Late Night P1 | Rough Draft | fin

Approaching | 1

You find yourself wide awake past midnight, probably the fifth time in the past two weeks you were left staring at your ceiling.

The kids are all in bed or with their Na'vi babysitters for the night — fast asleep and thankfully staying put until morning.

Da'mik tends to sleep beside you and Jake in your old bed, still using the same room when you weren't using your avatar in the village.
Jake switched on and off between which place he slept in, trying to evenly distribute himself between the kids. Which made sense, considering he was the only one who could actively sleep outdoors with them.

It was nice having two places to call home, each providing the needs and comfort your children should have despite their differences.

You finally roll over in the bed, watching as little Da'mik is cuddled up into Jake's chest.

It's a beautiful sight to wake to - despite the fact that you keep having nightmares again... you wish you knew what was triggering them so suddenly.

They were mostly retellings of the final strike killing Quaritch. Except now, he always finds a way to dodge at last minute, impaling you in the gut with his own knife instead.

So...
Why?
Why now? Why all these years later?

Perhaps it's from the fear of knowing the RDA will be back some day. Perhaps it's from knowing that, despite everything, you'll never truly be at peace with this always hanging on the back of your mind.

Never truly free.

The best you can do to distract yourself is slip on some headphones over your rebreather, and go for a jog around the high camp.

But with every step you take, your body pushes to go faster and faster - the adrenaline like a rush you cant just turn away from.
Even when you push yourself much too far, gasping for air and struggling to take a full breath as you're hunched over and wheezing.

It doesn't do much to help with your blood pressure, either. The rhythm beating is so intense it may as well be sounding out of your ears.

After checking by the village for a small in and out, making sure the kids were okay - you head back to the base camp where you expect Da'mik and Jake are still fast asleep.

You're as quiet as can be when you first walk in the door, and lean in to shut it so slowly that you're startled when the little noise chimes anyways.

It's still dark in the hallway outside of your bedroom, just a few paces away from where the common kitchen area was.

It's not until you fully turn to head that way that you see something standing at the far end of the hallway.

You notice it so quickly that you end up falling against the wall behind you, your body jolting with the jump scare you've been given.

"Jake." You breathe out a sigh of relief when you can finally collect yourself.
"Fucking hell, don't do that."

"Sorry." He tries to bite back a laugh at the way you reacted.
"Didn't mean to frighten you."

"Maybe.. turn on a light next time?"

You unclip your mask, and reach out for his hand as he helps you up.

"I didn't want to wake Da'mik. He's fast asleep."

"Oh please, he's just like you. Nothing will ever wake him unless it's the smell of food."

He leads you over to the kitchen area, where you both take a seat at the larger table.

"I just want to know what's going on with you." He says sincerely.
"Every time I'm here, you leave around this time and come back an hour later.
Is there something going on with the kids?"