Raleigh was waiting by her door when they got back downstairs, leaning against the wall with an apprehensive expression. Jazmine could feel Chuck fuming silently next to her. Raleigh stood up as they approached, and Jazmine reached out to put a calming hand on Chuck's arm. You going to be okay? his eyes asked her as he turned to look at her, and she leaned in to give him a quick kiss.

"I got this," she said, and Chuck gave Raleigh one last poisonous glare as he let himself into his room. Her brother still had an eyebrow raised at the nature of their goodbye when she turned back to face him. "Don't," she said firmly, and opened the door to her room to let them both inside.

He settled himself on her desk chair with a small sigh. "Jazmine, I screwed up," he started, and Jazmine swallowed the lump that rose in her throat. "I took a complete stranger's word over yours, and I didn't even bother to question it. I owe you a lot of apologies."

She sat on her bed, pulling her pillow into her lap to hug against her chest. "You found the drugs, though? And you know who took them?"

"Yeah, we found them. It was one of the nurses. He's been dismissed and escorted off the premises. Not by me, lucky for him," Raleigh said, anger seeping into his usually calm voice. "Honestly, Jaz, I'm so sorry. I know you've been working your ass off here. I just panicked when Dr. Li told me what happened. I know I have a blind spot when it comes to you, and the possibility that maybe you were lying - I didn't know what to do with that."

She shook her head. "I understand why. It's just…it hurts, you know?" she said, giving a humorless chuckle. "It feels like the more I try to change things, the more nothing changes."

"Don't do that." Raleigh leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "You've accomplished so much, don't let me mess that up for you. You're not just here to make me happy."

She was silent for a long moment. "Why didn't you try to find me after Yancy died?" she asked finally, slouching a bit to prop her chin on the pillow.

Raleigh cocked his head at her, surprised. "Jazmine, I did," he said, astonished. "I spent the entire first year I was out trying to track you down." Her lower lip trembled slightly, but she didn't respond. "I got as far as Cedar Rapids, and then it's like you just disappeared."

Jazmine nodded. "That's when I stopped staying in shelters."

"I didn't want to give up, but I ran out of money, and I was still so messed up from losing Yancy." He got up from the chair to sit next to her. "I thought you were dead, or at the very least that I was never going to see you again. And then you called me, and I had part of my family back. So I promised myself that no matter what happened, no matter what kind of trouble you were in, I wasn't going to lose you again."

The emotion rising in her chest was threatening to overwhelm her, so she changed the subject. "What's drifting like?"

Raleigh shook his head a little, reeling a little from her 180. "What?"

"Drifting. What's it like?"

He took a deep breath. "Well, it's - it's like having a conversation, only you don't just hear the other person's words, you can feel everything behind their response - all the little connections their brain makes from what you're saying to them, all the experiences they're drawing from, you can see them like it's your own mind."

"So you really can't hide anything from each other, can you?"

"Nope. That's why it's so important to trust each other. It's the most important thing, besides being compatible in the first place." He smiled a little at his own words.

"Can you just tell? If you're compatible with someone?" Jazmine wasn't sure if she was still talking about drifting, but she asked anyway.

"Sometimes. A lot of pilot teams were already close before they became pilots, like me and Yancy. Something like me and Mako, we were practically strangers, but we definitely had a connection." Raleigh shrugged. "That doesn't happen too often."

She pressed a little more. "When did you know you were going to be compatible with Mako?"

He laughed a little to himself. "Right away. The first time I saw her. She took a little more convincing." He gave her a sideways glance. "Are we still talking about drifting?"

"Maybe." She nudged him with her shoulder, and he put an arm around her. "I guess sharing your brain with someone means you don't have much to fight about, right?"

"Oh, nooo." Raleigh shook his head. "Yancy and I used to fight all the time. Usually stupid little stuff. Almost got ourselves kicked out of the program once, though."

"Really? What were you fighting about?"

"A girl." Jazmine raised an eyebrow, and Raleigh ducked his head, embarrassed. "Yeah, I know. I got her number, but Yancy took her out behind my back." He shrugged again. "Can't hide anything in the drift."

"Oh, my god!" She gaped at him. "That's how you found out?"

"Yup. In the middle of a training simulation. I was so pissed - we ended up in an epic bar fight, almost killed each other. And then I thought Stacker was going to kill us both, just to set an example." He grinned. "He didn't, obviously."

Jazmine mulled over this new bit of information about her older brothers. "So Yancy totally dicked you over. I can't believe he had the balls to pull something like that."

"You and me both!" he said, laughing. "He was supposed to be the responsible one!"

"You forgave him, though. Even though he hurt you."

"Well, yeah," he replied, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "It took some time. But he was my brother and my best friend. I wasn't going to throw that away over one mistake."

She nodded. "Did Chuck rip you a new one?"

"Yeah, he did," Raleigh sighed. "I actually thought he might take a swing at me a couple of times. He was, ah - vehement."

Jazmine burst out laughing. "I don't think 'vehement' is a strong enough word for what he is."

"I was trying to be nice," he said, sounding a little hurt. "I told you, I respect him. He's a good guy. He thinks the world of you, he can't be all that bad."

She hit him with her pillow. "I don't think I like where this conversation is going."

"Hey, you started it. " He put his hands up in mock surrender. "But as your big brother, I approve. Not that you need my approval."

"I don't need your approval." She allowed herself a tiny smile. "But thank you."

Raleigh got up to leave. "Of course. Thanks for hearing me out. I'm sorry. Again."

"You don't have to keep apologizing." She stood and embraced him. "I forgive you."

"It won't happen again, I promise." Her brother hugged her back tightly, then turned to leave. "But, you know…" He looked back at Jazmine with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. "If he breaks your heart, I'll break his face."

"Get out, Raleigh," she told him, but the words were spoken with a smile.

Three nights later Jazmine was cramming for her test. She sat on one end of her bed, books across her lap, while Chuck sat at the other end with his sketchbook, propped in a half-sitting position. "Just to keep you company," he'd said when she insisted that she needed to study.

He'd been there for half an hour before she finally noticed that he was watching her intently as his pencil moved across the paper in front of him. "Are you drawing me right now?" she asked suspiciously.

"Don't mind me, just keep doing what you're doing," he said without stopping his pencil.

"No, cut it out! It's distracting!"

"But you're really cute when you're concentrating!" he protested as she crawled across the bed to challenge him. "Now you're being distracting!"

"Oh, am I?" she asked, inches away from his face. She shoved her head in front of his sketchpad. "How about now? Is that better?"

He laughed, setting the pad aside to pull her in for a kiss. "I thought you were supposed to be studying," he said as she rested her head against his chest, arms around his waist.

"I need a break," she mumbled into his shirt. He kissed the top of her head. "Tell me about the job."

He sighed. "I told you, I don't know if I want it."

"I know, I just want to hear about it." She reached up to play with his dogtags.

"Well, they want to find other uses for Jaeger and drift technology. Not just for the military, maybe civilian, everyday stuff." He put a hand over hers to stop her fidgeting. "I have to admit, it does sound interesting."

Jazmine threaded her fingers through his and started an impromptu thumb war. "And they want both you and your dad?"

"Yeah, there's not many people left who've had a lot of experience drifting." He pinned her thumb, released it, let her pin his. "Plus it's an old buddy of my dad's heading it up, he's pretty keen on getting us down there."

"I still think you should take it more seriously. You'd still be helping people, just in a different way." She looked up at him. "You sit and draw Jaeger stuff all the time. You love it. I know you do."

"Yeah, well." He pinned her thumb again. "You could always come with me."

"That's a nice thought, but I'd be stupid to pass this up." She sat up and let go of his hand. "Assuming I can pass this test."

"You'll pass. I know you will." He picked the sketchpad up. "Either way, my offer still stands."

She let it go without comment, picking her book back up off the bed and settling it back in her lap. "Don't you start drawing me again."

"Not gonna make a promise I can't keep," he replied, flashing her his most charming smile, and she rolled her eyes and went back to studying.

Chuck made her get breakfast with him the morning of the test. "It's important, you're not going to be able to concentrate if you're hungry."

"I can hardly concentrate anyway," she said, forcing herself to eat a piece of toast.

"You're going to do fine," he told her. "And if you don't, there's other schools. It's not the end of the world."

She could hear what he wasn't saying. "You know, it's only a three year program. We can visit each other. It's not the end of us."

"I know that," he said brightly, but there was a hint of doubt under his veneer of confidence. "Seriously, you're going to do fine. I'll stop worrying if you'll stop stressing, okay?"

"Deal." She choked down the rest of her breakfast and washed it down with some orange juice, then stood and gave him a kiss. "For luck."

"You won't need it," he said, smiling, but she thought his smile had faded a bit when she looked back one last time.

Despite the confidence that she'd felt walking out of the testing room, Jazmine's nerves were completely shot two weeks later. Chuck tried to keep a sense of humor about her anxiety, but she could tell his patience was wearing thin.

"I'm sorry," she said after she'd snapped at him yet again. "I feel like my whole life is riding on this."

"It's not," he replied, wrapping her in a hug. "You don't have to apologize."

He was trying to distract her with a card game when Raleigh showed up at her door bearing a thin white envelope. "I'll leave this with you," he said, smiling, and made a hasty retreat.

She held it with shaking hands. Chuck grabbed his crutches and stood up to face her. "What are you waiting for? Open it!"

Tearing at the flap, Jazmine pulled out the paper inside and read it, realized she hadn't retained any of the words, and read it again. Then she read it again, and a smile slowly spread across her lips as the news sunk in. "It's an acceptance letter." She looked up at Chuck, whose smile matched her own. "I did it. I got in!"

"See? I told you!" She threw her arms around his neck and he fought to stay upright, kissing her as she laughed against his mouth. "Congratulations!"

"Thank you, oh my god, thank you so much!" Her heart pounded in her chest and her mind raced. There was so much to do now, she needed to figure out where she was going to live, and how much everything was going to cost…

Chuck reached up to cup her face, and kissed her again, breaking away to rest his forehead against hers. "I turned down the job. I'm coming with you."

Jazmine's racing thoughts came to a screeching halt, and her mood flipped on a dime. "What?"

"I'm coming with you," he repeated. "I can't be away from you for that long. I want to be with you."

She took a step back. "You can't - why would you do that? You can't come with me!"

"Why not?" He was incredulous. "There'll be other jobs."

"Not like this one! It's perfect for you! You can't walk away from that because of me, don't be stupid!" She shook her head. "Have you even thought this through?"

"Of course I have! Why are you so angry?" The hurt in his eyes was evident, and it made her heart twist, but she stood firm. "I'm not walking away from you because of some job!"

"It's not just about the job. We've only known each other for a few months and you're talking about following me to another country." She laughed at the absurdity of what was happening. "God, Chuck, being with me isn't going to fix you!"

As soon as the words left her mouth she wished she could take them back. The color drained from Chuck's face, and his mouth because a hard line. "So that's it. I'm still not good enough for you."

"Chuck, that's not what I meant," she pleaded, but he was already leaving. "Please, I'm sorry."

"No." He hobbled out of her room without looking at her. "I'm sorry. Good luck to you." She watched him go, heard him slam the door to his room, and closed her own door with a heavy heart.

The next morning she got dressed and went straight to Chuck's room, hoping he'd have cooled off enough to let her talk, but when she got to his door it was half open and he was gone.

She stepped inside, realizing that most of his things were missing. A single piece of paper lay across his pillow and Jazmine picked it up, hoping it was a note, something that would tell her where he'd gone. Her heart sunk when she realized it was that first sketch of her she'd found, hair undone and eyes fixed on something off the edge of the paper.

"He left around 2 o'clock this morning," said a voice from behind her, and she turned to find Raleigh standing in the doorway. "Herc just told me. I was hoping to catch you so you wouldn't have to find out like…" he gestured around the room. "…like this."

The confirmation pushed all the air out of her lungs, and she sat down on the bed because she didn't think her knees would hold her up anymore. "He just left?"

"He took a red eye to Sydney." Cautiously he walked to the bed to sit next to her. "Did something happen?"

"He, um." She swallowed thickly. "I screwed it all up." Her eyelids fluttered as she tried to blink back the tears that were gathering, but one slid down her cheek and landed on the paper in her hands with a small, wet smack. Raleigh put an arm around her but didn't say anything in response, just let her find the words on her own. "He wanted to come with me, and I told him he couldn't do that." Jazmine leaned into her brother's shoulder.

He sighed and rubbed her back. "Don't be so hard on yourself. I think you made the right call."

"I told him I couldn't fix him," she said, disgusted with herself. "Why would I say that? I took everything he's done and I just threw it back in his face."

Raleigh nodded, and the look on his face told Jazmine he was starting to understand why Chuck had chosen to take off in the middle of the night. "That was a harsh thing to say," he said carefully, "but that was also a big decision for him to try and make for you."

"Our timing was just so fucked up. It's so unfair." Furiously she grabbed her sleeve to wipe the wetness off her cheeks.

They sat together for a few silent moments, interrupted only by Jazmine's occasional sniffling. "Is there anything I can do?" Raleigh asked, giving her a gentle squeeze.

"No, I think I just want to be alone for a little bit," she replied, and he stood up to leave.

"Mako and I have to go to Japan next week. I think you should come with us. We'll be close to Kyoto, we can stop over and check out some apartments," he said, and Jazmine knew he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Sure. Thanks." A half smile was the most she could muster, and her brother waved goodbye, leaving her to the silence of Chuck's empty room.