[ Her daughter is eight and beaming and starry-eyed up at a man she's declared one of her personal heroes and she can't help but remember the first time right after word broke that the Breach was closed that she walked in with a copy of TIME magazine with the iconic photo of Raleigh and Mako with their heads bent together while stuck in the middle of an ocean mom, his brother's name was Yancy just like me, did you know that?
She hasn't told her daughter. Didn't really believe she wouldn't have to some day, but the world is a different place from when it was during her parents' time and single mom and little girls without fathers are not so unusual.
( Naomi had hugged her tight when Yancy was four and she brought home a drawing of their family from preschool - that's you Mom and me, and aunt Kara and Mama and Pop - why is there a dog honey? Because maybe I want one for my birthday? )
But Yancy is smart and resourceful, and Naomi already suspects that if she hasn't at least entertained the connections between her rather unique nickname, her birthday and her mother's personal investment in the PPDC, she will, and soon enough. Yancy loves to catalog things, and the photos in her mother's files are her favorite (you have a TON of pictures of the Becket brothers, mom. It shows that you like them better than the others - but they're really handsome so I'm not surprised - Its part of what I do for work, sweetie, but yeah, they really are. )
Naomi stands and walks over, hugging her cardigan around herself. She nods at his greeting, is a bit surprised that he remembers her. It's been years. Nearly a decade. ] Raleigh Becket. Nice to see you, too.
[ She looks off to the side and blinks hard when he kneels in front of her daughter. Looks back tentatively, wondering if she should just take her girl and go. But Raleigh's smiling, maybe this won't be so bad. ]
[ raleigh is still in shock, so his conversation with girl yancy has a slightly rough start. he mentions his brother was named yancy, asks her how she's doing, listens to her ramble, and eventually asks if she wants to meet mako. his co-pilot is a saint and smiles at the girl, waving her over so raleigh can talk with naomi.
he straightens up, but remains silent for a moment as he tries to wrap his head around what's happening. naomi has a kid. and it's clearly yancy's kid. he's an uncle. his niece is old enough that yancy was still alive when she was born, and that's what really gets him. yancy died without ever knowing he was a father. and if he had known--
god. if they had known there is nothing they would not have done for naomi and her daughter. yancy would've been a wonderful father. he'd already had some experience in stepping up when dad walked out. and he would be so determined to make sure that his kid never grew up with a deadbeat dad or thinking he didn't care about them. the thought makes raleigh's heart ache something fierce.
he doesn't ask why didn't you tell us? naomi was young and probably scared. they were young and brand spanking new pilots. she didn't really know them. she'd had no reason to think they'd really remember her or want to be involved. ( though raleigh never really forgot her. hard to forget the girl who nearly ruined your career. ) and he doesn't ask does she know? because it's clear she doesn't.
instead, what he finds coming out of his mouth is, ] God, she looks so much like he did when we were younger. [ except that's not really the question he wants to ask, so he has to rally. rubs a hand over his mouth and gives naomi a nervous look. ] I don't want to intrude on your home life, so you're welcome to say no and that'll be it. But... can I get to know her? And you?
[ It's not what she expects to hear and it throws her a little. So for a moment, Naomi looks to where Yancy is listening in rapt attention to whatever it is that Mako Mori is saying and she feels the war in her heart.
Her parents don't know. They stopped asking after Yancy was born who the father was, didn't she want him in her little girl's life - her dad had actually taken her aside to say is it that you know he won't want her? is that why you won't say a thing? and she'd shaken her head and told him that she loved him and that he was the best father she could ever ask for. Her sister probably does know, though. Kara had been there in the hospital room when Naomi had insisted on turning the TV channel to the press con for Gipsy Danger's official release to active duty and when the introductions had been made Naomi had pressed a kiss to her child's forehead and kept her face still.
It's not like there hadn't been any opportunity to reach out. She'd been in San Diego to live with her sister roughly the same time the Beckets were assigned to the Los Angeles Shatterdome. Had been in town when Clawhook hit. Had driven past the place where the press conference for the boys had been held. Gary, my daughter has been having nightmares of that thing I can do a write-up on the Beckets later.
But she hadn't counted on loving little Yancy so much, couldn't bring herself to risk showing up in front of Yancy Becket to tell him remember that night in your truck two years ago, well there's something you should know because she'd heard about the fight at the bar from a friend of a friend, had heard how the Marshal Stacker Pentecost had personally come down to break the boys up.
( He confirmed it as much, years after, a year before Raleigh was reinstated to the PPDC you're the girl who nearly broke up my star team. She'd let Stacker pass judgement on her then, because she hadn't known the fragility of the Drift until it had been explained to her, though she'd known she'd been stupid as a girl.
She'd flown back to Hawaii after wrapping things up with Tendo Choi, had taken a cab from the airport to the home she'd grown up in, her parents out back with Kara and Yancy poking at the squid they had on the grill. )
She couldn't risk walking up to a man she barely knew to say this is your daughter only to have him back away.
So, she doesn't know what to do with Raleigh's offer. ] Shouldn't I be apologizing for intruding on yours?
[ a laugh escapes him, but it's not an entirely happy one. he knows she probably didn't mean anything by the remark, but it's also a terrible reminder. he doesn't like to think about it much, but he's lost a lot in his life. ]
My mom and brother are both dead. My dad walked out when I was a teenager. I haven't seen my little sister in nearly a decade. [ he looks over to where mako is holding little yancy's attention fantastically. ] Mako's the closest thing I've got to family now.
[ he loves tendo and alison dearly, but they've been apart long enough that they have yet to figure out where they fit into each other's lives again. there's none of that with mako. she's irrevocably a part of him and knows him better than anyone else on the planet. she's his sun, his moon, and all his stars. not that he's going to try and say any of that out loud. that's just embarrassing. ]
Hell, we don't even know where we're going to live when the press tour's over. Not yet, anyways. [ he looks back at naomi and gives her a wry smile. ] There's nothing to intrude on.
[ That he mentions not knowing where things stand for the future makes her frown. That's not fair. He and Mako just saved the world, aren't they at least supposed to get compensation for risking their lives? They deserve a place of their own at least, or secure jobs now that the kaiju are gone ( are they, really? she wonders at that because it might just be her mind and having read so much science fiction growing up but - how sure are they that the kaiju won't return? )
She doesn't know if she can offer a place in their home - she knows she should want to, Raleigh is Yancy's closest connection to the father she never knew, but the truth is... Naomi is scared. She thought she'd shut the book on her feelings for Yancy Becket when she'd finished her piece, won the Pulitzer and put the framed copies of both on her shelf. Letting Raleigh in would mean opening up the avenue to talk to her little girl about the man who shares her name and it shames Naomi to know that whatever she can tell her daughter is already in her work - accounts and photographs, all second-hand information because what did she know of Yancy? What memories did she have but the way the leather of the car seats warmed, the weight of him on her, the way that she'd felt when he'd held and kissed her.
No. Those aren't things she can tell her daughter, not yet, not now when she's so young. For now, those memories are hers and hers alone. ]
Miss Mori seems like a remarkable woman. I caught a glimpse of her once, two years ago while I was interviewing Marshal Pentecost. [ She fidgets by picking idly at her nails - an old habit she never got rid of, a carry-over from her teenaged years. ] She was putting flowers on Tamsin Sevier's grave.
[ She's quiet awhile, take a breath before she murmurs: ] She doesn't know.
She's a sweet little girl who never pressured her mother into telling her about her dad, and I am grateful for that because I honestly don't know what to tell her. I have my sister and my parents to thank for spoiling her as much as the have, for giving her a great childhood. But she's got a good head on her shoulders and she loves to read and is obsessed with anything to do with the PPDC, it's bound to come out one day. [ She feels helpless, Raleigh. She didn't think about what it would mean if she ran into you. Didn't think the world was that small. ]
[ he's got nothing but sympathy for her. he can't even begin to imagine how hard it must have been to be, what, seventeen? and pregnant from a one night stand. and then to have raised that little girl by herself, even if she did have parents and a sister helping... it's no wonder she's nervous.
raleigh gives her a small smile and shrugs as much as he can with his hands still in his pockets. ] Hey, it's okay if you want me to stay away. She's your daughter.
[ while yancy might be his niece, his mom gets to make all the decisions for her. and while part of raleigh is suddenly really thrilled about the possibility of having family again, he would understand if naomi wanted him to stay as far away as possible. things are complicated with him now being an, ugh, an international celebrity all over again. with yancy ( boy yancy, not girl yancy ) being some fallen hero. ]
For what it's worth, Mako and I both hate the media coverage. And we've gotten pretty good about being discreet about stuff. [ and if what he's heard is true, his mom took to journalism like a fish to water. so if it does eventually come out to more than just immediate family--and raleigh really kind of hopes it doesn't, for yancy's sake--he's fairly confident naomi can handle whatever it is that needs to be handled. ]
[ He gives her an out so easily, she has to turn her gaze back to where Yancy and Mako Mori have their heads bent together.
Would it be that easy? It could. She could take Yancy and walk away from this, keep quiet about her daughter's blood connection to the Beckets until her little girl's a little older, a little more independent. But Naomi thinks about how that would hurt, can imagine how cheated Yancy might feel because she'd been five feet from her uncle, from the one person who could tell her about the father who never knew she'd been born. Who'd died a hero off the Miracle Mile in Anchorage when she was just three years old.
Naomi can take a lot of things, but the idea of her daughter upset at her years from now because she was too chicken to let an opportunity happen is one thing she's not sure she can live with.
She looks back at Raleigh, presses her lips together and chooses her words carefully. ] I'd be a terrible mother to deprive her of the last blood connection she has to her dad.
[ oh, thank god. raleigh's not quite sure what he would've done if she said no. other than the obvious answer of leave her alone because he's not a creepy stalker. nope, no way was that going to happen.
but at the same time, that's yancy's kid over there. he's not sure he'd be able to live with himself knowing that she was around and he couldn't know her. couldn't be there for her if she ever wanted a cool uncle. couldn't help her out or make sure she was okay. ( not that he doubts that she's okay. kids aren't that happy and outgoing if they've got a shitty home life. ) that's his brother's kid and he feels responsible for her a little bit, even if he's only just met her.
( maybe he really does have gigantic family issues. )
he grins at naomi and laughs quietly. ] Well, I don't know about terrible. Maybe just mildly awful. [ he looks back at yancy, and something occurs to him. ] Hey, have you guys eaten yet? You could join us. You know, if that's not going to cause an uproar.
[ And just like that, just with a grin and a quiet laugh, the tension dissipates like it was nothing to begin with. ]
An uproar? [ She nods towards Yancy and Mako and how the two are getting along. ] I think we've kind of gone past that. She'd probably just give me this puppy dog look and whine 'mom, please, fifteen more minutes' which really means 'as long as I can push it.'
[ She glaces back to him, bites her lower lip unconsciously. ] If you're absolutely sure we're not intruding... I think she'd love the chance to sit with you both. [ She gestures towards the general direction of the counter, because they haven't, actually, eaten, that is. Because running over to meet heroes clearly trumps food. ] If you don't mind watching her, I can go get our food. [ There's an unspoken so you can talk to her there. She's already agreed to give this opportunity a chance, why wait? ]
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She hasn't told her daughter. Didn't really believe she wouldn't have to some day, but the world is a different place from when it was during her parents' time and single mom and little girls without fathers are not so unusual.
( Naomi had hugged her tight when Yancy was four and she brought home a drawing of their family from preschool - that's you Mom and me, and aunt Kara and Mama and Pop - why is there a dog honey? Because maybe I want one for my birthday? )
But Yancy is smart and resourceful, and Naomi already suspects that if she hasn't at least entertained the connections between her rather unique nickname, her birthday and her mother's personal investment in the PPDC, she will, and soon enough. Yancy loves to catalog things, and the photos in her mother's files are her favorite (you have a TON of pictures of the Becket brothers, mom. It shows that you like them better than the others - but they're really handsome so I'm not surprised - Its part of what I do for work, sweetie, but yeah, they really are. )
Naomi stands and walks over, hugging her cardigan around herself. She nods at his greeting, is a bit surprised that he remembers her. It's been years. Nearly a decade. ] Raleigh Becket. Nice to see you, too.
[ She looks off to the side and blinks hard when he kneels in front of her daughter. Looks back tentatively, wondering if she should just take her girl and go. But Raleigh's smiling, maybe this won't be so bad. ]
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he straightens up, but remains silent for a moment as he tries to wrap his head around what's happening. naomi has a kid. and it's clearly yancy's kid. he's an uncle. his niece is old enough that yancy was still alive when she was born, and that's what really gets him. yancy died without ever knowing he was a father. and if he had known--
god. if they had known there is nothing they would not have done for naomi and her daughter. yancy would've been a wonderful father. he'd already had some experience in stepping up when dad walked out. and he would be so determined to make sure that his kid never grew up with a deadbeat dad or thinking he didn't care about them. the thought makes raleigh's heart ache something fierce.
he doesn't ask why didn't you tell us? naomi was young and probably scared. they were young and brand spanking new pilots. she didn't really know them. she'd had no reason to think they'd really remember her or want to be involved. ( though raleigh never really forgot her. hard to forget the girl who nearly ruined your career. ) and he doesn't ask does she know? because it's clear she doesn't.
instead, what he finds coming out of his mouth is, ] God, she looks so much like he did when we were younger. [ except that's not really the question he wants to ask, so he has to rally. rubs a hand over his mouth and gives naomi a nervous look. ] I don't want to intrude on your home life, so you're welcome to say no and that'll be it. But... can I get to know her? And you?
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Her parents don't know. They stopped asking after Yancy was born who the father was, didn't she want him in her little girl's life - her dad had actually taken her aside to say is it that you know he won't want her? is that why you won't say a thing? and she'd shaken her head and told him that she loved him and that he was the best father she could ever ask for. Her sister probably does know, though. Kara had been there in the hospital room when Naomi had insisted on turning the TV channel to the press con for Gipsy Danger's official release to active duty and when the introductions had been made Naomi had pressed a kiss to her child's forehead and kept her face still.
It's not like there hadn't been any opportunity to reach out. She'd been in San Diego to live with her sister roughly the same time the Beckets were assigned to the Los Angeles Shatterdome. Had been in town when Clawhook hit. Had driven past the place where the press conference for the boys had been held. Gary, my daughter has been having nightmares of that thing I can do a write-up on the Beckets later.
But she hadn't counted on loving little Yancy so much, couldn't bring herself to risk showing up in front of Yancy Becket to tell him remember that night in your truck two years ago, well there's something you should know because she'd heard about the fight at the bar from a friend of a friend, had heard how the Marshal Stacker Pentecost had personally come down to break the boys up.
( He confirmed it as much, years after, a year before Raleigh was reinstated to the PPDC you're the girl who nearly broke up my star team. She'd let Stacker pass judgement on her then, because she hadn't known the fragility of the Drift until it had been explained to her, though she'd known she'd been stupid as a girl.
She'd flown back to Hawaii after wrapping things up with Tendo Choi, had taken a cab from the airport to the home she'd grown up in, her parents out back with Kara and Yancy poking at the squid they had on the grill. )
She couldn't risk walking up to a man she barely knew to say this is your daughter only to have him back away.
So, she doesn't know what to do with Raleigh's offer. ] Shouldn't I be apologizing for intruding on yours?
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My mom and brother are both dead. My dad walked out when I was a teenager. I haven't seen my little sister in nearly a decade. [ he looks over to where mako is holding little yancy's attention fantastically. ] Mako's the closest thing I've got to family now.
[ he loves tendo and alison dearly, but they've been apart long enough that they have yet to figure out where they fit into each other's lives again. there's none of that with mako. she's irrevocably a part of him and knows him better than anyone else on the planet. she's his sun, his moon, and all his stars. not that he's going to try and say any of that out loud. that's just embarrassing. ]
Hell, we don't even know where we're going to live when the press tour's over. Not yet, anyways. [ he looks back at naomi and gives her a wry smile. ] There's nothing to intrude on.
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She doesn't know if she can offer a place in their home - she knows she should want to, Raleigh is Yancy's closest connection to the father she never knew, but the truth is... Naomi is scared. She thought she'd shut the book on her feelings for Yancy Becket when she'd finished her piece, won the Pulitzer and put the framed copies of both on her shelf. Letting Raleigh in would mean opening up the avenue to talk to her little girl about the man who shares her name and it shames Naomi to know that whatever she can tell her daughter is already in her work - accounts and photographs, all second-hand information because what did she know of Yancy? What memories did she have but the way the leather of the car seats warmed, the weight of him on her, the way that she'd felt when he'd held and kissed her.
No. Those aren't things she can tell her daughter, not yet, not now when she's so young. For now, those memories are hers and hers alone. ]
Miss Mori seems like a remarkable woman. I caught a glimpse of her once, two years ago while I was interviewing Marshal Pentecost. [ She fidgets by picking idly at her nails - an old habit she never got rid of, a carry-over from her teenaged years. ] She was putting flowers on Tamsin Sevier's grave.
[ She's quiet awhile, take a breath before she murmurs: ] She doesn't know.
She's a sweet little girl who never pressured her mother into telling her about her dad, and I am grateful for that because I honestly don't know what to tell her. I have my sister and my parents to thank for spoiling her as much as the have, for giving her a great childhood. But she's got a good head on her shoulders and she loves to read and is obsessed with anything to do with the PPDC, it's bound to come out one day. [ She feels helpless, Raleigh. She didn't think about what it would mean if she ran into you. Didn't think the world was that small. ]
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raleigh gives her a small smile and shrugs as much as he can with his hands still in his pockets. ] Hey, it's okay if you want me to stay away. She's your daughter.
[ while yancy might be his niece, his mom gets to make all the decisions for her. and while part of raleigh is suddenly really thrilled about the possibility of having family again, he would understand if naomi wanted him to stay as far away as possible. things are complicated with him now being an, ugh, an international celebrity all over again. with yancy ( boy yancy, not girl yancy ) being some fallen hero. ]
For what it's worth, Mako and I both hate the media coverage. And we've gotten pretty good about being discreet about stuff. [ and if what he's heard is true, his mom took to journalism like a fish to water. so if it does eventually come out to more than just immediate family--and raleigh really kind of hopes it doesn't, for yancy's sake--he's fairly confident naomi can handle whatever it is that needs to be handled. ]
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Would it be that easy? It could. She could take Yancy and walk away from this, keep quiet about her daughter's blood connection to the Beckets until her little girl's a little older, a little more independent. But Naomi thinks about how that would hurt, can imagine how cheated Yancy might feel because she'd been five feet from her uncle, from the one person who could tell her about the father who never knew she'd been born. Who'd died a hero off the Miracle Mile in Anchorage when she was just three years old.
Naomi can take a lot of things, but the idea of her daughter upset at her years from now because she was too chicken to let an opportunity happen is one thing she's not sure she can live with.
She looks back at Raleigh, presses her lips together and chooses her words carefully. ] I'd be a terrible mother to deprive her of the last blood connection she has to her dad.
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but at the same time, that's yancy's kid over there. he's not sure he'd be able to live with himself knowing that she was around and he couldn't know her. couldn't be there for her if she ever wanted a cool uncle. couldn't help her out or make sure she was okay. ( not that he doubts that she's okay. kids aren't that happy and outgoing if they've got a shitty home life. ) that's his brother's kid and he feels responsible for her a little bit, even if he's only just met her.
( maybe he really does have gigantic family issues. )
he grins at naomi and laughs quietly. ] Well, I don't know about terrible. Maybe just mildly awful. [ he looks back at yancy, and something occurs to him. ] Hey, have you guys eaten yet? You could join us. You know, if that's not going to cause an uproar.
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An uproar? [ She nods towards Yancy and Mako and how the two are getting along. ] I think we've kind of gone past that. She'd probably just give me this puppy dog look and whine 'mom, please, fifteen more minutes' which really means 'as long as I can push it.'
[ She glaces back to him, bites her lower lip unconsciously. ] If you're absolutely sure we're not intruding... I think she'd love the chance to sit with you both. [ She gestures towards the general direction of the counter, because they haven't, actually, eaten, that is. Because running over to meet heroes clearly trumps food. ] If you don't mind watching her, I can go get our food. [ There's an unspoken so you can talk to her there. She's already agreed to give this opportunity a chance, why wait? ]