April 10th 2035

Shatterdome, Hong Kong

Infirmary

0800

"I'm sorry"

"What?" Jack asked. It was too early for this.

Tooth blushed and darted her eyes to a suddenly interesting blank wall of the infirmary room where Jack had been chained to a bed all night.

"I said I was sorry," she explained, "for getting you landed in here. You shouldn't have to fight my battles for me."

"That's not how this works." he said, shaking his head in bemusement "We're a team. Your fight, my fight: doesn't matter. We're a package deal. We are going to be essentially one person for hours at a time."

"Was that an intentional innuendo or do you just spout those things on reflex?" Tooth asked with a suspicious look.

"You know," Jack retorted heatedly, "You keep making all of these accusations against me, but I was being genuine just now and you come out with this kind of thing. I think you're projecting."

"Bah-wha-huh?" Tooth sputtered, incredulous "I am not a-a degenerate like you!"

"Please, Your Majesty!" Jack crowed, "All I did was check you out that one time and flirt a little when we had that tussle in the simulator to put you off your game. You're the one who bent it all out of proportion."

"I did not!" Tooth half yelled

"You did too!" Jack yelled right back, "You're cute, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? And occasionally a guy looks at a cute girl a little. That's all it was. And don't act like you don't know better now either. You were in my head. My intentions were within a reasonable limit."

"Fine." Tooth replied, sighing. "How did I come here to apologize and end up bickering with you?"

"You apologized for something dumb. I know what those guys said, I know what it meant. And the little baby Tooth made from the leftovers of the Drift told me what it meant to you. They hurt you, I hurt them. Simple as that. I expect you to return the favor, if it ever comes to that."

"Whatever." she muttered, somewhere between annoyed, relieved, and resigned. "At least we got our first fight out of the way."

"No way. That was not a fight." The boy disagreed, "It's not a fight until you have leverage. You have to be able to do some damage to the other party for it to count."

"That's stupid." Tooth snorted

"Look," Jack said in a reasonable tone, "have you ever seen a couple fight, like your parents or something?"

"No, not really." She replied looking just a hair confused.

"Bad example." Jack said, looking like he would be smacking his forehead if he wasn't chained down "Ranger couples don't argue, at least not out loud. They tend to work things out in the Drift."

"Really?" She asked, actually interested for once.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Jack dismissed, clearly not as interested as her. "But if all you came to do was apologize-"

"Umm, actually," Tooth began, "I came to talk to you about something else too. About what those guys said, in the hall yesterday."

Jack just looked at her like she grew another head, which is pretty ironic all things considered.

"It's true." She finished, closing her eyes tight to brace for any forthcoming exclamations.

"Really?" Jack asked, not believing a word, "even that thing about you sleeping in the Conn-pod dock doused in grease thing that one guy I gave a broken nose to said, 'cause you don't seem the type."

"NO!" Tooth replied "Stop joking around! I'm being serious here!"

"Oh." Jack said, feeling like a jerk "Sorry. So what all..."

"My parents," she began, "My birth parents rather. They were Rangers, back in India. My mother was Drifting all the time, with me in her belly. It was an experiment or something. I don't know. When... they died, saving my mom and dad, that was the day I was born. My mother went into labor while still in the Drift. I was born right in the Conn-pod of a wrecked Jaeger, as my mother died of a hemorrhage in her brain."

Tooth had been tearing up slowly through her explanation. Now tears were silently drifting down the curves of her face. Jack was frozen as he was faced with the crying young woman, not knowing what to do.

"And the worst part is that it's true. I'm a freak!" She continued, very nearly sobbing now. "I hear voices! Like a schizophrenic! Jaegers talk to me! And I talk back!"

And she just broke.

Jack really wished he wasn't chained to the bed right now. He had never seen anybody that needed a comforting as bad as the girl sobbing into her hands in the chair next to his bed. And as things stood he couldn't do squat about it. Looking at where the handcuffs restrained his left arm to the bent tubing headboard he considered his options.

Screw it.

And he pulled at his left arm, straining the handcuffs and the bed frame, figuring something had to give, allowing him to achieve his objective; i.e.: a comforting hug.

What gave was the cheap aluminum of the headboard, funnily enough. He was betting on the chain or hand. In any case: Hug achieved.

Jack couldn't help but wonder, as he held his partner one armed as she cried, how long had she though she was essentially crazy? She was clearly terrified of anyone finding out, and all of those things people said could only make things worse. What she needed was someone to understand.

"Hey," He said, as she started to lose steam, "You know, you're not crazy. Ask me how I know."

She leaned away from him a little, and Jack saw that she had passed the cute stage of crying at some point and was now a mess of runny makeup and puffy eyes. It was actually kind of endearing. Go figure.

"How. Do. You. Know?" She asked around breaths that were short and involuntary like a bad case of the hiccups.

"Because I'm weird too." He said with no shame whatsoever, he even managed to smile, though that may have been motivated by spite for his circumstances. "I was doused in that slime Kaiju have for blood when I was 15 or something. It did things to me. We can go into details later if you want.

"Important thing is that I can Drift, like really really well." By now Tooth was looking at him in a little bit of wonder, tears forgotten, "Well, if I'm frozen. I'm basically Mr. Freeze. But that means that I can't really Drift like everyone else, because I'm not like anyone else. My brain works different now.

"It really screwed up my memory too." Jack said with a wistful look on his face, before rallying himself. "But that's where the cool part is. Because, you fixed me. Don't know how, don't know why, but you did. Not all the way. But enough.

"You gave me back my life." he said as he looked at her, tears in his eyes now, "Before yesterday; I had nothing from before the attack. Now I know I have a little sister out there somewhere. God, she must be nine or ten. Her name's Beth. And I can find her now. Because I met you. Before yesterday I was a stupid kid some eggheads decided to weaponize. Now I can maybe be a real person again, someday.

"So," he said, pulling her to him with his loose arm, holding her so tight she could swear she heard her bones creak, "You will never have to apologize to me. It's all forgiven. You will never, ever be alone as long as I live, because you have me. I'm on your side, always. There is nothing wrong with you, and if you need it I'll take on the world to prove it."

"Thank you." Tooth said as she slowly wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you so much. I was so alone in this."

"Not anymore. Never again." He promised, before lightening his tone. "But could you do me one favor please?"

"What? Anything." She answered

"Help me unchain my other hand without collapsing the bed?"