream in shock. Looking back down at the treat and back up at Tom. Instead of some snarky remark–
“This is for me?” Jake asked in a soft voice, one that can easily be lost in the wind.
Tom’s eyes softened before awkwardly patting the kid’s back twice, “Yeah kid, it’s for you, eat up before it starts melting.”
Jake looked back down at the ice cream before he took a bite out of it. Ice suddenly remembered the time when he was Jake’s age, crunching ice at the O-club.
Tom smiled before digging into his own ice cream.
Iceman breathed out the air in his lungs, opening his eyes, seeing the kid’s serious expression.
This won’t happen again.
Iceman picked up his phone and dialed his secretary. “Patch me in with Admiral Johnson, tell him that the Commander of the Pacific Fleet needs to talk to him immediately, don’t take any of his bullshit.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
Iceman pulled up Johnson and Cain’s file.
Jake finally trudged back to his apartment, wanting to just end the day.
He got back on base at 1300 and only had an hour before he was ordered to report to work.
Mav saw him and told him to go home and Hangman just shook his head and refused. He wanted to finish his day.
Mav was about to protest before he was called somewhere else. Mav gave him a look that said, this wasn’t over. However, Hangman was good at evading and deflecting. He kept his head down, deflected the other Dagger’s concerns, and immediately went home when it was time to clock out.
It was still just 1730, but Jake wanted nothing more, but to crash into bed.
He kicked off his boots and trudged to the bathroom, staring at the mirror. Dark circles and he thinks he managed to lose a bit of weight in the one week he was gone.
He took off his shirt, poking at the bruises in his torso. During the flight he had to use some more unpredictable maneuvers, his harness kept him steady, but the pressure required to do so was painful. Not that he realized it at that time, he was mostly focused on evading. It was only hours after he landed did he realize the pain. He could have gone to medical, but it didn’t feel like he broke anything.
Your performance reflects the Daggers as a–
He just needs some sleep and then he’ll be okay.