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“You mean, there’s a baby in there? Like, a whole baby?” Lo’ak went to snake his hand over the edge of the bed to poke at the stretched skin of his aunt’s stomach. He pulled it back quickly when Norm gave it an annoyed tap, turning to the man with his own annoyed expression.
Norm rolled his eyes when Lo’ak stuck out his tongue.
The scientist turned his back to the shack’s visitors to lift a jar of translucent jelly up to Trudy’s stomach, spooning a small amount out and spreading it into a thin layer. His wife winced slightly at the coolness of it, but a reassuring hand quickly found its way into her own.
Spider looked to Lo’ak as Norm worked. His stomach dropped at the way Lo’ak’s ears perked up; he could see the boy’s nose twitching and pupils widening like the cats they’d seen on video. Knowing nothing good would come from interrupting Norm again, Spider pulled Lo’ak back by the upper arm when a hand began to reach out again.
Norm had his back to them, but Trudy watched the boys fondly. She hoped her own child would be as fun as those two.
“Yes, Lo’ak, there’s a baby in here.” She patted the sides of her stomach. The uneven firmness below the pads of her fingers and frequent kicks that had her wincing were confirmation enough that she was expecting.
The white corded device Norm held made its way across her skin. She glanced up to see her husband’s scrunched concentration face looking at the ultrasound monitor.
When he got the angle right, he spoke to the boys, “Yep, and here he is!”
Norm gestured to the fuzzy black and white image on the screen. Both boys leant forwards to get a better look. The alternating lines formed a semi-circle that had them squinting and tilting their heads side to side to decipher what they were looking at. Patterns criss-crossed the screen in esoteric sequences that few could understand.
Spider scratched his chin. “I dunno. Doesn’t look like anything really.”
“Of course it does. See? Here’s his leg, and I think this is a hand?” Norm traced his finger over the outline of a blob of mismatched pixels. Neither Spider nor Lo’ak could see the resemblance.
Lo’ak tapped the screen, ears perking up at the sound his nail made against the glass. “How did this get here?”
The wide eyes and innocent look on his face as he turned to face the others had Spider snickering into his hand.
He started laughing before he even spoke, “Lo’ak, when a man and a woman love each other very much-“
“Skxawng, I know where babies come from!” Lo’ak’s lips pulled back to reveal his teeth when a mighty hiss came from his mouth. “I meant how did this get onto the screen? How does it see through skin?”
Norm gave Spider a disapproving side glance, but turned his attention to the other, hopefully more engaged child. He pulled the device away from Trudy’s stomach - the image turning to noise on the screen - and held it up for Lo’ak to get a better look.
“This sends out soundwaves that can travel through solid objects, then times how long it takes for them to return. By doing this really quickly millions of times a second, it can make a picture out of these soundwaves, which is displayed here.” Norm gestured to the monitor. “That allows us to monitor the baby’s growth without any intrusive procedures.”
He looked back to Lo’ak, only to find the young boy’s eyes beginning to glaze over. Norm muttered to himself as he turned back to continue his wife’s checkup, “Why do I even bother?”
It was now Trudy’s turn to reassuringly squeeze his hand.
Norm sighed again, but pointed vaguely to one side of the shack and spoke as he worked, “Jake told me to keep you guys occupied for the morning. I’m sure you’ll find something interesting over there. Go through the old Hell’s Gate video logs if you want. Just don’t touch anything that looks fragile.”
That instruction would likely go ignored, but he didn’t really expect anything more from the 13 and 11 year olds. The sound of a metal box clattering to the ground and the halting of rapid steps had Norm using up yet another of his daily sighs.
Trudy watched Norm switch the ultrasound back on and continue working his way across her belly. He wasn’t a doctor by trade, but he’d picked up a few things about foetal development from his occasional work with Mo’at and the other Omatikaya healers; he just hoped that Na’vi-specific knowledge would transfer to humans.
It wasn’t like babies came with a manual, though he wondered if Trudy would approve of him writing one.
Hmm, he’d have to note that down for later. Keep a logbook of his findings. Then again, he fully expected himself to panic the moment his son was born; no idea how he would go about raising a child.
Speaking of children, Norm glanced up to a flash of blue he spotted through the shack’s glass inner door. He couldn’t help but smile at Tuktirey’s wide grin as she waved at him. Once the pressurisation cycle finished and the outside air had been purged, the door hissed open, and Tuk ran through and up to Norm.
“Woah, Tuk, you need your mask!” Lo’ak peered over the top of the monitor when he saw his sister sprint past the rack. Past experience had quickly taught him the importance of the masks.
Tuk whined, “It makes my face itchy. I don’t like it.” She pouted and crossed her arms. Her brother couldn’t tell her what to do, so she stood her ground.
Thankfully, Trudy came to Lo’ak’s aid. “Sorry girlie. If you want to be in here, you need to put one on. Just like us humans have to when we’re outside.”
“But I wanna see the baby!”
Trudy raised an eyebrow, and Tuk sulked over to the rack by the entrance. Lo’ak left his place at the monitor to help her fit the cannister’s strap over her shoulder and secure the head bands in place. She tried to shrug his hands away, but Lo’ak was quick enough to work around her, and she was soon breathing the correct air, albeit with an annoyed scrunch of her nose.
“Don’t come crying to me when you can’t breathe then.” Lo’ak rolled his eyes and strolled back over to Spider, who was watching the interaction with his own exopack hanging from his bandoleer and belt.
Trudy jerked her head in Tuk’s direction to hint at her husband. He looked at her in question. She flicked her eyes across to the girl again, but it still took a moment to click for Norm. His mouth formed an O in realisation.
He placed the ultrasound down and went over to Tuk. Crouching before the young girl, he lifted her chin up to be eye to eye with her, though she was nearly as tall as humans much older than herself.
“Why don’t I show you the baby then?” Norm tilted his head to the side.
He saw her ears instantly perk up and her eyes brightened. Ruffling her braids, he scooped her up and carried her over to the bed Trudy lay on, placing her softly next to his wife. Tuk shuffled backwards until she brushed against Trudy’s legs and turned to face Norm expectantly.
He smiled at her, “I’ll show you how the machine works, then you can give it a go if you want?”
Tuk nodded rapidly, reaching out with grabby hands until Norm could demonstrate. Moving the device over another part of Trudy’s stomach, the lines appeared on the screen and Tuk gasped.
“Look! It’s a foot!” The little girl pointed at the amorphous blob, but Norm did have to admit she was right. Five toes, and distinctly foot shaped.
Tuk bumped her curled fist against Norm’s in a gesture her dad had taught her. She giggled when another foot-shaped blob drifted into view next to the first.
“So, if that’s where his feet are, his head must be down here.” Norm said whilst tapping his chin in mock thought, passing the ultrasound to Tuk then gently tapping lower on Trudy’s stomach. “Be gentle.”
Tuk nodded enthusiastically, and Norm once again silently thanked his wife for being so patient with kids. Without her, he would be an exasperated mess, shooing them away from his equipment. Although, Trudy still winced when Tuk’s inexperienced hand pressed the device a little too hard into her.
“Gentle, gentle. It won’t work otherwise.” Norm placed his palm over Tuk’s and carefully guided the device around.
Tuk kept looking up to the screen in awe, then back down to move to a different place. Every time she looked, Norm could see her pupils blow wider than the last, until he was sure they could get no bigger.
Once they had covered Trudy’s entire stomach, Norm gently took the ultrasound and wiped it down, passing more wipes to Trudy. Tuk sat looking at the screen again, but this time there was a thoughtful scrunch to her brow, one that only a young child pondering the universe could possess.
“What is it girlie? You look confused.” Trudy swung her legs over the edge of the bed and pressed her hands into her back to flex her stiff spine.
Tuk didn’t respond immediately, so Norm took the opportunity to press a kiss to Trudy’s cheek and pull up a chair to sit beside them both.
When the question had been thoroughly processed and was ready to be asked, Tuk shuffled off the bed and moved to point at the last displayed image on the screen, then down to Trudy’s belly. “How is the baby so small, when humans like Uncle Norm and Spider are so tall?”
Trudy had to resist the urge to coo.
She gently tapped Norm when he went to explain. Norm acquiesced and sat back in his chair with open ears.
Trudy started, “So you know how Na’vi are generally bigger than humans? Like how your mum is bigger than me, and Lo’ak is taller than most of the scientists, despite being so much younger?” Tuk sat up with the utmost attention, nodding along to Trudy’s words. The woman continued, “So human babies are smaller than Na’vi babies because humans are smaller. The baby needs to fit inside me. I’d pop otherwise!”
Tuk giggled, “Your belly looks like it might.”
“Whoa ho, young lady! Are you saying I look fat?” Trudy put her hands on her hips in mock indignation.
“Maybe a little.” Tuk put her fingers together, leaving a small distance between them. She pulled her hands back to her cheeks and giggled again.
Trudy grinned ear to ear. “I guess we’ll have to ask your dad to find photos from when your mum was pregnant. I can’t be the only fat one after all.” She looked to where the boys were still watching video logs, Lo’ak perched precariously on the back of a chair. She called to them, “Lo’ak, I need your help here.”
The boy’s head perked up, and from the mischievous look his aunt gave him, sprinted over. Norm saw it too, handing an exopack to Trudy and pulling one over his own head. Tuk watched on curiously.
“Right, let’s get you to your dad then. Lo’ak, grab her arms.”
Trudy reached down for Tuk’s legs, grasping them strongly whilst Lo’ak lifted her by her shoulders. Shrieking with laughter, Tuk hung between the two of them as they shuffled into the airlock and out the door.
The young girl kept laughing all the way to the Sullys’ Marui, loud enough that it distracted Trudy from the ache that began to seep into her limbs. Pacing along behind them was Spider and Norm, the latter of which looked slightly concerned. For whom, she wasn’t sure.
At that point in the mid-morning, Jake had finished airing out the clansmen’s grievances for the day, delegating out tasks to remedy the issues that’d been brought up. Now he sat in his Marui with his mate preparing for a scouting flight. The yearly migration of ‘Angtsìk had begun a few days ago, and their numbers needed to be surveyed to ensure only the needed amount were hunted.
The last thing he expected to see was his daughter, looking like she was about to burst from laughing too hard, being held strung between his son and heavily pregnant friend, with Norm and Spider following.
The flick of his tail and raised eyebrow from his mate betrayed their confusion. “Um, hi? Didn’t expect you guys to be done so soon.”
Trudy lowered Tuk’s feet down so she could stand on her own, but not before Lo’ak started tickling his sister’s sides and filling the hut with giggling shrieks. Tuk jumped and wriggled around to evade his hands, but the attempts were futile, and he kept finding a way through her defences.
Trudy’s back cracked as she twisted to the side. “This cheeky thing-” She pointed to where Tuk was squirming away from her brother and pressing her arms firmly against her sides, “Called me fat. I think we should get out some of her baby photos.”
Both Jake and Neytiri could see the mischievous twinkle in the other woman’s eyes, and it brought them all onto the same wavelength.
Neytiri had to hide her grin behind her hand to put on a mask of faux seriousness, “Oh yes, from when she was all small and chubby.” Cameras were the one Sky People invention the Na’vi woman liked. No longer did memories have to fade from the mind.
The hut’s occupants took a seat, Spider crouched beside Jake as Norm helped Trudy down. Tuk took refuge from her brother’s attack in her dad’s lap, curling into his chest and sticking her tongue out teasingly. Lo’ak nodded conspiratorially to Spider, and they both lunged forward to poke at her again. Her head flicked back as the laughter began anew.
Jake wrapped his youngest child in a protective cocoon, but soon found himself the victim of the boys’ attack. Only after having children did he learn his Avatar body was even more ticklish than his human one.
He started to wriggle himself, until the cocoon was broken and Tuk dashed away to the safety of her mum beside one of their trunks. Neytiri didn’t look up from where she searched for the drive they kept their photos on, but did wrap her tail around her daughter. Neither boy dared make another attempt; Neytiri would tickle them until they were crying with laughter to protect Tuk.
Tuk peered over the edge of the box just as Neytiri grasped the small thumb drive from the bottom. She’d seen her parents plug it into her dad’s laptop before, but was never too interested in its contents. Now, she couldn’t wait to see the old photos.
Moving back to the group, Neytiri and Tuk traversed their way through the afternoon’s scouting preparation that lay forgotten on the floor. The others could go on without them.
Lo’ak passed his dad the laptop and they quickly set it up for them all to see, then plugged in the drive Neytiri handed over.
“Alright, should we go all the way back?” Jake looked to his daughter, who nodded eagerly.
Trudy concurred, “I think that may be needed. Neytiri, did Jake take any pictures when you were pregnant?”
Jake answered for his mate, “Yep, and here they are!”
Scrolling through the list, there were pages upon pages of candid photos of Neytiri going about daily life in their hut; most of them had her rolling her eyes at her mate’s off-screen antics as he took the picture.
In several, Neytiri was crouched over and chopping food, her distended belly getting in her way. Even in the hastily taken image they could make out how annoyed it made her. Another was a more composed shot; a side profile with Neytiri resting her hands gently on her stomach and gazing down fondly.
Tuk burst from her seat when the image appeared, “Wow mum, you’re fat too!”
“Bah! She was way more tactful with me earlier.” Trudy laughed alongside the rest of them.
Neytiri raised an eyebrow and pointed at the screen. “Don’t say that too quick, little one. That is you in there.”
The little girl’s hands flew to her mouth to cover her gasp, “Really?! That’s me?! I made you fat!”
Lo’ak snickered beside the adults. He went to teasingly poke at his sister again, but a quick hand and raised eyebrow stopped him. He glanced up to see his mother’s unimpressed look, then sheepishly brought his hand back.
“Don’t tease too quickly, son.” Jake gently took the laptop from his mate and scrolled to a different set of images. “These are from when your mum was pregnant with you. I don’t know about you, but I think you were even bigger!”
Now it was Tuk’s turn to giggle, much to the enjoyment of everyone, bar Lo’ak.
Jake continued, “And when you all came out, we would wrap you up in the warmest blanket we could find.” He gestured off to a pile on the side of the room. Spider took the cue and passed over the topmost piece of fabric.
Tuk suddenly found herself in her father’s lap, being wrapped up tightly until only her face and the tips of her ears were visible. Her tail coiled around her leg in surprise and stayed there under the blanket, her arms pressed to her sides.
It took all the effort the adults had not to fawn over the startled expression on the little girl. Jake himself didn’t succeed. He cooed at his daughter and brushed a stray hair from her face. With pupils the size of dinner plates, Tuk found herself being cradled by her dad and rocked back and forth as Jake sung softly.
“Hush little baby, don’t say a word, papa’s gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird don’t sing, papa’s gonna buy you a diamond ring…” Jake paused as Tuk’s eyes grew heavy.
She fought with fleeting energy to stay awake, but it was a futile battle against the warmth and slow rocking rhythm, and she was soon asleep.
Jake finally looked up, seeing varying looks of surprise and awe on the faces of the hut’s occupants. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I never learnt the rest of the words.” He looked down to his snoozing daughter. “Never needed to.”
Spider was the first to break the silence, thankfully keeping his voice low, “Did I ever get wrapped up?”
Norm snorted, and Trudy smirked. Jake’s ears perked up at their reactions to the question. He handed the bundled Tuk to Neytiri, who moved to the little girl's sleeping mat, then gestured alongside Spider for them to continue.
For the first time ever, Jake saw his friend look smug.
“Yeah, you were a little terror around the lab, and you only got worse when you learnt to walk. We tried to wrap you up like that to stop you from wandering around our equipment, but you seemed to have a knack for escaping.” Norm had pulled out his own tablet and was searching through his own photos. “To this day, I still don’t know how, we once found you bundled up in your blanket on top of a bookshelf.”
The photo he showed to everyone was proof enough of his story. Baby Spider, asleep, wrapped in a blanket, and very high off the ground.
“Still got some of that baby fat, aye?” Trudy reached over to pinch at Spider’s cheek.
The teen squirmed away in an embarrassed huff.
“My wife here thought it was hilarious,” Trudy bumped Norm gently with her elbow, “But you gave Max and me a heart attack. We did our best to baby-proof everything, but you still managed to climb onto desks and shelves. Come to think of it, we’ll probably need to do that again soon.”
“Why don’t you take a look at some of these photos then?” Trudy took the tablet from Norm and passed it to Spider.
The teen looked through the list slowly, Lo’ak coming to sit beside him to look too. Eventually, Spider found one, tapping on the thumbnail to expand it.
A small boy, with an enormous mass of curly blonde hair and the brightest blue eyes, sat on the edge of a workbench, trying to pull the straps of a modified exopack mask over his head. Max’s arm could be seen trying to aid the boy, but only getting more hair in the way.
“I remember this. It was my first mask.” Spider looked up to Norm.
The scientist smiled back, “Yep, that day was the first time you left Hell’s Gate. We didn’t go far, just down to the river. That’s also the first time you met Kiri.” Norm gave him a knowing look.
Spider blushed, and Lo’ak gave him a teasing nudge. Even Neytiri couldn’t help but smile at his obvious crush. Several more photos were flicked through when they heard shuffling from behind them.
Tuk’s head popped up from the wrapped blanket, looking bright and alert. “Dad, is it morning already?”
“Well that’s about right. Five-minute nap, and she’s up and ready to go.” Jake slid his hand down his face. “No, it’s still the same day.”
“Okay! Can I look at some more photos then?”
“You won’t go to sleep again anyway,” He muttered quietly, then louder, “Sure can.” He glanced over to a rather bemused looking Norm and Trudy. “I wish years of sleepless nights upon you both.”
Norm held his hands up in surrender.
Tuk quickly rejoined the circle, this time leaning heavily into Spider’s side to look at the photos, and completely forgetting how he and her brother were tickling her before.
Neytiri joined the other adults on the opposite side of the hut, her tail intertwining with her mate’s. She asked Norm and Trudy, “Why are they so interested in these old photos?”
“Norm was doing an ultrasound, and none of them believed that a baby could fit in here.” Trudy tapped her stomach. “We explained that humans are smaller, so human babies are smaller too.”
“Oh! I’ve got an idea.” The kids turned to Norm at the sudden sound. “Hey Spider, can I please have that back for a second?”
Spider passed the tablet back over, Norm taking it and flicking through several menus and typing in search bars. Jake just shrugged at the boys’ confused looks.
“We said before how humans are just smaller,” Norm began, “But we didn’t say why.”
He pulled up an image on the screen and turned it around to show the kids. Neytiri too leant forwards to get a better look. There were two circles side by side, one slightly smaller than the other, but both made of strokes of blue, green, and white.
Norm pointed to each of them. “This is Earth, and this is Pandora. See how Pandora is smaller, which means it has less gravity. Only about 80% of Earth’s.”
He paused when Tuk held her hand up.
The little girl asked with bright and wide eyes, “What’s gravity?”
Jake grasped her below her arms and threw her up. She shrieked in delight, and was caught again on her way down. Being placed on the ground once more, Jake said, “That’s gravity. It’s what pulls you back down.”
“Yep, and there’s less of it here than on Earth.” Norm smiled at the giggling girl. “So here, it’s easier for things to evolve and grow bigger.”
Norm pulled the tablet down again, flicking through to another photo. “I forgot that Max catalogued the remaining data we had from Hell’s Gate, so I found these old images from Earth.”
The children and Neytiri cocked their heads to the side at the strange animal he showed them. Jake, however, nodded in understanding.
“This is an elephant, the largest land animal on Earth. I actually have a photo of me with one somewhere… Ah ha!”
Norm stood in dark sunglasses and a wide-brim hat patting the flank of the enormous animal. He was sombre when he spoke, “They had died out to the point that they only really existed in zoos or highly protected reserves, so I was very fortunate to get this photo.”
Trudy huffed a laugh from his side when Tuk’s ears stuck up to the ceiling and her nose pressed into the tablet. They all knew the little girl had an infatuation with what she called fluffy cuddly animals, and it just so happened she thought a lot of Earth’s wildlife fit into that category. Those who had lived on Earth were loath to tell her about the fact that lions and tigers had sharp claws and teeth that could very easily kill their prey.
“Should I look for some more pictures of elephants then?”
Tuk nodded eagerly to the scientist’s question, then focussed back on the screen.
Norm continued, “Alright then. This is the largest land animal on Earth, but it’s still only half the size of the Hammerhead Titanothere, the nearest equivalent on Pandora. We think that lower gravity allows creatures here to develop-”
Looking up from his impromptu presentation, he found the rest of the adults smirking at him, the boys nowhere to be seen, and Tuk still trying to press her nose into the tablet. Norm sighed a heavy sigh; how often he felt like he was talking to a brick wall with the kids.
Jake couldn’t help but smile at his friend’s optimism.
When Norm and Trudy’s son was born, the Sullys soon received an invite to meet the new baby. The children were practically bouncing off the walls in anticipation of meeting him, and Neytiri couldn’t help but concur with their sentiment. She’d never met a newborn human baby; Spider was at least a year old when she first saw him.
The airlock to the medical shack was crowded with all the occupants squished together as the pressure equalised. Jake glanced to Neytiri. Whilst not their own child, the feeling of seeing a new life for the first time was still running high through them. It brought them back to when each of their children took their first breaths, and every milestone that came after.
When the door hissed open, they exited to the interior and quickly went about putting the masks on; Lo’ak somehow managed to get the strap of his tangled in his new braids that Kiri did the day before, and Tuk still didn’t remember which way the tubing was supposed to go.
Kiri rolled her eyes at her brother, and Neytiri helped Tuk right her mask. Then she grabbed the girl to stop her from sprinting and jumping on Trudy.
The sound of the airlock door opening and closing again brought their attention behind them. Spider waved eagerly through the glass, clearly having received the same invitation as them. Removing his exopack and clipping it to his bandoleer, Spider joined them as they made their way to the bed.
Norm sat in an uncomfortable looking chair to the side of Trudy’s bed, his head forward and eyes closed as he dozed. Trudy herself had a blanket pulled up to her mid-section, and looked like she was about to fall asleep too. She would’ve if it wasn’t for the small bundle she held to her chest.
“Um… Should we come back later?” Trudy’s head perked up when Jake asked.
“No, no. You’re good.” The yawn the woman let out contradicted her statement.
Trudy dropped her arm from the bundle to her husband, knocking him on the back of his head harder than she intended.
“What, where, how?” Norm sat bolt upright, eyes wide and frantically searching for danger.
Trudy scoffed, “My knight in shining armour.”
Finally realising where he was, Norm sunk back into the chair. He reached over to pull the cloth down slightly from the bundle. Stroking a finger oh so gently across the baby’s forehead caused the infant’s mouth to twitch slightly. Norm grinned brightly to his wife. Their baby’s first smile. Neither of them could believe the fact that this little thing had come from them; two halves put together to make a whole.
Neytiri rested her head on her mate’s shoulder, intertwining their tails together behind them. Kiri, Neteyam and even Lo’ak couldn’t help but coo.
Jake spoke softly to not rouse the babe, “How’re you holding up?”
Norm looked to Trudy to answer. She blinked rapidly to keep herself awake, “Sore, and thankful that is over. Can’t say I enjoyed it.”
Neytiri hummed in agreement, “The birthing process is painful, and can be very long.”
“Yeah, I’m glad my hand still works.” Norm held up his bandaged fingers, Trudy rolling her eyes.
“I wasn’t gripping you that hard.”
Norm winced.
“Are you done talking about grown-up things? I wanna see the baby.” Tuk’s whine pierced the air. Neytiri softly reminded her to keep her voice down.
Like a chain reaction, Tuktirey looked to Jake, who looked to Norm, who looked to Trudy. Rolling her eyes again, Trudy nodded and shuffled her legs to the side of the bed to make room for Tuk to carefully climb up. Sensing her slight wobble, Jake reached over and grasped his daughter gently under the arms to stop her from falling forward.
The rest of them moved around the bed, Kiri standing beside Norm, Lo’ak and Spider with Neteyam on the other side, and Neytiri next to Jake.
Slowly, Trudy pulled the cloth down from around the baby’s head. The cooler air hit his downy hair, and he wriggled slightly in his sleep. A small squeak came from his mouth.
“Oh, Ma Tsmuke, he’s beautiful!” Neytiri’s hand flew to her mouth to hold in the gasp.
Jake looked up to his friends, “Do you have a name?”
“We’ve got a few ideas, but nothing final yet.”
Jake nodded; it had taken him and Neytiri several weeks after each of their children’s births to complete their naming ceremonies. As far as he was concerned, he would whole-heartedly perform the same rite for his friends’ son, and he knew Mo’at would have no objections either.
With a weight growing on his arms, Jake felt Tuk lean even further forwards. She had never seen a human baby before. Though her siblings teased her for being the youngest, saying she was still a baby herself, he knew she preened at the attention she got. She was the smallest and had never been anything but the smallest in their immediate circle. A new baby upset that status quo.
But from the chirp she made and the wide eyes she watched the baby with, Jake didn’t think she would mind too much.
“Huh, I think someone has a new best friend.”
Tuk didn’t even hear Trudy’s chuff. All she could see was the tiny nose, soft skin, chubby cheeks and peacefully closed eyes. All warm and wrapped up, it was a sight of such utter safety that had her wishing she was held tightly in her own mother’s arms, keeping her safe as the sounds of thunderstorms rolled overhead, or reassuring her that a bad dream wasn’t real.
That same awe slipped into her voice, “Can I… Can I hold him?”
The look of pure hope in her eyes nearly had Norm agreeing to anything she asked right there and then, but he at least had the self-preservation to glance to his wife.
Trudy nodded, but added, “I think it might be a good idea if your dad helps you.”
Understanding what she meant, Jake wouldn’t fit on the bed with his daughter, so he pulled Tuk up into his side and lowered them both down, crossing his legs. Tuk sat in his lap with her back pressed up to his chest and his arms encircling her.
“So we’ve got to be real careful, alright? We’re gonna hold our arms like this, and have his head resting here. Human babies’ heads are heavy.” Tuk nodded seriously to Jake’s instructions. “If your arms get tired, let me know.”
Taking his son carefully from Trudy, Norm slowly lowered him down until Jake’s longer arms could reach out. The baby was situated snuggly, Jake resting his head in the crook of his elbow. He felt Tuk’s arms come up under his to wrap around the newborn too. He let her take some of the weight, just to get a feel, but sure to keep him secure.
Jake rolled his eyes when Neytiri crouched to double check his hold, Kiri leaning over too to watch.
Hearing a click from off to the side, they all glanced to the source. Somehow having found Norm’s camera, Spider had his eye up to the viewfinder and was pressing the shutter button rapidly.
Lo’ak stood to his friend’s side with his thumbs up and a wide grin spread across his face. “Looking good sis.”
Tuk didn’t even glance up when Neteyam hissed at them to put the camera down.
Trudy managed to swing her legs over the edge of the bed, but gestured for Norm. He pulled her arm over his shoulder and took some of her weight as she leant slightly to the side.
Tuk’s stillness had the whole room watching silently, with Norm holding his breath. She just stared and watched with wide eyes. He couldn’t help the slight increase in heartrate that started to thump in his chest.
“Well, what do you think?”
Finally, she looked up, a cheek-splitting grin on her face.
“He’s so… small.”