I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones/Enough to make my systems blow

[fromfryingpantofire]

It's been six months since Sam had last gone out in Archangel Sword. Not that anybody ever calls her that; the Jaeger's name is "Baby" according to Dean and always will be. Most of that has been in recovery from the last fight. The Jaeger had been damaged when it took out the Kaiju -- codenamed "Ruby" -- and Sam's life support system had been flooded with Kaiju blood.

Sam doesn't remember it. Doesn't remember the fight at all, really. He'd been comatose for a month afterward, waking to find things had changed. He'd changed. Literally, actually, because he can't connect with Dean in the drift any more. Nobody's certain what happened, whether it was lack of oxygen or something in the Kaiju blood that Sam ingested while trying to breathe, but the result is the same. Sam can't drift with Dean any longer.

There's no good reason why he can't find somebody else to drift with again, though, which is why he's been in the kwoon combat room at least once every few days for the past two weeks. Now that Sam's back up to scratch, getting him back out into a Jaeger is important. Luckily, Dean had found a new drift partner fairly quickly, a newish recruit named Castiel. They'd taken to each other so easily that Sam almost couldn't feel too bad about being sidelined.

Almost.

He sighs, rolling his shoulders as he walks into the kwoon room, having been ordered there by Marshall Singer. Probably to face off against more new recruits.

"Marshall Singer," he says, kicking off his shoes at the edge of the mat before looking around and letting his eyes catch on the only other person in the room.

Comments

[redeemedhimself]

"It is easy to forget that we are made of more than just the drift and our abilities in the Jaeger," he agrees, sitting on the corner of the bed to study one of the figures. "Even more so when our ability to drift is taken away."

But that's all in the past. They're able to drift, which means they can fight again. Be a part of something greater. "It is a warm, quiet place. That can be just as important."

[fromfryingpantofire]

"Having it taken away from me forced me to remember that," Sam replies, walking over to sit next to Gadreel. "Reminded me that piloting isn't my only skill. I probably would have started working my way up to marshal soon enough, honestly. Or maybe start working on one of the support teams." Anything to stay relevant, really.

[redeemedhimself]

Reaching, Gadreel rested his hand on Sam's. Something he had considered himself, trying to find some way to contribute if he'd remained unable to pilot another Jaeger. "I had been training on one of the repair teams in the evenings. To learn how to care for them if I could no longer drift."

That way he could assist, but remain in the shadows, further away from the pilots, away from those who still blamed him for his failure with Eden. "Perhaps one day you will still make Marshall."

[fromfryingpantofire]

Sam turns his hand over, threading their fingers together. Intimate, maybe, but liking the clearer connection between them. "That's good. Probably something we should both learn, anyway. I mean, there's nothing wrong with pilots working with the repair teams. Dean does it all the time." His brother's far more mechanically minded than Sam is, though.

He tilts his head slightly in a half shrug. "Maybe. Marshalls tend to be former pilots who can't pilot anymore. I think I'd be glad enough to wait on that."

[redeemedhimself]

"As would I," he agrees, looking down at their hands as they're joined together. They had already shared intimacy in the drift, shared everything that they were. What was something so simple as holding hands?

"There may be times when we need to affect smaller repairs on the Jaeger in a battle, or at least monitor the systems better. Perhaps it is something we can both learn together as we wait for the rift to go active again?"

[fromfryingpantofire]

Sam nods eagerly, smiling widely. "Exactly. I mean, we might not be able to do a lot, but something is better than nothing." Being able to fix a leak in the coolant or the respiration system might save them some day, after all.