Author's Notes: Okay, dear readers, good news and bad news. The good news is, my summer of unemployment has ended, and I have a new job! Yay for job! The bad news is, that amid a VERY hurried relocation and starting my new work, I'm going to have to slow down updating. Rest assured, this story is finished, but its co-prequel and sequel are not done, and I don't want to run out of story and have to leave you hanging. So updates shall now come once a week, usually on Saturdays or Sundays. In a few weeks, once I'm settled in, I'll see about speeding them up again. Please be patient and continue to give your reviews and feedback!
Additional Note: This was another chapter where I had to hold my nose to realistically portray the perspective of male privilege and cruel gossip. Even our heroes can be immature and lacking in empathy, and as we all know, the media and public can be merciless towards celebrities.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Something To Talk About
Los Angeles Shatterdome…
March 2018…
Team Gipsy, Team Yankee, and Team Matador were determined to make those last couple of weeks count before the Pacific-wide orange level alert had them all stuck on-base. They had a blast. There was still a lot of work every day: training, drilling, exercising, and getting lectured on K-Science and J-Tech. But during off-hours, there was off-base leave, and the ample sources of entertainment in the Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area as a reward.
The high schools and colleges were on spring break, and all of southern California seemed to be in a hedonistic, optimistic mood. There were available girls and available guys of all ages, races, and gender preferences – nobody on any of the teams seemed to want for dance partners (or bed partners). The pilots got by far the most attention, but all that anyone on Shatterdome staff had to do was flash their dog tags if they wanted company.
For the most part, Raleigh did bask in the constant attention of the local girls, and took up for than a few on their offers, and nobody had a problem with it. Yancy also had his share to choose from, as did the others. Some of the crews found themselves a steady squeeze among the civilian population, but the majority kept it all casual - and kept their options open.
The media did chatter about the Beckets as they did about the other pilot pairs whenever a Ranger was spotted with a date or a dance partner (or doing the Walk of Shame), but according to Carolina and Brady, "As long as it's all between consenting adults, only the most stuffy souls complain."
On the other hand, Raleigh had to catch himself a few times, like one of the last nights that they were out at a dance club in Santa Monica and he was getting attention from a whole squad of local girls. Cady Spencer won his undying gratitude by hurriedly handing his drink to his own paramour and pushing through the mob to hiss in Raleigh's ear, "Watch it, bro, my friend over there just warned me that crew've all got fake IDs."
"What?!"
"Underage!"
Oh, shit! He'd been having a great time up until then, debating on whether he wanted to take off with that insanely tanned Baywatch blonde or the Scarlett-Johannsen-as-Black-Widow lookalike when the place closed - now he was desperately looking around for an exit. Jesus, is this what high schoolers look like nowadays? Help!
Rescue, or at least a contingency plan, came in the form of a dozen or so female Dome staff, parading in to bellows of appreciation. A bunch of local spas and salons had offered special discounts to PPDC employees and military personnel, and a lot of the women had accepted with elation and organized a Girls' Day Out. Well, some of the male personnel had taken them up on it too. Hadn't Yance decided to go get a massage? Yeah, there he was, looking thoroughly relaxed.
The Jaeger Flies hadn't noticed Raleigh's sudden panic, and were now squealing over the sight of Yancy and demanding that Raleigh introduce them to his brother. Instead, he took the cowardly way out and just bolted, running to admire his female comrades, dressed up in heels and styled hair rather than the coveralls they had to wear on base.
"Look at you ladies! I need to send those salons a thank-you note!"
"Don't think we're wearing these dresses for you, Becket!" teased one of them, but most of the others were striking poses, and even the guys who swung for other guys expressed their appreciation.
Yancy smelled a rat and pulled himself out of his chair on the pretext of bringing Raleigh a drink. "What's the matter? One of your circle of friends getting weird?" he murmured, noting the hovering, increasingly-frustrated Jaeger Flies.
"No, but Cady says that whole group's underage."
"Uh-oh!" Even Tanisha was in a dress, but thoroughly enjoying his discomfort. "Better watch it, Baby Becket!" She was on Caleb's arm, her dog tags just visible under her glittering jewelry. Caleb didn't seem interested in the locals, not even the male Flies, and always stuck close to Tanisha and Team Yankee.
"Raleiiiigh, come back and dance with us!" called the incognito high schoolers.
"Uh, I'm... tired." Not his smoothest response ever.
"Yancy, hi, Yancy, then you have to take his place!"
"No, thanks, ladies, I think I'm a little old for you." Yancy said cheerfully, and turned to the others. "I never had a massage before today; that was fantastic. We should've had that for physical therapy."
"I thought you were even more mellow than usual," Tendo observed. "So we - hel-lo, lady in red! Miss Harris, you are gorgeous!"
Nicola Harris had obviously taken full advantage of the salons and shopping today; her dark brown curls were newly streaked with black and gold, and she'd exchanged her coveralls for a red halter dress. Raleigh was more enthusiastic than he needed to be and practically dragged her over to the bar to buy her a drink. She was startled, but nice enough to just go with the flow, and worked out that he was trying to dodge his own admirers.
"Now there's a new one - Raleigh Becket actually looking for a cockblock. What's the matter? Nothing good on the buffet tonight?"
"Nothing legal," he informed her.
"Aww, poor baby, having to be responsible!" Great, now she thought he was a wuss. Catching his embarrassment, Nikki relented and linked an arm through his. "Chill out, Spunky; there's no law that says you have to pick up a Fly every time you go out. We can keep it all in the family tonight."
Well, there were worse fates. He smirked at her. "You sure? I can wingman you and check IDs if you don't want that dress to go to waste."
Nikki sputtered in mock-outrage and shoved him. "What makes you think this has anything to do with anybody who isn't me? Some girls dress up because it's fun, and not because we're looking to impress anybody else, Mister!"
"Okay, okay!" he raised his hands in surrender. Obviously he'd tripped over some feminist thing. Luckily, she was in too good a mood to be annoyed with him. (Maybe she'd gotten a massage too. He'd have to try that sometime.)
They hung on each other's arms for the rest of the night, ignoring the pleas and huffs from the underage Jaeger Flies - who were eventually caught and run out by the bouncers. The legal ones still hovered, but most of them seemed to get that Raleigh had declared himself unavailable for the evening, and wandered off to try their luck with Yancy or some of the crew. There were a few snide remarks thrown at Nikki, which annoyed him, but she just laughed it off and invited him to dance. (Despite knowing by then that Raleigh Becket was a godawful dancer.)
Despite her considerable dance skill and his complete lack thereof, they had a great time. Returning to the Dome after the clubs closed, they ended up in her bed.
Raleigh was nervous the next day when he arrived for drills with the other pilots. This was the first time he'd spent the night with any of the Shatterdome staff.
Nobody actually said anything; it was all sly grins and winks from most of the crew. But Raleigh was very aware that he had not only Yancy to deal with, but also Brady Harris, who was cousin to Nikki's father. It wasn't like Raleigh or Nikki were looking for anything serious... but Brady might have a problem with that, and in turn, Yancy might.
I really didn't think this through. He didn't get up the nerve to broach the issue to his brother or Nikki's cousin, and neither of them broached it to him, so he took the cowardly approach and just avoided it.
However, Nikki wore that red dress again the next time the crews went out, and Raleigh ended up dancing with her again – and ending the night in her room again. It was easy to just have fun and not worry about whether she'd do a tell-all interview or try to claim she was his girlfriend.
A few nights later, Brady and some of the older staff were out and about too, and Raleigh nearly had a heart attack when he saw Brady in a hushed conversation with Yancy. "Uh, Nikki, don't mean to alarm you, but..." he jerked his head towards their relatives.
Nikki measured them up, and muttered, "He knows he's got no say in what I do." But she shot Raleigh a nervous look. "Is your brother... okay with this?"
"I guess I better ask him."
He was still trying to figure out how, and the two of them were contemplating making a discreet exit when they found aforementioned brother and cousin side-by-side, hanging over the nightclub's stair railing, glaring at them like parents who'd caught them sneaking through a window... with the same eyebrow raised. No way that wasn't rehearsed and staged - and judging by the howls of laughter from their suddenly-assembled colleagues, obviously Yancy and Brady had put the word out.
Nikki huffed loudly, and Raleigh just laughed in relief. "You jerks!"
"Here's the deal," Brady informed them, and pointed his thumb at Yancy. "I won't kill his if he won't kill mine. Just remember!" He pointed at his eyes, then Raleigh, and Yancy did the same at Nikki.
"GOD!" Nikki ran up the stairs to start punching her cousin. "You - are - not - my- papí, you damn Bilbo Baggins nut! You stay outta my business! And YOU!" She pointed at Yancy, getting a chorus of "ooooh!" from Tendo and the rowdier onlookers. But although Yance was grinning, Nikki was apparently as unsure about going all-out on him as Raleigh was towards Brady, and she glared, but finally gave him a very mocking salute. "Ranger!"
"You should be saluting me too," Raleigh pointed out to Brady.
Brady Harris was one of the regular members of the Los Angeles Shatterdome M*A*S*H* marathon-watching club, and didn't miss a beat, but Altered Salute By Placing Thumb On Nose.
"Yeah, he's real intimidated by you, Becket!" snorted Tanisha. "And he writes press releases!"
Raleigh and Nikki lost that one on points, and fled to a bar that wasn't full of Dome staff and Jaeger Flies for the rest of the night. They wound up hanging out on a waterfront dock more suited for fishermen and commercial cargo than clubbers, and had The Talk. Well, not The Talk that Yancy'd had to have with Lea Franklin, so Raleigh supposed it was The Other Talk.
"I'm not looking for anything serious," Nikki told him.
That was... a relief. "Neither am I," he assured her. "Not that you're not fun," he added hastily. "And... you know, sexy as hell." He hoped she knew that, since they'd now spent several nights in each other's beds, choosing each other instead of off-base partners.
She grinned easily. She was closer to Yancy's age than his, but more like Raleigh when it came to taste in entertainment. Well, physical entertainment, anyway. Outside of the nightlife or outdoor activities (or bedroom activities) Nicola Harris and Raleigh Becket didn't have a lot in common. This was the first "quiet conversation" they'd really had about anything other than dancing techniques or sports.
But... if neither of them were planning on getting serious, what did it matter? She was an awesome dancer and didn't care that he wasn't, and she could hold her own anytime the Dome crews organized a ball game of any kind. Could they really just keep this uncomplicated?
"Pretty soon, we'll be stuck on base until after the next attack. People might take that as a commitment thing." Oh, smooth, Raleigh.
But she blurted out her next question as if she'd been working towards it. "Is your brother really okay with us? I mean - us in any form?" She was more nervous than he'd ever seen her. "I don't want to cause you two problems, not ever."
"I'm..." Raleigh ran his mind over Yancy's reactions since he and Nikki had hooked up, and was fairly sure of his answer. "I'm pretty sure he is. He wouldn't have staged that stunt with Brady tonight if he had a problem. He gets really stiff when he disapproves."
That eased her mind, and she held out a hand. "Then I'll make you a deal: we're gonna be bored once we're confined to base. We can hang out, have fun, as long as we don't go thinking we're committed to anything."
Raleigh grinned and pumped her arm. "Deal. We keep it uncomplicated. We have fun."
Los Angeles Shatterdome…
April 2018…
There was much groaning at the LA Shatterdome - as well as every other Shatterdome - when the clocks ticked their way up to the twelve-week point, and off-base leave for personnel came to an end. Having to behave and stay on-site was always stressful for the crews. No visiting family or significant others, no enjoying the weather except in the spaces they could scrounge up on the base, never mind the beach that was so tauntingly close. And there was the growing awareness that the next attack could be only days away.
Things got really tense about ten days in, right as they were coming up on red alert. First, a major electrical fault zapped Yankee's systems during a full launch drill, injuring everyone working in the conn-pod including Caleb and Tanisha. That shut down the whole base for over a week, leaving Yankee Star's pilots off-duty until the medics could finish evaluating them, and Matador and Gipsy's crews prohibited from deployment drills or even sim work until the engineers and electricians figured out what had happened.
So people were grumpy, anxious, and bored, and freaking E!TV nearly sparked another flashover.
The skies opened up and drove everyone who was off-duty indoors. Raleigh was frustrated and irritable even after he and Yance did several rounds in the Kwoon with Daniel and Andrés. Yancy decided on a nap - no surprise there - and Raleigh hung out in the rec room with some of the other off-duty guys, including Matador's pilots, playing cards and flipping through the TV channels.
E! was doing some sort of news roundup which included a segment called Jaeger Watch. Basically, it was just a gossip fest about the Rangers. Anytime Raleigh was on it, he got that segment in his email from about a dozen different people.
Most of today's was centered on the reported romance between the pilots of Shaolin Rogue, and the rumor that Scott Hansen had been in a fight at a strip club in Sydney. Raleigh smirked to himself and refrained from repeating any of what Devi and Susanti had told him about the younger Hansen. He saw a couple of the engineers who'd spent time in Australia exchanging knowing looks too. Yeah, nobody doubted that story.
Then his name came up. "Right until the Los Angeles Shatterdome halted off-base leave for the Jaeger crews, Ranger Raleigh Becket had been painting the town consistently with a sultry rescue/recovery worker named Nicola Harris! This certainly disappointed a lot of the local girls, and it seems Miss Harris has a less than stellar reputation even within the Jaeger Program."
Raleigh stiffened, and conversations in the rec room got quieter. The anchor went on, "Although neither Becket nor Harris have confirmed the status of their relationship, TMZ and Perez Hilton are reporting that Harris is well-known as a femme fatale among her colleagues. Becket fans warn that she's cheating on her Ranger boyfriend with multiple civilian and Defense Corps lovers, and today we got a tip that she's now under investigation for conduct unbecoming an officer! The PPDC press office refuses to comment on any open investigations. Draw your own conclusions."
The rec room was now dead silent. Raleigh's skin started to crawl. "The hell?" someone muttered.
"But..." That was his own voice. "We're not... Nikki and I aren't even..." He wasn't Nikki's boyfriend! How could she be cheating on him when they weren't even in a relationship?
Who the hell would report her...
Yancy. And Raleigh saw red.
"Rals, hey! Whoa, hold it, buddy!" He was halfway to the door, not even able to think through the roaring in his ears, but Tendo near-enough tackled him, and a minute later, he had Andrés and Daniel pulling him back as well. "Let's not panic, okay?"
"He can't do that - " Raleigh hissed.
"Who - aw, hell, you mean Yancy? Okay... somebody go get Yance. No, Rals. Kiddo, breathe!" Tendo shook him. "You do not need to go swinging first and asking questions later. We're gonna ask him, all right? No jumping to conclusions!"
But he does that, he just goes and does stuff like that, behind my back, anytime I've got anything of my own, he takes it, and if he can't take it, he wrecks it -
Raleigh let Tendo pull him back into the rec room, where someone had wisely turned the TV off. Someone had also called for PR rep backup, and Brady came running in with Carolina at his heels. "Raleigh, listen, none of us know anything about this."
"Nicola is on my strike troop squad," Antwan insisted. "If she were on report, I'd know!"
"Hell, you would know by now," Brandon Pines added. "You're one of her superior officers!"
His heart started to slow down at that, and everything started reorienting. "You can't believe every rumor the gossip mills publish," Carolina told him. "You and Nicola aren't even dating, are you?" He dully shook his head. "Well, then that's one thing they've got wrong, and I promise you: E! and Smoking Gun and the rest of those types will publish anything that anybody puts on Twitter as if it's the word of God."
Andrés and Daniel came back with Yancy - and Nikki. She looked frantic, but as soon as Yance set eyes on Raleigh, his face hardened. To Nikki, he remarked, "Look at him. It never even occurred to him that I had nothing to do with it."
The knot of smoldering rage in his stomach turned into a lump of stone, and he couldn't get rid of it. His face was hot, but he couldn't answer his brother. It was Andrés who spoke up, his voice cautious. "Yancy? Aren't you also jumping to conclusions?"
Yancy looked sharply at him, then he too started turning red. Well, at least Raleigh wasn't the only one rapidly getting embarrassed as hell. "Okay, everyone out," Antwan ordered. "Come on, this ain't Jerry Springer; if your name ain't Becket, get lost. Shoo!"
But Carolina stayed, and Nikki shook Antwan and Brady off when they tried to lead her away. "This is about me too; I'm not going yet. Go on." They cast dubious looks at her and Raleigh and Yancy, but reluctantly left and shut the door.
Carolina looked from one brother to the other. "Both of you: deep breaths. Yancy is exonerated - but you know Raleigh might have had reason to suspect you."
Yancy faltered, and when he looked at Raleigh again, his eyes weren't so hard. Raleigh felt something crack inside. It wasn't him.
"After last time... I wouldn't do it again," Yancy muttered, looking away. "You make your own decisions, I know that. And even if... " he waved absently towards Nikki. "Even if I didn't like you, I wouldn't have done that."
"I got a call from a couple of reporters asking me for comments," Nikki said. "Yesterday." Raleigh blinked at her. "I looked up my own record; there's no investigation. I asked Marshall Ramirez. Even she says it's bullshit."
"Then where'd this come from?" Raleigh asked helplessly, looking from her to Carolina. "Her 'cheating' on me, she can't cheat on me because we're not together! I mean - not that - " Shit.
But Nikki laughed weakly and waved him off. "I know, I know. It's fine. Well..." Now she folded her arms. "You and I had a deal, and that's fine. No commitments. But if it's gonna cause a problem with your brother, it's not fine."
Yancy rounded on her, but he looked desperate rather than angry. "Harris, I didn't - "
"I believe you!" she exclaimed. "But I'm still not risking being the cause of any fights between the pilots; there's too much at stake! I couldn't fucking live with it, Becket!"
"There's not a fight, Nicola," said Carolina. She smiled. "Just a misunderstanding, and these things happen. Especially when the paparazzi get involved. You and Raleigh have been seen together, so you're the subject of gossip." Now she paused, thoughtful. "As for who is really behind it, I suspect some of the young ladies who tried and failed to attract his interest in those last few weeks."
"What?!" Yancy and Raleigh chorused. Now Nikki looked as confused as Raleigh felt.
"How could Jaeger Flies know whether she's under investigation?" Yancy protested.
Carolina snorted. "They don't! And it doesn't matter to them either way. They say vicious things about the young women they see with the object of their desire. There were entire websites dedicated to hating on that redhead you dated for a few weeks, you know!" Yancy flushed again, looking torn between embarrassment and outrage.
"That's slander," Raleigh muttered.
"Actually, libel, but it's no more preventable than the affirmative action lines about Caleb and Tanisha or the drug dealer stories about Andrés and Daniel. Or the drop-out claims against you. You're celebrities, Raleigh. This is part of that life, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it."
Raleigh badly wanted to hit something. Carolina's so-cool, so-unconcerned attitude was really grating on him. "So what's your job, then?! I thought you were supposed to handle this stuff! What good's having a PR rep if any asshole can spread bullshit and screw with our heads?!"
"Rals, stop it - "
"Don't 'Rals' me!" he yelled, wrenching away when Yancy tried to put a hand on his shoulder. "God, I am so sick of your fucking patronizing! Yeah, okay, maybe you weren't behind it this time, but every time I turn around, you're telling everyone who's allowed to talk to me and who's not, sticking your nose in my business! Why the hell should I put up with - "
"WE'RE AT ORANGE LEVEL!" Nikki screamed at them. They stared at her, and she hissed, "Stop it! Both of you, whose ever fault you think it is, whoever's pissed off and whatever the reason, fucking stop! You're our pilots; you can't do this!"
Why did she sound so scared? Raleigh swallowed hard and mumbled, "We're not... we're not going to..."
Carolina put a hand on Nikki's shoulder. "Brothers fight," she murmured in Spanish. "It's not the end of the world."
She knew perfectly well that both Raleigh and Yancy had enough Spanish to follow that. So did Nikki. "They're not just brothers," she hissed. "They're our Rangers. Their moods can be life or death, the psychologists said - "
She caught herself, but Raleigh stiffened, and saw Yancy's eyes narrow. "What'd they say?" Yance asked. Nikki looked down, biting her lip, and even Carolina avoided his eyes. "What?! In Spanish if you want," he added sarcastically, and both women cringed. "What, have they been training the support staff on how to deal with us?!"
"Yes!" Nikki exploded, looking like she wanted to hit him. "And I don't understand why they thought you shouldn't know that! Brady says it's the same with the other teams; part of all our job is to keep the damn Rangers sane because it is life or death! And God knows, you do not make it easy sometimes!"
Well, that was… uncomfortable.
Carolina sighed. "All three of you, calm down. Better yet, sit down." She pointed each of them at chairs until they obeyed. "Yes, the Corps psychologists have declared that it is the responsibility of all personnel to keep their Rangers fit to fight - and they're partly right." Yancy buried his face in his hands, and Raleigh wanted to crawl under the map table and hide. "That's true in every line of work, civilian or military. That's why you're the ranking officers after the Marshall. Your job and your emotional state are intertwined, perhaps more than ever in history. So your support staff's responsibility is also to maintain the latter."
Raleigh's face was so hot with embarrassment that he was sweating. "We didn't know," he mumbled.
"Well, that was one of Psychiatry's more pig-headed decisions - not including the Rangers themselves in these discussions."
"And they keep nagging us to talk," Yancy spat. "That's reasoning for you."
"I agree with you, and that has been pointed out to them. Maybe now that some of you - not just in this Dome - have found out, they'll see the flaw in their logic. The remedy is more talk, not less." With a sly smile, Carolina turned towards the door, but paused and raised a hand when Nikki started to stand up. "Ah-ah. Not yet, niña." Nikki started to protest, and Carolina pointed at her. "This involves you still. For now, you stay." She let herself out, leaving Nikki inside with Raleigh and Yancy.
Raleigh looked at her, feeling defensive. "Just because we argue doesn't mean we're gonna break up the team."
She folded her arms and looked away. "And what if there's movement in the Breach today? Tomorrow? You really gonna tell me this is a safe place to start from?"
This had really scared her. Shame started to grind at Raleigh, imagining for the first time how it must actually look to the support crew when he and Yancy got into it.
"You're not free to approach anger and frustration the same way that ordinary people are, because you are not ordinary people," Pentecost had said.
"We got trained too, you know," he told her. "'Conflict resolution' for Rangers." She cracked a weak smile. "Pentecost had a big lecture for all of us a year ago, and god knows the psychs have been at us since. Even if this were a big thing, and it's - it's not," he said awkwardly, looking at Yancy. Yancy nodded confirmation. "We'd get it resolved. Whatever it took. We wouldn't let it carry over into the conn-pod, no matter how mad either of us were."
Nikki let her breath out and rubbed her eyes. Back in the drab, shapeless uniform with her hair tied up, no make-up, she looked tired and stressed out. The girl in the red dress on the dance floor was far away, and so was the boy who'd danced all night with her. Now they were EMT and Ranger again, with jobs to do and lives on the line, and nothing was uncomplicated anymore.
"I kind of got it... when the psychs told us not to discuss the training with you," she admitted. "They put it like that you shouldn't be under any extra pressure from us. We're supposed to be helping you. They are right," she insisted. "At least... kind of. Anyone can replace me. Nobody can replace either of you."
"You're not expendable," Yancy said sharply, before Raleigh could. "None of you are!"
She rolled her eyes. "Don't be chivalrous, Becket. It's not true - it's not!" She glared when Raleigh too tried to protest. "You two, Tanisha and Caleb, Daniel and Andrés, every damn one of us has a duty to lay down our lives for yours. The C.O.s told us that from Day One, and they're right. There's not a damn one of us who isn't okay with that." Raleigh looked at Yancy in dismay. Nikki shook her head, seeing their shared resistance "We lose the pilots, we lose the Jaeger. Kaiju don't give a shit about democracy or equality."
There really wasn't much either of them could say to that. But hearing it in such blunt terms... and imagining it... it made Raleigh feel sick. I don't want it to be like this. Being heroes is one thing, but were we really signing up to first into the lifeboats? And that everyone around us gets treated like shit by the press and there's not a damn thing we're allowed to do about it?
"It's not fair," he muttered.
He heard her answer coming as if they were drifting. "Life's not fair, Spunky."
Yancy laughed softly. "I should get a gold star for not looking in the drift to see if she calls you that in bed."
Raleigh reeled, sputtering and appalled, and Nikki smirked. "I'd slap your face, but you're my superior officer. So I'll salute you first and then slap your face."
That got Raleigh laughing, and Yancy cowering in mock-terror. "Okay, that's my cue to run for my life." He stood up.
"Wait - "
" - It's fine," Yance insisted, motioning Nikki and Raleigh to stay. He looked at Raleigh. "We're fine, right?"
Another time, not long ago, Raleigh would've been irritated that Yancy would make that call... but not now. Yance knew they were okay, and he was leaving it to Raleigh to iron things out (or not) with Nikki. "Yeah, we're good. I know where to find you later."
"Asleep," Yancy chorused with him, and now Nikki laughed too. He waved at them and left.
Raleigh looked at her and raised his eyebrows. "Are we okay?"
She avoided his eyes and chewed on her lip. "We're okay, yeah." He heard the "but" coming a mile away. "We had a deal, though. No complications." She gestured at the darkened TV screen. "If you're going to flip out anytime someone calls me a slut, then it's complicated."
Raleigh winced. "I really think that's making me a monk if I can't ever get pissed off, even if it's not a committed thing. It'd be wrong even if the guy wasn't me, Nikki."
"Sure, it's wrong. But Carolina wasn't kidding; jealous little bitches will see you with a girl and make shit up, and the press will eat it up, and there's nothing we can do about it. I like you, Spunky." He smiled weakly. "But I can't - if you can't ignore that, then I can't. I just can't live with the risk, not even casual. Not with a Ranger. You're committed to that, and so am I." She came over to sit down next to him. "Nobody ever said it was fair."
"I get it," he sighed. "Guess I'm just naive, that I didn't realize how fucking petty people can be." She hadn't been at all surprised by this, he realized. All her alarm had centered on him and Yancy and how it would affect Gipsy. Team Yankee had scoffed when Raleigh and Yancy had been furious about the way the press treated them. Team Matador just shrugged off the insults.
Then again, while the high school drop-out, dumb jock digs were annoying, it didn't bother him and Yancy that much, so maybe it was just protectiveness - but there was a hell of a difference between that and people slinging racial slurs or calling every girl they went out with a whore! That was a hell of a burden -
But it's not supposed to be our burden, he realized miserably. That's what they're trying to tell us. It's not our job to protect them. We can't. We're supposed to be focused on the kaiju.
"And I wondered why none of the unmarried Rangers have a significant other," he mused.
Nikki smiled. "Or maybe they just don't talk about it." Good point. Because it's nobody's business. "You remember what they told us second term about drifting? That if you want to stay in it, you have to let some things float by. You and your brother figured out how to do that once, when a lot of us couldn't. You gotta do that with life sometimes. Trust us girls to handle ourselves, too."
"Point taken." Was this breaking up when they hadn't really been going out to begin with? "I need to find Yance. Let everyone back into the rec room."
She leaned forward and kissed him between the eyes. "You've got a good heart, Raleigh Becket. So does your brother. I'm not about to break it, and don't let the Jaeger Flies do it either."
When she left, he sat there for a few minutes longer, even though he knew he ought to quit hogging the place. Funny that nobody was banging on the door. It was pouring rain outside and people were restless and bored.
Maybe it really was just because he was the Ranger. Damn it. That left such a sour taste in his mouth. He got up and left the door open on his way to quarters.
Yance wasn't asleep; he was at the desk reading some new K-Science report on the interface. He turned away from it and studied Raleigh as he shut the door behind him. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Raleigh sighed. It was barely dark out and he felt ready to go to bed himself. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "For thinking you'd... do that."
Yancy turned the screen off and got up; Raleigh needed no urging to wrap his arms around him. "I should've - there's something else I should've told you after I made an ass of myself about Matador. Just... I made a promise. To myself, that I wasn't going to interfere in your life anymore. Not even if I thought I was right and you were - making a mistake. I don't have a right. Stopped having a right to do that a long time ago. You're an adult, and you've got a right to make your own calls."
Raleigh leaned back and gave him a mock-skeptical look. "But that doesn't extend to you and Brady Harris giving Nikki and me the Eyebrows of Doom?" They both laughed. It'd been a few days since they'd done any drifting thanks to the electrical fiasco, but he wasn't quite ready to let go yet. "I noticed... for the first time, really, every Ranger who isn't involved with their partner says they're single. Maybe they're just quicker on the uptake than we were, about how nasty the world is."
"Maybe. I looked in on Caleb and Tani earlier; they're out of medical, by the way." Yancy released him and sat down. "Did you know Tanisha's got a son?" Raleigh blinked. "Yeah. My reaction. He's twelve. He's more or less in hiding with her family, to keep the scavengers away from him." He leaned back, studying Gipsy's emblem that they'd stenciled on the door with a stamp of their first kill below it. "That's what Carolina and Brady and the other reps spend a lot of their time doing. Keeping the press off our families. I did some googling of us. Apart from all the tabloid jerks, none of the mainstream press talks about Jazmine. Nobody publishes stuff about the Rangers' families."
Raleigh sat down on his bunk, considering that and everything it implied. "I guess that's something."
A few days later, the weather had cleared, and the MPs were being indulgent of the crews signing autographs for a mob of teenagers on the edge of the base property. Everything was fun and cheerful, just rowdy, free-for-all Q and A, until a girl handed Raleigh the photo she wanted signed and remarked, "I really hope you're not actually going out with that slutty Harris woman!"
Yancy's heart nearly stopped. Raleigh froze in place, as did Team Yankee and Team Matador, and some of the other Flies began to chime in. "Gawd, yeah! She's so skanky!"
"You can do better, Raleigh!"
"Did you know she's got like five boyfriends?"
"She dresses like a hooker!"
Yancy started to move, but Tanisha grabbed his arm hard. He glared at her, but she and the others were all watching Raleigh.
He just stared at the girls, jaw clenched, until everyone quieted down and started exchanging uneasy glances. (Well, the reporters on the scene were visibly delighted.)
Finally, Rals got his voice back. "I think that's all for today." With a thin, frigid smile, he dropped photograph and pen on the ground and turned his back, ignoring the cries of protest. The rest of the now-disappointed teens soon turned their wrath on the big mouths.
"There you go, kiddo," Tani murmured in his ear. "Ain't no law says we have to talk to them." They all followed Raleigh back to the Dome without a glance backward.
Yancy's next heart attack came when he found Raleigh on Gipsy's Facebook account. "Maybe you should let Carolina - "
"I don't want to," Raleigh said tightly. "I want it to be from me." But he did sit back and beckon him to the screen. "Take a look."
In response to a reporter's post asking about his "defense of your girlfriend from character attacks," he'd written, I don't have a girlfriend. I've got friends and fellow PPDC officers, and those attacks wouldn't be okay even if it was my worst enemy. Raleigh Becket.
The brass wanted them to run every public comment from their personal accounts through PR first. Raleigh hadn't hit Post yet. For a few seconds, Yancy's throat actually tightened up. "Kiddo…" We should still run this up the flagpole – fuck it. "Sometimes I'm so proud of you it makes me sick." Raleigh grinned, and Yancy ruffled his brother's hair. "Post it. Then log off so I can too."
Once it was up, Yancy logged onto his own account and added his own two cents onto the thread: What he said. Yancy Becket.
To Be Continued...
Coming Next Week: Movement in the Breach! The kaiju that emerges may be smaller than Yamarashi, but it poses the same kind of threat that destroyed Talon Tasmania in Chapter Twenty-Nine: Eight-Legged Freak!
PLEASE don't forget to review!
Original Character Guide
Tanisha Davis and Caleb Mitchell: The pilots of Yankee Star, America's Mark-2 Jaeger. Former US Marines, late 20s. Tanisha is African-American from south central Los Angeles, while Caleb is white from a small, rural town in central Oklahoma.
Brady Harris: Yankee Star's Public Relations Representative. Late 30s, African-American from San Diego.
Carolina Olivares: Gipsy Danger's Public Relations Representative. Mid-60s, Mexican-American from San Francisco, survived K-Day and came out of retirement to join the PPDC.
Cady Spencer: Gipsy Danger LOCCENT Technician (along with Tendo Choi), Filipino-American, age 27 from Portland, Oregon.
Antwan Ferrier: Gipsy Danger Personnel Coordinator, directs Whiskey Gamma, a team of Strike Troopers. Age 39, Jamaican national.
Brandon Pines: Support chopper pilot for team Whiskey Gamma, one of Gipsy Danger's four strike trooper teams, early 30s from Monterey, CA, transferred from the US Air Force.
Nicola Harris: Rescue/recovery EMT with Whiskey Gamma, age 21 from San Diego, CA, daughter of Brady Harris's cousin and a Guatemalan immigrant.
Andrés Alcazar and Daniel Moreno: Matador Fury's Rangers, Mexican nationals, age 39. Andrés was a historian and Daniel was a lawyer, both writing and working against institutional corruption before imprisoned for an unknown period. They were released along with other non-violent prisoners to attempt the Jaeger Academy, but have not yet been granted a pardon.