I Like This Stuff

He opens his eyes but he cant move. Hes constricted by writhing veins, threatening to crush his ribs. He knows he's supposed to be free, he went to sleep in a house, in the biodome, on erid, but he’s watching blood pour down the walls and eyes leer outside the windows. he cant move, he cant talk, he can only move his eyes, Grace is still asleep and cant free him from the blood roots burrowing under his skin

But eridians watch each other sleep. A xenonite-shrouded hand touches his arm, grabs his hand, and breaks him out of the smothering paralysis.

"I hear Simon heart beat loud, fast. I am here. Wake up now."

—

“You have no one. No family. Not even a dog.”

“You’re wrong! I have…I have Simon!”

Stratt looks…well, Grace can’t fully tell. She’s always been good at keeping her expression neutral, but there’s something about it that makes the pit in Grace’s stomach grow

“He’s dead, Dr Grace.”

No. No no no no NO!

“You’re a liar. You’re lying! Where’s my phone, I’m gonna call him.”

Grace pats his pockets w frantic energy before Stratt very calmly slides something across the table towards him. Grace doesn’t want to look at it, but he sees it anyway, can’t tear his eyes away from the back and white photo of Simon staring at him from the newspaper

“He drowned, saving a child. It was…very heroic.”

It can’t be. This is fake, some kind of ploy to trick Grace into going on a suicide mission. He’s so sure of it. He is! But…no. That’s just what he tells himself. Stratt has never been a liar, and even if she’s pulled the rug out from under his feet now, Grace knows this isn’t a lie either. Maybe some orchestrated attempt at manipulation, holding back this information for so long, but it’s not a lie

—

There’s a strong gap in Grace’s memory, no matter how hard he tries to remember. Everything else had come back, the effects of the amnesia causing drug Stratt had administered fading for the most part. But there’s something that just…stays out of reach. Grace knows it’s important, and Rocky watches with about as much worry as a rock can conjure with no face. At some point, living happily on Erid, Grace comes to accept that he’ll never fill in those missing memories

—

It comes back like a flood. It almost knocks the wind out of him

“Simon?”

Dark, feral eyes widen in surprise before they narrow again

“Who are you? How do you know my name?”

Grace feels frozen for a long time, but he manages to get a handle on himself, reaching forward for the man he never thought he’d see again, the one he thought he’d lost, the one who’d left him!

But before he can make contact, Simon is on him, straddling his waist as a hand wraps around his neck