~~~Superstes~~~UNDERGOING MAJOR EDITING

For a while.

The starry sky had grown dark and the trees below us were glowing. Neytiri and I soared back home, leaving a few of the warriors to scout the area for the night. The fight was somewhat over, and I was eager to see my kids. 

The intercom around my neck released a couple scratchy noises before letting Dr. Max's voice come in. "Jake? Jake, can you hear me?"

I pressed the button and glanced at Neytiri, who listened with concern. "Yeah, I hear you. What's wrong?" 

The Dr. made an unsure sound. "Nothing's really wrong, but we've concluded Neteyam has conductive deafness."

"Can you give me a little more detail?" 

"It just means that he's got head trauma, and it manifested in hearing loss. It's not completely unfixable, though--his auditory sense should come back within a couple of weeks, maybe. If it doesn't, there's a surgery that should help." 

"Why don't you just go ahead and do the operation, then?" 

"Because it might not be necessary. If his hearing doesn't come back, we'll assume his ossicular bones are dislocated, and we'll try to repair them. But for all we know, they could be fine, and as his head heals, his ears will, too." 

After a moment of silence, he speaks again, in a warning tone. "But Jake?" 

"Yes?" 

"None of this is a guarantee. Neteyam isn't a human, therefore, his sense of hearing is much stronger and unpredicted. If none of this works, we'll have to do a lot of digging in order to help him. We've never had to deal with Na'vi deafness before." 

"Noted." 

As I begin to hang up, Dr. Max stops me. "I'm not done. There's something else--we've finally got the results from the spinal scan you told us to do." 

At this, guilt gnaws at my insides. "Okay." 

"And... I'm not sure how to explain this, but the bullet went through right next to his upper spine, and it did some damage, but his bones-- they grew back into their correct order. Like, fixed themselves." 

"How do you know? How does that work?" 

"We've known Na'vi bones are almost indestructible, but this is next level. There's a clear image proving that his spine was damaged, yet his body just doesn't seem to react. He's simply carrying on like nothing ever happened." 

"Isn't this a good thing? I mean, if he's still walking, then I'm happy." 

"Yeah, but this could cause severe pain in his back. He won't be paralyzed, but it's ignorant to utterly ignore something like this. We'll keep an eye on him, though." 

"Copy that, Max. Thank you." 

"No worries, Jake."

Arriving home felt different. I was going to see Neteyam, Kiri, Lo'ak, and Tuk for the first time with Quaritch being gone. I felt a huge, huge, indescribable weight being taken off my chest as we landed. I wouldn't have to worry about them being kidnapped, hunted, injured or killed by the maniac. We could go home, and not our home in high camp, but our village near the river, where Hell's gate was built, where Neytiri and I raised the kids. 

I gave each child the biggest hug I'd think they'd ever had. Lo'ak embraced it, but then he complained and pushed away. Tuk just laughed, Kiri did the same, and Neteyam was silent. Neytiri stayed close to them that night, simply relishing their presence. She told Tuk a story, and they huddled together in the corner of the mauri, speaking in whispers so that the older kids could sleep.