The next day, when Travis asks Teresa to talk about programming and the Jaeger AI and the Mark-III restoration program, neither Mako nor Raleigh comes to watch the filming. She notices and makes a mental note. When Travis is done and starts talking to Newt and Hermann, she takes Herc aside.

"They're mad at each other. I think Molly has something to do with it," he says before she can get a single word out.

"She's jealous and he's mad at her for denying it," she finishes for him. He nods. "I can think of someone else who was jealous, but she was jealous of someone's work."

"But she got over it, right?"

"For the most part. She made a friend out of someone who was jealous of the same man's death."

Herc reaches out and takes her hand. "And she's one of the few reasons he's still sane."

Teresa smiles at him. "So, should we give them time or call 'em out?"

"Give 'em time," he says. "God knows no one ever tried for us."

"That's because I would have punched anyone and no one had or has the balls to call the Marshal out."

He playfully punches at her, and they both laugh.

Travis arrives at dinner looking exhausted. Hermann and Newt are arguing over some minute detail of a theory, as they have been for the last hour and a half, and he is tired of hearing the two of them talk. "Tomorrow, I'd like to get footage of Shatterdome. Maybe re-trace the last days of the program," he announces.

Mako glances at Raleigh, who stares stubbornly at his food, two tables away with Teresa and Herc. There's so much she wants to say, but the words are getting stuck in her throat.

She doesn't even bother checking his door that night.

Herc and Teresa manage to do most of the guiding and talking while Travis and crew films the empty bay, the K-Science lab, the empty Ranger barracks. Raleigh and Mako follow at a distance. Neither says much.

They reach Marshal Pentacost's old quarters after lunch. Mako can feel her throat tighten, but she forces herself into the room. Despite her fears, there are no ghosts in the walls, and she doesn't hear anything but the sound of the fan. Raleigh steps up next to her and gives her hand a quick squeeze. Just enough to reassure her, because he doesn't want his co-pilot to feel alone in this, but she can feel the emotions that still radiate off of him.

Their next stop is the training rooms. Teresa unlocks the Kwoon, which is exactly as it was four years ago except for the added age to the mats and the thin layer of dust covering the equipment.

"Would Mr. Becket and Ms. Mori like to show us how it's done?" asks an enthusiastic Travis.

They shrug, and strip off their shoes and jackets. Mako tosses Raleigh a hanbo, and they begin.

They're both off, and even to someone as unversed as Travis, it's clear.

After a minute, Teresa announces that they should move on to LOCCENT, as it's much more interesting than the blank walls of the Kwoon. Travis agrees and asks if it's possible to get some more people in the room to recreate the old feel of the place. She agrees to try, and pulls out the walkie-talkie from her back pocket and starts talking into it. "We'll meet you in LOCCENT," she shouts at Mako and Raleigh as she closes the door. There is an unspoken command in her look: sort this out or we're going to sort it out for you, Rangers.

"You were slow," Raleigh finally says when the room is empty.

She responds by whipping the staff back around to stop a hair's breadth from his collarbone. "Really?"

And then they're fighting again, lashing out at each other completely, with strength fueled by anger.

"I'm sorry," Mako manages to get out between the clacking sounds of the hanbos meeting. She really is, and she really feels stupid for the whole thing, and she wants her Best Friend (she can only think of him in that capitalized title) back.

"Be specific," he grinds out.

"For telling your memory by accident." Clack. "For not being considerate of your feelings." Clack. "For being mean about Molly."

Raleigh scores a point. "Go on."

"What more is there for me to say?" Clack. Clack. A squeak as their feet move against the mats.

"You know what. Say it." She scores again.

"I," she raises the hanbo to block, "can't limit," she strikes out at his feet, "who you talk to."

He taps her shoulder. "Wrong." He knows and he knows she knows and some perverse part of him is not willing to let her apology settle the whole matter. He wants the entire truth out, even if he doesn't deserve it.

"I shouldn't have,"-Clack!-"said what I said at dinner,"-Clack!-"the other night." Her hanbo is next to his temple.

"Nope. Try again."

He won't let it go. "I was jealous."

He raises to block, but she manages to get his shoulder anyway.

"Apology accepted," he says. "And I should apologize for getting upset with you. I shouldn't have pushed you the way I did. It was wrong. Very wrong. Forgive me?"

She looks at the sincerity of his blue eyes. They've always been the central point of any of his expressions, turning light or dark to match his mood. At first, it had mesmerized her, since she was used to dark eyes that didn't diffuse the light. "Of course," she says. "Best two out of three?"

They fight twice more, with Mako coming out on top in the end. And something in the action of fighting brings them close, closer than they've been in years. Maybe it's being back in the Shatterdome, maybe it's the time-capsule nature of the place, maybe it's just the adrenaline of the duel, but Raleigh swears can feel her at the edge of his thoughts as if they're drifting again, and she hears the pattern of his thoughts as if through a haze of noise.

"What did Molly do that got you so bothered?" he asks as they sit on the edge of the mat and catch their breath. He can almost feel the answer, but he wants to hear it himself.

"She...got between us. I'm your co-pilot, and I don't want someone else getting close and replacing me."

So that was it. It was a sentiment that cadets had sometimes expressed after their first drift when they saw their co-pilot with other people. It was a reaction of both fear and possessiveness, born out of human nature mixed with the emptiness of Drift-Hangover. Raleigh had thought that the intense pressure of those days would have alleviated it. "Mako, the very nature of drifting means that you're irreplaceable. Even if it's been years since we've shared headspace."

She shakes her head. "I'm afraid of being alone. If someone could come between you and me, I would be by myself. The sensation is too much."

He wraps an arm around her shoulders. "That's just not possible. I'm never leaving you."

"Ever?"

"Ever," he assures her. "I promise that. You're stuck with me."

She laughs and leans into his side. "I guess I am."

"Anything else?" he queries in a light tone.

"You're not cute, even when you smile," she says. "You're very handsome." Probably the biggest admission she's ready to give, but she wants to give it.

He pulls her a little closer. "Maybe even sexy?" he teases and she ducks her head. "You're blushing," he says as she hides her face even more. "And that is cute. Not that you're not ordinarily beautiful, but that's just adorable."

She squishes herself alongside him in the tiny bunk that night, content just to be held and to hold.

A/N: Teresa McKinnie, the OC, is the result of my headcannon about the people behind the Jager AI. She was in the group that created the AI for the Mark-Is, and stuck around until the end and beyond. She's not a pilot, nor is she a Marshal. Over the years, she developed a strong friendship with the Mark-I pilots.

Among her more memorable quotes from the early days: "He's got a caterpillar growing on his lip." (In reference to Pentecost's mustache).

Always, feel free to review and tell me where all my typos and mess ups are.