Chapter Text
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Nix groaned when she felt the bed shift beside her. She barely had to crack her eyes open to know it was still dark out.
"No," she wined, voice very crackly with sleep. "Don't go yet."
A deep chuckle came from beside her. "It's five-thirty in the morning, Darlin'. Time for me to get up."
"Heathen." She promptly rolled over.
Another chuckle. "We've got new recruits arriving today. Gotta prepare."
"You've done that speech so many times you could do it in your sleep. I could do it in my sleep."
"Oh really? Could you?" he challenged.
"Yes. 'You're not in Kansas anymore. You're on Pandora, ladies and gentleman'." She lowered her voice and put on an American accent.
"Not bad."
"Told you."
She shrieked when he ripped the quilt off her, making him laugh.
"I hate you."
"No you don't." He pressed a kiss to her head - which she was trying to bury under the covers - before heading off to the bathroom.
A little while later, he was dressing in his uniform when a wail came from the crib across the room.
"Oh, not you too," she groaned, but was smiling. "He's taking after Daddy's timeline. You two have bee conspiring against me, I can see. Miles and Miles."
She dragged herself out of bed to collect their son, who was no doubt wanting to be fed. Miles Socorro Quaritch, the first human born on Pandora. The little man was making history.
"I'll see you both later." Miles Sr. pressed a kiss to his wife's head, then his son's.
In her signature move, she looped his dog tags around her finger and pulled him down for another kiss. "Go get 'em, Colonel."
Nix was a little shit, and she knew it.
She loved messing with Miles. It had sort of become a tradition that she would stand-in during his safety speech to the new recruits and make some comments.
"You're not in Kansas anymore. You're on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact every second of every day. If there is a hell, you might want to go there for some R&R after a tour on Pandora. Out there beyond that fence, every living thing that crawls, flies or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes as Jujubes. We have an indigenous population of humanoids called the Na'vi. They're fond of arrows dipped in a neurotoxin that'll stop your heart in one minute. And they have bones reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. They are very hard to kill. As Head of Security, it is my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed - not with all of you. If you want to survive, you need to cultivate a strong mental attitude. You've got to obey the rules, Pandora rules. These rules are there for a reason, they are not there to bypass, drag ass, or pass gas on, hey numbnuts? Yes you." He called out one man who looked on the verge of falling asleep. Hey, Nix remembered coming out of cryo, and how it felt like sleepwalking for the first little while afterwards. "This is for all heads, you wanna wake up and pay attention? Rule Number One: keep your exopack within reach at all times-"
This was her chance. "These ugly things?" She held one up for emphasis.
"Yes, these 'ugly things' will keep you alive out there. Failure to comply with Rule Number One can have fatal consequences, and then the rest of the rules won't be worth shit to you. You-" Now he approached her, as though he had just randomly chosen her out of the crowd. "-Do you think you have what it takes to survive out there?"
She straightened her back and met his eyes directly, cracking a smirk. "Yes, Sir." Little shit indeed.
"Do you feel prepared to face the full force of Pandora?"
"Yes, and with all due respect Sir, as Head of Security, if I don't, I'll know who to come to."
They stood there, holding each other's gazes. She cheekily licked her lips, not breaking eye-contact.
Finally, he turned back to his speech. It was all she could do not to laugh out loud.
"Where the hell have you been?" Grace demanded when Nix arrived back in the lab.
"Nice to see you too. New recruits," she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I had to go mess with my husband and his speech."
"You wanted to, you didn't have to. But you know what you have to do? You have to help me prep these extra link beds for our new recruits."
"Yes Ma'am." Nix gave a salute.
"Eww, don't salute at me, it reminds me of your lovely husband."
"Piss off." Nix shoved her friend, who never let the opportunity to jab at Miles slip by. She moved to the aforementioned link beds.
Nix thought she saw a ghost. But no, while the man looked so much like Tom, he had a different hairstyle, a tattoo on his arm, and was bound to a wheelchair.
"You must be Jake Sully," she said when the ghost feeling passed. "I'm so sorry for your loss."
"Thank you. And yeah, I'm Jake." The man extended his hand for her to shake.
She took it. "Dr. Phoenix Vallencourt, one of the heads of this project. Lovely to meet you."
"And I'm Norm, Norm Spellman," the other man swept in, beaming. "It is an absolute pleasure to meet you, Dr. Vallencourt.
"Thanks, Mate. Same to you."
"Ah, there she is, Cinderella back from the ball," Max said, turning to where Grace stood having just come out of a link. "Grace, I would like you to meet Norm Spellman and Jake Sully."
Grace drew on her post-link cigarette. "Norm, I hear good things about you. How's your Na'vi?"
Norm was glowing. His excitement was adorable and contagious. He said in perfect speech, "May the All Mother smile down upon our first meeting."
"Very nice, very nice," Nix praised.
Max cut into Grace and Norm's Na'vi conversation, "Grace, this is Jake Sully," he prompted.
Jake stuck out his hand again. "Ma'am."
"Yeah, yeah, I know who you are, and I don't need you."
"Grace!" cried Nix.
"I need your brother!"
"Grace!"
"You know, the PhD who trained for three years for this mission?"
"He's dead, I know it's a big inconvenience for everyone," Jake replied in kind.
"How much lab training have you had?"
"I dissected a frog once," Jake replied.
Nix snorted. "I like him."
But Grace clearly wasn't having it. Any of it. "You see? I mean, they're just pissing on us without even the courtesy of calling it rain. I'm going to Selfridge." She began storming out of the lab.
"No Grace-"
"No man, this is such bullshit! I'm gonna kick his corporate butt." And she was gone.
Nix winced, turning back to Jake. "You'll have to excuse her. This project is her baby," she explained, for tried to. There was no excusing Grace's behavior. "We're thrilled you've decided to jump into Tom's place." She clapped and decided to change the subject - well, sort of. "Would you like to see your Avatars?"
She led the way through the lab to where the tanks were. "I'm finally getting back out there again myself."
"What happened? Why?"
"I had a baby a few months ago, so this was all very off-limits for a while."
"Oh shit," said Jake.
"Wait, that means that your baby is the first human born on Pandora," Norm breathed.
"That's right. We're making history, all of us. See you guys soon - welcome aboard."
(Hello and welcome/welcome back! We are so NOT in Kansas anymore! ;)
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this first chapter and my new take on this story! :))