Should I have spaced these chapters out instead of posted them back to back? Probably.
Should have slept last night instead of writing these? Also probably.
-x-
The first thing he's aware of is a bright white light.
"Jake," he heard as though on the other side of a tunnel, "Jake!"
The offensive white light breaks way as Jake's eyes begin to focus, "He's coming out right now," and there's no mistaking the stern face of Grace hovering above him.
"Come on back, kid, that's it," the words are punctuated with small slaps to his face and he wants nothing more in that moment than to be back in the hammock beside Tsu'tey fast asleep, "Come on, that's it."
He supposes the words are meant to be soothing, but they dig into his gut like Neytiri's hunting knife. Finally feeling as though he's gotten his bearings, Jake takes in a deep breath, shaking his head as though to clear it of the chatter around him.
"That's it!" Grace's tone is kind, encouraging, and Jake hates it. He moves to sit up and finds Grace's hands at the nape of his neck, steadying him, and he wants nothing more than to slap it away.
"Damn! You were dung in like a tick."
There are more hands on him, Max and Norm are at his back, and it's adding to the growing pit in his gut.
"Is the avatar safe?" Grace asks, and her voice is so soft, her eyes so urgent and open, he wants to hate her. He wants to spit in her face and tell her exactly how safe his avatar is, but he takes a breath and schools his expression into something he hopes is reassuring, but he'd settle for apathetic.
"Yeah, doc," he takes another breath, and decides in the moment that it would be better to offer an explanation than wait for it to be asked of him, "and you're not going to believe where I am."
-x-
It had worked, somehow, they'd bought his story of Neytiri and Tsu'tey's hunting party happening upon him and sparing him because of a sign from Eywa before bringing his back to their tribe.
It had delighted Grace and had obviously pissed off Norm, but Jake was just happy they bought it.
They'd let him duck off to his bunk after his explanation, and the hallways were blissfully empty as he made his way down.
"Well that worked," Jake spoke quietly, "guess you were right. Try not to get too cocky about it," he felt a warm smile spread across his face despite himself, "they should have me back about the same time you're waking up. I know I'm supposed to start my warrior training or whatever, but maybe keep in mind that your pretty ass got about four more hours of sleep than I did."
A warmth spread along the back of his neck that he suspected had nothing to do with the blush that was burning his ears.
As he neared the sleeping quarters, he saw several men still milling around, so he offered one final goodnight before entering the room and all but passing out on his bunk, not even bothering to change out of his army fatigues.
-x-
Only a few hours later, Jake found himself sat in the mess hall, forced to listen to Grace regale the surrounding bodies with her version of events from the previous day, which apparently involved him being chased off to certain death by angry thanators, which, to be fair, had been what he'd wanted her to think.
He wasn't really listening, mostly because he was tired, but in no small part because he didn't want to give her the time of day, but he attempted to play along and laugh at the right moments.
"You know," Grace paused in her story, riveting as it was, Jake thought with a sneer, "for reasons I cannot fathom, the Omaticaya have chosen you, God help us all." And the table erupted in laughter once more, but something in her tone had changed, something harder than the jovial ribbing from moments before, and Jake looked up to meet her eyes. She held his gaze, searching, and he stared right back at her.
He didn't know what she was looking for, what question she may have been trying to convey, but he didn't care. All Jake cared about was going through the motions, moving through these interactions as quickly as possible so as to get him back into his avatar. Eventually Grace broke their eye contact and moved on with her story telling, but he was no longer listening.
-x-
"Alright," Grace met him at the door to the pod room with a smile, "let's go over some stuff real quick, make sure you don't make a damn fool out of yourself."
"That won't be necessary," Jake tried to keep the scowl off his face but judging from the drop of the corners of Grace's mouth he wasn't successful.
"Oh yeah?" She bit out, her eyes growing steely, "Well come on hot shot, how about you fucking prove it to me?"
"Is this really the best use of our time?" Jake asked, looking at his watch, sure that Tsu'tey was bound to be waking up soon.
"Yeah, I think it fucking is," Grace shot back, "because something's up with you and I don't know what it is yet. I saw your vitals yesterday, and they didn't make any goddamn sense."
"What are you talking about?" Jake bit back, his voice low, despite them being the only ones in the room.
"I looked," she said, fixing him with a narrowed eyed stare, "you were totally calm when we got separated."
Ice filled Jake's veins, "well maybe your fucking machines are broken," it was a lame excuse, he should have said something clever about grace under pressure, but it was all Jake could do to beat the beginnings of panic from shutting him down entirely.
"The machines work just fine," she said, her voice low, "You were completely calm, until hours later, when I'm guessing you were 'found' by the hunting group. But even then, your vitals... I've seen the vitals of a scared man, you weren't scared, you were excited," Grace took a step closer to him, and he instinctively rolled himself back, "your vitals went up and down all evening in marginal amounts, except for right before you came back." She took a step closer, her eyes boring into his, searching rabidly for the answer to a question Jake hoped he was able to lock behind a wall of apathy, "Something happened when normal Omaticayans are going off to sleep, you were doing something that had your heart rate up the highest it had been all day. I don't know what it is you're up to, I don't know what you're sneaking around there doing," suddenly she leaned in and jabbed a finger in his chest and he thought his heart stopped, "but I'm going to fucking find out."
At that she stood up straight, tidying her lab coat and pulling a cigarette from her pocket.
"Now," and suddenly her tone was pleasant once more as some techs began to mill into the room, "let's quiz you real quick before we throw you back to the wolves, shall we?"
"Yeah," Jake said, every muscle tense, his voice coming out horse, "fine."
"Perfect," Grace smiled without it reaching her eyes, "I'm going to show you pictures of Omaticaya tribe members, you tell me who they are."
"Fine," Jake ground out again.
With a flourish that felt oddly like a slap in the face, Grace pulled out a clear tablet and brandished it in front of his face. It had a picture of Mo'at on it, her expression open in a way he had not seen since the Omaticaya learned of the human's betrayal of their trust, and the thought stung.
"That is Mo'at, she is the Tsahìk."
Grace grumbled an approval before pulling the tablet away, then returning it with a picture of Eytukan.
"Eytukan, the Olo'eyktan."
"Yeah, alright," Grace muttered, changing the picture to one of Neytiri.
"Neytiri, daughter of Eytukan and Mo'at, future Tsahìk."
"Alright, last one," Grace said before replacing Neytiri with a picture of Tsu'tey. And Jake, for all that he should have been prepared to see it, still felt his heart jump in his throat at the picture. It wasn't what one would call a flattering photograph, Tsu'tey's mouth was drawn in a deep scowl, his brow furrowed and eyes narrowed in displeasure, though Jake couldn't imagine a scenario where Tsu'tey would have been pleased to have his photo taken. Despite the glare marring his features, Jake couldn't help the warmth the sight bloomed in his chest.
"Tsu'tey," Jake spoke, near wistfully, "son of Ateyo and Artsut, future Olo'eyktan."
The words had no sooner left his mouth than he realized his mistake.
There was no reason he should know Tsu'tey's parents' names, Tsu'tey was to become Olo'eyktan because he was chosen by Eywa, not because of lineage like Neytiri. Grace probably didn't even know Tsu'tey's parent's names, mention of them had been in none of her books, none of her research articles, none of her interviews, there was no possible way Jake could have known on research alone.
"How... how do you..." Grace stared, wide eyed, cigarette threatening to fall from her open lips.
"Yeah okay so you memorized some names," a voice cut through, drawing their attention away from each other, "what about Eywa, do you know about that?" Norm asked, hands on his hips, his mouth forming in an indignant line.
Jake saw his chance to break away from Grace, and began rolling toward his pod as he spoke, "Eywa is the guiding force that connects all beings, living and dead, keeping everything in balance," he finished as he began lifting himself into the cool gel of the pod, moving fast, hyper-aware of Grace's eyes still boring into the side of his head as she reluctantly worked at the monitor of his pod.
"Well..." Norm started, "You could also call it... like... a deity." He finished lamely, an unsightly pout pulling on his face.
"Then call it that," Jake said, pulling his legs into position and lowering the wire cage over himself.
"Link is ready" Max said somewhere nearby.
"We're not done," Grace said quietly before Jake reached up and closed the pod himself.
"Fuck," Jake said before closing his eyes, feeling the pull of the link and letting himself get lost in the knowledge that in mere moments, he would be with Tsu'tey again.