Wow.

So.

I am going to start trying to write this story again... even though I've not updated it in over a year and a half, I'm still getting people tell me they like it and want an update.

So not only am I updating it (hopefully, I'm still a piece of shit human and it may take a while to get back into the swing of things) I'm also totally overhauling the chapters, and changing them from my pathetic juvenile old style of writing to my current one (which I will probably hate in a years time, who knows)

So... yeah :) I can only hope it gets an amazing reception as it did last time around, and if by some miracle anyone who loved it the first time is still reading, then THANK YOU MY ANGELS 3

So without further ado... enjoy :)

Disclaimer - I own nothing but my character, plot, and OC's!

Bit of a test run, if you guys like it, I'll keep going!

Hope you enjoy! First fanfic so please R&R :)

Tips xxxx

"Cam!"

"Oh, hey Jess."

"What's going on?"

"I have no idea."

"Seriously? You've not been told anything?"

"Nothing."

"That's ridiculous..."

"I know. Chief Engineer and I don't even get told the agenda for an Engineer's meeting" Cam grumbled, crossing his arms and scowling as he surveyed his teams congregating in the foyer area of the Shatterdome. So far, the teams from Cherno Alpha and Gipsy Danger had arrived, and he could see the first engineers of Crimson Typhoon and Coyote Tango beginning to turn up. Looking around however, he couldn't see anyone from Striker Eureka. He glanced behind him in the direction of the Jaeger, and even from here he could still see people milling around, ignoring the summons.

"Guess they're so superior they're not needed, huh?" Jessie remarked from her place beside him, voicing his thoughts. Cam looked down at her, noticing her matching frown as she looked around. She looked up at him.

"Right, tell me if this is true. So, I heard from a couple of guys over on Cherno that the Striker team were having problems with the repairs on her knee joints?" She asked. Cam nodded.

"Something like that." He replied. Jessie's eyes lit up slightly.

"Right. There's a problem inside the exoskeleton, isn't there?" She smirked.

"They can't get to it. It's too far inside..." Cam grumbled, glancing back over his shoulder again at the Jaeger.

"That's such a shame..." Jessie groaned. Cam frowned, and looked back down at her. She wore a face of pity.

" I suppose they don't dare take off the armour in case we get an unexpected Kaiju..." She said a little too innocently. Cam sighed. He knew where this was going.

"You know what they do need? I bet a really small person..."

"Jessie." Cam sighed exasperatedly. She looked up at him, pulling a face.

"C'mon Cam! Please, I swear I won't ask for anything ever again! If you could put a good word in for me to Marshall, I might even get a permanent transfer!" She pleaded.

If she had the chance to work on Striker, she knew she was going to do anything to make sure she got it. Not that she didn't like working on Cherno, though. In fact, she loved it, and she knew that Aleksis and Sasha Kaidonovsky thought very highly of her, though she never had quite enough courage to ask them to give her a good reference. She didn't want to offend them by telling them she wanted to leave. Cherno was their Jaeger after all.

She loved working with the Jaegers, one part because she was as stubborn as anything and wanted to prove to everyone that she, a tiny, weak looking girl, could do as well as any male engineer, and one part because she couldn't think what else she'd rather be doing than helping the fight for her world. When she'd first joined, she quickly discovered that her size enabled her to fit underneath Cherno's thick armour to work repairs that no one else could reach, which gained her trust, respect, and had the added bonus that she got to know the Jaeger inside and out. She had been assigned by Cam to Cherno to get some experience before moving on, but she occasionally helped over on Crimson and even once on Gipsy. Striker was the only Jaeger she hadn't worked on, and she was desperate to get her hands on the first and last Mark 5 Jaeger. She looked up at Cam with big, round eyes.

"Jess, we don't even know what this is about yet." He muttered to her as more and more people arrived, surrounding them.

"But if there's an opening...!"

"Jessie, you know..."

"But if there is, Cam!"

"Jessie, you are too young. It's dangerous. I'm not arguing about this again." Cam told her with a tone of finality, looking her straight in the eyes before he glanced up and started to walk away from her.

"Oh please, it's not like that hasn't stopped me before!" She insisted as he started to walk through the crowd towards the front of the group, hoping to address his engineers. Jessie gave a sharp sigh and jogged a few paces, catching up with him and latching onto his arm.

"Do you remember that time when Cherno was getting sent out, and I got a com from Sasha telling me she felt the movement in the hand joint was restricted, and I had literally two minutes because she had to get out to stop the Kaiju so I jumped from one of the gangways and climbed inside Cherno when they were powering up and dislodged that chunk of metal whilst Cherno was moving and I was fine!" She pointed out, looking up at Cam with wide, hopeful eyes. He sighed and ignored her.

"Striker won't even be moving, and I understand that it's way more high tech than what I'm used to, but I've done all the research and I've studied the operating system in case something like this happened, I even..." She babbled frantically trying to make her case, barging through the other engineers after Cam. She trailed off when Cam spun round and grabbed her by the shoulders, looking at her seriously.

"Jess. Firstly, thats a lie. Cherno wasn't even moving, there was no Kaiju, and it was just a Drift test. Secondly, like I have already told you, I don't know what this is about, okay? It might not even have anything to do with Striker..."

"But...!"

"But nothing, I'm still talking." He said, glaring at her. She clamped her mouth shut.

"Thirdly, I admire your determination and drive. I know you're capable Jessie. I have no doubt in your abilities, and if it was up to me then yes, you'd be over there right now. But you know it's different for you. We have to be careful." He muttered, checking around to make sure no one was listening to their little conversation.

"I promise you that if this is about more workers for Striker, then yes, I will make a personal request for a transfer for you alright? Even if it is just to get you to shut up..." He said teasingly. Jessie brightened at the prospect, grinning from ear to ear. She opened her mouth to say something but was quickly silenced by Cam.

"Enough, okay? Go on, go join the others. I'll catch up with you after." He told her before walking to the front of the engineers. Jessie watched him go for a moment, buzzing with excitement, before she hopped off to join the others in her team from Cherno, her head turned expectantly to the front. She could feel that the general air among the gathered workers was confusion, with a bit of worry and fear, as none of them knew what was about to be told to or asked of them.

Jessie stood at the far edge of the gathering. It was quite easy for her to just disappear whenever she felt like it, but standing at the edge gave her a good view of everyone else so she could see their reactions, and also allowed her to see Cam standing at the front, facing the engineers as they bombarded him with questions. Everyone was talking amongst themselves, and just when it was getting so loud that Jessie started to flinch, a booming voice coming from the balcony above her head silenced everyone. She knew straight away it was Marshall, and she kept her ears open in anticipation as he spoke. She saw Cam stand back, face turned up to watch Marshall, his arms crossed over his chest in a distinct show of displeasure at not being informed before the meeting. Her stomach filled with butterflies as he started to talk.

"I suppose your wondering why you're all here." He began, his voice ringing out regally.

"The Kaiju attacks are getting more and more frequent and deadly, you all know this. Recently, Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka were returned from a mission, both with severe damage. Gipsy is back up and running, but Striker is, unfortunately, not. We cannot afford to have our most valuable Jaeger incapable of functioning." He announced. There were murmurs of agreement.

"We need more hands which we do not have, therefore, we need the engineering cadets from the fully functioning Jaegers to help restore Striker as quickly as possible." He told us calmly.

Immediately, excited whispers started to break out among those who were cadets. Jessie's heart was pounding inside her chest as she looked up and made eye contact with Cam. They shared a smile and he nodded slightly. Jessie fought to contain the massive grin that she felt the urge to show. She knew that everyone wanted to work on Striker - who wouldn't? The only Mark 5 ever, and allegedly the best Jaeger there was, technology wise. Jessie knew it would be tough to get herself noticed in the midst of all the other people who would immediately volunteer for the job, but she felt confident that with a recommendation from Cam, she would get it for sure.

"Now, before you get excited..." Marshall's voice rang out again, calling for silence

"I will only be taking a limited number of you - 20 is all we think we need. You are here because you are the best cadets currently going through the academy. Every single cadet here is on track to becoming a brilliant and skilled technician, but right now, we need the best of the best. I want every single request electronically and by the end of the day. No exceptions. Those chosen will be reassigned tomorrow morning." He called out, making sure everyone heard.

"Dismissed."

He finished speaking and turned to walk back inside, dismissing them. Jessie immediately made a beeline for Cam, who was being questioned by about a dozen people asking for recommendations. As she got closer she heard him say loudly.

"I am NOT giving Marshall Pentecost any recommendations! I don't care who you are, or what you do, it isn't fair if I do. Clear?"

Jessie watched as the downhearted hopefuls got turned away and waited until everyone had dispersed before going up to Cam. He looked at her, smiling slightly as she walked over, a stupid grin on her face.

"Did you HEAR that?!" She practically screamed from excitement. Cam made a motion that told her to shut up.

"Yeah, but I can only recommend you electronically, same if you wanted to apply for it. You heard him Jess, he won't accept you if you say it to his face." Cam warned. He knew the young girl too well.

"Yeah, I know, I heard! So what are you waiting for?" She replied impatiently.

"I can't do it now Jess. I have to go over to Striker and assess where they need the most help, okay? Then I'll do it." Cam promised.

"What?! Cam, some people will have gone straight from this to send in requests, and you know Marshall, he'll just look at the first ones he sees and choose them!" Jessie persisted, begging him.

"Jess! I'll do it as soon as I can okay! You're lucky I'm doing it at all!" Cam snapped before walking away.

Jessie stared after him. He was right of course. She didn't come first all the time.

But she wanted this so badly - it was the second best thing after becoming a pilot. She sighed and ran a hand through her tangled hair, looking up at the now empty balcony where the Marshall had just stood. What was she supposed to do? If she didn't do something soon, she wouldn't even be considered.

Of course, she could just put in an electronic application, and wait for Cam's recommendation to be sent later.

But she knew that the Marshall would've probably already chosen the applicants and might not even check to see if anyone else had even applied before Cam's note came through.

She clenched her jaw and bunched her fists.

She had to talk to Marshall. What was the worst that could happen, apart for him to reject her and tell her to apply electronically? She could always just pretend that she hadn't been at the meeting and didn't know about it.

Turning on her heel, she blundered out of the Shatterdome, through the bulkhead doors locking it off from the rest of the base and down the corridor towards the Marshall's office. She hurried past groups of people milling around between shifts, but she ignored them, and pushed through them forcing herself to act before she thought about it and started to second guess herself.

Rounding the corner, she saw him standing outside his door with some guy who looked vaguely familiar with a bulldog. This was her chance. She knew she had to do it now or she'd start over thinking and it would put her off... that was pretty much her attitude to everything. She took a deep breath to try to steady her racing heart, before walking over to the two men.

She had never spoken to the Marshall before, afraid that if she did she'd draw too much attention to herself. Cam warned her regularly not to do that. The truth was, was that she was to young to be working in the Dome. The minimum age was 20, which was the age you were in your second year training as an engineer, so at just 18, she would be in unthinkable trouble. Plus she wasn't technically in the Academy programme. She was only here anyway because she didn't have anywhere else to go. Thank goodness she was though, or she would never have gotten the opportunities she had. When Cam picked her up from Sydney just over 8 years ago, after the Kaiju attack that promoted the creation of Striker Eureka, he took her under his engineering wing and with a few small lies and string pulling, he snuck her in to work with the Jaegers. And she loved every second of it.

She took another deep breath, and cleared her throat.

"Excuse me, Marshall Pentecost?" She said in a clear, strong voice to get his attention. He looked up from the conversation he was having with the other man, and glanced her up and down. She stood at ease, being well familiar with the regulations and customs of this army-styled base.

"Can I help you?" he asked in his distinct English accent.

Go for it.

"Yes, sir, actually you can. My name is Jessie Evans, I'm one of the cadets currently working on Cherno Alpha." She introduced herself to the two men. The one with the bulldog was looking at her with a small smile on his face.

Weird.

"I heard about the need for extra engineers to work on the repairs on Striker Eureka, and I just wanted to say that if you needed any extra hands, I'd be more than willing to help out." She managed to say without any "ums" or "so" or anything else she was usually guilty of muttering when she babbled. She also managed to stop herself from babbling. She was impressed with that. The Marshall was looking at her with a puzzled look on his face

"Miss Evans?" he asked.

"Yes sir?"

"How old are you?"

Jessie's heart started pounding.

"20, sir" she lied.

"I see. And tell me Miss Evans, can you follow instructions?" he asked with a quizzical look. Jessie wasn't sure if this was a trick question or not.

"...yes, sir." She answered.

"So when I said that I wanted electronic requests, what did you think that meant?"

Oh dear...

"...well sir, I thought that...I mean, I wasn't actually..."

"No, Miss Evans, you clearly didn't think at all considering that you are currently standing in front of me." He scorned.

"If you couldn't follow a simple order such as sending an electronic request, I don't see how I could trust you to work on our most prized Jaeger, and to follow instructions. Do I make myself clear?" He said with immense control, stepping forward and hissing through his teeth in her ear. It was all Jessie could do to not to flinch.

It wasn't that she rejected authority, or that she was an anarchist, but it really ticked her off when people spoke to her like that and expected her to just take it with no comment. She felt a small pool of anger build up in her stomach, and she met his intense stare evenly.

"With respect, Sir, I am by a mile the most capable cadet currently working..."

"Miss Evans!"

She held her tongue, but also held his gaze for a moment, feeling furious inside. How dare he? She couldn't believe how rude he was. Why couldn't he see she was only being eager? Wasn't eagerness supposed to be a good thing?

He stared back at her, his dark eyes boring into her blue ones, and she eventually gave in, and glanced away.

"...yes, sir." She whispered, knowing she'd properly blown it.

"Good. Now back to work." Marshall said, straightening up and turning back to the other man, dismissing her. Taking her dismissal as gracefully as she could, she turned and headed back to the Shatterdome, feeling tears prick at her eyes.

She was an idiot. She hadn't felt anger towards the Marshall, she'd felt anger towards herself. Why did she have to screw it up all the time. Why in Gods name had she thought that was a good thing to do?! If she'd listened to Cam, he would've recommended her. Of course she would've gotten a transfer. But no, she had to always do what she thought was best and now her dreams lay in a pile at her feet.

She gritted her teeth. She was so annoyed at herself. Being an engineer on the Jaegers second best to actually being a pilot. She'd long given up on that dream, as she'd discovered that she wasn't Drift compatible, so there was no way she'd ever be able to pilot one of the amazing machines. Working with them was what she'd had to settle for.

And she just killed any chance that she may have had of working on the best Jaeger there is. She slammed her hand against the control panel to open the doors into the Shatterdome in annoyance. Why was she such an idiot? Not only had she embarrassed herself, she had made herself seem insanely stuck up and pompous.

She groaned from embarrassment as she walked through the doors when they swung open. She felt herself blushing scarlet, and she willed the ground to swallow her up there and then. She barely had a second to look up before she smacked into someone, jolting her shoulder. Mumbling an apology she stepped back to see who it was she'd collided with. She looked up and saw the familiar face of Charlie...or Felix.

Charlie and Felix Leigh were the twins she worked along side with on Cherno, and Jessie could only tell them apart by the fact that Felix's short dark brown hair was very slightly darker than Charlie's. There were always mindlessly optimistic, no matter what the situation, and were like big brothers to Jessie. She was convinced you couldn't meet more lovely people. They were both intelligent, charismatic, and 100% training and Drift compatible with each other, which was a rare gift. There were definitely in the line up for Jaeger pilots, despite being just 21, they were already a formidable pair. Usually, Jessie enjoyed their company immensely, but she really couldn't be bothered with them right now. She wanted to go and die from embarrassment in peace.

"Hey Jess!" Felix said cheerily, flashing her a dazzling smile.

Really not right now.

"Charlie and I were just looking for you." He told her as his twin jogged up beside him.

"Oh, you found her then?" Charlie asked, smiling at Jessie.

"Yep, she crashed straight into me." Felix replied.

Jessie smiled as best as she could up at the two boys, despite knowing what was coming. She could tell Charlie was about to use the dreaded nickname..

"So, Jevans, where you been?" He grinned as he dropped in the hated nickname and as Jessie barged past both him and his brother, smile dropped.

"Don't call me that Charlie. We've had this discussion before, it's like me calling you guys... Cheigh and Fleigh!" She stifled a giggle at Fleigh, especially considering Felix was so tall he did everything but resemble a flea.

"Aw, c'mon Jess, lighten up!" Felix laughed, throwing an arm around her shoulder.

"Yeah! You going for the move to Striker?" Charlie asked, wrapping his opposite arm round her neck.

"We just sent in our recommendations."

"Pfft, no. No way I'm gonna get it now." She muttered, cringing at her own stupidity.

"Jevans, what did you do this time?" Felix asked her at exactly the same time as Charlie. She shuddered from their creepy twin-ness.

"What did I do? I was myself, that's what I did. I am a total arse. I am a waste of a human being." She groaned melodramatically.

"What are you on about?" Charlie frowned, glancing at his brother, who shrugged.

"Right, well you know how he said he wanted electronic applications? Well I asked to his face and I basically told him I was the best for the job and I totally pissed him off and now my life is over." She explained grudgingly. The twins pulled her to a stop and stared at her.

"You...you sassed Pentecost?!" Felix said with mock horror. Jessie let out a laugh.

"Guys, it's not funny! I want to crawl into a hole and die, it was so embarrassing!" She whined. This was met by a onslaught of praise from the twins, and they were talking so fast to her and at each other that she began to wonder if they were even speaking English anymore. Still with their arms draped around her neck they began to talk over her head in something that sounded vaguely English, but they were speaking so quickly she couldn't make out anything they were saying. Situation normal really. She'd heard them talk like this before of course - their little twin speak language. She rolled her eyes and ducked out from under their lanky arms and started walking backwards so she could face them.

"Guys, English please! I don't speak twin-freaky-language." She grumbled with a vague hand gesture. The twins gave her their trademark matching cheeky grins, and she sighed before she turned round and kept walking a few steps in front of them.

However, rather than seeing Cherno when she turned back round, she saw brown, and a heartbeat later connected with someone, smacking straight into their back, making them stumble forward.

She had to stop meeting people like this.

Grabbing her orientation, she leapt forward to help the person up.

"Damn, I'm sorry I didn't see you.." She began, offering a hand to the man to help him up. He looked up at her and she recognised him as one of the pilots of Striker Eureka, the younger one.

"... Sir." She added automatically, even though she didn't even know his name. Chuck glared up at her, and pushed himself back up onto his feet, ignoring her offered hand, and looking over her and the twins, standing behind her with their arms crossed.

"Who are you?" He asked her. She looked around uneasily before opening her mouth to reply. It wasn't her voice that he heard though, it was his father's.

"Miss Evans!" He called, coming over to the four with Chuck's dog, Max. Jessie looked over at Herc, a flash of recognition in her eyes.

"Sir." She acknowledged.

"Herc Hansen." he introduced himself, extending a hand in greeting. Gingerly, Jessie took the offered hand, shaking it.

"Jessie Evans... well, I mean you already knew that..." She replied, somewhat apologetically. Chuck looked between the two.

"You've met?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"Well, not officially. I just happened to be there when Jessie here decided to grow a pair and ask Pentecost to his face for a promotion to Striker. Pretty damn brave thing to do." He praised her, smiling at the memory. Jessie looked slightly taken aback. She hadn't thought of it that way, and wasn't expecting to hear someone speak so...openly about the Marshall.

"I hadn't thought of it like that, sir..." She muttered honestly, knotting her hands and looking down, trying to cover her blushing face. Herc chuckled.

"Yeah, basically. Still pretty impressive." He concurred. He looked over at Chuck expectantly.

"Well, considering how rude my boy is, I suppose I'll introduce him for you." He grumbled.

"Jessie, this is my son Chuck. We're Striker's pilots."

"Yeah, I guessed." She said, offering a hand to Chuck. He looked at her with a puzzled look on his face.

"Your accents..." She explained, dropping her ignored hand.

"Ah yes. Can't help noticing yours too - what part of Australia you from?" Herc replied for Chuck, who, to Jessie, was coming across as a social un-butterfly and secondly to the Marshall, the rudest person she'd ever met.

"Uh... Newcastle, just north of Sydney, sir." She answered, surprised that Herc was making an effort to talk to someone as unimportant as her, let alone be friendly. She got the feeling that Herc was way more down to earth than his position might represent.

"Ah, I know it well." he said with a smile, before glancing over her shoulder. Jessie turned to see that the twins had kept walking, but slowly, looking back at them. When they saw her look, they snapped their heads round and pretended not to be interested. Smiling, Jessie looked back and saw that Herc was also smiling.

"Looks like I'm keeping you. It was nice talking to you Miss Evans... I might have a word with Marshall about your transfer... took some courage to stand up to him like that." He praised, giving her a nod. Jessie's heart stopped, and she stared at him for a moment, slightly in shock, before it picked up at twice the speed. She held back a huge grin.

"Thank you, sir..." She replied, controlled, before excusing herself and running after the twins. Catching up with them, she jumped up onto Felix's shoulders, squealing with excitement. He stumbled, caught out, and she released him and dropped to the floor.

"What was all that about?" Charlie asked, once again, draping an arm around her neck.

"That was Hercules and Chuck Hansen?" Felix added. Jessie was still grinning insanely.

"Yes it was, annnnnnnnd he's gonna recommend me to Marshall for a transfer!" She said in a singsong voice.

"Are you serious?!" Charlie sounded shocked looking over his shoulder at the retreating two pilots, slack jawed.

"Man, how do we get a recommendation?!"

"Oh please, you're gonna be pilots next Kaiju attack anyway, so shut up." Jessie retorted. The three dropped into a slightly awkward silence, all of them knew Jessie couldn't pilot a Jaeger, and they tried to refrain from even mentioning it. Charlie and Felix exchanged a glance, and Felix frowned, looking down to her and elbowing her slightly in the side. She looked up at him.

"Race you." He smiled cheekily, raising an eyebrow. Before either of the brothers had chance to reply, she giggled and raced off, jogging across the Shatterdome back to Cherno. The twins exchanged a pleasantly surprised glance before racing after her, all three laughing.