After having to shadow her brother for the entire two days that had passed since she arrived in Hong Kong, Jazmine Becket was finally alone, and she was determined to keep it that way. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," he'd said as he left for a debriefing. "No promises," she'd called after him, smiling at the dirty look he gave her as he closed the door to her room.

She hadn't wanted to contact him when she'd been busted in Kiowa for fencing black market kaiju parts, but then the feds showed up with the rest of her rap sheet. She gave them a sob story about not wanting to get put away until she'd had a chance to talk to her only surviving relative, the hero who'd just saved the world, and somebody there must have been a real softie because they had him on the phone before the end of the day.

It turned out having an international hero for a brother had its perks. Raleigh had been happy to hear from her, much less happy to hear about the situation that necessitated him hearing from her. "Fencing kaiju parts? Embezzlement? Grand theft auto, Jaz, what the hell?!" Great, the detective must have briefed him first. "Look, when we get off the phone, just sit tight and shut up. I can get you over here, but you owe me for life. For three lives. Try not to steal anything until I get there."

Being in the Shatterdome was better than being in prison, but Raleigh's non-stop hurt puppy expression was starting to make her wish she'd tried her luck back in the states. She breathed a sigh of relief when he left, and waited to hear his footsteps fade down the hallway before she slipped out to explore.

The mess hall was her first stop, and Jazmine sat by herself in a corner watching everyone mill around. They looked weary but happy. Nobody gave her a second look; most of the staff had gone home to their families for a welcome break while they figured out what their place would be in this new world, but many didn't have families or anywhere to go, Raleigh had explained. They remained as tenants, and the available rooms were being used as temporary housing for locals who'd lost their homes to the last attack.

She took the long way back to her room, swinging past sick bay, but as she approached a turn she could hear Raleigh's voice coming down the hall towards her. Quickly she fell into step behind a lady in scrubs headed towards the sick bay doors, and slipped in after her. Again, nobody seemed to bat an eye. Jazmine walked at a brisk clip down the hall, ducking behind a rack of medical supplies as the doors opened again behind her, and Raleigh and a few other people walked in her direction.

Shit, Jazmine thought, pressing herself against the wall behind the rack. She inched sideways, sliding into what looked like an empty room, closing the door and shutting off the light behind her.

"Hey! D'you mind? I'm reading over here!" an irate voice called out. Jazmine gasped, scrambling to flip the light back on. "That's better." Curiosity got the best of her, and she walked with soft steps toward the floor-length curtain blocking the owner of the voice. Pulling it aside, she saw a man with messy ginger-blond hair and a fierce scowl on a hospital style bed, leg in a sling, holding a magazine. His head was wrapped in a bandage, and half of his face was covered in the greenish yellow marks of fading bruises, but by Jazmine's estimation he was around her age. The mostly naked girl on the magazine cover smiled brightly at her. "Can I help you?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was in here." He didn't seem happy to have company, but no way was she going back out in the hall until she was sure Raleigh was gone. Jazmine was pretty sure sneaking into the Shatterdome medical facilities counted as "doing something stupid".

"Well, I am, so you can leave now. And leave the lights on when you do." He turned his attention back to the magazine. The bulldog on the end of the bed, which Jazmine had just noticed, lifted his head and made a snuffling noise.

"He's cute. What's his name?" Her reluctant conversational partner rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Max. Now look, I'm not trying to be rude-" which was funny, because Jazmine was pretty sure he was- "but I'm trying to enjoy some solitude here, and I told the nurses I don't want any visitors, so if you'll be on your way, miss, ah…"

"Becket," she volunteered. "Jazmine Becket."

"Becket, huh?" His face broke into something like a smile. "Any relation to Raleigh Becket?"

"I'm his sister," she replied, hoping she could parlay his recognizance into a longer discussion.

"Well, I'm very sorry for you," he said warmly. The smile-smirk slipped off his face, and the magazine snapped up to block her view. "Get out."

His attitude was pushing all her buttons. "Just so you know, I'm only in here because I'm trying to avoid Rahhhleigh Beh-cket," she snarled at him, mimicking his accent. "So fine, just a few more minutes, and I'll leave you to your girly mag, which I'm sure you're only reading for the articles."

"I don't read it for the articles, I just happened to be reading an article when you so rudely interrupted me, thank god for both of us." He dropped the magazine so she could just see his eyes and gave her a sidelong gaze. "Why are you avoiding your brother? Thought you'd be happy he made it back in one piece."

"That's none of your business," Jazmine snapped at him.

"Ohhh, look who doesn't want to talk now." He raised his eyebrows at her. It made him cuter than she was willing to admit.

"I don't need to give my life story to some-" She fell silent when she heard the door open behind her, and her eyes went wide.

Someone walked into the room on the other side of the curtain. "Mr. Hansen said he didn't want any visitors," a female voice said.

"I know, but it's important." Raleigh's voice said back.

Jazmine and the newly identified Mr. Hansen locked eyes. She made a frantic face at him, and he motioned wildly at the side of the bed opposite the door. "No," she mouthed, shaking her head, and he threw up his hands in a "what the hell else are you going to do?" gesture.

"Please, it's almost time for his medications, and he won't be in any shape to answer questions," the female voice responded. Jazmine scuttled to the other side of the bed, ducking down and trying her best to tuck herself into a compartment that must have been meant for blankets but definitely wasn't meant for a person.

"I'll only be a minute," Raleigh said, and Jazmine heard the metallic scraping of curtain rings.

"Hello, Rahhleigh," she heard from above her. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Hey, Chuck." Raleigh's tone was strained but polite. Chuck Hansen? Jazmine gawked to herself. How had she not recognized him? "How's the leg?"

"Shattered and mangled, same as yesterday," Chuck said evenly. "And the day before that. Did you know there's probably more metal than bone in there right now? Doctors said I'll probably have a limp for the rest of my life."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Cut the crap, that's not why you're here." His words were hostile, but his voice was tired.

"No, I'm here because I need something from you, and we both know your father isn't going to push you for it," Raleigh said. "The media wants to talk to you, you need to be debriefed-"

"The media can damn well wait, and there's nothing to debrief." A note of venom was creeping into his tone. "Stacker loaded me into my escape pod, and I woke up here. That's it. Want me to write it down for you? I've still got use of my hands."

"Chuck, you deserve every bit of credit that the world wants to give you right now." Jazmine recognized that voice. It was the one Raleigh used to use when he was trying to talk her into eating her vegetables, or doing something else she didn't want to do. Nice move, big brother, she thought. Treat him like a six year old, that'll get you places. "You're the whole reason we're even here right now."

"If they want to give me credit, they can fucking wait until I'm ready for it!" Chuck exploded, and Jazmine flinched at his anger. "I'm fucking broken right now, Becket, and it's going to take a lot more than some metal pins and a pep talk to get me out of this bed!" Max barked, only twice, and Jazmine heard him stand up on the bed.

The room went so quiet that Jazmine held her breath, worried Raleigh would hear her breathing on the other side of the bed.

"Okay. Well, I'll be back in a couple of days. I'm not gonna leave you here to rot, Chuck. I hope you can understand why." A few more moments of silence, and Jazmine heard the curtain rings chime again, and the door open and close.

"He's gone, you can get up now." Jazmine stood up, mouth slightly agape. "I'm sorry you had to hear that."

"You're Chuck Hansen. Striker Eureka Chuck Hansen? Who blew himself up to save mankind?" She shook her head slightly in disbelief.

"You heard about that." He wouldn't look at her. The magazine was in his lap, and Max was standing over it, awkwardly wedged in next to Chuck's suspended leg.

"Who hasn't heard about that?" she said, incredulous. "The whole goddamn world knows what you did. You're a Ranger."

"Was a Ranger," he corrected her. "In a past life. Not like I could be one now, even if I still needed to be." His eyes were still fixed on his lap as he scratched the dog's head. "Look, you should go now. The nurses will be in soon with my meds, so if you're trying to stay out of trouble…" he trailed off. The edge was gone from his voice, and he seemed smaller somehow.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." She wished he would look at her again, but she obeyed, quietly slipping out the door.

His voice stayed with her as she hurried back to her room. I'm fucking broken, he'd said, and Jazmine was pretty sure he wasn't talking about his leg.

She spent the entire next day waiting for some mention of Chuck to put her plan in action. Raleigh gave her a couple of odd looks, mostly because she followed him around like a puppy with no trace of the frustration she'd been feeling the day before.

Finally, some cohort of her brother's - Tendo? The one with the bow tie - asked him if he'd been to see Chuck, and Jazmine perked up.

"Chuck? The Striker Eureka pilot?" she chirped, trying to sound ignorant. "Is he here? You know, I had a really big crush on him a few years ago - " Raleigh made a face- "and I'd love to meet him. Do you think he'd let me come see him?"

"I highly doubt it," Raleigh said. "He's in pretty rough shape, and he's not taking visitors."

"Oh, I bet." Jazmine put on a resigned face. "Well…do you think you could ask him, though? It wouldn't hurt to ask, right?"

Raleigh rolled his eyes. "If it'll make you stop talking about how you had a crush on Chuck Hansen. I should go see him right now, actually."

Half an hour later Raleigh came storming into her room. "Jesus, Raleigh, could you knock? I could have been changing!"

"You did something," he said accusingly.

"What? I didn't do anything! What happened?" Jazmine put all her energy into not laughing out loud at the look on her brother's face, and tried to look bewildered.

"I told Chuck I had a kid sister who would love to meet him, and he said-" Raleigh twisted up his face into what she assumed was supposed to be an imitation of Chuck- "'Yeah, sure, why not.'"

"That's great! So I get to meet him?"

"Jazmine!" Raleigh ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. "Chuck has never just agreed to do anything, especially when I'm the one asking. He's refused to see anyone for the last week and a half, including his own father. So I don't know what you did, or how you did it, but you did something."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she insisted. "Maybe he's just getting bored and lonely."

Raleigh stared at her for a long minute, long enough to make her feel uncomfortable. "Jaz, I don't know if you understand exactly how much trouble you were in." Oh, here it comes. "You have a rap sheet a mile long. I don't think I can ever go back to Kansas now, that's how pissed off that detective was."

"Oh no, you've been banished from Kansas. Whatever will you do," Jazmine snarked, and knew immediately that she shouldn't have.

"I know you're embarrassed that your big brother had to come save your ass, but if Mako and I hadn't literally helped save the world three weeks ago, you'd be in prison right now. For a long time. So please," he pleaded, making the hurt puppy face again, "please stay out of trouble. Because if you screw up here, I can't do anything to help you."

Jazmine sucked her lower lip into her mouth and bit down. "Okay," she finally said. "I promise that I will walk the straight and narrow from now on."

"Thank you." Raleigh sighed, shaking his head. "Go see Chuck. I told him I'd send you down."

The door to Chuck's room was open and the light was on, so Jazmine walked in, carrying two large bowls. "It's me. Are you decent?"

"I'm not not reading the articles, if that's what you mean." He sounded tired again, but less hurt, and obviously in good enough spirits to joke about his reading habits. "Come on in."

"I brought you ice cream from the mess hall," she said, holding up the bowls. "We need to eat it fast though, it's half melted already."

"What flavor?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Mint chocolate chip?"

"You can stay," he nodded.

They ate in silence until the ice cream was gone, then stared at anything but each other. "Thanks for the ice cream," Chuck finally said.

"You're welcome. I just realized I never thanked you for helping me hide from Raleigh yesterday," Jazmine replied, taking his bowl and stacking it in hers.

"Yeah, well. Couldn't really blame you, I would've hidden myself if I could." He grinned at her. "He's a persistent little shit, I'll give him that. Is that why you sent him to ask if you could visit?"

She could feel herself blushing. Cut it out, she told herself. "No, I…I wanted to come thank you, but I didn't want to sneak in again, because I wasn't sure if you'd even want to see me again, and I'm trying to be good while I'm here-" Dammit, Jazmine, shut up!

"Be good?" He made a quizzical face. "Are you usually…not good?"

Her eyes dropped to the bowls she was holding. "Not always. Not lately. That's kind of why I'm here," she admitted.

Chuck nodded thoughtfully. "You don't get along with your brother."

Jazmine smiled. "We got along great when I was younger, you know, things were good. Our family was good." Her smile faded a little. "And then it just sort of went to shit."

"Not to be insensitive, but I think that happened for a lot of people," he said. "Myself included."

"Oh…" She looked up at him, remembering something Raleigh had said. "You don't get along with your father."

"Same story." Chuck shrugged. "We had a bit of a heart to heart right before I left to go blow myself up, but." He chuckled softly to himself. "Can't heal a wound overnight. It's better, though. Getting better."

"But you won't talk to him." Chuck Hansen was confusing, she decided.

"You're one to judge, eh?" He winked at her, and Jazmine could tell he was trying to keep the conversation light. Or he was flirting with her, one of the two.

"I guess you're right." She reached out for the pitcher of water on the bedside table, and poured a cup for each of them. "To fucked up families," she said, raising her plastic cup.

"To fucked up families." Chuck raised his, and together they toasted their lousy track records.