Still Breathing

Chapter 7. Ho Hey

"I belong with you, you belong with me." ~ The Lumineers

Once back in the caves, Jake helped his daughter off of his Ikran. He held onto her shoulders as he lead her through the caves and she noticed all the Na'vi looking at her curiously. Erica looked down at her feet, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone just in case.

"Keep the kids inside." Erica looked up after hearing her father speak to someone. When she looked over, she saw the same Na'vi women from earlier standing in front of a tent as she ushered her children to step inside.

But before they did, Erica met the gaze of the younger Na'vi boy before he was pulled inside the tent by someone. She looked away nervously, looking back down at her feet as she still felt her father guiding her through the base.

Eventually the two stepped into a small building that looked similar to the one that Erica was at earlier with Quaritch. Jake closed the door behind him before grabbing one of the masks at the front. "You don't have to wear your mask in here, you're safe."

Erica simply nodded before pulling her mask off and looking around the room. There was a few link stations here and she wondered if there were other Avatars other than Quaritch's crew.

"Come with me." Jake said, motioning for his daughter to following along. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, feeling very out of place here as she followed her father. He lead her into a room where there was a few other humans talking to each other.

More humans? Erica thought to herself. I guess there were a lot of people that thought that what Parker was doing to this planet was awful. "Norm, Max. Did Neytiri bring you the Avatar?" Jake asked the two people who were talking to each other.

"Yeah don't worry. We put it somewhere safe." The taller one spoke, looking over Jake's shoulder as he spotted Erica. When Jake noticed his gaze, he looked behind himself at his daughter who looked very frightened and uncomfortable.

He frowned before gesturing for her to come stand next to him. Slowly, she made her way over to her father who pulled her into his side once she was close enough. Erica felt herself relax slightly, as if nothing could hurt her as long as her father was near by.

"Norm. Max. This is my daughter, Erica." The two men shared the same confused look before looking down at Erica and then back to Jake. This repeated a few times before Jake finally explained. "I had a girlfriend back on Earth before I came to Pandora."

The two men nodded in understanding as the shorter one with glasses stuck his hand out to her. "Nice to meet you, Erica. I'm Max. And this is Norm." He said pointing to the taller man beside him. Norm gave Erica a small wave which she returned after shaking hands with the Doctor.

"I'm assuming the Avatar that was brought in was yours?" Norm asked, taking a step closer to Erica. She felt like a little kid again, not knowing what she should or shouldn't say. She looked up at her father who simply smiled and nodded at her before rubbing the top of her head lightly.

"Yeah, it's mine." Erica answered with a shrug.

"You know, you look a lot like your father did when he was still human." Max spoke up, smiling at the young girl. The kindness these two men were showing her made her feel a little less awkward.

Erica let out a slight yawn before covering her mouth, not wanting to seem rude. Jake noticed this and place a hand on his daughters back before speaking. "I should probably get Erica to bed. Do you have any spares?"

"She can sleep in Spiders room for now." Norm answered, sounding almost sad. Jake had almost forgotten about Spider being taken and assumed that Neytiri told him about it.