Chapter 37: Stephanie

Mako and Raleigh's bedroom

July 21, 2025

0514

"MAKO! NOOOOOO!"

Mako sat bolt upright as Raleigh yelled in terror at something in his dream. Before she could wake him, though, he rolled off the bed and onto the floor with a THUD.

"Raleigh! You okay?"

"Ow. Note to self… tuck steel toed work boots further under the bed next time."

Mako would have chuckled if she hadn't still been worried about her copilot. "How bad?"

Raleigh shook the sheets out over the bed again. "Bad."

Mako looked at the clock. Crap. Not going to be worth trying to fall asleep again. "Want to talk about it?"

Raleigh sat down on his side of the bed, back to the wall. "Do I really have a choice? You'll probably see it next time we Drift. Might as well talk it over now…"

Mako sat down atop Raleigh's outstretched legs. "No, you do have a choice. You don't have to share what you saw. You can hold it in. But we both know that's not the healthy option."

Raleigh sighed ad braced himself. "We were in Gipsy. Old Gipsy," he clarified. "I was hurt badly, and you chose to eject me and carry on the fight solo."

Mako was horrified. "Raleigh, I would never do that to you. I promise, on everything that I hold dear, that I will never, ever eject you unless I am going to be right behind you." She held Raleigh's head in her hands and leaned forward to kiss him on the forehead.

Raleigh relaxed visibly at that promise. "I know you wouldn't. That's why it's so scary for me to see that in a dream." He wrapped his arms around Mako's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "But hearing you say that helps a lot."

Mako hugged him back. "Just don't do it to me again, okay?"

Raleigh chuckled softly. "What, scare you like that, or eject you?"

Mako eased out of the embrace and gently punched Raleigh on the shoulder. "You know damn well which one I'm talking about, Mr. Becket." She smiled before looking back over at the clock. "Might as well get up and get ready. I know I can't go back to sleep for such a short time."

Raleigh nodded. "Yeah, we've got a lot to do before Munchkin's baby shower tomorrow."

Mako paled as she realized she'd forgotten the party. "Oh, no. I don't have a gift." She turned to face Raleigh. "I don't even know what to get for a gift!"

Raleigh pointed at the closet. "Bottom shelf, left side. Got something for you when I went out for mine."

Mako blinked in surprise. "Thanks. I completely spaced on that."

"You've been busy finalizing the designs of the Mark VIs. It's okay to forget the small stuff like that right now. I'll back you up, you back me up, and no one's the wiser."

"Except Herc, probably."

Raleigh frowned. "Okay, point. But he'd understand."

Mako grinned. "True." She stepped into the bathroom and looked in the mirror at her hair. It now stretched down past her shoulder blades, and despite the fact that she enjoyed being able to braid it for a change, it was starting to become a hassle. "Do you think I should cut my hair back, Raleigh? And don't give me a 'Whatever you want, I'll enjoy' answer."

"Mako…" Raleigh buried his head in his hands for a moment. "Gah. How do I put this?"

Mako giggled at Raleigh's torment, but didn't push him for an answer.

"Okay, I'll admit: I loved it when your hair was shorter, but I've seen how much you enjoy being able to do stuff with it now that it's longer. I say enjoy it now, while you don't need to have it short enough to fit in a helmet."

"And the blue tips?"

Raleigh grinned. "Definitely bring those back when we get back into war footing. It's part of your image. Every Ranger has something that is just classic them."

"So what's yours?"

"The bomber jacket. Yance was the one who pushed hard for them, but it was my idea."

"Ah. So the flight suits were Yancy's idea."

Mako saw a sad look briefly flicker across Raleigh face. "Yeah. Those were totally his idea."

"I wonder what sensei's… thing… was."

Raleigh grinned. "Did you ever see him dress in a t-shirt and casual jeans?"

Mako thought back over nine years of memories from her time with Pentecost. "You know what? He never did."

Raleigh nodded. "And that's what he was best known for. I think the most casual I saw him was in a polo shirt and slacks."

Mako nodded. "I remember that. He tended to wear that while on vacation."

"He took vacation?"

Mako laughed. "Rarely, but yes, he did. And for that crack, I get first turn in the shower."

Raleigh thought about it for a moment. "Fair enough. That way we'll both be ready to go at the same time."

"Hey!"

Raleigh laughed as Mako walked out of the bedroom, still glaring at him.

-.-.-

Mako's office

1127

Mako sighed and rubbed her temples as she hung up the phone. God I hate dealing with subcontractors… And the PMS isn't helping.

Raleigh appeared in her doorway as if by magic. "Need to spar?"

"Please."

"Good thing I already scheduled us a slot."

"Good thing my body runs like clockwork. I can schedule an extended lunch on days like today."

Raleigh nodded. "One small blessing, yes?"

Mako just nodded as they walked towards the main entrance… only to be greeted by an old friend of Raleigh's.

"Hello, Raleigh. Been a few years."

"Stephanie? How are you?"

"WHY WEREN'T YOU AT THE FUNERAL?!"

Raleigh winced at the well-deserved outburst. "I was in Alaska, working the wall. I wish I could have been there, but at the time, I couldn't afford to go, and I probably wouldn't have gone. It would have reminded me of Yancy too much."

The former pilot of Hydra Corinthian looked up at Raleigh from her wheelchair. "Okay, that's fair. I still don't like it, but it's fair." She turned to Mako. "Pleased to meet you again, Miss Mori. I see you've hooked up with Sunshine here?"

Raleigh groaned at the mention of his old nickname. "Steph, please. Not that again…"

Mako laughed. "Sunshine? You'll have to share the story behind that sometime, Raleigh."

Herc wandered out of his office to check on the Rangers. "Well, Raleigh's not bleeding, so I guess that means that he's forgiven. Welcome to Sacramento, Stephanie."

"Thanks for having me, sir. I'm glad to be able to help again. I've felt kinda useless after the accident."

Caitlin walked in the door at that moment. "Steph? How are you?"

"Been better, ma'am. Seems like you're doing fine, though. I can barely tell that you lost part of your right leg."

"You think I'm not going to tinker with my prosthetic to try and make it more to my tastes?"

Stephanie laughed. "True."

Raleigh nodded to Mako, and they headed towards the door.

Herc looked at the two for a moment. "Oi. Where you goin'?"

Mako just pointed to the calendar and rolled her eyes.

Raleigh decided to elaborate a little more. "We've… got an appointment at a local dojo to go sparring. We kinda need to hurry now if we want to make our time."

Stephanie grinned. "Wait, hanbo sparring? I saw the YouTube clip. Can I tag along?"

Mako nodded. "I don't see why not. Besides, we're planning on getting some lunch afterwards, too. Maybe you and Raleigh can catch up?"

Raleigh nodded. "That's actually a good idea. I could use some input on some stuff from work here, too."

Mako held the door as the paralyzed Ranger rolled out. "That's why Herc called me in. He wants me to be a senior instructor for the new Academy. Said you could probably use the help."

Raleigh groaned. "God yes. I need another set of eyes to go over the curriculum and see what I've no doubt missed."

"No problem. I'll follow you guys, okay? I… kinda have trouble with a regular car right now."

Mako nodded. "We understand. We're the blue Tesla, by the way."

"You have a Tesla? I got a second-hand Sprinter conversion!"

Raleigh felt guilty about that. She deserves to get more than us. She lost Kennedy and her legs. "I'll turn Jaz and Miranda loose on that and get your payments set up."

"What payments?"

"As a surviving ranger, you get $75,000 a year for life. For you, we'll see if we can swing you getting Kennedy's share, too."

Mako settled into her seat, deep in thought. Hrm. The Mark VI basic structure is ready to share with other firms to add systems to, but Caitlin's twiddling her thumbs… I'll let her and Sergio work on making a prototype for Stephanie to test drive.

Raleigh waited for Kennedy to get situated, then set the car's path into the computer. "Whatcha thinking about?"

"Powered exoskeleton legs for Stephanie. It'd let her walk again, just not with her own legs. I'll see if Newt has any suggestions on that front."

"Mako… it's spinal cord damage. It's not fixable."

"But what if it is, and we just think that it's not? Raleigh, that could have been us after we killed Otachi. Kennedy LaRue died from her rig breaking off after a hard landing. Stephanie's back was broken when hers only partially broke."

"How'd that happen?"

"They used Hydra's Breath at point blank while laying atop the Kaiju. They had lost a leg already, and the Kaiju just wouldn't die. So they used the Breath. It tossed them nearly a mile before they landed on their back. The Conn Pod connections to the body broke in more than two dozen places, and Kennedy's rig broke off its mounts and she broke her neck." Mako's face fell. "At least it was quick."

"When did that happen?"

"October. Didn't you see it on the news?"

"No, I was on a really remote stretch of the Wall then. We barely had enough power to run the equipment. We didn't have enough to run the TVs."

"Oh."

"Yeah, Sitka was actually a pretty nice job site. Sure was warmer than Sheldon Point. That one was cold."

Mako grinned. "So you can get cold. I could have sworn you never got cold."

"Hey, you work in the middle of a blizzard up above the Arctic Circle in winter and see how well you fare."

Mako shut up before she shoved her foot into her mouth again.

-.-.-

Raleigh's office

1245

"So, restarting the academy, huh?" Stephanie rolled up to Raleigh's desk. "Lotta work ahead of you."

Raleigh pulled up a flowchart of the projected classes. "Yeah, but the big thing that worries me is the testing phase. We've already received more than 2000 requests for applications. We're not expecting to put them out for another nine months, though. We could have thousands of cadets in the first session."

"Which is not all that different from our class, remember?"

"We're talking an order of magnitude. Add a zero, Steph."

"Nah, can't be that bad. You'll lose half of them during medical qualification exams, anyways."

Across the hall, Mako took the crew chiefs and the crew of Brawler Yukon into her office and closed the door. Must be for that exoskeleton idea of hers.

Stephanie paid it no mind, and was instead leaning forward to tinker with the curriculum hovering over Raleigh's desk. "So, Miranda… What's her connection?"

"You remember Chuck, right?"

"Herc's son? Yeah, I remember him. How could I forget that attitude?"

Raleigh winced. "Well… She's his fiancé."

"Oh." Steph's face fell. "Ouch. Did she know?"

"About?"

Stephanie held her hands out in front of her stomach and wiggled her eyebrows.

"Oh, I see. I dunno. Mako and I never really pried into those days. We had our own problems back then to deal with."

"True." Stephanie leaned back in her wheelchair and looked at the flowchart. "Looks good, Sunshine."

"Gaaahh… You ever gonna let me live that down?"

"Of course not. I'll make sure to call you that in front of Tendo next month."

Raleigh smacked his forehead. "That's right. K-Day observances." His gaze grew distant. "Question for you, Steph. Real personal, real secret."

"Ask away, Baby Becket."

Raleigh glared at Stephanie, but continued. "I've got something really special to give to Mako, and I was just wondering if I should do it there, afterwards."

"Raleigh, if you're trying to ask if it's appropriate to propose to her at the K-Day ceremony, remember that there's going to be a truckload of photographers there. And you two have been working really hard at not making the tabloids."

"That can be dealt with. I'm just asking about it being right."

Stephanie looked across the hall at the closed door, listening to the technobabble filtering through the gap at the bottom. "I dunno, Raleigh. It's not something that I can answer. The only person who can is you. And trust me, you'll know what the right time is when you get to it." She grinned. "Although, from what I've heard about Miss Mori, she may just try to beat you to the punch."

Raleigh laughed. "Yeah, that is her style much of the time. My sister and Miranda both have tried to take her shopping. They usually have to take her to Sears' tool department or to a hardware store afterwards just to get her to be tolerant of the experience."

Stephanie chuckled. "She is the first woman I've met who hates shopping."

"Long story behind that. Maybe if you go with her, you can find out more."

"Oh hell no. You go!"

"I did. Wound up spending over $250 on a mechanic's toolkit instead."

"You, or her?"

"It's… shared."

"Uh-huh. Anyways, the plan looks good. We just need to get us a place to set up, and we're ready to start."

"Great." Raleigh closed the file and pulled up the calendar. "Hey, you free tomorrow night?"

"Yeah. Am I invited to the baby shower?"

"Of course. You're part of the Senior Staff now."

"I heard those capital letters, Raleigh. Why does that make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end?"

"Because it's a lot of responsibility."

"And driving a Jaeger isn't?"

"Without the fun of beating the crap out of a Kaiju."

"That explains the hair."

"So, coming?"

"Yeah, I'll be there. When and where?"

"Our apartment, 1830 hours."

"You guys got a handicapped access?"

"Yeah. The whole complex is ADA compliant. You can roll right in."

"Wonderful."

Mako's door opened, and the crew chiefs and Rangers came out with grins on their faces. Stephanie cringed. "Uh-oh. If both the Rangers and the Chiefs are grinning like idiots, it's about to get real crazy."

Crunch grinned. "Oh, you have no idea, Steph."

Mako shooed them down the hall. "Go on. You've got work to do."

Stephanie shrugged. "Well, might as well get settled into my office." She started to roll out the door, then stopped and turned to face Raleigh. "I know that you don't like to talk about it much, but… I want to talk to you. About Alaska."

Raleigh nodded, understanding what she meant. "Sure. Whenever you're ready."

Stephanie nodded and rolled down the hall to her office.

Mako wandered in, curiosity written on her face. "So, Mr. Becket, anything you'd like to share with me?"

Raleigh tried his best to look innocent. "About?"

"You know what I mean."

"That could lead me to one of several topics Steph and I discussed."

"Your poker face is terrible, Raleigh."

"Then quit hiding your cards, and I'll quit hiding mine."

"Sunshine. Why does she call you that?"

Raleigh relaxed. Good, not the one I'd been worried about. "Oh, it comes from an old magazine article from back when we were in the Academy and preparing Gipsy for launch. They described my hair as being 'sunshine blonde', which, at the time, was true."

"Ah. And I am going to get you back for that conversation about the mall trips."

Raleigh's face paled, causing Mako to laugh.

"Relax, it won't cause any lasting damage to anything other than your ego." Mako walked out towards the entrance and to the hangar across the street where they had set up their machine shop.

Raleigh pulled up an email from a small business which he had recently become a customer at. The revenge isn't what I'm worried about…

It's what I was talking about before that.

-.-.-

Author's notes:

First off, huge shout out to Jocelyn for her fantastic "Aurora Borealis" series, which is referenced here in several spots. If you haven't read it yet, stop and go read it. ALL OF IT. It's fantastic stuff and a must read for anyone who likes this story. Trust me, it's awesome. JUST GO READ IT!

Second, I have no idea what the hell happens at a baby shower. Never been to one, being an unmarried 20-something guy who's in no rush to have kids. But I will do a small scene from it in the next chapter, as it's kinda important to the story as a whole.

Third, expect to see some increasingly large time skips ahead. The gang's starting to get settled into a routine, so unless something unusual happens or it drives along a plot point, expect it to get kinda glossed over.

And finally, it took me a while to realize that the list of Jaegers I posted a few chapters back has a glaring omission: Korea's not included. Expect to see something to touch on that coming up as well.