The day before had been the first since Chuck and Ibira had met that he did not see her, and he hadn't expected it to leave him in such an impatient state. During his daily physical exam, psychiatric screening, neural scan, multiple workouts, meetings, walks with Max and all his meals, his thoughts continued to wander to her. Now, he found himself watching the doors of the engineering bay, waiting for her arrival. He idly flipped through a report, though he was not processing any of the words or charts on the pages.
Finally, he spotted Ibira walking through the large doorway to the bay and quickly straightened his posture as he made his way towards her. With a small scowl, he saw that she was flanked on either side by Dr. Newton Geiszler and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. She kept a slow but steady pace beside Dr. Gottlieb and his walking cane. Dr. Geiszler kept speeding ahead of them, his arms gesticulating wildly as he spoke, before turning around and walking back towards them only to repeat the cycle. As her fellow scientists apparently bickered as usual, her expression held a mild amusement as her eyebrows were raised in consideration and a soft smirk tilted her lips.
"Are we placing bets?" Chuck asked as he approached the trio. All three of them looked equally surprised for a moment, though the corners of Ibira's eyes quickly wrinkled as she grinned at him.
"You're talking to us?" Newton asked bluntly, pointing back and forth between them.
Hermann loudly sighed with disapproval before responding in his tight German accent, "While I may have had my reservations about Ms. Valenti's serum at first, I would now say-"
"You have reservations about everything," Newton dismissed loudly, "but I didn't doubt her for one second!" The eccentric American man affectionately squeezed Ibira's shoulder before impatiently turning towards the elevator that led up to the LOCCENT Mission Control room.
"Warms my heart, Newt!" she sarcastically called after him, though the metal doors were already sliding closed behind the man, cutting off his continuous lecturing.
Watching them interact, Chuck was surprised by the familiarity between them. Even moreso, he was annoyed by it, much to his displeasure. She rolled her eyes at the resident kaiju specialist's eccentricity and turned her face towards Dr. Gottlieb with a small, almost nervous smile.
"This will work," the older man said with a nod and a furrow in his brow. Offering a barely noticeable smile, he added, "Though you don't need me to tell you that."
Awkwardly dipping his head in salutation towards Chuck, he walked into the elevator along with several other engineers.
Ibira and Chuck remained on the floor of the engineering bay, now facing each other.
"You ready?" she asked, taking a small step closer to him as her eyes took on a devilish glint. Chuck had to consciously focus on her words as he took in the sight of her. She wore a crisp, white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and fitted black pants. Some of her tattoos just barely peaked out from below the folded cuff. It was his first time seeing her in anything other than the bleak outerwear and military-style garb that was the norm around the Shatterdome, and he was struck by how devastatingly sleek she looked. He felt himself growing nervous, but not about the trial run that was about to be conducted.
"Always," he replied with a casual nod.
As they entered the LOCCENT together, Ibira quickly met Marshal Pentecost's outstretched hand with a firm, brief shake. The stern man narrowed his eyes slightly at Chuck standing beside her before redirecting his attention to the large window through which Striker Eureka's head and upper body were visible. Without waiting for an order, Ibira stepped to the front of the large room and began addressing the team of engineers and technicians that staffed the various blinking monitors and control panels. As she made conversation with individual team members at different stations, she flowed between confirming readings on screens to adjusting dials on dashboards without missing a beat. From across the room, Hercules noted that his son's eyes did not stray from her.
Pentecost now stood beside Tendo Choi, the lead technician of the Hong Kong Shatterdome. The two men watched Ibira with intrigue, speaking to each other in lowered voices, and Chuck was surprised to see Pentecost appearing almost impressed. He was sure it was a look he had never seen on the Marshall's face before. Observing the subtle admiration in his eyes, Chuck wondered if Stacker Pentecost himself had removed the more sensitive information about Ibira's past from her PPDC records, which is why Chuck had not learned about her mother when he had read through them.
Chuck crossed his arms as he watched Ibira again, the usual shadow returning to his demeanor, and felt a low heat of shame rising in his face at the memory of how he had spoken to her the first time they had met in Pentecost's office. Watching her command the room of people, he felt utterly humbled. Less than a week had passed since then, and he could not believe how much of a fool his past self appeared now.
"Please keep an eye on the temperature in the right anterior chamber and let me know if it gets within three deviations of the serum's optimal conditions," Ibira said as she came to stand beside Chuck again, pointing at a nodding woman. Scanning her eyes down a fine-printed list, Ibira took a slow, deep breath and lowered the piece of paper onto the table beside her.
"Mr. Choi," she called out firmly, "please engage the startup protocol and begin the trial."
The energetic man grinned widely as a quiet fell over the room.
"You heard her," he shouted, clapping his hands together in excitement. "Let's get this show started!"
Like a match catching flame, the room jolted into action and a loud hum of focused chatter filled the air. Ibira stood erect with her hands clasped behind her back and a stony expression of observation on her face. She had to exert a great deal of effort to keep a worried furrow from forming between her brows, and she felt the gravity of Chuck's presence beside her like a glowing magnet. She did not dare to look at him, though she could still see his crossed arms from the corner of her eyes.
The startup protocol was completed without issue followed by two rounds of systems checks. Finally, one of the lead engineers gave the approval to engage the new tank in Striker Eureka's right arm filled with Ibira's serum. No longer able to hide her nerves, one of her hands shot up, her fingertips pressed against her lips as everyone's eyes were glued to the giant robot before them. Loud banging noises filled the massive engineering bay as its gears and levers shifted into position. After a brief pause, panels on Striker's right arm made several final adjustments, followed by complete stillness from everything and everyone in the room. For a moment, layers of beeps and chimes were the only noises in the LOCCENT tower.
As a large green confirmation message appeared on the central holographic screen, engineers cheered and hollered in celebration, and some laughter even joined the flood of voices. A few people gave Ibira congratulatory nudges and claps on her back, and she smiled back at them.
'Thank you' she could hear herself repeating again and again to the people around her, though it did not feel like she was actually saying the words. She expressed gratitude in her limited Mandarin to a few people who did not speak English. And as Tendo approached her with a bright grin, he said something in Spanish that drew a surprised, breathy laugh out of her. She shot something back in Spanish that made him howl with laughter, and then the attention of the room quickly shifted to Marshall Pentecost as he began speaking.
With a slightly dazed look in her eyes, Ibira took a step back and let out a shaky breath. As if she could feel him watching her, her eyes moved to finally meet Chuck's face as a flicker of worry passed across it. Quickly resetting his composure, he stepped towards her with an easy expression and nodded.
"It worked," he said simply, holding his hand out for a congratulatory handshake. She looked at his hand for a moment before clasping it with her own and squeezing lightly. Neither of them moved where they stood in the back of the room, and she continued to look down at their joined hands.
"I…" Ibira began to say, but she failed to get another word out. After a still moment, she cleared her throat and pulled away.
Glancing to where his father and Pentecost stood speaking at the front of the LOCCENT room, Chuck lowered his head slightly and said, "I'm going to get some fresh air. Would you like to join me?"
As soon as she nodded with a quiet sigh, Chuck turned and gently placed his hand on her back. Before anyone could notice, the pair slipped out through the open doorway.