#yuppp

Instead of them meeting during or after Grace's time in space, what if Simon appears on the Hail Mary while Grace is still in a coma? So he wakes up in this huge ship that he's never seen before and has to fix himself up alone, by himself, with whatever medical equipment he can manage to get his hands on (and likely with Mary's help, once he learns to trust her).

Anyway, he appeared there a couple months away from when Grace would wake up, so Simon is slowly learning things about the mission. He learns they came from Earth- argues with Mary about that being impossible until he looks out the windows and sees all the stars. He still refuses to believe it fully, but he can't help but hope. He's been surviving off VERY meager rations bc he knows that Grace will wake up eventually, but he knows the rest of the crew is dead (he had asked Mary about this at one point).

When Grace finally wakes up, Simon is there waiting- staring at him. He had planned to attack him, to threaten him- demand answers. But he's been alone for so long that even as he desperately WANTS to do that, he just hugs him instead.

Just- imagine the emotional toll that would take on both of them. Of Grace slowly remembering the crew and realizing this man is not with them. That they're gone and some random GUY is alive on the ship.