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Needless to say, when Rocky discovered a meteor-like sized object gently drifting in the deep space between Adrian and Tau Ceti, Grace was immediately obsessed. Later, if you were to tell him that it was not only a meteor, but a freaking submarine with what they discovered was another intelligent life force; he would have dismissed the idea. However that didn’t stop the dynamic duo (his words not Rockys) from breaking into the sub after carefully attaching an air lock of xenonite once again to the hull of the Hail Mary, and Grace blow torching the subs wall open.
Grace had no idea what to expect when he first kicked out the broken wall but now knew nearly four months after that his new companion aboard the Hail Mary would have to be in a coma-like stasis mode while recovering from blood loss, countless gashes, head wounds, and a shredded arm for what felt like forever. Now, after over a month of having the man awake and still having countless issues when it came to not just his physical but also clearly his mental health, Grace knew he still had a lot of work to put into making him feel at home. Well, actually feeling at home, not whatever expectations of living the other man had. It had taken Rocky and him a few days to get Simon to come out of hiding behind the bed in the dormitory, then another couple for the two of them to come to an understanding of where Simon was (No longer anywhere near his universe). Once Grace was able to show him the stars outside their port window though, the man collapsed sobbing and looking truly like a puppet with his strings cut. No more ties to his universe that had done his so wrong, Grace made an internal vow then to remind him of that every day until he too believed him, as he quickly followed in a downward suit to hug Simon,
The now three of them had fallen into a routine a week or two into Simon being awake, coherent, and calm enough to understand that Grace was not in fact an angel sent by “the rot?”, or a part of COI. Grace still didn’t completely understand what in the ever loving heck that was supposed to mean, but knew that Simon would keep leaking small bits of information when he was ready. Simon had taken to meeting Rocky quite well as the Eridian was excited and was rolling everywhere in excitement, apparently the idea of aliens with the bare essentials of kindness were welcome to whatever the hell he had found under the blood ocean. Yeah, Grace still didn’t know what to make of that.
One of Grace's favorite things to do would be to share meals with Simon once he had re-learned how to chew with his…extra teeth, and a new lack of a dominant hand. Which he still wouldn’t let Grace test on for anyone's information, or ask for help with basic tasks like tying back his growing hair, but that was neither here nor there. Simon hadn’t been used to such flavorful and diverse food aboard Mary, (although not perfect according to Rylan), so Grace had relished how much of a reaction he would get out of the often disheveled man when he tried new foods. For instance they had learned that Simon had an affinity for sugar and hardcore spices, but openly despised bland food. Oh, he never said it, but Grace had learned his mannerisms enough to understand when he was panicking internally; clearly thinking of ration bars or something of the like. Nowadays, Simon would now let Grace ease whatever he was eating from his deathgrip and let it be replaced with food Grace knew he liked. Though, Grace would always notice his reluctance to leave him alone when he went to get new food. Or sleep. Or do much of anything really. Grace wasn’t ready to address how he would feel so comforted by this or blush on the man's actions, partly because he just wouldn’t, but also because of the growing issue.
The Hail Mary was meant to be a suicide trip, and as such was quickly running out of food due to their new passenger. When Simon asked about their food supply Grace hadn’t lied exactly, but refused to stress how they only had enough food left for one of them for the two more years of the trip to Erid. As such, Grace and Rocky had both thrown themselves into developing the Taumoeba for human consumption. Simon would always keep them company while they worked, becoming more confident in talking to both Rocky and Grace now, asking questions, telling stories, or responding to their questions in return. Or, he would sit up in the "don't go crazy room” and watch whatever Ryland would set up, usually a nature documentary. Simon was still fairly weak but didn’t seem discouraged by it, sure he refused all forms of help unless Grace had pushed. But Grace knew that once he and Rocky finished the Taumeba that he would have plenty of extra time with really getting to know Simon and hopefully build a more communicative relationship, or maybe more? No, Grace couldn’t think of that now when there was so much to be done.
Roughly a month and a half later they had done it. They. Had. Done it. Grace had cried when he finally perfected the Taumoeba and Rocky erupted in Jazz hands. Wiping tears, Grace just knew he had to tell Simon that they would both make it to Erid, and then make him do a game of 20 questions he had been perfecting over the past few months in an attempt to get him to open up comfortably. Yes he was overprepared but really could you blame him? Simon had been disappearing more and more over these past few weeks, but Grace had been too busy securing their lifeline to keep tabs on him, he still showed up for meals though and it still made his heart (a face if he wasn’t lying) to light up every time he saw him appear. Simon's appearance and demeanor had been off more and more but Ryland knew it was most likely from stress, and would deal with it immediately once he had finished. It was because of this, Grace was so excited running down the hall that he almost missed it.
Both the Hail Mary and Rocky both made near constant and continually questionable noises, but they had never been known to make strange groaning noises, this was human. It sounded like muffled sobs and hissing from pain.
Almost jumping through the doorway, Grace had remembered when Simon had first woken up. Desperately fighting to escape what he viewed to be a continuation of his never ending caged freedom. Silently Grace contemplated whether space (which Simon used to insist on having in the early days) or intervening was needed here. Evaluation, he knew Simon was upset about something, maybe in pain? Option one, leave him alone which he had done when Simon had asked when first adapting to not only his new life but Grace and Rocky. Grace had hated this, while he respected the man’s choice, he didn’t see it helping him in the long run with his fear of isolation. He also had hated not being able to just sit with him and comfort him, but he wasn’t going to go through that newfound crisis again.
“Simon”? Grace had asked it more as a question than anything else, well that and giving notice of his presence not in the room and nearly choked.
“Why are you doing this”
Simon had twisted his head around to look both blankly and with confusion,
“what do you mean”.
“This!” As he Wildly gestured to where Simon sat, Grace was trying to stay calm but seeing Simon actively bleeding out of his palm over a plant was distracting.
Simon had given him a withering albeit slightly dazed look at the uncharacteristic outburst.
“This is my job? You told me to do this.”
Oh.
Oh shit.
. . .
Grace suddenly recalled a conversation now a month ago with a very desperate Simon who was struggling to help onboard Mary. He had asked over and over again for something productive to do, something to help Rocky and Grace while they worked on their “Science Bullshit”. Grace had only given it real consideration after Simon had mumbled something along the lines of feeling useless in the face of the work Grace and Rocky had been working on when it came to developing the Taomeba. Grace immediately felt so guilty, of course Simon would be struggling to adjust if he didn’t feel productive. He had grown up during the end of a universe, he didn’t know how to be anything but a tool. Deciding to pocket this information for later conversations on how Simon was not in fact a burden for merely existing, Grace had turned his face towards the display room. He knew how much it had meant to Simon to see trees and nature, he had spent days in that room and still tended to fall asleep when he actually would be surrounded by that digitized landscape.It was during one of their mealtimes that they both had grown to treasure that he posed the suggestion.
“You said you and your mother worked with plants when you were younger you mentioned, did you like doing that?”
The gruff response was, “Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything”
Grace internally cringed, yeah way to bring up his trauma and his dead mom, but he pushed through.
“The plants in the green room I showed you are looking worse for wear, and I for one have a black thumb?”
At this point, Rocky had butt into the conversation after overhearing it while working on a taumoeba strainer device,
“Grace plant work very badly. Rocky has no plants on Tau Ceti, environment too empty, do not know how to care for. Grace asks if Simon knows how to do better?”
. . .
Brought back to the present, Grace shook his head at Simon's comment about this… this morbid pain being his “job”.
“Si, I don’t understand, I thought you were going to be taking care of the plants”
Simon scowled at this, offended that Grace would think he hadn’t been trying too,
“I’ve been fucking trying”, gesturing to the plants behind him.
Grace looked up and was dumbfounded to see that there was dried caked blood on a third of the plants attached to the wall, precious vibrant green leaves tinged with a deep, rusty red. When he looked back down to see Simon still crying, he immediately realized just how pale he had gotten.
Since he had only really seen him at mealtimes, Grace hadn’t realized Simon clearly was sick. The bleeding man was so pale, Grace out only assume he was sitting because of necessity instead of being more comfortable after digging the scalpel-
Not the time to panic.
“Simon”, Grace said gently, similar to how he would talk to an upset student, “Just humor me, why are you doing this”?
“...well we want the plants to live and grow don’t we? Bloods how you do it, it’s how you hydrate and enrich the plant's soil to spur growth. It’s basic science, I expected you to know the basics Dr.”, for whatever reason he didn’t look as angry at Grace anymore. More akin to a joking increasingly pale adult. Grace certainly felt the “Dr.” comment tug on his heartstrings, but took a breath. He would unbox that at a different time.
“Simon, I know resources were… difficult to find during the Rapture”, Grace could almost feel Simon's muscles tighten at the reference, "The Earth I came from was still healthy, or healthy enough by your standards. We had more than enough water and fertilizer for nature to grow naturally. Also, blood is actually counterintuitive, it can actually stunt plants growth”.
Noticing Simon's eyes got wider and his hand tightened at this, causing the blood to flow more profusely, Grace internally swore at his passion for teaching rather than addressing the increasingly serious situation. He hurriedly said, “But that's not something to talk about right now, Si you’ve lost a lot of blood how often have- thats a question for later sorry, lets get you down to Armando to patch you up”. At this point, Simon looked perplexed, “but… Angel, I have to care for the plants, is my job". Grace sighed both in frustration at himself and because Simon clearly was starting to become a bit loopy from the staggering blood loss. He’s argued with children before when they’ve been stubborn about stupid things and the easiest thing to do is to agree with them but to have conditions.
“Yep, but uh- okay. Simon it’s your job but I’m taking a break so let's take a break together and go take a nap”.
“Fukyou”, was Simon's only slurred response as Grace hoisted him up from the floor, mainly supported by Grace all the way down into the dormitory.
. . .
“Simon, I know it’s a lot to take in, but please just talk to me”.
Grace had waited by his bedside while Armando had hooked him up to fluid, painkillers, and a few other medicinal bags with names Grace's doctorate didn’t nearly focus enough on.
“It’s just- that’s how it works. Our bodies for the tree, that's how it works.”, he had then looked numbly up at Grace as he just shook his head slightly.
“No it has to work, it has to, that's how it is and if it isn’t-”, his voice broke at this and allowed himself to simply be held in that moment where his entire society, his purpose, the reason for the senseless death and violence, had been a farce. Minutes passed, maybe hours, but Ryland held him fast and whispered comforting words into his hair. Eventually, Simon's state had to be addressed. Grace had sheepishly looked down at the worn out man still gripping his one arm around his waist, having migrated into his bed for better access for the physical comfort they both oh so desperately needed.
“Simon, I know you hate not knowing about things so I think I should tell you, you’ve lost a lot of blood because of this”, gesturing to the deep wounds on his hand and forearm. Simon slowly nodded his head in agreement, “watering” a massive section of the plants consistently had taken so long and it always had made him feel terrible afterward.
“You really shouldn’t get up or move around without help for a week or two, it can be really dangerous-”
“Fuck no, I have to help, you don’t understand, if I-”, frantically sitting up he began to try to rip his IV out. Grace held his hand fast as he struggled, praying to whatever god who had had the generosity to allow them to meet that he did not injure himself further.
“Si, listen, when I found you I wanted to tell you we did it.”
Simon immediately stopped and looked at him.
“You did it”. It was more of a dumbfounded realization than a statement, but Grace would take it.
“Rocky and I stabilized the Taumoeba, we did it”. He then thought for a second before continuing. “We are going to make it, we are going to live, we are going to make it, and now we can just relax”.
It was another white lie, Grace would have to work to keep up the Taumoeba stores in order to make sure they had enough food, but Rocky could keep busy for a while. When he had brought Simon down to the dormitory, Rocky had checked in with him with some panicked musical notes untranslatable by the computer, but Grace quickly informed him of the situation and Rocky, while nervous and still talking to himself, had made himself scarce for the time being. Hearing this though, Simon almost sagged like a sack of potatoes back down into the bed. Grace laid down beside him, the bed was too small to fit two grown men but that didn’t matter now. Working up the courage and nerve, Grace took Simon's injured hand in his and brought it to his mouth, giving it a quick kiss before placing both their hands on his chest. They both blushed but Simon was the first to speak.
“Can… could you teach me how to care for the plants”?
“I mean- I don’t know if I’m the one who has the best knowledge given my reputation, but I could bring down my laptop and we could watch a documentary and videos while you recover”! The more he thought about it the more excited and animatedly he had been talking when he noticed the slow and even breathing of Simon. As he turned his head, he noticed his companions' lids drooping from his body's demand for sleep in order to recover. Simon then moved their conjoined hands over to him, placing a kiss on Grace's knuckles.
“Stay?”
“Always”
A slight smile creeping into his face, Simon finally shut his eyes and fell into a deep sleep. Against Grace's better judgement, he kept his hand wrapped in Simons and began nodding off from the sheer contact with another human's skin. Both were finally sure that they were never to be alone again.
Exactly eight hours later, as is the average human period of sleep, Rocky had stumbled into the dormitory and very loudly exclaimed and moving towards to a now awake Simon still holding Rylands hand,
“Human disgust, why humans mate with hands, is grosssssss”.