Ivory Hill had spent the majority of her adult life running. Throughout her twenties and the first part of her thirties it was from bombs and bullets. Now, at thirty six years old Ivory was running from something that she could never truly escape fr...
Ivory was spread out on the floor of the lab trying to fit a set of crunches into her limited free time.
"Do you actually enjoy that?" Grace asked, appearing in the doorway.
Ivory didn't answer, wiping the beads of sweat that were doing their best to drip down her forehead and into her eyes. She sat up, gently pushing Tigger away from her face as he tried to lick the droplets of sweat off.
"Wait." Grace said quickly.
"I've not got the time for this." Ivory brushed past the redhead, her cat at her heels.
"Ivy-"
"Grace just leave me alone."
"What?" A rare flicker of hurt crossed Grace's face before she could stop it. Despite having a hot temper Ivory's anger rarely lasted long, she usually held a grudge for an hour at the most.
"Leave me alone."
"I didn't mean what I said," Grace paused, trying to remember what Norm had told her. "It was a... bitchy thing to say. I just... wanted to help." The redhead grimaced as she heard how feeble her reasoning sounded.
Ivory looked unconvinced.
Grace swallowed and tucked a curl behind her ear, searching for her own words. "Look, there's no excuse for what I said and I'm sorry. Really. I know you're not confusing me with Olivia. I... I wouldn't have let things continue between us if you were." The woman paused. "How many times do I ever say sorry to people?"
Ivory raised her eyebrows, her mind returning to the numerous times that Grace had screamed at Quaritch and his grunts and never uttered a single word of apology, not that they deserved one.
"Exactly. So you know I mean it."
"Maybe." The dark haired woman shrugged and shed her sweat soaked T-shirt, plodding off in the direction of the shower, Tigger scampering after her.
Grace sank down into one of the empty chairs. She had fucked up. Big time. And she wasn't sure how she was going to fix it. She let her head drop into her hands, barely noticing as a test tube fell from the table and shattered on the floor.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Ivory padded out of the bathroom, her towel clenched loosely in her fist. She hung it up then pulled her phone out of the pocket of her shorts, switching it back on. As soon as it's screen lit up the mobile began to chime noisily with a slew of apology messages from Grace. The woman ignored the texts and checked the time. It was almost midnight. She slid her phone back into her pocket and went down the hall and into the kitchen. She pulled a cupboard open.
"Hey."
Ivory jumped violently. "Jesus Christ!"
Jake wheeled himself away from the fridge and dropped a lump of cheese onto the table where he had been busily constructing an enormous sandwich. "You still pissed at Grace?"
"Yep."
"You were a dick to me when we first met but you didn't mean it."
"Yeah that was because of-"
"Because of the shit that went down in Afghanistan, right?"
Ivory nodded. "It was a long way to go for a new tattoo."
"You went all the way to Afghanistan to get that drag-?" he broke off, his eyes flickering over the ugly scar on the right side of the woman's face. "Oh." He snorted. "That's nothin' I went all the way to Venezuela because I got fed up of bein' able to walk."
Ivory cracked a smile.
"Aside from how fucked up war has made us do you get what I'm trying to say? The Na'vi are Grace's version of Afghanistan. She's a dick because she's fucked up over the clan, you're a dick because you're fucked up over a war."
Ivory stood still, her mouth half open, processing what Jake had just said.
"Don't look so shocked I can say smart stuff sometimes." Jake muttered.
"You got any of that cheese left?"
Jake cut off a generous wedge and passed it to Ivory.
"Thanks." She grabbed two slices of bread from the packet on the table and made a hasty sandwich.
"Are you going to bother chewing that?"
"I am chewing." Ivory answered, her voice muffled by her sandwich.
"Just don't choke before you've had the chance for make up sex."
Ivory rolled her eyes expressively. "I'm not going to do that."
Jake raised an eyebrow.
"I mean it. I'm tired and I'm not in the mood."
The man shrugged his shoulders. "If you say so."
"You should get to bed." Ivory swallowed the last of her sandwich with difficulty and left the kitchen.
The dark haired woman paused as passed the lab. The light was still on. She pushed the door open. "Grace?"
"Ivy?" Grace whipped around so fast that her curls obscured her vision. She shook her hair out of her eyes impatiently.
"I forgive you."
"You-?"
Ivory dodged the broken glass that covered the floor beside the desk and moved to stand beside Grace. "Yes."
"Ivy I-"
"Leave it, I'm tired."
Grace pressed her cheek against Ivory's scarred shoulder, watching as the woman closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. "Do you want to go to bed?"
"Mm."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Grace and Ivory lay with their legs tangled together. The night was unusually hot and Ivory had long since shed her tank top.
Grace's brushed a hand over the base of Ivory's rib cage, her breath catching in her throat as she realised the other woman wasn't wearing a bra. She slid a tentative hand upwards.
"Not tonight." The dark haired woman murmured sleepily.
"Okay." Grace said easily, letting her hand drop back to Ivory's waist, pulling her girlfriend close.
Tigger forced himself between the women, determined to be included.
"How did you raise such a needy animal?" The redhead asked.
"Because he belonged to Olivia. I've got to put the love I have for her somewhere. I don't even like cats except Tigger."
Grace rubbed a thumb over the scar on Ivory's face, kicking the blanket off.
