Work Text:
He stands outside the door to her cabin for a good five minutes, trying to decide whether or not he should actually knock. He's just about decided to leave instead when it cracks open to reveal a tired face.
Grace doesn't think he's ever seen someone look so tired in his entire life. Considering the fact he survived grad school, that's—well, that's saying something, and it isn't anything good.
"You might as well come in already," Stratt says evenly, and Grace just blinks at her, because wow, she really does know everything. He looks behind him, then back at her, then behind him again. How did she know he was even out here? Does she have someone watching him? Is there someone reporting every step he takes into some gadget in her ear?
Probably, actually, but just as likely she'd seen the little glances he'd been sending her way all afternoon and figured he was going to show up at some point. He hesitates for a second, thinking about telling her he was just passing by, but if he does that, she'll just give him that disapproving stare and tell him he's wasting her time and possibly dooming the entire planet in the process.
So instead he follows her in, squeezing past her so she can slide the door closed again. To say that her cabin is spartan would be doing the Spartans an injustice. It's tiny, too. Space on a ship is always at a premium, and Stratt would rather have it allocated to labs and other research. Grace is pretty sure she'd have turned down the single cabin and slept on the deck if she didn't need the room to take private, highly confidential calls.
"What is it?" Stratt asks, brisk and to the point. "Another setback with the spin drives? Has the astrophage stopped breeding?" Her eyes narrow. "Are Dimitri and Lokken still arguing?"
"Er…none of those things," Grace says. They're all things that have happened in the past or might happen in the future, but at least it's not today. Well, hopefully it's not today. There's still a few hours left before the clock hits midnight, after all. What time zone are they even in right now? Grace isn't actually sure.
Stratt gives him an unimpressed look that's the very definition of hurry up. Grace clears his throat, the sound of it making him feel even more self conscious.
"I was just…checking up on you?" It comes out as a question, so Grace decides he should probably try again. "You looked tired today." There—a statement. Well, an understatement, technically. Stratt looks tired every day, but she looks it even more so right now. He wonders what would happen if she collapsed. He wonders if she'd even notice, or if she'd somehow just keep working through the whole thing, giving orders and sorting through budgets while unconscious.
"I am fine, Dr. Grace," she says. "I have a call with the Prime Minister of Finland in three minutes. If there is nothing wrong with the project, you can go."
Stratt gestures at the door, as if he's forgotten how he got in here, and there are a lot of things Grace could say right now. A good percentage of them have to do with the fact that she's the heart of the entire damn team, and that if something's wrong with her, then something is most definitely wrong with the project.
Of course, that would take a lot more than the thirty or so seconds he has before she kicks him out and shuts the door in his face, so in the end he settles for: "You know you could call me Ryland, right?"
She frowns. "Dr. Grace is easier," she says.
He thinks about pointing out that Dr. Grace and Ryland are the exact same number of syllables, but he knows that's not what she means. He's seen the way she holds herself apart. A whole ship full of people who will obey her every command, and probably not one single person she calls a friend among them.
"Well, the offer still stands," Grace says, and then stands there awkwardly for about five seconds before turning towards the door. "Goodnight."
Well, that went well, he thinks as he makes his way down the corridor. At least she hadn't actually kicked him out. And, he isn't quite sure—probably he was hearing things—but just as the door had slid closed, he thinks he'd heard her voice. It echoes in his head as he makes his way towards the bunkroom where he sleeps.
"Goodnight…Ryland."