The photoshoots had been ridiculous. Chuck had always been glad that by the time he became a pilot they were over taking ridiculous pinup photoshoots of pilots. But he remembered being a teenager and seeing them come out. He remembered Herc's and how he'd been mortified to hear women and men alike talking about how hot his dad was when he was trying to focus on getting into the Jaeger academy.
He also remembered Raleigh's shoot. He remembered how it temporarily changed his mind on the whole thing and how he gotten ahold of a nice, shiny 5x7 print or two. He quickly changed his mind back when the next year they did the photoshoots with sets of copilots and he had to hear about both his dad and his uncle. So yeah, he's glad that the PPDC got over that before he became a pilot. Even if his favorite 5x7 of Raleigh is still in a simple frame that he now keeps tucked at the bottom of his underwear drawer.
Mako never understood why most of the world treated Jaeger pilots like celebrities. How were they supposed to save the world if they were constantly being accosted or distracted by fans? Mako hated it, she was glad that Sensei had never indulged fans much and never agreed to participate in the more ridiculous endeavors the PPDC attempted to put through.
When she first meets Raleigh she can't help but think that he looks so much different than he ever did in any of the photos that she's ever seen. She had to study this man in order to figure out how to get him back into Gipsy Danger, there had been a lot of pictures. None of them looked anything like this man who was coming up to her in a well-worn sweater with a smile on his face even as he spoke back to her in her own language. She couldn't help but wonder if this was really the same man from the picture that Chuck still kept hidden in his room. It didn't seem like it could be.
However, that didn't keep her from teasing Chuck later that night about that picture. She was pretty sure that they all needed the mood around the Shatterdome to be lightened a little so, of course, she smiled at her friend and asked him if, now that Raleigh was back and nearby, was he going to have him sign the photo. It was worth it to see Chuck's scowl and watch him go pink. Anything to forget about the upcoming drop for a few minutes was worth indulging in.
Of course, maybe teasing Chuck about his old crush on Raleigh hadn't been the best way to go about it. She's watching Raleigh take Chuck down in the hallway outside Sensei's office using a move that she uses so frequently in the kwoon to bring down opponents that she doesn't even have to think about it anymore. She's pretty sure Raleigh didn't know that move during their match earlier. She finds herself wondering about how much gets transferred in the drift even as she worries about her friend and her copilot as they knock each other around the hallway in front of her. They all need to be able to work together for the plan to succeed and she just hopes that once this is out of their systems they'll be able to manage that.
They do manage to all work together. The breach is closed. They've lost good people, a lot of good people. The Jaeger bays are empty and somehow seem even emptier without the sounds of welding and repairs, without the murmur of so many voices like a hum in the background, without the Kaidonovsky's Ukrainian hard house music blasting, without the dribble of a basketball, without the arguments in multiple languages over what kind of music should be played in the Shatterdome.
Mako and Raleigh both make it though. Herc's still here, managing to heal while he deals with running interference with the rest of the world. They manage to fish out a third, extremely damaged escape pod from the ocean with Chuck inside it, hurt but still alive. It's a good thing that she and Tendo are both still around to help or Herc would have no time to spend with Chuck in medical at all.
Every country in the world is trying to say thank you. The press desperately wants to get in and talk to all of the survivors. Herc is trying to put them off for as long as possible since he knows that they're still the press, even when they're pandering, they're not going to ask nice questions. It's taking a lot out of all three of them to keep up with everything.
It doesn't actually occur to her that there is one more person they can ask to help out until she's sitting at dinner automatically passing Raleigh the salt because there are potatoes tonight and she knows without thinking about it that he would want it. Raleigh is terrible with the press, he'd practically hidden behind her in the one interview they'd allowed the press to have right after the breach was closed. He wasn't all that great with paperwork either, actually.
He could handle Chuck though. At least with Raleigh looking after Chuck, Herc would have one less thing to worry about.
As soon as Chuck manages to stay awake for more than an hour at a time he realizes he hates this. He hates being trapped in medical, he hates how much medication he is on, hates how everything hurts and how he can't move because he has more than one cast.
He is absolutely and completely sure that he is going to go crazy. Everyone is too busy to actually spend time with him. Max had only been allowed into medical twice when he'd followed Herc in and nobody had been willing to tell the Marshall he had to leave his dog outside. He is bored out of his mind with nothing to do and both Mako and Herc are too busy to visit often. When left alone for too long, he finds himself zoning out and thinking about his last moments in Striker entirely too often. He has to remind himself more than once that he'd known that it would hurt to try and make it out alive, they'd had to revive him twice on the way back to the Shatterdome. It was worth it for the relief on his old man's face though.
Chuck is surprised when his thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of Raleigh. Raleigh had stopped to see him when he first woke up along with just about everyone else, but Chuck hadn't seen him since. He is not expecting the soft smile and the "Hey, Mako thought you'd appreciate some company." Nor is he expecting Raleigh to pull out a deck of cards for them to play with.
Raleigh becomes Chuck's most frequent visitor. Sometimes he comes by just to talk for a bit before wandering off to do whatever else he is doing now, but more often than not he brings something along for them to do. He even somehow manages to sweet talk the nurses into letting Max visit with him, Chuck has no idea how he manages to pull that off.
Chuck still gets lost in thought when he's left alone for too long, except now his thoughts tend to drift to Raleigh instead. He has no idea why the other ranger is being so nice to him, why he's willing to entertain him and spend time with him. It makes him think that his old crush was actually good judgment, makes it come back with a vengeance, and this time it's attached to the Raleigh right in front of him and not just a glossy picture.
Everything is terrible. The painkillers don't help with awkward feelings.
Raleigh is surprised to find that he is actually enjoying Chuck's company. He'd been wary at first when Mako had suggested that, since he was useless at paperwork and couldn't handle the press, he use his extra time to make sure Chuck wasn't alone. Originally he'd figured on visiting medical a few times a week, maybe bringing a game or something to keep them both distracted.
Except, that first day Chuck had been so happy to have company… Raleigh had ended up joking around with him while he tried to handle cards with one arm in a cast and somehow he'd ended up making Chuck laugh. It was a deep belly laugh that had brought tears to Chuck's eyes and it was gorgeous. Raleigh wanted to see it more often, even if it changed into a scowl afterwards and resulted in Chuck grumbling about how laughing hurt.
Raleigh just couldn't resist after that. He isn't sure if he is ever going to be able to beat the beaming grin when he'd managed to talk the nurses into letting Max into medical, though he certainly plans to try. He isn't sure what he liked better, the grin or watching Chuck try and snuggle his dog with only one working arm once Raleigh managed to carefully get Max on the bed.
He isn't terribly surprised when, after nearly two weeks of seeing Chuck every day and managing to walk into Medical with all sorts of things, Chuck gives him a speculative look.
At Raleigh's inquiring eyebrow Chuck smiles. "So you keep managing to sweet talk the nurses into letting you bring things in with you…"
Raleigh smirks back, "Yeah I guess. They never really try to stop me. Why, you have a request?"
Chuck snorts, and Raleigh really shouldn't find it endearing, but he does. "As flattering as these glorious papery backless dresses are, I'd really like some of my own clothes. Getting to wear some undies again would actually be kinda nice, and maybe an actual shirt."
Raleigh is trying really hard not to think about how Chuck had just implied that he wasn't wearing underwear. He really hadn't thought about what Chuck was wearing at all until he'd mentioned it. Raleigh nods, "I can bring you some clothes. I'll stop by your room before I come by tomorrow." Chuck grins as Raleigh puts down the day's entertainment, a deck of Uno cards. They play until Chuck starts to look tired.
Raleigh feels a little weird the next day when he opens the door to Chuck's room with Max on his heels. He is pretty sure nobody has actually been in here since Chuck himself on the day of the drop. He can't help his amusement at the sloppily made bed. He grins at Max who seems to grin back as he tucks himself into his dog bed.
He heads to Chuck's dresser and it is like he knows where to look for clothes. He pulls open a drawer full of shirts and pulls two out even as he finds himself thinking about how close Chuck and Mako really were and how much comes through in a drift. It's the only possible way he's having such an easy time knowing where everything is, he'll try to remember to talk to Mako about it later.
He reaches into the next drawer and instead of pulling out underwear like he expects, he automatically pulls out a picture frame. Raleigh blinks and pulls himself out of his thoughts to turn the frame around, expecting to see Chuck's mother or something like that. Instead, his own face is looking back at him.
It's one of the pictures from one of those awful photoshoots back when he'd first become a ranger. It was one of the better ones, just him in a black button up shirt making eyes at the camera. It was one of the ones that had been a little more him and a lot less creepily staged than some of the other ones he'd been roped into.
That Chuck had this, and had clearly had it for so long, meant maybe there was a reason Raleigh could reliably get smiles out of Chuck. Maybe Raleigh wasn't the only one who might be up for more than just card games and conversation.
But what to do with the photo? Should he just put it back?
He zones out for a minute and then he's grinning. He grabs some underwear to wrap in Chuck's shirt, tucks the frame against himself with the rest of it, and goes to go find a marker.
When he makes it to medical after lunch with his bundle under one arm and a deck of cards in the other he is waived over by his favorite nurse. "Hey Melissa, what's up?"
She smiles, he always gets the feeling that she wants to hug him or ruffle his hair. "Hey Raleigh, here to see Chuck?"
"Yeah, the usual. Someone's gotta keep him out of your hair. You're all plenty busy."
She laughs a little, "Actually, today seems to be a slow day for everyone." She worries at her lip for a minute, "It's just… the Marshall and Tendo came by this morning and I think they might have worn him out. He was looking very sleepy after lunch. I just wanted to give you a heads up."
He blinks, surprised, Herc hasn't made it by for more than a few minutes in weeks now. "Oh. That's alright. If he's asleep I'll just leave a few things here and come back later." She smiles again and nods.
Raleigh heads through medical to Chuck's room and quietly opens the door. Melissa was right, it looks like Chuck is deep asleep. Well, he would just leave everything here and come back around dinner time. Chuck would probably be awake by then.
He goes to set Chuck's clothes down on the chair he usually uses and grins when he goes to set the frame on top. Chuck being asleep right now is actually perfect.
Chuck wakes up feeling groggy, he'd drifted off after lunch without meaning to and now it felt late. He stretches carefully and glances around the room and wonders if he had missed Raleigh's visit.
The first thing he notices is a small pile of clothes on Raleigh's chair. He grins thinking about how nice it will be to wear actual clothes again, it'll make him feel less like an invalid. If Raleigh had managed to come by without waking him he must have been deeply asleep. He wonders if Raleigh will come back or if he is going to wait until tomorrow.
He glances towards the clock, if it isn't past dinner Raleigh will probably be back.
It's only a little after 4 o'clock. Raleigh will almost definitely be back.
Wait.
Chuck slowly turns back to the bedside table. There, next to the clock, is his framed photo of Raleigh. The one that was tucked into one of the drawers that Chuck had asked him to bring things from. He stares wide eyed at the photo sitting on the table like it belongs there. This is terrible, maybe Raleigh wouldn't be coming back…
That's when he notices the writing on the photo. He reaches over to pick it up and there across the bottom the idiot had signed it "With Love, Raleigh" Chuck must have sat there for awhile with his hand over his face blushing and staring at the picture between his fingers because he doesn't even notice Raleigh returning.
"At least that's one of the better pictures. You could have gone for the one with Yance and I shirtless in Gipsy's cockpit. I heard once that that one was a big seller." Raleigh is grinning at him from the doorway.
Chuck is blushing and he can feel his face going slowly redder. He chokes a little trying to talk, "I didn't really want one with Yancy in it." He looks up at Raleigh, it's not like he can really deny anything at this point.
Raleigh's grin goes soft and sweet as he walks closer to the bed, "Good." Then he's leaning over and planting a soft kiss across Chuck's cheek.
Ok, maybe it isn't so terrible.