Dishonourable Discharge: Grace Augustine

4

Ivory was hunched over a desk in Grace's lab, drawing in a large, slightly squashed sketch pad. According to her wristwatch it wasn't long after midnight. She paused for a moment, frowning at her drawing before reaching into her tin of coloured pencils and picking up the blue, filling in one of the hastily sketched leaves. The laboratory door creaked open and she jumped, the colour veering out of the neat lines that she had drawn. Tigger leapt up, chasing the pencil that had fallen from her hand, batting it across the desk with his paw.

Grace took her cigarette out of her mouth. "What are you still doing up?"

Ivory shrugged, keeping her eyes on the sketchbook in front of her. "I wasn't tired."

Grace raised her eyebrows and bent over the woman's left shoulder. "The binary sunshine's leaves are a darker shade of blue than that." She reached into the tin of pencils that Ivory had put on the desk beside her. "Here. This one is the closest match." She said stiffly.

"Thank you." Ivory gave the woman a small smile. "What are you doing up?"

"I wanted to work on my next book and this is the only time when I don't have people bothering me."

"Ah."

"That being said I'd appreciate it if you could leave." Grace added, stubbing her cigarette out on one of the ashtrays that were dotted around the room.

Ivory picked up her sketchbook and put her pencils back in the tin, shutting the lid. "You know having some manners wouldn't kill you Grace, being the head of the science program doesn't mean that you can give everyone shit and expect them to put up with it." She snapped, shoving the door of the lab open harder than she meant to, cringing slightly as its hinges screamed in protest. "Come on Tigger." The cat jumped off the desk and followed her out of the room, its ginger tail held high. Ivory had developed a short temper around the time that she had been thrown out of the army and it had stuck with her ever since.

By the time Ivory had reached her bedroom it was almost one in the morning. She stowed her sketchbook and pencils away in her rucksack, jerking the zip shut. The woman shed her day clothes and pulled on her pyjamas. Ivory sat down on the edge of her bed, looking around her room. Ivory had only been given her permanent room that morning but she had already put her few personal effects out on her bedside table. She was living in a wing with the other scientists and medics. The Nerd Corridor was what Trudy, the amiable pilot who had shown her to her room had referred to it as. In Hell's Gate no one ever seemed to refer to any parts of the spaceport by their proper names.

The woman reached out and picked up one of the gilt photo frames that she had carefully placed by her bed. Her father, stepmother and teenage self smiled at her from the picture. They had their arms draped around each others shoulders, the grins on their faces broad and easy. Ivory could still remember the day that she had told her parents that she was leaving for Pandora. They had gone around in circles with tears, fights and desperate promises but nothing could have changed Ivory's mind. She had to get away from Earth and everything that had gone on there.

Her parents had taken her to the base on the day of her flight to Pandora and even though it had been six years ago it felt like they had only been begging her to stay on Earth the day before. The dark haired woman put the photo frame back on her beside table and briefly ran her fingers over the top of the other frame that was on there before pulling her hand away, rubbing a thumb over the engravings on her dog tags instead.

Ivory got up and turned out the light then pushed her duvet back, getting into bed. She reached over and switched on the lamp. At her feet Tigger miaowed plaintively. "Come on then." Ivory lifted up the covers on one side and let the cat wriggle under them. Tigger settled into her side, pushing his paws against her torso. The woman reached down under the covers and ran a hand through the cats short orange fur, doing her best to stay awake as he rubbed his soft cheek on her hand.

A/N: I can't believe it's taken me this long to write a gay fanfiction when I'm gay in real life. I'm so paranoid of messing this fanfiction up somehow or ending up unhappy with the plot that I keep putting off writing it but I need to not do that because if I do end up disliking it I can just start over