Chapter Text
One.
As far as Dr. Grace could tell, Eva Stratt never ate. Ever.
It was beginning to cause some problems. They spent hours together every day, going from meeting to meeting, conference to conference, some days they were barely out of each other’s sight until well past sundown. Even on days he spent mostly in the lab, they found their schedules relatively aligned.
Stratt constantly failed to schedule them a lunch hour, or a dinner hour, hell sometimes their days started before breakfast time. Some days, it was on the schedule, a blank half hour for Grace to run off to eat, Stratt usually retreating back to her office. Most days, the break wasn’t there at all.
Grace was starving, and he was done putting up with it, the woman might not eat, but it was his third day running off little more than coffee and skittles for 16 hours at a time.
“Stratt!” Grace called out, jogging to catch up with her as she had already walked ahead of him out of the meeting.
“Dr Grace,” she greeted as he fell into pace next to her, walking backwards so that he was able to look her in the face. “Did you have a comment about the reports?”
Grace shook his head, “No, I just- do we have a break in our schedule today?”
Stratt glanced at him only briefly as they continued walking, Grace apologizing as he bumped into someone walking past him. “I am afraid not,” Stratt answered, “You may have more time in your lab tomorrow, but your presence is required at these briefings,”
His stomach growled at the mere mention of not being able to stop for something- a snack even, he could do with a stick of beef jerky to hold him over if that’s all that he could get his hands on.
At his silence- unusual for him- Stratt continued. “Is there something wrong Dr. Grace?”
“I'm hungry,” he blurted, bracing for some kind of lecture about how saving the world did not stop for snack time.
Stratt stopped, nearly stumbling. “Oh,” she said, with such genuine surprise it made Grace think. Did she ever get hungry, at all? “Very well. We will stop by the galley. You can eat during the ship design meeting- you should not have to do much talking,” she continued walking.
Thank god- he could handle that. They walked along for another few moments before he spoke again, “Surely, you’re hungry too. I mean you haven’t eaten since- “he paused, he could not think of the last time he had seen her eat. Had he ever seen her eat?
“I am not,” Stratt answered.
And that was that. Grace said no more.
Two.
Well one thing had changed, it had been weeks since Stratt had forgotten to provide him a lunch hour. It was good, great even. As it turned out, going into meetings not starved did wonders for both his patience and listening skills.
But something was still weighing on Dr. Graces mind, and that was that he had never seen Eva Stratt eat, not a full meal, not a snack, not even downing a quick protein bar as they walked from one place to another.
He had even started to look out for it, watching her during meal times, waiting to see if she would follow him when he went to get his own food. On the rare occasion they crossed paths while working on separate things he tried to keep an eye out for some kind of food in her hand, but there was never any.
In fact, he had made quite the observation. It was not just that Eva Stratt did not have time to eat, or did not seek out food, it was that even if food was provided, she did not go for it, she watched other eat, and worked on. She was not just ignoring food, she was avoiding it.
Grace was having none of it. She was their leader, the contact point for everyone and everything having to do with the project. She took care of everyone on the vat, kept things moving, kept things running. How the hell did she keep herself running?
Grace saw no evidence that she was making any effort at all.
So, he made it for her- at least, he was going to try to.
Step one was finding out what she would eat, and go from there- all he had ever seen her consume was coffee, so not much of a baseline to go off of.
But he would try, and an evening meeting in her office seemed like the perfect time to do so.
In the mess hall, he piled things onto his tray, a little of just about everything, with a secondary plate for a variety of sauces and condiments- he hoped that would make some of it more appealing.
He arrived at her office right on time, which wasn’t entirely in character for him, but the truth was that he had been waiting around the corner for a few minutes to make sure that he was not early. He was eager for his experiment to play out.
“Dr. Grace, please have a seat,” Stratt was working on some kind of paperwork and nodded for Grace to sit in the seat across her desk.
He did so, sliding a few papers out of the way to set the tray down, waiting expectantly.
Stratt’s only comments was “Please do not move my papers,”
The meeting- if it could be called that, it was more a review of the previous few days- passed like all theirs before. Every few minutes Grace popped something new into his mouth, glancing up at Stratt to see if she had noticed.
“Help yourself- I thought you wouldn’t have time for dinner, so I brought it for both of us,” Grace said eventually, nearly 15 minutes since he had arrived, gesturing towards the tray.
Stratt glanced at the tray, and Grace swore he saw her shudder.
She never picked up a bite.
Three.
Okay, so experiment failed. Grace walked out of Stratt’s office without any more data than he started with- which was none.
That was fine, that was part of being a scientist. He would have other opportunities to figure out how to get some kind of nutrition into Stratt, even if he was going off of nothing. He was going to keep trying until he got a full meal in her, preferably at least once a day.
The sort of snack tray he had tried before was a bust, so he just had to try something else. Maybe she wasn’t a snacker, maybe she preferred just a meal in front of her. He wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case, Stratt struck him as someone who were be concerned about her nutrition just as much as she was concerned about everything else in her life being perfect- that was easier to keep track of with full meals.
So that was his next attempt. It was lunch time, and there was a rare occasion where he had a bit of a break after the lunch hour that could be considered “free time”. More than likely, he would end up in his lab shortly, but his first stop would be to Stratt’s office.
Once again balancing a tray on his hand as he stood outside the door, Grace raised his hand to knock.
“Enter,” came the clipped reply.
Grace pushed the door open, standing in the doorway for a moment and awaiting her reaction.
Stratt already looked exasperated, and he had yet to even say anything. “Is there something I can do for you Dr. Grace?”
“Not for me, but I brought you something,” he said, grinning as he placed the tray down in front of her, smack on top of her paperwork. “I wasn’t sure what you ate, so I brought two options,”
Stratt stared down at the food for a few seconds and then looked back up at him. “Thank you, that is- a kind gesture,”
Grace smiled again- progress.
“Would you mind placing the tray atop that filing cabinet over there?” Stratt said, nodding towards it.
His smile slipped, and he let out a quiet “Oh,” Before he could realize he did.
“Is there a problem Dr. Grace?”
“No, I just thought- “
“Thought what, Dr. Grace?” Stratt’s tone had shifted, something harsher, he needed to be careful.
“I mean, it’s been a while since breakfast. I thought you might want to eat now,” he said with a shrug.
“Were you planning on staying to watch?”
He could tell from her tone that he was supposed to say no, that wasn’t what she wanted. “I want to make sure you’re taking care of yourself,”
“I am an adult woman perfectly capable of meeting my own needs, now, if you will, please place the tray on the filing cabinet,”
Grace did as he was told, and left the office. The next time he was in there several hours later, the tray was in just the spot he had left it, untouched. He took it back to the mess without another word.
Four.
Another fail. Grace was beginning to think he was going about it wrong. He was also beginning to think that something was more wrong than the simple disinterest in eating, or even the avoidance of eating.
During his years as a teacher, he had spent countless hours in all but useless trainings that only repeated themselves every year. But he was taught the signs, the things to look out for. Of course, “changes in behavior” where easier to spot in middle schoolers than directions of international projects to try and save the world from destruction, but many of the principles were the same.
Ryland Grace was becoming more and more convinced that Stratt was anorexic.
It had been weeks since he had tried to get her to eat anything, sure that coming on too strong was going to do nothing but work against him, but he had watched, closely.
A few times, he had caught her staring at food, something that others were eating, or what was left out in the mess hall. A few times, he had even seen her remove herself all together if food arrived during a situation. Once, she had switched seats during a meeting when the man next to her pulled out a protein bar.
Eva Stratt wasn’t just ignoring food, or avoiding it, she was scared of it.
He hadn’t noticed major weight loss, but then again, he didn’t spend a lot of time staring down Stratt’s body, he may not have noticed if anything had changed, and with the clothes she had been wearing lately it was hard to see anything past her turtleneck.
So, he took a page out of her book and decided that an eating disorder was the last thing that she needed to distract her during the project, and he was going to figure out how to help her. How was it going to be different than any of his previous attempts? It wasn’t, really, but he was going to try.
“I'm going to the mess, what do you want me to bring you?” Grace burst into her office- she did not startle.
“I would prefer you knock,” Stratt said, without looking up from her work. Most people did not even get to her office without being stopped, but Grace had sort of blanket permission to get past her secretary without so much as a word- a nod towards her was enough.
“I'm going to the mess, what do you want?”
“I am not hungry,”
“Eva come on- “he stepped all the way into the office, not noticing his own slip, “You have to be hungry, you’ve been going nonstop since sunrise,”
“Since before sunrise, actually. And I would appreciate it if you stopped examining my eating habits, and stopped staring at me each time you are hungry,”
“You have to eat,”
Stratt sucked in a breath, looking up at him finally, “I would appreciate it if you stayed out of my business, and out of my office without an invitation,”
Five.
Things had gotten worse for Grace, in more ways than one, and if they had had a problem before, they now had a real problem.
He and Stratt had never exactly been friends, but they were at least friendly, they spent chunks of every day together, it would be hard if they hated each other- and Stratt seemed to have started hating him.
Their conversations were short, clipped, and there was a strain between them that had not been there before. It was Grace’s fault.
He shouldn’t have pushed her, should have had a conversation before trying to shove food down her throat- if setting a tray down on her desk with a smile could be called that- he was a scientist after all, he was bound to make more than a couple of errors.
So, he changed paths for the umpteenth time, he was going to try and talk to Stratt, find out what was going on and what he was going to do to fix it.
Flawless plan, Stratt was such a big fan of talking about things going on in her life.
He spent weeks, trying not to stare her down every time there was food around, working up the courage to go into her office one night to have the conversation.
The night he planned to do it they ended up at a gala, last minute invites, neither of them particularly wanted to be there- oh well, the conversation would wait another night or two.
An hour or so into the function, he and Stratt were seated at a table next to each other with a group of ambassadors who spoke choppy English, the conversation was as expected, questions about the project, their progress, what life was like on the vat. ‘Oh, is it horrible?’ ‘It sounds much to unsteady for me’ all in all it was like most of the events they had attended together before.
Dinner came out, served on plates that looked like they cost more than half of everything Grace owned put together.
Of course, Eva did not touch hers, nor did she try to make it look like she had. The food went untouched, silverware exactly where it had been set out on the table. She sipped at her drink occasionally, but that was it. No one had the guts to call her out on it, not even the waiter who came to take their plates.
None of that surprised Grace.
What did surprise Grace however, was her reaction when dessert came out. The moment the small plates were placed down in front of them Stratt stiffened, bracing her palms against the edge of the table like she was going to push herself away. Her eyes were on the plate before her; it seemed that she could not rip them away.
No one at the table seemed to notice this but Grace, who leaned over to her, whispering so that they would not be overheard. “Stratt?”
She startled, like she had forgotten that he was there. “Excuse me,” she said, pushing her chair out, “I will be back shortly,”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“Did you plan to follow me to the ladies’ room Dr. Grace?”
Grace nodded, “Right, sorry. Just let me know if you need to leave,”
Stratt walked off.
------
Nearly half an hour later, Stratt had yet to return, and sitting through some boring presentation about one thing or another, Grace was starting to get impatient, and it was not long before he could not stop himself and he was retreating from his table, walking out through the double doors that led him into a foyer.
Stratt had said she was going to the restroom, so Grace figured that would be the first place to check, though he doubted she was really in there.
It was not until he was standing in the middle of the bathroom, a woman standing at the mirror and staring him down while applying her lipstick that it occurred to him that maybe he should be in there. “Oh, sorry- thought this was the men’s room,” it was a lame excuse, but he glanced at the floor beneath the stalls on his way out, the bathroom was empty other than the woman at the sink- no Stratt.
Looks like he was skipping the presentation.
------
It took him some time, but he found Stratt eventually. She was outside, on a stone bench, just- sitting. She noticed his approach, but did not react until he was seated next to her.
“It has been longer than I intended,” Stratt said, gazing out in front of them, across an expanse of land. Wherever they were- Grace had not listened too hard during the flight over- the light pollution was not so bad. They could see the stars, hundreds of them.
“We can leave now, if you’re not feeling it. I can call the driver,”
Stratt shook her head. “Not necessary. Is dessert concluded?”
“Almost, a few people might still be eating,”
Stratt hummed, not responding.
“Why don’t you eat?” Grace finally asked, no sugarcoating, he just wanted an answer.
“I eat,”
“I’ve never seen it happen,”
“You don’t see a lot of things happen,” Stratt finally looked over at him, she had seemed a little lost in her head when he first came outside, but now she was fully present. “I don’t see how it is any of your concern, anyway,”
“It is my concern. You need to eat- everyone needs to eat. For all the talking with do about fuel you would think you would remember,” Grace did not appreciate how casual she was being about the whole thing. This was serious.
“You think I am not capable of feeding myself?”
“I think that you don’t want to feed yourself. Look, whatever is going on, I can help you- “He tried to continue for Stratt cut him off.
“What are you suggesting?” she demanded.
“I'm suggesting- “Grace knew he had to tread lightly, but was interrupted before anything more could get out.
“That I have an eating disorder,” Stratt filled in for him, it was not a question.
Grace nodded. Yeah, that was pretty much it. “I mean- “
“I’ll have you know Dr. Grace, that whatever I am or am not eating is none of your concern, and if I had a concern about my own habits, you would be the last person I would run to,” Stratt stood from the bench, “I am going to ask the driver to pull around, I have no interest in continuing this night,”
With that, Stratt stalked away, grumbling a little under her breath.
Grace sat alone on the bench, watching her go, before sighing and rubbing both his hands over his face. “I’ll go get our coats,” he muttered.