Chapter Text
I am very tired. Been that way for months. But I'm still a scientist at heart, and the concepts that these kids are proposing to me are inherently keeping me wide awake.
We've been trading questions back and forth for a while now, Leah being the most talkative one. Whatever happened in her "world" hasn't dimmed the inherent curious spark of a young child, thank goodness, and she's been asking the weird questions only someone of her age would, such as "How can the rock creature talk?" and "Why is your skin eating itself?". Both of which are easily answered but only lead to more questions, and I am tickled pink that somehow, I have become once more what I used to thrive as - a teacher.
However, Leah's enthusiasm is mired slightly by Shiloh's constant wariness, and Simon's odd silence. For someone who seemed extremely eager to know more about my background, once I actually told him the full story, he had grown cold and distant, and had retreated back to raiding the medical bay. I let him and didn't admonish him - after all, if it gave him some form of comfort, who was I to stop him?
Simon reminded me a bit of the other "quiet" kids I'd had in my classes over the years. The ones who wouldn't speak up much but loved to learn, the ones who I sometimes let step out into the hallway because the classroom got too noisy for them. The ones whose parents often didn't understand them and would call to complain about some nonsense "behavior issue" that, to me, was simply a part of their unique personality.
Anyway - science. From what I can glean, these kids are from a different world. Okay, not the weirdest thing to happen to me. I met an entirely new alien species and defeated a microscopic threat to the universe - weird kids from a dying world can definitely be added to the bingo card.
But that was the key word - dying. Simon is hoarding medical supplies. Aaron had freaked out over the existence of saplings. And piece by small distracted piece, I put together that their world didn't have planets anymore.
My mentioning NASA got their attention because in their world, NASA had vanished alongside Earth, and Mars, and every other living planet.
But that was where my addled brain starts jumping to conclusions that I swear I would never make if I were fully sane. There can't have been a way that an entire planet just up and vanished. So what if the missing link they didn't have was astrophage?
What if astrophage had worked overtime in their world? What if, instead of Earth dying in the span of 30 years, it instead crumbled in the span of 30 seconds? Exponential growth of organisms happens all the time. It's truly amazing the sheer amount of biological processes that can happen in the span of less than a nano-second.
By the time I am done positing these ideas to the kids, however, I am well and truly spent. The bullet hadn't hit anything vital, sure, but the surgery to remove it certainly brushed up against some things, and hey, what was that about scurvy eating scar tissue? Oh yeah, that's a thing that happens.
"Dr. Grace?"
I hear Leah's voice prod my distant thoughts. I think I'm getting a bit of tunnel vision.
"Yup?"
"You think you ought to lie down or something?"
I blink a couple times to center myself on where I'm currently at. Sitting up, sure, but leaning all my weight against Rocky's ball. Leah is sitting backwards on one of the lab chairs, looking concerned. Shiloh has retreated back to help Simon with his hoarding.
"Y - yeah. Yeah, maybe, a little lie down wouldn't hurt."
"We continue after Grace is rested," Rocky says, nudging himself forward enough to guide me towards the bed. I rather unceremoniously hit the pillow a little too hard.
"Dr. Grace?" Leah asks.
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad we found you."
I smile at her.
"Me too, kiddo. Now, go help your friends, okay? I'll be up in a little bit."
"Children are safe on Mary. Please do not leave." Rocky adds.
"Yeah. Safe." I mumble, my eyes already closing.
I manage to spot Simon giving me an odd side eye before consciousness leaves me once again.