Chapter Text
He’s ruined another bloody shirt, literally.
Pulling open his closet, Stacker rummages for a clean one, pushing aside his dress blues. He’s kept them for special occasions, rather than sentimental value, and they’re still neatly pressed, a habit from his days in the RAF. At this point, it’s doubtful he’ll ever wear them again. Regardless of how the mission turns out, his days are numbered, a fact he’s long since accepted.
He runs a hand over the dark fabric, really looking at it for the first time in a long time—all those medals, he’d been a highly decorated officer. And for what? To be tossed aside as soon as the UN decided he wasn’t needed anymore. Now, he simply wears a navy suit, with a small PPDC pin attached to his lapel. It’s the only adornment that matters. The only people left who are willing to fight.
Farther into the closet, behind his old uniform, is a small box. Inside that box is a promise, one he always meant to keep.
It’s still too soon, he tells himself. She’s not ready.
Or maybe he’s just not ready to let her go.
After everything that happened with Jake, he’s wary about Mako getting into a Jaeger. Both of his children wanted the same thing, so badly, going about it in very different ways. One has been nothing but patient and hardworking, and the other brash and impulsive.
He probably could have been kinder, after. Less harsh with his words. But there are consequences to one’s actions, and Jake needed to learn that. Which meant that Stacker couldn’t make an exception for family, and instead made an example. He’d been furious, unable to understand how the boy could be so damn foolish.
Unlike his sister, Jake’s heart had never really been in the fight—he’d just wanted to get his father’s attention. Stacker knows that’s partly his own fault. The world needed him to be a hero, but his children needed him too, both of them, and he wasn’t there for Jake as he much as he should have been. It’s a conclusion he may have come to too late, though. Despite reaching out, they haven’t spoken in months; Jake never returns his calls, so the only updates he ever gets come from Mako. This war has already cost him his son. He doesn’t want to lose his daughter, too.
Mako is not her brother, though. She’s not her father, either.
Maybe it’s time to finally make good on that promise.