Chapter 2
The Littlest Pilot
Same Day That Morning
Minamitane, Kagoshima, Tanegashima Island, Japan
"Yancy?"
She heard her mother's voice from below and bit her lip lightly. This wasn't how she wanted to be caught. Matter of fact, she didn't want to get caught at all, but now it was inevitable.
"Yancy, breakfast is ready. Come and-"
"Mama!"
She saw her mother look around the garden in mild confusion, unable to find her.
"Mama," Yancy called out again, feeling stupid, "I'm up here. Help?"
Her mother's eyes widened and her mouth fell agape as she finally spotted her. She came over quickly to the foot of the tree.
"What in the world are you doing up there?"
Feeling her cheeks blush from embarrassment, Yancy found that no words would form for her. So she just shook her head hoping her mother wouldn't demand an explanation.
"You can't get down?"
Yancy shook her head again, hands tightening on the tree branch she straddled. There was a faint exasperated sigh from below and she saw her hold up a finger.
"Just hang on tight, okay? Let me go get your father and we'll get you down from there."
At the moment, Yancy was too afraid to say no to anything, so she nodded her head. "Kay . . ."
It felt like it took forever, but eventually she saw them both come out of the house, her mother holding on to the baby with one arm. Her father looked a little silly. He sported the same open mouth surprise her mother did upon seeing her and wore the kitchen apron with the teddy bears and bunnies on it. She knew it was for her little sister's benefit, but still. With his hands on his hips staring up at her like that he just looked . . . looked like . . .
Nothing at all like a Jaeger pilot.
"Yancy, what are you doing up there?"
While she knew he'd ask she still didn't want to answer. Not with her mother right there.
"I don't know," she answered.
"You don't know or you don't want us to know?" He crossed his arms, looking up at her.
Internally, Yancy winced. Papa had the uncanny ability to somehow get to the root of the matter. She said nothing and just laid her head down on the branch.
Another exasperated sigh, this time from him. She could hear them muttering to one another, then he called up to her. "Okay, just hold on."
Yancy watched as he took off the apron and gave it to her mother who draped it over her shoulder. Once he came up the ladder, her mother held on to steady it with one hand. The ladder only reached up three fourths of the way to where Yancy was so as soon as he was high enough he stepped onto one of the branches, then stopped to find another foothold.
"How did you manage to get all the way up there?" he asked, testing his weight on another branch.
"I didn't look down," she answered, getting worried that he wouldn't be able to reach her.
"And when you finally got there?"
Somehow she had a feeling he already knew the answer and, sure enough, he said it the same time she did. "I looked down."
It was too true and embarrassing. She thought she'd be able to get back down, but when the ground looked so far away her limbs stopped working and she could only clutch to the branch. She looked down to see her mother's worried expression and then started to tear up. She didn't want to cause a fuss, she just -
"Yancy honey, look at me."
She did as she was told. He looked a little closer now.
"Don't look down and just look at me, okay?"
"Kay . . ."
"You know, I never had a big tree like this to climb back in Anchorage."
"No?"
"Nope, but we . . . uh." He paused to pull himself up between two limbs. "Oof . . . We had this large hill out in back and me and your uncle used to slide down on it all the time."
Yancy wasn't sure why he was saying this now, but she kept her eyes on him as he spoke.
"Once upon a time it used to be that your Uncle Yancy would go by himself because I was too scared to try."
She always liked hearing about the person she was named after. "Did he help you be not afraid?"
"No, actually, I ended up doing it on my own. Found out it wasn't as scary as I thought and that it was fun."
Yancy thought about it a second. "How did you get over being scared?"
He grinned at her. "I closed my eyes."
"Huh?"
"I closed my eyes and just went over the edge."
"But . . . how did you steer the sled?"
"Sled?" He seemed to laugh. "No sled. I used our trash can lid. Once I went over I just had to hold on."
"Raleigh!" Her mother called up from below. "I don't think that branch can take your weight."
Her father eyed the branch that would of brought him right next to Yancy. "I think you're right."
He tentatively put a foot on it and it bent too easily when he put more weight on it. Keeping one foot on it gently, he looked at her.
"Yancy, I'm going to need you to climb closer to me."
She started shaking her head, still too frightened to let go.
"No, no, no, it's okay. I am not going to let you fall." He stretched a hand out to her. "Don't look down. Just keep your eyes on me then take my hand. I'll hold on to you so you can come to me. Okay?"
Gulping, Yancy concentrated on his hand. It really wasn't that far so all she had to do was . . . She stopped thinking about it and quickly leaned out to grab his hand.
"Good, that's the way." He held on firmly. "Now just swing your leg over and climb down to me."
Don't think. Don't look down. Don't think. Don't look down.
"You're going to climb onto my back and I'll get us down. Make sure you hold on tight."
She felt the strength in her father's hand keep her steady enough to step down and get onto his back. Holding on tight with her arms and legs, Yancy felt him pat her arm reassuringly. As they made their way down, tears started to well again. He kept saying she was going to be okay, but . . .
Once on the ground, her mother hugged her.
"Gomennasai." I'm sorry. "Gomennasai, Mama."
Raleigh rolled his shoulder a couple of times while watching Mako comfort Yancy. Despite being fit enough for combat, his left arm never did get back to a hundred percent. He also hadn't anticipated putting it through its paces with an emergency tree climb and rescue today. It would be fine, but for now he'd have to put up with the old familiar ache.
"Yancy," Mako sighed, taking her by a shoulder, "just what has gotten into you lately? Fist fights at school and now this?"
"Gomennasai," Yancy muttered again through her sniffles, dusty-blond locks partly covering her face as she kept her head down.
"It's good you're sorry, but we need an explanation. You still won't tell us why you got into that fight. If-"
Tamsin started to fuss and then hiccup into a cry, interrupting her. Mako pursed her lips and looked at Raleigh. After the smallest of sighs, he nodded once. It was best he talk to Yancy. Their daughter had been oddly quiet the last few weeks, barely sharing a few words at a time with Mako. It was worrying and unsettling, but they had one line of hope. She seemed to open up more to Raleigh, but only when Mako wasn't around.
Mako hugged her again, "Look, I'm glad you're alright, but we'll talk more later, okay?"
Yancy nodded into the hug, "Kay . . ."
Mako let her go then headed for the house to take care of Tamsin and get her out of the cold morning air. She passed one last glance back at Raleigh and he gave her a reassuring smile before turning to Yancy and kneeling in front of her.
"So," he began, brushing off the front of her pants with a hand, "want to let me know what's going on?"
Yancy shook her head. Aggravating.
"Then how about why you were up the tree, hmm?" He brushed off more bark from her sleeve. "Was there something up there you wanted to get?"
Another head shake.
"Trying to see Mrs. Yamauchi's dog in her backyard? You know she doesn't let Pipo out of the house this time of morning."
Yet again, a head shake.
He grumbled inwardly, but he wasn't going to give up. He had a card up his sleeve. "You know I saw you on the roof yesterday."
Her head finally came up to look at him with wide eyes.
"You climbed out of your window again, didn't you?"
She said nothing, but her cheeks went bright red.
Yep, busted.
Her eyes went back down to the ground and she murmured something.
"What was that?"
"I want to know what the view is like from a Conn-Pod," Yancy blurted, then went even more beet red.
"From a Conn-Pod?"
This time she nodded.
He continued to brush one or two more smudges of dirt from her clothes in brief silence. There were certainly more than enough reasons for her to be curious about that. They never covered up what they were and never hindered her curiosity or her want to learn.
"Yancy . . . "
He almost didn't know how to proceed. The proud father in him didn't want to hinder her growth, but the protective father in him wanted to steer her away from harm. It was one thing to be a Jaeger Otaku, it was another to want to get into one. Stepping into a Conn-Pod was risky business. Suddenly Raleigh felt closer to Stacker Pentecost more than he ever had his whole life.
He looked up at the tree and a temporary solution came to mind.
"Honey," he placed his hands on her shoulders, "how high up are Conn-Pods on the average?"
"Uhm . . . seventy meters?"
"Right." He turned her around to face the tree. "How tall do you think the tree is?"
She shifted from foot to foot and muttered, "Six meters?"
"Little short on where a Conn-Pod should be, don't you think?"
"Close enough," she mumbled, lowering her head once more.
Raleigh sighed. "Look, how about this?" He turned her back around to face him and lifted up her chin. "You promise me that you don't go climbing the tree - or anything else - ever again like that."
She started to purse her lips together, a sign that it was something she didn't want to promise.
"In exchange, I promise you that the next time we go to Tokyo that we'll find a building equal to a Jaeger's eye-line and we'll go up and take in the view from there. How's that sound?"
Her eyes lit up. "Really?"
"Really."
"Promise?"
"I'll even pinky swear it." Raleigh held out his little finger to her. "Long as you pinky swear back to not go climbing. Cause I don't want to see you get hurt."
It didn't take much for Yancy to agree after that. She wrapped her pinky around his and they shook on it.
"Good." Raleigh looked at Yancy's pants and got to his feet. "You need to get a clean pair of pants on. You are not going to school in those."
He herded Yancy back into the house and followed her in. She shot past the breakfast table where Mako sat with a non-crying Tamsin in her highchair.
"Pants, not shorts," Raleigh called after Yancy. "It's too cold for shorts."
He wasn't certain if she heard him. He'd just have to send her back to her room if she came out with the school shorts meant for warmer weather.
Mako handed him back the apron that was still draped over her shoulder. Raleigh took it and put it back on, getting back to finishing cooking breakfast.
"So, what did she say?"
Raleigh paused while he heated the eggs back up, "She, uh . . . she wanted to know what it was like from a Conn-Pod's eye-line. Don't worry though. I made her promise to not climb anything like that again."
"Hmm."
He glanced over at her. Tamsin had a hold of one of Mako's fingers and was trying to stick it into her mouth while she already had a spoon shoved in it sideways.
Without a word Raleigh went to the fridge, grabbed out a chilled teething ring, handed it to Mako, and got back to cooking. Mako got the spoon out of Tamsin's mouth and put the ring in its place. The baby let go of Mako's finger using both hands to grasp at the new object and began to gnaw away at it, drooling and burbling as she did.
"I haven't been spending as much time with her lately, have I?" There was a touch of worry in her voice.
"Well," Raleigh brought the pan over to get the eggs onto Mako's plate, "you have been burning the candle at both ends. You've got work, then Tamsin and Yancy, then the project. You can't expect to spend what little spare time you have because you think you've been neglecting her."
"Still, I should-"
"Mako, you can't be everywhere at once," Raleigh spoke calmly while he served the eggs on to the two remaining plates. "You said it yourself. Once your work for ITK is done then you can concentrate on the project and have more time for both Tamsin and Yancy. That's only a few weeks away so it's just a matter of time."
"I know that. I just . . . " Mako sighed. "I don't like this distance that has developed and I don't know how to fix it."
Raleigh twisted his lip. He wasn't exactly sure how to fix it either. That didn't mean he couldn't do a thing or two to briefly patch it up.
"If you're that worried then why don't we up the odds on spending time with her? Let's bring the girls with us to Nagasaki next week."
"But we're going to be busy with the project." Mako's eyebrows furrowed.
"Not the whole time," Raleigh offered. "Besides, I'm sure Vanessa would love to see Tamsin and have Yancy over."
Doubt seemed to linger over Mako's head until a quiet voice from around the doorway spoke.
"Would that mean I won't have to stay with Mrs. Yamauchi when you're gone?" Yancy looked hopeful.
Neither of them answered immediately and he and Mako looked at one another a moment. Just how long had she been listening? It didn't entirely matter and the expression on Yancy's face settled it.
"No," Mako answered, "you won't have to stay with Mrs. Yamauchi. You're going to Nagasaki with us and you'll stay at the Gottlieb's."
"Yes!" She thrust both fists into the air then came over to sit at her seat. "Good, cause some of Mrs. Yamauchi's rooms smell like dog pee."
"Yancy!"
"Well they do!"
Raleigh couldn't help it and just laughed. After trying to look stern, the corner of Mako's lip quirked upward and she laughed as well.
A/N: Last Edit 1/13/2014, chapter 3 ETA 1/20/2014
Seventy meters is about 230 feet. Six meters is about 20 feet.
