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...
The living room of Grace and Ivory's flat was a mess of boxes.
"How have we managed to accumulate so much crap?" Ivory grumbled as she tossed yet another one of Grace's science books into the keep pile.
"I needed that for a lecture," Grace insisted. "If you'd had it your way we'd have had a bed and nothing else."
"If we'd had it my way we'd have had a bed and a hot plate."
"Just a hot plate?" Grace raised an eyebrow.
"You can make anything on a hot plate, all you need is heat and the will to do it." Ivory said insistently. She picked up the woven doll that one of the Na'vi children had made Grace and put it to one side. "Do you think the Na'vi are going to want us back there?"
Grace stopped what she was doing and sighed. "I don't think they really have much choice, it's either working with us and having a better chance of living when whoever the hell it is arrives or leaving them on their own and hoping for the best."
"They're not completely on their own, they have Jake. And some of the other scientists were allowed to stay behind weren't they?"
"Jake can't do this by himself." The redhead's voice was firm as she picked up a binary sunshine leaf that had been preserved in resin, turning it over in her hands.
"I know, I wasn't suggesting that we shouldn't go, It's just he's more capable than you think he is."
Grace rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I don't want the Na'vi to go through whatever the hell is going to happen without me. I know they don't need me but I want to be there. I need to do whatever I can."
Ivory swallowed. "That's okay. As long as you remember that helping them again isn't going to change any of what happened at the school."
Grace flinched and dropped the binary sunshine onto the floor with a loud clatter. She swore under her breath and picked it back up, tossing it into a box at random without looking at her girlfriend. "I think we've done enough for tonight. I'm going to bed." The woman straightened up and disappeared off to the bedroom without a backward glance.
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Ivory crawled into bed beside Grace a little after three in the morning and slid an arm around her waist.
Grace opened her eyes and groaned. "What time is it?"
Ivory grabbed her phone from the bedside table and clicked it on. "Three twenty six." She tossed her mobile back onto the table.
"For god's sake," the redhead rolled over and buried her face into her pillow.
"I finished packing everything up. I think I'll miss earth in a weird way, not my job or anything like that but not having to be on high alert all the time for random animals eating my face is nice."
"I'm not going to miss earth at all. I hate it here."
"What don't you hate Grace?" Ivory murmured, pulling the duvet further up her body.
"Good point," Grace reached out and laced her fingers with Ivory's. "Do you feel like you're ready to leave?"
Ivory shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I didn't think we'd ever actually go back. I do like the environment on Pandora better though, being on Earth now makes it feel like all of my military training is useless, it's not like I could've ever gone back to the army after I got dishonourably discharged."
Grace smiled slightly. "At least we're going to be able to live without Quaritch dragging you off every five seconds for his stupid fucking obstacle courses," the woman paused. "I think I first started to have feelings for you after the obstacle course. You'd fallen asleep in the lab and I looked through your sketchbook. I was the only person you'd drawn in there and the picture was just so goddamn affectionate. You'd made me look... human. It was like you'd seen me as something other than the angry, bitter person I always am."
"You've never just been an angry and bitter person to me. Yes you can be angry and yes you are bitter about things that have happened but you're more than that. You're stubborn and determined and believe it or not you can be kind when you want to be. You went out of your way to help Jake even when he annoyed the hell out of you, you bend over backwards to make sure I'm happy and you've taken hours out of your life to do experiments with Norm. You're a good person Grace."
Grace flushed. "When did you get so mushy?" She asked, struggling to hide the smile that had appeared on her face.
"Shut up and let me say something nice to you."
"You're so charming Grace, whatever would I do without you?" Ivory asked sarcastically, reaching out to pet Tigger who had settled himself across Grace and Ivory's legs.
"Probably live in a flat with nothing but a mattress and a hot plate."
"And a fridge if I'm feeling fancy," Ivory added.
Grace laughed. "I love you. And I'm glad we're going back to Pandora together."
"I love you too. And I wouldn't ever let you go back without me, someone has to be there to stitch you up when you get shot." The dark haired woman grinned. "Too soon?"
Grace shook her head. "I don't think I'd have ever told you how I felt if I wasn't absolutely convinced that I was about to die."
Ivory bit her lip. "You scared the crap out of me. I don't know what I would've done if we hadn't got you back in time."
Grace shrugged her shoulders. "I had to take a risk and it backfired. Let's hope you're always there when I get shot then. Although I don't exactly relish the idea of getting shot for a third time."
"Norm, Trudy and Jake helped. I couldn't have done it without them."
Grace pressed a kiss on Ivory's cheek. "Let's get some sleep, it's going to be a long day tomorrow."
A/N: I binged XO, Kitty and I am OBSESSED. Also I started writing this chapter after a night out and finished it at a festival so I'm hoping it's coherent.
