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"I don't understand why we're even doing a premiere. The movie came out like twenty years ago!" Ryland protested for at least the third time that evening.
Tom shook his head at his husband's complaints. "It's because the extended cut is new. And you know anniversary re-releases are a thing. C'mon, do you really want to deny me a chance to show off my handsome young husband?"
Ryland rolled his eyes at Tom’s joke. "It's not my fault you stayed here and got old while I was off saving everyone's butts."
"Grace and Tom both pebbles anyway!" Rocky called from his tunnel where he was "supervising" them getting ready.
"You be quiet or I'm shutting the door so you can't hear us!" Ryland called back to him.
Rocky shook his carapace back and forth in the Eridian equivalent of a head shake, "So stubborn. Can't tell pebbles anything."
The premiere in question was the for the re-release of the movie Saved By Grace which was the movie that Tom, Colt, and Jody had made about Ryland's life. A movie partially based on the book Tom had written about their life together. This version of the movie had been edited to include footage from the Hail Mary mission logs that had been sent back to Earth on the beetles. Ryland and Rocky even had extended interview segments that would be going on the special features for the Blu-ray release. Some of the more dramatic moments of the original film were contrasted with tense moments from the ship footage from their time fishing for taumoeba at Adrian. They didn't have cameras on the hull, so the footage came from interior cameras that showed the aftermath when the ship was spinning uncontrollably and then when Rocky rescued Ryland and saved the mission. Over all it was a very effective series of scenes that made the entire family cringe watching how close Ryland had come to dying. It made Colt wish he could have done that part for him rather than stay safe on Earth and just acting like his brother on film.
"I know you hate being the center of attention, Sunshine, but it'll be fine. I'll be right beside you all night and so will Rocky. You know he's even more of an attention hog than I am, so they'll barely notice you!" Tom was trying to reassure Ryland and it was working to a degree.
"Rocky not smelly Earth mammal! Rocky beautiful, charismatic, talented, brilliant…" he kept going on and Ryland rushed over and shut the door deliberately, to take full advantage of the soundproofing in the bedroom.
"You know he'll probably still be going when we have to leave." Tom said. "His grammar may be a little off still, but his vocabulary is both disturbing and impressive."
"Right, but I won't have to hear it between now and then, so a win is a win." Ryland said.
"How did you survive four years of just the two of you?" Tom asked. "I think I'd have tossed him out the airlock after the first six months."
"Oh, I can't say I wasn't tempted a time or fifty," Ryland laughed. "It's just that the thought of being lonely for the rest of the trip. was enough to keep me from anything drastic."
Rocky was miffed at being cut off mid rant, but he was used to good natured ribbing by both Ryland and Tom. He certainly gave as good as he got in that regard and he truly felt like one of the family. Ryland had joked to Tom once about the fact that they had at one time planned on having kids and instead ended up with a nearly 300 year old alien who treated them as kids. Tom remarked that it wasn't too late for them to have kids of their own, but Ryland was of the opinion that he should perhaps look into going back to teaching instead. "Besides, I can only imagine what kind of bad behaviors Rock would teach a child," Ryland said.
**********
True to Tom's word, the premiere was not nearly as bad as Ryland had feared it would be. Yes, he got a lot of questions and attention on the red carpet, but truly, Rocky was the star of the show. The alien really was a bit of a ham and he was having a blast being in the limelight. At one point the red carpet felt like a family reunion, with Colt and Jody and their kids, along with Court and both of his daughters. It was rare to see Claire off the Vat where she usually was supervising the environmental recovery efforts that were still needed even though the sun was returning to normal.
Stratt even made an appearance and Ryland noticed that Court looked marginally warmer toward her than he had the last time he'd seen the two of them in the same place at the same time. Everyone had assumed that Ryland would harbor a grudge against Eva, but honestly he couldn't bring himself to do so. Yes, he did mourn the time lost with his family, but he was able to return to them and in so doing the world was saved and he made contact with an alien species. He even got a new best friend out of the deal. It was difficult, but it was worth it. They hadn't yet had a chance to sit down together and really hash things out, but Ryland made a mental note to do that sometime soon.
**********
Once all the fuss over the movie had died down, Ryland started seriously looking into going back to teaching. Since he had obviously let his teaching credential lapse while in space, the process took a while, but it wasn't insurmountable. Since they were pretty well settled in LA now, he didn't seriously consider going back to San Francisco, especially since it would have been way too weird to teach at a school that had been renamed after him. Tom told him they even had a statue of him on the campus and that was just way too much for him to handle. Colt told him that the kids from his classes had made his bike, which was still chained to the rack in the parking lot, into a shrine of sorts. Again, another reason not to go back. It seemed no matter how long he was home, he kept finding ways in which the world had paid too much attention to him while he was gone.
Once Ryland got caught up on what he needed to do to get back into the classroom, he had to find a school. Unlike when he first started teaching, he was actually in high demand. He had offers from literally every school he even thought about applying to. He eventually ended up choosing a school with at least one familiar face. Court and Eva's daughter, Holland, had decided to follow her mother's footsteps and become a student of history. Now she was also a history teacher at one of the middle schools in LA.
The first day back was overwhelming, but in a good way. The kids were very enthusiastic about meeting THE Dr. Ryland Grace. To be fair, a lot of the staff were just as excited. Ryland was even more glad that he knew Holland going into it because he might have been a bit uncomfortable if everyone looked at him like he was a hero. His niece was familiar enough with him now that he was just Uncle Ry. Not that he insisted on her calling him Uncle. It was a little weird when he realized that he was actually physically closer in age to her than to Court who had originally only been five years older than him. Man, relativity really was wild.
Ryland ended up teaching for another fifteen years. He could have taught for longer, but he decided that when Tom retired from writing and directing that it was a good idea to retire as well so they could spend more time together. Colt and Jody had retired also and the four of them ended up spending many days together traveling and just enjoying each others' company.
Shortly before Ryland retired from teaching, he received some news that he was ecstatic to share with Rocky. "Hey Rock, Claire just gave me some good news."
"What is news, question?" Rocky asked.
"Multiple space telescopes have confirmed that Eridani has returned to full luminance!" Ryland said excitedly.
Rocky started bouncing around in glee. "It worked! Erid received the beetles and the taumoeba! We saved Earth and Erid!"
"Yeah, bud, we did it. Hopefully we'll get direct contact from your people at some point during my lifetime. It would be nice to know that you heard from home again after all that you sacrificed to bring me back to my family." Ryland said a little wistfully.
Rocky leaned toward the edge of the xenonite barrier between them. It was as close as he could get to hugging Grace. "Sacrifice well worth it. Rocky has loved Earth and Grace family. Even Tom is not too bad."