Grace was knocking on Ivory's door at six am sharp. "Hill are you awake? We're on the flight line in five minutes."
"I'm up, I'm up." Ivory shouted to the closed door, hurriedly dividing her hair in half and securing it away from her face in two plaits. She hastily knotted her bandana around her head, swearing under her breath. She reached down and ruffled Tigger's fur then grabbed her rucksack, leaving her room.
"I brought you this." Grace said, trying to keep the tone of her voice careless as she passed Ivory an apple.
"Are you sure Quaritch hasn't poisoned it?"
"Don't, I still feel sick at the memory of all that." Grace muttered, marching down the corridor to the Armor Bay.
"Aren't you driving your Avatar today?" Ivory asked, rubbing her eyes. Even though it had been nearing four in the morning when Grace had told Ivory that she would be going with herself and Jake into Pandora later she was sure that Grace had told her she would be flying in alone with Trudy.
"Yes."
"So why are you coming with me?" The shorter woman bit into her apple.
Grace didn't answer. Instead she approached Maya with a businesslike expression on her face. "Chacon?" She called.
Trudy jumped down from one of Maya's wings, shaking her brown hair back out of her eyes. "Ready whenever you are."
"Meet us in the forest, dead centre." Was all Grace said before she turned and walked away.
Grace crouched down on the rain forest floor, now in her Avatar body. "Norm come look at this." She reached out with one gigantic blue hand and gently brushed away soil, exposing a tangle of root tendrils.
Jake groaned and scouted ahead, a bored look on his Avatar's bright blue face. "Oh, shit." He said hoarsely, stopping short. A guttural snarl tore from the towering thanator that was crouching in the undergrowth, it's rows of razor sharp fangs on display.
Ivory looked up from rummaging through her supply pack and bit back a scream, her hand flashing to the gun that was strapped to her thigh.
"Run, run!" Grace shouted. "Don't shoot it's skin is too thick!"
Three tonnes of thanator launched itself into the air, landing so hard in front of Jake that the ground shook, baring its fangs with a lethal hiss.
Grace yanked Ivory's wrist. "Run you idiot!" She gave the shorter woman a shove. "Get out of here, it'll kill you!"
Ivory raced after Norm who had already turned tail and run away.
Ivory, Norm and Grace were crammed together in the back of Trudy's Samson trying to spot Jake in the forest from up in the air. They had searched for four hours after the thanator had run off with Jake's Avatar in his mouth but no one had seen him since. Norm and Grace hadn't yet link transferred back to their normal bodies so there was even less space in the back than usual. Ivory held one of the handles tightly as she hung out of the aircraft's door, squinting at the forest that was sweeping past beneath them.
"Can anyone see anything?" Grace yelled over the roar of the rotors, lowering her binoculars momentarily.
"No." Ivory shouted from her side of the aircraft, lurching slightly as Trudy banked Maya to the left.
"Shit."
"I'm sorry guys I'm going to have to call it, I can't run night ops, it's the colonels orders." Trudy called, adjusting her headset, taking one hand off of the controls. "He's just going to have to wait until morning."
"He won't make it until morning." Grace muttered, staring at the darkening forest as the Samson banked hard, thundering away towards the setting sun.
"Grace are you okay?" Ivory asked, stepping into the lab. Ivory had gotten back half an hour ago but she'd gone for a shower and thrown her sweat soaked clothes in one of the gigantic communal washing machines.
"Oh yeah." Grace spat, now back in her normal body. "I'm fucking fantastic," she swung an arm around and punched the wall hard.
"Hey!" Ivory darted forwards and caught hold of Grace's fist, turning it over in her hand. Blood was oozing from the redheads split knuckles, leaving blossoming red stains on the sleeve of her white lab coat. "Breaking your hand isn't going to bring Jake back."
Grace yanked her hand back, shaking it experimentally. "It isn't broken." She said shortly.
"You've still fucked your knuckles up."
"It doesn't hurt." The older woman said insistently.
"Well I'm cleaning it anyway." Ivory bent down and picked up the rucksack that she'd chucked into the corner of the lab when she'd gotten back to Hell's Gate. She unzipped it and dug through the medical supplies until she found antiseptic wipes and a roll of bandages. "Now sit down and calm down."
"Don't tell me what to do." Grace growled.
Ivory rolled her eyes and took hold of Grace's hand again, cleaning the blood off of her knuckles and tossing the stained wipe in the general direction of the bin. She made short work of bandaging Grace's hand then let go, watching it drop back to the woman's side. Ivory threw the wipe into the bin and swept the supplies back into her rucksack then sank down onto a chair.
Six hours later Ivory was still in the corner of the lab, now hunched over her sketchbook. Grace was still standing, her fists clenched against the desk and her head bowed. The dark haired woman looked up and swallowed, her eyes travelling over the arcs of Grace's shoulder blades.
"His brain is still active at least." Max said, moving closer to his computer screen.
Grace snorted and lit another cigarette, exhaling a long stream of grey smoke.
"Can you tell where he is from that?" Ivory asked, rooting through her pencils until she found the terracotta.
Max shook his head. "No but at least we know he's alive-" he broke off. "There's been a change in his brain signals."
Grace jerked to attention immediately. "What?"
Ivory snapped her sketchbook shut and got up, walking over to Max and bending over his shoulder to look at the screen.
Jake's clamshell finally came open.
Grace snatched a flashlight from the top of her desk and shone it into Jake's eyes, slapping his cheek. Together Grace and Max helped Jake up, their hands warm against his clammy skin.
"You aren't going to believe where my Avatar is." Jake grinned.
"Where is it?" Grace demanded, stepping back to give Jake the space he needed to get back into his wheelchair.
"In the village. I met one of the Na'vi. A girl. Nay... Nehy..."
"Neytiri?" The redhead interrupted.
Jake nodded. "Her. The Omaticaya know I'm not one of them, they know I'm using an Avatar. They want to study me, see how humans work. Neytiri is supposed to teach me how to live like one of the natives."
Grace yanked a chair out from under the desk and sat down heavily, her mouth was half open as though she wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.