Summary: Sickeningly sweet domestic fluff with dads!Hollanov.
It works with canon if you can believe Shane played with Ottawa for a season or two and then they decided to have a baby. Maybe they moped about having to wait due to their careers and figuring out the logistics but Svetlana stood up, Katniss Everdeen style, “I volunteer!” Something like that.
Seriously, it’s so sweet, it might cause heartburn.
You’ve been warned.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
So, I (like a lot of people right now) am obsessed with PHM (Project Hail Mary). And like any reasonable individual, have come across the ship of Simon (Iron Lung) x Grace (PHM).
Was rewatching it when I thought "huh, I remember seeing this post about Grace being traumatized over being pinned down to the ground and forced onto a ship when he clearly already said no. And how that would affect 'fun time' with Simon. Huh. This one fic that I read by the same creator never delved into that dynamic. Huh. I should write this." So uhm.. yeah. Here's that I guess?
Side note: it took me three days to write this on and off, and I'm not trying to be anal about the details, so... Take my fanfic or don't, idc. I'm planning on doing multiple parts for this because I feel like doing a one shot of this would make it too long so... Yeah.
WARNINGS FOR THE FOLLOWING POST!!: PTSD, blood, gore, spoilers for PHM and Iron Lung. (Sorta kinda)
It was an average day, or as average as it could be on Erid. It'd been about a little over a year since he'd moved into his biodome on Erid. The weather was perfect.
Foggy. Like he always liked it. He was wearing his yellow cardigan with his glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. Rocky was waddling along beside him, talking about Adrian, how they were very proud of Grace for being able to learn the Eridian language, and especially being a teacher for the pebbles.
"Hey, I forgot to mention, please tell Adrian I said thank you for fixing the water temperature. It's absolutely perfect now, and the biodome team, they've got the seasons down perfectly."
Rocky looks up at him after rolling around in the too-large grains of sand.
"Good good good. Rocky like when Grace happy, statement."
He laughs at that, enjoying the company of Rocky. Though he'd never compare to an actual human, it was nice to have a companion of some kind at the very least.
Suddenly, Rocky has taken off ahead of Grace saying something too fast for him to be able to comprehend, which he's quite used to by now, but normally it means that Adrian is calling for him.
He continues his walk along the beach, happy to enjoy the foggy morning, his hands resting in the pockets of his cardigan, shoes crunching against the grains of sand. As he eventually rounds a corner of the beach part of his biodome, he sees Rocky barrelling towards him once more, speaking too quickly to understand, again. The little alien sounds excited, and worried, and too many different things for Grace to even begin to make sense of.
"woah, woah Rock, slow down, what's going on?"
"Grace! Grace! Human! Come come come!"
He didn't need to hear more than that, he was already running to the entrance of his biodome, quickly getting passed by Rocky, but eventually coming to an almost skidding halt once he reached it. His hair is a mess now, sticking up in multiple directions, and he's clearly out of breath from how fast he ran, not to mention his glasses are completely askew across his face.
"Adrian! Rocky said there was another human. Where? What's going on?!"
Even he could tell he sounded hopeful. Another human, another true and genuine human being, alive, to touch, to hold, to- woah he's getting way ahead of himself, calm down Grace.
"We found another, but ship. Wrong, statement. Couldn't get human out, statement."
Now that was concerning.
"what do you mean? What was wrong with the ship ?"
"It was sealed, statement. Opening was stuck. Why would humans close other human in ship, question? No exit, question?"
That doesn't make sense, a ship with no way to get out, especially from the inside, it'd be a death sentence.
"that.. doesn't make any sense. I- I don't know."
His head was spinning, why would that happen? Who would do that to someone? Why would.. no, he shouldn't dwell on this right now. Right now, he needs to focus on the matter at hand, getting whoever the human is, inside the biodome.
"That doesn't matter anymore, just. Bring them here, we can... Maybe get a story after."
"The human is.. awake but. Aggressive."
Aggressive? Well, that would make sense, he's pretty sure most would be if they were thrown onto a random planet with little rock aliens.
"That's fine. I can handle aggressive."
The next thing he knows, the airlock for his biodome is opening, presenting to him, a very much awake, and very very much aggressive, human man.
The man is, without a doubt, clearly freaking the fuck out. His eyes are darting all over the place, his body is covered in a thick, dark red liquid, and based on the smell, Grace's first guess is that the liquid is blood.
The man is hunched over, breathing heavy, but his eyes are locked on Grace. Dark and heavy, and he's clutching something to his chest, flinching back and immediately standing up when Adrian speaks. Making it more clear to Grace that the thing the man is holding, is a fire extinguisher, which he holds over his head like a bat, seemingly ready to swing it like one as well.
Though the man's eyes are now on Adrian, they seem to continue to dart back to Grace, like he can't keep his eyes off the completely clean man before him.
Adrian stomps their back most foot twice to signify their question, which just causes the new human to flinch and swing the fire extinguisher down, immediately making him stumble forward out of the airlock when he misses them entirely, almost stumbling directly into Grace.
"Human is aggressive. Hurt an Eridian, statement. Why hurt us, question? Saved human."
"Woah! Hey, hey! Breathe! They're not here to-"
His voice trails off, falling into complete silence as he stares at the man before him. Now that he's out in the foggy daylight, Grace can see more about what's actually wrong, more specifically, what might be making the man so aggravated.
His entire body is covered, head to toe with blood in different stages of drying. Dark hair clings to the man's skin, and despite the blood all over him making it impossible to tell where he was hurt underneath all of it, his entire left arm was gone. Ripped from the shoulder down, leaving blood to drip onto the green grass beneath his feet. Something else Grace managed to notice, is the distinct scent of alcohol mingling with the stench of blood. Whether it was the man's own or someone else's, Grace really didn't know and wasn't sure if he wanted to.
I'm regards to the man's face, the left half was covered in scales, with parts of it being puffed up from what appeared to be boils. Those dark eyes continued to stare at Ryland, intelligent, angry, and scared all at the same time. Yet somehow, beneath all of that, there was a hint of... Well, the best way to describe it was relief, but it was more than that, Grace knew it was, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
The man in front of him, those dark, beautiful eyes, suddenly rolled back and Grace had to rush forward to catch the man before he could fall face first against the smooth grass.
"Woah! Hey, are you okay?! Sir??"
Holy crap he was heavy, surprisingly muscular, but heavy nonetheless.
"Rocky, can you get some of the scientists here to get me a gurney? I can't carry him on my own."
Rocky scuttles out of the biodome before Grace even fully finishes his sentence, not a single noise out of him, that was.. a bit concerning.
He couldn't focus on that now though, he needed to worry about at least stopping the blood loss from the man's torn off arm. He couldn't make a tourniquet, since there wasn't even a shoulder left, so he instead quickly removed his cardigan and pressed the fabric to the wound where the man's arm should be. He winces as he watches the bright yellow fabric get stained red with blood, but he's more worried about this man living than he is about his sweater.
Rocky comes back with two other Eridians, all saying things Ryland can't quite catch, but he does understand that Rocky, as well as the others, are worried about this man, which only worries Grace more as he helps them load him onto the Gurney and rush back to his house where Armando stays.
The next sixteen hours are the worst Grace had ever experienced, and that includes waking up aboard the Hail Mary to find all of his crewmates already dead. He paces through his small living room and kitchen combo, walking around the couch and table several times each before sitting down, just to get up and do it again less than a minute later. He holds his hackysack designed to look like earth, gently tossing it between his two hands and squeezing it each time.
He was so anxious, so nervous. He'd never been so worried about someone before, well.. unless you count when Rocky almost died, but he's never been so worried about another human before, it'd been so long since he's even interacted with one, he's honestly a little worried he'll mess up actually just talking to the man.
When the clock reads 9:15, he finally sits down, letting his leg bounce ceaselessly, a more regulated way to get his nerves out, and while he's still worried, he tries to at least somewhat distract himself by grading his student's papers. Though, that doesn't last long as the familiar pattering of Rocky's claws across his flooring reaches his ears, making him immediately stand up, knocking his chair back onto the floor with a loud chatter at how fast he does so.
He stares at Rocky, Rocky stares back at him.
"human is alive, statement. Dirty dirty dirty. Human needs cleaning time, statement. Arm is gone, but... Human is alive. Sleeping still, Grace must be quiet."
Ryland nearly collapses at that. With the extent of his injury, and the possibility that there were more under all of the blood, Grace is surprised he's not in critical condition or something. Though, he knows Armando is amazing at helping the human body repair itself, he still very often forgets just how good the robot actually is.
Now that Grace knows the man is okay, he wants to see him, to study him, to touch and hold and- okay, calm down Ryland. The man just got pulled from God knows where, covered in blood and badly wounded, he needs to push on the brakes before he winds up accidentally scaring off the poor guy sheet he wakes up.
He blinks, just once, and the next thing he knows he's standing over the sleeping form of the man, nails digging into the palm of his own hand in an attempt to stop himself from reaching out and disturbing the sleeping man. From the looks of it, Armando changed the man's clothes into something cleaner, which happened to be a hospital gown, the wound where the man's messing arm was patched up, though the bandages were already turning a dark red, there were small spots all up and down his forearm where blood had been cleaned away to apply bandages to more wounds. The boils along the left side of his face seem to have been drained, leaving small puncture wounds covered by bandaids and scale-covered skin.
It didn't take long for Grace to realize he was leaning in closer to the man, and just as he was about to back away, the man's eyes opened, making Grace freeze mid-motion like a kid who had been caught doing something wrong.
Grace stares. The man stares back. He blinks once, twice, and the next thing he knows the man has him pinned up against a wall with his forearm. Grace gasps, his arms flailing and trying to grab at the man's arm to push it off of him, his heart was pounding so loud he couldn't hear anything but it.
Suddenly, the man's voice cut through Ryland's panic, making his entire body lock up. The voice was a low rumble, hinted with a sharp edge to it, like a knife that had just been sharpened. The room felt like it had dropped several degrees, and he could faintly hear the alarmed chirps of Rocky threatening the man.
"Who are you. Are you with the C.O.I? Those fuckers left me there to die. WE HAD A DEAL."
At the man's yelling, he flinches slightly and is thrust completely out of his stupor, barely managing to force out a meek.
"W-who..?"
The man's words are slurred, and his body seems to be swaying. Despite his injuries and the fact that he was just unconscious, he's rather strong, it's almost inhuman how strong. Grace catches his mind slipping away from the matter at hand before he snaps back, blinking a few times as he realizes the man had asked him something else.
"Huh..?"
The man sighs, heavy yet rough, his grip tightening on Grace's shirt as he stares at the blonde. Completely ignoring the rock thing hitting his leg, incessantly getting louder with its musical notes. God that's annoying.
"Who. Are. You."
Grace splutters at that.
"Grace- o-oh uhm.. Ryland Grace. Sorry I just-"
Ryland attempts to clear his throat and fails, the arm pressed against his chest moved higher, only making breathing harder.
"C-can't breathe..."
Suddenly his feet make contact with the floor and he has to put both hands on his knees to prevent himself from falling, coughing a few times as he drinks in the fresh air, before finally looking up at the man, noticing how he grips the makeshift bed, how his body trembles, and more specifically, how his eyes are now focused on the ground, instead of on Grace.
Ryland hated that the second he noticed it. He wanted the man to focus on him, only him, always him. Wow, okay. That's a bit far. Calm down. He's probably just... Scared? Yeah, that must be it.
"H-hey it's- it's okay I'm not.. uhm... With the C.O.I. W-whatever that might be..."
He finds himself fidgeting with his shirt, twisting it around one finger before letting it fall, repeating the motion over and over again. The man's voice finally cuts through the silence after several moments of just sitting there.
"How do you not know what the C.O.I is? Everyone on Eden knows. Wait. Where are we? I.. I swear I saw green before..."
Suddenly the man stands up, stumbling for a moment, before rushing over to a window nearby, waving off Grace's attempt to help him, leaning against the frame and staring out at the grass of the biodome as it sways in the artificially created wind.
"What... This shouldn't be.. how is.... Where are we."
The man's voice has dropped again at the end, a deep almost dangerous rumble, making Ryland stare like a deer in headlights.
"W-we uh... Sorry, sorry uh."
Grace has to clear his throat to be able to get his thoughts in order, very pointedly looking away from the man standing by the window, so as to not distract himself by accident.
"we're on a planet called Erid, orbiting the star Tau Ceti. The little rock alien that was trying to-"
"Rocky defend Grace. New human danger. Bad bad bad. Rocky saved Grace"
"Yes, bud you did very good. This, is Rocky. He's an Eridian. They're from here."
Grace had gotten so caught up on his explanation, he hadn't noticed that the man was staring at him.
"The.. the stars are gone. They're- they're supposed to be gone... How- how are we..."
That doesn't sound right, Rocky and him found the cure to the astrophage, they sent it back to earth. Oh no. What if the pods didn't make it? What if something went wrong and- his thoughts are cut off by Rocky bumping against his leg, making him realize that he hadn't actually answered the question.
"They aren't gone, or.. they shouldn't be. Dimmed, sure but... Gone? I- sorry, we sent the samples of the Taumoeba back to Earth, they should've gotten them by now, how could-"
"Earth? Earth is still alive?! Nonono, Earth can't be real, it can't be- Earth is gone, there's only Eden and the C.O.I and the last tree. If Earth still exists then... We were lied to."
The man cut off Grace, sounding scared and then extremely angry in a matter of seconds, Ryland still has no clue what he's going on about, Earth being gone, "the C.O.I.", and what the fuck is Eden?
Next thing Grace knows, the man is punching the wall right next to the glass, causing him to jump and Rocky to immediately rush forward and try to pull the man away from the wall, though he fails and Armando has to sedate the man again.
"THEY LIED! LIARS! EARTH ISN'T GONE YOU FUCKS! YOU LIED TO ME! TO ALL OF US!"
The man's shouting hurts Grace's ears, and from the looks of it, Rocky wants to run from the room, he imagines this can't be good for the little alien's vision.
"Hey, woah woah hey- breathe, what are you-"
Suddenly the punching stops, the yelling is followed by complete silence, and Grace has to immediately rush forward to catch the man before he falls. This feels familiar. Finally, he carefully drags the man back onto the bed and hoists him up, getting help from Armando to lay him on the bed properly. Now that the man is asleep again, Grace can see how tired the man looks. He looks like he's gone days without sleep, maybe he has. Adrian did say they found him floating in a ship in space. They didn't mention anyone else being in the ship either... Is that why he's covered in blood? Did he kill his crewmates? No, there's no way someone would... Oh God did he accidentally save a criminal?
Great. Just great, this would be his luck. His only form of direct contact with another human in probably years, and the guy might be a murderer. Awesome. This would be his luck.
Grace sighs heavily, rubbing his eyes under his glasses, accidentally spreading some of the blood that had gotten on his hands to his face, before finally deciding he'd had enough of smelling this and the alcohol and the aggression, and worrying about this random, possibly murderous man, leaving the room to take a shower and go to bed. Too much had happened for one day and he needed a break.
Poseidon stared at the man who now laid at his feet. He tried to make it quick.
But looking at it, he only made the man not be able to speak in his final moments.
He shook his head ignoring the odd pain in his chest.
Something was wrong. He wasn’t feeling the satisfaction that he thought he would.
As he stared at the motionless body of his thought to be lover. All he could feel was regret and agony.
Poseidon fell to his knees finally not holding back. He yelled the waves around him growing in rage.
Then they fell..calming or giving up. Tears fell down his face.
His shoulders shook. “I’m sorry..im so sorry” he whispered softly.
At mt Olympus the others stared.
Zeus sat there shocked. He never liked the king of Ithaca but even now he wasn’t expecting a twist in fate.
Athena shook tears falling down her face.
In an instant she was there. She pushed Poseidon out of the way falling down next to Odysseus lifeless body. “What have you done..YOU MURDER!! You killed him! He loved you and you killed him in cold blood!!” She yelled “I actually started to think the cold blooded reptile was started to warm up..but even snakes toy with their food..” she whispered. She stood taking Odys body with her.
Poseidon just sat there. He started to realize. That the satisfaction he thought he would feel will never come. Only heartbreak.
All because his cold blooded self never learned to grow a heart.
What do you think was the purpose of “Jackie Bags Hyde”? It’s pretty evident onscreen that Hyde felt something in the kiss (touching his lips, hesitating before answering, etc.) but then it’s not really taken up again after that episode. Was the plan then to have the roles reverse and Hyde have a crush on Jackie as she reunited with Kelso? It seems kinda weird how that date is never mentioned again (even after Hyde and Jackie do get together).
The purpose is relatively straightforward: the writers were going for irony. Jackie spends months pursuing Hyde, first out of loneliness and in need of a friend (and a rebound relationship); after "Cat Fight Club," her desire for Hyde's friendship becomes idolization; after "Moon Over Point Place," she mistakes her gratitude for love and pursues Hyde romantically.
Hyde tries, unsuccessfully, to dissuade her (a little karma for how he ignored Donna's consistent direct romantic rejection of him). And in spite of himself, through their shared experiences from "Kelso's Serenade" to "Jackie Bags Hyde," he develops genuine romantic feelings for her.
Going on a date with her is his way to discover if Mrs. Forman's claim about him liking Jackie romantically is true. He ultimately realizes he does ... while Jackie realizes she'd been acting out of fantasy and isn't actually romantically attracted to Hyde. So Hyde's left holding the bag, unrequited feelings that Jackie's pursuit of him -- and their experiences together -- created.
This irony is given a finer point by the episode that narratively comes after "Jackie Bags Hyde" (but Fox changed the airing order): "Ice Shack".
Kelso is present in "Jackie Bags Hyde" when Hyde tells Jackie to pack her stuff; they're going on a freakin' date. In "Ice Shack," Kelso comes up with a plan to get Jackie back. He invites Eric, Donna, and Jackie to his uncle's cabin (that turns out to be an ice-fishing shack). Kelso states he didn't invite Fez (because Fez wants Jackie himself). He also says he definitely couldn't invite Hyde -- because, although unspoken, Jackie clearly has feelings for Hyde that Hyde seems to return now. Remember, Kelso has no knowledge about what happened on Jackie and Hyde's date, only that they went on one.
Note: Donna points out that Kelso's still dating Laurie, but of course Kelso dismisses that fact.
"Ice Shack" depicts a Jackie fresh from her realization that Hyde isn't the answer to her grief over Kelso. Hyde was her distraction from and shield against her complex feelings about Kelso.
Fez, who ran his ass off to catch Kelso's van, does what he can to sabotage Kelso's plan. It backfires. Jackie thinks she and Kelso are supposed to reconcile. Then Kelso's van dinking I to the lake, due to Kelso's jubilant victory dance, convinces Jackie that God doesn't actually want them together after all.
The next narratively chronological episode is "Hyde's Christmas Rager," where Jackie laments being alone romantically. The previous two (narratively chronological) episodes showed her neither Hyde nor Kelso is an option anymore.
If you'd like to see what might've happened had T7S not essentially excised textually Jackie and Hyde's relationship during S1-S3, check out my fanfic One Difference: Hyde Goes to Kelso's Ice Shack.
At first, it was a small crack for Darius. A small hole in the dam. A tiny scratch in a glass.
He got them off the island, despite all the hardships that got to them. The dinosaurs, Kash and Daniel.. Mitch and Tiff. They could finally get peace and quiet. He could get peace and quiet.
Unfortunately, things do not last. Six years of solace passed. Six years since Darius isolated himself from the rest. In a secluded cabin somewhere in the Californian woods.
Ben showed up at his door on a random Sunday night, harbouring a laptop and a messenger bag with way too many documents and theories. Too many notes. This guy's overworked himself. Was the first thing that crossed Darius' mind.
“I've been looking on Dark Jurassic..” Ben murmured to Darius and he looked up from the laptop, eyed flitting over Darius' face.
He was thinking of something. Hesitant to tell Darius something. Ben bit his lip. He closed the laptop gently, setting it off to the side.
“Darius.” Ben said, his voice cracked and he was playing with his zipper.
“Ben? Are you okay?” He raised a brow, reaching his hands out to steady on Ben's shoulders.
“Uhm, Brooklynn.. she –” He swallowed nervously.
“She's dead, Darius. She was killed.”
Another crack.
“What?” Darius asked breathly, “No– I called her.. two days ago I–” His hands drew back to his own body, his fingers curling a tad, his other hand gripped his tooth necklace – the necklace that held memories. And nightmares. – tightly.
“She.. um.. she – I don't know.. she's dead. Darius. She was killed. Targeted.”
“No.. –” His hands started trembling. He promised he'd meet up with her – he didn't. He passed out on his sofa crying.
“I was supposed to..” He rasped, tears welled up in his eyes. His breath hitched, and he started hyperventilating.
“Darius..”
And then the dam broke. It took one small tap for the glass to shatter into a million little pieces.
He gripped his hair, fingers digging into his head. He lurched forward, and wailed.
He wanted to throw up.
The tears fell, he struggled to breathe properly. It felt like his throat closed, like he was being choked.
He couldn't stand, and toppled over. Ben caught him.
“Darius.” He tightly held him, “Darius please–”
His cries wracked the whole cabin, filling the silence he'd lived with for six years.
This was his fault. If he was there – he could've helped her, done anything. She deserved to live. He should've been the one who would lie there, torn up into pieces by teeth and claws. It should've been him.
Sharp fangs should've sunk into him, torn him to shreds. It's what he deserved. All the lives he couldn't help. All the lives he let the dinosaurs take. And now Brooklynns.
