Ships Adrift in a Strong Tide

Pacific Rim

Mary Grayson swiped her bangs and the loose hair that had escaped from its ponytail out of her eyes. Her lunch tray had hardly any food on it at all. An apple, a salad that consisted mainly of lettuce, stir fry the server practically forced her to take which she was currently poking worriedly at.

"Come on, Grayson," Robbie Long said as he sat down across from her. "You're in training. You need to actually eat or you'll never be healthy enough to pilot a Jaeger."

She violently stabbed at a crunchy piece of lettuce and shoved it in her mouth, glaring at Robbie the whole time. "I'm eating fine, as you know," she around her greens.

"Why you even want to pilot one of those things is beyond me. I could teach you to operate the computers. There are plenty of opportunities here without you having to stick your neck out."

"Shut up, Robbie." She wasn't in the mood. This was the umpteenth time this week he'd tried to talk her out of continuing her Jaeger pilot training. She had a feeling her father had something to do with it.

"Anyway, you should really eat more. You don't have any carbs or proteins on your plate, and with your strict training schedule–"

"Would you give it a rest, Robbie? I'm not your little sister." Pointedly, she shoved the tray across the table until it bumped into Robbie's. Pulling her knee up to rest her chin on it, she added, "I'll make up for it at dinner."

Robbie picked up her apple and took a bite out if it. "Just 'cause your dad's on a run now doesn't mean you can get away with not eating. It's a level two, anyway. It's nothing your dad won't be able to handle."

Mary did sort of have a habit of not eating very much when her dad was piloting, but that didn't mean Robbie should lecture her about it. "I'm nineteen years old. I'll eat when I want."

"Okay, whatever. You tell your dad that I tried."

"Blue Demon returning to dock," a voice over the loudspeaker called, and there was a slight shuffle as the required personnel made their way to the hangar.

"Do you need to get that?" Mary asked Robbie, who had put her apple down and was starting on her stir-fry.

"Nope. You gonna eat now?"

She rolled her eyes and picked up the apple, turning the side he'd bitten away from her mouth.

"Emergency medic personnel to assist Blue Demon pilot Dick Grayson," the voice boomed, and this time there was a larger scramble.

Mary almost choked on her apple and slammed it back down on her tray before literally jumping over the table.

"Wait! Mary!" Robbie called, glancing at the half-eaten stir-fry before running after her.

Mary pounded down the wide hallways to the Blue Demon's hangar. She'd come this way dozens of times before, and even with medic personnel in scrubs and white sneakers pushing past her she knew the way by heart.

He was already being helped by the time she got there. There wasn't much she could actually do to help, but that wasn't going to stop her.

She pushed through the small crowd of extra medical personnel and rubberneckers to the metal stairs that had been pushed to the side of the Jaeger, allowing easy access to the Pilot chamber.

"You can't go up there now," a severe-looking woman with black hair and eyes like a storm cloud told her.

"That's my dad!" Mary shouted, and the woman only gave her a suspicious look.

"Mary, Christ," Robbie panted, finally having caught up to her and pushed his way through the crowd. "Look, Rach, here's my clearance ID." He took the plastic card hung from a lanyard around his neck and showed it to the woman.