bloodymary au where Simon and Grace were together before Grace is forced to participate in the the mission to Tau Ceti. He can’t contact Simon due to the million and one NDAs he’d signed and Stratt also bars any communication w anyone outside of PHM. When Stratt is finally confronting Grace about replacing DuBois and Shapiro after their deaths, he’s struck w terrible news
“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
“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
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
“You won’t trick me. I won’t let you.”
