When Raleigh finally gets himself together and dressed, he goes back downstairs hoping he's not unforgivably late for breakfast and that no one asks why he's still sniffling.
As soon as he hears the TV in the background, he knows being asked any questions is the least of his problems. "The Breach opened at a rate much higher than Dr. Geisler's predictions. A Category III Kaiju, bearing marked similarities to Onibaba, was killed by Jaegers Saber Athena and Obsidian Fury. During the battle, for unknown reasons, Gipsy Avenger's drift systems failed and her pilots went into failsafe stasis. Their status at this time is unknown. Marshal McTavish has declined any comment on Rangers Mori and Pentecost's condition."
Raleigh doesn't realize he's falling until Mike catches his arm. "Here, sit down." Mike's face is pure pain and sympathy.
"I wasn't dreaming." Something happened out there that made Mako feel like she was burning, falling. And he wasn't there to help her. Raleigh stumbles to a seat, and leans over, putting his head in his hands. It was my job to protect her, but I'm nothing better than a washed-up has-been who can't even do his own job anymore. He's going to be sick. I'm supposed to be her co-pilot but I'm not good enough. It should have been him they're talking about, not Mako and Pentecost's son. Raleigh barely remembers Jake, but he did see him at the funeral. He looked so much like his father Raleigh was startled. It's my fault Pentecost's kid had to get in one of those Jaegers. He might not have met Jake often, but he remembers the Marshal talking about his son with nothing but admiration. Jake had been at college for engineering, before they closed the Breach and the Jaegers seemed like a safe job. Pentecost hadn't wanted either of his two children in a Jaeger. And now his worst fear is reality. Both of them are in serious trouble. Raleigh can't even tell, from the report, if they're alive.
I do not need your sympathy or your admiration. All I need is your compliance and your fighting skills. And if I can't get that...then you can go back to the wall that I found you crawling on. Do I make myself clear?
Raleigh can hear the Marshal's words as clearly as if Pentecost is in the room with them. He flinches. Your fighting skills. Raleigh has none left. His left arm is shot, his right one barely cooperates with him, and his brain is a scrambled mess that gets stuck in the past and drags him down. He's useless, worthless. And because of that, Mako and Jake are in trouble. Because he can't do what Pentecost asked for. I should have gone back to the wall.
In the meantime, the TV is droning on in the background. Reporting has switched from the LA Shatterdome to the streets. A reporter is interviewing a female Kaiju Cultist, and he seems nervous around her. She shrills something, and the tone catches Raleigh's attention.
The exaltation on the cultist's face is sickening. "The Survivor, the Child, has at last been punished. And soon, all the rest who trust in the Jaegers and their blasphemous pilots…" Kenzie switches the TV off, face a mask of horror and anger.
"They're sick," One of the kids comments. Raleigh nods, unable to say anything. He always hated the cultists, with their complacency toward human death, and their hatred of Jaeger pilots. He ran into one in a bar in Nome once, early on on the Wall. The man didn't know who he was, and was talking about how the Jaegers were going to fall to the Kaiju. When he said Yance deserved to die, Raleigh had lost it, and nearly killed the man before someone pulled him off. He left for Sitka the next day, before word got around that he was in town. There was a decent following of the BuenaKai church in Nome, judging by the graffiti and vandalism to the Wall and equipment he'd seen working there. He didn't want to wait around and find out what the man's friends would do to someone who not only beat up one of their people, but was in their eyes a monster who deserved to die.
Not that he didn't believe that of himself then. If anyone should have died out there it was him, not Yance. He might believe he shouldn't have survived, but he'd never believe Yance deserved it. That was the only thing that kept him from just waiting there for the inevitable. He couldn't let them win, couldn't let them drag Yance's name through the mud by using Raleigh to prove a point.
And now they've gone after Mako. He can't smash in the nose of that ostentatious prophet, but maybe there is something he can do. Mako's probably going to be mad as hell when she hears about this. He can take the press attention for her at least, and give them something more to talk about (the useless ex-Ranger who ran away and has a laundry list of mental issues), so she can focus on her work. She's going to be taking enough heat for the fact that one of her Jaegers, and the one she put the new Drift system in, malfunctioned. He guesses it's lucky it only damaged her and Jake. If it had been one of the others, he's willing to bet at least one family member would want Mako's head for that kind of flaw. Even though it happens all the time; no Jaeger is perfect.
"Mike, can I borrow a phone?"