Ivory sat by the window of Hell's Kitchen, watching the rain that was slowly trickling down the window pane. Every so often her hands strayed to the chain that hung around her neck, rubbing a thumb over the engravings on the tags. The watery sunlight that was trying desperately to penetrate the thick grey clouds flooded through the window, illuminating the thick white scar that ran from beneath her right eye to her jaw like an old knife slash. The sound of a tray thumping down onto the table top tore Ivory out of her thoughts.
"Hill?"
"Huh?" She turned to see the grey haired man who had given the safety brief a few days ago sitting on the bench beside her. "Quaritch, was it?"
The man nodded curtly. "I want you and Doctor Augustine to go out once you've finished breakfast and look at the octomushrooms. We're running short on supplies at the moment and the next shuttle isn't due for another week, we need to find out wether we can eat them. Doctor Augustine has already been briefed so just do what she tells you to."
Ivory nodded. "Yes sir." She stabbed at the chopped banana on the plate in front of her. The rehydrated food just didn't taste as good as the fruit that she remembered from Earth.
"So," Quaritch continued. "Where are you from? It didn't say on your file."
"Kentucky."
"I know that, I mean where are you from?"
"America?"
"No; that isn't what I mean." Quaritch ran a hand through his closely cropped grey hair, gesturing to Ivory's face with one large hand.
"Well I hope you can gather what I mean by this," Doctor Augustine cut in, looking up from her toast "Fuck off."
"Don't think that you can get away with speaking to me like that. Being the head of the Avatar program doesn't make you untouchable." Quaritch swept his leftovers onto his tray and scraped the bench back, walking away from the table. "And get me that information, Augustine." He shouted over his shoulder.
"Thanks," Ivory picked up her mug of coffee and took a sip, shuddering at the bitter taste.
Grace shrugged, an indifferent expression on her face. "I'm fed up with his shit," she explained, shaking her red hair back out of her face.
"Haven't you-?" Ivory began.
Grace cut the other woman off. "Look Hill, don't take it personally but you're my colleague, I'm not going to end up becoming friends with an ex jarhead so ditch the small talk." The woman removed a cigarette from her pocket.
Ivory pushed her tray away and stood up, sweeping her black hair into a ponytail. "I'll see you in the lab then."
Ivory collapsed into one of the chairs that Grace had shoved under the lab tables, putting her head in her hands. She sighed heavily. Tigger leapt onto the desk, sitting down heavily on a thick stack of papers annotated in the cramped, erratic handwriting. "Tiggy, get off them before Grace sees." The woman reached out and tried to pick up the cat.
The lab door swung open, banging noisily against the wall.
"Jesus Christ!" Ivory almost dropped the disgruntled cat in shock.
"Nope, just me. Sorry to disappoint you." Grace said drily. "Get that cat away from my samples."
The dark haired woman reluctantly lowered Tigger to the ground. "There. He's nowhere near now."
The redhead gave a curt nod. "Good. Now come on, get an exopack and we'll head out."
Ivory bent down for the box that had been hastily shoved under a table, her dog tags swinging gently.
A/N: There isn't going to be any consistent word count for these chapters because I've decided not to hold myself to a word count any more because it sucked the fun out of writing.