Chapter Text
He wasn’t supposed to be alive.
Simon didn’t know much at this moment, his body felt like it was on fire, he didn’t feel like he could even open his eyes, all he knew was that he was close to death yet so far from it.
And maybe that’s all he needed to know right now.
He tries to clear his mind and just let his body rest, he had earned that by now right? He fell asleep to the best of his abilities.
When Simon felt like he could open his eyes finally he was slightly blinded by how bright the room was. There was a scraping noise beside him and a person hovered over him, temporarily blocking the light from getting directly into his eyes.
Simon blinked a few times and saw Ava above him, though she seemed slightly blurry.
“Holy shit.” Ava whispered.
“You don’t look too good yourself.” Simon coughed, but he regretted talking, his throat felt like he swallowed a bunch of knives in one go. Simon began coughing repeatedly, the pain increasing.
“Here.” Ava said as she grabbed a cup off the nightstand beside them, holding it to his mouth. Simon didn’t ask questions but sipped the drink, water splashing down his throat and easing some of the discomfort. He emptied the cup before Ava put it back down, chest heaving like the act of drinking water was an exhausting task.
Maybe it was right now.
“Is he-?” A voice from Simon’s right began to ask, but Ava cut them off.
“Yes he’s awake. I’m going to get the Doctor.” Ava said sharply before she turned and left the room. Simon leaned back on the pillow behind him. He closed his eyes as he took several deep breaths trying to steady himself.
“I’ve been dying to know, what happened to your arm?” The voice asked from his right. Simon opened his eyes and looked towards the sound, squinting a bit to make out the blurry outline of a man on another bed across the short room.
Simon recognized the welder, the one he had blasted with radiation by accident, sitting looking towards him. Half of the man’s face was red, like it got burned, and his right eye was glossy and white. He couldn’t remember the man’s name right now.
“What?” Simon asked, the pain in his throat still substantial.
“Your arm.” The welder repeated. Simon glanced down at his arms, and he saw that his left was mostly gone. Shock, anxiety, and fear took him over all at once, and before Simon could think he was puking all over the blanket on top of him. “Woah!”
“What happened?” Ava was back with a doctor, and both of them saw the yellow bile Simon had thrown up all over himself.
“I’m sorry.” Simon mumbled out, his head feeling light and dizzy. He flopped backwards again and noticed that Ava was looking panicked?
“What now?” Ava snapped at the doctor, referring to Simon flopping over.
“He doesn’t have anything in his system, he’s not gonna stay conscious if he’s undernourished.” The doctor explained, and before Simon could ask what that meant everything went dark.
When Simon opened his eyes again it was dark in the room, completely dark. Simon shot up in bed, panicking. He couldn’t see anything around him, was he back in the sub?
“Hey.” A voice cut through the darkness, Simon felt his heart beat racing in his ears. “Hey what’s wrong?”
“What’s- what’s going on?” Simon whispered back. He heard the creak of something shifting as someone stood up. There were light footsteps before a door opened slightly, shining light in from a hallway.
Simon was able to see the welder once more, in the new found light. He watched as the welder crossed back over to his bed and sat down facing Simon.
“That better?” The welder asked as he gestured lightly toward the door. Simon nodded. “Good. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, just didn’t know.” Simon started but he let his sentence fall short, but the other man didn’t need him to finish to understand.
“Ava told me that no one is ever going back to AT-5, if that makes you feel any better.” The welder shrugged. Simon did feel a bit better hearing he wouldn’t be going back there.
“Did the box make it?” Simon asked but the welder just shrugged again.
“She didn’t tell me that much. She had dropped me here after she made David hold me up to weld, I was put through surgery to remove my tumors, when I woke up they were dropping you in here but Ava was nowhere to be seen. She came back right before you woke up, I asked her what the plan was for you and she said she didn’t know but she knew that you weren’t going back down, no one was. Then you woke up.” The welder filled him in and Simon nodded. It was a lot of information to process.
One thing that stuck out to Simon was “remove my tumors” and his mind flashed back to when he slammed the button, setting the x-ray off and blasting the man with radiation. Simon felt bile rise in his throat again.
“I’m sorry about what I did. I didn’t know that it was an x-ray, I was just so fucking scared.” Simon apologized and he watched as the welder just took a deep breath in before speaking.
“I welded you into the sub knowing you were sent to die. I think we’re even.” The welder sighed.
“I almost killed you and I didn’t even know your name.” Simon whispered lightly, like it was a deep secret to admit.
“I sent you to your death, content without knowing yours, but I’m Jack.” Jack introduced himself. Simon sat with it for a moment but muttering
“Simon.”
“Glad to finally meet you Simon.” Jack mumbled and he turned himself so he was laying in bed again. Both of them fell silent, and Simon assumes Jack fell asleep soon after but Simon couldn’t.
Simon was becoming aware of what’s going on with him, specifically his body. Not only was he feeling pain, but he was realizing how many tubes and wires were surrounding him.
There was a tube in his nose, a tube hooked up to his arm, and something surrounding his finger with a wire running up to a monitor beside him. Each time he swallowed his own spit he could feel the tube from his nose leading down his throat.
Simon tried to ignore the sensation of the tubes and wires and glanced down at his arm, or lack of, again. He couldn’t remember what caused him to lose his arm, the last thing he could remember was the sub beginning to flood with blood. He shuddered as he remembered the feeling of the blood, warm and suffocating.
There were footsteps out in the hall, they paused outside the door before someone pushed it open slightly, the light getting brighter. The doctor from earlier walked in.
“Hello.” She whispered softly, glancing towards Jack who was still asleep. “Can I help you with something? Pain meds? A drink?”
“Water.” Simon replied and she nodded. She went to the other side of the room and returned with a cup of water. She held it up for Simon like Ava did and he sipped gently.
“You’re getting carnations through the tube in your nose, once your body is more stable we’ll transfer you to liquid foods before back to solids.” The doctor explained and it was nice she was taking the time to explain, despite the fact Simon hadn’t asked.
Simon finished the cup and she walked away before returning with it filled once more, and once more Simon drank it all. Once he finished that one he leaned back against the pillow behind him.
“Do you need anything else? Are you hurting?” The doctor asked and Simon didn’t want to admit all of him hurt, so he stayed silent. “Do you want an extra blanket?” She asked and this time he nodded.
The doctor left the room and Simon ended up closing his eyes. A few moments later he felt a blanket lay out on top of him and he peaked his eyes open again. The doctor gave him a brief smile.
“Anything else?” She asked.
“Please don’t close the door when it’s dark.” Simon asked and the doctor made an expression with her face he couldn’t quite read. She didn’t say anything but walked over to the corner of the room opposite the foot of his bed, there was a small click and a lamp turned on, soft enough to light up the room but not truly be bright.
“Is that okay? I’d like you both to have your privacy if possible, so if that’s on can I close the door?” She asked and he nodded, as long as he wasn’t completely in the dark. “Alright, anything else?” And he shook his head.
The doctor left the room and Simon did his best to try and go back to sleep. It took a while but he was finally able to after a while. When he woke up again Ava was in the room once more, as was the doctor.
Simon wasn’t sure if the doctor had given him more pain meds or if his pain had subsided a bit but he felt like he was able to move a bit without hurting head to toe. Simon shifted himself up a bit so he was sitting up instead of laying down.
“The captain understands that you don’t need to return to service, you have done enough.” Ava said to Jack. Simon peered over and saw Jack sitting up and bed and eating something, a tray table over his lap holding his plate.
“I want to, I need to be able to do something.” Jack replied as he set his fork down. Simon could tell he was getting frustrated from here.
“You can do something once you’re healed, focus on getting better.” Ava retorted back, and she sighed before turning around to face the doctor. The doctor had just noticed Simon was awake, and was getting a bag of some liquid hooked up to a tube.
Before Simon could really ask questions the doctor hooked that tube up to the one that was coming out of his noise, this apparently was how he got his food.
“Simon, I have things I need to go over with you too.” Ava sighed and she walked over to stand near him. Simon didn’t say anything but stared at her instead.
“Go ahead, crush his dreams too.” Jack scoffed. Ava turned her head to glare at Jack before turning back to look at Simon.
“First the captain wanted me to express his gratitude for retrieving the data you did, including the data from SM-8. Your penance has been paid, you’re a free man.” Ava said and Simon tried to process what she was saying.
The block box had made it, Simon had collected what he needed to, he was free. He still didn’t understand his freedom, how he earned it more specifically, and he hoped Ava had answers.
“How did I get out of there?” Simon asked, and Ava just stared at him. Simon waited for her to say something and when she didn’t he continued “I don’t remember much towards the end.”
“Uh, I don’t think-” Ava started as she looked up towards the doctor. The doctor nodded before she cut in.
“Let’s not dive into that right now.” The doctor offered as she checked that Simon’s NG tube was following properly. Simon could feel it working properly, which felt weird.
“Was it that fucking gruesome?” Jack asked from across the room.
“Will you shut the fuck up.” Ava snapped at him. Simon for a moment heard the same inflection she had used towards him when he was in the sub, and it sent a small shiver down his spine.
“He is missing his fucking arm and he can’t remember what happened, you won’t do him the curtsy of telling him how he lost his fucking limb?” Jack retorted back at her. Simon looked over at Jack, why was he defending him?
“He doesn’t need to know everything at once.” Ava replied as she turned around to look at Jack. The doctor had even stopped to look at Jack.
“Or do you just not know?” Jack asked with a glare just as menacing as Ava’s.
“Listen here you fucking shit, we didn’t spend 14 fucking hours carving every tumor out of your body just for you to be an ass every two seconds.” Ava snapped at Jack as she raised her voice slightly at him.
“Looks like chemo therapy is doing wonders for your emotions.” Jack grinned. Ava continued to glare at him for a moment, looking like she wanted to slap Jack, before she turned and stormed out of the room.
“Jack.” The doctor said in a disapproving tone.
“He deserves the truth, if you disagree, sue me.” Jack shrugged as he pushed his plate away from him. Simon just continued to stare at Jack.