After nearly two hours in Medical (and that was with priority treatment), Raleigh was finally cleared with only a few bandages here and there and an appointment to come back for a couple x-rays later that evening. It seemed like a minor trade off, considering everything he went through just hours ago; but it’s not like he was going to complain about it.
Nope. Instead, he was going to head straight back to his room and sleep — well, hopefully.
Was he really expecting his sleeping pattern to change just because the war was over? Was it suppose to act as some kind of closure? The thought constantly weighed down on his mind as he strolled towards his room.
As the door shut behind him, Raleigh made his way towards the sink, running water as he searched the room for a clean towel.
With the tug of a white cloth from underneath a pile of clothes, out came a stack of faded pictures now spread across the floor, and a barely audible sigh from the pilot. Bending down to one knee, Raleigh began re-stacking them in his hands; each one reminding him of a good memory he and his brother shared both before and after the Jaeger program, Raleigh unable to help the grin pulling at his lips — at least until there was a knock on the door.
Raleigh glanced up, then hurried to pick up the rest of his photos before calling, “It’s open,” and shutting off the water still running in the sink.
“Erm… Raleigh?” Newt tentatively pushed the door inward, glancing about the room. It looked barely lived in, but then again, Raleigh had only been here days. Which seriously put things in perspective.
“Congrats on surviving — I mean congrats on saving the world — I mean on that and surviving too of course, wouldn’t be much of a victory if you know… died.” Jesus, that was a wonderfully coherent first thing to say… Newt wanted to smack himself over the head. For all his brains and smarts, he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how to talk to people, and he wasn’t a very social person.
Right, Newt change the subject. “That was a really smart thing to do, but really stupid too. And really brave and I really admire you. And I’m sorry for saying that Kaijus are amazing, even though they are, because you know…” They killed your brother, went unsaid and he stopped rambling there, realising he made a fool of himself. “I should probably, yeah… go, before you, I don’t know, punch me or something.”
He wondered if he should just make a break for it and just run away from this, and avoid interaction with Raleigh for the rest of his life or something. Wouldn’t be a very long life if the Ranger killed him after all…
When the breach had been closed they all rejoiced, though obviously saddened by the deaths that had to occur for it to happen. It was a relief to see Mako and Raleigh survive even though he didn’t really know either of them. Also, it was actually interesting that he was on amiable terms with Hermann, which was likely because of the drift. And the fact that they managed to even drift together was interesting in itself.
He would miss working on Kaiju though, that was for sure. It wasn’t like Newt wasn’t qualified for a variety of other jobs having six doctorates and all. But he loved his job. Probably he would still be working on exact effects of Kaiju Blue now so that wasn’t too bad…
Well, Chuck and Stacker died. That was a bummer, he kinda liked Stacker, who didn’t seem to think that all of his ideas were crazy; Chuck, well, he was probably a bit cold but still cool (heh), and he did help save lives after all, they both did. But he figured that saving the world was actually a great cause for celebration (than mourning, though that would still happen). Newt figured he probably ought to congratulate Raleigh for saving the whole world. And apologise for that comment about Kaijus in front of the man who lost his brother to a Kaiju. In hindsight that was actually rather insensitive. Raleigh probably hated him, or at least disliked him. Newt heard that Ranger had retired to his own room after he’d been checked out by the doctors who had assured him that he was fine. Which reminded him that he had yet to go to the medical department to get himself checked out, but if he survived drifting with the Kaiju both times he figured he was okay and there was no need to actually. Raleigh probably needed some alone time, and Newt hoped that he wasn’t being rude by intruding.
He found himself walking towards Raleigh’s door, which was a stupid idea really. More stupid than drifting with a Kaiju, which was a smart idea. Newt fidgeted outside the door for a while before hesitantly raising a clenched hand to knock on the door.
