( for yancy. )

[jaeger_fly]

Sokolov, who is best known for her published work documenting the final hours of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, is suspected of passing infor- mation to the now defunct organi- zation and was taken into custody for further questioning on Thursday.

[ It's about two-and-a-half weeks into her stay at the safehouse before Tendo Choi secures her a means by which to contact her daughter. ( You'll have half an hour before the server cuts. I'm sorry, I'll figure out something better. ) And for someone who has had to spend a year of her life in a cell with no promise of hope in sight, it's not that hard for Naomi Sokolov to cast aside all dignity as she breaks down in the middle of the mess hall.

For the first fifteen minutes, mother and daughter can only look at each other across the video feed, as if neither of them can believe that this is actually real. When Naomi opens her mouth to finally say something, it is Yannie's turn to burst into tears, the half-broken sobs of Mommy, I miss you. Mommy, please come home loud through the scratchy speakers. With white-knuckled fists curled over the console before her, Naomi does her best to comfort her daughter, Baby, I want to, I really do. I miss you, please be a good girl for me a little while longer, Yannie, please know that I'm going to do everything to come home to you.

When the feed cuts off, she hugs herself tight as if to keep her heart from breaking more than it already has.

And of course, when she finally gets a hold of herself, she looks up to find Yancy Becket standing at the door looking at her like he's overheard everything.


---


They fight about it a week later. It doesn't end well.

( She's my daughter.
I know that. And I'm not sorry for the choices I've made.
She's my daughter, Naomi. How old is she, thirteen? That's her entire childhood gone. )

It is also, incidentally, the first time he actually notices that she's got a wedding band on her finger.


---

It's been three days since and in two more it'll be her daughter's birthday and Yancy doesn't know.

She's spent enough time crying over the last seventy-two hours she'll be happy for any kind of peace between them. Because as much as she is a refugee, she's still an outsider in this place and Tendo and Alison are the only people she can actually call friends.

She finds him in his room, sitting on the edge of the bed with a stack of photographs in his hand. She'd heard that Raleigh and Mako were off doing reconnaisance and even she can see how wrong it feels to have one Becket brother left behind while the other is out there putting his life on the line. ]

I was wrong. I'm sorry. [ She ducks her head as he looks up, because no matter what the people say, she's not really that brave. ] I didn't think you'd want her. [ I couldn't stand the idea of you not wanting me. ] But I was wrong, I know that. I've lived with it for thirteen years.

[ In her hands is the only photograph she has left of her little girl. The priest at the facility she'd been kept at had called in a favor so that she could at least have it with her while the transported her to her death. ] I named her after you. Her birthday is the same day as Gipsy Danger's first deployment. [ She leans against the doorway and bites down on her lip. ] Tendo said he could arrange a second call so that you could speak with her.