Dishonourable Discharge: Grace Augustine

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Ivory pushed her hair out of her eyes and whistled as she caught sight of one of the new screens in the Biolab. "Shit got fancy whilst we were away."

"You made it." Max commented as he appeared in the doorway of the laboratory. "I didn't think Jake was being serious when he first told me." He stepped into the lab and shrugged off his lab coat, hanging it up on one of the hooks that had been affixed to the wall.

"Sorry to disappoint you but we're here for the foreseeable." Ivory grinned.

"How was cryo?" Max slid his glasses further up his nose.

"The usual, it feels like I've got a hell of a hangover."

"Grace!" Max exclaimed in delight as the woman straggled in, carrying both her rucksack and Norm's.

"Max. How are things?"

"Things are... different," the man said evasively.

"Different-?" Grace broke off as Norm burst in with Tigger in his arms and Trudy following close behind him.

"Max!" Norm pushed Tigger into Ivory's arms and shot over to Max, pulling him into a hug.

"Please excuse my partner he's apparently forgotten about personal space." Trudy swung her hold-all off of her shoulders and dumped it on the floor.

"Sorry." Norm de tangled himself from Max.

"You're all in the same rooms as before. I put sheets on all of the beds. We'll talk properly in the morning." Max gave the group a small smile and grabbed a folder from the top of the desk, disappearing out of the room.

Grace frowned, narrowing her dark eyes at the man's retreating back. "Something is going on."

Trudy shrugged her shoulders. "We can deal with that in the morning. Right now all I want is a sandwich and my bed."

Grace turned to Ivory.

"I don't think Max is going to talk about anything tonight." Ivory said, shifting her cat in her arms as she struggled to stifle a yawn.

"I'm going to go get something to eat. You coming?" Trudy asked.

"I could eat." Norm grabbed his bag from Grace. "Thanks."

"I'm probably just going to go to bed." Ivory said decidedly.

"I'll go with Ivy. We'll come and find you in the morning."

Trudy nodded and grabbed Norm's hand, dragging him from the room in search of Hell's Kitchen.

"Are you sure you're not hungry?" Ivory asked.

Grace shook her head. "All I want to do right now is sleep."

"It feels weird to be back." Ivory commented as she and her girlfriend left the lab and made their way down one of the many corridors of Hell's Gate.

The noise of Ivory's heavy boots and Grace's hiking shoes echoing off of the titanium floor was a comforting one for the two women who could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.

"My room or yours?" Grace asked distractedly.

"We walked past your room about two minutes ago so I assumed we were going to mine." Ivory put Tigger down and shoved open the heavy metal door to her old room, letting her cat and Grace inside first.

The redhead pulled off her shoes and got into bed, letting out a small groan as Tigger launched himself on top of her. "I wish he'd stop doing that," she complained, reaching out with difficulty to click on the lamp.

Ivory laughed, sitting down on the edge of the bed so that she could unlace her boots. "He likes you, he's never going to stop doing that." She put her shoes neatly in the corner of the room and pulled an old tank top and pair of shorts out of her rucksack, stripping out of her day clothes and folding them up.

"It's not fair for you to do that in front of me when I'm too tired to do anything," Grace whined.

"You can make up for it tomorrow." Ivory promised, pulling her makeshift pyjamas on quickly. "What do you think Max wants to talk to us about?" She asked, sliding into bed beside her girlfriend.

"No idea."

"I'd hope it was something good but if it's anything like the shit show our lives were last time we were here we're in for an absolute mess." Ivory reached over to her bedside table and turned off the lamp.

A/N: Watching Avatar currently (surprise surprise) and I don't think I'll ever be over how beautiful the visuals are or how well it's scored