Dishonourable Discharge: Grace Augustine

55

"It's why you love me."

Grace sat at her desk, her brow creased as she examined the mountain of paperwork in front of her. She was so fucking sick of Earth. Nothing seemed to be going right for her. Her husband had left her, she was stuck in a dead end job and she was watching what little was left of the forests getting swallowed up by fire. She shoved the paperwork aside and picked up the leaflet on Pandora.

Ivory staggered upwards, struggling to ignore the sharp ringing in her ears. "Olivia?" She screamed, barely able to hear her own voice. The woman stumbled over the ruined ground, trying to ignore the pain that was exploding all over her skin. She pressed a shaking hand to the side of her face, her heart dropping as it came away slick with blood. "Olivia?"

Grace was up against the wall of Parker's office, her breath coming in gasps. His large hands gripped her waist, wrapped around her hipbones tightly, too tightly. She was too caught up in the moment to care, her hands tangled in his short brown hair.

Ivory' s hands were shaking as she pulled her knife from her belt loops. She couldn't take it any more, every time she closed her eyes all she could see was what was left of Olivia's body lying in the dirt. It hadn't seemed real, they'd been laughing just moments ago at something that Rodríguez had said the night before. But it had been real, the blood that had smeared Ivory's face was enough to tell her that. She didn't want to live with the image of her dead best friend permanently ingrained into her retinas for a second longer. She dug the knife in just below her eyebrow and dragged it down her face, too focused on the relief to feel the pain.

Grace sat inside the bio lab, looking out of the window.

"Grace?" Parker asked, sitting down beside the redhead, pressing his cheek against her shoulder.

"What?" Grace tore her gaze away from the forest.

"We need to talk."

"What's the problem?" Grace asked warily.

"Quaritch is worried that your work is a liability. He doesn't want you to go out into the field without a trained medic."

"I've been doing it for years, why is it an issue now?"

Parker shrugged helplessly. "I don't know." He loosened his tie. "I think he's trying to make it clear that he's in charge."

Grace snorted. "Is this Quaritch trying to 'assert his dominance'?"

Parker laughed. "I think so. We put out a job application back on Earth and Quaritch chose a woman. She's ex army with plenty of field experience."

"I don't want some idiot with a gun following me around every time I go outside."

"I tried Grace, I really did." Parker said earnestly.

"Thanks Park." Grace leant against him, her head dropping onto his shoulder.

Ivory sat in the living room of her parents house.

"What do you mean you've applied for a job on Pandora?" Kiko asked, staring at her stepdaughter in disbelief.

"I can't be here anymore. Pandora... it's the last thing I can think of."

"Come on Ivy, there's got to be something that you want to do here." Atsuki took the piece of paper that his daughter was holding out to him.

"Dad I love you but I just- I can't. They've accepted me. I'm going."