Chapter Text
His first homecoming had been… alright. He doesn’t remember much of it, on death’s doorstep as he was, but he has faint memories of Rocky and Adrian singing, their harmonies echoing around the narrow interiors of the Hail Mary. The rest of his memories of that time are a blur. Different colored Eridians here and there, tubes placed all over him, and nightmares as his body struggled to stay alive. Okay, he lied, his first homecoming was really kind of terrible.
His first-and-a-half homecoming was wonderful. The Eridians really knew how to throw a party. He was still weak, his diet not quite perfected, but it was the best he’d felt in months and he could stand on his own for short periods of time. He’d been properly introduced to many of Rocky and Adrian’s friends and family, showered with gifts, and the Eridian engineers had proudly unveiled the beginnings of his very own biodome. He’d felt truly home then.
His second homecoming was the most emotional. Eridians may have been far behind Earth in their knowledge of space travel, but what they lacked in foundations they made up for with an almost frightening speed and dedication. Rocky had, of course, shared his laptop with information about radiation and time dilation, and it was only a few years before Eridian knowledge outpaced Earth’s. With their discoveries, they’d been able to invent interstellar travel at speeds never before seen.
When he saw the numbers, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Four hours. That was the time it would take him to go from Erid to Earth. His original trip just to Tau Ceti had taken four years. But now he could take a day trip. Take a year trip. Take a trip for however long he wanted, and be able to come back.
“Grace can go home,” Rocky said, though Grace could hear the sad note in his tone no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
“I already am home,” he replied, “but I wouldn’t mind visiting Earth for a little while.”
And that was how he found himself one of the leaders of a diplomatic mission to Earth. A proper Second Contact with extraterrestrial life. Things moved quickly, as he was busy preparing things to bring back, hosting an Earth culture crash course for all the crew members, and advising on a message pod that would be sent ahead (“We can’t just show up with no warning. They’ll shoot us out of the sky, trust me”).
He was nearly unbearable on launch day, never sitting still from the moment he woke up and even still when they finally took off. Four hours. Four hours and he’d lay feet on Earth soil and breathe Earth air again.
The message pod had done its job, and there were no shots taken at them when they landed at NASA’s station. It may have done its job a little too well, because even from high in the sky, Grace saw a giant crowd watching the ship. He knew he’d have to play politics, but he hoped that the crowds would let them through. He had places he wanted to show Rocky and people he wanted to see again.
Landing took its time. Protocol was protocol, and it took a little longer because the Eridians all needed to put on their xenonite suits. But finally, finally, the ship’s door opened, and sunlight and warm, Earth air poured in. Grace looked up at the sky, fluffy clouds greeting him as he inhaled as deeply as he could. He took a few steps down the ramp, and then stopped dead in his tracks as he looked forward.
Standing there, in front of the crowd, was a single woman. Her hair was streaked with gray, but that was the only thing different about her. He knew that unwavering posture and piercing (yet soft for him, somehow always soft) gaze anywhere.
He hadn’t known if he would ever see Eva Stratt again.
There was a time where he never wanted to see her, brief as it was. There was a time when he wanted to see her just to tell her off. But he’d thought a lot about what he might say if he had the chance, and it’d been long enough that he’d made peace with it. They could talk about it eventually. He wanted to say more important things first.
He sprinted the rest of the way down the ramp and didn’t stop, nearly taking them both down as he wrapped Stratt in a hug. She let out a gasp at the impact, but a moment later her arms made their way around him, and it felt like the entire world had paused to watch as the two of them hugged for a full minute.
“We did it,” he whispered, voice breaking as tears dripped down his face and soaked into her shoulder.
He held her for a moment longer before pulling back and meeting her eyes. He’d never seen her cry, and he wasn’t going to then, but they were watery. Eva Stratt was not inhuman, as most thought. As he, in a fit of grief after Remembering, had considered once. He could see the toll all of it took on her, the way her shoulders relaxed ever so slightly, and the way her lips tilted up in a smile, and the way that the sun reflected off her unshed tears like she’d just been released from her burden. And he supposed she had, in a way. The one last loose end, whether he’d survived or not, was tied up.
“Are you the welcome committee?” he asked.
“Part of it.” Stratt stepped to the side and beckoned to somewhere in the crowd.
Grace watched as they parted, and after a moment, a line of people walked through and came to stand behind Stratt. They were unfamiliar to him, but only for a moment. Their faces… like older versions of—
His students.
He spent a long, long time crying that day, but with joy.
⸻
It was a while after that before they finally had time alone. Rocky and Co. were being led on a tour around the facility, and they would be able to sense him well enough no matter where they were (“Human walls are so thin.” “Even humans agree.”). There were enough of them that Grace wasn’t too worried. Not to mention, he doubted that Earth wanted to start an interstellar war so soon after recovering from the Astrophage.
And so he finds himself standing besides Eva Stratt on a second-floor balcony, looking out at the sky. It’s an average day, but he can’t stop staring. Even the mundane becomes the most beautiful thing when its time is finite.
They talk about what they’ve done the years he’s been gone. There’s so much they could talk about, so much history on both their sides they could cover, but they keep it short. There will be time later for the nitty gritty, but for now they’re just enjoying each other’s company.
Grace is reminded of a time before, when it was just the two of them. Thinking about the future, a little bit of hope in their hearts.
“What will you do?”
She looks over at him and shrugs. After the Hail Mary launched, her work was still far from done. She still had to stave off the freeze, and the (relative) success of the launch meant she was burdened with other tasks like finding food for everyone. But the sun has been returning to normal for a while now, and things are starting to heal. It’s not all on her anymore, and it doesn’t need to be.
“You’ve been holding the world on your shoulders,” he says, one arm coming up to wrap around her. “But the sun is shining,” he gestures with his other arm to the people still milling about below them, their chatter and laughter faint but there, “people are okay, and they’re not in survival mode anymore.”
She’s quiet for a moment, then, “You’re here.”
He nods. “I’m here. You did it, your job is over.”
He shifts, turning to face her and putting a hand on each of her shoulders to hold her attention. “Eva, you can live now.”
She meets his eyes, searching for something, and after a moment she must find it, because the stoic, careful, meticulously constructed mask she’s put on forever finally shatters and she drops her head onto his chest, shoulders shaking.
For the first time, he sees her really, truly cry.