Year: 2037

She was vaguely aware of something touching her lips as she slowly started to wake up. Her body responded out of habit and she realized that Raleigh was waking her up. She felt a wave of annoyance wash over her as he kissed her. She didn't want to get up and resented him for bringing her from her dreams. But that annoyance disappeared as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to his bare chest. She cracked her eyes open to look at her handsome husband and smiled against his lips.

"There she is." Raleigh hummed, pulling away from her to brush her hair behind her ear. "Good morning."

"Good night." She hummed back as she buried her head in his chest and hid from the light. She felt him chuckle.

"We have a debriefing in an hour and Mako called. Jake got into some trouble and she wants your help to handle it this time. I've already given her the go to do whatever she wants." Raleigh told her softly and she groaned.

"Too many words." She reached up blindly to put her finger on his lips but found an eyeball instead. He jumped and grunted at the feeling and her eyes snapped open. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Ow..." Raleigh muttered as he rubbed his eye to ease the throbbing. "You need to trim your nails missy."

"I know. I'm sorry. Are you okay?" She asked. He nodded his head, so she gave him an apologetic kiss. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and grabbed her robe that was hung on the bedpost. She wrapped the silky material around her naked body and started to get herself ready for the day. She headed over to the bathroom and when she didn't hear any movement behind her, she turned around to see his eyes were closed. With a huff she reached down to find the closest hard object she could find and threw it at him. Her slipper hit him in the shin, and he jolted off the bed. "Are you coming or am I showering alone?"

She dropped her robe to the floor giving her husband a full view of her body. He jumped off the bed and made a beeline past her to get the shower going. She laughed and followed him into the shower.

This had been their morning routine for the past eight years. After they had won the war both pilots had been given time to take care of their family without having to worry about the aftermath. Herc Hansen and Mako Mori had dealt with everything for them seeing as how Analia had been pregnant with their second child at the end. They had been very lucky not to lose the baby in the war, the trauma of fighting in a jaeger should have caused a miscarriage, according to the doctors who were shocked that she hadn't.

Now, ten years later, they had a beautiful, healthy baby girl named Grace. She was homeschooled, seeing as they lived in a Shatterdome and they had hired a babysitter to watch her during the day. Analia had become the main instructor at the Jaeger academy and Raleigh had been promoted to Marshall, which hardly left anytime for their family, but they made it work. Ezra on the other hand was now fifteen and had been at the Academy for a little over a year. Analia was the only one who really got to see their son on a daily basis, since she was his instructor, but Raleigh hardly ever stepped foot on to that side of the Shatterdome. Since he had joined the Academy the boys' relationship had started to go downhill, and Analia often found herself urging her husband to simply go down and see their son at night before he came home to her.

Over time it had just become a topic that they rarely discussed because they would fight about it. So instead Analia did her best to spend as much time with her son as she could. She ate lunch with him and the cadets every day, unless on the rare occasion Raleigh was actually free. Ana would often get Grace for lunch and bring her to the mess hall to socialize with all the other kids and get out of their apartment. Though there were times when she would be on her way to get their daughter and she would run into their babysitter who was frantically searching for Grace. When it first started happening, she would freak out and panic, not knowing where her daughter was. Until she recognized a pattern. Every time without fail, Grace would always be on her way to find her big brother or had already found him in the mess hall. And Analia found herself having difficulty staying mad. The relationship between Ezra and Grace was precious and she was grateful that they were close despite the five-and-a-half-year age gap.

A few hours later she stood in one of the hologram call rooms pacing. Raleigh had briefly told her that Jake had been found in a rogue Jaeger and had been arrested. She honestly wasn't surprised. After his father had died, he had quit the Academy and gone off the deep end. Though he didn't realize she had kept tabs on his for Stacker since she knew that Mako didn't have the time with her position in the military. Jake often got himself into trouble and this wasn't the first time that they had needed to bail him out of jail.

She heard the cameras around the room spool up and she stood straighter and placed her hands behind her back. She was in an interrogation room. Jake stood by the door and Mako was sitting at the table.

"Hello, Jake." Mako greeted, clearly not pleased with the situation. "Here we are again."

"Look, it's just a stretch of bad luck. I'll figure it out." Jake explained, putting his hands on the back of the opposing chair and hanging his head. He looked back up and at Ana who was still pacing.

"Father used to say, we make our own luck," Mako told Jake sternly

"Yeah well, Dad said a lot of things." Jake grimaced at the thought.

"You were arrested in a rogue Jaeger, Jake." Ana interrupted and fixed him with a stern look.

"Hold on a second. That wasn't my Jaeger. There's this little kid. She's about this tall..." Jake started to explain but neither woman really wanted to hear his excuses.

"You have priors. This is serious." Mako told him.

"Ok. That's why I need my big sis, to help me get the hell out of here. Just one last time." Jake pleaded and Mako shook her head, looking back at Ana.

"They aren't going to just let you walk this time Jake," Ana told him and came to stand beside Mako. "But there might be another way."

"Ok. See, that's what I wanna hear. That's what I'm here to talk about, the other way. Lay it on me. What do I gotta do?" Jake took the seat across from them and put his arms on the table.

"Re-enlist and finish what you started," Mako told him, with a smirk on her face.

"I'm not doing that. I'm too old to be a cadet." Jake scoffed and sat back in his seat, clearly displeased with his options.

"We don't want you to be a cadet, Jake. I want you to help me train them." She told him and he looked up at her in disbelief.

"Train who? Train what? I'm not training no damn kids." Jake exclaimed.

"The transport is standing by to bring both of you to Moyulan." Mako told him.

"Both of us?"

"You and your new recruit." And with that, the connection was cut and she was back in the hologram room with Mako standing before her. Even as a hologram Mako looked intimidating in her uniform.

"Well, that went well. Do you actually believe that he is ready to come back to the academy?" Analia asked, running a hand through her hair to try and relieve some stress.

"Probably not, but it will be good for him," Mako told her and she nodded in agreement. Jake needed some discipline and maybe, just maybe this was what he needed.

"Can I get the file on our newest recruit?" She asked Mako.

"It has already bee sent over. You can take a look over it tonight. Your new recruits will be here in the morning." Mako informed her and she smiled.

"Thank you, Mako. It is good to see you again."

That night Analia found herself laying in bed with Grace passed out at her side. Raleigh had yet to come home and Grace had begged to stay up for him. After reading their daughter to sleep, she had pulled the tablet from her side table and pulled up Amara's files. There wasn't much information about her. She was a fifteen-year-old, born in 2022, who had lost her parents in the attack on the Santa Monica Pier back in 2024. After that there was no record of her ever entering into the foster system or some other family taking her in. She could only assume that the young girl had been on her own for a time. She had to have been with someone at some point though. She knew too much about jaegers to have not learned from someone. She had built her own single-pilot jaeger. It was honestly impressive and she commended the young girl on her work. Based on the report that November Ajax has submitted she expected a high spirited young girl to be joining their team and she was looking forward to it. She hoped that she would mesh well with the group and not cause too much trouble.

The door to the bedroom suddenly slid open and an exhausted Raleigh came walking through. She looked up at him and smiled. He was giving her a look that melted her heart. She put a finger to her lips and pointed down at Grace. He nodded and slowly made his way over to her, shedding his uniform jacket on his way.

"How are my girls this evening?" He hummed as he got to her side. She smiled and reached up to loosen his tie for him.

"She wanted to sait up for you but fell asleep about an hour ago." She told him. She gripped his tie and pulled his face closer to her so she could kiss him. "How was your day sweetie?"

"Boring. Paperwork and the usual checks on the jaegers. I did have dinner with Ezra though." Raleigh told her and her eyes widened.

"Really? How did that go?" She asked curiously, watching him walk away to shed the rest of his uniform.

"He is very excited to be graduating in a few months." Raleigh told her from the closet where she could just barely see him pulling off his shirt. She bit her lip as she watched his back muscles flex. "And it sounds like he really enjoys all of his peers, aside from Malinkova."

"Malinkova is a hotheaded teen who thinks she is better than everyone. I am not surprised that they don't get along very well. He is good at keeping the peace though." She replied, placing her tablet on the side table to watch the show. Next came the pants and she shook her head, wishing his underwear had come with it so she could get a glace at his backside.

"Yes, he is. I watched him defuse a fight between Renata and Malinkova tonight. I didn't even have to step in." Raleigh told her as he came out of the closet in the flannel pants and no shirt.

"He will make a good Marshall one day. Just like his father." She smiled at him and looked him up and down shamelessly. "Now, will you put Grace to bed and then come back here so I can kiss you please?"

"Yes ma'am." He chuckled. He gave her a kiss and then scooped their sleeping daughter into his arms and walked out of the room.

As soon as he was out of the room she jumped from the bed and stripped down to her bra and underwear. Scooping up her clothes and ran to the closet and chucked them into the hamper before making a beeline for the bathroom. Her hair was in a messy bun and she all but snapped the hair tie trying to get it out. She quickly brushed her hair out and then tossed it with her hands. Satisfied with her look she ran back into the bedroom and crawled into the bed.

Not a moment later Raleigh came back through the door and he eyed her suspiciously. She tried to look as innocent as she could but she could tell it wasn't working very well. She had done this before and after being married for fifteen years Raleigh knew all her tactics. He smirked at her. She raised her eyebrow only for a moment before he was sprinting at her and faceplanting into the bed next to her. She barely had time to register his hands on her hips and he dragged her down into the bed so she was lying underneath him.

"And just what do you think you are going to accomplish, looking like that." He whispered in her face, his voice dropping to a low husky tone. A shiver ran down her spine and she giggled.