Author's note: Thank you to everyone who's enjoyed this story so far, and posted kind reviews. It really means a lot to me that you enjoy what I'm writing!
This chapter is a little slower than the previous two – less action. This current arc will hopefully be done in the next chapter, or maybe two. After that though, I'd like to keep writing on the story and fleshing out that long period of learning Jake goes through. I hope you enjoy the chapter.
When Jake opened his Avatar's eyes, they immediately sought Neytiri.
She hadn't moved, was still propped up against the nest of roots across from him. She watched him blearily as he blinked and shook his aching head.
"They're coming for us," he said, wincing.
"Rescued by sky people," Neytiri murmured, musing or disgusted.
"Grace is coming too. She'll be able to help you."
"Grace," Neytiri repeated quietly.
"Yeah, Doctor Augustine, you know her. She's coming right now."
Jake was having trouble capturing her twitching gaze, and there was a pallor to her blue skin that was alarming. He decided that keeping her conscious was most important. He needed something to keep her focused on reality.
"I didn't know that you had a sister," he finally said.
Neytiri took a slow, hitching breath, eventually focusing on his face. "I was angry, Jake," she said. "If I hadn't attacked you - "
"Yeah, I've had worse," he interrupted her. "Maybe you can make it up to me sometime. So, your sister," he prompted again.
She breathed in. "Two sisters." Pause for breath. "One, she is still at Hometree. Younger. Sylwanin... was older."
Too hard, Jake judged, watching her wincing breaths. Broken ribs. Broken something.
"I'm not an only child either," he said. "I had a twin brother."
"Twin..."
"Yeah, twin, you know. Born at the same time. Don't Na'vi have twins?"
Neytiri shook her head. "Animals, only."
"Oh." He'd have to ask Grace about that.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry about your sister. Grace told me about it."
Neytiri was silent – her head lolled back, and she stared up at the treetops.
"We're not all like that," Jake said. "Not all soldiers would do that. Most soldiers are good people. The ones that came here..." How could he describe to her the type of people, the mercenary attitude? "Not all humans are bad."
"You... were a soldier."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Why was a soldier? I don't know, a lot of reasons. I wanted to do something that mattered." Even to himself it sounded like something out a cheap recruiting video.
Neytiri was shaking her head. "No, not why soldier... why - " she gestured weakly at him, and he then understood.
"Why am I here, like this?" He thought carefully, wanting to keep his answer simple. "I was hurt," he said. "And I was never going to get better. I had a chance to come here, to Pandora, and I took it. I wanted – to escape, I guess. I had to change something."
"You would not have shot Sylwanin." Her overbright eyes challenged him.
"No," Jake said firmly. "No. We – I – was taught, only shoot someone as a last resort, only if they're going to hurt you, or other people. What happened at the school – " he shook his head, and then said something he never expected to say. "What they did... some humans do deserve to die."
He couldn't even imagine how Quaritch would react to that statement, but he knew the man wouldn't understand, or even try to. In that instant of reflection, whatever clear lines had been drawn in the sand were muddled. The thoughts were disturbing, and he suppressed them.
Jake suddenly stood and went to Neytiri. He sat next to her, touching shoulders.
"I didn't... want to die next to a sky person," Neytiri whispered.
Jake got on his knees in front of her, hands on her shoulders speaking into her face. "Hey. No, no no. You're not going to die. Grace is coming, she'll get you patched up. Instead of hunting and riding you can just teach me the language for a few weeks."
Neytiri was a Na'vi huntress – she wouldn't cry for herself. But she was afraid. Taking a risk, he put an arm around her shoulders, drawing her in closer, giving her the comfort of his touch. He wasn't Omaticaya, but he was still Na'vi – or close enough.
Further conversation seemed pointless. She'd said nothing when he'd brought his arm around her shoulders, so he brought his other one around in front and pulled her close. He brought her practically into his lap, and she pressed herself in desperately against his warmth. The deep wounds on her back were bleeding less now.
He held her, feeling confused and protective. Why should he feel this way about some violent native woman who had almost knocked him out once, and then actually knocked him out a day later?
He found himself talking quietly to her about Tom, about coming to Pandora, about his fears, even about the scientists laughing over Grace's account of his escape from the thanator. It was easy to be honest with her. Some of these things he'd never spoken aloud to anyone. Neytiri's eyes were fixed and and glassy, her lips ashen, but her ears twitched as he spoke, and he knew she was listening, if not comprehending.
As the minutes stretched on into what felt like hours, fluttery panic started to build in his stomach. The world had felt so solid just a short time ago.
It had been half an hour when he finally heard the Samson.
He quickly looked up, scanning the patches of blue sky that he could see. Heart pounding, he gently disengaged Neytiri and laid her on her side. The scream of the engines was growing louder – Trudy must have pushed the craft to its limit to get here so quickly. He felt a great upwelling of affection for the gruff pilot.
The air above him suddenly whumped, and the dark underbelly of the Samson was in the sky, the gale of its arrival bending branches and scattering leaves.
"Hey!" Jake yelled, jumping up and down and waving his arms. "Hey, here! Down here!"
They must have seen him. The Samson flew a slow circle directly above and then took off more slowly to the east. Follow, the movement said.
Jake let himself feel some cautious hope. "Alright, come on," he said, scooping Neytiri up off the ground. "Our ride's here." She hung limply in his arms. Jake ran.
Trudy had landed a few hundred yards away, in a flat space barely wide enough to fit the craft. As he broke into the clearing Jake noticed some small and not so small branches littering the ground – apparently they'd decided to make their own entrance.
He saw Grace's familiar red tanktop as she and Norm's Avatars leaped to the ground, ducking their heads against the tempest thrown up by the engines even as they slowed. Jake ran over to them as they pushed gear around in the Samson to make room.
"In, in, in," Grace said, looking frightened, waving Norm to help Jake lift Neytiri into the vehicle. She looked over her shoulder at Trudy in her exopack and aviator glasses. "Don't take us anywhere yet, Trudy."
The pilot nodded and thumbed a few switches, and the engines finally spun to a stop.
"What? Why not?" Jake demanded, leaping up into the Samson. "We gotta go, doc! We – "
"First we need to decide if she's going back to Hometree, or to the hospital at Hell's Gate," Grace said, shucking off her coat and pulling on a pair of Avatar-sized latex gloves. "Or if she could even survive the trip. Norm, let's turn her over."
Norm took Neytiri's legs, and they rolled her over to lay on her stomach.
"Jesus," Grace muttered, gently touching one of the three long gashes, the spangled bruises, the blood. "Norm, get me an IV with some saline." Trudy was already handing a large box back from the cockpit, and the scientist began to pull supplies out of it.
"What happened to her, doc?" Jake asked, feeling useless, trying to stay out of her way.
"Thanator," Grace said immediately. "The Na'vi can kill or run away from pretty much anything else. And it's amazing this is the worst of it, that she's even alive." She prodded gently at Neytiri's back, grim and efficient. "Deep lacerations. At least two broken vertebrae. Maybe only bruised. She's in hypovolemic shock," she went on. "Massive blood loss."
Norm handed her the IV and bag. "Saline," Grace said, looking up at Jake. "The solution draws fluid from the surrounding tissue and increases the blood volume. I don't have anything fancy here that will be much good to a Na'vi. Their physiology is just too different." She waved Jake closer and gave him the bag of saline. "Hold it up," she commanded.
Jake took the bag and sat down by Neytiri's head where he'd be out of the way. Meanwhile, Norm and Grace set to cleaning the largest wounds on her back.
He looked down at the Na'vi princess. He realized she was beautiful in repose, even according to human standards. Tentatively, he reached out and brushed a few tight braids off of her face, tucked them back behind one pointed ear. Something lurched in his heart, and some quiet, logical part of his brain told him that this was dangerous. But with women, Jake had always fallen hard or not at all.
Behind him, Grace was busy with a needle, and he marveled at the sure precision in her strong hands. She was just as comfortable in her Na'vi body as human, that was clear. Feeling her firm control of the situation, the helpless feeling he'd felt all day finally began to abate.
Just then Neytiri stirred a little, wincing.
"Neytiri," Grace said, not looking up, busy hands stitching and tying. "Can you hear me?"
She didn't respond, merely screwed her eyes shut tightly, baring her small fangs.
"It's Doctor Augustine – Grace. Do you remember me? You've grown a lot since I saw your last. I hear you've been roughing up my marine."
Neytiri didn't respond, and Jake looked anxiously from her to Grace. "She's gonna be alright, doc?"
Grace nodded. "I think so, yes. Quaritch is right when he says it – the Na'vi are very, very hard to kill. But if you'd tried to take her back yourself – if she'd lost much more blood – " She gave him a rare, genuine smile. "Good call, Jake."
Norm turned to Trudy, who was leaning around to watch, now grinning widely. They slapped high fives.
"Take us to Hometree, Trudy," Grace said. "And no acrobatics this time please, I'm stitching here."