Chapter Text
Adrian watched Lawrence as he pretended to enjoy trouncing Adrian at checkers for the ninth time that day. Both of them would rather be at work and both of them knew it, but labor laws mandated a minimum of a week’s vacation every year. Adrian hated those labor laws. They made him stop moving, stop working, stop distracting himself from what he’d lost.
Lawrence had the same problem.
Years ago, they had come up with the solution of spending their state-enforced holidays together so at least they didn’t suffer alone. Instead, they spent their days distracting each other and their nights reminiscing about the partner/sibling they had mutually lost.
Stupid laws enforcing stupid healthy grieving practices.
On that particular day, the first of what promised to be a long week, the sudden banging on the door came as a welcome distraction. Adrian got up to open it (it was his home after all) and was surprised to find Dwayne nearly vibrating in excitement. Adrian only knew her in passing as the entle of one of his more regular patients.
“Adrian! Come with me,” she said without preamble. “There’s someone on the phone for you!”
“Very well,” Adrian replied, confused, but taking note of Lawrence following close behind. He was just as nosey as his sibling had been, to the point where Adrian almost wondered if it was genetic.
As they neared the call station in the middle of his building, a series of (mostly) soundproof rooms where one could communicate long distance without being overheard, Adrian wondered who on Erid would be calling with such urgency. Was it the hospital? As much as Adrian disliked the idea of such a large number of pebbles in such distress that the pebliatric ward would call for all claws on deck, he would also very much like to go back to work.
He entered the call room Dwayne gestured towards, saying nothing as Lawrence entered behind him, and accepted the call. “Greetings,” the eridian on the other end began. “Are you Adrian, mate of Engineer-Rocky of the Tau-Ceti mission?”
“I am…” Adrian answered cautiously. Why would they ask about Rocky? Were they planning some kind of memorial? He thought they were finished with those?
“Wonderful,” the other eridian went on, oblivious to Adrian’s inner turmoil. “I am Arkose of the Ridgewold space-science thrum. We did not want to notify you earlier in case of a false alarm, but your mate Rocky has returned from space and is asking to speak with you.”
Rocky…
Rocky was back?
The space-science thrum had lost contact with the spaceship only a few weeks into their trip, presumably due to distance, and no one had heard from them since. They should have been back almost twenty years ago – they had been presumed dead fifteen years ago. And now Rocky was just… here!? With no warning!?
Adrian needed to know everything. Immediately. “Where is he!? When did he get back!? What happened!”
Arkose sounded frustratingly calm. “Engineer-Rocky is infinitely more qualified to answer those questions than I am. May I put them on the line?”
“Absolutely,” Adrian snapped back at them, before adding, “Please.”
He fidgeted for a second, bumping carapaces with Lawrence who was equally shaken, when an old, familiar voice came over the phone. “Hello? Adrian?”
It was rough and heavy, but it was still undeniably- “Rocky!” Adrian could have nearly collapsed in relief. “It’s me! I’m here. I’ve missed you so much!”
Rocky let out a keening note, the same way he always did when emotions overwhelmed him, and for a moment Adrian could almost pretend that nothing had changed.
And then that moment ended.
“I’ve missed you too,” he began. “It’s been so long, so many things went wrong- But there’s no time to talk about that now.”
No time? Rocky was home, on Erid. They had all the time in the world… didn’t they?
Oblivious to his mate’s thoughts, Rocky plowed forward. “I found the only survivor of the Void-Survivalists. His egg went into stasis somewhere in space so he’s only eighty, but he landed on a planet with intelligent aliens and he hatched, but their star is dying too so they sent him to Tau-Ceti and I brought him home with me, but the science thrum separated us!”
Adrian… couldn’t even begin to process that. Luckily, Rocky didn’t leave him any time to.
“They wanted to put us in quarantine to make sure we didn’t bring back any diseases (which makes sense, I guess, but it’s been days already and I don’t like it), but they took me one way and Grace another. He’s so little, Adrian! He’s too weak to protect himself, he only speaks my language, he doesn’t know anything about thrum structure; and worse – I’m the only Eridian he’s ever met before! He’s lived with me for four years, but the science-eridians just took him away without talking to him or asking me and now he’s all alone and he doesn’t know anyone and he’s got to be so scared, but they won’t let me go to him! It’s just tests, debriefings, tests, interrogations, tests, recordings-”
Rocky finally ran out of air and Adrian took that as his cue to jump in, so Rocky didn’t talk himself to death. He wasn’t thrilled that Rocky had only called him to ask for help, but he understood. How many normally-calm parents had he seen go absolutely ballistic trying to get help for their sick or injured pebble? And now, Rocky was that parent… and Adrian was not.
No, it wasn’t helpful to think like that. Rocky trusted him enough to ask Adrian to help his pebble. That would have to be enough for now.
“I’m on my way,” Adrian said before Rocky could get his breath back. “Lawrence is already here with me; I’m sure he can find some legal loophole to get you and your pebble back together.”
“Thank you.” Relief saturated every note of Rocky’s voice. “I can’t wait to hear you properly, Adrian. I can’t wait to be near you again.”
There was the hopelessly, bluntly, romantic side Adrian remembered. “I’ll be there in just a few hours. Hang in there.”
They signed off and Adrian and Lawrence barreled off to the railstation.
As Lawrence secured them tickets to Ridgewold (only an hour away by train, but it may as well have been an eternity right now), Adrian paced the platform. He had always wanted pebbles, all but begged Rocky to lay eggs with him before he left just to have some part of him around, but it had never happened. Only one out of every seven or so eridians ever reproduced; to have an incubating clutch would have had Rocky excused from the mission.
But Rocky had never been the cowardly sort, damn him. He wanted to go on that mission and at least try to save the world so that other people’s pebbles could grow up in it. He would never have been able to stand the idea of having pebbles who didn't know him left behind in an uncertain world that could kill them before they were even fully grown.
There were days that Adrian hated him for it. Usually vacation days, when the house was quiet and still. Dead.
But now Rocky was back, and with a pebble! Maybe this could be a new start for them.