author´s note - 01/17/2010 - alright, here we go! Some of my readers (thanks to you, guys!) pointed out to me by now that Jake appears more the whiny guy, at least during the first chapter. That surprised me, as it wasn´t what I had wanted to describe. So I decided to change some details there to try and make clearer what I wanted to express in the first place - which is that I in fact saw that he´s a warrior at the heart (thanks to James Cameron for that helpful description of the character!) - but I still think he was meant to be enough down to earth to see the problems explaining to the united Na´vi tribes that their hero is the disabled guy in the wheelchair - I mean, that´s actually crucial for the whole story, the avatar enabling him to things he would otherwise probably never have been able to do and achieve again. Anyway, I hope it worked and thanks for sticking around anyway!
They returned to the camp the next morning and Jake found himself tired, but in high spirits. Most of the people were already busy – the place reminded him of a beehive.
"I wish I could stay and help", he told Neytiri, the things before him not that alluring by comparison.
"You can still help tomorrow." She glanced around, happiness rising in her. There was still grief around. Still pain that would take its time to get over. Losses that couldn´t be compensated. But the people around looked determined – and in a mood of cautious anticipation for the three days of the great gathering to come. Jake just found it catching.
"I wanna talk to your mother before I connect with headquarters", he told her.
They found the Tsahik together with one of the older women, sorting through some incense. Neytiri stopped and let him go first. He greeted the shaman respectfully, waiting for her attention.
"You´re ready", Mo´at said. It wasn´t a question.
Jake nodded.
"Then go", she said with a smile. "Everything will happen they way I told you."
He nodded, but hesitated.
"Something bothers you." She looked at him, thoughtful. There wasn´t fear in him, nor doubt.
She watched him frown and bite his lip while pulling himself together.
"Will you bless me, mother ?"
She looked at him in mild surprise. He had most probably talked to Eywa during the last night. Eywa´s blessing was everything needed, and every sign told that he had definitely achieved it. Still, this hadn´t been something he had asked the priestess of Eywa for. She was not only the spiritual leader, but mother to every member of the tribe. In his case, she and Eytucan had acted as his family the day he had become a man, so he had become their son as well. When he and Neytiri had mated for life, he had become their son in law in addition.
Contented, she felt that she had never been wrong about this alien – about this boy. Her mate had doubted their decision for a while, she knew, and things had indeed looked for a while as if they had been wrong. But in the end, everything had turned out right.
She let him wait for her answer and watched him twitching his ears and tail nervously under her stern look. He didn´t need her blessing – but he had asked for it. He was asking for her approval, obviously as he felt he should have done that weeks before.
Mo´at finally cocked her head and exchanged a look with the woman next to her.
"You chose this woman as your mate ?" she suddenly asked. Her harsh tone made him almost flinch. Neytiri gasped behind him.
"I did", he answered, boding ill. "But…"
"And has she chosen you", she interrupted him, glancing at her daughter some steps away.
"Yes", he answered straight away, reaching out for Neytiri´s hand.
"Will you be able to feed your family ?" the shaman continued.
Jake merely nodded. The bafflement on his features turned into determination, though he looked still quite uncomfortable about her unexpected questions.
She looked at the both of them for another moment. Then she put out her hand.
"Gimme your hand", she demanded. He followed the order immediately and she reached out for her daughter´s, putting her hand in his.
"Eywa already blessed this bond", she said, slightly modifying the traditional words. "She may bless it in the future." She turned to Jake again, touching first his arms, then his shoulders. "You got my blessing as well, son."
"Thank you", he mumbled, stunned by what just had happened. For once, he didn´t need anyone to explain traditions to him. Neytiri, her eyes wide, softly dragged him away.
"You were right about him", the older Na´vi woman told Mo´at. "Though their bond got tested in a way it shouldn´t have been so early."
Mo´at crossed her arms in front of her chest. "They are young", she said, watching the couple leave. "They will live through it
"The rite could have been celebrated within the next three days the traditional way", the older one stated.
"It could have", Mo´at nodded. She turned with a smile to the friend. "But he asked me now."
* * *
Neytiri dragged him behind the next tree she could find to get them out of sight, then slapped one hand against his chest in agitation. He took a step backwards, surprised, and stumbled against the tree´s trunk behind him.
"What did you do ?" she asked in agitation.
He raised his hands in a defending gesture. "I didn´t…I meant…" He took a deep breath, searching for the right words to defend himself.
She just pressed him against the trunk and kissed him. "Fool", she told him softly afterwards. "Jerk. Skxwang."
"Dork ?" he helped her out, feeling helpless against the women of this family.
"My mother really likes you, you know", she told him, beaming. Neytiri knew that her mother appreciated the way he acted on instinct.
He put his arms around her to pull her close. "She´s getting me down every time I meet her."
"She likes you", Neytiri insisted.
* * *
"What the hell have you been doing out there ?" Denise asked when he disconnected and she opened the link pod.
"Why ?" he asked, feeling dizzy.
"You should have seen your values here!" she told him, half an accuse, half worry.
"You wouldn´t believe it anyway", he only answered.
* * *
Jake looked around in surprise the moment the hangar´s doors opened. Some dark beat blasted out of the communication system´s speakers at an ear-battering level. He spotted Trudy
checking out the Samson she had chosen as a replacement for her old one. The sounds changed from obscure to spheric. The vocals, or whatever the performer suggested to be some, could have outrivaled a whole clans war cries. Fortunately, the track was mostly instrumental.
"What the hell is it with this music", he yelled as soon as he was close enough.
Trudy almost cracked her neck to check out some connections.
"Gavin´s stuff!" she shouted back.
Jake discovered the laptop on one of the large tool boxes.
"Quaritch would have had the guy executed for linking the intercom with his jukebox", Jake mused, dimming the noise.
"Oh yeah!" Trudy agreed, staring at the display of the analysis panel in her hand. She finally gave up and turned to him. She had checked every detail twice already and was on her way to do it a third time. Turning to him, she threw him a dark look.
"You shouldn´t have come here", she said bitterly.
"I am just getting used to women telling me that", he answered casually. "One of them married me this morning."
She didn't comment and put her tools back into a box. "She´s ready", she told him, referring to the helicopter.
"What about you ?"
She closed the large tool box and sat down on it. "Me too." She eyed him up. "You ?"
"Ready", he confirmed.
He had recorded his last video log. Had talked to Max and Denise. To Gavin. Had had a long conversation with Grace. Had taken care of his stuff. Had thrown a last look in the mirror before heading out of the bathroom. Everything left to do for him had been done.
Unfortunately, he was at least an hour early.
"Guy, I didn´t mean to run the other day", she said gravely.
He waved a hand. "Forget about it."
"See…." She stared down at her hands, taking a deep breath. "After all this shit that happened trough the last weeks, I just…" She broke off again, biting her lip.
„Look Trudy, I am not going to die. I´ll just switch and…"
"See, this is bullshit!" she interrupted harshly. "You are not dying, fine, but you´re not going to come back here." She softly nudged his arm with her fist. "See, I know what that goddamn avatar body means to you! And I mean, fine, everybody else around doesn´t seem to care, though I really don´t understand why, because I will miss this Jake!" She finally looked up to face him.
"I can´t do this connecting and disconnecting thing much longer", he tried carefully to explain. "You have no idea what I´d give for one single night of undisturbed sleep. I will not have to worry about getting disconnected during a flight or a hunt or a fight any longer. And it will still be me, by the way."
She watched him for a moment, then smiled, though she looked still miserable. "Aren´t you aware of that, Jake ?"
"Aware of what ?" he inquired.
She curled her lips before she answered. "Like it or not, you´re somebody else out there. Somehow the same guy – but still somehow completely different."
He reached out for her hand but she drew away. "That hasn´t to be a bad thing, man, don´t get me wrong." She sighed, staring into nowhere. "I don´t know much about this whole seeing thing, but given that I got it right so far, I think I see this Jake and it´s maybe nonsense, but I am scared to loose all this implies if I am not longer able to see you like this in front of me." When she turned her head, her dark eyes had filled with tears. "And burying this body is a thought I just can´t bear."
She got up to her feet the moment she couldn´t hold the tears back any longer, to embrace him from behind where the wheelchair didn´t got into her way.
Jake was unable to find any words to answer. He finally simply gave up and, covering her forearm with one of his hands, gave her time, rather spending it this way than alone.
He didn´t know how long they had been there like this when they finally heard footsteps and somebody whistling getting closer. She straightened herself, wiping away the tears. It was useless. She had cried too much as that someone could have overlooked it.
He turned to her, not letting go of her arm. "You´re still gonna stay with us there ?" he asked.
"Yeah. But I am gonna make you pay for this shit, believe me!"
He handed her something.
"What the hell´s this ?" she asked, recognizing his combat knife and watch.
"I´ll have grown out of this by tomorrow", he told her casually. "Thought you could possibly keep this for me anyway."
She stared at the items in her hands and nodded. "I think I can do that."
"Good", he said with a nod.
She smiled at him. "Denise said something about you having gotten married this morning", she changed the subject, stashing her backpack under a seat. "I would really have preferred to be invited to your marriage than to your funeral."
He chuckled. "That came as a surprise to me, too. I think it´s what you get when you´re trying to be polite to your mother in law."
She chuckled, too, sounding a little better again. "You are the crazy one around here!" she told him. "Not me."
Gavin had almost reached them and Trudy glanced around nervously now.
"I really would have liked to see Quaritch and Mo´at meet in person", Jake stated, picking up her sunglasses from the box she had placed the laptop on and handing them over to her.
"Thanks." She grabbed them and put them on. She had met the Tsahik several times during her recovery at the Na´vi camp and had been as impressed as Jake. "She would simply have stared the guy down, I guess."
He touched her wrist again – obviously a side effect of his Na´vi life. "When the gathering´s over and you´re able to walk in your avatar´s body, I want to show you something – make up for this shit. You´re in ?"
She frowned for a second, then nodded. "I´m in."
"Hey !" Gavin called. "They´re here. You´re coming ?"
"On our way", Trudy answered. Turning to Jake, she threw him a dark look.
"Don´t dare and tell the boys I cried!"