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"Angela!"
Sparks flew inside the Jaeger as Fareeha turned and shouted to her co pilot. Angela's eyes were unfocused, staring off into space.
"Stop chasing it, it's not real!"
Warning signs were beginning to sound, the neural handshake was breaking. A few moments later, the power cut off completely. As quick as she could, Fareeha started to free herself from the Jaeger, not once taking her eyes off Angela whose knees had started to buckle. The second she was free, she rushed over and began releasing the wires that attached Angela to the left side of the Jaeger.
"It's ok, I've got you" Fareeha whispered as she wrapped an arm around her waist, Fareeha carefully lowered them both to the floor, pulling her helmet off with her free hand before lifting Angela's free from her face. Tears were falling down her cheeks and her eyes were still out of focus. Fareeha could feel her shaking through her drivesuit. It took a few minutes but soon enough, Angela came back. She gasped for air and looked up to Fareeha, blue eyes meeting brown. Angela's lip trembled ever so slightly and then she was crying, heaving out huge sobs and wails of anguish, remembering memories she'd long wished she could forget. Fareeha immediately tightened her hold on her co pilot, pulling Angela to her, Angela pressing her face into Fareeha's shoulder and throwing her arms around Fareeha's back, gripping her so tight, Fareeha could feel the pressure through her armour. With her spare hand, Fareeha reached up to Angela's head and found the hair band that was keeping her ponytail in place. Carefully, she pulled Angela's hair free, allowing her blonde locks to fall around her face. Fareeha placed the band around her wrist before returning her hand to the back of Angela's head and slowly started to run her fingers through it. The calming gesture was working, Angela relaxing ever so slightly each time Fareeha combed through her hair and after a while, her sobs started to die down enough for her to speak.
"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry Fareeha".
Fareeha's fingers stopped moving, her hand moving to cup the side of Angela's face instead. She turned her away from her shoulder and up to look her in the eyes.
"You have nothing to apologise for, if anyone should be apologising it's me, I should have warned you the first time in the Drift can be rough".
They stayed silent, just looking at each other and then Angela brought her hand up to cradle Fareeha's cheek. Together, they closed their eyes and gently closed the gap between them, pressing their foreheads together.
"I can't lose you too".
And then Fareeha felt everything. All of Angela's sadness, fear and guilt. It hit her like a headache, slowly creeping into the corners of her mind and before she knew it, she too had started crying. Silent tears running down her face. She took a deep, shuddering breath to calm herself, her grip on Angela tightening as she tried to pull her even closer and spoke.
"You won't, I promise you. I'll be right there with you every step of the way, we can do this together".
There was a beat before Angela choked up another sob but this one was different, Fareeha could feel it. These were tears of relief, of safety and security. She pulled their heads apart before guiding Angela's down and under her chin, holding her as close to her chest as possible. Angela moved her arms to Fareeha's waist, once again holding on for dear life. Fareeha pressed a kiss into her hair before resting her chin on Angela's head and started to rock them back and forth.
---
Fareeha walked back into the hallway where their rooms were carrying Angela bridal style. Her co pilot was absolutely exhausted and, truthfully, so was Fareeha. That day had been trying at best, so all they wanted was to just go to sleep.
Alas, it became increasingly clear that it wouldn't happen as soon as they wished it to be when they saw one of the engineers look at them. He was familiar, as Fareeha had graduated with him from the Academy. The odd glint in his eyes warned both Angela and Fareeha that whatever was going to happen would be unpleasant.
"See," he said, turning to his friend, who was standing next to him, "I told you the doc would lose it."
Angela was used to less than nice remarks from other people, as was Fareeha. If it was any other day, they'd both let it slide. But that day wasn't just some day, so Fareeha said, meeting his eyes in challenge, "excuse me?"
He kept the eye contact and smirked a little, then said, "she couldn't handle it, could she? Serves her well, she's a doctor not a ranger."
Angela noticed the slight increase in Fareeha's breathing, which was more often than not a sign that she was getting worked up. If it was any other day, she would've tried to stop her and calm her down. But that day wasn't just some day, so Angela just closed her eyes and tried to get as close to Fareeha as she could without making her move.
"An interesting thing for you to say, engineer," Fareeha said, trying to keep the anger out of her voice as best as she could, "after all weren't you the one who didn't become a ranger because you couldn't even handle the simulations, much less the real thing?" She finished and resumed her walk to Angela's room, not letting him say anything else.
Once inside, both of them relaxed visibly and Fareeha gently laid Angela down on her bed. She didn't lie down or sit on the bed because, well, it was Angela's bed and she wasn't about to do that without being invited to.
"Sorry for that," she mumbled, then her expression switched to worry and she knelt down next to the bed and touched Angela's forehead, "how are you feeling?"
Angela just looked at Fareeha and raised her eyebrows, which made her co pilot chuckle.
"Right, that was probably a stupid question. Sorry." Fareeha said, still smiling but meaning every word of her apology.
"It's okay," Angela smiled tiredly, "and thank you for standing up for me. Again. In the same day."
"You'd have done the same for me, if our positions were switched," Fareeha said.
"Speaking of positions," Angela said, tugging on Fareeha's arm, "sleep with me?"
Fareeha blushed. It wasn't just a blush, though. What was happening on her cheeks felt more like someone left at least two furnaces working on each of her cheeks, or that they had decided to take a dive in a pool of flames at the same time. "I-I, what?" She spluttered.
Angela seemed to realise the double meaning behind her words and blushed a little. It wasn't anything like her co pilot's reenactment of the flames of hell, but it was still a considerable blush. "Oh! Ah, I-I no, I didn't mean it like that. Not that I'd ever be opposed to that of course, I mean, I'd be very amenable to that if you ever wanted to, wait what, I mean… sleeping. You know, the act of sleeping. Not… you know."
"Oh," Fareeha seemed to understand Angela's word jumble perfectly, as her blush started to stop threatening to become their replacement red alert light. She even smiled a little and then said, "that would be very nice."
Angela, even in her exhausted state, didn't fail to notice how Fareeha hadn't specified what she meant by that, but her thoughts were stopped by a familiar weight sitting on her mattress. She scooted to the side so Fareeha could lie down with her and, once she did, promptly laid her head on her chest and was rewarded by the feeling of fingers brushing through her hair, playing with it mindlessly.
"You do have a pillow, you know?" Fareeha's tone was gentle and her voice had a smile on it.
"Who needs a pillow when you can have a Fareeha?" Angela mumbled, already half asleep, her words slightly muffled.
Fareeha kissed Angela's forehead and wrapped her arms around her. "I have to say that there's no duvet better than an Angela sized duvet," she said, making the woman in question give a sleepy chuckle. "Sleep well."
"You too," came the also muffled reply.
It wasn't a surprise that they'd both start falling asleep so fast or even that they'd reach for each other after their Drift. That was expected.
What wasn't expected was the way that their breathing started to synch. So, the two of them were sleeping and breathing at the very same time, at the same frequency.
They were indeed a perfect match for each other in every way.