Chapter Text
THREE YEARS LATER
“Luke?”
Luke looked up from his guitar. Willie was standing in the doorway.
“Hey, Willie. Do you need something?”
Willie grinned. “The new recruits are arriving today. You should come greet them.”
Luke held up the guitar. “Julie and Reggie are going to call in like three hours, and I want to have this riff done by then.”
Willie gave a mysterious grin. “Luke, trust me, you really want to come greet these recruits.”
“Dude, I’m not missing out on talking to Julie.”
Willie threw his hands up. “Record the landing for them. You know Carlos would go nuts for it.”
Luke frowned and got to his feet. “Fine, but why are you being so pushy? I don’t bug you when you and Alex are talking.”
“You’re going to thank me for this.”
The recruits always arrived in the commons first after disembarking. It was something of a game to try to guess who each of them would be from the rosters – Luke had played this with Willie every time a new ship came in. He wasn’t feeling it tonight though.
He set his tablet up to record the footage of the landing being broadcast on their screens while he listlessly played with the ring on his finger. In the three years since he had put it on in the Shamans house, he hadn't taken it off.
It was two hours before the recruits came in. Luke spent the time sending an email to Julie explaining the change in location and playing tic tac toe with his dad. Mitch seemed distracted as well, constantly staring at the door. Luke wondered if one of his NASA associates was coming with this batch. Or maybe Mitch had to return to Earth for meetings and was hesitant to tell Luke about it – it wouldn’t be the first time NASA had put pressure on Mitch to stop having all his meetings remotely. Luke knew eventually Mitch would have to return to Earth for a visit.
“Here they come,” Willie said, nudging Luke’s side.
The group was small – four might be the smallest group Luke had ever seen arrive at the station, though he knew there would be maintenance members in the shuttle that still needed to enter. Usually, the nations sent up at least ten, sometimes more since the settlement had the space to accommodate more and more scientists.
“I bet that one is Harris,” Willie said, pointing at the second tallest.
Luke smiled and nodded listlessly. He wanted to be talking to Julie. He wanted to show her the guitar riff he worked out while avoiding robotics duty. He didn’t want to be sitting here watching as the astronaut drew off her helmet to show –
“Well, now, Lucas. Is that any way to greet your teacher?”
Luke was on his feet in a moment, his arms around the bulky suit. Harrison laughed and patted his head, the only part she could apparently reach.
“I missed you too, son.”
“I thought you were retiring?” he asked, pulling back slightly.
Harrison smiled. “Well, when I heard about a certain East Texas director pulling strings to be stationed here permanently, I could hardly let him show me up.”
Mitch reached out a hand to shake Harrison’s. “It’s good to see you. Any problems on the way up?”
Harrison shook her head. “Our engineering analyst did his job splendidly.” Harrison indicated one of the crew members, who seemed to take that as their cue to remove their helmet.
“Lex!”
Okay, Luke had to be hallucinating. That wasn’t Alex taking off his helmet and pushing sweaty hair back with a grin.
Oh, nope, okay. That was definitely Alex, otherwise Willie was kissing a hallucination brought on by euphoria. Luke liked to imagine that the other scientists gathered around would be concerned by their protégé making out with air, not smiling at it softly. Ergo, real Alex.
“Well, that was enthusiastic,” another familiar voice said.
Luke grabbed Reggie roughly, holding onto him with desperation a twenty-year-old man shouldn’t know so intimately.
“Hey, hey man, it’s cool,” Reggie soothed, hugging Luke back. “I’m here, man, you don’t have to strangle me.”
Luke laid off on the intensity of his hold. “How? How are you here?”
“Well, after we drove you to LA and got grounded the rest of our natural lives,” Reggie began, his smile brilliant, “Tia got in contact with Harrison who recommended us all for the program. We didn’t want to tell you in case we didn’t make it, but here we are.”
“Wait.” Luke didn’t want to let his hopes rise – if he was wrong this might be the moment he was pushed over the edge. “All of you?”
The final crew member removed her helmet. “All of us.”
Luke didn’t have a flair for the dramatic, regardless of what any of the assembled scientists might think. He had a perfectly average level of dramatic at any given moment. Anyone would have swept their girlfriend into their arms, bending her backwards to give her an enthusiastic kiss.
You try having a long-distance relationship on two different planets and see if you don’t do that once you’re together again. Go ahead. Luke will wait.
“You’re here,” he whispered once Julie was upright again. She tried to wipe his tears away, her fingers bare - when did she have time to take off her gloves? Luke wasn’t sure he cared enough to ask - he was more focused on her. Her, here.
“I am.”
“How?”
“Well,” Alex butted in. “We went through this really awful condensed version of astronaut training, and for anyone else I would have quit after having to spend two weeks in that tent with Reggie.”
“Hey!”
“Reg, your morning breath could strip the paint from the walls, and you know it.”
Luke laughed. Oh, how he’d missed them.
“And once we all passed it,” Reggie continued, “we were cleared for missions. We’re on a rotational system for now, but eventually we’ll apply for permanent positions.”
“You’d do that? For me?”
“Luke,” Julie said drily, “we risked the wrath of Tia for you. Trust me when I say we would do anything for you.”
“But what about your music?” Luke asked, tucking Julie under his arm. He wasn’t sure when medical was going to take them for their physicals, but he wasn’t about to let Julie out of his sight.
Alex shrugged. “Hologram technology has to be good for something, right?”
Luke’s eyes widened. “Jules, does that mean-?”
Julie nodded, grinning. “We got cleared for it. Julie and the Phantoms is good to go.”
Luke swept Julie into a hug, twirling her around. She laughed and tilted her head back.
“Are you sure though?” he asked after he set her down. “Jules, your whole life, your family…”
Julie cupped his face. “Hey, none of that. I can talk to Carlos and Flynn and Papi whenever I want to. And there’s hope for you, Luke. There’s an entire team of people on Earth working on making it safe for you to go back.”
“You’re going to get to see the ocean again, buddy,” Reggie reassured him, pulling the others into a hug. “I promise. Everything you wanted, you’re going to get.”
As Mitch and Harrison got in on the hug, Luke couldn’t help thinking that he already had everything he wanted, right there in his arms.
Though, he had to admit that five years later when he performed in person at the Grammy awards as the lead guitarist for Julie and the Phantoms after winning best album… that came pretty close too.