Ivory Hill had spent the majority of her adult life running. Throughout her twenties and the first part of her thirties it was from bombs and bullets. Now, at thirty six years old Ivory was running from something that she could never truly escape fr...
Ivory approached Norm with two exopacks in her hand. "Norm? Could you help me out with something?"
Norm put the agar gel that he was looking at down. "What do you need?"
"Can you help me get a plant from outside? I want to put it into a pot so we can have one in here as well as out there."
"Is that all? I'm a bit busy at the moment." Norm gestured to the small Petri dish that was set up on the desk.
"Norm I have had to lay awake listening to you and Trudy fuck like rabbits for almost two weeks now. I'm running on about two hours sleep and I've heard things from you and Trudy and seen parts of you that are going to haunt me for the rest of my life. You owe me."
Norm's cheeks flushed and his focused expression became sheepish. "Point taken." He took the exopack from Ivory's outstretched hand and pulled it on.
"Let's go."
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Ivory and Norm were huddled together in their room, bent over a plant pot.
"No, you've got to be more gentle than that." Norm reached out and caught hold of Ivory's hand. She patted the soil down around the edges of the binary sunshine that she and Norm had harvested from the outside of Site 26.
"Is that okay?" The woman asked, moving away from the pot to let Norm look properly.
Norm nodded. "It looks good."
"Thanks." Ivory scooped the plant up.
"What did you want it for? You never said."
Ivory had said but Norm had been too busy avoiding all eye contact to listen properly "Grace."
"Couldn't she have gone and got a sample for herself? We were out just this morning." The man looked at Ivory in confusion.
"No, it's like a... present I guess. She's not doing great at the moment and I wanted to give her something that will make her feel better or give herself something else to think about."
"Norm?" Trudy called.
"I have to go." Norm leapt up.
"Thanks for your help." Ivory shouted after him. Her words fell on deaf ears as Norm scampered off to see his girlfriend.
Ivory walked down the corridor, deliberately avoiding her bedroom. She knocked on Grace's door with her elbow then waited.
"Come in."
Ivory pushed the door open with her foot. "Hi."
"Oh. It's you." Grace's tone was unreadable.
"Yeah."
"What do you want?" Grace stayed sat at her desk, not bothering to look up from her work.
"I got you this. Norm helped." Ivory plonked the plant down on the tabletop. She turned to leave, catching sight of a ball of orange fur curled up on Grace's bed. "Tigger?"
"He came in here a while ago."
"I was out."
Grace said nothing.
"So are you going to be stroppy with me all over again?"
Grace looked up. "I'm sorry. I just..." Just figured out that what I'm feeling for you is more than just friendly and it's scaring the hell out of me, Grace thought. Whenever she began to care about someone things went to shit. Take her and Parker for example, things had started out brilliantly but by the end of their relationship Parker had changed beyond all recognition. Corruption and greed had destroyed his innocent face. Parker would never regain his boyish charm, endearing smile or his naivety which Grace was ashamed to say she had found adorable.
"I know. I just thought you might like this." Ivory pushed the binary sunshine towards Grace.
Grace examined the potted plant, gently touching one of its bioluminescent leaves. "Thank you." The older woman said quietly, looking at the plant lovingly.
Ivory's stomach twisted and she bit her lip, shocked by her weakness for the redhead.
"I'm sorry," Grace repeated. "I was scared when we couldn't find you, there was blood all over a big chunk of the forest, I thought-" The woman paused, raking a hand through her red curls. "I thought you'd been killed by something. I shouldn't have been a dick."
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Yes, why?"
"Well you just apologised to me. Twice. And admitted that you were wrong."
"Ivy don't make me take it all back." Grace couldn't hide her smile.
