Notes:
Okay, so apologies are in order. Real Life threw me a few curveballs. Then I got into a bad case of writer's block and wrote hardly a sentence in two weeks.
But I finished it! Yes! Apologies again to all the readers waiting for this chapter. Just be assured that I never abandon a fic I started posting. Never!
41.
"You're thinking about it."
Raleigh turned his head and smile at his mate. Chuck sauntered up to him, all grace and ease and loose limbs. He looked freshly showered and shaved, smelling of aftershave and shampoo, which told Raleigh he had just come out of the Kwoon.
Chuck leaned his lower arms onto the rail that guarded the gallery overlooking the Jaeger bay.
"You want to drive one of them again."
Raleigh gave an easy shrug. He was a Ranger. It was in his blood.
"You?"
"Could be convinced, yeah."
He huffed a laugh. "Right."
As if Chuck needed any convincing. He was a pilot through and through. He had grown up in a Conn-Pod, he knew every Jaeger that had come before Striker Eureka, and he had known Striker inside out.
Their shoulders brushed as Raleigh shifted a little closer. "You want to," he simply stated.
Chuck's eyes were on the workers welding armor plating and hammering out dents and bruises. Mako was already itching to get going with the refitting.
She was a genius when it came to outfitting relics with new tech.
Gipsy Danger.
'Nuff said.
Chuck knew when to step back and watch genius at work. She was an impressive woman, always had been, and as deputy she was involved in every little step.
"They're thinking about establishing perimeter guards," Chuck said, voice thoughtful. "To explore the Breach. To help build a surveillance station down there. Hermann's been very vocal about the likelihood of this happening again. The Precursors were here before and he believes they will be back if given time. Rebuild what we destroyed, then open another gateway."
"Might take a while."
A shrug. "I got nothing better to do. I'm actually free for the rest of my life."
Raleigh leaned a little closer. "Yeah. With our skill set, nothing else we're useful for."
"Hey, you can build walls," Chuck teased.
"I can build walls," he agreed.
"And I bet you can knit."
Raleigh chuckled. "Not enough to make a job out of it."
The wolf-koala grinned a little. "My old man thinks we could drive a Jaeger together."
Chuck's voice was almost too casual.
Raleigh watched the Ultra, noticed the fine lines of tension. They had never faced each other in the Kwoon, but knowing what they were now, Herc might have a point.
"Want to try?" he asked softly.
Chuck's eyes were intense, a touch of wolf to them. "Want to get your ass handed to you?" he challenged.
Raleigh chuckled softly. "You're ever the optimistic."
"Hey, I'm the best. You're just the washed-up has-been."
Chuck's eyes reflected the wolf and the White in Raleigh responded to the challenge.
"You're so full of yourself, Hansen."
"I just know I'm good."
Raleigh leaned in close and Chuck let himself get pushed back a little, then his partner kissed him, hard and intense, both men dominant but not fighting to overpower the other.
When they parted, Raleigh was breathing hard, eyes flashing with his Shifter side.
"Fuck," Chuck groaned.
"It's an option."
"That a promise?"
Raleigh grinned, fangs showing just a little.
Chuck was a goner.
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42.
Kwoon sessions were intense between them, a match between two very different characters and personalities.
Long.
Sometimes intimate in a way that wasn't sexual.
Sometimes powerful and close to unmatchable by anyone not a Shifter of their caliber. Sometimes more like a dance, well-coordinated and perfectly mirroring the other.
Both Chuck and Raleigh were breathing hard, shirts stained with sweat, but their spirit was unbroken, their harmonic styles not clashing.
x X XX xx
Mako nodded her approval, holding her tablet and entering notes.
x X XX xx
Herc just raised his brows in a blatant 'told you so'. He stood to one side, powerful arms crossed in front of his chest, the alpha clearly making a statement.
x X XX xx
Some of the new recruits were openly gaping.
x X XX xx
Raleigh had yet to accept the position Herc had offered, but after today's display no one would have any doubts as to his capability to do it.
x X XX xx
Their first Drift was done in a simulated environment.
x X XX xx
Nothing between them. No lies, no truths, just them.
Everything was open.
Chuck had felt this only once before, with his alpha, and it had been breathtaking and scary in one.
Too young to be considered a pilot under different, not so desperate circumstances, Chuck had moved in sync with his alpha like he had never dreamed of doing.
They had been perfect.
They had been one.
Like Yancy and Raleigh.
The same perfection, the trust and the unity. He had felt it all in that moment they were together in the simulation, and he felt-heard-tasted everything that was Raleigh Becket.
He knew Raleigh felt-heard-tasted the same.
The two so very different men, the bonded mates, the Shifters… Chuck turned to the surreal representation of Raleigh next to him, standing in the middle of a snowfield, and he watched Gipsy Danger crash.
He felt the emotional black hole, felt the brotherly bond as a ragged, sharp-edged wreckage, heavy on his mate's mind.
He saw the pain.
He tasted the tears.
He experienced the raw desperation.
The sleeplessness.
The nightmares.
Loneliness.
And it became one with his own pain and fear of his mother's death. Of losing everything.
Of being different from the alpha werewolf who was his father.
Acceptance.
Love.
Like his father's.
And he was his Shifted self, sitting in the snowfield, gazing at a headstone.
Raleigh was next to him, the White silent and such a strong presence, it was calming the rocky sea around them.
Acceptance.
Chuck's taloned paws curled into the thick fur.
Raleigh looked at him, black eyes filled with emotions that flowed freely between them.
x X XX xx
The connection between them was real, the Conn-Pod was a real life model, but the Jaeger was simply a figment, a computer simulation.
It proved a point, though.
Raleigh and Chuck worked.
Not that Herc had ever had any doubt; at least after both men had come back from their six months of off time.
Something had clicked between them, had smoothed out the rougher edges, had made them more aware of each other. It wasn't just the fact that Raleigh was Chuck's chosen mate. That was just one tiny aspect.
Almost everything had changed.
Subtly. Slowly. But it had.
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43.
He wasn't stupid.
He wasn't an oblivious bastard, an arrogant, egotistical hotshot who wasn't aware of what was going on around him.
Yes, Chuck Hansen could be all that – egotistical, arrogant and a bastard – but not when it came to the man next to him in bed. Raleigh had become more than a rival or a perceived threat to a mission's success. He had grown into so much more.
So no, he wasn't an idiot. He had eyes. He had instincts that he listened to.
Chuck had seen it, had felt it, and he had acted.
Curling up with his mate, he listened to the soft breaths. Raleigh was deeply asleep, almost close to exhausted because of a week spent hardly sleeping at all.
Chuck had been to Canberra, accompanying the Marshall to meet with some PPDC officials. It had been a long, mind-numbing meeting and Chuck had bitched about it whenever he and his alpha had been alone.
Now he knew that while they had been gone, Raleigh had slept little and spent the nights prowling around the Shatterdome.
Gottlieb had told him when Chuck had run into him. Hermann had actually actively sought him out to talk to him. The Shifter had run into Raleigh regularly at night. Hermann had started to come out of his shell and stretch his four legs, always at night, usually in company of Newton, which was when they met Raleigh.
Raleigh needed him, Chuck had come to realize. To relax, to sleep, to let go.
So Chuck was here.
x X XX xx
"We can leave," Chuck said.
Raleigh looked at him, warm and relaxed and kind of mellow in his arms. "Leave?"
"Go somewhere else. Not here. Somewhere outside. Away from… all of this."
Raleigh was silent, then pushed himself up and looked at the other Shifter. "No."
"You don't sleep all too well here."
"I'm okay."
"You're not."
The White sighed explosively. "I need some time."
"You don't want to leave?"
"No. Your pack… our pack… is here. It helps."
Chuck smiled and reached out to pulled Raleigh into a soft brush of lips against lips. "You don't have to sacrifice yourself for me."
"I'm not. It really does help. It's not what I'm used to, but it's… nice." He smiled slightly, fingers sliding into the short, ginger hair. "Really nice."
Chuck pushed him back down onto the mattress and settled over him, sealing their lips together. Raleigh's hands were caressing over his skin.
x X XX xx
His sleeping troubles got better.
Slowly.
Herc…. the alpha… helped.
The older man was simply there, like a rock in the sea. He radiated a calmness, a strength, that Raleigh found he needed.
Raleigh wasn't used to a pack and an alpha, but the concept was slowly growing on him. Herc was his commanding officer and he was his alpha through Chuck.
Prowling around the Shatterdome at night, together with Chuck and Herc, all of them Shifted, helped.
Letting his mind clear of everything but the instinct deep inside helped.
Chuck helped.
So close, so supportive.
It all helped.
He wasn't completely broken, just a little more fractured than most.
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44.
The PPDC called in their new command crew a few weeks later.
To make it official.
With speeches and signatures and dress uniforms.
It was incredibly boring.
x X XX xx
Mako was her regal self, now sporting the official markings of a deputy Marshall, next to her superior officer, Herc Hansen. Herc's uniform was spotless, fit him like a glove, and the alpha radiated calm, control and power.
Chuck was a mess inside, a proud mess, but a mess, and he had fought his hair for an hour until he had given up. It was a mess like the rest of himself. As Herc's beta it was his place with his alpha to be here.
Raleigh in his dress uniform looked… devastating. Chuck had to hold on not to push his mate against the next available wall, or other surface, and show him just how bloody edible he looked.
x X XX xx
When they were finally free of the mind-numbing bureaucratics – Herc had to sit in with Mako for a little while longer to finalize what had been running smoothly for months without PPDC intereference, namely the Hong Kong Shatterdome – Chuck did take advantage of Raleigh.
In a good way.
And with no protest from his mate.
Fuck, he looked good in uniform.
And out of it.
x X XX xx
Chuck had never known that he could have it so bad for another man.
Now he knew.
He wasn't really ashamed of it either.
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45.
Herc Hansen had no idea when his pack had started to grow into something more than himself and his son.
Yes, there had been Stacker and Mako. There had been the team around Striker Eureka. But they had never felt like real pack. They had been a family of some kind. The alpha had trusted them, but the bond hadn't been there.
Then he had nearly lost his son.
He had lost his oldest friend.
He had lost too many comrades in arms, too many friends, too many he had considered an extension of his family.
Werewolf packs were usually… wolves. With a few exceptions. Like wolf koalas.
He smiled to himself as he walked down the Shatterdome, listening to the bustle around him.
Sometimes, yes, sometimes dominant werewolf genes didn't take.
Chuck was a prime example of the dominance of the wolf and the failure to those genes to present in a physical wolf form as well.
But his alpha instincts were spot on and Chuck was his beta, was pack.
Now the pack had apparently been extended.
There was a White, who happened to be his beta's mate. Raleigh had finally decided to get his head out of his ass, accept responsibility for more than himself, and Herc had established him as the lead pilot. 'Commander', some called him. It usually got them a growl and a flash of Shifter eyes.
He also slept better, accepted the help the alpha werewolf represented, and Chuck was more at ease now, too.
Then there was Mako, who had already been considered extended pack and was now so much closer, his deputy and second in the Shatterdome. She wasn't the pack beta, but that wasn't a problem. Werewolves had no problem with pack and outside hierarchies. The alpha commanded her loyalty in both worlds.
Herc had also found that his wolf side had included Hermann and Newton, one a Shifter, one not. Hermann had grimaced when he had discovered his Shifter side responding more and more to the calming alpha presence. Newt claimed that the structured pack gave Gottlieb more focus, which was scary, and that he had started to relax a little.
Well, if he did really relax, Herc couldn't see it, but he did catch the painted dog more and more now. Hermann let himself respond to something he had suppressed for too long and it was doing him a world of good.
In the two months Chuck and Raleigh had been gone, the two K-scientists had been vital and important in Herc's endeavor to keep Hong Kong operational. The Breach might be closed, but he doubted Gipsy's sacrifice had destroyed the so-called Anteverse.
The Precursors might be back.
If not today, if not tomorrow, then maybe in a few years time.
The Shatterdome would stay open and fully operational. New Jaegers would be funded. It meant that more of the decommissioned ones that had been shipped off to Oblivion Bay would be restored. Three more Shatterdomes were scheduled to open within the next six months.
He entered LOCCENT and nodded at Tendo, who was snarfing down his donut and raised his coffee mug in greeting.
He was overseeing the updates on LOCCENT, which meant sitting with a bunch of IT guys and technicians, in the middle of what looked like an explosion of cables, boards, chips and metal plating.
"We're on schedule," he told Herc without the Marshall even asking. "Drop's on time."
"Good."
Beta White was ready. She would go down to the Breach and do a test run, then resurface to get checked and the performance evaluated. It would be Chuck and Raleigh's first real Drop. Herc didn't doubt they would be good together.
They already were.
He hid a smile and gave Tendo a last nod, then went on his usual round. The 'prowl' Chuck called it with a grin. The alpha checking out his territory.
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46.
Science had determined that about 14.5 % of the world's population were Shifters.
The war against the Kaijus had decimated the world's population and the Shifter percentage had grown. Despite the fact that the PPDC had employed mostly Shifters as Jaeger pilots, that most of them had died, their death had been of little impact to the overall population of genetically different humans.
Millions had died throughout the attacks, be it through the Kaiju itself, the Kaiju Blue or when the nuclear strikes in the early days had sacrificed people to kill the trespassers from another world.
Chuck knew he had been one of the lucky ones. He had survived. He had healed. He had found his mate and his pack was growing. He had a strong alpha, who he respected and loved, and he had a purpose.
Not just as a Jaeger pilot.
He was more than that. They all were.
Sitting outside, overlooking the bay, he breathed in the air, almost tasting the ocean.
It was good to be alive.
Good to have family and pack… Raleigh…
He smiled a little to himself.
Yes, Raleigh.
They were doing really well. Raleigh was finally sleeping through the night, even here in the Shatterdome. He was more relaxed, laid back, at ease. He enjoyed his new role as the lead pilot, the one in command of the Jaeger pilots and the prospective new Rangers coming in to train.
"Hey, kid."
Chuck looked at his alpha, nodding a greeting. "Hey there, old man."
"Don't call me that," was the mild rebuke, but the light in the blue eyes told another story.
Herc settled down beside him, eyes on the bay.
It was an easy companionship and Chuck found himself mirroring his father's pose, felt his heartbeat slow, falling in sync with his alpha's as it always did when they were together and there was nothing and no one to fight.
It was the wolf inside him. It was his Shifter heritage and he wasn't ashamed of seeking the closeness.
Being pack was like Drifting.
Yes, he was one of the lucky ones.
x X XX xx
Herc smiled as his son leaned against him, eyes closed, enjoying the moment of silence and absolute peace.
He did so, too.
The Shift didn't come as a surprise and Herc let the koala curl up against him, firmly planted in the alpha's lap.
It was nothing new.
Actually, it was achingly familiar.
Family.
He buried his fingers into the gray fur with the ginger touches, eyes on the bay as the sun set.