SimonSay Take Me With You.
Stratt doesn't even dignify it with a response, which would make Simon angry, if he didn’t know he was one of the most pathetic people on this planet. Willing to beg and cheat and steal to get his way. Not in all things. But for this, he’ll do anything.”
“Carl told me you’re starting another mission,” It had been a year and a half since the Mary’s launch. And like hell would he let the opportunity pass. “I know you’re sending a back up team. I want on it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about-”
“You can send me up as a pilot- I’ll take every fucking enginerring class you need me to take and I won’t sleep a wink- I swear-”
Stratt needs to have a restriction on what Carl can see. Or maybe send him out with a partner to watch what he says. But she knows he’d tell no one else these things. Probably only let the information slip as a guilty conscience trying to do some good.
“I’ll go up as a fucking experiment for christ sake just let me go-”
“You won’t find him,” Stratt says firmly, looking up from her computer with a blanket expression. “You’ll be two years behind him. Won’t even make it to starve in each other's arms. Do you think he’d want that-”
“Oh. Hilarious. Now you care what he wants?”
It doesn’t hurt because nothing hurts. Not when you’re the one to pin everything on if the world's secrets come crumbling down around you.
“You want to go to space,”
No. Simon hates space. He hates it as much as he hates the ocean or the sea. But he’s not gonna say that. Because he hates being lightyears away from his husband more. And he’s scared. He’s a coward. He’s a coward because he doesn’t think he can live much longer with Ryland anyway.
“Convincing.” Stratt tuts looking back to her screen, feeling like a dismissal.
But he won’t be dismissed.
“I die down here with the rest of you, or I live long enough to ensure the planet is safe,” Simon says slowly. “Who knows if he….. If he’ll even make it. You’re sending a back up for a reason.”
Stratt really needs to stop growing a conscience, because it’s giving men like this the opportunity to do stupid things.
“Our scientist is the leading mind in astrophage right now-”
“On earth-”
“Our engineer has been with us for over a decade,” She says, resting her hands over her stomach, staring Simon dead on.
“Our Pilot is… Qualified enough…” She says slowly, noting the breath he takes in. Painful hope that will suffocate him in the starvation and endless expanse of space.
“You have six months. If you can reach higher marks on the exams and tests than he did, we’ll send you in place.”
Omg now a third hot new bombshell has entered the SimonSays universe-
Anon this was delicious I had to grab a plate and devour it!
Simon would absolutely hate space but he will go to be Orpheus to Grace’s Eurydice