probably crying

(Part 1 here)

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

"... Language."

"You're dead! You're telling me I got saved from that hell-hole by my dead school teacher who disappeared to SAVE THE SUN!?"

Mr. Grace frowned in confusion. "School teacher..?"

Mark threw up his hands, still in his bulky EVA suit. "THAT'S WHAT YOU GOT FROM ALL THIS?!!"

"no, wait - hold on."

"HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN ALIVE!"

"What did you say your name was?"

And Mark stops panicking. Because suddenly, there was a hand on his shoulder. Grounding him in a way he hasn't felt from another human being since - oh fuck, since before launch probably. The hand squeezed his shoulder through the suit, and he looks up. Straight into those supposed-to-be-dead eyes of Mr. Fucking Grace.

"It's Mark. Mark Watney."

"...Watney..."

Mark feels his shoulders slump and tries not to look visibly disappointed. "It's fine if you don't remember me, you probably had a lot of students..."

Suddenly, Mr. Grace clasps in his hands, like he always did when he had an epiphany. Mr. Grace's lightbulb-moment, his classmates used to call it.

He points at Mark excitedly. "Watney! You did your science-fair project about how seedlings develop in low-light and darkness! You built your own experimental setups from shoe-boxes, control-groups and everything!"

"You remember?"

"Are you kidding? I fought so hard for you to win first prize that year."

"I think I remember getting second-place..."

Mr. Grace fumbled with his gloves. "Yeah, well, I said I fought for you, never said I won that fight. Mrs. Halloway had a music student who built her own guitar and played it. Very impressive, don't get me wrong, but i feel like entertainment won out over real science that year."

Mark laughed at the absurd situation. Stuck in space with his science teacher, who's wayyy more butthurt about Marks science-fair loss than Mark himself.

"Did you ever do anything with that biology interest?" Mr. Grace said, reaching to the airlock handle to let Mark into the main body of the ship.

"Yeah, became a botanist. Space botanist. It saved my life on that planet, i've been growing potatoes on Mars to survive."

Grace's eyes widened. "Did you bring any?"

Mark grinned as he stepped over the threshold to the main area of the (famous, legendary, mythical, don't think about it too much) Hail Mary. "However much I managed to stuff into my suit."

Mr. Grace followed him in, saying something that sounded a bit like; "amaze, amaze."

But before Mark could ask what he said, he got bowled over by something he could only describe as a giant spider in a hamster ball.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?!"

"...oh, fudge, i forgot to tell you."

Edit: Part 3 (did the ground crew notice the Hail Mary approaching? Mayhaps. Did i have a great need to have Eva Stratt and Venkat/Vincent Kapoor interact? Absolutely)

What if - hear me out - Mark is one of Grace's middle school students?

Imagine, you're getting saved from a Martian hellscape by a mysterious ship, but you're not picky because you're getting saved from aforementioned Martian Hellscape. And then the mystery-astronaut removes his helmet and you're staring at your long-lost, supposed-to-be-dead, slightly malnourished, younger than he should be because of time-dilation, middle school teacher who disappeared one day to save the world and single-handedly inspired you to become an astronaut.

From getting a reply on my looping SOS message, to getting into contact with a craft that appearantly cant land, having to improvise my own little rocket to get me into the orbit of Mars, until some crazy fucking astronaut goes on a space walk (connected to his own ship with a tether that looks like he just knotted a bunch of spare wires together) to pull me physically into his airlock.

Man, i don't know who this guy thinks he is, but he is my new hero. We're standing in the airlock of his ship, and i have to focus on my breathing to make sure i dont do anything fucking stupid. Like passing out. Or crying.

"Sounds like the pressure has equalized." My savior says, while reaching up to remove his helmet.

"I... probably should have mentioned this earlier-" he starts, while clasps unbuckle and gaskets unseal. The bottom part of his helmet muffles his words as he starts lifting it up. "-but, you are not the first passenger i've picked up on the way ..."

He shakes his head when the helmet pops free. Messy blonde hair falls over his forehead. Wireframe glasses are sitting askew on his face. Bright, bright blue eyes are looking straight at me and for a second I expect him to throw a beanbag at me and ask me for the speed of light.

I suddenly realize why that voice sounded so familiar over the radio.

Oh God...

This is impossible. I'm dreaming. Hallucinating from malnutrition. Maybe I'm already dead and angels look like long-lost middle-school teachers or something.

"Mr. Grace?"

Edit: Part 2

"i am your favorite teacher's favorite teacher😎" - Mark on his comment section probably

just the image:

Don't know how this stupid ass idea came to me, and I spent waay too much time and energy on it lol

Commssions are open!

Grace wasn't sad and lonely, he was happy, he had a good life, he very much did not want to die. They have to do a looney tunes chase sequence and drug him because Grace was *very* unwilling to be the sacrificial lamb. Humanity's savior was dragged kicking and screaming into the role and called selfish for daring to be a coward, as if most of us wouldn't be.

And then he befriends Rocky, who never demands a sacrifice from him, who willingly prolongs his journey home so Grace can go back to his. Rocky has a mate back home and his species depends on his return, and still risks his life to save his squishy human friend. And Grace returns the favor.

Ryland Grace swears in the book exactly one (1) time and it's when he sees Rocky's ship