Raleigh awoke in a cold sweat, the remnants of the memory, the nightmare still clinging to the edges of his mind. It was the same nightmare he had every time he managed to fall asleep: Yancy being torn from the conn-pod, Raleigh awash with his brother's terror and pain and panic. Sometimes he saw Mako in Yancy's place now. Every once in a while, it was Elissa. That night, it had been Yancy who was torn away from him.

He sat up and freed himself from the covers where they'd tangled around his legs, dropping his head into his hands and taking long, deep breaths to slow his heartbeat back to normal, to banish the last of the images from his mind. Tears stung the backs of his eyes and the pain felt as fresh as the day it had happened. It was always like this though. He knew it would recede to the familiar dull ache in a few hours, but until then, he would relive the worst day of his life alone.

A small sound beside him drew Raleigh's attention and he remembered he wasn't alone, not this time.

He looked down at Elissa, asleep on her stomach, one arm tucked under the pillow and the other flung above her head, her long red hair covering her face and shoulders, sprawling over the blankets in tangled waves. She looked peaceful, her back rising and falling in even measurement, the sound of her breaths barely audible even in the silence of Raleigh's room. He watched her for a moment, matched his breathing to hers without thinking. He felt himself smile a little, calmed.

Raleigh reached down and gently brushed Elissa's hair back from her face. She nudged her cheek against his fingers but didn't wake; she'd always been a heavy sleeper, unless a Breach alarm sounded, then she awake and moving faster than almost anyone. He smiled wider as he ran his fingers along her shoulder, her skin smooth and soft around the straps of the loose tank top. A light kiss to her shoulder blade resulted in a soft intake of breath and a slight shift, Elissa moving towards Raleigh's warmth as he leaned over her. He kissed his way along her skin, moving the blankets and her shirt as he went in order to expose the trinity of tattoos along her spine, clustered between and just below her shoulder blades, in line with her heart.

The tattoos marked milestones in her life, dreams coming true, nightmares become reality—the PPDC wings for when she became a Ranger, Stalker Chaos's symbol for when she named her jaeger, made him hers, and Jared's ID number for when he died in the explosion that should have killed both of them. Raleigh ran his fingers lightly down her spin, tracing the slightly faded lines of the tattoos.

The memories she had inscribed on her skin, Raleigh shared, in the best and worst ways. Excitement, loss, finding a home in a giant robot. Unexpected, unwanted, needed feelings that connected them, marked forever on Elissa's skin.

Raleigh's lips replaced his fingers on her back and he felt Elissa awaken, tension filling her body as she became aware of what was going on. He heard her chuckle sleepily and knew she would be smiling, but he didn't look up. Slowly, he slid his hands down, pushing the covers away and then moved his hands back up, fingers dipping under the thin fabric of her tank top, gathering it up and sliding it off, over her head. Elissa took hold of it with one hand and tossed it somewhere, leaving her back exposed to Raleigh's touch.

Raleigh straddled her legs, putting himself in line with her body, his hands never leaving her back as he moved. Elissa laughed again, stuffing her face into her pillow to muffle the noise. He leaned down, hands running up her sides, and kissed her spine, the top of her shoulder, buried his face into the curve of her neck, smiling against her skin when she gave a small shriek of a laugh and reached awkwardly behind her to swat at his head. He wrapped his arms around her, wedging them between the mattress and her stomach, and rolled onto his back, taking her with him, bodies vibrating against each other as they laughed.

The noise faded and Elissa turned her head to look at Raleigh over her shoulder, understanding plain on her features. She'd lost a co-pilot, someone she loved too. She knew the memories could come back to haunt you, knew they could keep you awake, knew they could eat at you. That was why she'd had Jared's ID number tattooed below Stalker's symbol. To always keep him with her, to find peace with her memory of him. The tattoo was a memorial and it had helped her deal with her loss. Raleigh met her steady gaze with his own and knew she'd get all the information from the one glance, their connection and knowledge of each other as strong as if they'd drifted more than once, long ago. She reached over to touch his arm, their gazes locked for a second longer.

The former pilot turned around in Raleigh's arms, straddling his hips and pushing herself into a sitting position, the fingers of one hand wrapped around the chain of his dog tags. With only a little tug from Elissa, Raleigh sat up and wrapped his arms loosely around her. Elissa's hands were on his chest, fingers rough and cold like they always were, but Raleigh didn't mind. They'd warm up. She leaned in and his forehead dropped against hers, their noses brushing, breath mingling. The movement was automatic and comforting.

It was Elissa who tilted her head forward and kissed him, softly at first, a bare touch of lips. It was Raleigh who deepened the kiss, hands on her hips, thumbs against the joint, fingers digging in.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close as she moaned against his mouth. Soft sounds of metal clinking against metal mingled with short gasps of breath as their dog tags and the piece of metal from Stalker Chaos Elissa wore around her neck met, the sounds muffled a second later when her bare chest crushed against his. Elissa's fingers dug in against his ribs. She bit down gently on his bottom lip, leaning back a bit into his hands. He smirked at her when she let go and shifted his grip lower down her back so he could lay them down on the bed, her knees remaining on either side of his hips as he lowered himself above her to kiss her again, deep and slow.

As his lips trailed down her neck, Elissa murmured his name against his shoulder, her hands roaming freely over his chest and stomach, anywhere she could reach. Her hands were warm now, rough fire on his skin. Raleigh kissed her again, hooked his fingers around the waistband of the boxers she wore to bed and pulled them clear of her legs. She laughed against his mouth, joy and need contrasting the sound as she pushed at his sweatpants, her lack of reach making it difficult; she grumbled something about being short and Raleigh joined in her laughter before stripping down, his lips finding hers again immediately after.

Their laughter turned to moans and quick, quiet noises of pleasure as he slid inside her, bodies instinctively falling into a slow, familiar rhythm, movements memorized and perfected. Elissa's back arched, Raleigh placed a hand above her tailbone, holding her to him. Raleigh's forehead touched her shoulder, Elissa's fingers sliding into his hair, cupping the back of his head.

Their pace increased, movements losing some of their precision, faltering under hitching breaths and teeth nibbling ever so gently at tender skin, fingernails digging in, raking marks along shoulder blades. Elissa breathed his name and Raleigh captured it with his lips, the kisses frantic and rough as the heat built between them, pleasure so high it was almost unbearable. They came together, the heat breaking and spreading out between them, and they were still kissing, riding the sensations, feeding off the noises and brushes of skin, tiny breaths of laughter as tensions and anger and pain and fear released, as the nightmares were banished completely.

When Raleigh rolled to one side, Elissa moved with him, curling against him and hooking one of her legs around his. He wrapped an arm around her, her head pillowed on the front of his shoulder, his fingers rubbing slow lines up and down along her spine. Raleigh pulled the blanket out from under them, covering them as they cooled, and with their feet on their pillows, they spoke quietly of memories until morning.