Disclaimer: I do not profit from this story and all rights to characters belong to their creators.
"I'm really going to miss that."
He chuckled and wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead. "I'm glad to be of service, Dr. Augustine."
Grace reached over to her bedside table and took a cigarette out of the pack. The white sheet fell to her waist as she fumbled around. "Where's my fucking lighter?"
He turned on his side to face her and propped himself up on his arm. With his other hand he held out her lighter. "Allow me." He flicked the lighter on.
Grace gave him an amused look, the one that he always found so sexy, and lit the cigarette. She took a long drag and collapsed back onto the bed.
He chuckled and handed her the lighter. "Would it be too optimistic for me to hope you're not going to smoke on Pandora?"
"Why would I quit? I'll be making all the rules there, I'll smoke all I want."
"If you make all the rules, then make one that says your boyfriend gets to go with you and ensure you don't get into any trouble with the locals." He ran his hand up and down Grace's arm, the backs of his fingers gently grazing the swell of her breast.
Grace put out the cigarette, turned to face him, and cupped his face in her hand. "I wish you could come." She paused and moved her hand to rest on his chest. "You know I'll stay if you ask me to. I'll stay here with you and I can keep working in the lab, we can, I don't know, get a dog or something, we can have a great life."
He covered her hand with his own. "Pandora is our life, you have to go. And don't worry, in a few years I'll be right there with you."
Grace let out a defeated laugh. "Yeah, 18 years from now."
"We'll both spend six of those years in cryo and you won't notice time passing when you're on Pandora anyway. You'll be too busy hiking the Hallelujah Mountains, taking endless samples all over the planet, exploring everything your pretty brown eyes can see, you won't even think about me." He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "But you could think about easing the restrictions for the Avatar Program so I can get in and through training faster . . ."
She laughed, a bright, full laugh, and pushed herself away from him. "You, Dr. Thomas Sully, are incorrigible." A moment passed as Grace stared at the shadows on the ceiling and twined her fingers with Tom's.
"Don't be nervous, and don't feel guilty about going, either. You are an incredible xenobotanist and you are ready for this mission. And I'll be fine here. And we'll be fine, we'll perfect the science of the long distance relationship. We'll send video messages and I might write an old fashioned letter or even send you a care package or two. Then, before you know it, I'll be on Pandora with you."
"Oh, that reminds me!" She quickly got out of bed and walked out of the room and Tom sat up a little bit so he could soak up the sight of her naked body as she walked. He had a sad smile on his face when Grace reappeared in the doorway. She was holding a datapad and walked over to Tom's side of the bed and sat down next to him. She tapped the screen a few times before pulling up her inbox and handed it to him to read.
"You've been approved for double quarters?"
Grace nodded.
"I can't believe it! Those assholes at RDA actually gave you the room!" Tom grabbed her around the waist and flipped her onto the bed so he was on top of her, the datapad discarded on the floor.
She ran her fingers through his hair and rested her hands on the back of his neck. "There's room for you on Pandora, Tom."
"I'll get there as soon as I can." He kissed her so softly and her eyes fluttered closed. Tom pulled back to look at her face and saw tears beginning to flow from the corners of her eyes. He tried to hold back a few of his own but they still escaped down the side of his face as he rested his forehead against hers.
"I love you, Grace, so much. There was something my father would always say to my mother before he was deployed. He would tell her that no matter how great the distance between them or the oceans that separated them, that their hearts would always beat as one and that no matter what happened while they were apart that the wind would always push them together again."
Grace smiled up at him and brushed his tears away with her thumbs. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
Tom laughed and rolled over onto his back and put his hands behind his head. "I have no idea, but I think it sounds nice."
Grace moved over to rest her head on his chest and pulled him closer to her. "I think it's perfect."
Tom stroked her back, lazily drawing patterns on her skin. "18 years won't be bad at all."
Author's Note: This is probably the only author's note you'll see from me, but I wanted to say a few things. First, thanks for bearing with me for a little exposition. We have a little more back story to get through, but stay tuned, we'll see Jake in Chapter 3. I've generally tried to stay within basic canon confines, but I came across two problems that could not be avoided. By my calculations, I think I added about 14 years to Jake's age. The other incongruity regards the amount of time Jake was on Pandora before the destruction of Hometree. I made it a longer period of time and spread things out a bit to make my plot believable. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you'll suspend your disbelief with me and enjoy the story.