FIC: Cheap Shot (Top Gun, Iceman/Maverick, PG-13)
TITLE: Cheap Shot
RATING: PG-13
FANDOMS: Top Gun
PAIRINGS: Pete "Maverick" Mitchell/Tom "Iceman" Kazansky
SUMMARY: Ice is pregnant and worrying as Maverick goes with him to his first trimester checkup, but Maverick has a few surprises up his sleeve. A sequel to All In.
Ice hadn’t even opened his eyes yet, and the nausea had a stranglehold on him. He’d never gotten seasick, but this felt like that, like being in the bottom of a small boat as the waves yanked it back and forth, back and forth-oh God. Ice jumped over Maverick, who was groggily asking him what was wrong, and ran to the bathroom, just barely making it in time. He slumped over the toilet, sweat prickling at his hairline, stomach roiling. He was peripherally aware of Maverick entering the bathroom behind him, turning the light on.
“Jesus,” Maverick said. “I guess morning sickness is no joke.”
Ice was too ill to glare.
An hour later, they were in the kitchen. Ice had showered and dressed, and he felt steadier, but not enough to eat breakfast.
“Not even toast?” Maverick asked. “You’re eating for two now, you know.”
“Maverick,” he said wearily, “I am very aware of that.”
Maverick smiled sheepishly. “You’re right. Sorry, Ice. I’m trying.”
Ice felt a little pang. He gentled his expression and his tone. “I know, Mav, and I appreciate it.”
Maverick smiled. He checked his watch. “About ready?”
Ice frowned. They weren’t due at the doctor’s for almost an hour. Then he caught Maverick’s expression, somewhere between screaming-from-the-rooftops excited and nail-bitingly nervous, and he forced himself to gentle again. “Sure. Let’s go.”
It was late morning, and the waiting room at the obstetrician’s office was half full of omegas, some of them with their alphas. One, a dark, pretty woman who had to be near term, was supervising two small, fussy children, and she was doing it alone. Ice felt a little kernel of dread form in his gut, but then he looked over at Maverick, who had distracted one of the children with a silly face. The child laughed, and Ice relaxed.
They called Ice’s name, and he and Maverick walked back with the nurse. She weighed Ice and took his temperature and blood pressure, and then she left him to change into a gown and wait for the doctor. Maverick turned his back while Ice changed, which was odd, but Ice knew he was nervous, and he didn’t say anything.
Ice sat up on the table, wearing nothing but the gown and his underwear, watching Maverick while he looked at the posters on the walls: omega biology, fetus growth charts. He wanted to say something to him, but he didn’t know what, and then the doctor was knocking on the door, and he put the thought out of his mind.
“Hi, Tom,” she said. “Good to see you again. Is this daddy?”
“Yeah,” Ice said. “Maverick, this is Dr. Shields. Doctor, Pete Mitchell. He’s my-he’s the father.”
Maverick shook hands with the doctor. She smiled. “Nice to meet you, Pete.”
He just nodded. Ice watched him, and tried not to smile; Maverick was obviously too nervous to speak.
Dr. Shields turned to Ice.
“Let me take a look at you, first,” she said.
She listened to his heart, his lungs. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine.”
“Symptoms?”
He shrugged. “The usual, I guess.”
“Do you want me to guess, or are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
Ice glanced at Maverick. He hadn’t exactly been transparent about what was going on, but Maverick had said he wanted the baby, and he had said he wanted Ice, and wanted to support him through the pregnancy, so fuck it. Into the deep end, Mav.
“I’m tired all the time,” he said. “And irritable, a lot of it. Moody. Yesterday morning I cried for ten minutes because of a Kleenex commercial. My dreams are insane, I’ve got cramps in my abdomen, my-my nipples hurt, and the morning sickness is … aggressive.”
Maverick was staring at him, mouth open, jaw slightly slack. Dr. Shields smiled, but she was smiling at Ice.
“I’m afraid that’s all normal, Tom.”
“Great.”
“It’s good. All of that means your body’s doing what it’s supposed to, changing for the baby. Speaking of: why don’t you lay back, and we’ll take a look at how baby’s doing.”
Ice lay back. Dr. Shields went around to the other side of the table, where the ultrasound was, and started readying things. Maverick came up on the other side. He looked down at Ice, his brow creased.
“How come you didn’t tell me about that stuff, Ice?”
Ice lowered his eyes. “It’s just-”
“You should tell me about that stuff, Tom,” Maverick said softly, and Ice bit his lip.
“Okay,” Dr. Shields said, “this is going to be a little cold.”
“I remember,” Ice said.
Dr. Shields reached under Ice’s gown, placing the ultrasound wand, slick with cool gel, on his abdomen and pressing down. She watched the images on the black and white ultrasound screen, like searching through television static to find a station, as she moved the wand.
“Uterus looks good… let me just … there we go.”
There was a dark spot in the middle of the picture, and inside it, a curved figure. It looked a bit like a seahorse, Ice thought.
Maverick leaned over the table a bit, and Ice watched the wonder spread across his face. “Is that it?”
“That’s your baby,” Dr. Shields said. She traced the shape on the screen with her forefinger. “That’s the head, this is the spine.”
“Is it okay?” Maverick asked.
“Everything looks good,” she said. “Developing just like it’s supposed to.”
“Is it-can you tell if it’s a boy or a girl?” Maverick asked.
“Too early,” she said. “We can do that at Tom’s next appointment, if you want.”
“I don’t know if I want to know,” Ice said. “We can talk about it-”
“No, it’s okay,” Maverick said. “If you don’t wanna know, it can be a surprise.”
He smiled at Ice, and Ice smiled back.
“Do you want to heart the heartbeat?” Dr. Shields asked.
Maverick was breathless. “Yeah. Yeah, please.”
Dr. Shields moved the ultrasound wand, and a regular bass rhythm filled the room. Maverick grinned, and he took Ice’s hand, and squeezed.
Dr. Shields finished the exam, and gave Ice some tissues to clean the ultrasound gel off his stomach. “Pete, do you mind stepping outside for a minute? There’s just something Tom and I need to talk about.”
Ice nodded, and Maverick went to wait outside, shutting the door behind him. Ice sat up on the table, regarded the doctor.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to see you for another well visit, Tom,” she said.
“I know.”
“Is everything okay?”
He took in a slow breath. Released it. Nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I um-he said he’s gonna step up, and I-I had already decided to keep it. Before I talked to him.”
“I don’t want to be indelicate, Tom, but I noticed you still don’t have a pair mark.”
“That’s my decision.”
“Okay,” she said gently, “but I think it may be the wrong one. It’s your business, and I don’t know-I don’t know if you love him, if you want to be with him, but you might … even just to protect you, and protect the baby, you should consider registering with him. Just … even if it’s just for legal reasons, Tom. You are in a very vulnerable position right now, and registering with an alpha, it-it can be protection. Even if you don’t want it for the long term.”
Ice swallowed thickly. He took another slow breath, thought, You’re not going to cry. You’re not going to do that.
“I appreciate your concern,” he said. “I’ll think about it.”
She nodded. “Okay. Just think about it. You can call me if you need help, Tom, you know that, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I know.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll leave you with that. You can get dressed, but I’ll need to have the phlebotomist get some blood from you on your way out, okay? There’s just a few tests I need to run, standard stuff.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
She nodded and left him. He noticed he was shaking, but he didn’t cry. He got dressed, and met Maverick in the hallway.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Ice said. “I gotta give some blood before we leave. Just some normal tests.”
“Okay,” Maverick said, and they went to the nurse’s station, where they were directed to the lab at the end of the hall.
Maverick lingered in the doorway while the phlebotomist took a few vials of Ice’s blood. She removed the needle when she was through, and gave him a bit of cotton to hold down over the dot of blood where the needle had been.
“Oh, shoot, I’m out of wraps,” she said. “Stay here; I’ll be right back.”
She left the room, and Maverick came over to where Ice was sitting. He looked at him for a minute, and then he knelt, going down on one knee.
Ice blinked. “What are you doing?”
“I gotta ask you something,” Maverick said. He pawed through his jacket pockets until he came up with a ring box.
“Shit,” Ice whispered.
“Tom,” Maverick said slowly, “will you please marry me?”
Tears pricked at Ice’s eyes. “No,” he managed. “You don’t want this-”
“The hell I don’t,” Maverick said. “Listen, this isn’t because of the baby. I mean, I’m asking you here, right now, like this, because I think that … maybe you’re kinda vulnerable right now, and I know it’s a cheap shot, but I want you to say yes. I’ve been in love with you for a long time, and it didn’t take a baby to make me see that, Ice, it didn’t. This isn’t because you’re my mate and it isn’t because you’re going to have my child. It’s because I love you and I want to keep you. It’s completely selfish, I know that, but I think maybe you might feel that way about me, too.”
Ice felt tears burn down his cheeks, and he covered his mouth, looked away. “Don’t,” he said.
“Don’t what?”
“Lie.”
Maverick shook his head. His face was as serious as Ice had ever seen it. He stretched up, put his hands on Ice’s arms. “I’m not,” he said. “I swear to God, Ice, I want you to be my husband. Please say yes.”
Ice looked at him. He breathed. He imagined waking up and seeing that face every day for the rest of his life.
“Yes.”