Dishonourable Discharge: Grace Augustine

20

Ivory was sat in the lab gazing out of the window. She wasn't there to work for once. Since the night that Jake had gotten lost she'd taken up a permanent residence in the corner of the lab whenever she wasn't working in the medical bay, out in the field or going for a run around the base. The woman sat for hours on end playing with her cat or drawing, soothed by the scratch of Grace's pen or her soft muttering as she made yet another set of notes on the flora that she had looked at earlier that day.

Grace sat down on the other side of the desk, pulling a box of cigarettes from the pocket of her lab coat. She sat for a second then slid the carton across the table to Ivory. The redhead plunged her hand back into her pocket and extracted an electric blue lighter, dropping that on top of the box.

"Do you want me to light it for you? Come on Grace that's too much, even for you."

"No, idiot, take one. If you still want to that is."

"Thanks." Ivory shook a cigarette out of the carton and lit it then slid the pack back. They sat together in silence for several minutes, the only sound coming from the quiet clink of the ashtray as one of them tapped their ashes into it.

"So..." Grace's voice was uncertain as if she wasn't used to making any conversation that lay outside of her field of work. Ivory realised with a start that Grace probably really didn't make any conversation outside of her field of work, even at breakfast she sat discussing the best way to get a clear slide and the best method of filtering a chemical mixture. "Why did you come here in the first place?"

Ivory shrugged her shoulders, smoke curling out of her nostrils. "I just did. I wanted the job."

Grace gave her a searching look but seemed to think better of pressing for a better answer. "How long are you planning on staying here for?" She asked instead.

"I'm here for good unless I get told otherwise."

"Do you not have someone back on earth?" Grace asked clumsily.

"My dad and my step mum."

"Didn't they want you to stay?"

"Yeah."

"Hill talking to you is like talking to a brick wall."

"Ivy." Ivory corrected.

"Fine. Ivy talking to you is like talking to a brick wall."

"I just don't want to talk about my life back on Earth right now. Why'd you come here?"

Grace drummed her fingers on the tabletop. "I was sick of watching the Earth go to shit, I wanted to come somewhere where I could be with plants and actually do something useful instead of sitting in an office arguing against deforestation without anyone actually listening to me."

"Did you not leave anyone back on Earth?"

Grace shook her head. "I divorced twice. I've been married to a man and a woman and neither of them could stand me after two years." The truth had always been comfortable in Grace's mouth.

"Why?" Ivory asked, stubbing out her cigarette.

"I drink, I smoke, I'm old, I'm a cynical bitch, I'm always right and I have yet to meet a person that I can't piss off permanently."

"So your critical flaws are that you're you? And you're not always right."

"Yes H- Ivy, I am."

"No, you're not. You don't permanently piss me off. You just piss me off most of the time, there's a difference." The corners of the dark haired woman's mouth curled upwards into a small smile.

"Well you're the only one then." Grace lit another cigarette.

"I don't think I am. Max likes you, so does Norm, so does Jake."

Grace didn't comment.

"And Tigger would if you'd stop yelling at him every time he goes near your desk." Ivory added, reaching out to pet the orange tabby cat that was curled up, asleep on the tabletop.

"I yell because it's the only way to get people to listen to me." The redhead reached out and ran a tentative hand down Tigger's spine. The cat opened one bright green eye and licked Grace's hand.

Ivory grinned properly, her heart softening around the edges.