Deal (Trudy/Norm)

[Ashen Key]

TITLE: Deal
RATING: G
WORDS: 292
CHARACTERS: Trudy Chacon, Norm Spellman (Trudy/Norm)
A/N: Just a little ficlet I found when reorganizing my writing folder, thought you guys might like. Set just after Norm's "interspecies booty-call" rant.

Deal

Trudy had always wanted to be a botanist, digging around in the dirt and studying how things grew. Actual plants, different plants, not just the mutated weeds that clung to the side of the apartment block, or tried to grow in the dead ground. She got good enough grades to warrant a scholarship, but scholarship would've only just paid for her - just - and not helped support her younger siblings, so it was to the Marines she went.

She didn't complain, didn't wish otherwise, but she'd read what she could, listen when she got a chance, and when on Pandora Quaritch assigned her to run the science sorties (she's easy-going, likeable, not inclined to pull macho bull****, and Quartich does know how to use his people well), she'd listen even more. But not her job to ask questions, so she doesn't.

Not until she gets her chance, up in the Hallelujah Mountains. She'd already started to teach Norm to fly, a little (but a lot of that was flirting, an are you interested), but when he storms over to where she's hauling in supplies, she looks up and grins and says, "Y'know, you could teach me."

That stops him, makes him blink and look at her. Her grin widens and she tilts up her chin.

"Like you said, huh. We didn't come here just to wash dishes while Sully's off. I teach you to fly, you teach me something more about this place than what can kill me. Deal?" She offers her hand, and he has to stop thinking that this isn't happening, because people like Trudy are never interested in people like him, because clearly she's ignoring those rules, and Norm stops thinking like that and shakes her hand.

"Deal."

[tm20]

nice little intereting side story

[Human No More]

Interesting, I like Trudy so seeing a little more of her is good, I think it fits in well with her as well

[Ashen Key]

Originally Posted by tm20

nice little intereting side story

! Thank you!

Originally Posted by Human No More

Interesting, I like Trudy so seeing a little more of her is good, I think it fits in well with her as well

I heart Trudy, possibly way too much *g*. And glad you liked!

[Fighter-of-Wars]

Fun little read.

Thanks for posting.

[Ashen Key]

Originally Posted by Fighter-of-Wars

Fun little read.

Thanks for posting.

thaaaaaaank you.

[ISV Venture Star]

Nice little story! But I thought Norm was a xenoanthropologist who was just helping Grace with her botanical work as a sideline.

[Ashen Key]

Originally Posted by ISV Venture Star

Nice little story! But I thought Norm was a xenoanthropologist who was just helping Grace with her botanical work as a sideline.

Thank you! And I...never said he WASN'T a xenoanthropologist? But from the deleted scene and the movie, it's clear that whatever he is a doctor in, he's expected to do the exact same sample taking as Grace (and I was guessing, the other Avatar drivers). And Trudy is interested, but in my head, she and Grace have a bit of an odd relationship, with neither really conceding much to the other even though they are friends. And also, Trudy's interested in Norm, so I thought it all worked.