Note: Thanks so much for all of the reviews guys. This story keeps me going lately haha. Making midterms is about as fun as taking them :P Anyway, here's the next chapter.

I knew where to find her for our second lesson. It wasn't that hard to find Trudy. There were only three options. First, she was in her bunk which was surrounded by numerous Marines and pilots. Half dressed, probably smelly and grumpy. I always prayed she wasn't there, I could imagine the looks I would get by showing my pasty self in that place. The second place was the mess hall, which probably would have the same effect on me as the bunk area. Except this time those same smelly and grumpy people were armed with food. Then there was the hanger with all of the Samsons and aircrafts in a row. This was where she usually was. And I was glad to see that she was there, I was in grave need of a distraction.

"Hey…um…Trudy?" I asked not wanting to disturb her as she was currently under the Samson. Only her small feet were sticking out, probably doing something important under there.

She rolled out a second later, and glanced up at me. At first she looked a mite confused, but the confusion turned into a smile. "What's new, Spellman? I heard that Jake is Jungle King now. That's weird." Course she had to bring it up. Jake hadn't been killed that night in the jungle. Far from it. Now he was their confidant. Learning how to be one of their warrior's for God's sake. He was out there right now, probably getting himself adopted by the Omaticaya…and I bet he had no idea what that even meant.

"Yeah," I said quickly trying to change the subject. "So what about a second lesson? I'm eager to learn how to put on a helmet."

Trudy pushed herself up from the ground, and gave me a smirk. "You need a distraction, huh? Lemme guess, you're jealous of him."

I snorted quickly. "Me, jealous? Of what? It's not like…he doesn't deserve it. He's a great guy. Fun…headstrong…a slow learner…leaps before he looks…he's…I don't know how they…" I paused when I saw Trudy's smirk grow as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Okay, I'm a little jealous. Can you blame me?"

Trudy coughed into her elbow and then shook her head turning to the Samson. "Naw. If I trained for this operation for years and they told me that I was gonna be washing dishes for the next few months, I'd be pretty pissed off myself."

"It's not that I'm pissed or…feeling left out," I started to argue, but once again, she looked at me in such a manner that suggested that I not even bother to try and explain myself through that one. "I guess I'm just- I worked so hard. And now I get to watch this guy who doesn't know what he's doing…take my dream."

Trudy closed up the Samson's electrical components that she had been working on, and turned to me. "I don't know if he's doing that. Just making your passage a little easier, yeah? Might be better for him to be the guinea pig before you walk in there. Just saying. Anyway," She patted my arm, clearing her throat. "Wanna try for the helmet?"

"Yes please. Let's not talk about…him anymore," I almost snarled.

She chuckled quietly. "We'll avoid talking about the pronoun person I promise." Leaning into the Samson, she tossed me the same helmet I took on our last lesson. Really it was a set of headphones with some equipment, but it still retained the old school name. "Now, put it on."

"You're joking. It's that simple? I thought we had some things to hook up at least." I commented rubbing down my hair before pushing the helmet on my head.

"Well, since we had such an issue with Velcro last time, I thought we'd take it slow," Trudy teased coming up towards my face to help me with the helmet. Being this close to her, I saw a few things. One, I saw bags under her eyes. I hadn't seen them there before when we were just talking, and her eyes themselves were puffy.

"Um Trudy, are you okay?" Those were the stupidest words I ever uttered. I learned my lesson quickly.

Trudy looked at me with a flash of annoyance. "I'm fine. Now, we do hook up to a few things. C'mon in." She waved me in to take a seat in the Samson. "The important thing is the com. You gotta be hooked up or you're gonna be talking to yourself when you're lost." She pulled a plug that fell from my helmet, but paused suddenly to cough into her elbow. This time, her body shook with the pressure of it. Clearing her throat, she shook her head and continued on as if nothing happened. "Here, the connection is…" Trudy couldn't even get through it before her body was shaken by coughs again.

I opened by mouth to ask if she was okay again, but her finger was up as if she figured out what I was gonna say. And that finger looked dangerous, so I decided to stay quiet.

Trudy cleared her throat one last time, closed her eyes and continued. "Take this connection, and you jack it in here." She showed me the small hole where the com connected. It did seem rather old and silly. Wires. But a Samson was one of those older models. And at the moment, once again, my mind wasn't on the lesson. Though this time it wasn't because I was admiring the closeness of Trudy's body.

"Alright. Awesome, so I can call you if I forgot to take the Velcro guards off yeah?" I asked trying to get her to smile.

And she did. She was a pretty sight, but her smile was even prettier. It moved slowly and took over her whole face. Every inch from her forehead, her eyes, to her chin…all of her face was smiling. "You wouldn't get off the ground with those things on, Spellman."

"Oh, I guess I have a lot to learn, huh? It's a good thing that Jake's gonna be with the Na'vi for a while. Lots of lessons, unless you're busy…" I offered knowing that Trudy did plenty of things…at least I'm pretty sure she did.

Trudy chuckled trying to hold back a cough. "I guess it is a…a good…" She couldn't hold it in any longer. Her body was racked with a series of coughs. I resisted the urge to reach out for her, not that I was afraid of touching her…I was afraid she was smack me if I tried. She didn't want me to acknowledge that she was…wasn't well. I wasn't a doctor, and I could tell that. Her face was pale, her eyes worn down. I made the connection that the coughs kept her up the previous night, she couldn't have slept long at all. And she wasn't gonna do a damn thing about it. Because that would mean that she admitted weakness.

"Hey, um," I started to say as soon as Trudy gained her breath again, "Why don't we go back to my place and we can drink so tea? Yeah, I can even bring this if you wanna practice," I offered pointing to the helmet.

Trudy raised her brows, seeing through me completely. "Tea?" Her voice was raspier than usual.

"Uh huh. It's only fair that I impress you with my good tea," I explained as if it made complete sense to do so.

"You wanna impress me?" Trudy questions, although that amused smile returned to her face. I was getting there. Although the victory didn't exactly make me realize her point at first.

I paused and then nodded. "Yes. With me tea skills. I make a good cup of tea. So do you wanna risk it?" I pulled off the helmet and placed it on the seat by me, and then I walked out of the Samson, holding my hand for her.

Trudy looked at my hand for a while as if she was trying to decide if my hand was clean enough or something. She wouldn't take it. She would go back to working on the Samson, and she would blow me off. Maybe she wouldn't give me another lesson at all. She wouldn't be able to stand me…but she surprised me. Trudy took my hand. "Okay, Spellman, this better be impressive as hell tea."

"Oh you have no idea," I said deadpan, smiling as I lead her back towards our bunks. I was sure that her hand would fall from mine as we walked through the corridors. There were military people out there. Scientists. What would happen if they saw us holding hands? It seemed that the answer was nothing. Trudy's delicate hand stayed in my much larger hand the whole time. It only fell from me when I had to open the door to the room I shared with Jake. I tried not to think about her hand too much. Instead I reminded myself it was probably covered with germs…maybe she was secretly getting back at me? Well, it worked for me at the moment.

I opened the door to the room, and Trudy gasped. "Whoa. You have your…you and Jake?" She shook her head. "No wonder so many grunts hate you guys. This is a nice place to sleep."

I chuckled and moved towards our tiny kitchenette, putting one some hot water. "I guess it's our one perk. As you can guess, I've had it pretty well with Jake being gone nights. But we're not here often, too much work."

"I think I would make time if my place was this nice looking," Trudy coughed into her elbow again, her shoulders shaking lightly.

I didn't say a thing, instead I watched her with a cautious and careful eye. "Why don't you try out the bed? Pretty gushy. See if you guys get better mattresses." I don't know if she sat because she was humoring me or what, but she did sit down. One more victory, Trudy was taking it easy. At least for the time being.

Trudy looked down at the mattress and shook her head. "Nope. The same. Lumpy mess."

"At least we're equal when it comes to shitty mattresses," I replied mixing Trudy's tea and adding a good amount of honey. I would fix that throat of hers even if she didn't want it. "Here you go. Prepare to be…impressed."

Trudy smiled before taking the cup. "Nice and warm," She whispered before taking a sip. It must have felt good on her throat; she kept her eyes closed for a little longer than a blink. And she breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm…I'm impressed."

I chuckled quietly making my own cup of tea, sitting down on Jake's bed which was opposite my own. "I don't like to say I told you so…"

She cleared her throat and muttered, "If the Na'vi based everything on tea making you'd be out there…shit. Sorry. No Jake talk."

It seemed to be a silly aggravation now, so I just waved my hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm just sore. I came here to be…be a part of something. I just thought it would happen sooner." I looked up and saw Trudy drink the tea quickly, maybe I'd have to make another batch.

"Is that why you left Earth? For the Na'vi?" Trudy asked.

It was a loaded question. Earth…well to say that it wasn't exactly the beautiful place it had once been was an understatement. Our neighborhood park growing up was as big as my mom's office at her job. And my mom wasn't paid well. The rest of the world was dirt and corruption.

"Sometimes I wonder…who would want to stay," I said honestly gauging her reaction. She seemed to agree taking another sip. "I mean, I miss my sister and my mom. We were close. My dad split when he realized that we didn't stay cute babies. So we only had each other. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the people of Earth are great. The individual people. But our culture of destruction, I guess, maybe, I'm running from that. The Na'vi are all…about creation and a cycle of life. I have to admit that that's…a breath of fresh air. Especially coming from Earth," I explained half expecting to see Trudy's eyes wander around the room looking disinterested, but they didn't leave me the whole time.

Trudy nodded slowly, her fingers curling around the mug. "Can't blame you. My dad was all in that culture. One of my first memories of him was seeing him beat up this guy in the back room. What a way to remember your dad right?" She asked with a hoarse and quiet laugh. Looking into her tea, she shrugged. "Could have been worse. I don't think he killed people. Just played with their money. Gambling. Guess I wanted to get away too. I wasn't smart enough to…look at other cultures. I just wanted to fly away."

"So that's why you're here?" I asked our voices were almost whispers.

Trudy shrugged again, her deep brown eyes meeting mine. "All I want in life is to fly." After a second, she added, "Pretty sad huh? One thing makes me happy."

I shook my head quickly. "No, no. I don't think that's sad at all. It's great that you're doing what you love. Being happy….are you happy?"

Trudy breathed in the vapors from the tea, I could almost see the cogs in her brain moving. Trying to decide if she was happy or not. "I guess as happy as I can be right now."

"Something could make you happier?" I asked wondering for a moment when I became Trudy's shrink.

"Getting rid of this shitty cough would be nice," Trudy finally admitted with a laugh. And I laughed along with her. Quickly our laughter faded and all that was left was quiet. Usually silences between two people was uncomfortable, even with friends I remember scrambling for things to say so there wasn't any more silence. Not with Trudy though. It was…comfortable.

Although she broke the silence. "Shit, I gotta…I gotta go. I have a drop off in an hour, and I didn't finish prepping the Samson."

It was jarring, but I moved with her as she headed towards the door. "Oh! Wait," I called out moving to the kitchenette and came back with another cup of tea. This time the mug had a top so she could move with it. "I added more honey. Hope you don't mind."

Trudy took the mug from me, her eyes slowly meeting mine. "No. No I don't mind."

"Sorry I took you from your work. I know that you were…busy before I came along," I pointed out scratching the back of my head absently.

"You're a welcome distraction Norm." Trudy reached out for the door and stepped one foot outside. Then she glanced over her shoulder, her hair falling down into her face. "Thanks…for the tea."

I smiled softly. "Anytime, Trudy." She nodded to me and was out of the room. For the next few days, Trudy came to grab a cup of my tea before moving to her daily activities. She didn't say much, just a thank you and a wave. It was always the best part of my day.