The members of the world-saving victory tour arrived back at the Shatterdome the following week, and Jazmine ran into her brother and Mako in the hall on her way back to her room after her morning shift, still in her scrubs. "Hi! I thought you weren't supposed to get back until tonight!"
"We were all pretty sick of traveling," Raleigh said, reaching out to place his hand on the small of Mako's back. Mako smiled at the contact. "How are you doing? Still like the job?"
"I do like it," Jazmine confessed, making a mental note to tease her brother about his "copilot" later. "It kept me really busy. That and helping Chuck out."
"Yeah, he's in his own room now, right? How's that-"
BWAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!
Raleigh gasped, Mako shrieked and both of them simultaneously spun around and dropped into what Jazmine could only describe as a battle stance.
"Relax, it's just me." Chuck casually rolled his chair up next to them, air horn sitting in his lap. "If this had been a real kaiju warning…well, we'd all be fucked, wouldn't we?"
"What the hell was that?!" Raleigh demanded, standing back up and trying to recover.
"What, this?" Chuck held up the horn. "It's an air horn. A very nice gift from your sister."
Jazmine had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the looks Mako and Raleigh gave her. "You bought him an air horn."
"He insists on getting around by himself in that chair, and I wanted to make sure he could get someone's attention if they were, you know, about to run him over with something." She shrugged. "Also I thought it was funny."
"She's right. That was the funniest thing I've seen all day." Chuck smirked. "If you'll excuse me, I'm off to get some lunch and visit my dog." He wheeled away down the hall.
"We're still on for dinner, right?" Jazmine called after him.
"Of course!" he called back, punctuating his answer with another blare of the air horn.
Raleigh and Mako exchanged a look - not just a look, but a look - and Jazmine rolled her eyes. "Could you guys please not do that right now?"
They turned their heads to look at her in perfect sync. "Do what?" they asked, voices blending together.
"The creepy, talking-without-talking mind meld…thing," she said, pointing at her temples. "Honestly? It's kind of rude."
Raleigh sighed. "Sorry. Mako, can you give us a minute? I'll catch up with you later." To Jazmine's relief, Mako nodded and disappeared in the direction Chuck had gone. Her relief was only temporary, though. "What was that about?"
"Raleigh…it's not a big deal. I'm sorry I snapped at you guys." He wasn't buying it. "Look, I think Mako's great, and I really appreciate everything you're doing for me. I do," she insisted, "it's just…you and Yancy used to do the same thing." Raleigh's eyes went sad, and Jazmine stared at the floor so she wouldn't have to look at him. "You guys were so close," she continued, "and I always felt left out. And now you have that same connection with someone else, and I…" Tears were starting to well in her eyes, and she blinked hard to force them back.
"Hey." Jazmine dared to look back up at her brother, immediately wishing she hadn't because the tender expression on his face was almost too much to bear. "Jaz. I'm really sorry, okay? It's such a reflex, I forget what it's like for everyone else sometimes. I'll try harder to say things out loud."
"It's not just that." She smiled sadly. "I've never been that close to anyone."
Raleigh cocked his head at her. "You and Chuck seem to get along pretty well," he said cautiously, and Jazmine could tell he was trying not to sound unhappy about it.
"We don't have to talk about Chuck. I know you don't like him."
"That's not fair, I have a lot of respect for him." The corners of Raleigh's mouth twitched. "I just also think he's a prick."
Jazmine laughed. "I'm pretty sure he feels the same way about you."
"You like him, though."
Instantly her guard was up. "He's my friend. I don't have a lot of those."
"Are you sure that's all he is?" His eyebrows assumed a cynical position.
"Stop. No. We're not having this discussion. Nope." Jazmine stared at her brother like he'd grown a second head. "Besides, you're one to talk. Is Mako just your copilot? Because your body language screams 'We're totally doing it'."
Raleigh burst out laughing. "Whoa, wait. No. We're not 'doing it'. We're just…close." He stopped laughing. "Do we really come off like that?"
"Yeah. A lot." Jasmine smiled at him. "You're crazy about her. It's really obvious, and sickeningly adorable."
He sighed again, reaching up to grab awkwardly at the back of his neck. "Things have been hectic. We haven't had much of a chance to talk about what's going on with us. You're right, though." Before Jazmine could unleash her barrage of questions, he fixed her with a stern look. "And we can talk about that later. Just…be careful, okay?"
"I'm a big girl, Raleigh, I can take care of myself." She hugged him to signal the end of their conversation. "Welcome back. I'll see you later."
"Well hello there, beautiful," Chuck teased her as she sat down in front of him in the mess hall. "Come here often?"
Jazmine blushed a little, thinking of the talk she'd had earlier with Raleigh. "Thought I'd try it out, but nobody told me you were going to be here." He threw a piece of bread at her, and she laughed. "Real mature, Hansen."
"That's going on my headstone. 'Here lies Chuck Hansen, he was real mature.'" He smiled and threw another piece of bread at her. "How's the illustrious Raleigh Becket doing?"
"Well, I have established that he and Mako are not sleeping together, at least not yet." Chuck made a face. "Are you jealous?"
"Why are you so hung up on how I feel about Mako fucking Mori?" he muttered, ripping viciously into some kind of gravy-covered meat dish.
"Because every time I mention Mako, you do this," she said, and pulled her face into an impression of his pained scowl.
He stared at her as he chewed, unimpressed. "We used to be friends. Things went to hell. We're no longer friends. The end."
"Oooo-kay, noted." Jazmine sighed. "You are a prick."
"Who thinks I'm a prick?" It was Jazmine's turn to look unimpressed. "All right, everyone thinks I'm a prick. But who told you that?"
"Raleigh, obviously. Oh, don't even make that face at me, you give him copious amounts of shit everytime you talk to him."
"Tell him the feeling's mutual." Chuck grumbled.
"Already did." She gave him a dazzling smile. "I am confused about where all that animosity comes from, though. Is it because he wiped the floor with you when you tried to pick a fight?"
"Oh, he told you about that. Wonderful. As if being alive isn't humiliation enough right now." The meat dish was gone, so he settled for stabbing his vegetables like he was trying to cause them pain. "He's fucking obnoxious, that's why I don't like him."
"No argument here." Jazmine put up her hands in mock surrender. "He means well, though." Her only response was a grunt, so she changed the subject. "When are they going to let you use crutches?"
"Dunno. Soon, I hope. I'm getting tired of everyone looking down at me." He dropped his fork. "You know what? Let's get the hell out of here."
"And go where?" she laughed, not thinking he was serious.
"I guess you'll just have to follow me and find out," he said, leaving his tray on the table as he wheeled himself away.
She followed him down the halls of the Shatterdome, through a couple of areas she'd never been in, and to an area she was pretty sure neither of them were supposed to be in - the empty Jaeger hangar. Chuck ignored the giant "KEEP OUT" signs and punched a code into the keypad, then waited for her to open the door. The silence was eerie as he led her to an elevator tucked away in a dark corner.
They rode the elevator up for what seemed like an hour. When the doors opened a cool breeze wafted in, and Jazmine gasped as she realized they were on the roof, facing the ocean.
Chuck didn't speak, just wheeled his chair out onto the concrete, towards the guard rail that stood between them and a drop of hundreds of feet. The sun had just set, and the sky was a deep sapphire blue, speckled with just a few of the brightest stars. Jazmine walked to the guard rail and wrapped her hands around it, closing her eyes and breathing in the salt-soaked air.
"It's beautiful up here, you can see forever," she said, and when she looked at Chuck he was smiling, a genuine smile that reached his eyes.
"It's really something, isn't it?" he said softly. "I never really paid attention to things like this before. Funny what you start noticing when you don't have anywhere to be."
"Thank you for bringing me. I don't go outside much." She'd been on the odd errand when she needed something they didn't have at the Shatterdome, but most of the time she was inside. Somehow she felt safer confined to the halls and rooms of the enormous building.
"I have to confess, I have ulterior motives." He shifted his chair so he could face her. "Every time we talk, you ask me a million questions about myself, but I hardly know anything about you. So talk. Tell me why you're here, because as much as I'd like to think it's to be my personal assistant I know that's not it." When she remained silent, he made a big show of looking around them, then fixed his gaze back up at her. "There's no one else around to hear you."
Jazmine stared out over the ocean, following it with her eyes to the point where the inky water disappeared into the darkening sky. "I'm here because I don't have anywhere else to go," she said finally. "My mom died when I was nine. I think it was lung cancer, she smoked all the time, but no one told me what was going on. A couple of years after that, my dad bailed, and Raleigh and Yancy enlisted. I stayed with my mom's best friend for a while, but I never really felt like I belonged there, you know?" She gripped the guard rail tighter. "So I thought, fuck it. Everyone else got to take off and do what they wanted, why can't I?" Her lips curved into a smile, but it held no happiness. "I ran away after I turned fifteen. Went inland, which was stupid because I had no idea how expensive it was going to be to survive."
"Your brothers didn't help you out?" Chuck sounded surprised.
"They didn't know where I went. I know they would have helped me, but I was so pissed they left me behind I didn't want anything to do with them." The words were flying out of her mouth now, and she couldn't stop them. "I spent a couple of years in and out of shelters, stole what I needed, ran whenever I got caught. When I looked old enough, I conned my way into office jobs, and that's when I got started with the white-collar stuff. Apparently I look trustworthy." She laughed, a short, bitter noise. "I got busted for that, tried to stay off the radar for a while, but when you guys closed the Breach the market for kaiju parts spiked, and I couldn't pass up that kind of money. They caught me in a sting. So I called Raleigh." She shrugged, not wanting to look at Chuck. "And now I'm here."
"That's a hell of a history."
"I left out all the gory details." She dared to give him a sideways glance, but his face was frustratingly neutral. "You don't seem too bothered."
"Sounds like you were just doing what you had to do." The sympathy in his voice was infuriating.
"Lots of people managed to get by just fine without turning into professional criminals." She stared at him. "Why are you giving me a pass on this?"
"Because I like you," he told her bluntly. "Because you put up with my bullshit, and you're the only person here who doesn't treat me like I'm made of fucking glass. You're nice to have around."
"Can't break what's already broken." It slipped out before she could bite the words back.
"That should piss me off, but it's true." He turned his chair to stare out into the night. "It also makes me feel better to know I'm not the only fuck-up here."
"Oh my god, you're not a fuck-up." Jazmine sat down to dangle her legs off the edge of the concrete platform, and looked up at him, resting her head against the cold metal of the rail. "If you don't feel like you deserve to be here, why don't you start doing something to earn it?"
"I will when you will." He grinned down at her, enjoying the look of defeat on her face a little too much.
"Fair enough," she conceded. "But it can wait until we go back inside."
Chuck nodded his acquiescence and they sat in silence, listening to the waves crash beneath them and watching the stars twinkle between the gauzy wisps of clouds that passed overhead. It was, Jazmine thought, the most normal thing she'd done in a long time.