Chapter Text
"Good evening." the camera focused on a woman in her late thirties standing next to a wooden railing. Behind her was a large expanse of green lawn. Her long black hair was done up in hundreds of thin braids tied loosely at the nape of her neck. Warm brown eyes looked directly at the camera.
"For those of you just joining us, I’m Jennifer Blake from the US Network Nightly News and I’m at the Hansen-Becket-Mori home for an exclusive interview with the jaeger pilots that saved us all. A rare treat."
She walked along the railing, the camera following her. "For one day only I was allowed a glimpse into the daily life of the remarkable young men and woman who risked their lives to save the world. We all know them as jaeger pilots, as marshal of the PPDC, as heroes. Today we’ll get to see them as a family, balancing work and home."
She was replaced by new footage of the same lawn. Laughter rang out as a ten-year-old boy with dark blond hair ran across the yard. Following him were two golden retriever puppies followed by two toddlers: a boy and a girl with ginger hair. Behind them came a smiling Chuck. Every now and again, he’d dart forward to tickle the sides of one of the toddlers, making them shriek in joy.
The camera panned until it was facing the house and the large wooden deck. Seated primly on a cushion in front of a low computer bench, Mako was carefully manipulating the 3D holographic display of a set of schematics. On a stool behind her sat a sixteen-year-old blonde girl who was carefully weaving Mako’s long hair into a multi-strand braid, her trademark blue streaks still visible, as they discussed the schematics.
The camera continued on catching sight of Herc standing at a barbecue, spatula in one hand and a longneck bottle dangling from the fingers of his other, as he watched Chuck and the children with a broad smile. The image finally settled on a seven-month pregnant Raleigh sleeping on a wide chaise lounge. Snuggled up against him was a platinum blond two-year-old boy bracketed by a dark blonde twelve-year-old girl. The little boy had his ear pressed to Raleigh’s stomach, giggling softly as the girl whispered in his ear. Stretched out at Raleigh’s feet was a young bulldog.
The image faded and was replaced by the sight of the whole family, Jennifer among them, sitting down to a meal at a long table covered in food. Controlled chaos was the only way to describe it as plates were passed around and adults or the older children helped the younger ones as necessary.
Once more there was a fade. This time they were inside clearly ready for the interview itself. Jennifer sat on a comfortable armchair across from Mako, Raleigh, and Chuck on a long sofa. The bulldog was lying across Raleigh’s feet. Herc could be seen hovering in the background, arms folded over his chest.
Jennifer smiled at them and Mako and Raleigh smiled back while Chuck frowned, his arm draped possessively across the sofa behind Raleigh.
"I wanted to start off by thanking you for choosing me for this interview and allowing me to spend the day with your lovely family."
"Weren’t exactly given much choice now, were we?" Chuck said, scowling when Raleigh elbowed him.
"What Chuck means," Mako said, "is that it is our pleasure. While it is true that we would prefer not to do this you have helped to make it easier, Ms. Blake."
"Thank you, Miss Mori, and please, all of you, call me Jennifer."
"You may call me Mako," she nodded.
"Thank you. And I can certainly understand the desire to keep your lives private. At the same time, you all are the closest thing we have to real life superheroes." She smiled at the bright blushes she got from all of them.
"I think I can speak for all of us," Raleigh said, glancing at Chuck and Mako, "when I say we’re not superheroes. We’re just people who had the ability and the determination to do what was necessary. And we weren’t the only ones. A lot of good people came before us and stood with us."
"And that is why you’re heroes," she said, making him blush harder. "Now, we all know the basic story of the final battle and I’ve been reliably informed," her eyes cut to Herc, "that certain specifics will never be told. So let’s focus on what you all have been doing since then.
"Let’s start with you, Mako. You’re an engineer of exceptional skill. You were responsible for the restoration of the Mark-3 jaeger Gipsy Danger and you had a hand in the ones that have been restored since then. I’ve also been told that you’re responsible for some of the advances we’ve seen in cybernetic limb replacement?"
"I simply helped to oversee the restoration by looking over new designs and upgrades," she said modestly, folding her hands in the sleeves of the kimono style dress she wore. "I was still recovering from the injuries I received during the battle and could not leave my bed for quite some time."
"You suffered radiation poisoning from the destruction of Striker Eureka, correct?"
"Hai," Mako replied, covering the hand Raleigh put on her arm with her own. "I was very sick for a long time. I will never be completely healthy but advances in medicine have given me time I would not have had even ten years ago."
"Something for which your family is very grateful for I’m sure," Jennifer smiled sympathetically.
"We’re very grateful," Raleigh asserted. Chuck nodded, brushing his fingertips over her shoulder from behind Raleigh.
"And the work you’ve done in cybernetics?"
"It is not much," Mako demurred. "I built off the concept of the jaeger pilot biofeedback circuitry suits. Chuck was also instrumental in the work I did."
"Yeah nah," Chuck shook his head. "It was all Mako – her ideas, her designs. I just helped build some of the early prototypes because she had some motor control issues. Go on, show her your hand."
Mako bit her lip but pulled up the left sleeve of her gown, uncovering her gloved hand. She carefully removed the silk glove, revealing that her pinky and ring fingers were in fact mechanical constructs attached to a thin neoprene-type fabric with delicate circuit wires woven into it, covering part of her hand and wrist.
"It’s just like the circuitry suits we wear to control a jaeger," Raleigh explained, gently cradling her hand in his.
"Only instead of controlling a jaeger," Chuck picked up the narrative, "the circuitry fabric picks up the nerve impulses and muscle movement in her wrist allowing her to move the fingers like they were her own."
Mako demonstrated by first curling her fingers into a fist before flexing them. She then moved each finger individually proving that the mechanical ones could operate independently.
"That’s amazing!" Jennifer gushed, her hands clasped tightly in her lap to keep from reaching out to touch. "Is there any pain from them? Are they permanently attached? Has this been made available to the public yet?"
Smiling, Mako replaced her glove. "There is no pain from the prosthetics themselves although there can be if I damage them. As I said, they work on the same principle as the circuitry suits providing biofeedback allowing me a measure of sensation. They are currently removable. There are scientists working on a more permanent integrated solution but such things take time. It is not technically available to the public yet. Clinical trials are being conducted with volunteers from various military hospitals. Soldiers who were injured in the line of duty."
"An admirable decision," Jennifer agreed before turning to Chuck. "And you helped build this, Ranger Hansen?"
"Chuck, and just the early prototypes," he said with a shake of his head. "That one was created by some of our specialty project engineers. I can do small work like that but I prefer working on the jaegers. Been working on them since I was a teen, don’t plan to stop now."
"So when you’re not piloting Coyote Tango you’re working on the jaegers? Design or repairs?"
"Both when I get the chance. I also train all our new pilots. They don’t go through quite the same training we did at the Academy. With no imminent threat of kaiju, combat training isn’t as heavily focused on, but we prefer they be prepared just in case."
"You believe the kaiju will be back then?" she asked, shuddering lightly.
"Didn’t say that now, did I?" Chuck growled. "I said just in case, didn’t I? Breach is closed. Last thing I want is to find we risked our lives for a bloody time out. On the other hand, I got kids now. If those bastards come back, I want to be damn sure the men and women we’re putting in those jaegers know how to take them down. Better to be over prepared than caught with our shorts around our ankles."
"Do you agree with that sentiment, Raleigh?" She turned to him.
He nodded easily. "Like Chuck said, I don’t like to think we risked our lives for just a brief time of peace. But I’d also prefer that we be over-prepared than caught unawares. This world has suffered enough from the kaiju."
"Very true. Now, you copilot Coyote Tango with Chuck. Primarily search and rescue missions as I recall."
"Yes. Jaegers can withstand weather conditions that more traditional rescue vehicles can’t. Plus it’s a great feeling knowing you’ve directly saved someone’s life."
"I can imagine. There must be a point at which you’re no longer able to pilot due to your pregnancy?" Jennifer gestured to his rounded stomach.
"So far, late in the fourth month has been my stopping point. More because I couldn’t fit in the drivesuit anymore than because there was any danger to the baby." Raleigh shrugged, a hand falling to his stomach. "Outside my duties as a jaeger pilot, I usually act as an aide-de-camp for the marshal, putting my knowledge of different languages to good use."
"How many languages do you speak?" Jennifer asked surprised. No jaeger pilot could be unintelligent, no matter his or her ability to Drift, yet Raleigh Becket had never seemed the intellectual sort; interviews had always focused on his physical skills. Then again, until he’d become pregnant after the Battle of the Breach, many had questioned his status as an omega, insisting he was really a beta. It seemed the world constantly underestimated him.
"I can speak seven languages fluently and know four well enough to get by in. A few others I know the absolute basics like where’s the bathroom and how to curse. I’m currently working on my Australian," he answered, pronouncing it like a native.
"How many times have I told you we speak English?" Chuck grumbled. ‘It’s not some bloody code to break."
"It was easier for me to learn Japanese, probably the hardest language for a native English speaker to learn, than it’s been for me to figure out Australian slang. Seriously. Figjam? Fair dinkum? What do they even mean?" he whined, glaring when Chuck started to answer. "Don’t even start right now. And don’t think I can’t hear you laughing back there, Herc."
"Sorry, Raleigh," Herc called, not even trying to hide his snickering.
"No you’re not," Raleigh grumbled good-naturedly, smiling slyly at Jennifer. She had a hand pressed to her mouth to cover her smile. Her smile widened when the bulldog wiggled her way up onto the sofa between Raleigh and Chuck, deliberately putting her back to Chuck whining at the blond. Raleigh laughed, scrunching her face. "It’s okay, Sasha. Daddy and Grandpa were just teasing Poppa. You’re such a good girl. Poppa’s little babushka."
He cooed at her in Russian until Jennifer cleared her throat to get his attention again. Raleigh grinned, keeping the dog snuggled against his side to Chuck’s consternation. Mako just shook her head, clearly used to his antics.
"Is she named after..."
"The Kaidonovskys?" Raleigh supplied. "Yeah, pretty much. She’s from the last litter Max sired before he passed." His hand slipped to Chuck’s, lacing their fingers together. "We’d been thinking about keeping one of his pups for awhile but none of them had really clicked."
"Then we go to meet the latest litter and there is little Sasha. Very much the alpha of her littermates," Mako said, smiling.
"She took right to Raleigh. Bossing him about," Chuck grinned.
Raleigh shrugged. "She reminded me of Sasha and Aleksis and the way they took me under their wing when I first got to Hong Kong. It was only natural to name her Sasha."
"And teach her Russian apparently," Chuck muttered, grinning when Raleigh glared at him.
"All of our kids speak Australian. I can teach her Russian if I want."
"Boys, on point," Herc interrupted before they could really get going.
"Sorry, you were saying?" Raleigh turned back to Jennifer with an innocent look she didn’t buy for a minute.
"Tell me about your children. You have six with another on the way but they’re not all biologically yours, correct?"
"Correct," Raleigh agreed. "Our three eldest are adopted siblings. For reasons I’d rather not talk about, we didn’t think I could have kids of my own. So Chuck and I talked about adopting. Then I got pregnant but we still felt that adopting was the right thing to do. When I started talking to the adoption agent and explained that we were looking for an older child because I knew they were harder to place, they asked if we’d be willing to consider siblings. They preferred to adopt out siblings together but prospective parents frequently were only looking for one, maybe two children. We discussed it and agreed to at least meet with them."
"That was the end of that. One look and Raleigh was a goner for them."
"Right," Raleigh drawled. "Because you didn’t spend the entire time bonding with Hannah over Striker Eureka and Max."
"What can I say? The girl has good taste. Besides, you had the two little’uns crawling all over you."
"Was there any conflict when you started having your own children?"
"Not really. We’ve done our best to ensure that they all know that we love them equally. They’re all my kids whether I gave birth to them or not," Raleigh insisted. "Unless they’re sick. Then they’re Chuck’s kids."
"Big baby, can’t handle a bit of kiddie chunder," Chuck smirked.
"Do I need to remind you about the time..."
"Foot and ankle massage as soon as we’re done if you never ever mention that again," Chuck cut him off, a bit wild-eyed.
Raleigh smirked settling back on the sofa. "Add in my favorite bath salts and you’ve got a deal."
"You’re watching the sprogs tonight, old man," Chuck said, twisting around to look at his father.
"Told you not to call me that," Herc snorted.
"Whatever." He turned back around at Raleigh’s poke.
"One more question before we go to break. Is there anything you regret and wish you could go back and change?"
They sat silent for a moment thinking it over. Raleigh was the one to speak. "I think that regret and wishing you could go back and change something are two very different things. We all have someone we wish we could go back and save by doing something different. Regret though? I don’t think I have anything I regret because everything we’ve done has led us to here, to this point in our lives, and I can’t regret anything about that."
"None of us do," Chuck agreed and Mako nodded. They were happy and couldn’t regret that.
The end.