-.-Back and Forth-.-

"The Colonel is really keeping tight tabs on your ass," Grace remarked.

Tell me about it. Nix was sure that if anyone on base could see through their charade, it was the Doc, but she said nothing more of it, just making an observation.

"Yeah, you know, being the civilian and all that." Yeah, that. The same old excuse.

"Well don't be too long, yeah. We need you back here."

Nix stopped her packing and looked at Grace. "Really you do? You need me?"

"Yes, just as any one of us. You're an important part of this team, Nix."

She felt tears of sheer delight spring into her eyes. She hadn't realized until just now how much she needed to hear that. And from Dr. Grace Augustine herself! This was one of the proudest moments of her life! Next thing she knew, she dove forward and enveloped Grace in a hug.

Grace stiffly patted her back. "Okay, all right - get outta here."

"Tell Jake to stay out of trouble while I'm gone." He was off with Neytiri again.

"Too late."

Trudy flew her back to base. Not much had changed there.

She caught up with the other scientists - getting an update on the design for her face shield breathing mask. She was excited that her idea was actually coming to fruition.

The next morning, the Colonel's internal clock woke him at 5:00. Strangely enough, Nix's side of the bed was empty and cold, even at that, as she put it, 'ungodly hour'.

It took him a while to find her, at the far end of base where the floor to ceiling walls were. She was standing in a baggy sweatshirt and sweatpants in front of those windows.

"The hell you doing up so early?"

"Good morning to you too. There are some things worth dragging your ass out of bed at this ungodly hour for, and this is one of them: Pandora sunrise. I've tried to take photos but they just don't do it justice. Same with the sunset." She had begun a ritual ever since Grace had told her about it, waking up this early, watching the sunrise, and then promptly going back to bed.

A warm glow filled the hall as the sun continued to rise, basking over them and everything else in the room.

Nix yawned. "Wow, that was brilliant - I'm going back to bed."

Jake had had a successful hunt, with Neytiri's guidance of course, and now the whole Clan was celebrating.

Most of the Clan members were dancing to drumbeats, while a group, including the Avatars, sat off to the side watching. Tsu'tey passed around a cupful of some sort of drink.

Jake took a gulp. "Ohhhh damn!" The others cheered and the cup continued to be passed around.

"Hey watch that stuff," Grace said, snatching the cup from Norm before he could even take a sip. "It'll knock you into next week!" Still she took it and took a large gulp.

"Ooo, lemme try!" Nix made grabby hands and downed the rest of the cup. "Oh damn is right!" That certainly had a buzz to it. Her head was already spinning.

Neytiri danced her way over. "You must dance." She took Jake's hands, trying to drag him over to the rest of the dancers, but he resisted. "It is the way!"

On his way being dragged, Jake grabbed Grace's hand.

"Oh no - I'm a scientist!" Laughing, Norm and Nix followed and they were soon all right at the centre of the dancing. The drumbeats and calls led the movements.

Nix broke away form the dancing group and ran back over to the one Na'vi who sat grimly on the side, watching. "Tsu'tey will you dance with me?" He was watching Neytiri and Jake, as were her parents - looked like Nix wasn't the only one who had noticed the flicker between them.

Despite his anger, he was a good sport and took up her offer to dance - though with many looks shot Neytiri and Jake's ways.

The next morning Nix awoke in her bunk, on her stomach, arm twisted strangely beneath her, and a puddle of drool on her pillow, more trickling down her chin.

Wow, she hadn't had this bad of a hangover in years - maybe not this bad ever. And perfect timing too: she was scheduled to return to the base for her weekly check-in today.

She knocked out during the flight back, so suddenly there they were, arriving at base.

She headed right for the dining hall, loading up a plate and grabbing a huge glass of water and started slamming everything down.

Heavy booted footsteps entered the hall and Miles strode in. "You neglected to check in upon arrival."

"Yeah, I had some more important things on my mind."

"Are you hungover?"

"Badly."

"The lab coats are getting drunk out there?"

"No, Clan Hunt Festival - super fun. A little too fun some might say."

He glanced at the large spread of food and drink before her. "Coffee?"

Coffee! How had she neglected to get some of that elixir? "Oh, please!"

He got up and returned with a large mug, full to the brim.

"Thanks - oh I love you!" She snatched the mug from him. "The coffee silly," she quickly added to his look of - alarm? Was that quite it? She couldn't really tell.

Said coffee was hot, but she still gulped it down, anything to swallow her words and her churning stomach - and now not only from the hangover.

"Oh shit! Sorry, don't stop on my account!"

Back at the shack, Nix caught Trudy and Norm locked in a passionate - and very naked - embrace.

She spun around and ran back down the hall, hearing Trudy's laughter in the background. Maybe she wasn't the only one with a secret romance going on around here.

"Norm's attitude's improved lately," Jake remarked. She could tell by his tone that he knew about Norm and Trudy too. They shared a laugh.

"That's it, that's where she wants to take me," Jake explained as the whole group huddled around Grace's screen. He pointed to a tree, one that resembled a weeping willow from Earth - Nix had never seen a real one, but had seen pictures - only this tree's branches were a soft pink glow.

"The Tree of Souls. It's their most sacred place," Grace explained. "See the Flux Vortex in these false colour images?"

"Yeah, that's what messes up my instruments," Trudy remarked.

"There is something really interesting going on in there biologically. I would die to get samples, but outsiders are strictly forbidden. You lucky swine."

Before her camera, Nix showed off some of the dance moves from the festival. "The Navi sure know how to celebrate!"

After, out of breath and beaming, she talked through some thoughts. "You know how excited I was when they discovered there was in fact other life out there? Out here now, I guess. I was ecstatic! I mean, space is so huge, of course there has to be some other forms of life. But you don't see them trying to invade Earth and use those resources. No, that seems to be just a human thing.

I think the idea is that maybe other people can come here and be Avatars, or at least I think that's Grace's long-term goal. That's a lot of Avatars. And billions more dollars. But Grace's program is so necessary: this is their home, the Na'vi. It's not their problem that we completely screwed over our home planet and need a new home. In order to live here we have to commit to learning their ways of survival, and unfortunately, very few people here see that. They would rather destroy and rebuild." She sat back and blew out a breath. "Whew, I didn't mean for that to take such a sad turn - just some thoughts." She reached out and flicked off the camera.

That was enough for now.

Part of this was inspired by the wonderful deleted scenes from the movie :)

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)