Deleted Chapter

Chapter Eleven | Severed

Within just a couple of days of coming into the world, Tom proved to be something of a clan celebrity. Just like in medieval-human times, as Norm said, the clan lined up to come and take a look at the young prince. Jake and Neytiri watched with pride as everyone cooed over their son, but as the Serlans came up, Jake stiffened. He watched carefully as the young son of that family, Palin, came to look at Tom. Palin was barely three, but Jake could see something within him that he did not like. It was something he couldn't put his finger on – there was just something sort of unnatural about the way he acted. The boy didn't have a lot of morals, and while Neytiri told her mate that he was only young, Jake didn't like him at all. The way his eyes, years beyond his own age, watched over Jake's precious little son made him want to pull Tom away from Palin, and his parents. Neytiri touched Jake's arm, feeling him tense, and he relaxed a little. He plastered a smile on his face as Palin looked over Tom, his tail flicking like a conniving villain wringing his hands.

Everyone in the clan had met Tom in such a way, but Neytiri thought to organise a small dinner for her, Jake, Nikti and Reran, her mate; just them, instead of the whole clan. "I just want them to get to really know Tom," Neytiri explained to her husband. "They are, after all, his closest aunt and uncle."

Thus, the next evening, Nikti and Reran came to the lounge which Neytiri had set up for them to have a private dinner. Tom snoozed silently in a small cradle whilst the group made small talk. "So, what does Kiyeri think of Tom?" Nikti asked her best friend with a smile.

Neytiri looked at Jake. She panicked for a moment, but then realised that, according to their story, Kiyeri would have met Tom before she left. She quickly plastered on her dashing smile and then turned to Nikti, saying, "Oh, she just adores him. She wished she did not have to leave so soon, but she had school."

Jake nodded in response to the 'school' comment. "Speaking of which, I'm assuming Reiqa is going to Grace's school?" Jake and Neytiri had rebuilt the school with the clan; it was one of the first things they did when they chose the clan's new home. They hadn't decided on an official name yet, but they knew one thing – it was going to have Grace's name in it. Norm had jokingly suggested they call it 'St. Augustine's School for the Gifted', but Jake was quick to shoot it down, reminding him that Grace had been atheist, the Na'vi weren't Catholic, and also Grace wasn't entirely saint-like. Thus, they just referred to it, for now, as Grace's school. Some Na'vi children in the clan didn't attend the school though, and some went to others in other clans that were coming up. Still, Grace's school was the best.

"Yes," Reran answered Jake, "Only the best for our little girl." Nikti smiled at him when he said that, but Jake noted it didn't quite reach her eyes like Neytiri's did when she smiled at him.

Neytiri smiled at her friends. "Well, you best put her name down. Teriana put her son's name down just the other day." She looked at her husband then. "And we are invited to her son's circumcision ceremony."

Naturally, the leaders were invited. There wasn't a function of any sort that went without them, unless they had some prior engagement. Jake stopped himself from giving a shudder, and simply said, "Make an excuse for me."

Neytiri blinked in surprised and she looked at Jake as if to say, 'No'. He looked back at her. That left it up to Neytiri to break the ensuing silence. She gave a slightly nervous chuckle. "Why? I thought you liked Teriana."

"Of course – you know I love your friends, I love everyone in this clan – but I just don't feel like watching them ritually mutilate their child," Jake said, as simply as if they were talking about the weather. He smiled at Nikti then. "Mind passing the teylu, please?" he asked.

Nikti was in such a shock by this sudden topic change, that it took her about a second to realise that Jake was talking to her. "Oh! Right," she answered, passing him the bowl, her movements slightly robotic.

Neytiri scoffed at Jake's argument. "Circumcision is not a mutilation. It is a simple surgery meant to promote lifelong masculine hygiene."

Jake begged to differ. "No, it is a painful and horrible 'surgery' which reduces the male's capacity for sexual pleasure by snipping off the tip of his – "

"We know what it is!" Neytiri cut in quickly, not needing Jake to say the actual word.

Nikti couldn't quite remember when she had lost her appetite during this conversation. She carefully lowered the next mouthful she was about to take and nodded. "Wow. I do not think I have ever heard such different views on this subject. Not that I talk about it a lot. Or ever..."

Jake got the hint. "Sorry – I didn't mean to offend you."

Reran shook his head. "No, no really it is fine!" he smiled at his leader.

"It's just that I remember my own circumcision so clearly," Jake continued, forgetting their company.

Neytiri paused for a moment, as did Reran and Nikti. Neytiri broke the agonising silence by laughing. "Oh, that is ridiculous!" she said, picking up her drink to take a sip just for something to do than twiddle her thumbs as Jake told the fictitious tale to get himself out of the said ceremony.

"My parents argued on this subject too," Jake explained. "My dad said, 'No'. So, mum just bided her time until he left for a while on business of some sort. Tom and I were five."

Nikti and Reran looked at Jake with utter shock and horror on their faces. "Whoa..." Reran murmured, whilst Nikti gasped, "Ow!"

"She told us we were going for chocolate," Jake simply said as he continued to eat.

Reran nodded and then his eyes widened, as a whole new situation dawned on him. "Hey, is that why as a human, you were in a wheelchair?"

Over the past year, Jake had noticed how Reran was a strange kind of adult. He thought of strange scenarios no one else ever would. Jake paused for a moment, before nodding his head slowly. "Yes, yes it was." Neytiri shot him a confused look. Jake had told her he was in some war in Venezuela, or some such place back on earth. Jake just shook his head at her quickly, and she kept quiet on that part.

"This is why the procedure is done on babies," Neytiri said to Jake, continuing the debate. "They will not remember then. Tom won't remember."

Jake frowned at his mate. "We're not putting Tom through that."

"He's the prince – he has to."

"Well, then I'll change that law. It's old fashioned, anyway." Neytiri shot Jake a deathly glare after he said that, and kicked him viciously under the table. Jake grimaced slightly as Neytiri's foot connected with his shin. He frowned at her back.

Nikti awkwardly pushed the food around her plate as her leaders argued, and Neytiri cleared her throat to stop the awkwardness. "So, Nikti. You said something about bringing dessert?" she queried.

Nikti nodded slowly, and looked at Jake. "Um... Yes. I brought our version of chocolate." Jake looked at her. "Sorry..."

· · ·

Neytiri was still seething at her mate after humiliating her in front of Nikti and Reran when she awoke the next morning to feed Tom. Naturally, Jake thought he was squarely in the right, and refused to accept otherwise. Neytiri argued that even though that happened to him, he shouldn't let past experiences affect his son. "We're the leaders, Jake. How will it look?" she asked him.

"Well, I hope that it will look like we're turning over a new leaf," Jake told her, in a tone that said she had better not push him any further.

Out of desperation, Neytiri got an inkling of an idea. She refused to have Tom being teased for being different. She knew one person who could help her – he had before, after all.

"No," Dieln said pretty clearly to her. Neytiri gave him a frown, and he quickly remembered who he was speaking to. "I'm sorry, Neytiri. I cannot help you."

Neytiri felt like she had been slapped in the face. "And why not?" she asked, trying not to sound too demanding.

Dieln gave a sigh and turned around in the chair he was sitting in at his desk to pull something from behind him. Neytiri heard the rustling of paper, and Dieln came back to face her. "I have a registered letter from your husband that reads: 'I do not wish for my son, Thomas Eytukan Sully, to be circumcised. Should this letter encounter my mate – '

" – Please do not hesitate to inform her of its wide circulation to healers in other clans in this and five neighbouring countries!" Neytiri exclaimed that evening to Jake after she had stolen the letter from Dieln.

Jake didn't seem to be paying too much attention to his wife's concern as he fed little Tom. "Hmm, you think he's running a fever?" he asked, pressing his large hand to Tom's forehead gently. "He's not eating well."

Neytiri was sidetracked for a moment and she looked at Tom. She touched his forehead as well, and then shook her head. "He's fine. But... to even think such a letter was necessary!"

"Clearly it was," Jake said, turning to give Neytiri a frown. "Forgive me for knowing my mate."

"And I thought I knew you!" Neytiri argued. "What happened to the man who understood Na'vi tradition?"

"Neytiri, I do understand it, and I accept it fully. Just not this aspect," Jake told her firmly. "I don't feel the need to cut Tom! What do you have against untrimmed penises anyway?"

Neytiri made a face when he actually said the word. "Well, they are... unpleasant!"

Jake arched an eyebrow. "You sound like you have a lot of knowledge in that area," he smirked a little. The scathing look Neytiri gave him quickly made Jake take that comment back. "Look, I forbid you from doing this to Tom."

"But Jake – "

Jake gave a growl. "No buts." With that, he left with Tom, and Neytiri wondered if he feared she would try and attempt the procedure herself.

All right, so this is where the previous chapter was going to lead to, and I was going to actually finish this one, but too much like DH goddammit! Also, it got kind of awkward; less awkward than Family Bed, to be sure, but awkward none the less.

I lost inspiration half-way. Basically what was going to happen was Neytiri would take Tom and get it done, then Jake would be offended and ask if Neytiri really thought of him as Tom's father and all, and she felt bad and everything is happy again! But yeah... I'm kinda glad I didn't put this in the main story.