Yay, another update! Had this one stashed in my brain since day one but had to get to an appropriate time for it. please RnR guys! Much love as always

Granger sat dozing in the link lab, strewn over a pair of chairs. On her lap was a collection of papers that she'd gathered in the month since arriving on Pandora. Amongst them were transcripts of her logs, photographs, data sheets of the electrical and chemical information that had been relayed bag to the lab computers from the Avatars. Her first four weeks on the moon had been more than testing and in a brief moment of privacy every now and then she allowed herself the luxury of collapsing into a heap. Through the shuttered windows of the lab the first dove grey streaks of sun were creeping across her work, and as a few sheets scattered onto the floor the metallic swish of the double doors broke the silence. Xavier crept in, an unlit cigar hanging from his bottom lip. Smiling at his young friend he padded over and gathered up the papers, leaning over to press a bristled kiss to her forehead. She let out a low groan and her Mediterranean blue eyes fluttered open, looking up at him blearily.

"Xav.." she mumbled, brushing her scruffy hair out of her face with a laboured yawn.

"Rise and shine, sweetness," he smiled, tucking a few wispy curls behind her ear. "This is a bad habit you're getting into." Granger propped herself up in her seat, looking down at the papers in her lap with a sigh.

"I know," she said, her voice still hoarse with the dregs of sleep. "There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day anymore." She piled up the sheets and set them on the desk, smiling as Xavier passed her the ones he'd retrieved.

"It might be time to prioritise, Doc," he smirked, digging around in his pocket and producing a book of matches. He struck one deftly and with a few careful puffs breathed life into the cigar. Granger made a face at him, laughing softly.

"I can't believe I had to equate cargo room for those damn things," she chuckled, getting up and stretching her back with a small "Oof," as it clicked a couple of times.

"Hey, we've all got to have our creature comforts," Xavier retorted with a throaty laugh. "You've got your underpants, I've got my smokes." He took a long draw from the cigar, savouring it for a moment before blowing out curls of blue smoke with a little noise of satisfaction. Granger grinned, nudging him with an elbow.

"My knickers will wash," she said. "What will you do when those run out?"

"Get Na'vi imports. Don't tell me the stuff they smoke is just for ritual." He winked at her, leaning lazily against the central rail of the lab as he smoked. Granger tutted, shaking her head with a wry smile.

"I've got to go feed the babies," she said, shuffling out the lab with a slap on her friend's belly as she passed him. He sniggered as he watched her go, feeling a small twinge of concern as he noted her weight was dropping..

Granger emerged into what used to be the basketball court a short while later, feeling a wave cool hair hit her as the airlocks opened. She was now standing in a temporary shelter made of a poly based plastic, that ran from the air lock in a long transparent tunnel. A few feet left of where she stood an exo-unit shuddered as it filtered and cooled the air within the greenhouse-like structure. As she stepped further in there came an excited collection of peeps and coos. Smiling, she lifted the lid off of a steel bin that stood in the centre of the run and grabbed a couple of fistfuls of corn feed. As she scattered it around her cotton pumps the twenty or so bantams flocked to her, pecking and scratching at the food and clucking gratefully. Stepping gingerly around them she checked each of the small grass padded boxes that the hens slept in and with gentle fingers collected any eggs that had been laid, holding them in her tee-shirt like it was a basket. From the furthest corner of the makeshift coop a blue plumed cockerel sauntered over and pecked at Granger's shoelaces a couple of times before wandering to the corn feed, preening himself vainly in between mouthfuls. The doctor smiled fondly at her feathered flock, then cautiously returned to the compound and by the time the others had risen from their beds the smell of omelettes was wandering seductively from the kitchens.

As the small team sat around a steel table together eating, Granger allowed herself a silent moment of contentment. The men were laughing and joking together noisily, albeit Norm a little more withdrawn than the others. The doctor eyed him carefully, taking a few mental notes. He'd put on a good ten pounds in weight thanks to her firm insistence of him taking the protein supplements and weekly weigh ins, but he looked as drawn as she felt, and as his almond coloured hair was growing out it hung over his forehead, emphasising the heavy shadows around his eyes. As the other three disappeared into the kitchens to clear their plates and brew more coffee, she reached across the table and in an uncharacteristic moment of gentleness lay her fingertips on the back of his hand. He looked up at her suddenly, as though startled.

"Do you need a break?" she asked softly, her china coloured brow furrowed with genuine concern. "You don't have to come out today."

Norm smiled at her, pleasantly surprised, and shook his head.

"I can't afford to miss a single day, we both know that," he mumbled, resting his chin in his other hand, elbow on the table.

"You can if you need to. I mean it, Norm. You're going to make yourself ill." She looked at him seriously, a curl of her hair falling over her cheek as she spoke. His smile broadened slightly and he turned the hand she was touching over, resting his thumb on her fingers as they lay comfortably in his palm.

"I'm as ok as you are, Doctor Granger," he said, and saw her smirk slightly, getting his point. "I can keep going. We need this. For a lot of reasons now." The woman nodded, letting out a small sigh of resignation.

"If this goes too far though, I'll pull the plug. I'm not having you put yourself at risk."

"I know," Norm replied, slumping onto his elbow a little more. "Though don't expect me to go willingly." He flashed her one of his goofy smiles and for a moment they sat in a comfortable silence. It was quickly broken by Xavier sweeping out of the kitchen however, Max and Bill in tow. Granger suddenly stiffened, snatching her hand away from Norm's and slapping it into her lap under the table. She jumped to her feet, all business now, and Norm looked up at her with a strange flash of emotion in his eyes. She avoided looking back at him as she clambered out from behind the table, her voice authoritative as she said;

"We'll head on down to the link lab now. Max, good luck today!" She flashed Patel a stiff, toothy smile, who seemed oblivious to the falseness of it and he beamed back at her.

"We'll be sure to take photos of the bigger, bluer me for you, Doctor," he said proudly as Bill gave him a prod.

"Let's go, skxawng," the older man chuckled, clearly proud of his Na'vi quip. "I want you on a super sized treadmill today."

The five parted ways to head to their respective labs, Xavier following Bill and Max, burning with an eager curiosity to see Max's first genuine link up down at the infirmary.

Down in the main link lad Granger and Norm silently set up their own clamshells, an awkward weight in the air between them. The doctor climbed into her own without even checking if Norm was settled, something she had always done before today, and he was uncomfortable to find how much it pained him. As he climbed into his own unit, he felt a pressure on his chest that unsettled him even more, and glanced across at her bed with a despondent sigh before pulling his lid down.

* * *

In the late afternoon sun Neytiri, Jake and their pair of students were enjoying a rare self-indulgent pleasure. So great was the heat that day that the elders had decided that the most productive thing to do was to help break Granger and Norm of some of their habitual health and safety concerns through teaching them to cliff dive. They had taken to it with more vivacity than had been expected, and the morning's awkwardness was soon forgotten as they took repeated running jumps off the top of a churning waterfall, screaming with delight as they plummeted down to the bright blue water below. Bursting through the froth tinted blue by the sediments the waterfall was whisking up the foursome all concluded that while it was a day where very little of practical use was being learnt, it could still not be time better spent.

As Granger and Norm scrambled up the side of the waterfall, racing each other to the top for what had to be their twentieth jump that day, he snatched out to catch her tail and she shrieked in laughter, whipping it out of his grip and turning to face him with a playful hiss.

"Dirty cheat!" she cried and shouted in indignation as he seized the opportunity to skitter past her, his considerable height advantage on her even in their Avatar bodies meaning he was stood panting at the top of the waterfall a good ten seconds ahead of her. She giggled as she reached him, snapping her feline teeth at him and giving him a slap on his wet chest.

"I demand a rematch!" she declared loudly, then flopped onto the grassy ground, taking deep breaths through her laughter. When she'd rested a few moments she crawled to the edge and lay on her belly to peer over. Norm fell onto his front beside her, following her line of sight. In the lagoon at the bottom Neytiri and Jake were embracing tenderly, until she splashed him suddenly and dipped under the water as he lunged after her. Norm and Granger exchanged a mischievous glance.

"Cannon ball?" he said simply.

"Cannon ball," she agreed. They got to their feet and linked hands securely, winding their fingers together. Taking a few steps back for a run up, they flew off the top of the fall, Norm yelling

"Geronimo!" at the top of his lungs by way of warning of the impending impact.

After a few seconds he exploded up out of the water, taking a deep lungful of air and grinning ear to ear. He whirled around in the water, realising his hand was empty of Granger's. Coughing and spluttering from the tidal wave that had hit them on the pair's impact, Neytiri and Jake were beginning to launch a counter attack, before quickly realising their friend was being filled with a surge of panic.

"Can you see her?!" he cried, turning around in circles, searching the surface for Granger. Neytiri stiffened suddenly and dived deep into the lagoon, as Jake grabbed Norm's shoulders, shaking him to make him look in his eyes.

"When did you let go?!" he shouted over the noise of the waterfall. Norm shook his head in panic. He didn't know.

Jake swore loudly and disappeared under the surface as well, his powerful arms pulling him far away from the bobbing Norm. The anthropologist wheeled in the water a couple of times more, then took the deepest breath he could, submerging himself to search. The pressure of the water on his eyes immediately blurred his vision but he forced himself to keep them open, allowing the current to carry him along. As he was rushed along, his back grazing upon the stony bottom of the lagoon, he felt what he thought at first was water weed snatching at his ankle. A few bubbles escaping his mouth in surprise, he forced himself to turn around with all the strength he could muster in his arms and saw it was something black. Snatching out he caught a fistful of what was in-fact hair and kicked his legs as hard as he could, feeling his lungs burning as he fought the current. Feeling his fingers close around a limb he clasped them tight as possible and kicked towards the surface, dragging the dead weight with him. As he broke out into the hot air he gasped, his head hit by a searing pain that split his skull right down the centre. Yelling incomprehensibly he hauled Granger out of the water too and thrashed his way to the silt slick embankment, lowering her down as gently as he could on her back. He could hear Neytiri calling to Jake in Na'vi, their frenzied splashing as they cut through the water to get to him. He was already tipping Granger's head back, checking her airway with two fingers before he began pumping her chest aggressively, all the while talking to her, begging her to still be in there.

As Jake clamboured out of the water and ran to Norm's side, Neytiri crouching at the other female's feet and praying in a bubbling torrent of words to Eywa, Norm compressed her chest with all the strength he could muster and after perhaps thirty seconds, to his great relief the Avatar blurted out a flurry of water. Norm quickly rolled her on her side so she didn't choke, stroking her face. There wasn't a mark upon her but she didn't open her eyes, entirely still aside from her ragged breathing.

"She's de-linked," he breathed, feeling his heart slow to a more comfortable pace. "Oh God, I have to get back to her! I-"

Norm had begun to get to his feet when suddenly his eyes rolled back in his head and his Avatar fell to the ground, utterly silent.

* * *

Lydia Granger burst out of her clamshell link unit, gasping in shock as she rolled out, falling heavily onto the floor. Before she had time to orientate herself she felt a powerful pair of hand pull her to her feet, gripping her upper arms painfully tight.

"I had to disrupt the link!" a voice was crying, and the woman slowly became aware it was Bill and he was frantic. Shaking her head to try and sharpen herself up she looked at him, dazed, and felt her stomach flip as she saw sheer terror in his eyes.

"What is it?" she fumbled, pulling away from his hold and righting herself.

"It's Xavier…" he stammered in reply and tore his gaze from hers. "He's in the infirmary, Max has him. I had to get to you…"

Granger's eyes widened and she broke into a run, smashing her hand into Norm's emergency stop button on his unit without even pausing. She flew at breakneck speed to the infirmary, her fiery hair whipping behind her as ran. As she burst shoulder first into the door of the infirmary she felt that morning's eggs rise in her chest as her eyes fell upon Xavier stretched out on a bed, Max standing over him and beating his chest with his fist.

"Oh God, no!" It slipped from her lips without permission and she froze on the spot. Max's head snapped up and she could see he was yelling at her but nothing could break through the strange haze that had locked itself around her. It was only as she saw a flash of Xavier's face and how blue he was that she was able to move her feet again and dashed to the bed, knocking Max away and taking over the compressions, grunting as she felt the pain in her shoulders from the exertion.

"He was complaining of muscle ache, in his arm," Max said stuntedly, wringing his hands. "Then stabbing, and he just- he just went down."

"Have you used epinephrine?!" Granger choked, before shifting position to blow in Xavier's mouth twice. Max felt his throat tighten as he spoke.

"We tried, it didn't work…" he whispered. He ran his hands through his mop of curly hair, feeling utterly helpless as he watched the woman work.

"Get the defibrillator!" she screamed, her voice panic stricken. As Max pulled the unit over with shaking hands the door to the infirmary burst open again and Norm and Bill ran in. Norm froze in horror as he beheld the scene before him, Bill sprinting past him to help Max with the defib unit.

"Charge it!" Granger barked, snatching the pads, ignoring the fact they had already been used once. She slapped them onto Xavier's front and side and in a blur of sharp orders had them shock him once… Twice… Three and four times…

As she was forcing them to charge it for a fifth burst Norm came to the sickening realisation it was never going to work and silently crossed the room in two strides. Encircling his arms around the woman's waist he dragged her away from the table, fighting her with every inch of his body. She was screaming like a wild animal, thrashing against him, trying to claw her way back. With a silent look to Bill and Max he pulled her out of the infirmary and into the elevator, slamming his palm on the button panel, then hitting the emergency stop after it had been moving for a few seconds. Granger spun in his grip, beating him on the chest with all her strength, roaring at him to let her go, fighting to keep the tears that were welling in her eyes from falling. Norm silently would his fingers into her hair, pulling her close, stroking the base of her neck as he felt his own eyes beginning to burn. He began to speak to her very softly, saying her name over and over at first.

"Lydia. Lydia…"

"Let me go, you spiteful bastard!" she spat, slamming her fists into his chest. He ignored her, still stroking her in the tiny soothing gesture, cautiously pressing his forehead to hers.

"Lydia," he whispered. "He's gone, Lydia. We can't bring him back."

She was shaking her head, her voice cracking.

"He's not gone! He can't be! His health has always been perfect, he can't be!"

"Lydia…"

"Don't say it anymore, Norm. God, please don't say it!"

"Lydia… He's gone."

He felt her suddenly buckle in his arms and caught her weight before she could fall, pressing her to his chest hard. There was a moment of horrendous silence, then she began sobbing, in a way he had never her thought her capable of. Carefully Norm sank to the floor of the elevator, taking her with him, cradling her in his lap like a tiny rag doll as she poured her grief over him in noisy, piercing torrents. He was rocking her gently, allowing his own tears to silently fall, saying her name over and over and over again, his hands knitted into her fiery tresses to tighten his grip on her.

"Lydia. Lydia..."