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- But I’m freaking hunnngryyyyy.
- You just ate a while ago, give it a couple hours at least, you need to digest what you ingest.
- Oh, for Eiwa’s sake, just ONE cookie! One…pleeeeaaaaase.
- That’s a big, fat “no”. You know what the doctor said, hun. Sorry. Not even Eiwa can convince me otherwise.
- Ughhh…fine.
Medical diagnosis was he tried to readjust too fast to the superhuman amounts of exercise he used to practice before the surgery. Even while on a wheelchair, he enjoyed pushing his limits, riding too fast or exceeding the recommended amount of pull-ups so he didn’t lose any strength on his upper half of the body. Grace often scolded him for being too harsh on himself, but anyway tried to understand what was going on in the teenager’s mind.
Then, while on duty, Jake was badly injured and his life gave a full 180 degrees turn. He could no longer perform as well as he was expected to, and his superiors couldn’t look at him the same way. His body was no longer fast and strong…but that didn’t make him feel useless. He fought harder than anybody; he endured countless waves of unbearable pain, he was determined not to give up. Ever. He trained at least twice as hard as any other marine, so nobody ever dared to think that their superiors had preferences towards him. Overtime, he earned his place and the respect of those who knew him.
To sum things up: no white flour, processed meals, refined sugar, dairy products and sweets. Which meant no cookies, cereal, peanut butter, chocolate, cheese, milk and all the things he liked.
On the bright side: HE HAD HIS LEGS BACK AND HE WAS ALLOWED TO EAT FISH, BOILED EGGS AND CHICKEN. And his relationship with Neitiri was growing better and better each day. PRAISE EIWA.
- You…woah, closer, like…? Ew –he tried to focus on cleaning the woman’s wound.-
- No, dumbass OUCH! I meant…family –she stated in a raspy voice.-
- But, wha- How…? I… -he stammered, not sure he was understanding.-
- Shit… -she grunted-. I’m trying to adopt you here, genius.
- WHAT?! –he nearly dropped the gauze and the syringe but recomposed himself quickly enough to catch a glimpse of the redhead’s eyes before she passed out-. Holy shi-Grace! Oh, man, come on. Not now!
Jake had dealt with night terrors for many years before meeting Grace, and some of his nightmares got worse as soon as he set foot on Pandora, but, as it is well known, when people sleep-talk or are under the effect of anesthesia, subconscious mind finds the way to express the craziest things.
- Shh, it’s ok, marine. It’s Grace…I’m here, you’re ok –she held his hand from the chair were she was seating next to the hospital bed.-
- M-Mama? –he sheepishly asked, slowly lifting his eyelids at the sound of the female voice.-
- You must be so high, Jakey –the scientist suppressed a small chuckle-. We’re at the hospital, kid; the surgery went on perfectly, but you’re still under the effect of painkillers.
- Actually, we lowered the dose yesterday, so your son is…kind of not so high –a nurse shyly responded, gesturing to the tag on the intravenous serum.-
- Oh, he’s not my…oh, crap -Grace muttered under her breath and then looked back at the teen soldier.-
- It hurts –he whispered and curled against one side of the bed, near the safety rail, taking a firmer grasp of the redhead’s hand.-
Before you start reading this weird-ass fanfic, I suggest you read this introduction so you get the idea of things. This fanfiction could be catalogued as an AU (Alternate Universe), because I am changing many of the things that happened in the Avatar movie in order to make everything fit in this story.
Don't get me wrong, Avatar is one of my favorite movies ever and it's the masterpiece for which I admire James Cameron the most, the thing is that every time I watch it I end up fantasizing about Grace and Jake being somehow mother-son. I adore them both and I love the relationship they develop throughout the movie, but I always end up wanting more, that's why I'm writing this.
I do not own any of the rights nor do I try to diminish James Cameron's brilliant work.
Reaching this point, I assume you have read the description, but I'll give one final warning. In this story there might be scenes involving spanking as a parental disciplinary method. No blood or things like that, anyway. Don't like, don't read.
The rest of you, hope you enjoy it and don't think I'm batshit crazy(?)
Let's begin!
First of all, in this fanfiction, things did not happen exactly as we see in the movie. In this fictional story I came up with due to boredom, Grace did not die. Jake did not fully transfer his soul to his Avatar body, he still has his own human body, but here I imagine he's younger, about 16 or 17 years old. I have not developed every single detail, I just wanted to write something because I've been planning to for years.
In this story, Jake undergoes surgery to get his legs back, as promised, and Grace will be a maternal figure to him. Also, Jake (human) and Neitiri (Na'vi, native from Pandora) are boyfriend and girlfriend since a while ago and the height difference does not exist, they both have human size.
Jake's twin brother, Tommy, is still alive, but he refused to go to space because he found interesting missions and experiments on Earth, anyway he suggested Jake took his place and that's how Jake gets to Pandora. They are orphans and Jake is some sort of child prodigy who got into the army like at twelve or something like that, he was the best at the academy and that's why he got accepted in the military squad in Pandora, although he's one of the youngest recruits in the whole team, scientists and marines included. Grace was also kind of hard on him at first but eventually notices he needs some kind of guidance and structure and becomes motherly towards him. Spanking won't be such a weird thing in this story, just so you know.
Lastly, sorry for making so many changes on the original movie storyline, it's just that I've been having a freaking writer's block for months and right now I've been struggling for weeks exactly how Jake does at the beginning of this fanfiction, I became dehydrated and I can't exercise or eat as much as I used to; also, I moved and it's been an intense and stressful process, so I'm writing mainly to avoid going nuts. Thank you for reading and understanding, all of your constructive feedback is welcome and appreciated!
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- Jacob, you get your marine butt back on the bed this instant.
And with that, Jake went back to lying down on his bed.
It had been about six months since the surgery, which was fortunately a medical success. Jake recovered his usual health astonishingly fast, even the doctors were amazed by how quickly his body was getting used to having useful inferior extremities again. It was as if Jake never actually lost the ability to walk, by this moment his legs had even regained muscular volume. But, truth be told, as every kid with a new toy, his eyes were too big for his stomach.
He was always top of the class at the academy, child prodigy, enrolled in the army at quite a young age while his twin brother was under the benefit of a full scholarship that allowed him to attend to elite master classes at universities all over the world.
Now that he had built up his life and reputation from scratch, he was not going to let a medical procedure “soften” his life style. He would keep training, he would remain strong, and he would not take his legs for granted. Or, in other words…while recovering from the surgery, he didn’t want to lose shape. Meaning he kept getting up at 5AM, doing push-ups as he best could, dips, pull-ups and various kinds of abdominal flexions, all of that trying not to wake Grace up. He failed at remembering the scientist suffered from insomnia and was often awake at that time of the day. That’s why Grace was so patient when it came to him, it was way too much to ask him to stay put and do nothing while his body regained condition. But he had tried to fly before running, he had pushed himself too far too fast and now he was suffering the sequels of a “severe case of dehydration due to excess of physical activity and lack of sleep during recovery”, quoting the doctor.
On the fridge, Grace had pinned with a magnet two sheets of paper: one that listed the things he was allowed to eat, and another long-ass list with the things he could not eat until he was better hydrated.
Symptoms were a lot, and he had a hard time with cravings. He was not hungry per se, but he WANTED to eat all the time, hungry or not. That was all he could think about whenever he was not in his avatar body or playing outside. He knew working out was the easiest way to being hungry, but he wasn’t allowed yet because that would cause more dehydration than a trip down to hell itself. He had to rest, whether he liked it or not, and he had to change his diet for at least a few weeks. Eight glasses of water a day, two of which should contain a pinch of salt and the juice of half a lemon. If the day was especially hot, he could take that up to three glasses…not that he wanted to, by the way.
Unbeknownst to him, Grace had surreptitiously gone forth with the adoption papers. Perhaps it was not the best moment to give Jake the news, he was often feeling stressed and tired, confused and desperate, he didn’t need to worry about anything else, but since he verbally accepted to begin the paperwork about a year ago, Grace had not let that topic slip off her mind. Took her long enough to realize motherhood was in her plans: both of them at the verge of death, numerous times.
(Flashback.)
- I would like us to become…closer –she had managed to say with great effort, trying not to bleed out after being shot.-
(End of flashback.)
Yup. Little did Jake know about what exactly had given Grace the idea to blurt out something like that in such a critical situation, fortunately he had enough first-aid practice to not let the “crazy old redhead hag” die. Of course Grace had thought about it before, almost since the beginning, but it wasn’t until she found herself soothing the marine’s feverish nightmares that she understood just how much both of them were craving the exact same thing: a family. In whichever presentation it came.
(Flashback.)
- Mmmhh…mom…mom! –he mumbled between dreams, eyes still shut.-
Out of pure sympathy, the nurse lowered the rail in order to let them be a bit closer, still confused as to whether or not the patient and his company were blood-related or not. Grace could not resist the urge to gently pat the boy´s head and smile at the nurse mouthing a “thank you”.
- It´s okay, baby, it’ll pass… -she soothed, amazing even herself at how easily those words left her lips.-
One week later, Jake was allowed to leave the hospital on his own foot, so to speak, and Grace was overprotecting as always towards him, carrying his backpack and trying to spare him every single physical effort he could encounter on their way back to the base-laboratory-shack.
- Don’t baby me so much, I won’t break, mom-I MEAN GRACE…Grace –he corrected, almost losing balance mid-phrase.-
Said woman just smiled to herself, helping the stubborn teenager not fall face-first.
(End of flashback.)
Those were the kind of encounters that brought the pair closer, both as human beings and co-workers. But for the same reasons Grace found it particularly difficult to contain herself from putting the little rascal over her knee when he got on her nerves. To be honest, wheelchair or not, it wasn’t easy to live in such a small space with other people, not to mention how intense these people were. When he got bored, Jake could be really annoying and, of course, the first victim he thought of when he came up with new practical jokes was the head scientist.
They used to call each other names, like “cripple”, “old smoke-addict hag”, “wheelie” and “prehistoric carrot”, but those were all inside jokes, ways in which they teased each other and got along to pass time; after all, they had to avoid going insane and they believed humor was a good way of achieving it, no matter how sour or sarcastic it was.
However, Grace, as the leader she was, had some specific buttons that were not to be pushed. Once she grew fond of somebody, she could hardly ever detach herself from that person; once she accepted somebody into her life and her team, she took that person under her guidance and, as much as she refused to admit it, she cared for them. Especially Jake. Such an enormous potential, talent, intelligence, charisma…and yet such a fragile soul, a sensitive boy that had to grow up too fast, from her point of view. He had entered her life quite “late”, still she wanted to make sure nothing harmed him gravely ever again. But that didn’t mean she did not want to strangle him whenever he was careless and took poor care of himself.
The only reason why she didn’t kick his butt while he was still on a wheelchair was because he wasn’t gonna feel a single thing, so there was no use, and she admitted this openly, making the boy blush up to his ears before he quickly tried to change the topic. To be honest, he tried to be cool about it, but sometimes he really felt close to being dragged across the woman’s lap for a much needed corrective.
For now, he could rely on his dehydration recovery state to get away with anything…almost.
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This is the story of a brilliant boy who found his faith written on the stars...or more precisely, on a remote habitable moon in the Alpha Centauri system: Pandora.
(I strongly suggest you read the introduction, so you don't get too lost.)
This story is available on Wattpad, also written by me.
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Gracias por leer y comentar! ;)